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Now Cannie's back. After her debut novel — a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life — became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable — knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy's drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha.
As preparations for Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception — the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy.
Radiantly funny and disarmingly tender, with Weiner's whip-smart dialogue and sharp observations of modern life, Certain Girls is an unforgettable story about love, loss, and the enduring bonds of family.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
March 8, 2011 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781442342422
- File size: 422124 KB
- Duration: 14:39:25
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 28, 2008
Following the story collection The Guy Not Taken
, Weiner turns in a hilarious sequel to her 2001 bestselling first novel, Good in Bed
, revisiting the memorable and feisty Candace “Cannie†Shapiro. Flashing forward 13 years, the novel follows Cannie as she navigates the adolescent rebellion of her about-to-be bat mitzvahed daughter, Joy, and juggles her writing career; her relationship with her physician husband, Peter Krushelevansky; her ongoing weight struggles; and the occasional impasse with Joy's biological father, Bruce Guberman. Joy, whose premature birth resulted in her wearing hearing aids, has her own amusing take on her mother's overinvolvement in her life as the novel, with some contrivance, alternates perspectives. As her bat mitzvah approaches, Joy tries to make contact with her long absent maternal grandfather and seeks more time with Bruce. In addition, unbeknownst to Joy, Peter has expressed a desire to have a baby with Cannie, which means looking for a surrogate mother. Throughout, Weiner offers her signature snappy observations: (“good looks function as a get-out-of-everything-free cardâ€) and spot-on insights into human nature, with a few twists thrown in for good measure. She expends some energy getting readers up to speed on Good
, but readers already involved with Cannie will enjoy this, despite Joy's equally strong voice. -
The sequel to GOOD IN BED occurs 13 years after that vengefully funny story of a fat girl who puts her boyfriend in his place after he publishes an article about their sex life. In this work Cannie, now a wife and mother, prepares for her daughter Joy's bat mitzvah. Julie Dretzin's portrayal of Cannie is appropriately anxious. Much of her humor is subdued by her worries over her mothering and her husband's request for a second child. Rachel Botchan narrates alternate chapters, using a young voice to depict Joy and coloring her reading with the teenager's anger over family secrets and determination to uncover her mother's past. Though more serious than Weiner's first book, this sequel has emotion and wit, as well as an enjoyable plot twist near the end. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from July 27, 2009
At the start of Fate's masterful fourth 1950s PI novel (after 2008's Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption
)¸ Kristin Van Dijk, who's been tied up in a farmhouse by two silver thieves she was tracking, manages to free herself and take out a killer, later identified as a sociopathic felon, who a little earlier showed up and gunned down the two thieves, unaware of her presence. Meanwhile, word reaches Kristin's partner, Otis Millett, that his ex-wife, Dixie Logan, a former stripper known as the Dallas Firecracker, has been murdered. Dixie's last job was at a bank in Mesquite, Tex., that had been held up a few weeks before, and her body was found with that of a man who may have been one of the robbers. Kristin, a hard-as-nails heroine who's completely credible, and Otis dedicate themselves to solving Dixie's murder and sorting out whether she colluded in the bank theft. The pages will speed by for readers who enjoy gritty crime tales with plenty of flying bullets.
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