[Book Review] Remember me? (Sophie Kinsella)

Wouldn’t it be great if I bump my head somewhere, pass out and then find myself a successful career woman complete with an equally successful and gorgeous man as my husband. Well, except that if I lose three years worth of memories and on top of that, I have become someone whom I wish I have not become and lose my friends along the way. That’s exactly what happened to Lexi Smart except that she was involved in an accident while driving her Mercedes Benz and her brain neurons somehow got “rewired” along the way which causes her to lose three years worth of her memory. She even loses the ability to drive, or rather, she forgets how to drive automobiles. 

Apparently, in the span of three years she has become tougher, cold and distant in the bid to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. She joined a business-oriented reality TV show and emerged as the winner on top of being dubbed as the cobra. Due to her success in the reality show, she is then promoted to be the head of one whole department. As the head of the flooring department, she’s known to be fierce, motivated, and merciless in her leadership. If that’s not shocking enough (as far as she can remember, she’s anything but a merciless bitch), what’s even more shocking to her is that she had an affair with one of her husband’s employee, Jon.

Her marriage isn’t as blissful as she had thought at first. The fact that her husband actually sent an invoice to her after she broke some furniture in their house is just too much. And seeing as Lexi doesn’t have a shred of memory on their relationship prior to the accident prompted Eric to come up with a marriage manual as her guide. What the heck, a marriage manual?! He should be sympathetic of his wife’s predicament as all husbands should be instead of getting her to go over the manual and make it as the basis of their relationship. It’s no wonder she went over to Jon for comfort in the first place. And then there’s the “Mont Blanc” mystery which turned out to be anticlimatic in the end. Truth to be told, from the way Jon describe Lexi’s relationship with Eric, I thought that there’s something more sinister about her husband but in the end, Eric is just like any other husbands who like to show off their trophy wives.

One shocking revelations after another, she feels that there’s some sort of conspiracy going on against her. Well, for someone who loses a chunk of memory, conspiracies are everywhere. Even her mother seems secretive about what really happened at her father’s funeral and according to Jon, everything changes from the day she attended her father’s funeral.

In the end of the story, she never really gain much of her memory.

***

The premise where Lexi woke up discovering that she has aged additional three years is rather interesting that I almost thought that Sophie K has gone sci-fi thinking that perhaps Lexi has gone time-traveling (absurd, I know!). Then again, Sophie K is one of the big names when it comes to chick-lits, so there’s no way that she could have gone sci-fi overnight.

“…Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue.”

Nothing intriguing about this one, I can assure you. It may all seems mysterious in the beginning that I too, was sucked into the story expecting it to end with a bang but it all turned out to be quite an anticlimax in the end.

Remember me? is definitely better than The Undomestic Goddess though, that much I can say but comparing to her Shopaholic series and even Can You Keep a Secret?, I would say that this is only mediocre, not too bad and neither that it’s that good. Still, if you’re a fan of Sophie Kinsella like me, I don’t see why Remember Me? is a no-go.

***

Next in my reading list: The Quickie by James Patterson.

[Book Review] The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

If you ask me, the one Sophie K book that fails to amuse me has to be The Undomestic Goddess.

One would think (namely me) that like her previous works, this has to be good. Well, not quite. Here’s the gist on what the book is all about (from Sophie Kinsella’s official site):

Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She’s made a mistake so huge, it’ll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she’s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they’ve hired a lawyer—and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can’t sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope—and finds love—is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back?

Like most chick-lits, this one has the classic happily-ever-after-ending which I’m not too fond of (the ending of this story, that is, not the happily-ever-after-ending in general).

***

I still can’t fathom the part where Samantha Sweeting, a high-powered attorney who put in all the hours just to be made partner would just throw it all away for the sake of a summer fling or more appropriately, a man that she only know for a month or less. Seriously, a lawyer-turned-housekeeper? How unrealistic can it get?

Personally, I dislike those who have it all but throw it all away for the wrong reasons. Life sucks, this I know. More than often we have to work on a job that we hate just to make ends meet and if you’re lucky, you might just get a high-paying job but still, there are sacrifices and tough choices that needed to be made somewhere along the way. Of course, most of us want a high-paying job and at the same time we get to enjoy what we’re doing, be successful, and be happy and fulfilled but life isn’t perfect (most of the time anyway). Period.

And now I’m off to Sophie K’s Remember Me?. Like the title suggests, it revolves around an amnesiac.

***

Other note: Sophie K’s next book entitled Twenties Girl will be out somewhere in July this year. This time around the heroine of the story sees a ghost of her great-aunt. Must get my hands on the book when the paperback version is out.

[Movie + Book] Confessions of a Shopaholic

Was anticipating this movie since it was announced that there is gonna be a movie adaptation of the best-selling Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. And when it finally arrived in Malaysia, I doubt that I will even get to watch it due to me being busy with a thing called life (midterms, grad project, assignments) but when P called me up and ask if I wanna watch the movie with her (and G), immediately I said yes without further thought, and when the day comes, I realised that I have yet to do much about my project and I only studied up to chapter 3 (out of 7 chapters that will be covered for the midterm) of client/server but still, a promise is a promise and it’s meant to be kept. By the time the movie starts, all that worries are long forgotten….

***

Spoilers ahead….read at your own risk.

