Still in the fog...

[scarlettgirl]

While trying to shake this persistent, annoying and uncharacteristic ennui I decided to read something frivolous. Unfortunately, I picked Confessions of a Shopaholic. I think this must have been a part of that "unpleasant and shallow heroine" chick lit trend that Jennifer Crusie seems to enjoy so much. Honestly, I don't mind an unpleasant

Comments

[ljs]

Hugs and good thoughts for the ennui...

And I concur on Confessions of a Shopaholic. You'd think that it was right up my street with the London vibe and my love for Bridget Jones, but wow, no. A couple of weekends ago I picked up another chick-lit book because of the back cover blurb and the London setting, and bounced hard off it, too -- only to find out that it was a book by the Shopaholic author, written under a different name.

Have you read this, though? I enjoyed. :-)

[scarlettgirl]

I have heard very, very good things about that book. And I hear the author is just lovely. ;)

I need to get over my never ordering books outside the U.S. thing. I don't know why I hesitate...weird.

And yeah, I thought the CoaS would be perfect but I was so very wrong. Ick.

[neadods]

Screw Shopaholic: the good ones by Kinsella are Undomestic Goddess and Twenties Girl. Particularly Undomestic.

The problem with Shopaholic is that it's a series, and thus the heroine isn't allowed to *really* overcome her fatal flaw. The others are one-shots.

[scarlettgirl]

Hmm...I have Undomestic Goddess on my eReader and was just going to delete it but if you say it's worth a go, I'll give it a chance.

I guess my questions would be, if I don't like the characters in the first book, why would I even want to read more? There seems to be a great swathe of chick lit that is filled with these really unpleasant characters. I'm not sure what the appeal is supposed to be.

[neadods]

I expected to turn my nose up at Undomestic within a couple of pages, and surprised myself by enjoying it thoroughly and looking for more of her books. But then, the heroine of Undomestic manages to avoid many of the cliches that make chick lit heroines really unpleasant (kinder words than I would use). She doesn't have constant impulse control problems, she isn't vapid or neurotic, and she isn't desperate for a man. (Like you, I wonder what in hell I'm supposed to see in pathetic women like that. Identify with them? I want to run them over

[scarlettgirl]

Ooh.. a rec! Thank you. ;)

And bless, you are a stronger woman than I. DaVinci damn near killed me with all the craziness.

[scarlettgirl]

There are an awful lot of vampire books in the world. Soon there will be an awful lot of zombie books. Trendy topics are trendy.

Life is too short for bad books, even when they're free. That's my philosphy. ;)

[who_la_hoop]

I read one of those books. I think the hero paid off the irritating protagonist's credit card debt, and she was cured of her shoe addiction. *groans* It was a truly dreadful book. Still, I think I got it free with Cosmopolitan or something, so I suppose it served me right! :D

[scarlettgirl]

Well, there you go. Free with Cosmo pretty much sums it up. ;)

The book had no redeeming qualities, IMO. I don't get why it was so popular!