I Couldn't Help But Wonder...

Summer and the City
by Candace Bushnell
A Carrie Diaries Novel

Genre; Fiction/Chick-Lit
Publisher; HarperCollins/London/2011
Pages; 409
ISBN; 9780007426935

Plot; Carrie Bradshaw is brand new to New York. Having just left her small town life, Carrie is trying to make it big during her first summer in the golden city.

Carrie is due to start her studies at Brown University in the Fall, so she has just a few short months to make it as a writer. Sink or swim.

With the help of her all-knowing friend Samantha, a fellow small town girl trying to make it with the Upper East Side crew, and her newest friend Miranda, a political activist with a hate for men and the stereotypical roles of women, Carrie tries to decode the workings of New York.

Between the self-worshipping artistic upstarts, the Wall Street and Upper East Side highbrows and the hoi polloi of regular New York, Carrie needs to find her niche.

My Thoughts; As an avid follower of the television series and a fan of the first of this series, The Carrie Diaries (Review), it was almost natural that I would enjoy this book.

Bushnell has again thrown a fantastically entertaining book on the table.

Yes, there were a few things which I was a little dissappointed with, but as a whole I found Summer and the City to be witty, fun, thoughtful and it just makes you feel good.

I really liked seeing the young Samantha and Miranda. It is interesting to see how these characters began and what events shaped them to become the characters they go on to be in the Sex and the City series.

I also liked the men in this book. Just as you would imagine, the men take a back seat to the female characters, but they stand alone quite well, particularly Ryan and Capote who are two of Carrie's study buddies. I really enjoyed looking at these male characters through the, often misguided, eyes of Carrie, Miranda and Samantha.

What didn't I like about this book? Well, there is one main thing for me and that is consistency.

Let's face it, the person most likely to pick this book up at the book store is your Sex and the City fan. Especially those die-hard fans who read anything related to the series (like me!), and we expect consistency.

That is the one aspect which lets this book down. If you ask any heavy Sex and the City fan how the girls all met, we could tell you exactly how they became friends. Unfortunately, I think Candace Bushnell might have missed that bit, because she has them all hooking up in completely different ways.

Yes, I know that technically the books and the television series and the movies are different, and there will always be inconsistencies between the two. But you don't watch the Harry Potter movies expecting Harry to have received his lightning shaped scar from accientally walking into a pole.... There are some things which should just be the same.

Otherwise I do highly recommend this book as a fun, light-hearted read.

I particularly recommend this book to young women, because I find the female characters to be wonderful examples from whom to take inspiration. They are strong, they know what they want, they persue their dreams and they arent affraid to be themselves.

Happy Reading!

I Couldn't Help But Wonder...

The Carrie Diaries
by Candace Bushnell

Meet Carrie Bradshaw before Sex and the City!

The Giveaway! Click Here!

Genre; Chick-Lit/Comedy
Publisher; HarperCollins Publishers/UK/2010
Pages; 389
ISBN; 978-0-00-731206-1

Plot; I think it is safe to say that we all know the sexily funny, forever stylish, New Yorker Carrie Bradshaw, but I think it is also safe to say that we don't all know the over-alls wearing, small town origins from which she came.

The Carrie Dairies is an introduction to the character that we all know and love.

Carrie is from a single parent household with two younger sisters in the small town of Castlebury. A student of Castlebury High, Carrie is far from being a member of the "popular crowd' but she does have a band of unforgetable and dramatic friends who are always by her side.

Throughout this "diary" we meet all the crew of Castlebury High and we watch as Carrie comes to terms with who she is as a woman, a person and a writer.

Raising such issues as homosexuality, virginity, fidelity and humility, The Carrie Diaries is the story of a young woman, during her senior year, deciding on what her future may hold.

My Thoughts; If you are a fan of Sex and the City , you are going to really enjoy this book.

I have always been a SATC fan. I watched the series, bought the DVDs and lined up to see both films. So when I saw this book on the shelf at my local bookstore, I knew I had to grab it. I am not dissappointed.

As I read this book I couldn't help but imagine the gestures and hear the voice of Sarah Jessica Parker, circa Footloose (1984).

While the Carrie of Castlebury may have the heart of the New York Carrie, from the outside she is a far cry from the Carrie we all know. At not one point did the importance of shoes even grace the pages! Not to mention the fact she enjoys cooking!

What does come through in this book is how confident Carrie is, even in times of distress she is sure of herself and her actions. This is the Carrie we know.

But, before I "carrie" on with the good stuff, I do have a few little issues with the book and that is continuity with the series. Firstly is the sister situation. In the book there is the typical sibling rivalry which you would find in any household containing three sisters, but having said this, the three are very close to oneanother. This begs the question; why no appearance of sisters Missy and Dorrit in the TV series?

The second issue is Carrie's highschool boyfriends. In the book she makes it clear that during highschool she only has three boyfriends; Sam, Doug and Sebastian. Now, as any of you SATC nuts will remember, in the final season of the show we get to meet Jeremy, played by David Duchovny, who is said to have been her main highschool relationship.

I don't mean to knit-pick, because I did love the book, but I am a big fan of continuity.

With all this said, this book is a real page turner. Even if you haven't watched the series, or seen the movies, you can enjoy this book as a coming of age tale. The charcters names can, at times, be questionable (Donna LaDonna?) but the characters themselves are very enjoyable, as is the relationships between these characters.

One of my favourite bits of this book, which actually brought a tear to my eye, was the appearance of another familiar name, but I won't say any more about that!

I would recommend this book to all SATC enthusiasts, as well as anyone who loves a fun read. I found I could relate alot to this book, as I think most of you will too.

Happy Reading!