I came upon this book accidentally, having bumped into the author at a Border's book signing. I was lured in with the phrase "Stephanie Plum." Okay, I thought, this needs to be seen because one does not take the name of Plum in vain. Man, am I glad I did.Kim Gruenenfelder has created really good chick lit. Seriously. Although popular, Bridget Jones and Rebecca Bloomwood (Shopaholic) are a couple of neurotic nitwits and popular culture being oriented on the "monkey see, monkey do" model, so-called chick lit is filled with clones of these two-bit Cinderellas pining for a rescue and filling the time with self-obsession. (Hey, girls, wanna guess why he's not showing up?)Charlie Edwards has a brain and uses it. She makes a few comment about her weight compared to those around her (she's a movie star's assistant, so the Size Two Zoo figures prominently in the calculation. And Kim, that's MY phrase!). Her younger sister is getting married in 3 weeks, a situation that does tend to weigh on the mind of an unmarried sibling. And Charlie does investigate the possibilities of a couple or three potential men; sometimes comically, sometimes he's the prototypical lying dog and sometimes, it'll break your heart. One of the things that really caught my attention was how great the secondary characters were, including the whacko movie star boss. I didn't find any cardboard cutouts (well, okay, the grandparents were two-dimensional, but fun). These were complex characters with good and bad characteristics, like the television version of "Sex and the City". I was braced for Drew Stanton to remain a total fruitcake, but he had moments of genuine caring for those around him that mitigated his flakiness (some of which includes an elephant. Just buy the book). I adored Charlie's great grandmother Mauwv. 95 years old and taking no prisoners. A note on the blurb compares Charlie to Stephanie Plum, as I mentioned. In my mind, she skewed more towards Cannie Shapiro and Jennifer Weiner's characters; sane people surrounded by lunatics. Charlie is a great connoisseur of Merlot and like one of the better ones, she contains notes of Cannie, certain Plummy depths and a hint of Elizabeth Bennett (the first chick lit heroine). I didn't read the jacket for "Misery Loves Cabernet" (is that a great title or what?), but if Charlie's on board, then so am I. And if Charlie's not there, I'm sure it'll still be a great read.
How I Came To Read This Book: Another bargain buy from Chapters to fill an order for free shipping.The Plot: This is a bit of a loose plot - essentially it surrounds Charlie, a woman on the verge of 30 who is caught up with her little sister's upcoming wedding. Not one to be entirely bitter, Charlie, single and working for her wacked out celebrity boss as his confidante & PA, decides to pen a journal to her future grandniece (from her sister's line) with bits of wisdom and questions about how the world is in comparison to the crazy one we live in now. Aside from that it's mostly a cobbled together collage of stories about Charlie, her friends, her various dating experiences, and her family.The Good & The Bad: The fact of the matter is, I can't remember much about the plot of this book. It's somewhere along the lines of the First / Second Assistant and Sex and the City but is written much better, and is much funnier, than any of those books could ever be. It's honestly one of the few chickie books I've read lately that made me lol, yet it was also deeply satisfying in the way the main character writes about the world and relationships - very often quite dead on with my own thoughts. I felt like the author didn't take herself as seriously as say, Emily Giffin. Could the book have used some more serious plot development? Definitely. Were there little quirks that pissed me off throughout? Yup. But overall the scales tipped in the direction of YES on this one.The Bottom Line: A great chick lit read, if not a super memorable one.Anything Memorable?: Hah, see above.50-Book Challenge?: Book #1 in 2008
What do You think about A Total Waste Of Makeup (2005)?
A Total Waste of Makeup is a fun, spunky, comical chick lit read with really outrageously, memorable and relatable characters. If you have ever had that commitment-hating girlfriend, that "gorgeous but pretends like she doesn't know it" girlfriend, those parents who insist on givng you "good" advise with "the best intentions" (that never seem to be the case), the "bride-to-be" sister that uses you as a middle-man for what she wants and what your parents want, or that forever-changing-his-mind boss, you'll find each character in this book... and will have no problem relating to Charlie.Charlie juggles all of the above eccentric people with her equally eccentric life as an assistant to a big Hollywood actor, maid-of-honor in her younger sister's wedding, and being 30-something with no future husband in sight (but a slew of failed attempts and men who make her wait by the phone).The entire time, i was rooting for Charlie, and every little bump that pushed her back a few steps was comically unfortunate, but she continued to push along even more persistently. I laughed through the whole book and loved every minute of it!
—Stephanie
I'll make this a quick review and say that this book s a funny read with a bad story. The author clearly knows how to slip in humor in almost every scene, but the story was lacking. First, the story was very slow. Like, I'm-halfway-through-the-book-and-there's-still-nothing-happening slow. One of the things that kept me going and overlook this was the fact that it was a funny read. There were funny scenes and the characters were interesting enough to continue reading about their adventures; the problem was that these adventures were very slow in contributing to the storyline. Speaking of characters. The love interests didn't have much chemistry between them. It was awkward in most places. And as much as it was meant to be awkward, it's still supposed to be cute awkward, or even 'there's some tension between us and it's therefore awkward, but we both want each other.' But it wasn't like that. I wasn't even cringing at one point because the awkwardness was just...too much. I just put down the book and shook my head.And the main character. I found her pathetic. She thinks of herself as pathetic but the fact that I find her pathetic isn't a good sign. She just runs after the guy even when it's clear they have no chemistry, no connection. There are the few rare scenes when the two have some great conversation and are a cute little couple, but Jesus-Christ these two were just not meant to be. These thoughts were what pushed me to finish the book: I wanted to see whether or not they would end up together. In my opinion, if they ended up together, it would just be weird because they are so not meant to be. But if they didn't end up together, this would have truly been a horrible waste of time. So I guess curiosity kept me going, and the fact that I liked a lot of the humor. Ok, so maybe this wasn't a quick review, but that was a pretty bad book. I had to vent somehow :P
—Anne
This book is amazing...I'm reading it now for the 3rd time and it always makes me do 2 things: LAUGH and THINK! Below are some words of wisdom the main character provides:"Never ask a single person if they're 'seeing someone special,' an unemployed person if they've found a job, or a married couple when they're planning to have children. You're not making conversation. You're starting someone on the road to Prozac.""Sometimes, when you're single, it's good to make your married friends jealous.""Be wary of people who say 'It's just business' as their excuse for unethical behavior.""Don't hold a grudge for thirty years. While you're home stewing, the other guy's out dancing.""Don't go out with a man just because he looks good on paper. You're not kissing paper."
—Jen Nelson
