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<lisac>
05-22-2002, 11:17 AM
Found this at Barnes and Noble.com:

From Kirkus Reviews
A first novel from Britisher Lang (How to Spot a Bastard by His Star Sign, 2002) offers up some sharp and funny moments, but with bad behavior its only joke, it quickly becomes exceedingly thin stuff. A self-absorbed, 30ish copywriter with an off-the-charts sense of herself, Katya Livingston smokes in the elevator because it's banned in the office, uses her Save-the-Children orphan as her personal porter, and for entertainment tempts the fiances of friends. The story consists of Katya's journal entries, published in her own newspaper column, a writing job that she finessed behind the back of Teddington, a friend who hoped to secure it for himself. Along with Eliza, a New Age colleague; Ferguson, a failed gay male escort; and a few others, Teddington is among the friends Katya constantly uses, abuses, and then humiliates in her column, attributing any resentments to jealousy. Novelistic concerns like plot and character don't apply in what is really just a string of farcical sketches that play off the Bridget Jones style. As such, it indeed has its moments, as when we find Katya, "manhunting" by setting a tripwire in Hyde Park, "After collecting only two old ladies and a poodle, get disheartened and go home again." In addition to the failures and embarrassments of her (barely) one-dimensional friends and colleagues, Katya's column chronicles her adventures looking for free drinks, higher-paying work, and a man up to her standards (she never finds one, tossing candidates aside like candy wrappers), writing for a TV series, house-sitting for a rich friend ("accidentally" losing her prize dog because he's a bother), fabricating a libelous book about a semi-famous ex-lover's shortcomings, thenbecoming the subject of a similar book by Teddington-and finally heading off to Hollywood to become a (pornographic) movie star. There are some real laughs here, and the complete lack of redeeming value is refreshing. But the entirety is another demonstration that less is more. Take in small doses.
<Jinh>
05-22-2002, 11:24 AM
Sounds Great -
Just ordered mine - can't wait!
<Lola>
05-22-2002, 11:33 AM
Hi Jinh.

Me too, can't wait to start reading it!!!

It looks like a fun book.
<Debbie>
05-22-2002, 11:37 AM
The book does sound good! I didn't read the last one, but this one sounds really interesting. I hope it's not too hard to get. I wonder if amazon is already out of stock for a while! I hope not.
<MG>
05-22-2002, 12:01 PM
It is a good book so far.I am about half way thru it.
They have it an bn.com.I pre ordered my copy when I ordered If Looks Could Kill because I had a feeling that this was going to be Kelly's next pick.
It was released on the 8th of May and I had my copy on either the 9th or 10th,I can't remember
for sure which day.If you order more than one book at bn.com you get free s&h so that is another reason that I bought it.
It was $18.36 same as If looks.....
<Jinh>
05-22-2002, 12:13 PM
Debbie -

I just ordered a copy from Amazon, they said it will ship in two days. It was $16 + shipping (about $20.00 total). Amazon sales rank was 305 when I ordered it. It will be fun to see what it is after the next few days!

Jinh
<Jinh>
05-22-2002, 12:21 PM
Oh, The Today Show is going to start it's own bookclub in June.

Lol...Guess everyone's getting in on the bookclub thing!

Jinh
<RnKnS>
05-22-2002, 01:59 PM
MG, your first name isn't Maria, is it?
<Mia>
05-22-2002, 04:26 PM
RnKnS,

Touche!
<MG>
05-22-2002, 05:27 PM
No,RnKnS,It is Mona....I post as Mon**24 over on the other board.
<MG>
05-22-2002, 05:28 PM
That is Mona 2 4....why do you ask?
<RnKnS>
05-22-2002, 06:49 PM
When you said you "had a feeling" what the new book would be, you reminded me of Maria, a lady from the old blue board who had psychic abilities.
<PK>
05-22-2002, 07:01 PM
LOL...

If Maria were posting here, now, as she has done in the past, we would ALL know it... Shyness has never been a problem for Maria...

;0))

PK
<Jinh>
05-22-2002, 07:04 PM
Never mind MG - just the same ol' "you're really so and so aren't you?" stuff.

I thought that this might be Kelly's next pick as well because she was so excited about it last month.
Or maybe were both psychic!
LOL!

Jinh (or who am I really?)
<PK>
05-22-2002, 07:09 PM
But, Hmmm... RnKnS...

