Rating: 
Summary: engaging, but ultimately unbelievable
Review: <i>Carrie Pilby</i> is an entertaining book with, in a nutshell, one major problem: the title character and narrator is entirely unbelievable. I suspect (but can't be sure) that the reason is that Caren Lissner was never a 19-year-old genius.I don't have Carrie's mathematical and scientific abilities, but I was a humanities prodigy when I was younger. Lissner attempts to add details to Carrie's character, words she doesn't know and so on, and to me, this rang utterly false. A 19-year-old of Carrie's interests and abilities would certainly know that "Polka" is indeed related to "Poland" and that "togs" are "clothes". She would not, especially as a Harvard grad in Philosophy, continually confuse morals and ethics, as Lissner seems to. She would probably not be able to knock off a thousand-page book in an hour or two (a day or two, maybe). There are reasonably believable plot points regarding why Carrie has not pursued graduate school, but that it never comes up *at all* is a little bit questionable. Finally, I found Carrie's closing decisions regarding the church at the end to be offputting and stretching the boundaries of belief, both because of what had been written of her up to that point, and because of my personal knowledge of several real-life people like Carrie. I suppose the lesson here is: a character can only be as intelligent as their author, particularly if the character is a first-person narrator. Lissner is no dummy, but she's no prodigy, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down...
Review: It is very rare that I find a fiction novel that I enjoy, but Carrie Pilby showed me that fiction isn't all that bad after all. I must have been the realness of the storyline that kept me hooked, since it is always the fakeness of fiction storylines that always detract me. An excellent story, but one that could use a sequel, as the ending left me wanting for more.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great book. Very funny and whitty. I recommend this book to anyone who is in for an amusing book in which they will learn interesting vocabulary words (definitions right in book so no need for dictionary), fun trivia and just plain how to deal with life in the big city when you are all alone. This book is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: do not mistake this for chick-lit! it's better!!!!
Review: Carrie Pilby is a child prodigy who skipped three grades in school and, at age 19, is a Harvard graduate without a job, living in New York, barely leaving her apartment (paid for by her father) and going to her weekly therapist appointments (ditto). However, the similarity to Elizabeth Wurtzel ends there. Petrov, her therapist and also her father's longtime friend, gives Carrie a list of things she can do to better socialize herslef (Carrie thinks everything she does not know about making friends is what everyone else learned in the 8th grade, which she skipped.) She considers most people to be sex-obsessed hypocrites and immoral idiots, and she can't stand them. But Carrie makes an effort to complete het to-do list with a sardonic style that the reader comes to enjoy. When she fulfills her sddignment to go on a date, she answers a personal ag placed by a man who states he is engaged but looking to cheat. Carrie just wants to fulfill her list, she does not know what she wants to do with the list. She figures she will expose the date for the fraud that he is. Same with the New Age church she decides to join. Carrie despises the fact that she is perhaps TOO intelligent to truly enjoy life. Is that possible? Read this gem and see!
Rating:
Summary: smart, sassy and great fun
Review: This is an absolutely terrific book. I am an uber geek, in the sense that I have read tens of thousands of books and this has quickly become one of my favorites. Carrie Pilby is such a delicious character that one cannot help but to become an eager voyeur in her quirky life. A STRONG RECOMMEND as well as an incredibly enjoyable and delightful read!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting character study
Review: At the age of eighteen Carrie Pilby graduated Harvard with a B.A. in philosophy. Now she lives in an apartment in Greenwich Village, but hardly ever goes out except to see her psychologist and has no friends or a job. Her favorite activity is laying in bed and watching a video until she falls asleep. She feels like she doesn't fit into society and though she is alone she isn't lonely. It's hard for a genius to interact with other people so her shrink issues her a series of challenges. She gets a temp job proof reading and meets a woman who doesn't judge her and genuinely wants to be her friend. She joins a church and interacts with the pastor who not only accepts her, but approves of her strong morality. By the time New Year's Eve arrives, Carrie has dated an engaged man, a boring person and a man she genuinely likes. She finally realizes that a person has to give people a chance because the rewards are satisfying. In the first half of CARRIE PILBY, the protagonist is a judgmental person who thinks that her intellectual superiority makes her superior to everyone else. In the latter part of this novel Callie realizes that she is using her mental maturity to hide her vulnerabilities and she takes the first step that will lead her into adulthood. The people she meets change her in subtle ways and if one can stick it out, Carrie will grow on you. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: a great start, but not quite sustained
Review: Carrie Pilby is one odd chick. To me, that's a good thing. So I was looking forward to spending some time with the inner life of this 19 year old genius - it was her crazy-but-yet-insightful explanation of why one shouldn't disclose the titles of movies one rents to any old body (the witty beginning of the novel, and I think you can read it on Amazon) that drew me in. So why didn't I love the book? The usual reasons: Carrie's sad and lonely and can't figure out how to make things better and after a while listening to her observations felt more claustrophobic than lapidary. Not implausible, but also not so fun, and it made the end seem more tacked on as a genre requirement than realistically cathartic. One thing that I liked: the book is kind of yay sin. Carrie and her friends sometimes do things they oughtn't, things they might regret, but the book's fair about why they do these things anyway and some of the pleasures, as well as the pains, that come from them.
Rating:
Summary: Think you can't like judgemental people? Think again!
Review: Think there is no life beyond SEX AND THE CITY? Meet a different Carrie. At the very end of her teenage years, she has everything one would need to succeed in life. She is smart, she has a degree, she is not unattractive. Basically she is part of a young generation that is blinded by its many choices. But she is also completely unable to function in a social environment; she looks for the negative in everything and everyone and has no ambitions or dreams. Disappointed by all men she has encountered in her life so far, including her father, she prefers to sit at home and sulk. But then her shrink gives her a list of things to do that will change her attitude, and ultimately her life. Although we are prone to not like Carrie for her character, truth be told we all think like her every once in a while, we just don't express it in quite the same way. Lissner has the rare yet great quality to make the reader root for her not-so-friendly main character, and ultimately cheer when we see her succeed. Carrie Pilby is great, the ultimate anti-chick, and aren't we all a bit like her sometimes? Highly recommended read for people who like a coming-of-age novel and who are tired of all the Carrie-Bradshaw-wannabee's.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: What a surprise. I stumbled across this book at a bookstore and wound up reding the entire book in one night. I loved it!! I wish Caren Lissner would continue the adventures of Carrie in her next book.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic characters
Review: Carrie Pilby is odd by her own admission, or perhaps the rest of the world is what is odd. At nineteen, she is a genius, dateless, unemployed, and while not agoraphobic, prefers not to leave her home. At her father's insistence, she sees a psychiatrist weekly, but is getting nowhere. The doctor gives her an assignment. She is to name things she loves, do things on the list, join something, celebrate New Year's, and go on a date. Carrie does her best to follow the assignment. She does join a church, though she suspects it might be a cult, does some things on the list, especially the sleeping part, and places a personal ad to get a date. It is not her fault that all the repliers are unsuitable. Her odyssey to get a date will lead her through several unfortunate meetings, a lesbian encounter, and a promising relationship with a man cheating on his fiance. Carrie learns a lot about herself and about life, and gives the reader her witty commentary in the process. ***** Carrie is someone with whom everyone can identify, at least in part. She is so realistic, it can be scary at times. However, she is someone that you will want for your best friend, once you can get her to leave home to meet you. *****
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