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Post by SBaholic on Apr 3, 2005 17:28:12 GMT
As in, writer of the Shopoholics series of books. Are these worth reading? I always tend to pick them up in Waterstones or WH Smiths and stroke them lovingly and look longingly at them but then never go through with the actual purchase. I think it's because I am myself not a shopoholic, and I think the concept may be slightly lost on me through tight wad-ness.
But in an attempt to see if I would like her books (being a sucker for a bit of chic lit) I read her other book, Can You Keep A Secret? and was in two minds by the time I finished it.
A - it was a really interesting idea, she turned one seemingly little thing into a good 364 pages. She has a great personable style of writing - some bits actually did make me laugh out loud, and she's clearly at home with what she's writing about.
but,
B - It was all so predictable and I really hated Jack and was so pissed off when Emma did end up with him at the end. Some of it was nice parody (the way she breaks up with Connor, then Jack stays in England and asks her out... like that's so obviously going to happen anyway, but when it does, she comments on its inevitability too!) which made me laugh and think "ahh she is being all clever", and then it just dissolves into mushy romanticism at the end, which could have been more subtle and effective if had been written differently.
Maybe I'm needing a new genre of fiction to try out?
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Post by BeautifulFreak on Apr 5, 2005 16:13:58 GMT
The Shopaholic books are very similar to Can You Keep A Secret? I was quite surprised when I read that actually, it was more or less the same character, but without the shopping.
I enjoyed them, but they do get rather tiresome in the end, with being so predictable with all the scrapes she gets into.
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FWWM
Jane Asher
Pray for Rosemary's Baby
Posts: 109
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Post by FWWM on Apr 10, 2005 19:42:36 GMT
My mother gave me a copy of the first Shopaholic book when I was 16. I've always wondered what she was trying to tell me. Despite myself I really enjoyed it - I finished it in about three hours and it was more predictable than Thirteen Days, but it was very funny, much funnier than anything so chicklit-ish has any right to be. I found the main character to be far more charming than Bridget Jones, and I thought it made a rather poignant comment on the whole credit card culture among the young. I flicked through one of the other ones, it wasn't as funny as the first one but I imagine there are worse ways to while away an afternoon.
Can You Keep A Secret is being made into a film with Kate Hudson. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict it will be shit.
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Post by Ezzie on Apr 13, 2005 16:44:38 GMT
She makes me giggle. I have read all the Shopaholic books. They do get a bit tiresome tho.
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Post by rondette on Apr 22, 2005 22:41:27 GMT
Enjoyed the first one. The one where she finds out she has a sister who is OH A SPENDTHRIFT wasn't particularly amusing. She began to piss me off in that one.
Although the bit where she is married and comes back from her honeymoon (year long poor her) to find piles of stuff she bought was quite funny.
Go to a charity shop. That is my source of trashy chick lit books that you can throw away/give back when read
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2005 17:37:37 GMT
How many of these Shopaholic books are there? My sister informs me they are a trilogy and she likes them, but now there is Shopaholic and Sister as well as Shopaholic Hits Manhattan or whatever it was called. I think we should brainstorm some good Shopaholic titles. I'll start:
Shopaholic and Shoes Shopaholic Goes Shopping So I Married a Shopaholic So I Divorced a Shopaholic Shopaholic in Space (in which Shopaholic strays off course from the NASA gift shop and decides to buy some moon rock) Shopaholic and the Curse of the All-Night Tesco (starring Jack Bauer as Shopaholic)
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Post by BeautifulFreak on Apr 26, 2005 11:44:37 GMT
There are 4 CLICKYPersonally, I'm looking forward to Shopaholic Goes Mad In Ann Summers.
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Post by klee on Apr 26, 2005 12:30:23 GMT
Shopaholic gets her credit card cut up in front of her and dies of shame?
Shopaholic gets done for shoplifting?
Shopaholic takes something back she didn't like and gets a credit note?
Shopaholic turns out to be a vacuous consumerist bint?
Shopaholic gets re-educated by the Baader Meinhof Gang?
Shopaholic and Winona Ryder go to town?
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Post by Cherubic on Apr 26, 2005 14:56:28 GMT
Shopaholic turns out to be a vacuous consumerist bint? Shopaholic gets re-educated by the Baader Meinhof Gang? I would buy both of these titles.
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Post by klee on Apr 26, 2005 15:41:03 GMT
I would buy both of these titles. I wrote them specially for you.
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Post by Cherubic on Apr 26, 2005 15:53:38 GMT
I wrote them specially for you. In which case I would expect complimentary copies.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2005 12:27:31 GMT
Shopaholic gets done for shoplifting? Shopaholic and Winona Ryder go to town? Surely these two books would be one and the same? Oh, hang on, I forgot about the previous four.
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Post by rondette on Apr 29, 2005 17:19:47 GMT
Shopaholic meets the Bailiffs
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2005 14:46:54 GMT
Shopaholic is Put in the Kennel for Capitalism's Running Dogs
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Post by klee on May 2, 2005 15:22:17 GMT
Shopaholic mistakenly wanders into an Oxfam and dies of misplaced capitalist lackey shame
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