Monkey Business

Rating:
Summary: The Male Perspective on a fun book
Review: After looking over my wife's shoulder while she was reading Monkey Business, this book captured me immediately. The situation: at a party before classes have started, the funny balding guy gets picked up by the sexy flirt, in a brief tryst that leaves him longing and her disappointed, and it's downhill for both of them from there.

In addition to the sexy Kimmy, who turns out to have a actual gift for business, and the silly Jamie, who never really does anything too wrong or too right, but doesn't seem to know what he's doing or what he's supposed to be doing, the book follows two other characters in a round-robin first-person narrative through their first year at B-school.

All four main characters are flawed, not quite tragically so, but each manages to improve over the course of the year... if not necessarily their personal situation, at least their selves. Russ starts off as the handsome guy with the devoted girlfriend back home, who has dreamed his whole life of this MBA, but through much of the book is incapable of making actual decisions, or taking appropriate actions. Layla is the beautiful, extremely dedicated Manhattanite who starts off perfect and quests to improve herself from there.

As a guy, I really enjoyed this book, though it would probably appeal more to women. However, it has been fun to talk with my wife about, as she and I don't read many of the same books, and I found myself thinking about this book quite often over the weeks after reading it. It stays with you, and you wonder - what did the characters do after the book? What led them there to begin with? They seemed very real, and I enjoyed not only the reading and discussion, but also the "afterglow" of the experience.

This is not a five-star book, but is a very enjoyable read. Men, if your Significant Other is reading this book, consider reading it as well so you can talk about it together. It's fun and worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: amusing chick lit
Review: At the University of Connecticut Business School in Maplewood, Kimmy Nailer, a student from Arizona, has sex with Jamie who is in one of her classes. Kimmy concludes that twenty-five minutes of boredom is not worth a semester of his sniffing around especially once the beer loosens the fog of her mind and she realizes this is not Cary Grant.

She decides pothead Russ might be a better choice for her. Jamie keeps sniffing at her skirts until he notices Manhattan's Layla Roth. However, Layla has chosen some stud whose application makes him worthy of her attention at least in her mind after she sneakily read his personal papers.

This look at MONKEY BUSINESS on the college campus is an amusing chick lit tale that would turn the University of Connecticut into the number one party school instead of the number one basketball school. The story line rotates perspective, but though often humorous with their antics, none of the key foursome has any ethics as they allow their runaway libidos to rule. Readers who have children away at college and a short memory will probably want to pass, but other sub-genre fans might enjoy the hi-jinks (make that low-jinks) of the college crowd.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I hesitated when buying this book as I am not overly fond of a different person speaking in each chapter.

However, this became a very minor annoyance because this book is wonderful. I am not sure how the author manages to weave all these people together, but she does.

As far as chick lit goes, this is a notch above the rest and is even "intelligent and thought-provoking". The author manages to make me like all the characters, despite their obvious (and not so obvious) flaws.

Excellent purchase. Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but not her best
Review: I loved all three of Sarah's other books to death. Especially Fishbowl. I thought her 4th would be just as hilarious and fun, but maybe my expectations were too high. My problem was that I felt no attachment to the characters. I didn't even like the characters. I really don't think I'd ever want to hang out with any of them. Another weird thing about this book is the setting. Its about MBA students, but they live in a dorm and share bathrooms and eat at the cafeteria. Sounds more like freshman year of college than business school. I wonder if the book was first written about undergraduates, then tweeked to be about graduate students to fit a more mature audience. I dont know, but Ive never heard of graduate students being required to live in a dorm. (Or share bathrooms with the opp. sex, even in a coed dorm the bathrooms are usually separate!)

Towards the end, the book gets a little better, but not until the very end. Up until 7/8 through the book I could have stopped reading and not cared what happened. So all in all, Monkey Business was a disapointment for me. If you've read all of Sarah's other books and are curious to see what her 4th is like, maybe pick it up, but if you've never read anything by her, try one of her other books. They are all far superior.

Rating:
Summary: Don't monkey around- read one of the author's other books
Review: I've read all of Sarah Mlynowski's novels with great enthusiasm. She's an author who really explores her characters and makes them famailiar and three-dimensional to the reader. However, although Monkey Business is well-written; it's a far cry from her other books. The novel is written from the perspective of four different narratives. Each narrative is spoken in the voice of one of the four main characters who have one thing in common-they are all in Business School together. They are all very different from one another but become friends since they are in the same work groups and classes in school together. The book was a little too soap-operay and predictable for me. If you're looking for a great read; try one of Ms. Mlynowski's other books such as Fish Bowl, As Seen on TV or the classic Milk Run. They are exceptional chick lit fiction :)


Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Mrs. Mlynowski.....
Review: If you enjoyed Sarah Mlynowski's other books, or chick-lit in general, go grab this one. It's hilarious, and as she did in Fishbowl, the author seamlessly goes from one character's point of view to another. I especially appreciated this as a business school student- sometimes it was as if she were talking about my own school!

