Great, silly fun, guaranteed to be seen at a beach near you.
From Brown (Elle Woods, 2007) and Weber (Hot Ticket, 2000), an energetic farce skewering the lives of the rich and obnoxious.
The first 80 pages of this comic romp starring the very worst of high society is devoted to the absurdities of planning the wedding of the century. Mother-of-the-bride Thayne Walker is a day away from pulling off the multimillion-dollar fete that will make TomKat’s Italian wedding look like a cheap Vegas elopement. And Thayne is the woman for the job—the Dallas socialite has the precision (bridesmaids are required to walk down the aisle at 22 inches per second) and toughness of a five-star general. Pippa, the bride, is a bit lost in all the hoopla, but as a devoted daughter she’s happy to oblige. That is until fiancé Lance reveals he’s gay, forcing Pippa to call off the wedding at the alter—and then all Texas hell breaks loose. Beloved grandfather Anson dies on the spot and Thayne disinherits her daughter. While Pippa’s hiding out from the frenzied paparazzi, she learns from Anson’s lawyer that she is his heir (of one billion dollars), but there’s just one caveat: She has to earn a diploma. The will doesn’t specify college diploma, so she starts off on her journey of misadventure to earn a degree, tricky for a young socialite with skills limited to shopping and gossip. Driving school is a bust (although a trip to Wal-Mart for new clothes proves an enlightening experience) and matchmaking school proves equally difficult. When she enrolls in a rural clown college, she doesn’t imagine she’ll have to dance all day with Pushkin the bear (she’s happily rescued by Boy Scouts when a jealous elephant tries to kill her). Happily, Pippa may have found her niche at housekeeping school (after all, she can identify all of Waterford’s patterns at a glance). In exchange for a quick degree, she agrees to serve as majordomo to a Las Vegas socialite and in the process may bust a smuggling ring with the FBI and reconcile with her repentant mother.
Great, silly fun, guaranteed to be seen at a beach near you.Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-36673-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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