Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella

Synopsis: Becky Brandon, née Bloomwood, is back and larger than life (literally! Her bump is is getting bigger by the month). At the end of the last book, she found out she’s pregnant, and at the start of this one, she’s super excited and buying five prams (all of them necessary, of course). When she finds out that there’s a celebrity obstetrician in London, she just has to switch baby doctors. She might meet Kate Winslet! However, Dr. Carter turns out to be an ex-girlfriend of Luke’s from Cambridge, and Becky starts to suspect something is going on. They even text in Latin! Does fac me laetam mean what she thinks it means?? Meanwhile, They’ve found the house of their dreams (it has the coveted Shoe Cupboard!), but the owners accepted another offer while they’re looking at it. Becky must have it – can her fashion connections give her an edge? On top of that, Becky works for The Look, which is a joke of a clothing store. The press are calling the store cursed for all of the misfortunes that have happened, and every day the store is deserted. Becky has the bright idea to bring her now-famous designer friend Danny in to do an exclusive, but, considering how flaky he is, is it really such a wonderful idea?

Rating: Laugh-out-loud funny!

Opinion: Kinsella really delivered another good one with the latest Shopaholic. I adore this series, and I was afraid that the later books in the series wouldn’t be as good, but my fears were unfounded. Becky’s shopping obsession has another outlet – baby supplies. It’s a whole untapped market for her! Jess is also back and encouraging Becky to make her own nappies from rags and rent her baby crib and pram, while Becky secretly orders a £1200 crib. The situations Becky gets herself into made me laugh out loud, literally. I hope the next one will be as good as the rest.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Synopsis: Wives and Daughters
is the last and unfinished novel of Elizabeth Gaskell, who (according to the notes in the back) was more well known in her time, but was overshadowed by her contemporaries, George Sand and Charles Dickens. It was originally written as a serial, and perhaps this is the reason it is so long. My edition (Barnes and Noble Classics, 2005) is 649 pages! Anyway, on to the plot – this is the story of Molly Gibson, the daughter of a well-respected country doctor in the little town of Hollingford. She and her father are perfect friends, and everything is going on in its own quiet way until Mr. Gibson decides to remarry, partly for his own comfort, and partly for a suitable mother for Molly, who is of the age to attract the eyes of young men. The new Mrs. Gibson has many good qualities, but is perhaps not the best match for Molly and her father in the end. However, they get along as they can, and the addition to their family party of Mrs. Gibson’s daughter, Cynthia Kirkpatrick smooths the way a bit. Cynthia is bright and charming, and ends up engaged to Roger Hamley, the son of the neighborhood squire, while secretly engaged to a Mr. Preston. Oooo, intrigue! Now, I will not spoil the rest of the book for you, but proceed to tell you why you should read this book.

Rating: I (heart) Elizabeth Gaskell!

Opinion: If you like Jane Austen’s writings, you will enjoy this book immensely. Molly is a very sympathetic character – she is so loyal and sweet, the reader feels for her, especially when she ends up helping Cynthia out of her secret engagement, to the detriment of her own character. Cynthia does not have as high a moral code as Molly and Mr. Gibson, but she has a way about her that endears her to everyone. Mrs. Gibson will get under your fingernails, but she does care about Molly and Mr. Gibson, which redeems her in a small way. The descriptions and language are beautiful, and the dialogue and descriptive passages are well balanced. Incidentally, I saw the Masterpiece Theater movie before I read the book, and was extremely pleased with the accuracy of the movie, finally having found a copy of the book to compare. Their resolution of the unfinished part was extremely satisfying, even though they did tweak the book a little. I cannot tell you how very satisfying and pleasurable this book was to read. I absolutely loved it!

The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood

I read this book because a patron recommended it to me. Widge is a boy who has been bought from his master and is apprenticed to a man, Mr. Bass, who wants to steal Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, for his own theater company, and he wants Widge to help him. Widge was taught a shorthand writing by his former master, which Mr. Bass wants him to use while watching the play. Widge is good at the shorthand, but when he goes to the play, he is caught up in the story and misses large pieces of the dialogue. He returns to a second play to get the missing pieces, and on the way out, he discovers that this writing tablet is missing. When Widge returns to the theater to recover it, a player catches him, and to cover his tracks, Widge declares that he is there because he wants more than anything to be a player himself.

Some of the plot is a little predictable (that Widge’s conscience will rule out), but the excitement in the book is in what will happen when his old master discovers him, and there are a few side stories that keep it interesting. The ending is exciting, with a duel between Widge’s two masters, but the very end is a little hokey. Overall, it is a very good book despite those few little things.

Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes

It’s not often that a book makes me stay up to the wee hours of the morning to to finish it. It’s even less often that a book makes me cry. This book did both. This is the second novel by this author I’ve read (the other being Sushi for Beginners), and the covers of both make them seem like lightweight chick lit. Both were definitely not. Rachel’s Holiday is told from the point of view of a drug addict, Rachel. The really captivating part is that, from the beginning, the reader is inside Rachel’s head, and Rachel seems to be completely unaware that she is an addict and that her drug addiction is destroying her life. When she overdoses on sleeping pills, her family forces her to go to a rehab clinic. It is amazing to read this book because the reader does not realize that she is a drug addict, just as Rachel does not because she is in denial. The reader goes through the process with Rachel to get beyond the addiction to try to lead a normal life. This is a really well-written book. The end.

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll

I probably shouldn’t be trying to write this while watching The Joy Luck Club (hm, maybe I should read that one again, too!), but I am. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife is a contemporary book written in the style of Jane Austen, and continues the story of Pride and Prejudice, which is my favorite book. It starts with Mr. & Mrs. Darcy’s trip home to Pemberley. While not Jane Austen, it is well written and a pretty good story. And quite risque! There are several sex scenes in the book, which I actually thought quite funny, as they are written in J.A.’s style. For example:

“She was only sensible that his shirt and small-clothes clung to him, hindering her hands from sliding across his body. Evidently, this was an irritant to him as well. For he rose from her and begat a fierce struggle to divest himself of them.”

Anyway, most of the book (and it is a lengthy 465 pages) is not sex. The plot interweaves the Darcys’ story with the Bingleys’ and the Wickhams’, and is rather convoluted. There is the bastard son of Darcy or Wickham, we’re not really sure, the kidnapping of Elizabeth, the sudden and unfortunate demise of a certain clergyman, and the disappearance of Miss Darcy in the company of said bastard son. The characters are written more emotionally, and the novel seems more melodramatic to me than P&P. J.A. excelled at observation and finding humor in other’s follies, and Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife seems almost an action novel in comparison (this kind of makes me thing of Eddie Izzard’s description of A Room with a View and what would happen should Hollywood get a hold of it).

Berdoll also develops the characters from P&P – especially Wickham, who turns out to be quite the rogue. Miss Darcy surprised me as well. I liked that she allowed the characters to grow. I think I will put Darcy & Elizabeth, the next one, on my reading list.