Rating: 
Summary: Over-hyped garbage
Review: This book is both thin (emaciated, in fact) on plot and horribly written. I guess Ms. Weisberger learned nothing more at Cornell than how to string together one cliche after another. The characters are uninteresting, her commentary on life in New York inaccurate (since when are the streets empty at 7AM?!?--a detail she repeatedly makes throughout the book), and her observations about humanity shallow and trite. Skip this book. I literally threw mine in the garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: I loved this book! I mean, it made this world of fashion that looks so glamourous and everything look like a complete and total nightmare! On top of that, it was so funny, because you could relate. Everybody's had someone they had to deal with that was hard to work with. I think this is an awsome book, and I recommend it to anybody!
Rating: 
Summary: Trite plot, lousy fleshing out of characters
Review: Weisberger creates us a little tale of how the professional life consumes the character of Andy completely. What Weisberger failed to do was to make Andy empathetic. She created a great character if this was a story about a Jewish Princess. But she failed to capture the drive and energy of a young professional who may have sold their soul to the devil to reach their goals. I had very little concern about Andy and what became of her. As soon as she started working, her attitude was poor. She felt the magazine was below her. She felt she was better than her coworkers. She barely did the job that was asked of her (stopping for cigarette breaks and personal phone calls when sent on a 5 minute errand). It was very frustrating to read a story like this, since almost everyone who has ever held a full time job has worked with a person like Andy. What really bugged me about the character was how she openly billed fraudulent charges back to her company (A dinner for her friend, a latte for the homeless guy, etc.). I'm sure this was meant to demonstrate that at the young age of 23, Andy had become so cynical that she was just interested in causing pain to "The Man". Instead, it made the character seem like a whiner and not trustworthy. Sure, the boss sucked, as did the job, but suck it up, sister! You are not in the unique position of having a nasty job! 12 months! Seriously, not that long!The boyfriend Alex bothered me too. We were told that he was a super-cool, supportive boyfriend, but we never saw any of that. We see him complaining that she is never around, that she forgot to call, that she missed a date. Yes, that can be annoying. But I've worked 100+ hours a week myself in a job. My husband didn't enjoy it, but he knew I had set lofty goals, and to obtain those goals required some hard work on my part. So he didn't whine or nag me, and he surely didn't leave me once I got out of my demanding job with a snotty little "too late, I've been trying for too long". Weisberger never developed Alex's character into something that resembled supportive. She told us he was and we were expected to accept it. As a result, he came across as holier-than-thou. Whatever, Alex. Andy, despite all of her faults, is better off without a self-righteous boyfriend. Finally, the job was described to sound like hell. Off the charts. The problem was it sounded a little too much hellish to me. Miranda was practically a comic, she was made so cartoony. I think she was described wonderfully as someone who was heartless, ruthless, and self-centered. That is believable. But some of the demands should have been scaled back. Whenever we get a story of Andy chasing down something for her, we know pretty early on how it's going to end. The boss is going to request something entirely different than what was originally asked and Andy is going to feel the heat for not telepathically expecting this. How many tales of screwed up lunches, location of furniture stores, reviews from the newspaper, etc. do we need to be subjected to for this point to come across? All in all, save your money.
Rating:
Summary: More Please!!!
Review: Lauren Weisberger totally has out done herself! I had to make myself go to sleep at night and not stay up reading!! Major Props Lauren!
Rating: 
Summary: It's not suppossed to be "Pride and Prejudice"...
