Rebecca M. HarringtonRezensionen

Frankly, “Meh”. This should be a young adult book. The plot was like a skipped stone on a lake - only surface.

I'm not sure why I finished this book; I think it was to see if it was written tongue-in-cheek or with a real intent to portray these 20-something characters as truly superficial and selfish. Because that's what they were. The conversations were stilted, some of the plotlines were dropped (she had $40 dollars but could afford to move? She struggled with her new job but then was apparently successful?), and motivations were not clear. I hope this was written to exaggerate what some young people go through to live in New York City because it didn't sound very fun to me.½

In this fun little book (easily read in one sitting if you feel like it), New York journalist Rebecca Harrington tries out the diets of the rich and famous to see if they are really sustainable and if they actually work. The full list of celebrity diets she follows is:

Gwyneth Paltrow; Liz Taylor; Karl Lagerfeld; Marilyn Monroe; Cameron Diaz; Madonna; Greta Garbo; Victoria Beckham; Beyonce; Jackie Kennedy; Sophia Loren; Pippa Middleton; Carmelo Anthony; Dolly Parton; Miranda Kerr; Elizabeth Hurley.

Make no mistake – this is not intended to be a serious examination of how dieting works. Most diets are tried for only a few days (some of which I don’t know how anyone could actually do for more than a couple of days without passing out anyway). Each chapter focuses on a new celebrity diet, and they are choppy and short chapters, which make for a quick read.

I really enjoyed this book actually. Harrington is self-deprecating, witty and engaging. The book had me giggling to myself several times and I would certainly read more by this author.

However, it did make me think about celebrity diets and how they are sold to the gullible public – if I thought about it very deeply I would actually get quite angry. Most of the diets feature famous faces with no qualifications in nutrition whatsoever, peddling their wares to their fans and making money off people’s desire to be thinner. Miranda Kerr might be a lovely person but my goodness her lifestyle regime sounds utterly pretentious and completely unrealistic for those of us with actual jobs, budgets and time constraints. Victoria Beckham’s diet was inspired by the diet Tom Hanks followed to lose a ton of weight when filming Cast Away. In other words, she followed the diet that he used to make himself look starved! What kind of messed up is this?!

However, as mentioned above this book is not a commentary on the morality or otherwise of celebrities making money from their diets, but basically an undemanding fun read and a nice way to round off my reading for 2022.

Rating: 1 1/2 stars

Oh Penelope… I tried to like you, I did. Really, I swear. It’s just, Penelope is boring. Both the book and the character. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. Nothing improves or gets worse. Never have I read a book so full of nothing in such stilted language.

I kept on trying to get to know Penelope though, hoping beyond hope that she might miraculously show me that college age literature stood a fighting chance. I’ve been hoping for the past 10 years (since I started visiting to colleges) that there were more authors out there like Diana Peterfreund who could write about coeds with convincing sass and likeability. But the only other books I’ve been able to find that have even piqued my interest have left me feeling like my generation was getting smacked in the face. Nope, sorry, you don’t deserve good literature, you’ll have to continue to be stuck with the awkwardness of reading YA or trying to understand the challenges of the thirty something housewife in most adult fiction or, and possibly even worse, be stuck with the new “new adult” label that simply just seems to give the author free reign to insert gratuitous graphic sex scenes into what were formerly YA domains as far as content and plot goes. I don’t read romance, don’t try to trick me and get me excited by calling it “new adult”. I feel like my generation is being neglected by literature, and unfortunately my attitude towards Penelope really echoed that sentiment.

Penelope plods along through her freshman year at Harvard trying to fit in and tamper her socially awkward tendencies. I grew up with a kid like Penelope and even he learned faster than she did when to just shut up and move on. When to just walk away when you get a bunch of confused and withering stares from the WASPs of your Ivy League halls. While not Ivy educated myself (though not for lack of trying), the sociologist in me was always enthralled by the social stratification of elite private schools. The students of such schools seemed to fall into three categories: those who attended because mommy or daddy had lots of money (or were famous), those who had the brains and would invariably do something great after graduating (most likely to have super scholarships and therefore no crippling loans so they could go right into being awesome after graduating), and those who had the brains but really cared about the name on their diploma when they graduated and didn’t care if there was a better program at a public institution.

