Rating: 
Summary: Join the Club
Review: This was a book of utmost style and importance. The story line was interesting and sweet. It was a good look into the world of Latinas who (for better or for worse) are very popular right now. Some parts of the story seemed a little far fetched (with just one small coversation, you'll get a check for 1 million dollars)but isn't that what literature is all about?
I found this book to be funny, sad, realistic and most of all digestable! BRAVA CHICA!
Rating: 
Summary: Rodriguez is not a Latina Terry McMillan (yet)...
Review: Having read THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB: A NOVEL, I can say without hesitation that Alisa Valdes-Rogdriguez has not written a la McMillan. If you have read McMillan's earliest full-length novel, DISAPPEARING ACTS, you understand why the two authors are not similar. The biggest difference is the overall quality of both the writing and the editing. Rodgriguez is a columnist who does an admirable job for a debut work of fiction. I think it is the editor's fault for not giving the characters realistic storylines. It seems they took Rodgriguez's idea for a story about several friends' lives and kicked it up too many notches. The story's tone started out light and sarcastic in a fun way, then turned into a bad soap opera. Before anyone assumes I'm sexist, take a look at the many reviews I have written on books, music and films about and/or by women. My opinions are varied based on various subjective factors, as they are with any review. Rodgriguez has created women who are likeable, each with their own sets of problems, fears and hopes. The author did a good job of outlining each of the women, but seems to have written the last 75 pages as filler to make the book's length more marketable. The ending really dragged itself out, and I'm sure the movie version I've heard about will cut some of the excesses for a decent comedy. In the meantime do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of McMillan's DISAPPEARING ACTS. One of the finest debut novels by anyone since the early 90s---male and female included! DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB won't make it to my recommend pile for summer/beach reading or reading for any season really. Looking forward to Rodriguez's next book which I have high hopes will have more of her voice and less of the editor's!
Rating: 
Summary: A thoroughly enjoyable read!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It is a rarity to see so many different faces within an ethnic group written about in ways that are realistic and enlightening. I could totally relate to many of the characters. I'm going to recommend this book to all of my friends who want a view into the world of a different cultural group.
Rating:
Summary: A Guilty Pleasure
Review: I have seen The Dirty Girls Social Club described in several places as a guilty pleasure and I have to agree with that assessment. The novel is fun and entertaining in a bubble gum-pop sort of way. The story concerns six Latina women in their late twenties--all close friends, to a certain extent--and their lives. It's a fun read, but afterwards, I had some criticism. The novel takes itself just a bit too seriously than the storyline merits. All of the characters are smashing career successes (at age 28!), yet all of them are failures in love. A bit of variation in their situations and perhaps a touch more lightheartedness would have improved the novel. Dirty Girls is not serious literature by any stretch of the imagination. What it is is a fun, amusing and entertaining read that is sure to please. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A One Note Story
Review: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's goal was to write a book that explored the rich complexity of the Latino community. To do this, she created six Latina characters who represent diverse Latino experiences. Her book has two Cubans, two Mexican Americans, a Puerto Rican and a Colombian. In addition, within this group, there is a Jew, a Lesbian, two Afro-Latinas and a character of mixed race. As you can see, Valdes-Rodriguez has a lot of bases covered in this "representative" group of friends. It is a great idea to create a novel where Latinas must grapple with issues of race, class, politics and sexual orientation. Where Valdes-Rodriguez begins to fail when she starts putting meat onto these characters. Instead of creating archetypes, she creates "Uber-Latinas". One character is a runway model turned television broadcaster courted by a national network, another character has the number one album in the country and another character is the founder of the most successful Latina magazine in the country and worth a cool ten million dollars. A novel with accomplished Latinas is one thing but Valdes-Rodriguez' characters have little grounding in reality. This is too bad, because most people like books with characters that they can readily identify with. One assumes that Valdes-Rodriguez wants to write about Latino diversity as a counter point to the stereotyping that exists in the United States. Yet, she engages in the same type of bald stereotyping. Almost all of her Anglo characters are buffons and most of the male characters are serious mysognists. In Valdes-Rodriguez' world there is no complexity. Everything is brash and simplistic. Valdes-Rodriguez likes to pound her readers on the head with the obvious. On the bright side, Valdes-Rodriguez is a good writer. She has the technical skill to pull off an entertaining light novel. I would recommend this novel to young Latinas who have never seen themselves in contemporary literature. However, I would not recommend this book to the serious reader. The educated reader would be much better off with Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo or Oscar Casares' Brownsville. Unlike the Dirty Girls Social Club, their books have real characters living in a complex world.
