Rating: 
Summary: After Angels...Keyes Came Back!
Review: After reading "Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married," I immediately ran to the store and bought "Rachel's Holiday." I fell so in love with Keyes writing that I literally had to force myself not to read all her book's in a row so that I would have something to look forward to...Having been very bored and disappointed with "Angels," I was thrilled with the return of Keyes' unique style in "Sushi for Beginners." Fun, charming and witty. Still not my favorite of all her books, but wonderful all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.....Irish Style
Review: Marian Keyes is deservedly known as the queen of contemporary womens' novels, and SUSHI will not disappoint either her long-time fans or those new to her work. Set in the glitzy world of a high-fashion magazine with a detour through the madcap comedy club circuit, this book has its hand and heart on the pulse of young Dublin singles and marrieds who aspire to be successful, wealthy, and happy. Ashling Kennedy is the heart of the story---the everywoman with boyfriend problems and weight problems. When she is offered a second banana spot on "Colleen" a new magazine for the upwardly mobile Dublin woman, she feels she has latched on to something really good. Unfortunately, her boss and editor-in-chief is the very disappointed Lisa Edwards. Instead of a big promotion to the New York office, this assignment feels like a passport to hell to the ultra-ambitious fashionista. Horrified at being shuffled out of London and off to Dublin, she vows to make this new magazine one the world will sit up and take note of. Rounding out the trio of women is Ashling's best friend, Clodagh Kelly. Married to a handsome professional, the mother of two children, and tucked away in a beautiful home, Clodagh seems to have it all. The only glitch in her life is that she is bored and miserable. The lives of the three women weave together and eventually collide as life takes some unexpected turns. An ex-husband, a wayward boyfriend, a handsome managing director, and staunch friends add interest to this story of surviving the daily grind and making it work for you.
Rating: 
Summary: A big let down
Review: I really enjoy Marian Keyes books, especially Lucy Sullivan Gets Married and Rachel's Holiday, I didn't like this book very much. I don't think the way the story is told allows you to have any real empathy of the characters. Lisa is too mean for you to care about, Ashling to much of a doormat and Clodagh is way to spoiled and selfish. Icouldn't care about these people because I didn't like them. I kep asking myself questions like: If Lisa wants to be with Oliver, why does she keep acting like such a fool and what does she gain by being so awful to everyone around her? Why would Ashling keep Clodagh as a close friend after she had already betrayed their friendship by helping herself to her friends boy friend? Mind you, I'm not saying you should ignore the man's part, but what kind of friend has so little respect for you that she would do this, and why would you want her in your life after she's done this? Why is Ashling such a door mat? I even put this book down and picked up Babyville (great book) so I could try to get back into it. Alas, by the end of this book I was just glad it was over, now I'm waiting for her next one. I hope it's better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Unsatisfied
Review: I've read all of Marian Keyes books and enjoyed them, especially Rachel's Holiday and Lucy Sullivan Gets Married, I was looking forward to this and I felt a huge let down. The characters were not likable, Lisa was nasty, you knew why she was unhappy,but she was so unpleasant that you didn't care. Clodagh is an arrested child, and Ashling was a wimp. I stopped reading this about 100 pages in and picked up Babyville instead and finished it in 2 days during the Blackout of 03. I didn't care how things turned out with these chicks because their story wasn't told in a way to make me care. I hope the next one is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: I absolutely LOVE Marian Keyes and have read all her books. I couldn't wait to get this and read it. I was so anxious, I broke down and bought hard cover. This book is HORRIBLE. It is so boring. I cannot get into any of the characters. Normally, I am laughing out loud when I read Ms. Keyes books, but she just wasn't funny in this. I couldn't even finish it. Maybe it gets better during the second half, but I may never know.
Rating: 
Summary: Trust me.......Sushi is good as long as it's fresh!!!!!!!
Review: Even as I write this, I'm pondering weither I REALLY liked this book or not. I enjoyed it, and it was writen with some of the classic Keyes style, but.......I still feel like something was missing!! Oh wait *smack*.....FRIENDSHIP. One thing I have come to expect in a Keyes novel is the element of good cheer that comes when a group of friends gets together and helps one another through life's hurdles. I found this element sorely lacking in this book. When I first started reading it, I thought(as with all her other books) she would have the bitter, work-obsessed Lisa befriend the obsessive-compulsive, Ms. Fixit Ashling, and they would help Ashlings friend Clodagh(who I guessed early on was going to have an affair) get through her problems and there own as well. Along the way they would meet, date, and break-up with men until they decided life wasn't all bad being single. Well, was I in for a shocker! NOBODY in this novel is (barely) a friend to anyone else, except for Jack who is a ray of sunlight in this other wise bleak novel. Lisa held my interest for awhile, but as the book went on, I cared less and less about her. Till, at the end I hardly thought her "turn-around" made any diffrence at all. Ashling was such a doormat for most of the book, I mean who could not see that Marcus was an egotistical loser "bellez-moi" please!!!! Why would Jack, who was with hot, exotic Mai ever go for her?? And Clodagh, what a WITCH ... ... Really, I think she had no heart and got exactly what she deserved. To sum things up, I read it! But if anyone came to me and asked me to suggest a Keyes book, this would not be it!
