Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (#23, Reader's Choice)

Why did I do this to myself? This was the question that plagued me the entire time I was reading this book. The answer is a simple one: you need a mindless book to read when lounging by the pool or when laying out on the beach. One summer I had the Da Vinci Code to keep me riveted on my beach towel. I had sort of hoped Plum Sykes' Bergdorf Blondes would be an entertaining and witty piece of popular chick lit. It became quite clear after page 30 that this was not to be the case. I contemplated abandoning the book entirely but in a race to read 50 books in one year, I had to just push through to the sorry and predictable ending.

I am not really a connoisseur of chick lit novels, but I have read more than a handful. After nearly every single sad attempt at writing about the woman plight, I come away annoyed and with the resolve to never pick up another one of these books again.

There really is nothing I liked about this book. I hated the narrator, Moi, and her pointless Manhattan existence. I hated the other characters as well for their idiocy and the fact that every single one was a slightly altered carbon copy of the one that came before. I had the ending predicted by page 50 and this was probably the greatest downfall of all. I like to be surprised, and when I know what's going to happen it just totally ruins it for me--unless the writing is superior enough to save it, which in this case it just wasn't. Plum Sykes should stick to fashion magazines and I should stick to books that don't make me dumber for having read them.