Bookaholic Meets Shopaholic

Ok, ok, so that title is a little misleading. I am not just meeting the hilarious Becky Bloomwood Brandon for the first time this year. Sophie Kinsella's delightful heroine and I go back many years. However, Kinsella has indulged us with a brand new addition to the Shopaholic series this fall and I just HAD to read it! However, it had been a few years since I had picked up a book in this series and I usually reread the series each time a new one is released anyway, so I figured now was the time and I reread all five other books in the series as well. Rather than discuss each individual book, I am going to look here at the series as a whole, with a special emphasis on Kinsella's recent contribution. So here is what we are looking at:

Titles (with years of publishing, and start/finish dates):
Confessions of a Shopaholic 2000 s:10/1/10 f: 10/2/10
Shopaholic Takes Manhatten 2001 s:10/2/10 f: 10/4/10
Shopaholic Ties the Knot 2002 s:10/5/10 f: 10/7/10
Shopaholic and Sister 2004 s: 10/7/10 f: 10/11/10
Shopaholic and Baby 2007 s: 10/11/10 f: 10/12/10
Mini-Shopaholic 2010 s: 10/13/10 f: 10/14/10

Author: Sophie Kinsella
Book Counts: 55,56,57,58,59,60

As I am sure you have gathered, this is amoung my favorite series and Kinsella is amoung my favorite authors. I have already reviewed two other works of hers on this project; one as Kinsella and another under her other name of Madeleine Wickham. There is something about her style and voice that just has me hooked. The period of time in which I was reading these happened to be a time in which I was required to consider the idea of literary voice for some coursework. Kinsella fascinates me because one of the things I love about her work is the distinctness of her voice in her writing. Yet she has an entirely different voice when she writes as Kinsella as compared to when she writes as Wickham. Same person, yet a change of name makes for a whole different sound in her writing. Even more interesting, she manages to make the voice distinct and different in her stand alone novels as opposed to the truly unique voice used when writing Becky Bloomwood. Impressive in itself, even more so when she manages to make each voice addictive for her readers!

I think what makes this particular series so great is the main character. Everyone I have talked to says that they can relate to Becky Bloomwood. Her thoughts are just so accessible. I find myself so incredibly similar to Becky in so many ways. Although I am far from addicted to buying clothing brands and fashion items, everytime she encounters a situation in which she begins rationalizing the purchase of a new scarf or something similar, I can hear myself as I stand in front of the book section at the grocery store reasoning with myself why buying yet another new book is perfectly reasonable, if not even the smart thing for some reason or another. Even more, I can relate to the way in which she lives in a total fantasy world. I have no idea if this is just me or if all of you are the same way, but I totally find myself dreaming up solutions in the exact way Becky does. For example, in the opening chapter of the very first novel, Becky sits ready to open her Visa bill and becomes totally caught up in the plausibility that her bill has been sent to and paid by someone else while she will be left with only the tiny bill of the other person and no one will correct the mistake. I would totally think that. The way in which she takes some random thing and spinning it into a probable future adventure, such as when she decides to buy fencing equipment and immediately links this to her likely future as Catherine Zeta-Jones' stunt double, is something I would do. (When I started this blog I instantly started daydreaming about the probability that it would be the next big movie a la Julie & Julia. Sigh, alas, not yet...) But most of all, I share Becky's tendancy to shove my problems into the back drawer and avoid them. Again, maybe we all do??

When I started the newest novel, I at first was worried that the stories were starting to get formulaic. I thought I could predict the plot after the first couple of chapters. I was wrong, so kudos to Kinsella. Even in books which are not amoung my favorites, it is hard to fool me these days and Kinsella kept me guessing this time. It was fresh, but yet still provided all of what you are looking for in a Becky Bloomwood story, including all of your favorite characters. (Suze could be my friend any day and I won't deny that I am in love with Luke Brandon.)

However, I did note an interesting shift. As noted, it had been a long time since I had read any of these novels and even longer since I had tried to read them all together. Kinsella is getting notably edgier as the series progresses. I am not sure if that is intentional or simply the way she is changing as a writer, but it is there. There is slightly more profanity, slightly more sex and decidedly more realism. So far it doesn't hurt the books, but we will see where it goes.

So that covers my shopaholic indulgence!
Back to a few quick classics!
Keep reading!
Sarah