About this title: Becky Bloomwood lives in London's trendiest neighborhood, has glamorous socialite friends, and has a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford any of it. Kinsella has brilliantly tapped into the collective consumer conscience to deliver a heroine who grows stronger every time she weakens.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dial Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780385335485ISBN:0385335482
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552774819ISBN:0552774812
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552774819ISBN:0552774812
Description: Fine. Stunning book this is immaculate Family business dispatching books to all over the world within 24/48 hours. Next day delivery and gist wrapping are available. read more
Description: Very good. Title page may be missing or torn. UNREAD but may have a crease or mark or minor imperfections. In stock-Sent fast from British booksellers. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dial Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780385335485ISBN:0385335482
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552774819ISBN:0552774812
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552774819ISBN:0552774812
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552774819ISBN:0552774812
Description: New. PAPERBACK BOOK-NEW-SHOP SOILED COPY-TRUSTED DEVON (UK) BASED SELLER-IN STOCK-SENT WITHIN 1 WORKING DAY-AVAILABLE BY EMAIL FOR QUERIES-NO QUIBBLE REFUND IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED- read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Bright and colorful front cover. No distracting marks or store stamps. Very slight creases in spine. Minor shelf wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Summer Display Opportunity. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. NEAR FINE! Bright and colorful front cover. No distracting marks, store stamps, or creases in spine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Summer Display Opportunity. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Dial Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780385335485ISBN:0385335482
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Paperback. Cover and spine uncreased. (Slight curl at corner edge) Binding tight. Pages crisp and clean. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Summer Display Opportunity. Audience: General/trade. read more
I'm not a big fan of chick-lit generally but the shopaholic series is pretty special, mainly because of Sophie Kinsella's comic timing. If you are in need of cheering up (but don't have the money to indulge in a little retail therapy yourself) this is the book to do it. It will seriously make you laugh out loud.
When I first read this book (when it was known as The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic) I found I related to Becky somewhat in that I was in exactly the same situation as her at the time - spending too much money and getting into debt while working on an extremely boring trade magazine where I would relish the chance to go to some boring press meeting in order to get out of the office and get to the shops! So I guess I do have a soft spot for the first novel in this series. Everything Kinsella wrote was true to life (my life) including some of the crazy justifications Becky has given to herself to explain her spending.
And I confess that I too have once had a "luggage moment"."
"This is the first book in the Shopaholic series written by Sophia Kinsella. I decided to buy the book, as well as the whole series, because I found the trailer of "Confessions of a Shopaholic" absolutely hilarious and every review I read about Kinsella's books raved Rebecca Bloomwood as a funny and adorable protagonist who suffers from a genetic problem that afflicts mostly the female kind, myself included - i.e. shopping. So amusement as well as empathy played a big role on the decision.
I must say I was NOT disappointed with the book. I found the story good fun as well as Becky herself. She is a kind and good person with decent moral principles, who just happens not to know when to stop gratifying herself with gifts. She suffers from a bulimic-like compulsion to shop and although she does feel terrible about it now and then because she can't really afford her shopping sprees, she still can't find it in herself to put an end to the situation. In the process her money conundrums bring her all sorts of troubles and lies, which ultimately end up in her scoring a super-duper TV job (her dream job) that solves her financial nightmares, as well as the mysterious and highly scrumptious Mr Luke Brandon.
So I guess, deceit and deception in the end pay off, as long as you decide to redeem yourself from such bad behaviour by avenging other people's financial losses on a national paper and not dumping your own overdrafts on your parents and housemate's laps. Although that's something you wouldn't want to teach a child - deceit and lies will end you in the naughty step not in heaven, you hear me? - it's something that for some reason you find yourself thinking highly appropriate for Becky as her big finale because, just like her, you also start convincing yourself that if she were only given a break, she would start being a lot more reasonable with the use of her credit cards. How many times have we told ourselves that same white lie?
