Another giddy ride, with no end in sight.
Plucky über-consumer Rebecca Brandon has her work cut out for her as mum to tiny terror Minnie.
With a job she loves (personal shopper, natch), happy marriage and an adorable little daughter, Becky Brandon certainly seems to have it all. Sure, two-year-old Minnie is a bit of a handful. Her spirited behavior gets them banned from various shopping malls. And Becky’s PR whiz hubby Luke might be a tad overworked and distracted. But things are generally good, until the global financial crisis has to come along and really put a damper on Becky’s lifestyle. So as a money-saving concession to her husband, she agrees to stop shopping until she has worn everything in her wardrobe at least three times. Torture! She also throws herself into a new project—planning an over-the-top surprise birthday party for Luke. With visions of fire-eaters, jugglers and a live band, it is clear that Becky’s desires don’t mesh with financial reality. But when has that ever stopped her? She enlists Luke’s trusted assistant Bonnie into her schemes, and tries to “barter” party supplies for slightly used Marc Jacobs bags. Meanwhile, she sees an opportunity at work and starts to offer a “discreet” shopping service for her wealthy clients, where she disguises their purchases in computer paper boxes. It is a big hit, although she neglects to tell her bosses about the subterfuge. And then Luke’s estranged mother, the imperious (and fabulously rich) Elinor, reappears and wants to have a relationship with her granddaughter. The two meet, but well-meaning Becky cannot tell Luke about this, adding to all the many things she is keeping from him. But he has a few secrets as well, and getting him to his own party will take all of Becky’s considerable skills. Chock-full of the kind of sitcom shenanigans Kinsella’s fans expect, this latest in the series (Shopaholic & Baby, 2007, etc.) keeps the silly plot moving along. A little more growth from her iconic heroine, though, might have won over new readers as well.
Another giddy ride, with no end in sight.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-34204-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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