The story centers on four characters living in the same co-ed dorm, attending a prestigious (fictional) business school. We have Jaime, a pudgy, girl-crazy but very nice guy, Layla, a beautiful, ultra-smart and super-motivated Manhattanite, Russ, a Canadian guy torn between his girl back home and finding something new, and Kimmy, a pretty Jewish girl who falls hard for Russ and is not sure what she wants out of school- other than a boyfriend.

The story follow through the first year, following crushes, relationships, and some pretty big deceptions. But the characters are all likeable and flawed, which is something that has made Mlynowski's books so good in the past. This is better than average chick-lit, not just a single-girl-in-the-city story, but a story of four people and the deep bonds they form while living in a co-ed down (nicknamed "The Zoo"). If you like the funny, wittier writers in the chick-lit genre, this is right up your alley. Highly recommended!


Rating:
Summary: Make It Your Business To Read This Book!
Review: It's a mixture of love, lust, cheating, uncertainty, and fun when four very different people all move into the same business school dorm. Meet the main four unforgettable characters in Monkey Business: Layla, Jamie, Kimmy and Russ. They all have just started school at Connecticut University's Business school, LWBS. Jamie is the resident "funny nice guy" with an unrequited crush - on Kimmy, the gorgeous party-girl who can't make up her mind what she wants. Layla is from a rich, upstanding family, and she is a workaholic to boot. Russ has a girlfriend back home in Canada whom he can't quite seem to stay faithful to.

Things start off a little roughly, what with Kimmy and Jamie hooking up for... a night of disaster; Layla alienating everyone because of her attitude; and Russ signing up for every available school team so that he has no time for anything else. However, the four of them manage to eventually bond and get along. But things are never far from disaster. Will Russ manage to juggle his Canadian girlfriend, who seems to be getting suspicious, and Kimmy? Will Layla let down her guard and stop pursuing the guy she thinks is perfect for her, when he may just be all look and no substance? Will Kimmy be able to settle down with one available guy and get serious about studying? Will Jamie ever come to terms with the fact that Kimmy isn't interested and move on? Join these four highly likeable characters in their journey of living, loving, lusting and finding their way in life.

I enjoyed Monkey Business thoroughly. Mlynowski gives a very intimate look into the lives of the four main characters by telling the story in first-person narrative for each character. No detail is spared of their most shocking and honest thoughts. I loved how I could see what each person thought about each encounter that took place.

Overall, this book was thoroughly enjoyable, endearing and will keep you turning pages until the end to find out what will become of this quirky cast of characters!


Rating:
Summary: A great fun read
Review: One of the things I really like about Sarah's books is that they are a bit on the long side, compared to some of the skimpy chick lits out there. You definitely get your money's worth here. She does a great job of creating a fun world filled with real people, and as another reviewer mentioned, they are interesting, yet flawed, which makes them that much more engaging and real. The characters also grow throughout the book and the ending is satisfying. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because of the rotating first person. It was sometimes hard to follow, especially at the beginning, and I think this may have been a stronger story in third, because of the many viewpoints. But, she really did an excellent job overall, especially with the smooth pacing and connecting the different storylines. I look forward to her next book!

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining look at life in business school!
Review: Sarah Mlynowski's "Monkey Business" deals with four students studying in business school at the University of Connecticut, whose paths crossed when they all stayed at the same dorm and all four became friends. However, all four of them come from very different backgrounds and have very different personalities. Jamie falls into the category of class clowns who seems to cracking jokes constantly but who is really into Kimmy, a gorgeous woman who went to business school to get over the fact that her boyfriend dumped her for her best friend. Then, there is Layla who seems to be the only one taking business school seriously and who wants perfection in everything she does. Lastly, there is Russ, who is a Canadian and spends most of his time smoking pot and who seems to be late for every class.

This is definitely a fun look at campus life and it brings back some memories for me of my own campus experience. It's interesting to read how the four main characters paths were crossed and how their deal with their individual problems. That being said, I think this is not Mlynowski's best book as I have read all her previous works. The characters in "Monkey Business" were not very likeable and more than half the book deals with their everyday lives on campus which I thought were not exactly thought-provoking. In addition, the book seems to be lacking in humor as compared to her other works. However, even though the book has some flaws and could be better, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it for chick-lit fans.

Rating:
Summary: nice storyline...with confusion built right in.....
Review: While I really enjoyed this book...i had a hard time following along at times when we switched chapters. I really liked Layla, she was my favorite in the entire book. Can't wait to sample more SM books soon!