Trashionista

TELEVISION NEWS: May Contain Nuts

John O'Farrell's satirical novel, May Contain Nuts, has been adapted for ITV. It focuses on Alice, an over protective parent of the extreme variety, who wants only the best for her children. She is worried about their diet (are they eating too much gluten?) and the cars on the road but most of all she is worried that her eldest is going to fail the entrance exam to the exclusive school where every parent's hopes are pinned. So, she decides to take the exam in her daughter's place...

This two parter stars the wonderful Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and Jude in Bridget Jones) and will be shown in the UK in June.

Related posts: Television News | Marina Lewycka on funny women writers (it's related, honest!)

MOVIE NEWS: Jane Eyre

The Canadian actress Ellen Page has been cast as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre in a new adaptation due to start filming at the end of this year. 

This is the first period film for Page, who was Oscar nominated for her part in Juno. She also starred in X-Men 3.

The classic novel about a governess and her master, Mr Rochester, is one of the most filmed adaptations of all time. It is being developed by BBC Films. [Via Empire]

Related posts: Wuthering Heights gets graphic | TV News: Jane Eyre

MORE ON MONDAY: Family Friendly Working by Antonia Chitty

Reviewed by Zoe Lea

As I work from home and have a boisterous four year old to deal with, I jumped at the chance to review this book hoping for lots of ideas and advice. I’m happy to say that I wasn’t let down.

The title and by-line ‘Inspiring Ideas for making money when you have kids’ is tackled from all angles in a practical and realistic manner.  The 10 Chapters cover a wide range of themes in the area of flexible working, from ‘Finding ways to work’ and ‘Growing your business’ to a very clear ‘How to guide.’

Unlike lots of other books in this field, Family Friendly Working draws on experiences from parents and carers at every opportunity, so the book is filled with real-life case studies of what people have done, more or less on every page.  I did find this inspiring, but as there were more than a hundred parents featured in the book, there was a  slight sense of over-kill to it.

That being said, the book is filled with good ideas, tips and advice.  It’s a good read and a great starting point for anyone wondering how to achieve that work/life balance.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Zoe's website, Flexible Working Life

BOOK NEWS: What's Love Got To Do With It?

Lucy Broadbent is a British journalist living in West Hollywood and What's Love Got To Do With It? is her debut novel (it's a Little Black Dress title, out 12 June).

Isabella thinks the most important thing in life is a (very) healthy bank balance. She pitches up in LA, aiming to marry a member of the super-rich. Although she manages to bag herself a wealthy husband, something happens to turn her world upside down - and her priorities with it.

Related posts: Book news archives

Authors take on Tesco

Lad lit king and Trashionista fave Nick Hornby is among the authors taking on Tesco this week. Also involved are Marina Lewycka, Mark Haddon and Deborah Moggach

Putting their morals above book sales, the group has condemned the supermarket for prosecuting a Thai business leader who spoke out against Tesco’s expansion. They say Tesco is using "deeply chilling" techniques to silence its critics and that the action is a breach of human rights.

[Via Bookseller]

Related posts: More book banning madness | The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

MORE ON MONDAY: Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Reviewed by Jennie Hughes

Right from the first sentence this book pulls you irresistibly into the exciting, crazy, frightening and exhilarating world of a gifted artist (Rachel Kelly) who suffers from bipolar disorder and who has been avoiding her medication in order to experience more fully the dreams and visions she has been having and capture them on canvas before they desert her. These are the final works she will create, as the book starts at the end of her life.

Each chapter is headed by a note from a retrospective exhibition celebrating the artist’s life and work and introduces another perspective on her history, gradually bringing in all the characters involved in the story.

This tale is not told linearly, but weaves and interweaves snippets of her and her family’s life so that it builds up layers of colour and meaning, just as her paintings are described to be. Different player’s viewpoints and experiences at different times in this history come in and out, forward and back in between Rachel’s own experiences of motherhood, creativity, depression and elation.

Gradually the tale unfolds and as it does you get a vivid sense of the Cornish landscape, you feel the quiet contemplation of the Quaker faith, you understand something of the precarious tightrope the family of a creative but unstable mother have to walk and the effect this tension has on them all.

Relationships of all kinds are beautifully evoked and all the people in this book are recognisable, real and inspire empathy. You also get a brief glimpse into the unkind ways in which bipolar disorder used to be treated in the days before it was understood – electric shock therapy and so on. Think, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and you’ll have it.

Finally, the events that have occurred to Rachel and to her family and friends are all laid bare, and the final tragedy which has been glimpsed and hinted at previously is told incredibly simply and without drama.

When I finished this book I wanted to rush down to Cornwall and re-visit the Tate St Ives, or find some good example of abstract art and see if the book had given me more ability to see layers of meaning in the blocks of colour. It certainly feels as if it might.

Rating - 5/5, and I’m going to seek out some more of his books.

Like this? Try: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

BOOK REVIEW: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Reviewed by Kathryn Siriwardena

Perhaps unsurprisingly (given the title), this book focuses on a grand English country house - Riverton Manor - and the shocking events of one Edwardian summer.

Narrated by Grace Bradley, a ninety-eight year old ex-housemaid at Riverton, we dip in and out of her memories and recollections to slowly reveal the mystery.

Unfortunately, 'slowly' is the operative word.  Kate Morton is by no means a bad writer, but I found the book very slow to start. And the middle dragged a fair amount, too. In fact, it wasn't until the last third of the book that I really began to enjoy myself.

It could be a matter of wordiness (Morton uses a lot), or could be a problem with the characters - which, sadly, appeared unreal. I didn't believe in their actions or motivations and consequently didn't care for them.

Luckily, the exception to the rule was Grace herself. I did warm to her character and continued reading purely to find out what happened to her.

Unfortunately, that's not quite enough to give this book a whole-hearted recommendation.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try: The River King by Alice Hoffman

Bad Mother's Handbook casting news

ITV adapted Kate Long's Bad Mother's Handbook last year, but it's also being made into a pilot for a TV series by ABC in the US.

Alicia Silverstone has been cast as the mother (who has a sixteen-year-old daughter). She seems kind of young for the role to me; what do you think?

[Via TV Squad]

Related posts: Author interview: Kate Long | Top 10 chick lit film adaptations

BOOK REVIEW: Small World by Matt Beaumont

Reviewed by Deborah Riccio

If, like me, you loved Matt Beaumont's last offerings - E and the wonderfully easy, laugh-out-loud funny Staying Alive - then be prepared to have to take a little more time over his latest contribution to the world of (dare I say it?) lad lit. It's a bit hard going and I don't mean in a metaphysical way.

