Certain Girls: A Novel | 
| Author: Jennifer Weiner
Publisher: Atria
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $13.25
You Save: $13.70 (51%)
New (44) Used (27) from $11.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  122 reviews
Sales Rank: 289
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0743294254
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743294256
ASIN: 0743294254
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Readers fell in love with Cannie Shapiro, the smart, sharp-tongued, bighearted heroine of Good in Bed who found her happy ending after her mother came out of the closet, her father fell out of her life, and her ex-boyfriend started chronicling their ex-sex life in the pages of a national magazine.Now Cannie's back. After her debut novel -- a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life -- became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable -- knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy's drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha. As preparations for Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception -- the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy. Radiantly funny and disarmingly tender, with Weiner's whip-smart dialogue and sharp observations of modern life, Certain Girls is an unforgettable story about love, loss, and the enduring bonds of family.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 117 more reviews...
 Not up to par July 19, 2008
This book was a disappointment. It is not nearly as good as "Good In Bed" or any of her other books for that matter. I would NOT recommend this book to my friends. The plot twist sucks! I love all sorts of literature. I can deal with heavy stuff . . . but what she does in the end does not fit and doesn't make the story more meaningful. And the last few chapters just feel like an afterthought to me. More like a Lifetime Movie or something.
Sorry, but I'm not impressed.
 Somewhat Disappointed. July 17, 2008
I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this 'series.' "Good in Bed" was fun, funny and most of all told a story from a point of view that many people could relate too-the heavier, nice gal. But in that book Cannie wasn't a victim. She was poked fun of, yes...she got down on herself, sure, but she never came across as a victim. This book, I can't say the same.
When I heard this was a sequel to Good in Bed, I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to catch up with Cannie and her hunky husband, but alas her daughter ruined it for me. Joy, Cannie's 12 year old daughter with former flame Bruce, behaved like a childish brat for most of the book. Yes, I know, I know...she is only 12, but her reasons for treating her mother so poorly were weak at best, and reduced the story to "how next can I victimize poor mummy?"
That said, the book isn't bad, but it isn't what I was hoping for. I will say that I did see the end coming, and that might have clouded my judgment.
I really enjoy this auther, and will continue to read her books, but I don't feel this one lived up to her other works.
 Condition as described...great book! July 17, 2008
The book was in the condition as described and shipped quickly. I would do business again with this seller.
Certain I love it July 15, 2008
This was another great book by Weiner. Any book that makes me cry is high on my list. I did not know this was a continuation of Good In Bed, 13 years later. It is a book about Joy and Cannie and each chapter switches back and forth between Joy and Cannie. Joy is the child of Cannie and Bruce. Bruce from the previous book who wrote the article "Good in Bed". Cannie is Joy's mom. The story is about Cannie and Joy. Cannie is remarried to Peter who has been the only father Joy has really known. Joy is 13 and is trying to figure our who she really is. I thought this book was funny and heart-warming all the same. I thought I knew the ending and was surprised when I got it wrong. This did not disappoint and I still consider Jennifer Weiner one of my favorites.
 A Satisfying Read... Unless You Are Expecting a Carbon Copy of Good In Bed... July 12, 2008
Should a writer be allowed to evolve, or should they not monkey with success? Should a savvy reader know better than to expect the same tale over and over again -- and should they receive that, won't they become bored?
Good in Bed launched the author's career, and helped to put chick lit on the map, but there is no reason to expect a writer to be on the same page several years later, to expect them to never try a different type of story, or deal with different issues.
Certain Girls is the story of Cannie and her daughter thirteen years later. It would be pathetic if she'd never evolved, and yet most of the criticism is that she is different from how she was in a book set in a different life stage.
Shakespeare said we all play many parts. Cannie's story started out as chick lit, and now it's more about dealing with a teen daughter. Shouldn't books be judged on their own merits, and shouldn't writers have an opportunity to grow and evolve?
The author also wrote a book of short stories called The Guy Not Taken -- there was even a story with Bruce and Cannie. The first stories had younger heroines and was very much in the vein of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes. As the books went on the heroines aged, there was more themes centered around motherhood, and the last story had a senior heroine. It followed the trajectory of life.
We aren't twenty and thirty somethings forever. There are stories to be told after a woman marries, when she gives birth, when her marriage hits a snag, when the kids are older, when the nest seems empty. And a writer deserves the creative outlet of exploring all of it.
There's nothing wrong with liking stories set in an earlier life stage, but there is no crime in an author moving on, and because there is no crime she should not be punished by scathing reviews based not on the story she wrote, but the one she composed several years ago.
I didn't particularly like the plot twist at the end, but it was foreshadowed very early on. The only reason I thought it wasn't going to happen is because it really happened late, and because the book was full without it, and it seemed one development too many.
This book is not as laugh out loud funny as earlier books, and in general it seems the author is more interested in tugging heartstrings, which she does very effectively.
I like Joy. She was authentically at that stage where hormones and too safe of a nest was making her pretty obnoxious. She was sick of being held too close by a mother who had good reasons for doing so, and she was discovering the story of her mother's past and seeing that Cannie had an existence beyond Joy's Mom.
On the other hand, Cannie had to get past the hurt of Joy not needing her as much to come to a place where she could give her daughter more freedom and not protect her so muich that she kept important information from her daughter.
Both Joy and Cannie evolved over the course of the book. The girl at the beginning was not the same as the one at the end, and was able to see and appreciate her mother as well as reach out to others and appreciate here good fortune in having people who care for her deeply.
Most of the book takes places in the weeks and months leading up to Joy's Bat Mitzvah, which is the celebration of a young girl's entrance into womanhood, and the author very cleverly makes that more than an abstract concept. Joy at the beginning of the book is very much a child. Joy at the end of the book has reached a new level of maturity and has learned to let go of some of her pain so that she can act compassionately and with greater empathy. She moves from the natural selfishness of childhood to moments of selflessness which is a characteristic of real growth. Joy's Bat Mitzvah was a celebration of a change that had happened over several hundred pages.
Mother and daughter had moments where I wanted to throttle one and hug the other, and which was which was constantly changing. At times I was angry at Joy for not realizing what a gift of a mother she had, and at times I was annoyed at Cannie for being too tentative in sitting her daughter down, hashing things out, and really hearing what her child had to say. And that I cared that much, that I cared about the characters, that I wanted to know how they worked it out, means that I have to give this story 4 stars even with one plot point too many, even though I wanted an even longer scene at the end where Cannie and Joy talk it out, and even though I might have liked a few more lighter moments.
JW can always be counted on to make me laugh and cry. The laughter bubbles up, but isn't unexpected, but every book I've ever read by her has made me cry at unexpected moments. For the record, I don't have children, and many of the scenarios she writes don't really mirror my life, but she has a talent for drawing me into her stories.
This is not chick lit as defined by, well, Good in Bed, and if that's the yardstick, then the story will fall short. It's also a horrible mystery and an unfortunate western. However, if you judge it by thee standards of what it is: a story about a mother and daughter learning about one another, a woman celebrating being a mother while remembering to find a passion outside of that role, a daughter taking an important leap into womanhood, then this is a good read.
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