Smart Girls Like Me

By Diane Vadino

Book Overview

This is a story about what happens when you are twenty-four years old and it is 1999 and you are quite certain that everyone on the planet has been invited to super-fun New Year's Eve orgies, except you, because you were too busy making plans for the end of the world---courtesy of God or militiamen or your best friend and her ridiculous wedding in the middle of the South Pacific. This is a story about what happens when you think and truly mean things like "I don't care if the world ends, as long as it ends before this stupid wedding."There is sex, albeit awkward and tentative. There are drugs, however illegal. There is very little rock and roll, but there is, of course, a wedding, and possibly a heroine: Betsy Nilssen, who, daily, finds herself in the sort of Manhattan workplace frequently filled with fashion models, few of whom have spilled milk on their jeans. She has a best friend named Bridget, and all Betsy wants is to escape the coming apocalypse by fleeing with Bridget to New Zealand, where they could kayak through fjords and make out with surfers. But two things happen: Bridget deserts Betsy---if by that we mean that Bridget accepts her boyfriend's proposal of marriage---and Betsy meets the man of her quite literal dreams, possibly the only person who might assuage the terrifying fact of Bridget's wedding while simultaneously distracting her from the end of the world---er, year.This is a story about the risks and the rewards of becoming the next and better you, whoever that person might be. It is a story about what happens when you love tremendously and desperately and occasionally unwisely. And it is a story of that one friend: your phone-a-friend with the definition of a tangelo at the ready, the one you call when the world is ending, the one you need, finally, more than any other person on the planet. Advance Praise for" Smart Girls Like Me""" """For many years I have marveled at Diane Vadino's ability to take the plainest little sentence and extend and twist it into something finer, funnier, revealing, and sad. Like this one from the book you are holding right now and ought to buy immediately: 'Or maybe this is all a fabrication, a way to soften the fact that she is sashimi at Nobu and I am Stouffer's macaroni and cheese and that this is less an illuminating metaphor than it is an accurate description of what we both ate for dinner last night.' That's just one of the beguiling double helixes that make up the DNA of this book: a zippy-smart, bitter-funny read with a beautiful, accomplished novel hidden in its genetic code, expressing itself like a sudden bright blue eye in a family of brown-eyed children---at the most surprising times."---John Hodgman, author of" The Areas of My Expertise" "Diane Vadino is a writer of enormous gifts, all of which are on display here, in her brilliant debut: a keen intelligence and wit, an amazing imagination, and an incisive understanding of human beings and the dilemmas---fantastical and mundane---in which they entangle themselves. She is that rarity: a young artist able to offer wisdom without pretension, inspiration without inhibition. I have no doubt this is the beginning of a long and wonderful career." ---Nicholas Christopher, author of" The Bestiary "and" A Trip to the Stars" "Diane Vadino is a warm, funny, and talented young writer. In her terrific first novel she transports us to the roller-coaster ride that is single life in the city---pleasingly paced, perfectly detailed scenes replete with Diane von Furstenberg dresses, meatloaf sandwiches, a job in media, credit card debt thanks to various bridesmaid honors, and crushing heartbreak at a downtown RadioShack. Never again will I reflect on those excruciatingly embarrassing moments of obsessive young love and feel alone."---Jenny Minton, author of" The Early Birds" "Fabulously entertaining, insightful, and touching in its telling of a young woman finding her own voice, her own path in life. D

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312374755
• ISBN13: 9780312374754
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A hidden gem

This is a fabulous book - before I even finished it I bought it for three of my friends for Christmas - it's just that kind of book you'll want to share with all your best friends. I myself wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't for a friend's very strong recommendation. Usually I find books like this terribly depressing, but in this case, I truly put it down feeling more excited about my own life and options. Plus it's hysterical - I laughed out loud more than once. A must read!!

So Hot!

I'm a guy. I don't usually read books like this - ones about relationships from a girl's point of view. But Vadino obviously had some strong and inspiring male influence in her life. Judging from the story, she's still all woman at heart, but seems to understand the male psyche quite intricately, which makes this novel a pastime of pure pleasure for anyone, regardless of gender. The writing is smart and at the same time made me quite horny in parts. I look forward to her future works and can only hope that they entertain, scintillate, and arouse me as much as this one.

I love this book

I'm definitely not a chick lit kind of girl but I loved this book. My best friend gave it to me, and so I was willing to deal with the pink cover - and I am so glad I did, because I would have missed out on one of my favorite books of the year. I always cringe when I see books about female best friends - they never seem to get it quite right - but this one got it square on the nose. Plus, it's really funny - I actually laughed out loud reading it, which I never do. Highly, highly recommended!

Chick lit has a new star!

This book makes me nostalgic for that first fever-pitched step into adulthood, the 20's, where love, work, friends and family fight it out for top billing. The protagonist, Betsy, could follow every "good girl's" rule regarding being a maid-of-honor, or office dating, or fashion, or Y2K, but whether it be disregard, rebellion or even ignorance, she blazes her own trail. Above all, Vadino is a refreshing and brilliant writer. Her insights will send little smiles creeping across your face, but be prepared for hardy laughs and heartbreak, too; after all, isn't that what we all remember most about our 20's?

I wish there was more smart chick lit like this out there

The writing is just so good that sometimes I have to pause and review how this author has just expressed a thought I've had myself without such clever delivery. And the story is poignant in a way that really speaks to me after I've left my 20's and my friends have started to drop off, one by one to husbands and babies. Her funny and dead-on references remind me of the Apatow/Rogen movies-brilliantly witty but tender at the same time. I can't wait to read what this author writes next!