Penelope encounters primarily the first group of students and she doesn’t understand them, and truth be told, it’s hard to if you didn’t grow up in that culture. But she just kind of exists without interacting fully with any of the other characters. Does she care? What does she like? What does she really want out of life? Why did she bother going to Harvard? Alas, none of these questions are answered and Penelope remains an uninteresting conundrum throughout the entire book.

2.5 stars

Socially-awkward/inept Penelope is off to Harvard, her mom providing tips for her to make friends, etc. Her roommates don’t seem interested in becoming friends, so Penelope tends to hang out with some of the boys a couple of floors below in their dorm. Eventually, she is roped into helping with a non-speaking part in an experimental/absurdist play.

Everybody in this book was weird. Penelope seems a bit clueless as to academic life (not quite sure how she got into Harvard…). There was a lot of crushes that everyone was having on everyone else; it rarely seemed to be reciprocated. None of the characters were likeable, in my opinion, so I didn’t really care all that much what happened and if they ever got together.½

The book looked like it would be a commentary on how the millennial generation is addicted to social media and viral content. But this was not it. It was about a judgmental insufferable woman who is obsessed about her disrespectful boyfriend who just dumped her for no reason. Most of the other characters are also quite unlikable with hardly any redeeming qualities. I was able to get through the book but it just ended abruptly and I thought nothing was really resolved. Millennials are shown in a very bad light here and I really thought that was gross generalization and unfair to people like me. The friendships were superficial and sometimes downright bitchy which I just hated. I really don’t think our generation is so incapable of friendships and relationships as depicted here and even though we might be a little social media obsessed, it doesn’t mean we can be insulted. I was really disappointed with this book.

PS: I received this book from Doubleday books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read Rebecca Harrington’s upcoming novel Sociable on a Saturday morning, after spending my Friday night in a bar where a young man found out that I’m an English teacher, and proceeded to mansplain the use of the possessive apostrophe to me, but he was drunk and forgot the word for apostrophe, and I’m still laughing about it. Also, I’m about 10 years older than he realized, so, all in all, not this guy’s night.

I mention this not only to have another laugh at this poor guy’s expense, but to highlight the frustrating inanities of small talk. And Sociable describes these inanities perfectly.

When a guy tells Elinor, I bet you’re one of those girls who loves her phone! it’s a strange setup for her to prove that she doesn’t love her frivolous phone, she devotes her time to Important (male-approved) Things. Later, Elinor attempts to make the meaningful party contacts, the sort of job offers and suggestions that come easily to her connected boyfriend, and again, Sociable accurately describes party smalltalk inanities.

And that’s how Sociable sets up the distinction between Will’s writing career, which is long, political thinkpieces at a job handed to him by his parents’ friends, and Elinor’s, which is listicles by the hour at startup Journalism.ly. Sociable also describes the daily vagueness of working in an office without a traditional hierarchy or without job titles with any meaningful distinctions. Who am I supposed to report to? How often? What I am even supposed to do all day? There are a few adults at Journalism.ly, either riding the wave of advertising on 24/7 viral output or wandering around wondering what happened to print journalism, but the staff is mostly twenty-something would-be novelists, churning out listicles and advertainment.

Sociable is a twenty-something -in -the -city story, but there’s no cute, character-filled apartment or handsome stranger in the local independent coffeeshop. Instead, it’s the authentic awkwardness of being half-remembered by a more successful college classmate, having a post-breakup meetup that may actually be a job search, and being kinda good at the internet writing thing.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It is most satirical than I expected, for one thing and the writing is “meh.” I hard a hard time finishing, but I did.

