Book Review: "Baby Proof"

Baby Proof by Emily Giffin seemed like my kind of book when I skimmed over the short synopsis GoodReads gave me when it showed up in my recommendations. Based on both that and the title, I figured what the hell, I'd give the book a shot. And, it's not that the book is badly written or anything - much the contrary, it's actually very well written and has a lot of good humor in it. Except that for someone like me.....

It reads like a damn horror novel.

Seriously. The premise of this book is basically a nightmare come true as far as I'm concerned. As a late-20's-something female with no intention of having children and knowing that this causes a HUGE strain on trying to form lasting relationships with, well, much of anybody, I thought maybe a story like this would be empowering. Liberating. Feel like somebody's got my back, even if it's just a fictional character. The main character, Claudia, is about 30 and wants *no* part of parenthood. Same goes for her husband, Ben. Except that over time, for Ben, he changes his mind and wants a baby more than anything. Inevitably, this leads to a divorce. All hell ensues.

Now, I realize this happens in real life pretty often; that's not the part that bothers me. What bugs me about this story is the fact that it teaches a really shitty moral, as far as I'm concerned. Lose your sense of self at any cost, if it means saving your relationship with your man. How terrible is that?? Seriously, the way the story ends up, Claudia decides she'll have a baby to appease Ben just so she can get back together with him. I just... I have no words for how upset I was with the ending of this book. I felt it was very patronizing to women like myself and trying to instill some notion of sell your values; you'll never be happy without a man and a baby! *facepalm*

I wanted to like this book. I really, REALLY wanted to. But the ending just ruined it for me. I don't know if I'm the only one who felt this way about the book or not, but, that's how it was for me. Nevertheless, the quality of the writing itself was good, so I suppose if you're like 90% of the rest of the female population, you'll probably like this book just fine. If you're like me, however, you'll resent it. But by quality alone, I'll rate this one a 4 star review.

Book Review: "Remember Me?"

Remember Me? is a fresh spin on an otherwise tired-out amnesia plotline. Our main character takes a pretty bad clock to the head.... and can't remember a single thing about the past three years of her life. The thing is, those particular three years were a majorly transformative three years for her, and she doesn't even recognize the person she's become in that time. Everything feels foreign to her as she tries to navigate her way through her new life, with a new job, a new home, a new husband (!!!), and many other things that leave her feeling like this can't possibly be her life.

There's many twists and turns in this plot and I don't want to give much away - it's one of those books that's best if you just read it for yourself. However, I WOULD like to give props to the author on one major point (and sorry if this is a spoiler): I appreciate that the book doesn't end with some miraculous magical "I REMEMBER EVERYTHING!!!" moment. No, our main character still doesn't remember what's been lost even as the book ends - only one tiny glimmer of one single memory. It's very open-ended to your own interpretation if you think she gets her memory back or not. I feel that this is a more realstic approach, because honestly, after so much time has passed, what would be the realistic possibility of one's memory just magically re-appearing? Yeah, exactly. So I think this was actually handled fantastically.

I rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars :)

Book Review: "The Undomestic Goddess"

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella is a classic story of a prim and polished high-powered businesswoman being plunked suddenly into a lifestyle of which she is completely unprepared to handle. Not that she planned it that way, anyhow. But she learns to cope, and as she does, it's not long before she adjusts and this becomes her new way of living - even when her old life is offered back to her on a silver platter.

While I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as I did Twenties Girl, it's still pretty good. Probably half my problem is that it's all about the world of lawyers, which I have little to no interest nor knowledge in, so a lot of that went sailing over my head. I can appreciate the lifestyle and the way it's portrayed, though. So I can't really dock any points away for that. Still, some parts of the story did seem to drag on a little dryly, whereas with Twenties Girl, I couldn't put the book down for two seconds practically. I'm going to go ahead and rate this book 4 stars though, as it's still a very good story and you'll probably enjoy it. :)