Rating: 
Summary: The social satirist of our time
Review: Janey Wilcox is a modern-day Lily Bart: beautiful, slightly connected and determined to emerge as a scion of society. With updated strategies and a refusal to be beaten down, Janey uses everything within her powers to defeat the powerful men, women and social structure that threaten to pull her back into her middle class roots (or at least into obscurity).Candace Bushnell understands human drama and New York society better than any mainstream writer in the current publishing world. Creating characters and situations that make the reader eagerly turn pages while cringing with shock, Bushnell successfully delivers the hierarchical world that is New York - with none of the pretentious, apologetic or hack "insider" views currently popular in today's "literary circles". This isn't for the "chick-lit" culture: Leave Prada and the Nannies on the shelf. "Trading Up" delivers in the style of "The House of Mirth" (and will create in the reader a desire to read the older classics of New York society fiction).
Rating: 
Summary: Sex...city...New York
Review: When one look on our cultural development during recent years,
one cannot look past this name. After all, Sex and the City
made the top, what with promoting certain lifestyle, what with
uniting certain people in their opinion of other people.
And all worked well and fine, neither one of "serious" critics
turned his third eye towards Bushnell, but at some point she
started to write. And it was powerfull writing. And few years
after, emerged this book, and left us astounded. And ashamed
at the same time.
What can you, as a reader, find in the not so extraordinary life
of a supermodel Janey Wilcox? Can you find warning, can you find
encouragement, can you find laughter, or can you find approval.
Those are the questions that you'll have to answer yourself when you read the book (and I strongly recommend that you do so). But, what you may be sure you'll find here, is the satire worty of Oscar Wilde, powerfull and provoking at the same time, waging wars with questions that were, during the ages past, buried deep beneath, and today began to emerge, forcing people to give them some kind of consideration, you will find here brilliant view of modern society which has been, on purpose, stripped of all moral values, where only one value remained, power. It is a sad society, and that sadness, together wit rage, screams form pages of the book, calling, wanting to be noticed and heard, and finally accounted.
If you liked Sex and the City, you may be disappointed, cause
only link that puts together these two is the suroundings, but
besides that, Trading Up reaches far more, and hopefully accomplishing at least as much as it predcessor.
Rating: 
Summary: Long drawn out, but a steamy ending
Review: I absolutely loved 4 blondes, so I was looking forward to reading Bushnell's next book about the man prowling Janey. However I was disappointed because there was no steamy sex scenes or hardly any excitement to keep me reading unlike her previous book. Janey gets married which that was a big mistake and most of the book include the borning details of married life like her hating her husband's socks and whatnot.
But there was a sudden change when she had a flashback in the beginning days of modeling. Which I think that the whole book should have been based on that, it would have made it much more interesting and more exciting to read.
Judging by the ending there should be a sequal and I hope that this next one is much better.
Rating: 
Summary: How else can you say Pure Trash.
Review: This book is trash. Simply trash. The author is trash, the book is trash, and frankly, anyone reading this junk has got problems. This is the type of junk people read when they have nothing redeaming in their lives - there's nothing interesting, the characters aren't the least real, likable, or interesting. This is the type of book a fat girl will read at the gym, wishing her life were different. If your IQ is over 45, skip this and read a gum wrapper instead. It has more intellectual content
Rating:
Summary: Save your money...
Review: I am not going to my waste my time or yours by writing a long review here. I will simply sum up this horrible piece of trash literature by saying this ---- I feel so incredibly sorry for the poor tree that was chopped down and milled for this utterly annoying hunk of garbage. What a waste. Candace Bushnell should be ashamed of this wreck.
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE!!!
