Good in Bed

Rating:
Summary: Funny, Touching and Fabulous!
Review: I picked up "Good in Bed" thinking it would be another funny, cynical single woman looking for love and trying to get her life together book--and, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy those sort of books, despite being plenty cynical but no longer single--but author Jennifer Weiner's debut is a lot more than just another American version of Bridget Jones.

As with many first novels it's obvious that huge chunks of 28-year-old, somewhat overweight struggling journalist "Candace Shapiro" are taken straight from Weiner's own life. And the personal touch shows in the all-too-true writing, which draws you in and will make just about any woman sympathize with the often hapless "Cannie," as her friends and former lovers know her.

Cannie's already shaky world is turned upside when former slacker flame Bruce turns up as a the newest columnist for trendy magazine "Moxie," a "Cosmopolitan" clone. Not only does Bruce's sudden success shock Cannie, a second-tier entertainment reporter at a Philly newspaper, but the fact that he's writing about their sex life, and Cannie's struggles with her weight, is far from helpful. I mean, wasn't her missing missing-in-action louse of a father and the fairly recent discovery that her mother is in love with someone named "Tanya" enough to deal with?

As Weiner takes us into Cannie's life she makes everything from meeting (and befriending) a major movie star to dealing with the aftereffects of a misguided reunion, of sorts, with Bruce, eminently real and totally believable. Anyone who has ever struggled with weight, relationships, career and family--and that's everyone, isn't it?--will see pieces of themselves in Cannie.

Totally fun and deeply touching, Weiner is winner. I can't wait to read more!

Rating:
Summary: Good In Bed: Best In Print!
Review: This is a really wonderful novel.

Touching, sweet, warm, often-hysterically funny, Jennifer Weiner's debut novel is the kind of book you try to pace yourself on because you know you want to parcel out the joy, but find yourself staying up until 2 am finishing because you can't put it down.

Cannie Shapiro is a remarkable heroine with a true voice, wise yet still learning, embattled yet still fighting. This isn't one of those book where unhappy girl finds happiness by losing weight and finding a man. This is a book where happiness comes from self-acceptance and the realization that one is not alone, and if there happens to be a guy around, well, all the better.

Cannie is great. The office stuff rings true. So does that evil publicist in NYC. But it's more than the truth of how things feel -- it's Cannie/Jennifer's voice in describing her universe, so funny and warm, like a friend you wish you had. I even liked Nifkin!

Guys, ignore the pink stuff on the cover, and hide the title if it embarrasses you to read in public -- this one's for us too. Everyone should read this book, read it now, then buy another copy for a friend.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. Read it: you'll see. It deserves to be a movie, and it will be a great movie.

Whatever Weiner has in store for us next, I'll be first in line.

Rating:
Summary: Humour and Humanity--all tied into one terrific story!
Review: I picked this book up about 10 ten times before finally purchasing. From page one, I was hooked. Ms. Weiner's writing is fast and loose and full of good human humour. The book's plot progresses quickly, while at the same time allows you to get comfortable with the charachters. The characters are part imagination and part everyday people--which is a lovely mix.

As a love story, it is so much more realistic and human than many that are on the market today. Cannie is a very realistic woman and I found many things in common with her.

Ms. Weiner writes like I think and has a terrific sense of humour that shines clearly through her writing.

I have bought her second novel, "In Her Shoes" and am looking forward to the next story that will be thrown our way.

Rating:
Summary: Truly Amazing Novel when Given the Chance!
Review: I cannot say enough about Jennifer Weiner's debut novel, Good in Bed. Cannie Shapiro, though a bit annoying (as our NY friend below was quick to notice), she is so human and so real dealing with the truths of her life and our society.

Reading Good in Bed made me have a glimpse of what it must be like to be a young but overweight woman in our society, and the honesty of her feelings dealing with her split and at times dysfunctional family, her immature yet all too real feelings of what she thinks is love, her own lackings, and her career really hit home with me. She deals with emotional abuse and neglect, self-love and self-loathing, and real love.

I know the July 31 NY Reviewer hated the book, but she just as she said, she didn't give it a chance. She said she put it down 1/3 of the way through. And that reviewer is wrong. It isn't 100% autobiographical, and it becomes a book you CANNOT PUT DOWN within a single paragraph halfway through the book.
I read it originally because a close friend said she couldn't put it down, and I could not at all figure out why she thought it was so great. . . until I hit the sweet spot in the story.

Trust the reviews, Good in Bed is on the best-sellers list for a reason. This writer, Jennifer Weiner, is truly talented.

Rating:
Summary: Will the Real Bridget Jones Stand Up?
Review: If Rosie O'Donnell ever had a book club, this would undoubtably be a selection.

Jennifer Weiner's "Good In Bed" is a zippy fairy tale with a character who seems like someone you might chat with on an airplane -- funny, real, but forgotten pretty quickly. Cannie Shapiro is quick with the comeback, but her bravado hides years of pain as the overweight child of a cruel and neglectful father. The first half of the novel concerns Cannie's less than perfect relationship with Bruce, a pothead boyfriend she dumps and then comes to reconsider. In a characteristically larger than life plotline, Bruce is the columnist for a women's magazine, presenting the guy's side of the dating world. When Cannie dumps him, he uses her as fodder for months of salacious columns.