The tagline on the cover reads "Some paths cross, others collide", and there's no doubt about it, the premise is a great one: all our paths cross somewhere and sometime one day either in a big way or without us even noticing.

But - and this is a Big BUT - I found it very difficult trying to keep track of names and situations when the 10 (yes, 10) main characters appear in the first chapter. In all there are 17 characters to get to grips with, plus three or four who don't have their own voice, but appear as significant others to the main ones.

There's a couple trying for a baby (only he's ambivalent and she doesn't know) and they're friends with another couple who have four kids (and they feel as uncomfortable having kids as the friends who can't but they don't know that either). And they're friends with another couple, one of which is besotted to the point of stalking, one half of the first couple mentioned.

Phew. But that's not all.

There's also au pairs who'd rather not, a policeman struggling with his temper, his wife and the local drunk, a waiter dreaming of stand-up comedy, a comedian who's losing the will, a mother frantic for her streetwise son who keeps getting nicked because of the way he looks and a shop assistant who loves the bones of him if only he had time to notice.

And as these are all written in the first person - present, the whole thing has more the feel of a script than a novel and I spent most of the first few chapters having to turn back and find out who was married to/sleeping with/working with/mother or father to and/or nanny of and where they'd got up to last.

That said, each storyline was particularly well crafted and the whole thing flowed seamlessly and rather cleverly. Sex, age, creed, social position, deviance, you name it, this book has got it. There's raw emotion, wishful thinking, regrets, desires, some good one-liners (not least from the stand-up wannabe) oh, and the odd murder. And as every good plan should, it all comes together in the end, one way or another.

It's a bit like peeking through someone's net curtains - from the outside - and getting a covetous insight into their personal world. In a good way of course.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Two Doors Down by Annie McCartney

Freya North's top ten romps and romances

Freya North reveals an (unsurprising) love of romance novels and lists her top ten favourites for the Guardian.

I have to say I agree with her inclusion of Jane Eyre, Maggie O'Farrell's After You'd Gone (although I would be tempted to list The Distance Between Us instead) and Mary Wesley. I haven't read Moll Flanders or Tom Jones, though, have you?

Related posts: Jenny Colgan's life in books | Freya North wins Romantic Novel of the Year

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Stella Gibbons

Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm often appears on top ten lists and it also features in my teetering to-be-read pile.

It's a parody of the pessimisitic rural novel (typified by Thomas Hardy), and features a feisty, melodramatic family called the Starkadders. It was made into a film (for TV) in both 1968 and1995. The later version was adapted by Malcolm Bradbury and starred Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen.

Stella was born in 1902 and had a turbulent upbringing. Her father, Telford, was a doctor but also a drunk, depressive, and given to violent outbursts and dramatic scenes.  When she was eleven her father threatened to commit suicide, begging the young Stella to stop him. She would later put this (and much else) into her autobiographical novel Enderbury Heath.

Stella completed a diploma in Journalism at London University, wrote prose parodies and published poetry. Her first job was with a news service called the British United Press and then with the London Evening Standard.

In 1930, she started at the Lady magazine where she reportedly wrote Cold Comfort Farm in spare quiet moments and on the train to and from work. She had already published a poetry collection, The Mountain Beast, and counted Virginia Woolf as an admirer. She also met her future husband - actor and opera singer Allan Bourne Webb - whom she married in 1933. They had a daughter together, Laura.

The success of Cold Comfort Farm prompted her to leave the Lady and write full time. Something she continued throughout the rest of her life.

She published her last novel in 1970 but continued to write for her own pleasure. When she died, in 1989, Stella bequethed her unpublished work, including two more novels, to her grandsons.

Partial Bibliography

The Mountain Beast (poetry)
Cold Comfort Farm
The Priestess (poetry)
Endbury Heath
The Untidy Gnome
Miss Linsey and Pa
Roaring Tower and Other Stories (short stories)
The Lowland Venus (poetry)
Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm (short stories)
The Bachelor
Westwood
The Matchmaker
Conference at Cold Comfort Farm
Beside the Pearly Water (short stories)
The Charmers
Starlight
The Snow Woman
The Woods in Winter

Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer archives

Orange Prize 2008 shortlist

There are three debut novels on the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction shortlist. Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill, The Outcast by Sadie Jones and Lottery by Patricia Wood.

Also on the list are long-time author Rose Tremain with The Road Home and Nancy Huston, a Canadian writer who writes in both French and English, with Fault Lines and Charlotte Mendelson's When We Were Bad.

Related posts: Orange Prize 2008 longlist | Book Video Awards 2008

BOOK NEWS: Voluptuous Delights

Sophie Dahl, the model-turned-writer and granddaughter of Roald Dahl, is to follow her adult fiction debut (Playing With The Grown-ups) with a cookery book.

Dahl was first famous as a 'bigger' model and then slimmed down considerably to loud criticism from the fickle (and, dare I say it, hypocritical) press. Titled Voluptuous Delights, it marries her favourite recipes with personal stories. She says: "It's an anecdotal book about how to be slim but eat."

[Via Entertainment Weekly]

Related posts: Celebrity books and chick lit | Celebrity memoir mania

Galaxy British Book Awards 2008

Lovely JK Rowling has been awarded an outstanding achievement prize at the Galaxy British Book Awards.

Also honoured were Ian McEwan (I bet he loved getting one alongside JK!), Khaled Hosseini and Ewan McGregor. Gordon Brown praised Rowling for her charity work and for books that had "the whole country reading".

I was also rather pleased that Katie Price's My Pony Care Book lost out the children's book of the year to Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry (a staple in our house) and the Abominable Snowman.

[Via BBC]

Related posts: Chocolate and books - delicious! | Book Video Awards

BOOK REVIEW: Kiss Chase by Fiona Walker

Reviewed by Kirsty Greenwood

Often referred to as the "Jilly Cooper of the Cosmo generation", Fiona Walker is renowned for writing novels full of eccentric English characters, twisty plot lines and overt sex scenes. Having previously devoured a couple of her more recent offerings (Lots of Love and Tongue in Cheek), I bought one of her earlier novels, Kiss Chase, to see if it lived up to the others.

Kiss Chase follows the journey of Phoebe "Freddy" Fredericks, an awkward but beautiful twenty-something who is begged by old acquaintance Saskia Seaton to help get revenge on the man who broke her heart - misogynistic womaniser Felix Sylvian.

The plan is for Phoebe to do to Felix what Felix has done to Saskia. Seduce him, get him to fall head over heels in love with her and then maliciously and publicly humiliate and dump him in order to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Initially, I found it difficult to conceive how such a far-fetched scheme could possibly work. Why would shallow model Felix fall for normal girl Phoebe? And why on earth would someone with her head supposedly screwed on get herself embroiled within such a mess? However, Walker does a fantastic job of putting the implausible plot into context by delving into the characters psyche and creating a glamorous, dramatic world in which these sort of schemes are not so bizarre.

