Sunday Salon: October 26, 2014

The Scene: 5:45 am (Pacific Time) - am in SFO visiting friends so thought I would use the time difference making me a morning person and get some blogging done - finally!!

Reading: Lots of time to read this week with the 5+ hour flight out here so I finished most of the newest Shopaholic book by Sophie Kinsella - Shopaholic to the Stars. What an enjoyable way to spend a flight! Every time I pick up one of these books, I secretly worry that I will have outgrown Becky's antics or find it all too far fetched but the author does such a good job of making Becky loveable that I am never disappointed!

I had the chance this week to attend a fun event in NYC celebrating the author and her new book - Girls Night Out with Sophie Kinsella.  The event was held at the Red Door Spa - Union Square and in addition to the author speaking and signing, they had delicious food, wine and little spa stations dotted through out where people were getting make-up applied and having custom-matched foundation mixed up.  A fun way to spend a Monday for sure!  Unfortunately, my phone died as I walked in that night so I don't have pics of the festivities but you can check them out at Random House's Facebook Page.  As you can see by the pics, Random House does an excellent job with these events - they attend to every detail.  If you are in NY in November, I recommend joining them for their Open House on Friday, November 14th.  I attended the first one a few years ago and it was a great day of books, authors and mingling.  Let me know in the comments if you plan to be there this year.

Got my book autographed!

Listening: On the recommendation of Diane (from Bookchick Di), I am listening to We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas. So far I am really enjoying it and keep trying to find excuses to settle in with it (out for walks, cleaning the apartment).

 

Blogging: Much like California, this blog has hit a dry patch.  I apologize for the long absences between posts for most of this year.  I have been reading books and following many of your blogs, but somehow haven't always been able to muster the time and energy to settle down and blog here. As many of you know, I had surgery earlier this year and used that as a catalyst to get serious about getting back into shape and losing weight.  It has been a great year and I am thrilled with the results but honestly that has taken a lot of my attention.  As I rediscovered jogging, boot camp and just generally moving a lot more, it has been hard to sit and write at times. I find myself more readily drawn to Twitter and Instagram for quick updates.   As the year comes to a close, I intend to make a decision about the blog.  I will either reinvigorate things here or decide that it is time to move on.  Thanks for staying with me through this and please stay tuned!  If you have secrets for balancing blogging and keeping things fresh, please leave them in the comments!


Watching : Not much right now - I had been on vacation to Ireland for 10 days and then just back a few days before coming out here so haven't been watching much.  I will have stuff stockpiled when I get back to TV watching.

Looking Forward To: Getting my pics from Ireland downloaded from my DSLR - I was snap happy!  We had gorgeous weather (NEVER a given in Ireland) so everything looked that bit more picturesque. I absolutely love it there and this trip we got to some sights that either I saw as a kid and don't remember or saw for this first time on this trip including the Cliffs of Moher and the Giant's Causeway. Below is an iPhone pic of each from my trip.  I have some more pics on Instagram if you are interested.

Giant's Causeway

Cliffs of Moher (with Rainbow!)

Grateful: For the chance to travel to great destinations like Ireland and San Francisco - and for the comforts of home when I return!

Review: I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

I've Got Your Number: Poppy Wyatt is recently engaged to the very cerebral Magnus and is over the moon. In many ways, she is the perfect balance to his studious, staid persona which has been cultivated within his family of “great minds”. Magnus plays Scrabble with his parents and brother while they each discuss their latest published journal article analyzing the latest in philosophical thought. By contrast, Poppy, although a dedicated physiotherapist, is not writing papers likely to be published in a peer reviewed journal. Rather than reviewing the merits of new approaches to critical thinking, Poppy discusses the minutiae of her day via text with her closest girlfriends – often punctuated by smiley faces :). When Poppy loses the engagement ring which has been in Magnus’s family for generations, she panics about how he and his stuffy family will react and imagines it will just be one more strike against her with his family. So . . . she is desperate to fix this at all costs – and the spiral of compromising positions begins . . .

Poppy is frantic when she loses her engagement ring and immediately connects via her lifeline, her phone, to ask for her friends’ help in finding it. She also alerts the hotel in which she believes she has lost the ring that they must reach her on her phone as soon as they locate the missing ring. When she is unexpectedly separated from her phone, she anxiously picks one up that seems to have been abandoned by someone. That someone was personal assistant to strategic consultant Sam Roxton and when Poppy tells him about her plight he reluctantly agrees to allow her to keep the phone. In exchange, he asks her to manage a few of his messages until his new assistant is on board. I am sure you can imagine the mix-ups that ensue when Poppy begins managing Sam’s messages while also trying to conceal the loss of her ring from Magnus and his family. At the outset, I worried that this would seem very contrived and that Poppy would be exasperating. However, like all of Kinsella’s heroines, Poppy has a lot of heart and you can’t help but root for her and get caught up in the chaos that surrounds her. My one quibble was Magnus and Poppy’s relationship – they got engaged and are due to be married very shortly after meeting which did feel contrived and made me question how committed they were to each other from the start.

Each time I pick up the newest Kinsella I hold my breath and hope I am not disappointed. I loved the Shopaholic series and her stand alone novels (my review of Twenties Girl) but I worry that I will outgrow them or her novels will begin to be formulaic. I think the key is the author’s heroines – she has a talent for creating skittish, self-deprecating heroines who have all the best intentions. Those best intentions allow you to forgive their scatterbrained, half-baked predicaments and cheer them on while laughing with them. Poppy Wyatt is this quintessential heroine. Kinsella does this genre like none other and I've Got Your Number doesn’t disappoint!

Thank you to Karen at Random House for providing a copy of this book for review.

Review: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Twenties Girl: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella tells the story of Lara who, following the death of her great-aunt Sadie, begins to be visited by her ghost. It turns out that Sadie is back looking for a necklace that has great sentimental meaning for her and she enlists (or compells) Lara's assistance in tracking down the necklace. While she is back she also meddles in Lara's love life by haunting some of Lara's love interests and having them behave in bizarre ways - this makes for some very funny scenes! Although Lara is initially frustrated by her Aunt Sadie, a real bond develops between them and Lara becomes very invested in the search for the lost necklace. The search for the necklace uncovers a mystery in her family and drama ensues.

I initially struggled with this book - I think I am a little two grounded in reality for ghosts! The premise of the novel struck me as preposterous and I think that was an obstacle in my getting acquianted with the characters. In addition, like Lara, I found Sadie annoying and petty at the start of the novel. Despite this, the other characters, especially Lara, began to draw me in and I got involved in their storie. As I began to care more about the characters, the fact that Sadie was a ghost faded to the background and was no longer an issue for me. Lara is your typical Kinsella heroine - she struggles in her lovelife and career - but she has the signature self-deprecating wit of the Kinsella heroines and I couldn't help but love her as the book progressed.

I very much enjoyed this book - it is a fun, light-hearted read even though it deals with an issue as grave as death. As I compare to other Kinsella favorites, such as the Shoapholic series or The Undomestic Goddess, I would place this book just beneath those. It was very entertaining and I did enjoy the characters but not as much as I enjoyed the antics of Becky Bloomwood in Shopaholic or Samantha Sweeting in Undomestic Goddess. If you like Kinsella or are just looking for a fun read with characters you will like, definitely pick up Twenties Girl: A Novel and get in touch with your inner flapper!