Rating:
Summary: An Insight To REAL Latinas!!!
Review: The Dirty Girls Social Club is a GREAT book! The author, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, has done a WONDERFUL job illustrating the lives of not just Latinas who are Mexican or Puerto Rican, but those who are of a different origin. We all come from different origins such as Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, etc. yet we are considered to be the same - Latina. However that is untrue, yes we are Latinas, but we are all very different. Valdes-Rodriguez has been able to capture the very essence of what makes each and every one of us Latinas different from the other. We range in skin color, spoken languages, traditions, cultures, morals, beliefs, values, and most importantly our childhoods, which have in turn developed our personalities making us who we are as adults. The Dirty Girls Social Club describes just that! I think every Latina should be given the opportunity to read this book, if not hear it via digital media, to open not only their minds as to what other Latinas can offer to one another and how we are so very different, yet we are all considered the same, but more importantly it will empower our Latin women to stand up for themselves and empower one another just as the Sucias did! Each and every character seemed vital to the story in one way or another. Each one of the six women who were created and brought to life by the words of Valdes-Rodriguez has portrayed an array of personalities and worldly perceptions that we as Latinas have. Movies such as Tortilla Soup have given us an insight to the cultural background of Mexicans, and that is great, however The Dirty Girls Social Club gives us an insight to an array of cultural backgrounds. This book was wonderful, I found myself agreeing with a lot that I read about the characters that are Mexican and Puerto Rican, for I myself am of both ethnicities. I would definitely recommend it to each and every Latina out there. This is something that we ALL need to read!
Rating:
Summary: A Latina Waiting To Exhale
Review: Forget The Devil Wears Prada, THIS is the book to take to the beach this summer! Light as a summer breeze, you'll forget all about your own problems as you immerse yourself in the lives of six friends who meet while students at Boston University and continue their friendship years later. The reader is certain to recognize the sucias, or dirty girls--Lauren, Eliabeth, Sara, Usnavys, Amber and sorry, can't remember the name of the last mujer!--and perhaps will see herself among them. Informative as well as entertaining, author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez also offers insights into the broad cultural diversity and conflict among Hispanics; the reader may be surprised to learn that all Latinas--Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Latin Americans--are not created equally! ...
Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: The book is not the best, but it was pretty good. There is no deep ,underlying meaning or prize-winning writing, but the book is witty and keeps you engaged in the lives of the characters. This is the perfect book for taking to the beach or lounging on a lazy afternoon.
Rating: 
Summary: Dirty Girls In A Dirty World
Review: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez presents a pretty interesting mix of flavorful characters and implausible plots in The Dirty Girls Social Club. On one hand there are these wonderful Latina women, with real dreams and real drama; but then they're involved in some of the most unbelievable things that takes this novel over the top. Yes, it's fiction, I know that. But when you have characters who act out of character for the sake of a plotline, what do you call that? I'm having a hard time figuring out how five women could ignore a friend's marital abuse for so long. While they discussed it in brief, fleeting moments throughout the book, it took Sara getting beat half-to-death for them to decide to do anything about it. In real life, my girlfriends and I do not take spousal abuse lightly. We don't ignore it until it's almost too late, and it's unfortunate and blatantly wrong if others do. These women had a lot of power and influence in their community -- Usnavys headed up a nonprofit, Lauren was a big-time columnist, and the other sucias had careers and outlets and resources that they could have pooled together to help their battered sucia. And that's what I was expecting. Ms. Valdes-Rodriguez's characters were real, in all other aspects. They were naturally pretty, or thick, or rich, or struggling. Most novelists make their characters automatically beautiful and rich, but that wasn't the case here. The sucias were very real Latina women who made the novel worth the read. Otherwise, it was a delightfully entertaining novel with a nice, neat ending. While this wasn't the best debut novel I've read, it was way better than Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Loves Prada.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Entertaining!
Review: I read this book in under twenty four hours. It was incredible! Each chapter is written from the point of view of the six separate characters, which helps the reader gain a more in-depth idea of each girl's personality. The ups and downs of these very different, yet bonded friends urge laughter, tears, anger, and hope. My only criticism would be the character of Amber. She really wasn't necessary to the story. Otherwise, this book is a reader's dream. Go get it!
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