Review: I tried so hard to finish this book, just so I could say I finished it. I think I have like 20 pages to go, but I can go no further. This book has NO redeeming qualities. It is poorly written: with 20 pages or so to go, I can detect no sign of an actual plot. Is the "heroine" Janey Wilcox going to change from a shallow, vapid model into a shallow, vapid movie producer? Will she leave her rich husband for a richer one? Who knows? And who cares. This book features a main character I could care less about. In fact, NONE of the characters with the possible exception of Seldon (Janey's husband) is even LIKEABLE. I kept hoping Janey would get hit by a bus crossing 5th avenue, or maybe trip on a heel and break her neck. I couldn't STAND her. And the characters around her, obviously crafted to make her seem sympathetic, only made her seem worse by comparison, because they are all such hideous people. After 400 pages, this book has gone nowhere, and quite frankly, I'm not even convinced that Candance Bushnell knows what she's talking about. This is nothing like "Sex and the City" -- it's snooze in the city, and it just doesn't get better with time. Zero stars for a zero-caliber book. Thank God I only paid three bucks for it at a used sale. No wonder the previous owner wanted to get rid of it! This is one of the worse books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Too long
Review: This book was too long and not as good as I expected it to be.
Rating:
Summary: Disgustingly Delicious!
Review: That is the only way to discribe this fun, and twistedly sad novel. Janey Wilcox is the character you love to hate, and hopelessly feel sorry for at the same time. You, like Selden (her husband), Patti (sister) and Mimi (a friend she betrayed like so many others), strive to see the good within Janey, try to give her the benefit of the doubt each time. But, Janey is relentlessly and sometimes unsubconciously, self-destructive and selfish.
She was given beauty, which without a compassionate heart and a fully functional brain to accompany it, can be trecherous to anyone. Janey's problem is that she is told beauty is the answer to everything, and it actually is.
The reason why people are not "getting" this book, is because it is so close to real life, it's laughable! There are MANY Janey's filling up the park avenue penthouses of Newyork, and spilling out of Beverly Hills mansions. When you are rich, young, beautiful, and you get everything handed to you just because of these things, you do not think nor act like a "normal" person, indeed you will be abnormal (i.e. Paris Hilton, Nichole Ritchie). Bushnell just sheds a little light on the actual happenings of New York Society.
While we like to believe that the Tyra Banks', Kate Moss's, and Giseles of our world are simply beautiful humanitarians, and the CEOS and movie producer's that help create the media we devour are kind jolly Santa's, Trading Up just tells a little TOO much of the truth, and the everyday idealistic American shys away from too much truth (especially when it is about how rich people REALLY behave)
This book has MUCH more literary purpose and fufillment than the chick-lit that is spewing from every corner today. You won't find the cliched "Angry Woman Boss of The fashion Magazine", no cowaring assistants, or over-done synopsis of every outfit ever worn by each character. This book actually develops characters, not clothing, and I love it!
I can't wait for Janey to take over LA! I LOVE it when the bad guy wins, because THAT is Real Life folks ; )
Rating: 
Summary: TOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG
Review: Yep, my title says it all. This book is way too drawn out. My God, I am half way through the book and I'm still wondering what the plot is. SO far, it's no more than a bunch of rich bitches shopping and cheating (or trying to cheat) on their husbands. The only sympathetic character (Patty) is reduced to a few measly pages every few chapters. The story basically revolves around Janey Wilcox, a model who thinks the world revolves around her. She is by all means NOT a likeable character. I almost stood up cheered when I read the part where the man she is after for sex (Zizi) not only turns her down but calls her a WHORE to boot! Candace Bushnell has a way with similies like nobodies business. Books lie around spread open like a woman after a one night stand. Neon lights on an old hotel refuse to stop shining like an aging showgirl refusing to leave the stage. And the names of the characters, where does she get them? There's Dodo, Zizi, Pipi, Mauve, Digger, Selden, I could go on and on. The thinly veiled nod to Time Warner takes the cake. In Bushnell's world that would be Splatch Verner. I know it's not fair to review a book prior to finishing it, but I think I've read enough to do a pretty thorough job. Here's hoping that we've seen the last of Janey Wilcox and her shallow friends.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: The characters and writing were equally horrid. I'm not exactly sure which is worse. The main character in this book is as deep as a puddle. She is so unenjoyable and poorly written that you feel nothing for her. You can't like or loathe her.
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