The Dallas Women's Guide to Gold-Digging with Pride

by J.C. Conklin

Book Overview

Here, in the land of conspicuous consumption, marriage isn't considered a lifelong commitment. It's the ultimate accessory.-from The Dallas Women's Guide to Gold-Digging with Pride Jennifer Barton's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345492943
• ISBN13: 9780345492944
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

This book captures Dallas perfectly. I loved it. Great laughs and definitely a great read. I shared it with all my friends, who enjoyed it just as much as I did.

In this Texas satire, it's about marrying well

Couldn't put it down. As a transplant to Texas, I laughed hysterically at the antics of the "Dallas Women" and the portrayal of real Texas culture, including snake hunts, husband traps, and the pursuit of the perfect plastic surgeon. I loved, hated and laughed at the characters in this edgy satire. Even good southern women will be able to laugh a bit at themselves as the dark side of husband hunting is exposed.

I loved it and so did the Dallas Morning News

I bought this book after the Dallas Morning News did a glowing review and the paper was right it's great. Read it for yourself below "The Dallas Women's Guide to Gold-Digging With Pride is one of those books that I might spy at the bookstore, flinch slightly and wander away - only to covertly grab it later, then hide behind a stack of something more serious, Khaled Hosseini's latest, perhaps, or that new one by Ian McEwan, to check it out. Embarrassed or not, however, I would feel compelled to pick it up. It's so, well, gaudy in an irresistible sort of way, with its bright fuchsia cover adorned with a pair of Neiman's-worthy cowboy boots. And then there's that title, for heaven's sake, which sounds like something a nonfiction writer would dream up to get a spot on Oprah. Thankfully, Gold-Digging With Pride turns out to be fiction, although it seems certain that Austin-based author J.C. Conklin, a former reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the local bureau of The Wall Street Journal, has done quite a bit of local research. Another bit of good news: The flamboyant allure of the cover is thoroughly reflected in the actual contents. The heroine, Jenny Barton, also a reporter, comes to Dallas from New York City. It's her first time to live below the Mason-Dixon line, and she gamely tries to fit into a designer-obsessed city while covering Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney on the retail beat. "Did I mention that I get all the irregular T-shirts I want?" she asks, looking in vain for the lemonade. Her love life's in lemon territory, as well. After a series of heartbreaks, she finally gives in to the ministrations of her best friend, Aimee, a paralegal who "looks like a Miss America contestant" and treats marriage as a business investment. Aimee soon has Jenny clip-clopping through Whole Foods at 8 a.m. in Gucci stilettos ("Rich men shop organic in the morning") and wearing pink, although she draws the line at donning capris. Ms. Conklin's sassy dialogue and ascerbic, dead-on descriptions of Dallas locales and types make the book compulsively readable. You might be tempted to shove it under the couch pillows when company comes over, but it's more likely you'll find yourself reading bits aloud in a sort of merry-but-horrified trance."

Hilarious summertime read!

The Dallas Women's Guide to Gold-Digging with Pride is the funniest book I've read in awhile. My favorite part is how author, J.C. Conklin, inserts Southern sayings and translates them, they cracked me up! I definitely wouldn't want to be one of these women, but they're very entertaining to read about. Texas gold digging at it's finest.

Not chick lit, good summer reading.

I confess that I don't want to be a woman in this book and I might not want to be friends with them (I could hang out with Jenny and Aimee) but I am fascinated by them. I've heard of women like this. I've suspected that some of the young women I see hanging on the arms of old men do this. Now I know. The book lets me peek at a world I would never see because I'm not a D cup with lipoed thighs. It's frivilous. It's fun. It has an edge. The undertone of anti-semitism is cutting. Does that still happen in Texas? I wouldn't characterize this as "chick lit." It has more layers than boy meets klutzy girl and antics ensue. I would call it a good summer read. I confess this is the first review I've written. I have no idea if this is helpful. I was motivated to write it after reading the posts discussing what chick lit is and if this is chick lit. I can say with certainity it's not. It's more than that.