A "Bitch" of a Book

I finished reading Bitch last night, and it was a total letdown. Which is such a shame because it had such great potential and started out so strong. I thought it was going to be a book about how women throughout history have been mislabeled as "bitches"- women like Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette, Martha Stewart, the like- and how they were quickly branded as "bitches" when they were just trying to live their lives and do their thing- like men do, only women are identified as being "assertive" and "bitchy" when they do it. I thought it would be liberating and empowering and make me want to burn my bra and swear off men forever.

Instead, it was just this big, rambling mess that hardly talked about women's studies at all! It was more like a 400-page rant of everything that the author hated about society. It was like reading Courtney Love's journal. She gave away plots and endings to so many books and movies, which pissed me off, and there were typos, which really pissed me off! The author made, like, ten great points throughout the book, but the rest of it was just so chaotic and confusing, that by the end I was just skimming it so I could finish it (plus I was sick of all the book and movie spoilers, so when I saw the name of a book or movie up ahead, I knew to go ahead and jump to the next page.

I finished it last night and went on goodreads to see what other people thought of this book, and it got extremely mixed reviews. But something I read in a lot of the reviews is that the author confesses in a later rant manifesto that she wrote a lot of Bitch when she was strung out on drugs, namely coke, and the sad thing is, then it made more sense. The book definitely is a ranting and confusing muse and once I heard she was coked out for most of it, I was like, ohhhhh, okay, I get it now.  But it still was not a very good book.

If you are into bitter nonsensical rants from a girl who tries way to hard to be angry at the world, then you might like this book. Other than that, skip it.

But on the flip side, I DID start a new book yesterday!

Quentins, by Maeve Binchy. She's an Irish author who also wrote books like Tara Road, Circle of Friends, and Evening Class. I've read a few books of hers before and I've always liked her. I find that Irish fiction/Irish chick lit is always a really fun and engaging read. I started this yesterday and I'm almost one-third of the way into it! Here's a summary of the plot from goodreads:

In Maeve Binchy's timely and topical tale, Quentins, Ella Brady is a documentary filmmaker who wants to bring the tale of the eponymous Dublin restaurant to the screen. Quentins has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years and has become the meeting point for a lot of characters, including some familiar faces from previous Binchy novels. As Ella makes more and more headway with her documentary, the secrets, betrayals, and stories of love that emerge make her question whether or not she wants to bring the tale of Quentins to the screen after all; especially as she is also forced to confront a devastating dilemma from her own past.

It's great so far! I definitely needed a good fun book after the letdown that was Bitch!  I'm about 100 pages into it and can't wait to read more of it tomorrow on my lunch break and hopefully over the weekend!

Hope everyone is having a great week! My week has sucked, mostly because of work (actually, all  because of work), but I guess that will just make tomorrow all the more sweeter... YAY FRIDAY!

Time to watch The Cho Show and get ready for bed... goodnight!