In true Fiona Walker fashion, there are numerous intricate sub-plots running alongside the main story, including affairs, celebrity parties and lots of very posh people saying things like "golly" and "shan’t". Each sub-plot twists, turns and ties in so well, that you barely notice the fact that the book is a massive 790 pages long.

Kiss Chase has a real escapist factor about it. It draws you into the kind of glamorous, hedonistic world you sometimes wish you were part of, and whether you love or hate each of the characters, you certainly care about what happens to them.

If you’re after some saucy, amusing and acutely observed story telling, then this one is a real find.

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try Tongue in Cheek by Fiona Walker

The Chick Lit debate continues...

I just read a very convincing argument from Dorothy Koomson over the term 'chick lit'. She thinks it should be renamed pronto (and makes an excellent suggestion for the new name). Check it out here.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Weiner gives her usual balanced, intelligent answer to the chick lit question in an interview on her blog and Meg Cabot weighs in with her own take on the term; hop over the cut to read it.

Whatever. People who have a problem with it are usually other authors who don’t write it, and no one is reading their books because they’re so gloomy and boring and don’t have fun scenes with girls spying on their boyfriends and doing pretend kung fu moves in the dark like in Megan Crane’s English as a Second Language.

Meg goes on to make some intelligent, well-balanced points of her own, but I love her first reaction!

Related posts: Did Janet Evanovich invent Chick Lit? | If it's good it can't be chick lit

Jane Austen goes hip hop

Screen Gems is planning a hip-hop musical version of Jane Austen's Emma. Yes, you read that right - a baggy-trousered dance-culture Emma.

Written by Tyger Williams (Menace II Society) and shifted to a high school, the film aims to cash-in on recent dance movie successes. To appeal to modern youth, the title is likely to be Emme. I'm far too old to comment on this...

[Via Empire]

Related posts: The Jane Austen calendar | Jane Austen's Guide To Dating

BOOK REVIEW: The Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson

Amber Salpone believes in chocolate and not a lot else. Chocolate has been a reliable friend in an otherwise frightening world. Amber's childhood has left her with trust and commitment issues and a tendency to avoid conflict and love wherever possible.

She categorises the people she meets as types of chocolate and goes to the supermarket to sniff chocolate (yes, really) when stressed.

Amber is a sympathetic character but she's not pathetic. I loved the fact that she seems to have a healthy body image and doesn't angst over her size (much) and that she is successful at work.

It's just in her personal life where Amber all goes to pot. When she sleeps with her best friend and famous lothario Greg Walterson, she goes into meltdown. They manage a relationship (which they keep secret from their two mutual friends), but Amber is terrified by the intimacy.

Added to this, her other best friend - Jen - is being utterly horrible and her family still has the power to disconcert her.

Amber's past reaction to emotional problems has been to do a chocolate run - to another city, but this time she tries to face it all.

As Amber is in denial about relationships, she misses some obvious cues and doesn't always act very rationally. However, it is testament to Koomson's writing that this comes across as  realistic rather than infuriating.

The Chocolate Run is a character-driven book and very focused on emotions and Amber's past (and her thoughts about the past). Not a huge amount happens and at times I found myself wanting to skip ahead, but it is well-written and warm, so perhaps I just wasn't entirely in the right mood.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try: The Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney

MORE ON MONDAY: In Stitches: the Highs and Lows of Life as an A&E Doctor by Dr Nick Edwards

Reviewed by author and Corrieblog editor, Sue Haasler

I picked In Stitches up by chance - I love reading about other people's lives, and as I'm a huge fan of TV medical dramas I couldn't resist. However, any hope of buckets of blood and lashings of torrid linen-cupboard action are dispelled in the introduction: "It is a bit like what you see in TV programmes such as ER," the author says, "but with less sex and more paper work."

The book started out as a blog to vent his frustrations and Dr Edwards (not his real name) hopes the book becomes a campaigning tool against the privatisation and marketisation happening to the NHS. But it's also a damn good read.

The day-to-day realities of being on the front line of hospital services is passionately, often humorously and sometimes heartbreakingly conveyed. There are the funny stories of people with mobile phones stuck in places they really shouldn't have been, and the desperately sad ones like the 14 year old girl who took an overdose and left a note asking her parents to look after her guinea pig (she survived). And there's
top advice, too. I now know not to get ill on the first Wednesday in August or the last Friday of the month. Why? You'll have to read the book.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Heat by Bill Buford (an expose of the restaurant industry)

Being a full-time doctor, Nick's having trouble getting publicity for the book, particularly as he needs to hide behind his pseudonym.  He is hoping someone reading might be able to help him with marketing the book.

If you're interested in featuring the book or Nick on your site or blog - or are able to offer any other kind of marketing assistance - please email us and we'll put you in touch with him. Thanks.

BOOK REVIEW: Always Go to Bed on an Argument by Deborah Ross

I requested a copy of Deborah Ross's Always Go to Bed on an Argument after a friend sent me a hilarious extract that I immediately forwarded to friends and family. Inevitably, that extract was the funniest thing in the whole book, but the rest is plenty entertaining too.

Subtitled 'And other useful advise from the non-domestic goddess', Always Go to Bed on an Argument is a collection of essays, columns, letters, minutes of meetings, etc., generally purporting to relate to the Non-Domestic Goddess Club (which may be a real site, but I can't tell because it's not working).

Covering everything from housework to parenting to giving up smoking, Ross is very funny and frequently open about the kind of things you generally don't admit to even your closest friends (except perhaps by emailing them an extract of this book!).

Though it's probably a better book to dip in and out of rather than read straight through - I found it a little repetitive - it's still good fun and worth a good few belly laughs ... but, oh my goodness, how bad is that cover?!

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try Confessions of a Failed Grown-up by Stephanie Calman

BOOK REVIEW: Villa Serena by Domenica de Rosa

Reviewed by Jennie Hughes

This is definitely a novel of two halves. It starts with Emily, a middle-class divorced mother of three children – Siena, Paris and Charlie – in their villa in Tuscany from whence she sends a weekly column about Italian life to an English newspaper.

It’s all quite two-dimensional and predictable. Emily is obsessed by memories of her first boyfriend at University and her lost youth; Siena has an Italian and slightly unsuitable boyfriend; Paris is anorexic; Charlie (a late addition to the family in a desperate attempt to save a doomed marriage) is happy in his Italian nursery school.

