Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging By Louise Rennison

Outrageously hilarious. This book is not safe for work nor class since you will begin cracking up uncontrollably as you read it. And how do explain to your boss or teacher that the reason you can’t stop laughing is because the main character of your book accidentally shaved her eyebrows off or some other mishap like that?
Said main character is Georgia Nicolson, a British, self-centered, klutzy teenager into whose fictional diary we get a peek for a whole year.
This book is the first of eight written by Louise Rennison about Georgia Nicolson. As I read the book I kept wondering whether I liked Georgia or not. I read it when I was thirteen and found it the most amusing thing ever written. Now, seven years later, I needed a laugh and picked it up. It turns out that although Georgia is selfish, shallow and at times mean, she is also incredibly witty, caring (sometimes), and endearingly unlucky.
That, added to the array of crazy characters –such as a father whom she describes as having the intelligence of a Teletubby, just not as developed, a little sister who has pooping accidents at the pool, and a wild cat who is trying to eat the poodle next door- this book is an easy, quick read that will make you laugh until you hurt.

Soon to Come: “On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God”, the second book in the series.

Breaking News by Martin Fletcher

This book was at the top of my reading list, and it really surpassed my expectations.
Simple but engaging, the book depicts the story of Martin Fletcher, the NBC News Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv. Written by himself, Fletcher explains that the main reason he wanted to become a foreign correspondent is because it seemed to mean Free Travel.
But after he launched his career with Visnews, the world’s largest news film agency, he quickly discovered that things wouldn’t be as simple as he thought.
Shortly after arriving in Israel as a young reporter he was thrust into the 1973 war between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Things only got complicated from here. Fletcher explains in vivid detail of times in which he witnessed starvations, met parents of young children just killed in bomb attacks –some of the children were friends of his own children-, and even saw his own friends blown apart by land mines.
Throughout the book Fletcher talks about the decisions war correspondents need to make in order to get the story. At times he had to interview, and even kind of befriend, the men that were blowing up his own friends in bomb attacks. The men that could one day blow up his own kids or wife.
But the book gives no answers to the possible questions that might arise as reading it. Fletcher stresses that being a successful war correspondent is more about luck than about anything else. He explains that there is no booklet that helps the reporter make a decision in a difficult situation –such as, should the reporter film the murder of two people, if they know ahead of time that it’s going to happen? –. And he also can’t answer the question of why he would engage in such a dangerous job in the first place, and for so many years.
The book is not about answering questions, but rather it is about shining a light in the world of being a war correspondent.
In his closing chapter Fletcher writes a few of the possible reasons why somebody would engage in such a job: “In a world obsessed with celebrities, wealth, and success, I have focused on those left behind, on those who paid the price. I have tried to answer the question: Why should we care?”

Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell

Personally I love all things Sex and the City. I became obsessed with the show and was sure I would love the book. Well, I was kind of wrong.
The book is definitely easy to read, and even if it was written in 1996 Bushnell’s style is clever and that makes the book fresh. How can you help but to not fall in love with Carrie and her lifestyle? Any fun loving writer –such as myself- would enjoy to party until four in the morning, write about sex and relationships, and oh, yes, live in NYC. But as you keep reading the book you do wonder what the heck is wrong with the characters, and at points even feel sorry for them.
The book is drawn from the real life New York Observer column that Bushnell used to write. When you realize these characters are quite possibly real people, you begin wondering whether everything is OK in the psychology department of said characters. Are “The International Crazy Girls” really such shallow gold diggers? Don’t the “Bicycle Boys” sweat in their tweed jackets and make them stinky? Is Carrie actually Candace? And is this how life truly is in the great city of NY?
The biggest drawback that I found with the book is that the women are obsessed with marriage. Even Carrie seems obsessed with it, even if she doesn’t want to admit it to herself. This makes me wonder, does Ms. Bushnell only know how to write about successful women who are incomplete because they don’t have a man?
In the end Carrie and Mr. Big can’t make it work out though, Mr. Big disapproves of Carrie’s lifestyle, and Carrie seems to become annoyed at Mr. Big’s nonchalance.

The movie of Sex and the City is coming out this Friday, 30 of March. A wedding is definitely in the plot, so I wonder if marriage will mean closure in this whole story.

