"Chasing Harry Winston" by Lauren Weisberger

Two Stars - It was Okay.

Two Words: Beach. Read.

This is by the author of "The Devil Wears Prada" so I assumed it would be pretty entertaining and good for a laugh or two. I was sort of right.

This story introduces us to three best friends living in NYC, all with great jobs (well, minus the one who lives off her trust fund), and pretty good lives. Adriana is rich and gorgeous and can get any man she wants. Leigh is fast-tracking to her dream job and has the dream boyfriend. And Emmy, a serial monogamist, has a boyfriend, even if he does cheat on her - a lot. And they're all just about to turn 30.

Long story short, Emmy gets dumped so they all decide to make a pact to change their lives, well except for Leigh who doesn't agree to do anything. Adriana is going to stop sleeping with every guys she meets and get engaged by the end of the year and Leigh is going to take a new job that involves a lot of traveling and sleep with one guy from every continent which they dub "Tour de Whore".

So okay, kind of interesting set up, might lead to some funny situations and character growth. But that's where the real set plot line ends. From here it starts to wander and the pact kind of gets pushed aside. It's also a little hard to follow time-wise because it jumps huge blocks of time making it a bit tricky to keep up with what's going on. There is also quite a large amount of time devoted to a pet parrot. Actually, there is a lot of time devoted to several plot lines that don't really go anywhere, and every time an interesting plot development is suggested, it gets dumped.

At the end I walked away hating one of the girls, thinking another one was just kind of pathetic, but thinking the last one was pretty cool and I'd actually like to see what happens to her, but I'm not going to tell you which is which. So while it isn't a particularly great read it was okay. It would definitely keep you entertained in an airport or at the doctor's office if you just needed something to pass the time.

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

Three Stars - I liked it.

This book is an excellent example of why I usually always listen to my friend C's book recommendations (I say usually because there was that instance of "Giants of the Earth" from high school. I still don't get it.). I have been meaning to read Margaret Atwood's other book, "The Handmaid's Tale", for a long time so when C suggested this one I checked it out the same day.

It's your typical doom-and-gloom, technology-will-destroy-us-all, sci-fi type of book, definitely not my typical read, and I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It begins by introducing the main character, Snowman, apparently the only surviving human of some great disaster that has wiped out the world. He now lives in a tree, wears only a sheet, and watches over a group of people called the Children of Crake who are a type of genetically enhanced human, physically perfect but minus all of the intellectual and emotional issues that inevitably lead to social problems.

The story is told sort of in reverse through Snowman's memories and I really enjoyed the writing style. The narrative jumps between Snowman's present and his memories, which slowly tell the story of what happened to the human race and how he ended up taking care of the "children". His memories also reveal the secret of who Oryx and Crake are and how their three lives intertwined with each other and the fate of the world.

I've decided to keep my reviews shorter, so I'm not going into detail or giving spoilers, but I highly recommend this book. It moves at a steady pace that keeps the reader interested, and has a nice balance between Snowman's past and present storylines. It definitely fits the genre of "Sci-fi for people who don't like Sci-fi."