Friday, February 01, 2008

FIVE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT by Holly Shumas

1.Books
2. my family and friends (no that does not count as 2 separate things)
3. margaritas on the rocks, no salt
4. Chapstick
5. a good hairbrush

You should have known this review would start like that. I encourage you to do your own as well. And yes, its okay if it changes now and then.

FIVE THINGS I CANT LIVE WITHOUT by Holly Shumas was one I had wanted to read, but had a very hard time getting ahold of it. My library didn’t carry it; the bookstore couldn’t seem to find it; alas my new love, Paperspine.com, shipped it to me. (Its like Netflix for books)
A quick read, if a bit plodding, FIVE THINGS, follows Nora, a 29-year old currently writing animal bios at a local shelter, as she abruptly quits, moves in with her boyfriend and opens her own business writing profiles for Internet daters. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, Nora is an overthinker, spending waaaaaaaaaaay too much time in her “meta-life,” analyzing every possible outcome of a situation before it ever really begins.

While interviewing her clients, Nora asks them the Five Things question and begins considering the Five Things She Cant Live Without. She begins taking a salsa class with her all-too-perfect boyfriend of 6 months Dan in an effort to pick up the pace on an otherwise coasting relationship; visits with friends who are moving forward in their lives in contrast to Nora’s almost-30 mentality.

FIVE THINGS was a good book. But that’s about it. It was an easy and just okay book What would have made it better?

1. more about Dan (he sounded awesome, why would Nora ever question that)
2. less bitching and whining from Nora
3. a little more background on her friends
4. the reality of paying the bills with a job created and posted on Craiglist
5. more intellectual substance to provoke readers into writing their own list.

OVERALL: FIVE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT was just okay. It was well-written but seemed to lack something meatier with more substance. I don’t care for near-neurotic heroines who still get the awesome guy, can pay the bills, and has a cool job, and that’s how I ended up feeling about Nora. I was glad I read it but not wholly satisfied.