This plotline is typical of the novel's whimsy -- I'm not sure in life a stoner jerk like Bruce would ever have the level of the success that the novel gives him. Other plotlines follow this fanciful theme-- Cannie befriends a Hollywood star (I think Minnie Driver was the inspiration) who serves as a kind of fairy godmother to Cannie. I don't for a second believe a Hollywood megastar would have the time or inclination to do all the things this character does for Cannie, but their misadventures are fun and light.

The second half of the novel takes an unexpected turn, and our heroine is sent on a journey toward self-acceptance. I enjoyed the character, and was happy with how things turned out for her, but was ultimately a little disappointed by the too perfect resolution. Life is infinately messier than the world Cannie inhabits. But, I guess that's why we read books.

Rating:
Summary: Smashing!!!
Review: I loved this book! I read a lot of chick lit and this book is at the top of my list of "must reads." Cannie was someone that I grew to care about and couldn't wait to find out what was next for her-a real page turner. I loved the little-well, maybe major, surprises the author threw in to keep you interested. More than once I found myself saying, "Wow, I didn't see that coming!!" Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Great light reading
Review: Thank you Jennifer Weiner! This is one light read that I actually enjoyed. "Good in Bed" is part romance, "Sex and the City", and good ol' drama.

Cannie is a twenty-something sucessful writer who isn't so sucessful in love. She hates her ex-boyfriend who betrays her but sometimes finds herself longing to have the snake back!

Cannie's fat but funny, smart but down to earth, and confident yet depressed. She's the type of person most women could have as a best friend.

This humerous novel has some more serious tones to it too. It's not just your average "Chick" book of non-stop mindless entertainment. "Good in Bed" will pull you in and keeping you reading well into the night. I give this one five stars!!!

Rating:
Summary: Queen for a Day
Review: A lady I work with told me this was a great read. I was hesitate at first because of the title.. but she assured me it wasn't "that type of book".

I loved the character of Candace. What a witty comical character! (Talk about comical - her dog's name is Nifken.) She always knows the right thing to say at the right time. Candace's exboyfriend, Bruce, writes a column for a new woman's magazine. His article "Good in Bed" catches her by surprise. It's an article about loving a larger woman. That sets the scene for the weight issue she faces. But her weight is not the only issue she has to face. Her mother announces she's gay, her exboyfriend's father dies, she becomes pregnant by accident, sells a script and goes to Hollywood, finds her emotionally abusive father working as a plastic surgeon to the stars, gets into a push and shove with her exboyfriend's new girlfriend, and eventually figures out that Mr. Right was there waiting on her to notice him. It's a Bridget Jones meets Cinderella story.

Rating:
Summary: Truly awful
Review: This is a miserable excuse for a novel. Good beach reading or maybe a small step up from romance novels, but precious little else. It is obvious from the first 50 pages that the author clearly has both talent and also something original to say about living as a plus-size person in an unforgiving world. Unfortunately, the book goes horribly wrong after this and soon degenerates into an 8th grade fantasy. Don't waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: I kept waiting for Mr. Big to show up...
Review: If you read a lot, you'll want to avoid this book. If, on the other hand, you usually loathe reading, or are young (very young), have never read a book, or have never been exposed to a sitcom, you just might enjoy this. Let this review be a warning, then, to people like me: reasonably educated 20-somethings wondering just what this 'Chick Lit' phenomenon is all about. People who maybe wondered, as I did, what the need was, when literature already overflows with so many talented female writers (known simply as 'authors' and not 'women authors'), for a new genre that includes the word 'chick'. After a little research I'm certain it is nothing but a cynical marketing ploy that aims to separate insecure women from their cash.
Things are dubious from the get-go. The cover quotes a review that refers to Good in Bed as a "beach book", as if that is a favorable response from a critic. After the first few pages it is clear that this is a work whose thin themes, plot and dialogue are reconstructed from various movies and sitcoms, particularly such highbrow fare as Friends and Sex in the City. Here we have the tall, frank, and sexy best friend named Samantha, the doubtful but hip protagonist named Carrie--oh wait, it's actually 'Cannie'. But you get what I'm saying. I kept waiting for Mr. Big to show up, but he never did. At least not in the first third of the book, which was all I could stomach. For the most part Good in Bed reminded me of those countless straight to video Matrix rip-offs you see in Blockbuster, the movies whose covers also feature green graphics and whose titles are presented in the same 'Matrix' font as if they hope to fool us. This book was similar in that it seems to be a rip-off, or maybe more kindly, a 'novelization' of everything on TV. The situations, the jokes, the 'wit' so many reivewers mention here were lame and second hand and made me wonder why anyone would seek this experience from a book.
"But what about the writing?" one might ask. It's true this set-up may have worked from any of the 'postmodern' writers who couch the experience in some sort of baroque and wondrous prose. But that's not the case here. Page after page is filled with so many examples of what is commonly identified as 'bad writing' by any instructor; was there an editor involved, I wondered, or did they just rush the manuscript into print and wait for the cash to pour in? At least it was mildly satisfying to be able to hand Good in Bed to some friends from my undergrad creative writing class and say "Hey look: you *can* write completely obvious and uninspired sentimental story that prattles on and on without much of the traditional concerns and make heaps of dough!"...but you know, unless you're in a similar situation, you probably want to skip this one.
For anyone reading this review who did enjoy Good in Bed I recommend maybe picking up some short stories by Jennifer Egan or perhaps the Dave Eggers-edited Best Non-Required Reading of 2002; there you're sure to find some stuff written by women (and I guess for women to a certain extent) that shares the same concerns but that is much more satisfying from every angle.