What I Loved

Ok, so in all honesty, I didn't finish this book. But it's 973 pages and I really was into it at the beginning. So much so that I would lug the enormous tome everywhere just so I could get ahead a few pages every now and then. But then the whole Afghanistan scene happened, and I just lost it. I am bored. And I want to know what happens to the guy but now that I know that Johnny Depp is going to be playing Gregory David Roberts in the film version, I can't pull myself together to read the last 100 pages. Does that mean it's a bad book? I don't think so. It had good intentions from the start, but man, detail! Give it up! We are interested in smelling the smells, and seeing the sights, and feeling the emotions, but we don't need a total play by play about how you tackled every single problem and how you felt while you were doing it. Sorry, GDR. I think your autobiography should've ended awhile before it did. And I don't even know what ultimately happened.

Holy cow. KIDS read this?! How incredible. I thought I was jumping to conclusions when my dad read an article about the book and told me that it's just like 9/11 and I told him to be quiet before he ruined it for me. But it really was like 9/11. With their own Homeland Security and everything. The last scene (if you haven't read it and want to, stop reading here) was more gruesome than I had ever given Rowling credit for. Far, far more gruesome. I had to mime retching and put the book down a few times to accentuate my point to the people around me. And someone, I'm not going to say who, dies. But it's pivotal. And very sad. I cried. Harry is beginning to piss me off a little. Wish Hermione had gotten a little more airtime. And not just as the girl who is creating a lot of sexual tension between her and Ron.

Talk about the rivalry between England and France! This book was fun and quirky, unlike what I thought it would be--staid and didactic. For some reason, I originally thought this was about sociology and values in another country, not a poor Englishman's struggle to make it in Paris. Poor guy. I wish it had been less about his prospects in the sack and more about his experience interacting with French people, not sexy girls with big boobs. I'm being rather harsh right now, but I'm not entirely anticipating the sequel, which is apparently coming out in a year or two.

Bring back the Shopaholic! She is the only reason why I read this book! Although, I will admit that this was light and fun, and very summery; the timing was perfect for it to be published. Just wish I had the cash to live in a place like that and NOT have to be a housekeeper. At times, I wanted to just "screw it all" and go be someone's maid or nanny. I know that Kinsella writes from women's POVs all the time, but I felt like this was so...expected. "Ohh, the successful busineswomancan't keep it all together so she runs away." This girl wasn't half as endearing as Becky Brandon, nee Bloomwood.

Cute. But at times, I felt like each of the stories were forced, like she wrote the title of the essay to start with and then what she ended up with, wasn't the point of the title, so she wrote a sentence or two at the end of each essay to bring it full circle. Or maybe I'm just judgmental.
I enjoyed reading, though, and the shortness of the book made it all the more inviting. Probably, as most brown people can find, I found many of my family characters shining through here and I was a little disappointed that I am not as close to my family as Firoozeh is to hers, it seems. But very, very cute and entertaining. For the first time, when the author painted her young self as a genuine loser, I actually believed it. In a good way!