Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, a Book Review

My latest Sophie_Kinsella read, is Twenties Girl. personally, this was just a bit disappointing, I have particularly enjoyed the Shopaholic series and her other books. This was a bit strange as the main charachter Lara, although a pretty much formulaic heroine, for Kinsella, is haunted by a ghost, of her great Aunt Sadie, and although she died at the ripe old age of 105, the ghost is a 23 year old version of Sadie! Needless to say Sadie was in her twenties in the 1920s! So, if you are a fan of this era and the glamour it represented, the book is full of quite a few 1920s fashion, make-up, lifestyle references. I think thats where it lost me. I should've known by the title but, I tend to get my decades mixed up, and am familiar up to the 50s, 40s even, but before that my interest wanes a bit.

I know, I know, the title of the book is self-explanatory, but I thought it would be a bit more.....interesting /glamourous/relatable. I had to google flapper dress, as I had a 70s style flapper in mind, only then did the first date outfit, with the feather head-dress and all make any sort of sense. Maybe its just me and my ignorance of 1920s culture.

1920s flapper dress, with fringe hemming and feathre headress, and cigarette holder!

The other thing that irked me, again this is going to sound rather shallow: I found it Aunt Sadie's tale of unrequited love and lonely retirement life especially after her stroke, rather tragic. I classify Sophie Kinsella as an excellent chick-lit writer, keeping it light and entertaining all the way, this wasn't completely so, and I had no fair warning.

Summers and Blogging again

Summers represent a time of leisure, and an upside down routine common in Saudi, especially in the summer. Thus, this is my most active time on the internet, blogging and various online activities.
But due to my lack of consistency, laziness, inherent reserve and value of privacy I've found it a struggle to make much progress in my blogging endeavours.

I feel blogging is like those new year resolutions that you make every, only to fail by February.

Recently , after a very random google search, of something which was bugging me: the extremely annoying process of arranged marriages /rishtas  and potential mother-in-law interview of the potential daughter-in-law I came across a blog which expressed things that I had observed and would have liked to say so much better I was impressed and inspired to give it another go.

If you wish to check out the blog its:

http://mcpagal.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-offend-rishta-in-ten-ways.html

Fuel My Blog and Light my Fire!

The past few days I have been spending a disproportionate time on this blog. You may well ask what on earth have I been doing as there have been no new posts.
Well after I couldn't find my blog in Google search results even though I was searching the exact titles of my posts. I became a bit disturbed.  Previously, (think a year ago), after a bout of recent posting I could usually find my blog entries pretty high up on In Google search result. Apparently, blogs are growing faster than the world population and mine has been lost in cyberspace due to inactivity.

Hence, I am going through a blog makeover, new templates, new widgets, joined fuel my blog to encourage traffic, and general research on SEO and how to gain followers. I thought I needed a dummies guide to blogger, I discovered  blog like that and I found that even a bit difficult to follow, maybe because the blogger has been upgraded, but it made feel very stupid, once I get the hang of this I'll make a how to blog for non geeks.  Reading what's out there, in terms of writing style, technical ability, and content, both written and multimedia, it seems I have stiff competition.

Although, I can write about what is not being written, I am not sure I have the confidence to do so, and I feel like if by the odd chance an acquaintance comes across the blog they will easily know its me, and I'm not ready for that not yet anyway-maybe when I'm famous. An alternative way is to play the devil's advocate, but that's just not me, and knowing my luck will probably land me in some sort of trouble. 

Its very late so I think  I will just end from a quote from the film, 'Inception':

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." - Cobb

 

 

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella- SeriesBook Reviews

Yet another book review of sorts. Intellectual snobs be warned. I am not about to review any heart breaking ground shattering or profound books, I'm afraid I was in the mood for instant if somewhat fleeting gratification. (After reading 4 books by the same author in the space of a short time I'm now  bit fuzzy on the details)

This summer I finally got around to reading The shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, as well as 'Can you keep a secret?', by the same author. What can I say? Embodiment of perfect chic-lit! If a book were a chocolate with caramel and nougat center it would be the Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Any girl that loves shopping can relate. Any quarter lifer stuck in a  so-so career can also relate. Any girl who manages to land find herself in socially embarrassing sitations, sometimes of her own doing can relate. To conclude, nearly any girl can relate, or at least laugh at Rebecca Bloomwood's shenanigans. As some one who has trouble packing- (think the night before the flight teary, hair-pulling, suitcase-kicking and weighing nervous wreck) I thoroughly enjoyed her travel packing dilemmas.

You don't want to put the book down, because you are enjoying yourself so much, and if you have the next one in the series you will jump at it.  But unlike books of substance you don't find yourself thinking about the characters or events and running through bits in your head again. But then again this is chic lit, a short and sweet affair.

Incidentally, I was looking for by the latest book by the same author Twenties Girl, at Heathrow Airport and I found out that the titles are slightly different. There are different titles for the same book  sold in the UK and US.The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic in the UK is sold as Confessions of a Shopaholic elsewhere. ( I thought that was only the case for  the first Harry Potter, which was titled Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone in the UK while it in the US it was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.)

I would really like to know why they feel the need to change the title, maybe its a legal issue. Do American writers/ publishers also feel the need change to titles of their books when they sell them in the UK and Europe?  Both of these are examples of British writers, but I guess the US market is far bigger and more important commercially, to warrant such a change when compared with the European market.

I feel I may have over-linked this post, but I am an amateur blogger, and I am trying to experiment with one new feature with each post maybe in time my post will improve in quality of content and formatting. Here's to hoping and having faith!

Summer Holidays in Saudi

I think I am one of the few people who don't particularly like summer holidays, I think they are much too long. This time the summer holidays in Saudi Arabia have been combined with Ramadan holidays which will result in a three and half month holiday. Woe to all teachers! Although the Ramadan holiday will be nice especially as it will be quite hot this year, I think they should have extended the school year to make up for the time that will be lost next year.

I think once the initial excitement wears off and you catch up on sleep and errands you get bored. Well, that's the case with me. I have had a few rather unpleasant summers..usually August ..so thats a time of year I can never quite feel comfortable with.


Optimist that I am ..and try to be, I will try and make this summer worthwhile instead of just letting the time slip through my fingers. I'm feeling quite restless so just may have enough motivation to get stuff done.

Mainly, I 'm dreading being stuck at home for the better part of three months. I really do need to arrange for a driver. (Women cannot drive in Saudi Arabia, my pet peeve with this country).