Saralee Says
Sometimes you just need a good dose of brain candy, and there is nothing like a book to take you away from the problems of reality. If you liked The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Doubleday) and Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding (Penguin) then you will love the entertaining Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (Dell).
Rebecca Bloomwood is living way beyond her means. Like many people, her credit card bills are more than her take-home salary. She has a job - as a columnist for a financial magazine, a great place to live, an active social life and her health. What more could she want? Apparently she wants two of everything - Bloomwood deals with stress by shopping. She gets the same rush from shopping that some addicts get from alcohol, gambling or drugs. Sound familiar? Do you know anyone like Bloomwood?
Confessions of a Shopaholic begins with a brisk letter from one of Bloomwood's creditors saying how sorry he is that she has broken her leg, but that the bank still needs her to pay her bills. There is no broken leg, and this is just one of the many lies that Bloomwood uses as an excuse not to pay her bills. Bloomwood covers press conferences about financial trends, but instead of paying attention to the facts, she fantasizes about winning the lottery and retiring as a millionaire. Her behavior has consequences, and she quickly rises to the challenge. The setting for this story is England, which makes this story especially entertaining. The language between Bloomwood and the creditors hounding her for their money is "oh so civilized."
How realistic is this book? Does Bloomwood really redeem herself or is she simply rescued? What advice do you think Dave Ramsey, the local author of Financial Peace (Penguin) would give Bloomwood? Will you read Kinsella's continuing saga of Bloomwood in Shopaholic Takes Manhattan and Shopaholic Ties the Knot? They will make the perfect beach books for me, as long as I am looking for fantasy and total escapism, nothing beats Kinsella's modern fairy tales.
Larry's Language
This review is really easy. Men do not shop! Men just buy! When men cannot deal with their life and their personal problems, we just grunt and mumble a lot, watch television, and figure it will get better if we just don't talk about it. Certainly we would not write a book about it like Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.
This book features a young woman, Becky Bloomwood, who thinks she can solve her financial woes by applying for a loan and is such a dreamer that she puts down the purpose of a loan as "buying clothes and make up" - another thing that most men would not do. True, we might want the loan to buy a boat or new gun or a rare book in my case, but those are legitimate, important purchases.
Bloomwood's courageous attitude about bill payment however could be copied by both men and women, so long as you never plan to apply for credit again in your life. One time she claims the dog ate her bill; another time a great aunt died. Needless to say she has no dog and her great aunt exists only in her imagination. Bloomwood fantasizes about every possible get-rich scheme, plays the lottery regularly and is thrilled that she has a date with a rich guy and convinces herself he will marry her and make her a "multi-millionairess."
Did I mention that Bloomwood's job is writing a monthly financial advice column? She cannot follow her own advice because she works out her personal problems through her addiction to shopping. The obvious question for our book club discussion is how many friends do you have that share the same shopping addiction? Which mall do you think most shopaholics frequent or do you think the stand-alone megastores or the catalogues are a better bargain for your shopping dollar? How would you solve Bloomwood's problems or would you just encourage her in her excesses? Finally, is there any ethical problem with borrowing her excuses the next time you hear from a bill collector?
Join us for our next bookclub discussion which will feature James K. Polk: 1845 - 1849: The American Presidents Series by John Seigenthaler.
