When Life Gives you Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger

Title: When Life Gives you Lululemons

Author: Lauren Weisberger

Read by:  Laura Benanti

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 14 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

I have been a fan of Lauren Weisberger since The Devil Wears Prada.  I can even partially thank her for my daughter’s name.  I was listening to the audiobook for Everyone Worth Knowing when my husband walked in and liked how the heroine’s best friend was named Penelope and called Penn for short.  He didn’t like too many girl names, so I made note of it.  Then in 2010 we had a daughter and named her Penelope!

When Life Gives you Lululemons is in the same world as the Devil Wears Prada.  Miranda’s snarky top assistant, Emily has moved on from Runway and has created her own business which helps guide stars through disasters and also helps them with fashion.  At the start of the novel, Emily finds herself being fired from jobs and replaced with a younger person.  Depressed, she decides to visit her friend Miriam while she’s in New York City. Miriam and Emily are friends from camp in their youth.  Will Emily be able to get her career back on track? 

Miriam was a high-profile NYC lawyer juggling three kids before her husband struck it rich with an invention.  They moved out to Greenwich Connecticut and Miriam stays home with the kids.  Miriam can’t believe the life she is living in Greenwich with women getting plastic surgery and obsessed with clothing and looks.  She’s also sad as her husband seems to be drifting away and their love life has taken a back seat to life with kids.   How can she get her life back on track? She’s stunned when she sees her old pal Karolina on TV for a drunk driving arrest.

Karolina is a former Victoria’s Secret model who is married to a senator and happily raising their son.  When she is pulled over for a drunk driving arrest even though she’s not drunk and spends the night in jail, her world is turned upside down.  Why has her husband not come to save her?  Why did they not do a breathalyzer test on her?  Karolina hides out in her Greenwich home and reconnects with Miriam and meets Emily. Will Emily be able to use her image consultant skills to help Karolina out?

I really enjoyed this novel.  I listened to it on audiobook and I didn’t want my drive to end!  It was engaging story with many laugh out loud moments.  There were also some great moments about mother hood and how there are many ways for a woman and mother to be happy.  I really loved the narrator, Laura Benanti.  She had great voices for the different characters.  I really liked her Eastern European accent for Karolina.

I also loved that Miranda Priestly made an appearance at the end of the novel and it was very Miranda like.  I thought this book was a great look at Emily’s life in the future and life after The Devil Wears Prada.  I loved that it focused on three very different characters and tied their lives and worries together.  It was a fun summer read. 

Overall, When Life Gives you Lululemons is a great beach read with fantastic characters and a storyline that is both funny, and heartfelt on women and motherhood.  It was a great addition to The Devil Wears Prada story, but you can read it as its own book if you’ve never read The Devil Wears Prada. The audiobook is also one of the best ones I’ve listened to this year.  Laura Benanti was a top-notch narrator.  It was a perfect book for audio.

Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns by Lauren Weisberger

Title: Revenge Wears Prada:  The Devil Returns
Author: Lauren Weisberger

Read by: Megan Hilty
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 13.5 hours (11 CDs)
Source: Simon & Schuster Review Copy – Thank-you!

I have enjoyed Lauren Weisberger’s novels in the past, and The Devil Wears Prada was a particular favorite of mine.  I was very excited to review Revenge Wears Prada and it kept me entertained on the road for a couple of conferences that I had to attend for work this past month.

Sadly, although I was entertained, I mostly wanted to wring Andy’s neck in much of the book.  It is ten years after Andy Sachs quite her job working for the demanding, eccentric, boss from hell, Miranda Priestly at Runway magazine.  Andy hit a low period after that in which her best friend moved away, boyfriend left her, and her parents split.  But she rebounded, found a new job, became best friends with her former nemesis, Emily, and met the man of her dreams, Max Harrison.  Max is not only handsome and from a famous media family, but as the new head of his media giant, he backs Andy and Emily’s dream to start a high end bridal magazine called The Plunge.  The novel starts as Andy and Max are about to have their own fairy-tale wedding.  When Andy finds out that things are not quite as she dreamed, she has an attack of nerves on her wedding day.  The novel flashes back to the period between the first novel and Andy’s wedding to fill in the details.  Real excitement doesn’t return until Andy and Emily are faced with an exciting offer from the devil herself, Miranda Priestly.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I loved finding out what exactly had gone on in Andy’s life, but Andy annoyed the heck out of me in this book.  When she found the letter from her future mother-in-law on her wedding day telling her son not to marry Andy and hinting that Max had run into an old girlfriend, Andy lets this almost destroy her marriage.  I wanted to smack Andy – newsflash; most mother-in-laws do not like their future daughter-in-laws.  Ask Max about his old girlfriend, don’t just assume the worst.  Even worse was that later on in the novel, Andy meets up with her old boyfriend Alex and has lunch with him AND DOESN’T TELL MAX.  Pot, meet kettle.

Max seems like a great guy until the end when he does something that was pretty despicable to Andy.  But I couldn’t help but think that the entire situation could have been avoided if Andy would have ever actually sat down and talked with Max and Emily about the sale of the magazine. Max and Emily should not have done what they did, but Andy’s avoidance of the issue for months drove me crazy.  The book hinted that Max was having financial problems, but that was never resolved.  Andy seems to note that Max is stressed out about something, but never bothers to actually talk to him about it.  Did Max help with the sale because it was going to be the end of he and Andy’s perfect lifestyle? 

