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Archive for December, 2022

‘I’ll Have What She’s Having’ by Rebecca Harrington

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , on December 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

In this fun little book (easily read in one sitting if you feel like it), New York journalist Rebecca Harrington tries out the diets of the rich and famous to see if they are really sustainable and if they actually work. The full list of celebrity diets she follows is:

Gwyneth Paltrow; Liz Taylor; Karl Lagerfeld; Marilyn Monroe; Cameron Diaz; Madonna; Greta Garbo; Victoria Beckham; Beyonce; Jackie Kennedy; Sophia Loren; Pippa Middleton; Carmelo Anthony; Dolly Parton; Miranda Kerr; Elizabeth Hurley.

Make no mistake – this is not intended to be a serious examination of how dieting works. Most diets are tried for only a few days (some of which I don’t know how anyone could actually do for more than a couple of days without passing out anyway). Each chapter focuses on a new celebrity diet, and they are choppy and short chapters, which make for a quick read.

I really enjoyed this book actually. Harrington is self-deprecating, witty and engaging. The book had me giggling to myself several times and I would certainly read more by this author.

However, it did make me think about celebrity diets and how they are sold to the gullible public – if I thought about it very deeply I would actually get quite angry. Most of the diets feature famous faces with no qualifications in nutrition whatsoever, peddling their wares to their fans and making money off people’s desire to be thinner. Miranda Kerr might be a lovely person but my goodness her lifestyle regime sounds utterly pretentious and completely unrealistic for those of us with actual jobs, budgets and time constraints. Victoria Beckham’s diet was inspired by the diet Tom Hanks followed to lose a ton of weight when filming Cast Away. In other words, she followed the diet that he used to make himself look starved! What kind of messed up is this?!

However, as mentioned above this book is not a commentary on the morality or otherwise of celebrities making money from their diets, but basically an undemanding fun read and a nice way to round off my reading for 2022.

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‘Murder at the Theatre Royale’ by Ada Moncrieff

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , , on December 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Every Christmas I like to read a Christmas themed book, and this was my choice for this year.

Set in 1935, Daphne King is an agony aunt at a local newspaper in London, but dreams of being a serious journalist. When she is sent to do a fluff piece interviewing the director of a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol being performed at the Theatre Royale, matters take a serious turn when the lead actor dies on stage, apparently of a heart attack. But Daphne suspects that there is more to the death and decides to investigate.

All I wanted from this book was an easy enjoyable read, and on that level it definitely delivered. However, there were a few things that niggled at me slightly. The characters were all caricatures, and the females particularly were almost cartoonish. I did like Daphne though and would like to see more of her in future stories.

The story itself was fun with plenty of twists and turns, and enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing, and it was a pleasant enough way to pass some time. Other than that, I don’t have a lot to say…if you’re looking for a meaty serious read, this is not it. If you’re looking for a fun diversion (think Agatha Christie but really really ‘lite’) then this might be something you would enjoy.

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‘One True Loves’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid (minor spoilers)

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , on December 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Emma Blair falls in love with Jesse Lerner as a teenager and when they get married, they truly believe it’s forever. But just a year later Jesse is missing presumed dead when a helicopter he is in crashes and his body is not found.

Eventually Emma learns to live with her grief and even falls in love again with her old friend Sam. But as she and Sam are preparing to marry, the unbelievable happens…Jesse is found alive three years after he went missing – and he wants to pick up where he left off with Emma.

Torn between the two loves of her life Emma is thrown into turmoil, and deciding where her future lies could cause heartbreak for all three.

I’ve only discovered Taylor Jenkins Reid within the last couple of years, and have loved all of the books of hers I’ve read up to this point. However while I did enjoy One True Loves, I would have to say that it’s my least favorite yet. For one thing, one of the two main men just seemed totally obnoxious and I couldn’t warm to him at all. I won’t say which, and I won’t say what happens in the end, but it meant that I could not invest in Emma’s dilemma because to me it seemed a no-brainer as to who if anyone she should choose.

Also, I did find the fact of Jesse’s survival somewhat too incredible to believe. I know that people can and do survive such incidents as Jesse did, but the whole story of his survival on a tiny islet never seemed very possible (there are no spoilers here; we learn about Jesse’s survival right from the start of the story).

I’d question some of Emma’s actions, and some of both Sam’s and Jesse’s reactions, but of course they were caught in a highly unusual situation, and who knows how any of us might behave under such circumstances.

I still read it quickly and liked it, and I still think that this author can write brilliantly, but if this was the first book of hers I had ever read, I’m not sure I would have rushed to pick up another. But nonetheless it’s an undemanding and entertaining story and I remain a fan of this author.

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