Sociable by Rebecca Harrington is a story of and/or a commentary on the twenty somethings in the world of social media. Perhaps, I am not the right audience for this book; I do not see the humor in it. Elinor emerges as a shallow character who is more annoying than endearing. I find myself inclined to tell Elinor to stop whining, grow up, and be an adult. Satires can be biting and funny. For me, unfortunately, this book is neither.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018/06/sociable.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

This book had some very interesting facts and entertaining tidbits of celebrity weirdness, but I found the author’s writing a bit bland and amateur. It was a decent book for reading before bed.

pathetic attempt

How did this get published?

10 REASONS WHY YOU DON'T WANT TO READ "SOCIABLE"

1.) It’s over-cooked satire. Think of a hamburger left of a hot grill for 30 minutes. An overdone mess. A waste; you throw it away and get another……book. With satire, less is often better.
2.) It’s about 20 nothings – college grads, unemployed, whose chief skills derive from their addiction to social networks, along with 40 million others – so their talents are not exactly unique.
3.) None of the characters are very likable. They are all as shallow as a toddler’s inflatable wading pool. Their personal relationships are as empty as their heads. Their bosses have no clue about managing people (nor about running a business). Everything has an odor of failure about it. Not the fun read I was anticipating.
4.) Check the reader reviews – I suspect many of the more favorable ones are written by 12 year olds, and the others by adults over 30.
5.) The prose. Ugh. Here is a sample, it is near the end. This level of introspective thought runs through much of the story. Our heroine to her ex-boyfriend who is suddenly unemployed:
“No. That’s not what I’m saying. I don’t think you would like it there because I just don’t think you would like it.”
6.) It is not clear how these 20 nothings are paid nor how they manage their pittances. Despite forking out $1100 monthly for a closet shared with five others, they somehow can afford Uber rides all over the place and drinks that cannot be ordered in 25 words or less.
7.) As all parents understand, 20 nothings are all leaches. Child support does not end with a college degree, it goes on forever. Yet only one character in this entire herd lives with Mom on occasion. No one else mentions Mom or Dad in the entire book – they must all be orphans.
8.) Perhaps you noticed a blurb “Extremely Funny” attributed to the Washington Post. Careful, careful – there are reviews and there are reviews. This is not from one of the Post’s magnificent 300 word essays on a major new novel. It is from a writeup on summer reading featuring “7 electric new novels about the wired life.” Each “review” is one paragraph. I only skimmed the article but it appeared ad worthy blurb words abounded.
9.) The men in the story are very weak; women are even weaker, cloying, despairing.
10.) Many make their living by coming up with “10 best” lists, hoping they will go viral. How ridiculous; nobody reads “10 reasons why…..” anymore!!

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review. (My first - thanks!)

I had so many confusing emotions about this book. I am not sure if this is because I was unclear on the aim of the book. Was it satire? Was it serious? Was it both? I feel like it was both.

I saw a lot of myself and friends in parts of the characters. But, at other times it did feel a little bit overdone. The main character reminded me a lot of Shoshanna from Girls - Her character was great in the show but it would have been overkill if all of the characters were like her. This is what I felt in this book. However, I️ still enjoyed it because of my love for nyc and the mirroring of many aspects of the millennial lifestyle. Social media has completely overrun our lives and we have a tendency to care too much about ourselves, leading us to be self centered and rude to others. Maybe my dislike stemmed from some of the novel hitting too close to home. Is it possible I am that self-absorbed and short sighted?

In the end this was a smooth and easy read that was overall very fun loving.

After college, Elinor moves to New York with her journalism degree and dreams of writing pieces that mean something. She sees a future with her boyfriend, Mike, also a journalist. Instead, Elinor lives in a cramped apartment with no kitchen, sleeps on a foam pad, and nannies to two slightly whiny and obsessive children. She thinks her future is looking up when she's offered a position at Journalism.ly, a digital brand a la BuzzFeed. But soon Elinor learns that her sole function there is to produce pieces that go "viral" and then she and Mike break up, pushing her into a deeper depression. Is it even possible to have the creative and romantic life she dreamed of, Elinor wonders?

