Good in Bed

Rating:
Summary: motivating
Review: I actually didn't read the book I listened to it on CD. I listened to "Good in Bed" when I started to walk. I was so interested in the story that I actually was looking forward to walking everyday. I even walked one morning at 8 a.m.! This, from a girl who sleeps til noon. Not only did I lose five lbs in one week, I bought her other book "In Her Shoes". Keep 'em coming Jen!

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad!
Review: Overall this book was "not bad". Cannie, the main character of the book is a Jewish twenty-eight year old woman is funny, witty, and is a good writer but is constantly struggling with her weight and thinking about her ex-boyfriend Bruce. My favorite character is Dr.K, I thought he brought light heartedness to the book. He was sweet, smart and a good friend who cared for Cannie for who she was. What more could a woman ask for! Cannie finally accepts her weight and she realizes that you are not measured by your weight but by who you are and what you have accomplished. I do think that the author Jennifer Weiner writes too much about Cannie's regret and pain over losing her ex-boyfriend. I feel as though Cannie proved how strong of a character and a woman she was by the choices that she made and the life that she lived and I think that too much emphasis was put on her thinking about her ex-boyfriend and what could have been. Overall, the book is a good read but some parts of the book are a bit slow (especially the parts where she is pining over her ex-boyfriend).

Rating:
Summary: laugh out loud funny
Review: I actually laughed so much when reading parts of this book that I woke my husband (I read it all one night in bed because I couldn't put it down). The story is great, the character is great (so human) and the writing is great. I cannot wait for the next book to come out in paperback.

Rating:
Summary: This book is awful!!
Review: The main character in this book is just full of self pity!! She has a very cynical, morbid outlook on life. I was really offended by her outlook on being a single parent - The Daddy Parade. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down, luckily for me, I had a long weekend so that I could devote time to it & finish. The character of Cannie is very relatable and very lovable. You will care about her. The things she goes through, her feelings, everything about his book is the best! Go out & get a copy, you won't regret it. I'm a very avid reader and even I was impressed!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good, Easy Read, Overall Enjoyable
Review: I liked the book. It was entertaining, parts of it were funny, and it seemed more realistic than Jemmina J. I thought the main character was very strong. There were no real conflicts for the character in the book. She delt with the struggle to find independence, happiness, and breaking ties with a former boyfriend like many 20 something books do. I would recommend reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and unforgettable.
Review: I loved this book completely, without reservation. I'm going to be pushing it on everyone I know. Wonderfully written, hilariously funny, with as realistic a heroine as I've ever encountered. Don't bring your personal agendas to this book -- don't read it if you're looking for a "fat manifesto" or a probing psychological study. Read it to laugh, cry, smile, and sigh. The author has a gift for language and insight into a woman's heart.

Rating:
Summary: Skip this book
Review: This book started out good but quickly went downhill. The main character Cannie spends much of the book whining about how hard her life is because she is overweight. She tells you she hates skinny people and delights in trying to make them look foolish. Bruce Cannie's ex-boyfriend writes an insightful article about their relationship and her problems with her self image because of her weight, but Cannie is incensed because he calls her fat and overweight in a national magazine and misses most of what he is trying to convey in the article. We are also supposed to empathize with her because Bruce called her fat even though she describes herself as fat and overweight throughout the book. Besides since Bruce doesn't want Cannie we are supposed to believe he is a jerk ... . I couldn't understand why Bruce or any of Cannie's friends put up with her or wasted any time on someone who was so insecure, obnoxious and needy.
Oh wait, as the author keeps telling us she's "funny" and fun to be around, although bitter would be a more accurate description of many of Cannie's not so funny one-liners. Cannie goes from being a promising character to a boring, self-involved, narcissistic, grating, selfish jerk. The author has the main character making so many one-liners it was hard to empathize with or get any real feeling of the character. When she was describing her relationship with her father all I could think was "okay, whatever." We are supposed to feel sorry for her because her father "forced" her to go to Princeton, and made her pay for some of her tuition. Cry me a river! She does a poor me story about her time at Princeton even though she got to write for the school paper and accomplished her goals. None of that mattered though because everyone at Princeton had "perfect bodies and shiny hair", oh the injustice of it all Poor Cannie. Dont let me get started on her childhood where she whines that her 5 bedroom house wasnt painted as often as the neighbors or the in-ground pool in her backyard wasnt well maintained after her father left. These are her childhood problems?! Give me a break!
None of the other characters in the book were developed. Apparently they have no lives or problems of their own. They merely exist to be a sounding board for Cannie and to tell her how funny and wonderful she is. When the story turned Hollywood the author really lost me then. I am annoyed with myself for even bothering to finish this book.

Rating:
Summary: Get it!
Review: I really liked this book. I laughed...I cried. I really liked the main character and it doesn't have that easily anticipated ending. I found it hard to put down and as soon as I did, I went on to find more books by this author. I would highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Idea Wasted
Review: I was really excited when I heard about the premise of this book--a woman breaks up with a guy who then begins writing about their relationship in a national magazine. The beginning of the book sparkles as this story is laid out, and you start to like the heroine. Everything falls apart, however, when the heroine, who despises bigotry against overweight people, dishes out anti-gay hostility against her own mother; makes you wonder if she has an Electra complex as she addresses her neglectful father (and when she ultimately dates a man in the same profession as her dad); and forms a totally unconvincing friendship with a starlet who showers money, time, and extravagant gifts on the heroine. I soon guessed that this novel was an exercise in revenge writing, and the author's bio confirmed that it is partly a roman a clef. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but here the author's fantasies of how to get over a breakup and live happily ever after were so materialistic and corny and, frankly, boring. How much more interesting things would have been if the heroine with low self-esteem due to her weight had gotten involved with and learned to love an overweight man she met in her weight loss program, rather than the charming and slender (and rich) doctor running the program. A far, far better written and funnier book (sadly out of print) about an East Coast Jewish woman dealing with the same problems is Gail Parent's "Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York."