So it goes on with descriptions of their life in Italy, some back story about Emily, her ex-husband, her old friend Petra and yadayadayada.  In fact, I nearly gave up on the book after about a couple of chapters because I felt it wasn’t convincing me about any of these people. But I don’t like to abandon books – it seems unkind, somehow – and I’m glad I didn’t.

An archaeologist (Raffaello, a local boy, but he’s been in America for years) starts a dig in the hills just behind Emily’s villa. He’s looking for Etruscan artefacts, but the first things he uncovers are the remains of two village men, partisans in the second world-war. Now we start to get some history of the villagers, and the tensions amongst them. In fact it was while reading the priest’s address at the burial service held for the two men that I suddenly thought, “Hang on, is this a different author?”, because here was a person with an inner life, secrets, depth.

From this point on the book becomes interesting. All sorts of past lives and interactions begin to be disclosed and the characters take on much more reality and roundedness. Old skeletons, both literal and figurative, come back and have to be dealt with. There is war-time intrigue, family feuds, Etruscan finds, sex, food and, just briefly, the possibility of a mad axe attack. The old boyfriend turns out to have psychological problems, Petra starts eating, and Emily ends up with the right man. Yes, the archaeologist, natch.

I guess the difference between the two halves of the book is a deliberate literary device to point up the vacuity of Emily’s life prior to the arrival of Raffaello, but the author is taking a bit of a chance on everyone being as dogged as I am.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

SPOTLIGHT: Christina Jones

Christina Jones was born in Oxford and grew up in Berkshire. According to her website, she lived in a very happy, tight-knit, working class community, and has drawn on the idea of close community for her writing.

Christina wrote short stories and articles while working in a series of random jobs - everything from factory worker to night-club dancer. Apparently, she was sacked from nineteen of her twenty-seven jobs for writing at work!

Luckily, it all paid off. Christina joined the Romantic Novelists' Association (RWA) in 1993 and was voted runner-up in the New Writers' Scheme in 1995 with Dancing in the Moonlight - a 40,000 word novella. At the RWA Awards Lunch, an agent suggested to Christina that she try full-length fiction. She wrote Going The Distance, which was sold straight away and chosen for the 1997 WH Smith Fresh Talent Promotion.

Things you may not have known about Christina Jones...
Her father was a circus clown.
Not only is she an avid fan of horse racing, but her grandfather was a jockey.
She has seventeen rescue cats. You can read all about them here.

Bibliography
Dancing In The Moonlight (novella - originally published by My Weekly Story Library)
Going The Distance
Running The Risk
Stealing The Show
Jumping To Conclusions
Walking On Air
Nothing To Lose
Tickled Pink
Hubble Bubble
Seeing Stars
Love Potions
Heaven Sent

Related posts: Spotlight archives

BOOK REVIEW: Since I Don't Have You by Louise Candlish

Reviewed by Amy Sheehan

Since I Don’t Have You is based on a sad premise. Rachel, Mariel and Jenny are best friends who share everything, and their children Emma, Catherine, and Daisy are best friends too. The women make a promise that they will look after each other’s daughters if anything should ever happen to one of them. It never crosses their minds that tragedy could strike elsewhere.

Then the unthinkable happens and Rachel’s life is changed forever. Unable to continue in her marriage to husband Oliver, she leaves him and her friends behind to start a new life on the Greek island of Santorini. There, with the help of new friends Eleni and Ingrid, she slowly starts to rebuild her existence. At the same time, she keeps in contact with the past by hiring a private investigator, Johnny Palmer, so she can keep watching over Catherine and Daisy, and secretly intervene in times of crisis. The interaction between Rachel and Johnny was especially touching and beautifully written.

The book reminded me quite a bit of Cecelia Ahern’s PS I Love You, apart from the writing being more mature; and instead of Rachel receiving guidance in the form of letters from a guardian angel, she is the one guiding others, acting as guardian angel to the children she left behind. Throughout the book, the reader also learns why Rachel chose Santorini of all places for her retreat, as well as about her family’s history with the island, especially linked to the earthquake there in 1956.

Like PS, it has a hopeful, if bittersweet, ending, and the descriptions of Greece are beautiful. This and the gentle, relaxing pace of the book would probably make it a good holiday novel. It’s not just a book about grief and coming to terms with loss; it’s about searching for your path in life; celebrating friendship, and finding out ways to be happy. It’s a very moving, well-written, inspirational read.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson

The return of the Bonkbuster?

While I'm not certain they ever went far away, The Times has an article on their triumphant return, citing Kerry Katona, Katie Price and Olivia Darling (Vintage - pictured).

They claim that women are moving back towards utterly escapist, glamorous, sex-filled romps a la Jackie Collins and away from "angst-ridden chick lit."

Interesting note - Olivia Darling is the pen name of Chick Lit staple, Chris Manby!

Related posts: Bonkbusters archives

BOOK NEWS: Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life

We loved Mil Millington's debut Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About so have high hopes for his latest... It's got another whopper title: Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life and it sounds high concept and rather brilliant.

It's the end of the eighties and Chris, a twenty-five year-old, hates his job in advertising and spends all of his free time with his girlfriend and two best mates from university.  He goes to sleep drunk and wakes up in 2006 - hungover, married and with an unnerving about of body hair. Genius.

Apparently, it's for 'anyone who has ever felt like a twenty-five-year-old stuck in a middle-aged body'.

According to Orion, it's out in July,  but look out for the Trashionista review coming soon.

Related posts: Top 10 Lad Lit | Lad Lit blogs

Another reason we love JK...

Reason I love JK Rowling Number 67: She has spoken (again) about the depression she suffered in her twenties. It warms my heart when people in the public eye speak candidly about mental health issues (I'm thinking of you, Mr Fry!)

While talking to an Edinburgh student magazine, JK explained that she had had suicidal thoughts and that counselling was "absolutely invaluable". She added: "The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never." Finishing by urging anybody suffering to "go and get help".

[Via BBC]

Related posts: JK Rowling's £40,000 book | Self development archive

BOOK NEWS: The Love Of Her Life

Harriet Evans continues with the fine romantic fayre that has served her so well in A Hopeless Romantic and Going Home.

The Love of Her Life is out in July and it features a woman who lost everything she had worked for on one, catastrophic day. Ever since, Kate Miller has hidden in New York, working for a literary agency and trying to put the past behind her. But when her father becomes ill, she has to return to London.

Facing her friends - Zoe, Francesca and Mac - and everything she left behind is hard. Mac is the man she thought was the love of her life but now they don't even speak. Can Kate be happy in her old life again?

There's no cover available yet, but we'll keep you posted!

