Spygirl : True Adventures from My Life as a Private Eye

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Summary: will make a great movie
Review: Spygirl is a funny and engaging book that accurately depicts the life of recent college grads trying to define themselves and find love in NYC. It would make a great movie - starring either Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale or that great, dry young actress that played Cybil Sheppard's daughter on "Cybil".

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Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: Thank God I didn't and picked it up as a Bookcrossing book. No, seriously, what do I really think? YAWN! I've just finished chapter 8 and am still waiting for her to do something interesting. Although each chapter starts off with a quote about spying, the amount of "spying" she's done so far is contained in a paragraph and involves a short phone call. The rest of what I've read is devoted to meandering through her past, in no particular chronological order, in the middle of nothing and jumps back to the present. Her memories are mainly about boyfriends she had or wished she had, small incidents about her past job that she hated(Doesn't hold a candle to The Devil Wears Prada), being cool and doing drugs in college. She spends most of the present trying to be cool with the homeboys in her office by making wisecracks on the fire escape during smoke breaks, or getting plastered and obsesses on a man, any man, as she can't seem to live a week without one no matter how much a loser. I'm afraid I can't finish this either. I have too many other books waiting to be read. I'm disappointed though because the title sounds like an interesting story.

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Summary: read this book!!!!
Review: This book is damn funny; I read it at a friend’s house a while ago and meant to post a review, and never did. Then I just read in Variety that they'’re doing a TV show of it. I'’ll be the first person to tune in, if it’s anything like the book!

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Summary: HA!
Review: This book is hilarious! I laughed out loud every few pages. But in addition to being funny and well-written, Spy Girl is also insightful and reflective. And if you're a New Yorker you'll enjoy the many references to different places in the city. It's a very fun read and I highly recommend it.

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Summary: IT IS A WINNER OF A BOOK!
Review: This book really has magical moments! There is lots to like - with wonderful humor, deftly drawn characters, the adventure of tracking the "bad guys," and most especially, the honesty and angst of the 20-something generation. The writing was amazing - I was sad to see it end (perhaps a sequel is in the works?). I agree with another reviewer who said that SPYGIRL has surprising depth. Gray is young, but the reader can see her learning and growing as the story plays out. Highly recommended!

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Summary: A fun fall read
Review: This book really won me over--the more I read the better it got. It seemed to gain authority and develop a surer, funnier, wiser voice as the chapters progressed; as I neared the end, I was saddened and in a weird state of disbelief that I had to stop reading. Gray's pacing is brisk, her details confident and exact, her love of life evident and cheering. How many books have invoked the Dr. Zizmor subway ad as a really successful metaphor? Just one, I daresay.

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Summary: truely growing up new york
Review: This is not a mystery, thriller or any other kind of genre. It's a coming-of-age story that happens to be about a PI, and my friends and I related to it completely. Even my boyfriend-who normally only reads historical non-fiction--stole it from me to read in bed and was constantly chuckling to himself and reading it aloud to me. Very surprising. The book encompasses a year in the life of a private investigator, and weaves material from her cases with her life-friends, loves, etc. It is funny, honest, hard when it needs to be, and delicate when appropriate. I would have liked more color on the cases, though. Otherwise, I was smitten. Please, please do a novel next! I'm on the waiting list...

Rating:
Summary: truely growing up new york
Review: This is not a mystery, thriller or any other kind of genre. It's a coming-of-age story that happens to be about a PI, and my friends and I related to it completely. Even my boyfriend-who normally only reads historical non-fiction--stole it from me to read in bed and was constantly chuckling to himself and reading it aloud to me. Very surprising. The book encompasses a year in the life of a private investigator, and weaves material from her cases with her life-friends, loves, etc. It is funny, honest, hard when it needs to be, and delicate when appropriate. I would have liked more color on the cases, though. Otherwise, I was smitten. Please, please do a novel next! I'm on the waiting list...

Rating:
Summary: More Girl than Spy
Review: This is the book for you if....you have often thought to yourself, "Gosh, I wish that they had a young female private investigator as one of the characters on Sex in the City!" If you've never said that to yourself you will find the book is a harmless but only mildly amusing memoir which offers significantly more about the romantic tribulations of a single girl in New York City than it does about working as an investigator.

Rating:
Summary: Riotous fun
Review: This is truly a delightful novel. It is original and helps fill a gap in literature for young women's truthful voices. Gray really gets inside the psyche of the curious, independent woman in New York on a quest for answers; whether in her personal or her professional life. Gray's hilarious account of her years as a P.I. and the ridiculously colorful characters kept me glued to my couch turning pages the whole way through.
The narrative structure of this novel was fascinating and held together the various threads of the story that focuses mostly on Gray's current social life and current work projects. The images her prose evokes are crisp, vivid and bright. Amy also illustrates a pack of questionable men she keeps running into en route to finding a compatible boyfriend with light-hearted humor even as she reveals her disappointment in making yet another mistake in becoming involved. Her stories are funny, frightening and all too familiar to women of her generation. Gray deftly weaves snippets of her past that led to her present and does quick yet evocative sketches of many influences in her life. This novel is a lot of fun, superbly written and not to be missed.