Meet Rose Feller. She’s thirty years old and a high-powered attorney with a secret passion for romance novels. She has an exercise regime she’s going to start next week, and she dreams of a man who will slide off her glasses, gaze into her eyes, and tell her that she’s beautiful. She also dreams of getting her fantastically screwed-up little sister to get her life together.
Meet Rose’s sister, Maggie. Twenty-eight years old, drop-dead gorgeous and only occasionally employed, Maggie sings backup in a band called Whiskered Biscuit. Although her dreams of big-screen stardom haven’t progressed past her left hip’s appearance in a Will Smith video, Maggie dreams of fame and fortune — and of getting her dowdy big sister to stick to a skin-care regime.
These two women with nothing in common but a childhood tragedy, shared DNA, and the same size feet, are about to learn that their family is more different than they ever imagined, and that they’re more alike than they’d ever believe. In Her Shoes — Jennifer Weiner’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut, Good in Bed — observes Rose and Maggie, the brain and the beauty, as they make journeys of discovery that take them from the streets of Philadelphia to Ivy League libraries to a “retirement community for active seniors” in Boca Raton. Along the way, they’ll encounter a wild cast of characters — from a stepmother who’s into recreational Botox to a small, disdainful pug with no name. They’ll borrow shoes and clothes and boyfriends, and make peace with their most intimate enemies — each other.
Funny and poignant, richly detailed and wrenchingly real, In Her Shoes will speak to anyone who has endured the bonds of big — or little — sisterhood, or longed for a life different from the one the world has dictated, and dreamed of trying something else on for size.
I totally forgot this was also made into a movie in 2005 so I am going to cheat just a little bit and use this for my 2010 Challenge for read the book see the movie. And I will watch the movie in 2010 so it counts and it is the end of the year close enough.
This is my first Jennifer Weiner book and I had high hopes. My friend Sara said it was a good one…
The book started on a risqué and yet high note. It made me chuckle a little bit and than at the same time as I read on a little sad. Maggie defiantly has some issues to have herself used the way she does. Reading further the relationship between Maggie and Rose touched a little bit close to the relationship I share with my sibling. It is not exact and we are not set fully like the pair but I could defiantly relate and that does make the book a little closer to home for myself and probably others.
While I found the book enjoyable it wasn’t one that I couldn’t put down. It was just okay. Not bad not good, just there. I got a little lost at some of the chapter switches but that could have been my own personal lack of focus. And while I did not think the book was fantastic I will be giving the author another shot and I will defiantly read some more of her books and see where they go.
Happy New Year! Good bye 2009!