Rating: 
Summary: Kudos for her ingenuity!
Review: "Girls on the Verge" is a collection of very intriging coming of age female adventures and interviews by the author, Vendela Vida. She begins by going undercover and partaking in rush festivities at UCLA-I am still laughing at the superficial nature of the whole event. From there, we are treated to her report on "quinces" in the Latin culture (a very interesting twist on the sweet sixteen party) then to debutantes, girl gangs, young brides, etc. Vida covers such a wide array of female rituals in the U.S., some of which I had never heard of before. Her humor is dry and witty while her observations of others are on cue. I am not quite sure how my favorite section of the book, "Burning Man" fits in but it's a beaut! Makes me want to visit the wacky celebration.
Rating:
Summary: I would love to see more books like this
Review: "Girls on the Verge" is a collection of very intriging coming of age female adventures and interviews by the author, Vendela Vida. She begins by going undercover and partaking in rush festivities at UCLA-I am still laughing at the superficial nature of the whole event. From there, we are treated to her report on "quinces" in the Latin culture (a very interesting twist on the sweet sixteen party) then to debutantes, girl gangs, young brides, etc. Vida covers such a wide array of female rituals in the U.S., some of which I had never heard of before. Her humor is dry and witty while her observations of others are on cue. I am not quite sure how my favorite section of the book, "Burning Man" fits in but it's a beaut! Makes me want to visit the wacky celebration.
Rating:
Summary: Kudos for her ingenuity!
Review: "Girls on the Verge" is a collection of very intriging coming of age female adventures and interviews by the author, Vendela Vida. She begins by going undercover and partaking in rush festivities at UCLA-I am still laughing at the superficial nature of the whole event. From there, we are treated to her report on "quinces" in the Latin culture (a very interesting twist on the sweet sixteen party) then to debutantes, girl gangs, young brides, etc. Vida covers such a wide array of female rituals in the U.S., some of which I had never heard of before. Her humor is dry and witty while her observations of others are on cue. I am not quite sure how my favorite section of the book, "Burning Man" fits in but it's a beaut! Makes me want to visit the wacky celebration.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing garbage
Review: Honestly, I was really hoping it'd be a fascinating academic-lite overview of the female coming-of-age rituals--that's what it purported to be. Instead, it was a wanky trite pithy compendium of a snarky, facetious, disenfranchised-cosmopolitan postmodern-psuedoironist that read like a collection of magazine articles for Esquire. The author addresses, in a chapter on each, sorority rush, girl gang initiations, debutante balls, pagan/Wiccan coven initiation ceremonies, Latina quinces (a celebration of being fifteen, like a bat mitzvah of sorts--oddly, bat mitzvahs aren't addressed at all), teen Vegas brides, and for who knows what reason, Burning Man. Vida clinically studies some of her subjects (setting up talk-sessions with Latina teenagers through their highschool to talk about quinces, conducting formal interviews with girl-gang members) and treats others with pseudo-undercover-journalist derision (faking a college identity to go through sorority rush, sneaking into a debutante ball through the staff door). The chapters written in the second circumstance are useless as objective analyses, as they are largely peppered with crowing over her own cleverness at deceiving those around her, and salted with her own snide reactions to the events she witnesses. She doesn't conduct any above-board interviews or talk-sessions in these chapters, which belies a preconception that she will be "shut out" or not get "the real story" about admittedly-exclusive social rituals. Where's the contrasting analysis between her experience and the "party-line" interviews? Not present. At the end of it all, I find myself after a cursory 192 pages no more enlightened about the coming-of-age rituals of women than i was before. The whole thing comes off like the author desperately wants to be the "female David Foster Wallace" yet isn't clever enough, intelligent enough, or prolific enough. Go back to grad school, Vida.
Rating:
Summary: I would love to see more books like this
Review: I found this book to be very interesting. The chapter on sororities is very well written and very accurate - I know this because I am in a sorority myself (Yes, my sorority was mentioned). It was very interesting to see a written account about the process of sorority rush, especially since it is something that is not often written about. All the other descriptions were very interesting, but the quality of writting seems to decline as the chapters progress. I also found the last chapter to not be very cohesive with the rest of the book. Overall, however, I really enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more like it in the future.
Rating:
Summary: 4 stars, only because it wasn't longer...
Review: I knew immediately I wasn't going to be able to put this book down from the introduction. Vendela's thoughts and descriptions are exactly what I like to read, and the subject matter is entertaining to me, while very true. The book is well written and easy-to-read. Vendela is intelligent enough to not use it against the reader, rather she uses her conscientious mind to our advantage. The descriptions of her encounters are not biased but you can't help form your own judgments about the individuals involved in the rituals. I wish she could experience more "rituals" just so I could read about them.
Rating:
Summary: 4 stars, only because it wasn't longer...
Review: I knew immediately I wasn't going to be able to put this book down from the introduction. Vendela's thoughts and descriptions are exactly what I like to read, and the subject matter is entertaining to me, while very true. The book is well written and easy-to-read. Vendela is intelligent enough to not use it against the reader, rather she uses her conscientious mind to our advantage. The descriptions of her encounters are not biased but you can't help form your own judgments about the individuals involved in the rituals. I wish she could experience more "rituals" just so I could read about them.
Rating:
Summary: funny *and* educational
Review: I love a good read about womanhood in America, and I got this one off the discount rack at (a local store). I read it to my friend on a road trip, and we both found it incredibly interesting. Unlike some feminist-oriented books, there was little that a man could take offense at - and in fact, my male driving partner enjoyed it. We both still make reference to lines from this book. The most amusing chapter was on sororities. The author was actually able to infiltrate the greek system and experience rush the way a first-year would. As my college had no greeks, I was both amused and horrified at the rush system. The chapters on debutantes and quinceaneros were more academic in nature, because she couldn't participate undercover. Another great chapter covered girl gangs. As I've always seen a similarity between girl gangs and sororities, I loved contrasting the two chapters. This book spawned many interesting discussions with my co-reader, and I recommend it to reading groups.
Rating:
Summary: funny *and* educational
Review: I love a good read about womanhood in America, and I got this one off the discount rack at (a local store). I read it to my friend on a road trip, and we both found it incredibly interesting. Unlike some feminist-oriented books, there was little that a man could take offense at - and in fact, my male driving partner enjoyed it. We both still make reference to lines from this book. The most amusing chapter was on sororities. The author was actually able to infiltrate the greek system and experience rush the way a first-year would. As my college had no greeks, I was both amused and horrified at the rush system. The chapters on debutantes and quinceaneros were more academic in nature, because she couldn't participate undercover. Another great chapter covered girl gangs. As I've always seen a similarity between girl gangs and sororities, I loved contrasting the two chapters. This book spawned many interesting discussions with my co-reader, and I recommend it to reading groups.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: This is the first book that I've read in a long time that I couldn't wait to finish. I was expecting a well written book describing coming of age stories for women. Instead I got a elementary look at subjects that should have been interesting. This book made no points and came to no conclusions....I wouldn't recommend this to anyone
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