***

The Movie

Becky Bloomwood is a writer for a certain gardening magazine (in the book, she was introduced as a financial journalist who has the penchant for designer clothes and constantly spends more than her credit limit, oh the irony). Being a fan of fashion and all, she decided to apply for a writer position in Allete magazine but too bad for her the post has been taken by a “long-legged-bitch” (played by xx of Popular fame – no wonder she looked familiar). However, all hope is not lost – she was told that by getting a job at a certain financial magazine, she’ll be very well on the way to be a writer at Allete and she did just that. It would seem that the job interview wasn’t a success (even though she purchased the expensive green scarf using funny means) but her letter to the editor seems to impressed a certain Luke Brandon. Too bad for her that the letter was meant for Allete and her hate-mail filled with insults almost ended up on the desk of Allete’s editor (lol). Anyways, she got the job at the financial magazine and not long after that she fell for Luke (awwwww…..Hugh Dancy’s hawwwwttt).

The Book

The movie somewhat had a different take from the book. In the book, Becky is a financial journalist in London who met Luke at a financial conference (it was a funny encounter of course) and Luke wasn’t working under anyone; he was his own boss and he owned Brandon Communications (which of course doesn’t exist until the end in the movie version). They fell in love (Book 1), moved to Manhattan (Book 2), got married (Book 3) and not to mention that Becky found her long-lost sister which turned out not to be her sister after all (Book 4), and the latest, they have a baby daughter (which thankfully isn’t named Prada or Gucci) (Book 5).

My Thoughts

The movie is of course, BASED on the Sophie Kinsella’s hit series and it does not have to follow every inch of the novel. Due to that, I thought that perhaps this movie is gonna suck but instead, we get an improv version of the book on the silver screen and it was hilarious to the core. The running-gag in the movie got me laughing to no end – Becky is indeed of Finnish descent (in the movie) but she claimed that she’s fluent in that language. When she finally able to put her ability to good use on a group of Nokia executives, the result was simply hilarious but heck, “Scandinavians simply love her” as one of the executives said. Lol.

All in all, the casts were great especially Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy (for some reason, I have always imagined Kate Hudson and Luke Wilson for the roles of Becky Bloomwood and Luke Brandon respectively). Love the Brit accent! Viva la Brits!

The Author

Sophie Kinsella is also the author for several non-Shopaholic novels – Can You Keep a Secret? (there’s a rumour saying that a movie will be made based on this book starring Kate Hudson. Hmm…), The Undomestic Goddess and the latest, Remember Me?.

Occasionally, she also writes under the name Madeleine Wickham which is her REAL name (Sophie Kinsella is a pseudonym she uses for Shopaholic as well as her other novels). 

***

For more info on Sophie Kinsella and her books, click HERE.

It’s All About Books

Had a sucky week and I think that it was the worst week by far what with the whole meeting thing fiasco. I felt that it was so bad that I actually wondered why is the world was against me on that particular week. Anyways, it’s all over and done with…might as well forget that it ever happen in the first place.

That shits aside, I actually purchased two books just for the fun of it. And to think that the last time that I actually buy books for pleasure was back when I was in secondary school. Well, you could say that I am a stingy person when it comes to books; not that I don’t like books, it’s just that I fugured, why buy when you can get it from your local library? After all, once read, the book will be tossed aside and probably will never be seen again. It’s actually like this: my friend and I went to Kinokuniya Book Store in KLCC yesterday and I thought, what the hell, it’s not like I’m gonna get out of Kinokuniya with something and then I spotted Cecilia Ahern’s P.S. I Love You and Sophie Kinsella’s The Undomestic Goddess. Right. They are chick lits. I was thinking, why on earth would I waste money on chick lits? Well, for starters, the price was quite reasonable…no, it was VERY reasonable and it was below RM30. Well, well, well. Who would have thought that I can get those books at that kind of price but still, I actually took quite a long time to decide whether to buy it or not. Then I thought, will I ever reread those books again? Well, Sophie Kinsella’s The Shopaholic series are hillarious, so hillarious that I can laugh even if I read it for the second time…nothing will go wrong if I buy The Undomestic Goddess. As for Ahern’s P.S. I Love You…my sis has been eyeing the book for ages so I called her and ask if she wants it…and in the end I left Kino with something in the end.

Now, why would people have the impression that chick lits are thrashy reads? That was actually the real reason why I hesitate for a moment before I bought those chick lits. As a matter of fact, I almost got myself John Grisham’s latest, The Appeal. Oh well, I figured that since Mr. Grisham’s works are top-notch and one of the popular ones, I’m pretty sure that The National Library would stock up the racks with one of those. Plus, as I read the synopsis of The Appeal, I don’t find it appealing at all! I was like, “c’mon, John Grisham’s one of the best”…but truth is, I have the impression that books from the likes of John Grisham, Stephen King among many others are the intellectual types and that chick lits are for those who are shallow (sorry, chick-lit lovers!) but what the hell, all in all, I still love chick lits. They are fun reads and best of all, you don’t have to challenge yourself intellectually in order to understand what is going on with the story unlike the sometimes complicated storyline that Mr. Grisham weaves (don’t get me wrong, I still love Grisham’s works immensely!).

And so, that is how my week ends…it ends with me buying two chick-lits. LOL!