Related posts: Book News archive

BOOK REVIEW: Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes

Reviewed by Jennie Hughes

Ignore the little tag-line on the front cover – “You have nothing to lose but your heart” – because this book is not the heap of slush that that phrase would imply. (Publishers must really annoy their authors sometimes, because I suspect that Jojo Moyes would have taken those simpering little words and thrown them overboard to rot on the beach.)

Silver Bay is a sparsely-populated paradise in New South Wales where Lisa McCullen is hiding herself and her daughter Hannah from past tragedies and communing with the whales which pass by on migration every year.

Then, real-estate developers arrive in the shape of Mike Dormer who has come to scope the place out for a hotel and leisure complex designed to make mega-bucks for his boss in London, his future father-in-law. The different pace of life, the beauty, the whales, the dolphins, Hannah – and Lisa - all get to him, however, and his priorities change.

This is a well-crafted book with an interesting plot-line revealed in appropriately timed snippets. It is written from the alternating first-person point of view of each of the main characters which serves to bring them alive extremely well. It can sometimes be difficult to remember whose skin you’re in as it is difficult to write an authentic voice for everyone from an 11-year-old girl to an Aussie beach-bum who thinks he’s God’s gift to women, but confusion is surprisingly rare.

As the story of Lisa’s past life is gradually unfolded, along with the tales of the other residents of Silver Bay, there are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you reading, and although you know from the start there’s going to be a happy ending (it’s a romantic novel, okay?) the actual ending is so impossibly happy that you really don’t foresee it. I cried, dear reader, real tears.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try: Truffles By The Sea by Julie Carobini

SPOTLIGHT: Jojo Moyes

I only heard about Jojo recently - her book Silver Bay was shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award (look out for the review coming tomorrow!) but when I did my research, I discovered she's been writing books since 2002 and Silver Bay is actually her fifth.

She won the RNA Novel of the Year Award in 2004 for Forbidden Fruit and was short-listed in 2006 for The Ship of Brides.

Jojo was born in 1969 in London. Prior to writing fiction, she worked at The Independent for ten years, including stints as Assistant News Editor and Arts and Media Correspondent.

Jojo now writes books full-time and lives on a farm in Essex with her journalist husband and three children, plus some "badly-behaved animals including an ex-racehorse and several rescued battery hens."

Jojo's third child, Lachlan, was born profoundly deaf. He had cochlear implant surgery and Jojo wrote about his (and her) experience of this for the Mail On Sunday.

Want more? Well, since it's you...Jojo has a blog and has just announced the title of her next book - Night Music. It's due out this summer and this is the blurb from Amazon:
The Spanish House has long been known as an architectural folly to locals, and is now nearly derelict to boot. When its reclusive owner dies intestate the Spanish House is left to his city-dwelling niece. For Isabel, recently widowed, the house is a potential lifeline -- the only hope she has of providing for her two children. But for neighbour Matt McCarthy, the house is revenge -- on the family who ruined his father. For his wife it's the key to the perfect family life, while a struggling property developer sees in it a whole new future. As desires clash and intertwine, lives and loves are demolished -- and the Spanish House becomes a true folly indeed...

Jojo's Bibliography:

Sheltering Rain
The Peacock Emporium
Foreign Fruit
The Ship of Brides
Silver Bay

Related posts: Spotlight archive

BOOK REVIEW: When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers

Reviewed by Sarah Hague

Do you know the feeling of meeting someone and immediately all your hackles rise?  For some reason, you dislike on impact the person before you.

There are books like that too. It may have nothing to do with the quality of the book but everything to do with a clash between the mindset of the author and yourself. When to Walk is one of those books for me.

One lunch time, Ramble's husband declares, in an offensive speech, that he is leaving her mainly due to her own shortcomings which have come to grate to a degree he can no longer stand. He gets up and goes out and leaves her to contemplate... well, everything.

Which is why the story grates on me. It is oppressively contemplative. I felt sucked in to the inner workings of a brain I didn't wish to know. Brains are notoriously unconnected when distressed and hers left me with an impression of irritation rather than compassion. Basically I didn't care what became of her.

Despite my antipathy to the story, it is very well written, and if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably find it funny in places and a beautiful portrait of a bewildered woman.

Me, I just wanted to smack her.

Rating: 1/4

Like this? Try The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn

BOOK REVIEW: The Glamorous (Double) Life of Isabel Bookbinder by Holly McQueen

22nd May sees Isabel Bookbinder launched on an unsuspecting public. Being touted as the new Becky Bloomwood, Isabel is a chick lit by numbers character; head in the clouds, heart on her sleeve and just a little bit stupid. The book follows her attempts to secure a publishing deal and become a literary star. The only problem is she's so caught up in dreaming about the lifestyle she associates with being a 'novelist' that she forgets to actually put pen to paper. And thus the problems begin.

The novel is definitely one for Sophie Kinsella fans, as Bookbinder borrows heavily from the Shopaholic series. Not only is the character similarly infuriating at times, the love interest is very Luke Brandon-esque and the novel is broken up with Isabel's fake newspaper and magazine articles (about herself), much like the Shopaholic books were broken up with Becky's letters to her bank manager.

As fun Summer reads go, this is probably the ultimate beach novel. It's fluffy, light and easy to read. McQueen is a good writer who knows her audience and weaves together a tale that'll have you giggling and sighing with frustration in equal doses.

Sadly, I had serious issues with the title character. I loved the idea of her, I thought the faux magazine articles where she imagined herself as rich, beautiful and successful were great (ok, maybe I've done that too...) but she was just a bit too silly for my liking. At one point, I actually threw the book down in disbelief. While there are moments of sheer brilliance and plenty of laugh-out-loud funny lines, I couldn't really feel an affinity for a woman who is so ridiculous she lets herself get carried away to the extent that we see in the novel. It's one thing to daydream, it's another to ignore reality all together.

Rumours suggest that Isabel Bookbinder is set to become a series character, and I must confess, as much as I enjoyed this book for what it was - pure fluff - and could see why people would love it, I'd much rather have more Little Lady instead. Isabel was just a bit too dim and ridiculous for me.

3/5 - So much potential, but Isabel drove me mad!

PS. If you think you can tolerate the silliness, Isabel has a rather lovely website where proof copies are up for grabs. You can also pre-order the novel for £6.99 through Random House.

Yet more Shopaholic casting news

Eep! One of my favourite actresses - Joan Cusack - has signed up to the Shopaholic movie along with John Goodman. They will play Becky Bloomwood's parents.

Then, I read on Digital Spy that John Lithgow, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lynn Redgrave, Leslie Bibb and Julie Hagerty have also joined the cast.

Related posts: More Shopaholic casting news | First photo of Shopaholic movie

BOOK NEWS: Out Of The Blue

Belinda Jones, chick lit favourite, has penned another globe-trotting beach-friendly read.