In any case, the book is written in an endearing way with Becky engaging the reader by asking him questions and sharing with him her own thoughts and points of view. However, I did find a couple of inconsistencies in the plot that nagged me a bit and prevented me from thoroughly enjoying the book:
1. When Becky forgot her Visa card at work, why did Becky ask Elly for cash to buy a gorgeous Denny and George scarf she had seen on sale, when she was carrying cheques with her, as was shown by the scene when she returns home at the end of the day and pulls out her cheque book to pay her housemate her share of council tax? Didn't the shop accept cheques? This was not made clear and was highly irritating because it rendered the scene when Luke loans her the money somewhat farcical and forced.
2. No physical description of Becky is provided except for a brief mention in one of the last chapters that she has long hair. This is a bit unnerving because it forces the reader to create his own visual image of Becky from the start - slim, average height, short hair, etc. - only to have it dashed at the end of the book when Kinsella finally mentions that Becky actually has long hair.
3. At the nadir of her financial problems, Becky runs away to her parents' house and calls in sick at work. However, the following day she has an article published on a national spread and 24 hours later she is on national TV all happy and dandy dispensing financial advice to the Morning Coffee viewers. We never hear from her boss again. Why didn't he confront her about this? Doesn't he and his company workers read the papers and watch telly? I think that a brief scene where Becky would get a text or an email saying 'You're in a spot of trouble, Missy!', would have made the last four chapters a lot more realistic. Instead, one is left wondering what happened to her other job.
4. Finally, after she comes back from her night out with Tarquin, Becky falls off with her housemate, Suze. The latter learns of Becky's rejection from Tarquin when he calls their place. Suze is not best pleased with that because she's also a friend of Tarquin. However, Becky doesn't really reject Tarquin during the date and apparently Tarquin didn't see her (or pretended not to see her) rummaging through his cheque book (the reason why Becky thinks Tarquin ended the evening so abruptly) because he invites her to the opera one week later. So why did Tarquin tell Suze that Becky had rejected him? Was it because Becky had dismissed his money when he offered to make a contribution to some charity Becky had invented on the spot? This is not made clear and once again the reader is left wondering what, oh what did Tarquin tell Suze, while searching to no avail for an answer in the next chapters.
All I'm saying, is that the plot could have been a bit tighter so as not to distract the reader from the joys of such a great story."
"I laughed. I cried. I finished reading this month's chick lit novel-Confessions of Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. I have to admit that when I started it, I didn't like it very much--I could not readily identify with the main character, Becky Bloomwood. She is a British, single, twenty-something woman who works as a financial journalist. However, she does not really seem to know much about her personal finances except how to spend, spend, and spend money. I cannot understand the obsessive nature of a shopaholic who craves to shop for dresses, scarves, kitchen gadgets and even books, etc. She continues this behavior even though she is constantly bombarded by banks and credit card companies who want her to pay her debts.
However, when she attempts to deal with her problems the book turns hilarious. She avoids the credit card companies by creating all sorts of excuses about why she cannot possibly pay, such as she broke her leg or her dog died. Then she decides that she has only two options that she can chose from to solve her problems: C.B. (Cut Back) or M.M.M. (Make More Money). When she elects to bring her lunch to work rather than eating out and to cook at home rather than eat in restaurants to save money, she buys all sorts of kitchen paraphernalia spends hundreds of dollars. Her solutions are rather silly and humorous.
After she inadvertently gives some bad financial advice to the couple who lives next to her parents, they end up losing some of their retirement assets. Becky feels guilty and writes a journalistic expose that reveals the evil ways of the big corporation that cost her parents' neighbors their money. Luke, the financial advisor/lawyer of that same corporation, who Becky knew previously, and she debate the issue on national television and she makes a strong argument. Luke becomes her love interest (he conveniently has lots of money) and she ends up with a new job that pays well. Ah, think of all the opportunities for shopping!
Confessions of a Shopaholic is absolutely everything that chick lit is supposed to be-funny, light, and completely brainless. Becky doesn't need to learn to be more responsible-everything works out for her. Kinsella has developed a main character who is memorable and quirky and placed her in a Cinderella storyline. There is lots of humor. It is pure entertainment. I would definitely recommend this title and the remainder of the series to fans of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary."
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