LIFE's SIMPLE PLEASURE's: BOOK REVIEW:JEMIMA J

JEMIMA J

A novel about ugly ducklings and swans

by Jane Green

I probably haven't read a book in ages... unless you include an economics text book, which is hardly pleasurable reading. My boyfriend and I were at the library the other day, (yes, we're nerds like that.) and just randomly I remembered the name of this author whom I read a book years ago. I looked it up in the library data base.. Jane Green. She's an English author and her characters are based in London Her books are an international best seller.This is one of those love it or hate it books. Its definitely a girl's book and more so if you're interested in books with a love plot.

What drew me to the book right away was the title:

Jemima J, a novel about ugly duckling a swans.

I am always down to read book or stories of success and hard comings and people making it through tough situations. It just gives me a sense of enlightenment and a sense of "I can do it too!" I couldn't put this book down. And the funny part was, I have read this book before, and I couldn't put it down the first time. But it's been years and I wanted to re- read it just because I couldn't remember how the story ended.

Basically, It's about this 27 year old journalist named Jemima Jones. She weighs about 200 +lbs and works at a nobody newspaper called the Kilbourn Herald as a tips columnist. She hates her job, she hates her life, and she hates the way she looks. She has too much potential and is extremely smart. She spends her days stuffing her face with food and feeling inadequate to her gorgeous roommates and co worker. She's IN LOVE with her friend Ben Williams and hopes that she can be as skinny as the girls in the magazine that she religiously reads. Ben, of course, just thinks of her as a friend.

I love relating to his character because she is so down to earth and real. And it's weird that a character has jumped out to me as being relate- able. I felt the same way growing up, struggling with weight issues and insecurities and wishing I was that skinny girl who could eat what she wants and still look amazing.

So her work gets computers and she starts chatting it up with this guy who lives in California. Long story short, he wants to meet her and he thinks that she is this skinny, hot, news reporter. So in the three months before she flies out to meet him, she goes from 200 lbs to 120lbs. OBSESSIVELY. She barely eats and goes to the gym twice a day. If that doesn't get you skinny, I don't know what will.

She meets him. Brad...this amazingly handsome, wealthy, gym owner. The ending is SO CRAZY, I cannot even begin to tell you. He seems perfect on the outside, and the sex is amazing, but there's something she doesn't know about him. DUN..DUN.. DUN.. When she's with Brad, she has to be this fake, perfect, beautiful, skinny girl. She loses herself only to find herself again.

I put this book down with the biggest smile on my face because I know, that even though this is a book, I am so happy for Jemima Jones because she has found herself. Usually when things don't end happy, I feel pretty upset.

What this book has done for me is given me a little more sense of appreciation for who I am and how happy I am with where I'm at. I know that I used to feel so ugly, I used to have a lot of pretty friends and my cousins are beautiful. Everytime I hang out with them I felt so ugly because guys would turn their heads and look and them, and here I was just a glob. That was how I felt years ago. Fast forward to now, and I am confident in the person I have become. Sure, there are insecurities, but I know that I am pretty. I have this amazing boyfriend that thinks I'm the prettiest girl in the world. I have this amazing family, this amazing life, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

If there's anything I've learned about happiness, you must love yourself first and what you have, and then everything and everyone around you will see what you see. And they'll love you for who you are and not what you're trying to be. In the end, if you try and be anyone else but you, you'll fail and be miserable because you are designed to be one person, and that's yourself.

Happy Readings!

♥TRANG