Twenty years ago Selena Smith saw Shirley Valentine and developed a chronic phobia of having a plate of egg and chips shoved in her lap by an ungrateful husband. Since then she's successfully avoided becoming a lost housewife by relentlessly travelling the world as an excursions rep on a luxury crusieship.

But with her 36th birthday approaching she finds herself experiencing a strange sensation - how can she be homesick when she has no home? And why has she agreed to spend a week on a Greek island with one of the ship's most notorious womanisers? (Amazon)

Out Of The Blue is published 25 September. I may have to book a late-package-deal somewhere hot and sunny as the perfect complement to this novel... Well, a girl can dream!

Related posts: New Belinda Jones book | The Paradise Room review

TELEVISION NEWS: No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Do you remember we told you about Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series being turned into a film?

Well, we were right about it being directed by Anthony Mingella and about jazz singer Jill Scott playing Mma Ramotswe, but the film failed to materialise at Christmas (sorry, but Trashi does not rule the world... I admit, it would be so much better if it did.)

Instead, the adaptation is now going to be followed by a thirteen-part-TV-series, with the film-length pilot to be broadcast this Easter. According to the BBC, anyway...

Related posts: Blue Shoes and Happiness review | The Good Husband of Zebra Drive review

BOOK REVIEW: The Sisterhood by Emily Barr

Reviewed by Deborah Riccio

The Sisterhood surprised me in many ways. Not least the way in which teacher, Liz Greene's long-standing boyfriend leaves her and heralds the first shocker right at the start. Confused and incredibly hurt, she embarks on a one-night stand and finds herself pregnant. This, rather unexpectedly, doesn't tip her over the edge but makes her realise that it might be what she needs and so sets out to deal with it. On her own.

Meanwhile in a chateau in France, the privileged Helen discovers a secret her mother has been keeping from her - she has a sister she never knew existed and she lives in England. This, Helen believes, is the reason for the restlessness throughout her own life. If she brings her sister back, she is certain she will earn the love and pride she so desperately craves from her mother. So she leaves for England with nothing but her father's credit card.

Helen's search leads her to Liz and the story follows their lives as separate people becoming united by the strangest, measured means.

The twists are subtle, surprising and multi-faceted. Reading it makes you realise things are never entirely what they seem - that nobody's life is as straightforward as it appears or sounds and we only get to see what is portrayed to us by others. And the ending is as inspired as the beginning. A cracking good read that made me want to read more by Ms Barr.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try A Tale of Two Sisters by Anna Maxted

PREVIEW REVIEW: Crossed Bones by Jane Johnson

Reviewed by Jennie Hughes

If the sub-title of Crossed Bones - 'the all-true adventures and most unlikely romance of a pirate’s slave girl - puts you off a little, don’t worry; there’s not a ripped bodice or heaving bosom anywhere. Well, apart from on the cover, but we'll gloss over that...

It’s the story of a seventeenth-century Cornish girl, Cat, who is a talented needlewoman dreaming dreams of a more exotic future than the one that seems likely – marriage to her cousin, drudgery, babies – when a pirate ship raids her village and carries her and several of her neighbours and relatives off to be slaves in Morocco.

There Cat eventually ends up teaching embroidery to her master’s womenfolk and, of course, falling in love with him and rejecting her Cornish cousin who has braved hell and high water to rescue her.

The tale is interwoven with the story of Julia, also a needlewoman, who finds Cat’s story written in the margins of an old embroidery pattern-book. She thinks she may be distantly related to Cat and goes to Morocco to research the story further, where she meets her own destiny, and true love.

The historical and Moorish details are convincing, interesting and well-described. The two stories are neatly stitched together and the writing keeps you reading on. Altogether an enjoyable book, and one which leaves you feeling you may have learnt something as well – an added bonus!

Crossed Bones is out (in hardback) on 3 April.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try: The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt

BOOK NEWS: The Dilemmas of Harriet Carew

I've never read Cristina Odone's weekly column 'Posh But Poor' in the Telegraph. If I had, perhaps I would've been aware of this new release - The Dilemmas of Harriet Carew.

Yes, Harriet is the character from the column, and yes, you could be forgiven for drawing parallels with a certain Bridget Jones... However, unlike Helen Fielding's column-creation, Harriet is a married mother of three, struggling to combine work and family.

Harriet is torn between wanting more time with her children and the need to make more money (her husband is a struggling writer), when her super-successful ex-boyfriend arrives on the scene.

Related posts: Bridget Jones's baby | Book Review: Liz Jones's Diary

FRIDAY FLICK: Stardust

I adored Neil Gaiman's book, Stardust, so was immoderately excited when I heard it was being filmed.

Better still was the news that it was being partially shot on the beautiful Isle of Skye, and that the talented Claire Danes, Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer were all on board. 'How can it fail?', I thought, with uncharacteristic optimism...

Joyously, it didn't.

With lots of british comedy actors - including Julian Rhind-Tutt, Mark Heap, David Walliams, Mark Williams, Ricky Gervais, and Sarah Alexander - playing 'spot the actor' was almost as much fun as the action.

Charlie Cox, a relative unknown, played Tristan Thorn. He has a softly handsome, 'everyman' kind of face, that is perfect for the boy-turns-to-man adventure story.

Robert De Niro does a fantastic comedic turn as a camp sky pirate and Michelle Pfeiffer is every bit as good as I expected as the witch intent on cutting out the heart of the fallen star (Claire Danes).

Jane Goldman's screenplay is good, but loving the book as much as I do, I was bound to find fault... It's a little more schmaltzy and 'Hollywood' than Gaiman's original work, but this is a minor criticism. It really is super fun and one I'd recommend even if you're not usually a fantasy fan.

Related posts: Friday Flick archives

BOOK REVIEW: The Trouble With Marriage by Debby Holt

The Trouble With Marriage is more Joanna Trollope than Sophie Kinsella, but there is nothing wrong with that.

It's subtitled 'What happens after the 'happy ever after'?' and I was looking forward to astute observations on marriage, love and parenthood... And I wasn't disappointed.

When Robin - popular, handsome and confident - asked Tilly to marry him, it was the happiest day of her life. Ten years later and, although still utterly besoted with Robin, Tilly feels the sparkle has gone out of their relationship.

Robin is stressed at work, while at home the household bills, chores, two small children and a disobedient dog are adding to the strain.

When Tilly's holier-than-thou mother-in-law moves nearby and begins interfering, and Robin's glamorous ex-girlfriend shows up, Tilly's marriage hits crisis point.

About halfway through the book, I had predicted exactly how things were going to unfold. However, Holt's writing is very engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed Tilly's journey. It's always fun to cheer on a likeable character as she learns to stand on her own two feet.

