Tag: Confessions of a Shopaholic

#BookReview: A thrilling read that zooms in on the bigger picture; My Not-So-Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Social media is an absolute wonder. It creates a sense of instant gratification. It connects you with millions of strangers.

All with the click of a button.

Yet, it also creates this image of “the perfect life” that no one can achieve AND be human.

Social media or obsessing over your identity over those platforms leaves room to puppet string or enlarge our deepest fears and insecurities as people.

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The greatest thing is this book used that notion to tell a story of twenty-something English-farmgirl Katie Brenner, who after graduating from college, reinvents herself and loses her country accent to appear more high-society. Her new identity? London city girl named Cat. This is all so she can fit the mold of those around her while working at an ad agency as a junior associate with dreams of being a project manager.

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This book really makes you take a second look at societal norms, relationship standards in today’s dating world, and most deeply, the imperfect human condition that should be more accepted and less altered.

Overall, the reader will leave this book realizing that things and people are not always prim and proper as they appear.

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#BookReview: Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella did all but that

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

I was honored to get to review this book as Sophie Kinsella is indirectly the only reason I fell in love with the song, Calling You by Kat Deluna, as she is the name behind the best-selling shopaholic series which resulted in a major motion picture staring Isla Fischer.

Yet, this book did not make me feel as invigorated as the song.

It follows a married couple who find out that their life expectancy is quite a stretch more than they originally thought when they promised “till death do us part.” Right away, you find yourself rooting for the main character, Sylvie. She’s the typical mother of two girls looking to spice things up in her life and marriage by coming up with this idea that her and her husband Dan should surprise each other with things, ideas, or creative endeavors to keep things “lively” since they have about 68 more years of healthy, happy married life.

Yet, although I finished the entire novel, I found myself skimming through entire chapters because they seemed almost superflous in nature to the overall story. Maybe I read this book all wrong but after just finishing a 60 chapter not yet published novel in an entire day, I can say that what was abundant in that book was missing in this one:

There was a lack of tension or an overall obstacle for the main character or characters to overcome.

True. This is a married couple we are talking about so the climax will not be as romantic as two arch-enemies that fall in love with one another BUT I guess I still felt something was missing.

Ultimately, that was the most surprising of all. That this book left me feeling like I just read one of those books I read in grade school ONLY BECAUSE I was obligated and not at all because I wanted to.

This book was my modern day post-academic life The Crucible by Arthur Miller.