Review: Okay, so I don't usually read books that don't fall under the "literature" section of the bookstore. But when I found out that the main character went to my alma mater, I decided to read the book for myself. I wasn't expecting a classic work of literature (come on fellow readers...LOOK at the cover AND the title...) I did my research on the book and author and decided to see how she did...And I got exactly what I expected. It took me one night and a morning to read the book and at the end of it all I was satisfied. It had its funny parts, it was an easy read, and since I had a hellish job at a law firm straight of Brown in Boston with some anal retentive not-worthy-of-calling-themselves-human being attorneys, I could empathize. Remember what you are reading about, remember the title, remember the author wrote it straight out of college and stop comparing it to the Nanny Diaries...umm...it has...like, different authors...And you'll find yourself a quick, easy, entertaining, feel good book. Otherwise I hear that Jane Austen and James Joyce have some really good books on the market. 'Nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: A semi-shocking title and not much else
Review: Apparently all you need to have a bestseller these days is a semi-shocking title, for there is no other reason for this book to be so popular. The book is impossibly long with chapters that never seem to end and a storyline that is painfully repetitive and goes nowhere. We start with a typical Miranda Priestly moment, in which the infamous editor of "Runway" magazine is ordering poor little assistant (and narrator) Andrea around. Andrea then flashes back to when she naively accepted the job and every belittling thing Miranda has made her do since. We never return to that original scene, mind you, but rather pass it at some unnamed point and proceed to the end of Andrea's job stint. And while the climax is somewhat satisfying, its punch is diluted by the two (yes, TWO)interminable and trite chapters that follow. Meanwhile, every one of the characters (with the possible exception our narrator Andrea) is entirely two-dimensional and instead of caring for the people that were supposed to matter (Andrea, her boyfriend Alex whom I only had lukewarm feelings towards, and her "best friend" Lily who had more problems than a math test), I found myself more intrigued by Miranda and her yes-girl Emily (the senior assistant whose occasional comraderie with Andrea seemed forced by the author). The subplots are poorly developed, largely forgettable, and generally unresolved as well - all in all unnecessary additions to an already verbose novel that could just as easily been a short story in Cosmo. The bottom line: Read FASHIONISTAS by Lynn Messina and published by Red Dress Ink. It has a very similar concept but is better structured, faster paced, and much much funnier.
Rating:
Summary: Take a Break from those mystery/suspense novels
Review: This book is a most enjoyable read. It is about a woman who graduates from college and wants to be a writer for the New Yorker, but takes a job as an assistant to the editor of a fashion magazine to get in to the business. But her boss turns out to be an evil, horrible, horrible, nasty, stupid woman you love to hate. And hilarity ensues. It has some very funny parts, but is not totally fluff. It is a light read, but not so shallow as a typical harlequin. I have hand sold at least 20 of these and everyone I've given it to has loved it. Kudos to Lauren for reaching the best seller list on her first attempt. It is well deserved.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money...
Review: ....unless you enjoy absolutely simpleton-type books. I borowed this book from the library. I expected it to be an easy read (it certainly is) but still an enjoyable one. I knew beforehand that it is the type of book you read on the weekend to kill time, or the type of book that you bring to the beach. I was six chapters in the book (95 pages) when I realixed that STILL nothing had happened. All you read about is how the main character's job is "so incredible," and how the boss is "so difficult," and how she works "so hard [at many menial tasks]." This book needs a plot, one other than how the main character chases down various items that her oh-so-difficult boss requires. B-o-r-i-n-g. I enjoy cheap and easy fiction as well as the next person. But this is certainly one of the worst books I have ever read that falls into this genre. I'm glad I didn't pay for it!
Rating:
Summary: This was so bad - what the heck did the publisher pay for?
Review: With all the hype, I was expecting something different - as in a well written, interesting book. Instead, it was so boring I had to stop before I even read 75 pages. How many times can you read, "I want to work for the New Yorker" and page after page of "horrible" things her boss does. Where's the story? Where's the character depth and something beyond the obvious? I love chic lit, so it's not like I wanted War and Peace, but the people in the book aren't characters, they're charicatures, kinda like a bad sit com. It's her first book, so I don't really hold it against the author, but the publisher and editor should have known better. This was just such a weak effort, you've gotta wonder what the heck they were thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Just because I was entertained
Review: One must read and enjoy this book for what it is. This book is not meant to be taken too seriously! I was entertained by Miranda and Andrea BECAUSE they were on such extreme sides of the scale. That is what makes this book so entertaining. I also found myself smiling at the mannerisms of fashion know-alls James and Nichol, and the author also incorporates the attitudes of the doormen, nannies and drivers which I thought was a nice touch. Some reading should just be fun, entertaining, and relaxing, and this book is exactly that.
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