Rating:
Summary: Geting what they deserve
Review: I've been screaming for a while for a good chick-lit book with strong, independent female characters and when I finally find one, I get bored halfway through. The book was good, but I had a hard time holding my interest in it. It follows the lives of three completely different, yet connected women. Lisa is a flashy magazine editor from London. Her work is everything. She's been hoping to get a glamorous job at a magazine in New York City, but instead she's been assigned to setup a brand new woman's magazine in Dublin, Ireland. She goes from a staff of hundreds to a staff of less than ten. On top of all that, she's dealing with the breakup of her marriage and realizing she isn't quite such an awful person after all. Ashling is older than Lisa and has worked for the same small magazine in Dublin for the past eight years until she invents a cleaning tip that ruins a reader's couch and is subsequently fired. She lands a job as the assistant editor of Lisa's new magazine. Not much else is going on with her life. She's 31 and on the dating scene, not a terribly good mix. Clodagh is Ashling's best friend. As far as Ashling is concerned, she has the perfect life. She's been married to Dylan (an ex-boyfriend of Ashling's) for the past ten years and has two bratty kids. She has a wonderful house and never has to work. Clodagh is not even remotely happy with her life though. There's never a hint that she actually loves her children or her husband. She is a spoiled brat, plain and simple. In the end, everything works its way out. I could have done without Clodagh altogether and some of Ashling's friends (Ted and Joy) seemed to be written into the story only to be used in a small way later on. They have no real purpose in being there at all. I thought it was a good book overall. It was a bit slow. Wouldn't have hurt the author to shave about 150 pages off the book. Sushi wasn't even mentioned until page 290 and then for the remaining 136 pages it's like the only thing people could think about was sushi. It almost seems as though at that point in writing the book the author thought of the clever title "Sushi for Beginners" and decided to incorporate as much sushi and explanation of "beginner's sushi" as she possibly could throughout the remainder of the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Hate to have it end
Review: I got caught up with the characters and before I knew it, I couldn't put it down. I was so sad when I finished; it was the emptiness you feel when a good friend has just left for home after a great visit. Today I went to the library for the rest of her books. I love her writing.
Rating:
Summary: Hate to have it end
Review: I love this book. I'm going to miss the characters. I could feel a part of me in each girl. I hope the author is busy writing another book.
Rating:
Summary: Thought I'd give Keyes a try...
Review: I was skeptical about trying out this book, because I have seen Keyes's books before and they all seemed too long, and not for me. Maybe the cover just attracted me (Yes, I judged the book by it's cover) and I thought that the title was interesting. I was not disappointed! The book generally deals with three separate women, and their circle of friends. The first is Lisa, she works on a womans magazine in England, but she ends up getting sent to Dublin to start up a new women's magazine, and doesn't have any choice in the matter. She is less than thrilled, but picks up anyway, leaves her husband (which she had problems with anyway) and tries to make a new life for herself in Ireland. Being bitter and stubborn the whole way. Also getting a job at this same magazine, but with a much better attitute, is Ashling, who is really excited for this opportunity. Apparently, magazine jobs were rare in Ireland, so it was said. Clodagh is Ashling's very best friend and she is saddled with two kids and a husband. Apparently devastatingly beautiful and feeling neglected and needing something different, she also tries to get a job with no experience to speak of. She has the perfect life, in Ashling's eyes, also because Clodagh stole this man away from her and married him herself. There are many many other minor characters in this novel, some needed, some not. Ted, Ashling's up and coming comic friend who introduces her to her self-centered new boyfriend, Marcus Valentine, who is also an up and coming comic who writes Bellez-moi and his phone number and napkins and gives them to unsuspecting girls. Jack Devine is the rumpled yet handsome boss of Lisa and Ashling, and both of them have a crush on him. Lisa is stylish and beautiful, Ashling is plain, but down to earth. They still have competition with the lovely, exotic girlfriend Mai, who is constantly screaming back and forth in Jack's office, which is what keeps them together. There is also the homeless man Boo, who becomes fast friends with Ashling, and helps with her downward spiral of depression like her mom, as she wonders, why is life so unfair? But, I'm getting ahead of myself, and my review is becoming as long as the book! Which leads me to the little problem of 426 pages. I am not saying that it was not interesting, it was, but half way through I started to realize how long this was taking me to finish, and the awareness of it slowed me down a bit. I will also mention again that there are many characters to get to know, but... for what it's worth, Keyes does an excellent job of making you remember them, and connect them to each other. To put together so many personalities that are so different is the genius in this book. I really enjoyed it. I may even try her books again (even though they are all kind of long) :)
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