Good in Bed

Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL BOOK!
Review: I just read Good in Bed for the third time. Like the first time I read it, I couldn't put it down. The character of Cannie captivates you from page one. She is so easy to identify with, but at the same time she is complex. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

PS - The person from NY, NY who posted his/her review on October 7th - this IS Jennifer Weiner's first book. Get your facts straight.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!!
Review: Jennifer Weiner tells a very touching and enjoyable tale in this book. I thought it was extremely well written, the characters are developed in so well that you feel as if they're old friends by the end of the book. The thing I liked best about Good in Bed was the realistic quality it had. The experiences were not sugar-coated and either were the emotions. A really great read, I couldn't put it down!!

Rating:
Summary: Good in Bed was awesome!
Review: I loved this book!!! I just couldn't put it down. Cannie was such an engaging and lively character. Through her, Weiner really hit on the head the emotions and thoughts that can accompany a person without a size 6 body. EXCELLENT!! It brought laughter, tears, and was definitely a read I'd recommend to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: First book was better
Review: Weiner's first book was fantastic. This book didn't even come close. The characters were unbelieveable and underdevleoped, the plot boring and predictable. It was so terrible I would rather have a tooth pulled than read it. So I got to page 147 and couldn't take it anymore. Weiner, you have a lot of writing talent but this one was a bomb.

Rating:
Summary: homophobia is not funny
Review: this book had great potential, but it was completely undermined by its homophobia.

Rating:
Summary: Chick lit with heart
Review: Finally someone has got it right. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this book. As a woman who does not fit into society's "thin is in" mold, this book struck a resounding chord. The heroine, Cannie, is a breath of fresh air. Good in bed brought forth laughter, tears, and even an understanding on why some men can't deal with dating an overweight woman. You will laugh out loud at the lengths some women will go to reach society's standards. Cannie's non-traditional family, her ex-boyfriend, and her "fat doctor" round out a cast of wonderfully written characters. Read this book, enjoy it, and pass it on to a friend.

Rating:
Summary: Plus Size Women Rule . . . Except This One
Review: Like others who hated this book, I really wanted to enjoy it. Like the main character, I'm a fat word-lover, often too smart and sarcastic for my own good, who considered the Pink Rose Bakery in Philadelphia a second home. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time screaming at this book, and when I was finally finished I threw it against my wall. On the one hand, I admire the author for presenting a full-figured, flawed character. However, Cannie, the heroine, remains self-centered, self-pitying, immature, judgmental, condesceding, elitist, and cruel throughout the whole book, and is repeatedly indulged by friends, loved ones, and worst of all the author, Jennifer Weiner. Weiner allows Cannie to dance through life without having to take responsibility for herself, and the "redemption" she experiences rings false. Worse, the book is littered with cliches, including, most offensively, a lesbian with two cats named Gertrude and Alice, who is reviled by Cannie and her siblings even though it may be the closest her mother has come to a partner in her life. I pity the lesbian reader who reads this book and encounters such a one-dimensional, snide rendering of a stereotype.
A thing that aggravates me about reviews of this book is that many claim it's better than Bridget Jones because the character is heavier, a "real fat woman." I found Bridget a lot more likeable, regardless of her weight, because you got to see her standing by her friends. Cannie seems to have friends who treat her a lot better than she treats them, or herself. While I'm sure that the author saw Cannie as very kind, the glimpses of a loving Cannie are few and far between her monologues of self-loathing. Also, I think that the idea that the "realness" of a woman being centered around her weight is just as dangerous as arguing that her beauty is based on her weight.
I would have loved to have read a story about a woman who finds love and beauty within herself without the aid of fairy godmothers or a charming prince. I'll even let a character have the fairy tale if she stops blaming everyone else for everything that's gone wrong in her life, especially people who try to love her or who have done nothing to her (blaming the evil people is worthwhile only to a point, and she exceeds it). Neither of those things happened to my satisfaction in this book. I wouldn't want someone like Cannie in my life, and I don't want this book on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was a wonderful read, with warm, deep characters about whom I found myself really caring. I felt quite fulfilled when I finished it, though I was actually sad it was over. Cannie was such a full, fabulous character. I highly recommend Good in Bed.

Rating:
Summary: Easy reading
Review: I'm reading the book while Hurricane Isabel takes over my area of Virginia, and I'm liking it so far. It's a quick read -- and I guess I identify altogether too well with Cannie, as I'm also a plus-sized journalist who can't hold down a relationship and who has literally every weird possible thing happening that can happen. The author hits it on the head with her descriptions of not necessarily feeling unworthy, but of definitely feeling a bit of discomfort with the lead character's physical appearance. This is a definite must-read for the upper-20s set who have body image issues.

Rating:
Summary: Good in--and out of--Bed
Review: I read this book when it first came out, and after the birth of my baby. I had gone from an 8 to a size 16. In Cannie I found a humourous voice for the way I was feeling, for the first time living in this body-obsessed world as a "larger woman". Boy did I need the laughs--and reality check--Miss Weiner provided!
Cannie's life takes touching and hysterical turns, that feel like your best friend telling you about her day that was just so terrible and crazy she can't stop laughing! You care so much for Cannie, that you fully root for her success and happiness. The author was brilliantly able to make Cannie into "every woman"--or at least a woman every woman would want for a friend. She also has created a story that is as emotional as it is ironic.
When I finished this book, I found Miss Wiener's email in the back. I decided to drop her a line, and tell her how I laughed and cried myself though her novel. She wrote me back the next day, and was just a nice as could be. I tell all my woman friends to read this book. So far, everyone of them has also loved it!