Thinking about it... I really don't see ANY similarities between MG's and Maria's posts...

What's up with that? (Mia &lt;grin&gt; - you have been out of the loop much too long...)

LOL, AND - anyone with a bit of intuitiveness, would have pegged that book as the next pick... I said as much on the book club site when someone was looking for the book with the "yellow" jacket as a gift for his/her aunt.. (ChinChin, go look... LOL...)

;0))

PK
<MG>
05-22-2002, 07:11 PM
My feeling was based more on observation than psychic ability.LOL
I remembered Kelly talking about the book ,she kept going back to that one in a show that she did and I wondered why she didnt pick
it first because I really thought that was the one.When I went to bn.com to order if looks could kill I looked up confessions of a sociopathic social climber
as my 2nd book for free shipping and when I saw that It said release date may 8th I realized why Kelly didn't pick it
and was almost sure that she would this time.I had said in an earlier post a week or so back that I
really wanted to read it even if it weren't *the choice*.

Maria sounds like an interesting lady.Hopefully she will come back so I can meet her.Was she Sylvia Brown type psychic?
<vlanj>
05-22-2002, 07:13 PM
Wasn't this book also on the book list presented to REgis and Kelly by one of their guests right before Kelly announced her first choice?
<MG>
05-22-2002, 07:15 PM
LOL,I wondered what Mia's touche' meant!

I posted in that same thread PK....I remember her saying that she needed for her aunt as a gift for the weekend
I told her that it wasn't due out to the 8th.I think that I expressed my thoughts to her also about it being next and that I had ordered it and was waiting for it also,but don't hold me to it.LOL
<MG>
05-22-2002, 07:17 PM
Yes Vlanj,it was #4 on that list.
<Jinh>
05-22-2002, 07:19 PM
MG & PK are absolutely correct -
Vlanj must not have had her magnifying glass out as that moment - maybe she was in the potty and missed it...

Geez!

Jinh
<RnKnS>
05-22-2002, 08:21 PM
Thanks for clearing that up, MG. Maria prided herself on the fact that she had predicted to Kelly when she met her about 10 years ago that she would someday have a talk show. She had other premonitions too, something about 9/11.
<Mia>
05-22-2002, 09:16 PM
What's up with this board....I posted on this thread and it hasn't appeared. I'll try again.

PK,

You are correct.....I AM out of the loop! (grin)

I read ("I had a feeling that this was going to be Kelly's next pick.") and I saw the "M" as in MG and I thought Maria. Then I read RnKnS' post and I realized I wasn't the only one who thought of Maria.

MG,

Maria was a very colorful poster on the old Live board. (I don't mean that in a bad way.) Sorry I thought you were her.

Some of us have resurfaced on occasion...does anybody know what happened to Maria? I should recognize Maria's writing style as I have others.
<Jinh>
05-22-2002, 09:20 PM
Mia - Good question...I haven't seen her in probably a year.

She was interesting.
<Mia>
05-22-2002, 09:25 PM
What's up with this board....I posted on this thread and it hasn't appeared. I'll try again.

PK,

You are correct.....I AM out of the loop! (grin)

I read ("I had a feeling that this was going to be Kelly's next pick.") and I saw the "M" as in MG and I thought Maria. Then I read RnKnS' post and I realized I wasn't the only one who thought of Maria.

MG,

Maria was a very colorful poster on the old Live board. (I don't mean that in a bad way.) Sorry I thought you were her.

Some of us have resurfaced on occasion...does anybody know what happened to Maria? I should recognize Maria's writing style as I have others.
<Mia>
05-22-2002, 09:29 PM
What's up with this board? I kept getting a weird message which said my post wasn't going through. I checked and it hadn't and, now, Jinh is sandwhiched in between my siamese posts. What gives? Or does this have something to do with the thought of psychic powers?

Mia, who thinks she's better off outta the loop!
<PK>
05-23-2002, 07:06 AM
LOL Mia...

You are apparently book ends at the moment.. "Technical Difficulities" hit this place every now and then...

Maria dropped a while back looking for some information, but did not hang around.

She also popped into "Breakfast" not long ago to say Hi, and popped out again. Think she's working on her short film or something. She seemed fine, and usually posts as "ThatGirlNow" or something similar.

;0))

PK