some recent reading

I have had a chance to do some lighter reading recently, most notably the first two books in Angie Sage's wonderful Septimus Heap series: Magyk and Flyte. I read Magyk a couple of weeks ago. I needed something that could help me decompress from a long week and it was just the ticket: a captivating story full of sympathetic characters. I later read Flyte. It isn't quite as good as the first book, but that's to be expected of the second book in a series. I thoroughly enjoyed both books, am looking forward to reading Physik (the third book in the series), and am planning on procuring a copies for my own personal collection (I'd borrowed the books from a friend).

Here's a little passage that struck me as being very apt to my own situation: "Everywhere you looked there were books. On sagging shelves, in boxes, having in bags from the ceiling, propping up the table and stacked up in such precariously high piles that they threatened to collapse at any moment" (Magyk, 21). Things here aren't quite that bad, but we definitely have the same book hoarding problem as the Heaps.


I also read the first three Shopaholic books: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic takes Manhattan, and Shopaholic Ties the Knot. My coworker has been bugging me to read the Shopaholic books for some time. Honestly I was a bit reticent because I know how easy it is to get in debt and the books really seem to trivialize the problem (yes, I know it's chick lit, but a little realism wouldn't hurt... with Becky's spending habits she should be much more in debt than she is in the book).

In any case I finally got around to reading the first few books in the series. They were OK. I actually liked Shopaholic takes Manhattan better than Confessions of a Shopaholic (I'd classify Shopaholic Ties the Knot as more of the same).

Can you keep a secret?

Can you keep a secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Synopsis:
Emma is a nervous flyer and she can't help but tell the man next to her - quite a dishy American, but she's too frightened to notice - all her innermost secrets. She survives the flight, but when the American boss of the whole corporation visits the company, he seems strangely familiar.

When my coworker realized that I hadn't read Can you keep a secret? , she brought me her extra copy and insisted that I read it (It's her favorite Kinsella). So, when I needed something light to read before the stress of holiday get-togethers, I decided to give it a shot.

A quick, easy read; I tackled it in one afternoon. Emma is a realistic protagonist, quirky, but not too quirky. The interaction between the two main characters is entertaing and fairly believable. I found the story itself enjoyable even though the plot was pretty predictable (it seemed like I guessed Jack's secret very early on).

The Undomestic Goddess

I needed something light to read last night so I decided to pick up Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess.

Synopsis:
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?

A quick, easy read, this book was a perfect choice for reading after a long day at work.

The Undomestic Goddess was my first experience with Kinsella (in all honesty, I don't read a lot of chick lit).
I thought Samantha was an interesting character and a good protagonist, quirky without being over the top. The story was good, though it did get a bit annoying toward the end (what I mean is that her indecisiveness at the end started to get on my nerves).

At the moment I'm on my lunch break and I just wild-released this book over in the law school ;)