A gentle, warm read and perfect for a rainy afternoon.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try: Hens Dancing by Raffaela Barker

BOOK REVIEW: Octavia by Jilly Cooper

During my teens and early twenties I devoured Jilly Cooper books. Riders, Rivals, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, and then the "name" books, which included Emily, Imogen, Prudence and Octavia. In fact, I included the "name" books in a list of chick lit precursors.

I hadn't read any of Cooper's books for years, but when I heard that Octavia was being made into a TV series, I thought I'd give it a re-read. And am I ever sorry I did. We don't usually do spoilers on Trashionista, but I can't fully explain my feelings about this book without talking about the ending, so if you don't want to know how it turns out, don't click over the cut!

Octavia Brennan is a fairly typical Jilly Cooper heroine. A glamorous, beautiful, spoiled, bitch, who can basically have any man she wants and isn't afraid to take them away from other women. When Octavia bumps into a former schoolfriend, Gussie Forbes, she can't believe that Gussie who, according to Octavia, is boring and fat, has managed to get herself engaged to the beautiful Jeremy. So, inevitably, Octavia decides to  seduce him.

She's given the perfect opportunity when Gussie invites Octavia to join the happy couple on a canal barge for the weekend. But Gussie has also invited wealthy businessman Gareth Llewellyn (in case the name didn't give it away, he's Welsh). Gussie hopes that Octavia and Gareth might hit it off, but Octavia takes an instant dislike to Gareth, mainly because he doesn't seem interested in her, but also because he knows she's after Jeremy and plans to prevent them getting together.

By about halfway, I was getting a bit bored. While there was entertainment to be had from the supposedly sexy hero coming out with a line like "I know, I know. Christ I'm in such a muddle", the characters are all fairly cliched, Octavia is so unpleasant that I didn't care what happened to her and I knew that she was inevitably going to end up with Gareth anyway so I didn't even need to bother finishing. But then...

Gareth decides that Octavia's behavior has become so bad that someone has to teach her a lesson. And do you know? It's going to be him:

Before I realized it, Gareth had me across his knee. I've never known what the living daylights were before, but he was certainly beating them out of me now. I started to scream and kick.

So, for me, that was the end of Gareth as a romantic hero. I had no love for Octavia, but a man who beats a woman? There's no coming back from that.

But what was even worse that it transformed Octavia's opinion of him. Realising that a beating was just what she needed, she finds she wants to feel Gareth's arms around her, his hands "soothing me and petting me as though I were a child again". Within a couple of pages, she realises she's in love with him.

I was utterly outraged. I understand that this book was written in 1977 and things were different then. I find it hard to believe that things were *so* different that a woman (a woman!) could write such offensive drivel and it was supposed to be romantic and sexy, but what amazes me the most is that it's being turned into a TV series now, in 2008. I obviously can't comment on the series since I don't know what changes they've made, but they'd better have made some drastic ones!

Anyway, things go badly for Octavia. She loses her flat and allowance and has to, finally, work for a living. I'd like to say she learns from it and becomes a better person, but she doesn't. And then Gareth comes back to save her. He's realised he's in love with her too. No, really, he is. Listen:

"I'm going to put my mark on you, so no one else can get near you," he went on, his eyes suddenly serious. "But I warn you, baby, even if we have to fight like cats, I'm going to wear the trousers. You're going to do what I tell you, and if you start upstaging me, I'll put you down. The boys in the Valley are like that. We keep our women in the background and we beat them if they give us any trouble, but we know how to love them."

So that's all right then. And does Octavia say, "Sod off, you pompous misogynist"? No. She says, her knees giving way with lust: "Could we possibly do it again just very quickly before breakfast?"

I actually laughed as I typed that because it is so utterly and totally ridiculous. But it's not funny. It's incredibly offensive and, I believe, dangerous. I wish I could go back in time, knock Octavia out of my teenage self's hands and give her something better to read.

Rating: 1/5

Like this? Read The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. Soon.

MORE ON MONDAY: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen

I am a big fan of Liz Jensen. I loved Egg Dancing, Ark Baby and My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time. Always acerbically funny, some of Jensen's books have been more light-hearted than others: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax is not one of them.

It's a dark, twisted story, with chillingly real characters. But don't let that put you off!

Narrated by nine-year-old coma patient, Louis, and Dannachet, his doctor, the story is both a mystery and a gothic ghost tale.

Despite being attracted to Natalie Drax, Louis' mother, Dannachet begins to question her version of the events that led to Louis' near-fatal fall into a ravine.

Through Louis and his mother, we piece together Louis' personality and life before his fall - he is accident-prone, dysfunctional and sees a therapist - but is this the whole story?

Louis' voice is startlingly original and utterly compelling. This book stayed with me long after I closed it and I urge you to give it a whirl.

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

BOOK REVIEW: The Ballroom Class by Lucy Dillon

Reviewed by Helen Redfern

I was very excited when I received ‘The Ballroom Class’ by Lucy Dillon for two reasons. 1) I love Strictly Come Dancing (who doesn’t – even my Dad is a massive fan) 2) like the character Lauren in the book I too dragged my husband-to-be to dance lessons for our wedding (we learned the rumba to ‘I’ve had (the time of my life)’ – ahh).

This is a story about couples forming friendships and repairing relationships on and off the dance floor. Katie believes her husband Ross has become more like a brother to her. She is a working Mum and he a stay at home Dad. She can’t help working late – her boss demands it – so would it hurt him too much to put the Hoover around during the day?

Lauren, the bride to be, is having increasingly ambitious plans for her wedding day extravaganza, encouraged by her mother-in-law to be. Lauren’s mother, Bridget, is having sleepless nights over the sheer cost of it all. Angelica has returned to the town where she grew up, where her past is about to catch up with her. As an ex professional dancer (with fake tan, caked on make up – the lot) she decides to set up weekly dance lessons in the local dance hall.

Whilst learning rock ‘n’ roll, the foxtrot and the tango relationships start to unravel. Can the dancing eventually put them back together?

Sometimes when you are really excited by a new film or a new book you can end up disappointed. Not in the case of ‘The Ballroom Class’. The relationships are intense and real. There are no superficial characters out of a large cast. Ross and Katie’s relationship was one which I could completely empathise. As a fan of ballroom dancing I can imagine what they are doing on the dance floor but you don’t have to be a fan of dancing to enjoy this book. If you enjoy reading about relationships and all the complexities that go with it then this is for you. The Ballroom Dancing is the entertaining scenery.

About three quarters of the way through though I did feel the plot lost its pace which was a little frustrating. This is what is stopping me from giving this fine debut novel a five out of five. (But it is a high four.)

