I normally read non-fiction books, but I made a decision to read more fiction “brain candy” for 2007.  Soon after making that decision, Touchstone-Fireside sent me a few chick lit books (featuring moms) to preview.  In the last week, I have read two of the three books. 

I loved the first book, Wife in the Fast Lane by Karen Quinn, the author of the previous bestselling book, The Ivy Chronicles.  This book was so great that I stayed up until 3 in the morning one night finishing it.  The book is a about a woman named Christy Hayes, a former two-time Olympic gold medalist who over the course of the book runs a multi-billion dollar athletic shoe business, marries a rich, handsome husband and becomes the guardian of her housekeeper’s granddaughter.  That’s the nice part.  On the dark side, she faces a corporate takeover (by her best friend!); endures Manhattan private school craziness and catches her husband in a compromising position with another woman.  Of course, since this is a novel, everything ties up nicely at the end.  The good thing about this book (that makes it more than brain candy to me) is that it really made me think about the various choices that women make in our quest to “have it all”…the husband, the kids and the career.  It also made me think how important it is for me to keep the “spice” in my relationship with my husband.  (You’ll understand after you read the book.)  I highly recommend this book which should be out in stores in March of 2007.

I also enjoyed the second book, Looks To Die For by Janice Kaplan, the co-author of the national bestsellers, The Botox Diaries, Mine Are Spectacular!, and The Men I Didn’t Marry.  The book is about interior decorator Lacy Fields, who over the course of the book solves the murder of a Hollywood starlet while trying to be a great wife, mother of two teens (one being the stereotypical rebellious teen girl) and still holding down her interior decorating job.  (The murder was initially pinned on her husband, a famous L.A. plastic surgeon.)  I found several of the scenarios pretty improbable and I figured out the true murderer by the end.  However, I recommend the book, which will be published in February of 2007, as a quick, easy read. (I read the book in a day.)

Posted by Kimberly on 23 Dec 2006 at 12:42 am | Tagged as: Books