Customer Reviews

Miss Media: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a literary fiction world that seems dominated by either down-on-their-lucky city princesses or anonymous White Man Angst, it's a true pleasure to read a funny, pugnacious, pointed satire about media madness, misbegotten role models, internet etiquette, big business, and the search for true love. Lynn Harris tells the fast and furious insider account of Lola Somerville (a woman you hope will be your best friend and condfidante), and her attempted road to success at a women's media empire that's more Death Star than North Star. The book is part roman a clef, part relationship guide, and part thriller, but most of all a true satire that captures the madness that was the Internet Bubble and the insanity that engulfed everyone who was a part of it -- and lived to tell the tale. Definitely grab this funny and refreshing novel, relish every last page, and share with friends!

I say shave your legs, throw a log on the fire, wriggle into your best shorty nightie, slip in between clean, crisp sheets, pull up a snuggly cover and savor this delicious novel. Personally, I have no fireplace and seldom launder my sheets but despite any evidence to the contrary I DO shave my legs, and anyone in any circumstace would be plumb loco (that's right, I said it, plumb loco) not to LOVE this book! (If aforementioned nighties and leg shaving references imply men won't like it, wrong inference. I just like inserting the word nightie into all my reviews.)

A modern-day Dawn Powell, Ms. Harris' roman a clef eerily, cheerily captures the hope, hubris, insanity, inanity of the dot.com and women's media milieus. And whether your vantage point on that arcane era is as a weathered insider or unscathed voyeur, there's plenty o' suspense, romance and jaunty insights to keep this thinking (wo)man's pot boiler bubbling.

this was such a treat to read-- the characters are engaging, the writing is clever and terribly funny, and the satire is spot-on. i can't wait to start death by chick lit.

MISS MEDIA is a wonderful, crazy, and strangely moving book. As I read, I got so absorbed in the characters and so caught up in the twists & turns of the plot that I ACTUALLY READ PAST MY SUBWAY STOP! And the amazing thing was, I didn't care -- it meant I had time for a few more pages!!! IMHO, This is a great read!

How can you not love a book that takes potshots at the authors of "The Canon" (the dating bible that tells women to dimwitted and hard to get) and "Xanax Planet" (the memoir of self-absorption and medication)? You don't need to be a girl who once toiled in "whoo hoo we're gonna change the world" dotcom hell to love Miss Media. But, uh, if you are, you will! Truthfully, anyone who's ever had to navigate a workplace full of smiling villains and cretins will get a kick out of this comic novel. And anyone who's ever had a crush, enjoyed a Breakup Girl column or hung out with a very witty girlfriend will like spending time with Lola Somerville. This book's so good, it should have a Ben & Jerry's flavor named after it.

This new book by Lynn Harris transports you back to the late 90's so effectively that you might look up from your book and think "Hey- Star Wars Episode One is really going to be good!"

Creating the vivid world of "Ovum" media as seen through the eyes of Lola Somerville, Harris creates a twisting, charming, romantic tale on the backdrop of dot-com America that is made more compelling by the downfall that is sure to come.

A fun page-turner with lots of surprises, this book is highly reccomended.

...From laughter, that is! WARNING: Do NOT read this book in a public place! I was reading it in my doctor's office, and drew many strange looks...it went something like this: <snicker>...<laugh>...<guffaw>. Lola's misadventures will ring true with anyone who's ever had anything to do with the cut-throat media world, yet will make one laugh uproariously while saying "OMG, that's so true!" Miss Harris, in her usual inimitable style, brilliantly sends up all of the business' buzzwords, hot properties, and trends. Run, don't walk, to buy this book!

I hope to hear more from Miss Harris, as she's a true gem.

AaaaaAAAAaaaah!
It's so GOOD!
Holy HANNAH!
I am making myself put Miss Media down to get work done, but I _love_ it!
Okay, I only just started it last night, but already I think the tone is delicious, the wordplay sharp, the inner dialogue hilarious, and the invocation of impossibly acutely observed dotcom era tropes is making me dizzy!
It's like watching a Harry Potter movie and seeing things from your brain come to Hollywood manufacture, in a good way. There's the image of Ovum I remember and maybe try to forget (having been there), then I smirk at the re-rendition 'for the screen' that is so right, but shinier somehow. Can't wait for my lunchbreak to read more!

Fasten your seatbelts, grab a parachute - and get ready for a helluva ride! It's been two weeks since I wistfully reached the end of the Miss Media tour and my sides still ache.

Lynn Harris so successfully walks the skinny tightrope between recent dotcom history and fiction through the antics of Lola Somerville - that any lucid moments one may have in-between laughing fits feels hauntingly like déjà vu. With a "you-are-there" cadence - it's a must-read for anyone who has the foggiest idea that in a capsule of time not so long ago - a demon called the Internet possessed the world.

Miss Media is hilarious, incisive, and smart. It's such a page-turner that I wanted to read the whole book in one session, except then I wouldn't have had any more of it to look forward to. Great read!!!