Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding

I was on my OE in London when I first really heard about Bridget Jones's Diary... probably because the film was coming out that starred Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver.  Also the flat I was dossing in just happened to have a copy of Bridget Jones's Diary conveniently on the shelf in the lounge room.  It was a cringe fest and too funny not to laugh out loud.

I enjoyed that book so much I bought the second book Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and laughed and cringed my way through that book too.

So I was quite excited to find that Helen Fielding had written a third book... then devastated to find through the publicity machine that she'd killed Mark Darcy off!!!  I couldn't possibly think of how that could have occurred.  Luckily this third book does eventually explain it.

Anyhow, here is the front cover and blurb for Bridget Jones - Mad About the Boy:

 

So Bridget is now a mother... and if you remember how chaotic she was as a Singleton (remember the blue leek soup?), well she isn't much better as a mother.  She is desolate still at the loss of Mark, despite it being five or so years down the track since he died.  She is trying to get a career again, get back in the dating game, come to grips with technology like Twitter and texting, and of course there is that perpetual old chestnut, her weight issues. 

Just to add some more colour to the story are the men she dates, her crazy friends with their own dating/love life issues, a mother who is still on a completely different planet, and a barely holding it together Daniel Cleaver. 

And then there are her two kids, Billy and Mabel, also still coming to terms with the death of their father, coping with their mother's grief and just being your typical kids.

The text swings between your traditional diary entries, lists, graphs, tweets on Twitter, emails and texts.  Chapters are generally short.  There are still the laugh out loud moments and the pure cringe that only a character like Bridget can bring.  There are situations in the book that are so obvious the worst will happen that as you read it is like watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion.

At 386 pages long it is a solid read.  I kept it by the bed and read it bit by bit during the term... but I did go some long periods between reads so had to re-read some parts to get the gist again.  There were other days that I feasted on the book.

If you loved how riridiculously funny first two books, you won't be disappointed by this book (apart from sharing Bridget's sorrow at the loss of Mark Darcy).  It is a good solid completion of Bridget's story.  I'd be hard pressed to see how Helen Fielding could write another book about Bridget before she hits the retirement village now!!

Hand Me Down by Michelle Holman

I was introduced to writer Michelle Holman towards the end of 2010 when a colleague said I should read at book called Bonkers.  She then gave me the book.  It was a funny, kick arse piece of chick lit written by a Kiwi author and I loved it.

I've since bought several of Michelle Holman's books and loved and laughed with them all.  Michelle Holman is a trained nurse and lives in Cambridge in the Waikato with her husband and family writing wonderful romantic comedic novels.  You can read more about Michelle here.

This is the cover and blurb for Hand Me Down:

This book had me hooked from the first page (which is good, because I did pay for it!).  The main female character, April Ritchie, is feisty and difficult, with a secret that is slowly eeked out through the book.  Tarn Elliot, the main male character, also has a bit of mystery about him, and he balances the feistiness of April with his calm manner and decisive actions.  There are plenty of interesting support characters that bring more drama, humour, subversion and secrets to the plot.  There are plenty of cringe moments, laugh out loud moments, mushy moments... and I even learned the odd new fact about running a cherry orchard.  I was thoroughly satisfied with the ending... and it left me wanting to read more from this author.

If you are looking for a book with some escapism, romance, laughter and a feel good ending, this is a good book for a summer's day on the beach, a read on an international flight or curled up on the couch on a raining day too.

Why am I starting this blog?

I love reading.  I've been reading since I started learning to read as a nearly five year old and I took to it like a duck to water.

Early in Term 4 of 2013 I went to a workshop run by the National Library service for schools.  We started off with introducing ourselves and what we were currently reading/had recently read.  Luckily I had read a book during the recent term break, so I could actually say something apart from reading the newspaper online, emails and the kids' writing in class.

But I'm one of those readers who usually only reads during the term breaks and summer holidays.  Why?  Well, once I start reading a book, everything goes out the window.  No housework gets done, well balanced meals are an enigma and definitely school work doesn't get a look in.  I blame Dad and my Aunty Ellen.... they do the same thing.

So usually my term time reading is what is in the newspaper (online or in hand), magazines like Woman's Day and Cleo (but I haven't even read all my Cleos the last six months!), emails, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and what the children are writing/reading.

After that workshop though, I got a bit inspired, decided that a bit of reading for my own pleasure should take place.

So what have I been reading recently?

See below:

 
 

 

 

And what am I planning on reading over the summer holidays?

As well as the latest Wilbur Smith book Vicious Circle (Dad's Christmas present this year - don't tell him - so I have to let him read it first!), Bryce Courtenay's last book Jack of Diamonds (Dad's Christmas present last year that I've yet to read!) and my cousin just got I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with her ghost writer (there are a lot of people in line to read this!)... so you can see that I have ambitious plans.