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Dancing With Mules by Morag Prunty

BOOK REVIEW: Forget Me Not by Isabel Wolff

Reviewed by Helen Redfern

The cover of Forget Me Not by Isabel Wolff made me think the story was going to be a bit ‘wishy washy’. Neither the design nor the title does the book justice; they don’t look or sound promising, unlike the plot and the main character (who incidentally is nothing like the character drawn on the front).

Anna Temple is a former city career woman, who decided to swap her fast paced life for garden design after her mother suddenly died. On the night of her leaving do, she meets Xan resulting in Milly nine months later. Xan, with no sense of responsibility (so much so you want to throttle him) leaves soon after she breaks the news, for Indonesia, leaving Anna pregnant and having to raise their child alone. She tries to forget about her daughter's father and concentrates on putting her life back together.

This book is packed with subplots featuring a host of characters, including a nanny, a maternity nurse called Elaine with her nephew Jamie and a new man for Anna called Patrick.  We also learn about Anna’s father and his new secret life as well as her new best friend, Jenny - why won’t she open up to Anna? There is also a ‘shocking’ family secret, which to be fair I saw coming. I think Jenny’s secret was also a little obvious which made me wonder why a seemingly intelligent woman such as Anna didn’t grasp things sooner. Despite this, I really enjoyed the book.

Wolff has created believable and real characters that you could envisage living around the corner from you and the story flows along well. It also has the unputdownable factor, so I did have a few late nights. There is plenty of detail for the book to come alive, including as an added bonus for any green fingered people out there, an array of gardening tips.

Forget Me Not is a realistic, enjoyable story, touching on a few sensitive issues, with a fully rounded leading character. Just open it up quickly and don’t dwell on that cover.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Solo by Jill Mansell

BRAND NEW BOOK NEWS: The Celeb Diaries: Tears, Tantrums and Excess

Mark Frith, editor at heat magazine, has stepped down from his job in order to write a book called The Celeb Diaries: Tears, Tantrums and Excess.

Frith promises to dish the never-seen-before dirt (sorry, 'anecdotes') from celebrity culture. A behind-the-scenes peek from his days at the gossip magazine that will include the likes of Robbie Wiliams, Sharon Osbourne and the Beckhams. Cor.

[Via Bookseller]

Related posts: Poor show from celebrity memoirs | Celebrity memoir mania

BOOK REVIEW: The Personal Shopper by Carmen Reid

The Personal Shopper of the title is Annie Valentine. A single mother of two children, Annie works at an exclusive London department store. She's also sick of handling absolutely everything on her own, and is looking for love.

Fashionista Annie is a very endearing heroine. She works hard - with property development projects and ebay selling as well as her main job - to keep her two children in a good postcode and private school.

Annie wants to better her situation and give her children an idyllic schooling (something she had just a small taste of when she was young). She is a brilliantly determined character and you can't help but root for her.

Carmen Reid has the magical light touch, coupled with humour and plenty of warmth. Even though The Personal Shopper is  somewhat predictable - with a boss from Hell and dating woes - it's very readable, too.

However, one fairly major plot twist felt rather forced (and false), which spoiled things for me a little.

Still, the plot romps  along at a good pace, making this a great beach read.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try: The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

BOOK NEWS: The Secret Shopper's Revenge

The Secret Shopper's Revenge by Kate Harrison is out on 1 May. It promises a twist on that chick lit stalwart - shopping.

Emily, Sandie and Grazia all turned to mystery shopping for different reasons, but they found they're good at it. They're Charlie's Shopping Angels, controlled by a mysterious figure who sends them assignments. But when they're sent to stitch up a shop owned by Will, the angels begin to feel divided loyalties...

Related posts: Fashion Lit | Book News

BOOK REVIEW: Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

Reviewed by Deborah Riccio

It's not the waking up in hospital that freaks out Lexi Smart. It's the fact that she's got nails to die for, porcelain veneers, a glossy mane of hair, a Louis Vuitton handbag, she's Manager of a whole department ... and, oh yes, she's married to a drop-dead gorgeous millionaire husband.

The only drawback she can see is that she's aged three years.  But then so has her mother and (not-so-now) little sister.

How the hell did all that happen?

And what happened to the last three years?

As she begins to read the Marriage Manual written by her practically perfect husband, Lexi begins to wonder whether she will ever miss her crooked teeth, frizzy hair, loser boyfriend, crappy job and poverty-lifestyle. Ah� and her best friends and co-workers who now seem to quite simply hate her.

What has she done? What�s happened? Who is that great-looking guy in the black jeans? And why can�t she find any bread or crisps when she so desperately needs them?

The incomparable Sophie Kinsella's latest stand-alone novel is an utterly believable suspended-belief story with endearingly drawn characters which I defy anyone not to want to devour in one sitting. From the first page you'll feel a part of Lexi's life and be urging her to find the answers she so passionately needs to start piecing together her missing years.

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try Forget About It by Caprice Crane

PREVIEW REVIEW: Split By A Kiss by Luisa Plaja

Occasional Trashionista reviewer Luisa Plaja's first novel is out at the beginning of March (on the 6th, World Book Day, in fact). Luisa was my first crit partner a few years ago and while I'm still beavering away on the same book, Luisa's gone and got published. But I'm not bitter. No, I'm really not. Because Luisa is lovely and Split by a Kiss is wonderful.

It's the story of Jo who moves to America with her mum and soon finds herself kissing the school hunk during a session of Seven Minutes in Heaven. When Jo has mixed feelings about Jake's attentions - on the one hand he's hot and he seems to like her, on the other he's groping her and he barely knows her - she splits into two: Josie the Cool and Jo the Nerd.

The rest of the book alternates between Josie's and Jo's experiences. While Jo befriends school misfits, Rachel and David, Josie is sucked into the cool crowd, led by Chelsea, but the beauty of this book is that neither Josie nor Jo are stereotypes. Both of their paths show that there's no "right" way to be. Except for being yourself, that is.

But will Jo ever get to be herself again? You'll have to read it to find out. And, since Split by a Kiss is funny, inspiring, original, moving and sweet, you're in for a treat.

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try Me vs Me by Sarah Mlynowski

FRIDAY FLICK: High Fidelity

This week I'm going to revisit one of my favourite book-to-film adaptations, High Fidelity.

There was a great furore when this film was being made, because the director relocated the story from London to Chicago. I may even have joined in with the hand-wringing over the Americanisation. However, I, and the rest of the Hornby-loving world, need not have fretted...

High Fidelity is a triumph of a film. The script is witty, the characters just as quirky and brilliant as in the book, and, and this is such a big bonus, it stars John Cusack.

Jac