I won't lie; this was a strange book. Even the narration style is odd. While it's told mostly from Elinor's point of view, we get this peculiar device thrown in at times (e.g., "the reader should know"). You get used to it eventually, but still.

In fact, the whole novel can be very awkward at times and after a while, I lost the thread on whether it was because the book was well-done (she's so well-written!) or just awkward and painful. A lot of the book features much melodrama between the characters, most of whom always seemed to be having bad days. Really, was life so terrible? There is much angst, a lot of social media usage, lots of happy hours and supposed networking, and not a lot of people to care about.

For indeed, a lot of the characters are not likable, and I found myself vacillating in my feelings for Elinor. I didn't grow up in the social media world, like she, but am immersed in it enough now that I could empathize with her--to a point. At some stages, the novel really captured some painful situations. There were some funny points, and places where Elinor could be helpless yet sympathetic. At other points, Elinor was just hapless and unable to take charge of her life in any capacity and filled me with abject terror for the future of the nation.

I was honestly baffled at times on whether the book was satiric, or a commentary on social media and journalism, or taking itself too seriously. Elinor winds up working for Journalism.ly, which is said to be similar to BuzzFeed (and many other sites), and she's told to make things go viral, which, funnily enough, she has a bit of a knack for, despite her own inability to make friends or succeed in social situations (or life, in general). Whether all of this is ironic or not, I'll never quite know.

So, in the end, I'm at a loss with this one. I really don't know how I feel. Satire? A look at a generation? A bunch of hapless unlikable people prattling on? All three combined? I can say that this was a fast read--the author drew me in, as I read it in about a day. I was left with a weird feeling when I finished. I can't say I really recommend it, but it was an interesting read at times. 2.5 stars.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss in return for an unbiased review (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 03/27/2018.

Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Google

After college, Elinor moves to New York with her journalism degree and dreams of writing pieces that mean something. She sees a future with her boyfriend, Mike, also a journalist. Instead, Elinor lives in a cramped apartment with no kitchen, sleeps on a foam pad, and nannies to two slightly whiny and obsessive children. She thinks her future is looking up when she's offered a position at Journalism.ly, a digital brand a la BuzzFeed. But soon Elinor learns that her sole function there is to produce pieces that go "viral" and then she and Mike break up, pushing her into a deeper depression. Is it even possible to have the creative and romantic life she dreamed of, Elinor wonders?

I won't lie; this was a strange book. Even the narration style is odd. While it's told mostly from Elinor's point of view, we get this peculiar device thrown in at times (e.g., "the reader should know"). You get used to it eventually, but still.

In fact, the whole novel can be very awkward at times and after a while, I lost the thread on whether it was because the book was well-done (she's so well-written!) or just awkward and painful. A lot of the book features much melodrama between the characters, most of whom always seemed to be having bad days. Really, was life so terrible? There is much angst, a lot of social media usage, lots of happy hours and supposed networking, and not a lot of people to care about.

For indeed, a lot of the characters are not likable, and I found myself vacillating in my feelings for Elinor. I didn't grow up in the social media world, like she, but am immersed in it enough now that I could empathize with her--to a point. At some stages, the novel really captured some painful situations. There were some funny points, and places where Elinor could be helpless yet sympathetic. At other points, Elinor was just hapless and unable to take charge of her life in any capacity and filled me with abject terror for the future of the nation.

I was honestly baffled at times on whether the book was satiric, or a commentary on social media and journalism, or taking itself too seriously. Elinor winds up working for Journalism.ly, which is said to be similar to BuzzFeed (and many other sites), and she's told to make things go viral, which, funnily enough, she has a bit of a knack for, despite her own inability to make friends or succeed in social situations (or life, in general). Whether all of this is ironic or not, I'll never quite know.

So, in the end, I'm at a loss with this one. I really don't know how I feel. Satire? A look at a generation? A bunch of hapless unlikable people prattling on? All three combined? I can say that this was a fast read--the author drew me in, as I read it in about a day. I was left with a weird feeling when I finished. I can't say I really recommend it, but it was an interesting read at times. 2.5 stars.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss in return for an unbiased review (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 03/27/2018.

Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Google

I would have liked more information about how Penelope ended up at Harvard. Apparently, her parents didn't attend and she doesn't seem aware that she is attending a prestigious, competitive and extremely expensive university. Speaking of parents, where was her father? Siblings?

The book had moments of humor but on the whole, it wasn't enjoyable because of the simplistic main character. I got sick of hearing "OK" and "I don't know" repeatedly. Where was this girl's personality?

While I enjoyed the anecdotes of the celebrity whom's diet she was trying at the time; I had one big problem with this book. In my opinion, trying a diet for 3-10 days (Mostly, she did the diet for 3 days), is not trying a diet. Of course you are not losing any weight, you are not even trying. Quick read though if you need something to read while in a waiting room or on the train to work.

Netgalley sent me an ebook for my honest review of the book. It was reminiscent of The Startup. Fast read. I did not like Elinor. I mean I empathized with things she went through like struggling to find a job in the field in which she majored, fighting with her boyfriend, and difficulty dealing with the breakup. I tried hard to like her but I just kept thinking get over yourself. If you are miserable move back to Chicago or to a different city. The beginnings of the chapters had various descriptions of social media posts. It would be interesting for them to be actual visuals of of the Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. posts. Solid 3 stars.

More complex than meets the eye, this novel is a look at the world of social media and how it has impacted the way that we interact with each other. More importantly, it highlights the way in which social media and media reporting can influence our self-perception.
Elinor, a struggling journalist, is completely absorbed in her screen and the feedback that she gets from social media. As she suffers through a breakup and navigates a new job for an online organization, we are carried through her ups, downs and constant questioning of herself. The more positive media attention, the more positively she feels and the more validating her beliefs, even when she is a little off base. Face-to-face with actual people, she feigns self-confidence as she questions every move until it is validated 'socially'.
This book is well written and, when taken in the context of our increasing reliance on social media, a reminder for us to interact with actual people and rely less on media to provide our support and to look to who we are.
I particularly enjoyed the ending....while abrupt, it again demonstrates the fickle nature of life online and how it may transfer to our 'real' relationships.

2.5 stars, rounded up
I saw this piece of fluff in a bookstore, then found it as an e-book at my library and downloaded it, thinking it would be an easy airport read for a recent travel day. While amusing, I think this would have worked better an a series of articles. I'd recommend it to be read occasionally a chapter at a time instead of straight through, as I did. The concept was cute, and it was witty at times, but it became tiresome and repetitive after a while. I'm glad I borrowed, not bought.

How can a book make you sad and feel so wonderful at the same time?

First of all, disregard the synopsis. It gives you a wrong impression of what to expect. Penelope is funny, sure, but it's also perversely non-conformist. I've looked at other people's ratings on Goodreads, and you're either love it or hate it, because people don't get it in the same way they don't get Penelope herself in the book.

Penelope is a freshman at Harvard and she is considered nerdy and weird, this one quiet, agreeable and entirely forgettable girl. You know why? She is an odd duck in love with Hercule Poirot and has a very subtle sense of humour that nobody seems to get. Nobody seems to hear what she's saying to them either, not even her mother.

Everyone around her is entirely self-absorbed and full of crap. They talk about their careers, being edgy and modern, they are empty over-achievers and unfortunately Penelope can't make sense of the life happening around her. She tries to go with the flow and gravitates towards this group and the other, but nothing helps her to feel as someone who belongs. The sense of loneliness in the sea of people and pointlessness of it all is incredible.

Then she meets this fascinating European rich boy, Gustav, mad as a hatter and with a peculiar sense of humour. She has it in her head that if only they had some sort of relationship she can go on this great adventure, because she honestly doesn't have any certainty or goals in her life unlike her fellow freshmen.