I was also very sad for Clementine, Max and Andy’s daughter.  She was only a baby and adored both of her parents, and now was going to grow up in a broken home.  I can understand why Andy was upset certainly, but she had a large part of the blame herself.  I’ll admit that as a child of divorce myself, I was sad that Andy didn’t even try to work things out at all.  I’m only hoping that at some point Andy will grow up and take a hard look at herself in the mirror.  Andy seemed stuck in a victim roll that she created for herself.

SPOILER END

Overall, I enjoyed listening to the story even though Andy enraged me throughout the book.  The real highlights of the book were when Miranda Priestly arrived on the scene.  I wish there would have been more of her in the book.  I’m still not sure what the title refers too.  What Miranda out to exact revenge on Andy and Emily?  It didn’t appear that way.  I think I preferred this book as an audiobook to print book. 

Megan Hilty was an entertaining narrator and I think of her as the voice of Andy now.  I would definitely listen to her again.

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

I read a bad review of Chasing Harry Winston in Entertainment Weekly, but as I enjoyed Weisberger's other two novels, The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing, I decided to give it a try. The novel was no where near as bad as the review. It was an pretty good chick lit read, but not as good as Weisberger's first two novels.

Chasing Harry Winston focuses on three friends, Emmy (a chef whose long term boyfriend has just dumped her for a younger woman), Leigh (a perfectionist who finds that she is not in love with her perfect boyfriend), and Adriana, a beautiful, rich, latina bombshell. Emmy and Adriana make a pack to change their lives over the next year and find themselves during the process. Meanwhile Leigh has made a secret pack and also finds herself.

I thought the girls were all relatable, except for Adriana as she was so rich and beautiful. I especially enjoyed how they are exactly my age - even having graduated from college in 2000. It made it especially enjoyable and relatable to me because of this.

If you are looking for a quick chick lit read, this is your book. It's an okay read, not the best, but also not the worst.

Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger (Audiobook)

I have been traveling back and forth to Milwaukee for work every other week or so and thought it would be great to have a book on CD to listen to on my travels (as well as when I'm working). Everyone Worth Knowing was a light and enjoyable book, perfect to listen too.

Lauren Weisberger is also the author of The Devil Wears Prada. This book has a similar plotline, with the industry being exposed changed to PR. The main character in this book is Bette Robinson. One day Bette can't take her overbearing boss at her boring bank job any longer and she quits. To help her get out of a pajama soap-opera soaked depression, her columnist Uncle Will calls in a favor with an old intern of his and gets Bette a job at Kelly Co. At Kelly, Bette is bascially paid to arrange parties as well as to party herself. As time goes on, she begins to be all consumed by the job as well as discovering that her personal life and job are becoming uncomfortably intertwined. There is romance, heartbreak, and drama. It made for a good listen (except for the swear words, which were not good when you've got your young son around!). I like listening to funny books. On a side note - we listened to this on our way to Minnesota last weekend and even Ben laughed out loud a few times, although I'm sure he'd deny it!

I like the well rounded side characters such as Uncle Will and Penelope. One of my favorite sections was the description of Bette's secret passion for romance novels. And how she felt ashamed and hid it until she discovered a fantastic romance novel book club. I wanted to join the book club!

On the negative side, I wasn't keen on the ending. The whole Sammy not calling for months and then showing up seemed strange to me. Bette also annoyed me at times with her loafing around her apartment for months. For being a decisive person at times, she would then refuse to make any decisions.

This book may not be great literature, but it is entertaining and funny - two things that are great in an audiobook. I recommend if you are looking for something light hearted.

The Devil Wears Prada

I just watched The Devil Wears Prada over the weekend and enjoyed it. I had listened to the book on tape a couple of years ago when I was doing some rather boring HEC-2 (a DOS based hydraulic program) at work and needed to be entertained so I could stay focused. I really enjoyed the book on tape. The characters in the movie were not exactly how I pictured them, but I was willing to go with it.

This is basically the story of a newly graduated journalist, Andy (Andrea), who can't seem to get a job for any of the magazines she'd love to work for, like The New Yorker. She interviews for a job at a fashion magazine, Runway, and amazingly gets the job. The bad thing is, she is not actually writing any articles - she's an assistant to the boss from hell, Miranda Priestly. Much hilarity ensues. Andy (who is played by Anne Hathaway) eventually goes through a transformation from fashionless fun loving girl, to fashionista who's only life is her job. I did enjoy seeing her new outfits and look . . . but since it was Anne Hathaway, I kept thinking about The Princess Diaries during those scenes.

I must admit, I am not a Meryl Streep fan. She seems highly overrated to me. As I watched the movie, I was confused on why she got a best actress nomination. Then I got to the end of the movie. At the end, you finally saw the Ice Queen's vulnerable side . . . and her strengths. It made me actually like Miranda in a way (what a strong woman!), something I didn't do when only listening to the book. I was surprised!!

One thing I didn't like . . . it's the running joke throughout the movie that Andy is "fat" because she's a size six and all of the models are size 0-4. At the end, they actually have Andy lose weight and become a size 4 which one of the designer applauds her for doing. Hello - leave it that it's a joke that size 6 is not fat - don't have her cave in! And we wonder why people are anorexic!

Overall, it was a good chick flick. I watched it without Ben because it didn't really seem like a Ben kind of movie:-)