Certain Girls. A Novel :: Education by Design Store

Editorial Review
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.

Customer Reviews

Really amazing sequel!

2008-07-03
I really loved this book, because Good in Bed left me wanting more of a story. While Certain Girls is different... I still loved how Weiner treated the story.

Not fair to compare it to its predecessor

2008-07-02
I think readers need to remember that this book is set many years after Good In Bed was written so, essentially, you're being introduced to a character who, while she may bear a resemblance to her younger self, is a changed person. I think that is actually one of the most fascinating things about this book, to have watched a character become engulfed so fully in their domestic role as a mother and wife, even despite the success of her career as a novelist. It is this character shift that held my interest throughout this book, an at times disappointing but also sympathetic feeling of understanding, knowing that all of us grow up and lose bits of ourselves as we take on other roles in life.

That being said, I did think the storyline didn't manage to follow any real path until the very end. This book at times almost felt like an exercise in trying to write descriptive passages with humor, one after another, and didn't quite gel together into a cohesive story. This makes the ending all the more jarring, and not necessarily in a good way. I suppose maybe that was for effect, but I didn't think it worked all that well, especially given the more genial tone of the pages that came before it.

Overall, a pretty good read but not one of Jennifer Weiner's finest efforts. However, as a revisit to an old, beloved character, it was certainly enjoyable.

Can Cannie keep her Perfect Life?

2008-06-27
Can the heroine of Good in Bed, Cannie Shapiro, screw up her happily ever after life, where she is married to the handsome doctor Peter Krushelevansky and is the mother of a her daughter Joy? Especially since Joy is now a teenager and Shapiro's perfect husband wants to expand their perfect family?

Disappointing

2008-06-23
I loved, loved, LOVED Good In Bed and Weiner's other books and I was so excited when there was finally a sequel. Unfortunately it's a disappointment. It's hard to believe that this is the same characters, the book falls flat, and the ending is just dreadful and left me depressed. Not what I expected at all.

Disappointed

2008-06-21
I conider myself a fan of Jennifer Weiner, having read almost all her previous books. Although I had a hard time putting Certain Girls down it disappointed me.

First there are the way too many obligatory gay characters which seem to be a staple of chick lit and/or womens' books. It's like the author is screaming "hey, look at me, I'm a good liberal". Blech. It's so predictible.

Next is the ending, which I won't spoil. The main thing I can ascertain from Ms. Weiner's books is that she has a serious problem with men. Male characters are either evil, gay, or not entirely fleshed out. Or they meet an untimely ending.

Her female charaters are for the most part interesting and endearing. I just wish that she would be able to create a fully functioning, interesting and surviving male character!

I'll give it a 6.

2008-06-21
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.

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.

Certain Girls 2008-06-18
Fun and entertaining. You will laugh and cry in the same chapter. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Insightful 2008-06-16
This is a book that could easily be shared between mother and daughter. There was so much that both could relate to. VERY entertaining. I didn't really want it to end. So realistic, which has very much become Weiner's style. The book has characters that you could imagine sharing coffee or cocktails with in real life.

A well-written and absorbing tale...just not a true sequel to "Good in Bed" 2008-06-13
Jennifer Weiner's "Certain Girls" picks up with Cannie Shapiro 13 years after her story leaves off in Weiner's "Good in Bed." Cannie is now happily married to her former diet doctor, Peter Krushelevansky, and the two of them are living in Philadelphia raising Cannie's teenage daughter, Joy.

This novel alternates chapters written in Cannie's voice and Joy's voice and is, more than anything else, a story about their relationship as mother and daughter. Cannie desperately wants her daughter's love and approval and, as a result, is a little over-eager in the mothering department. Joy's reaction to her mother's attentions is to pull away and involved herself in all sorts of rebellious activities, much to Cannie's chagrin.

For the first quarter of this novel, I was disappointed because it seemed so unlike "Good in Bed." The Cannie of this novel was nothing like what I remembered her to be and I missed her sassy sense of humor and independence. However, I decided to stopped comparing the two novels and, once I did, I started to view "Certain Girls" in a different light. If you don't expect this to be just like GIB, I think you will see that it is a well-written and more serious coming of age story that I would bill as "women's literature" as opposed to a more light-hearted genre such "chick-lit."

I was disappointed that Ms. Weiner felt compelled to end the novel on such a sad note and I thought that the story could have functioned equally well without such drama. I think a complete happy ending would not have been unrealistic for Cannie, although I understand that Ms. Weiner wanted to demonstrate that the bond between Cannie and Joy ultimately prevailed, despite the fact that it was repeatedly tested along the way.

Regardless, I do recommend this novel and I look forward to reading more from Jennifer Weiner.

Good read! 2008-06-12
I am a big fan of Jennifer Weiner, so I am may be biased. But so far this book is great. It includes our favorite girl, Cannie, from Good in Bed, and her daughter who is now 13 years old. The different perspectives offer a lot of great insight, I would def recommend this book!