Soon to Come

Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
Breaking News by Martin Fletcher

Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, by bell hooks

I would recommend this book to anybody and everybody. While reading this book my eyes were opened. Although I've always considered myself a feminist -even before I knew what the word meant- this book showed me things that I never even thought about before.
hooks says that she wrote it as little manual on feminism that was easy to understand. Well, she achieved her goal. This book is easily understandable and although small at 118 pages, it covers subjects well, teaching the reader along the book. The subjects range from the history of feminism to feminist parenting and feminist sexuality.
When I find a book that I really, really like I prefer not to write much about, in order to not spoil the book for the possible reader. I feel that way about this book.

Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

What a disappointment.
Maybe because I like the show, or maybe because New York magazine describes it as "pop feminism" (whatever that means) I thought that this would be a really good book, with strong female characters. I thought it would be a fun, and kind of dirty, read.
Well, I was completely let down.
The book is well written, the descriptions are clever and imaginative at times. And, in theory, any strong woman would like the characters.
Based in NYC, it describes the lives of 3 women who are at the top of their fields. There is Wendy Healy, president of Parador Pictures, and mother of three. The second girl is Victory Ford, self made woman, and fashion designer, and last there is Nico Reilly, Editor in Chief of Bonfire magazine.
But no matter how you look at it the characters are weak in the most pathetic way: when it comes to men. Don't get me wrong, we all get weak when it comes to our attractions every now and then, but all three characters throughout the whole 435 pages?
Let's begin with Wendy. She is smart, strong, clever and a workaholic. She is married to a man named Shane. Shane is a good for nothing assho*e . Why is Wendy married to a man that hasn't worked in the last 12 years and that treats her like she's a doormat? It seems that it is because she can't fathom the idea of being alone. Even after he leaves her without an explanation she takes him back over a month later, because she doesn't know what she would do without him.
Finally, he does leave her for good. Less than a month later she finds herself in love and pregnant again
Then there is Victory. Her career begins staggering because instead of following the beaten track she chooses to do something new, and the public doesn't seem to understand it. She seems like a very interesting person, but most of the book is centered around her relationship with Lyne Bennet, an eccentric (aren't they all?) billionaire who is very interested in her. Slowly Victory takes care of her career, and picks it back up, but although she is self made, - she comes from a small town to NY, and becomes her childhood dream - she can't seem to either let go of Lyne, who drives her absolutely bonkers, or to hold onto him and make the relationship work.
Nico is another story. Portrayed as cold and driven, she is married to Seymour, a professor at Columbia University. Seymour is a good man, but also very cold. After a series of encounters Nico decides to have an affair with a male model named Kirby Atwood, who makes her feel like she has never felt before. Although she wanted the affair to be a one time thing she lets carry on for over a year, until, afraid that the New York Post has gotten a whiff of the affair she breaks it off.
Throughout this whole process the women win Oscars, get promoted, and sign multimillion dollar deals. It seems, looking at the book from thousands of feet in the air, that the women grow towards the end of the book. But once you get closer you realize that the truth is that they don't, and I'm sorry, but 435 pages are not worth stagnation, regardless of how "fabulous" the characters might be.

Stealing Buddha’s dinner

By Bich (pronounced Bit) Minh Nguyen

Based in Grand Rapids, MI in the 1970’s, and 80’s, this book depicts the real story of Bich and her family. Escaping Saigon right before its fall in 1975 Bich, her dad, grandmother, two uncles and older sister are sponsored by a family here in Grand Rapids.
Bich is completely different in every single way. She is Vietnamese, and therefore different from all the blond blue eyed girls that surround her. She doesn’t believe in God, but in Buddha, also unlike the community she lives in. She is a self-imposed loner who takes a book everywhere she goes. Her father marries a Mexican-American woman, Rosa. This adds a whole new layer of complication to Bich’s life, since Rosa is an activist, and the opposite of the perfect mother’s Bich’s friends seem to have.
Oh yeah, and she eats radically different food from her American friends. It seems that Bich saw American food as the way to get closer to the unattainable culture she is surrounded with, since food is the basis in which she builds the book.
The book is very engaging and well written. Even though it is 256 pages it’s a quick read.
It was very interesting to read about Grand Rapids in the 70’s and 80’s. Personally I find that although Grand Rapids has grown culturally and has become more accepting, different is not the thing to be. So reading about the experience she goes through pains my heart. At such a young age no girl should be getting the message “Come on in. Now transform. And if you cannot, then disappear.” (Page 11) from the community she lives in.
Nevertheless this is not a sad story. Bich grows up and finds herself, her mom and her culture.