Gustav... I can't even get angry with him, because he is rich, spoiled and utterly scatterbrained. He is very charming when he is with Penelope and forgets her when she is out of his line of sight. Crazy, flitting and delightfully bizarre. However, the relationship or shall I say non-relationship/make out sessions with him force Penelope little by little out of her shell, and by the end of the book the whole situation and how she deals with it gives her personality better definition.

I wish Rebecca Harrington wrote more books because I'm dying to know what will become of Penelope, and I just dearly loved the author's style of writing, subtle, ironic, out of the box and melancholy.

Very much recommended.

Not sure why I invested the time to read this - the main character is more painful to follow than sticking needles in your eyeballs.

Fad Diets are stupid. Author Rebecca Harrington is a really smart person who wrote a book about this stupid subject. Celebrities hold limited interest for me, perhaps not so for others. This book was probably a bad match for me.

Rebecca Harrington is also rather young and quite thin. She does not need any diet. She certainly does not need Beyoncé's Master Cleanse diet, inspired by Tom Hanks, who lost fifty pounds for his role in "Cast Away."

Okay, I realize that authors do stupid things so they can write about them. A.J. Jacobs spent a year living "Biblically," doing what the literal reading of the Bible instructs. Then, he wrote an informative, entertaining book about it. He also read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, then wrote "The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World," which was also rather interesting.

I guess Harrington's 161 page book on her experience following 14 celebrity diets, in my view, did not provide adequate material for an entire book. It did reveal some of the absolutely bizarre ideas on nutrition of famous people, but it left me hungry (sorry). Note: the pre-publication version that I read did not contain illustrations, so I cannot comment on them.

Hilarious? I wasn't laughing. I found it mildly amusing, at best. Yes, I do enjoy humor, but more like that of Laurie Notaro, Bill Bryson or J. Maarten Troost. Maybe I'm just too old for this . . . my days of fad diets are long behind me.

Penelope was a book I had been eagerly awaiting. I love books about university life, from The Red Book to I Am Charlotte Simmons. I had the date of release marked in my diary and bought it the moment I saw it in the bookshop. I loved the birds on the front cover; the cat I’m not so sure about, as it turns out that Penelope is allergic to cats. That was my first warning that this book wasn’t going to be the voyage of liberation and self-discovery that I’d thought.

Let’s start from the start. Penelope is an odd character – we find this out almost immediately when her mother starts giving her instructions on how to make friends and removes Tetris off her phone. That’s fine, nerdiness is okay. Penelope lacks the knowledge of what constitutes a social conversation (discussing how you sat in a car booster seat until you were nine is not one of them) and she’s completely awkward. So of course we expect her to grow, make friends and find a place where she can be happy at Harvard.

Wrong. Penelope doesn’t appear to learn from her experiences at drunken costume parties or clumsy attempts at romance. She is awkward with a capital A, cringe worthy to the point it becomes so uncomfortable you want to look away because this is excruciating. Her actions and speech are unfathomable at times – not even funny in an evil way.

This brings me to another major point in this novel – speech. I found the speech of all the characters, not just Penelope, to be old fashioned and something out of the 1700s. The characters rarely use contractions when they speak – please find me a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds who speak like that! For example, one character says ‘That is what is so hard’ (girls are jealous of her). Wouldn’t it be more natural to say, ‘That’s what’s so hard’ or ‘OMG, it’s like so hard’? Or is this some satire that I’m completely missing? Whatever. It seems like the characters don’t really listen to each other either because most conversations end with an uncomfortable ‘awesome’.

Maybe I’ve missed something crucial here, and this is what life at university is truly like – flat, awkward and painful – and my personal experiences of fun, friendship and occasional hard work were out of the ordinary. Perhaps this is all satire that I’m too lowly to understand. Like, whatever – I’d give this book a miss or borrow it from the library if you must read it.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com½

Hilarious deadpan-ly uproarious. If you are nagging your overchieving child to apply to Harvard, PLEASE, both of you, take time off from your obsessing and SAT tutoring and 35 AP courses and READ THIS BOOK. What fun to love someone else's nightmare.
Now I just need to figure out if my book club's collective sense of humor can withstand this.