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Smart Girls Like Me [Paperback]

Diane Vadino
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 11, 2008

This is a story about what happens when you are twenty-four years old and it is 1999 and you are quite certain that everyone on the planet has been invited to super-fun New Year’s Eve orgies, except you. There is sex, albeit awkward and tentative. There are drugs, however illegal. There is very little rock and roll, but there is, of course, a wedding, and possibly a heroine: Betsy Nilssen, who, daily, finds herself in the sort of Manhattan workplace frequently filled with fashion models. She has a best friend named Bridget, and all Betsy wants is to escape Y2K by fleeing with her to New Zealand, where they could kayak through fjords and make out with surfers.

     But two things happen: Bridget deserts Betsy—if by that we mean that Bridget accepts her boyfriend’s proposal of marriage—and Betsy meets the man of her quite literal dreams. This is a story about what happens when you love tremendously, and desperately, and occasionally unwisely. And it is a story of that one friend: your phone-a-friend with the definition of a tangelo at the ready, the one you call when the world is ending, the one you need, finally, more than any other person on the planet.



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Blogger Vadino (bunnyshop.org) does a good job in her first novel of capturing the inner life of a chronic worrier as she navigates late '90s New York City. The reluctant assistant editor of a dot-com fashion magazine, Betsey Nilssen stocks up on freeze-dried foods, convinced the world is going to end on January 1, 2000. But Betsey's busy, pre-apocalypse best friend Bridget Callahan is planning her perfect wedding, and office crush Ryan Wells finally returns Betsey's affections. Though Betsey is crazy about him, and he seems devoted, his having just split with his longtime girlfriend causes some doubts that Bridget exploits. Bridget, meanwhile, is dispassionate about fiancé James, which causes Betsey to wonder who has the right attitude when it comes to being in love. Vadino peppers her prose with unmistakable and convincing period references (the Discman, Zima, the X-Files), including a quick (and heartbreaking) line about being disoriented downtown until spotting the World Trade Center. Office politics at the scrappy e-mag run true, and while Betsey's neurotic obsessing could be pruned, Vadino gets into her head while still making her sympathetic, especially as her fixation on Ryan threatens to send her off the deep end. The novel's bittersweet tone carries through to a satisfying conclusion. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Diane Vadino is an exhilarating talent . . . This is a slight, beautiful novel that makes you wish there were more smart girls like her writing books.”—Nylon

Smart Girls Like Me [is] like moving Bridget Jones to New York . . . Betsy’s humorous internal monologues keep the reader engaged from first page to last.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A raw and honest glimpse of single life. The witty, poignant Vadino writes exactly how Smart Girls think.” —Entertainment Weekly

“[T]o maintain your dignity while giving into your chick lit urge . . .With seriously good writing by this McSweeney’s alum, Smart Girls is as fun and relatable as one of those silly pink books . . .” —Marie Claire

“For many years I have marveled at Diane Vadino’s ability to take the plainest little sentence and extend and twist it into something finer, funnier, revealing, and sad. Like this one from the book you are holding right now and ought to buy immediately: ‘Or maybe this is all a fabrication, a way to soften the fact that she is sashimi at Nobu and I am Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese and that this is less an illuminating metaphor than it is an accurate description of what we both ate for dinner last night.’ That’s just one of the beguiling double helixes that make up the DNA of this book: a zippy-smart, bitter-funny read with a beautiful, accomplished novel hidden in its genetic code, expressing itself like a sudden bright blue eye in a family of brown-eyed children---at the most surprising times.”
---John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
 
“Diane Vadino is a writer of enormous gifts, all of which are on display here, in her brilliant debut: a keen intelligence and wit, an amazing imagination, and an incisive understanding of human beings and the dilemmas---fantastical and mundane---in which they entangle themselves. She is that rarity: a young artist able to offer wisdom without pretension, inspiration without inhibition. I have no doubt this is the beginning of a long and wonderful career.”
 ---Nicholas Christopher, author of The Bestiary and A Trip to the Stars
 
“Diane Vadino is a warm, funny, and talented young writer. In her terrific first novel she transports us to the roller-coaster ride that is single life in the city---pleasingly paced, perfectly detailed scenes replete with Diane von Furstenberg dresses, meatloaf sandwiches, a job in media, credit card debt thanks to various bridesmaid honors, and crushing heartbreak at a downtown RadioShack. Never again will I reflect on those excruciatingly embarrassing moments of obsessive young love and feel alone.”
---Jenny Minton, author of The Early Birds
 
“Fabulously entertaining, insightful, and touching in its telling of a young woman finding her own voice, her own path in life. Diane Vadino is an exceptional new discovery in fiction!”
---Kirsten Lobe, author of French Trysts: Secrets of a Courtesan and the bestselling Paris Hangover

Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 11, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312385528
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312385521
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,934,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars not smart January 12, 2009
Format:Paperback
Despite the title of this book, Betsy is not a smart girl. She may have better grammar than the people she works with, she may even be more intelligent than most of them, but she gives little evidence of actually being smart. She spends the bulk of the book being snippy about her best friend's upcoming wedding (to the point that if she were my maid of honor, I would have fired her!) and obsessing about her juvenile relationship with her maybe-boyfriend. At the end of the book she has the predictable revelation about her life and her relationships and the true meaning of being happy, but she spent so much of the book acting like an idiot that I couldn't really bring myself to care.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By kt
Format:Hardcover
The writing is just so good that sometimes I have to pause and review how this author has just expressed a thought I've had myself without such clever delivery. And the story is poignant in a way that really speaks to me after I've left my 20's and my friends have started to drop off, one by one to husbands and babies. Her funny and dead-on references remind me of the Apatow/Rogen movies-brilliantly witty but tender at the same time. I can't wait to read what this author writes next!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Not so smart? May 27, 2008
Format:Hardcover
Though Betsy, the main character, is realistic and usually likable, I could not relate well to her. She is self destructive at a point in her life where I would expect her to be getting it all together. Perhaps that is too judgemental, but I had a hard time getting comfortable in her shoes. As Betsy negotiates friendships, work, romantic relationships, and ultimately her own purpose, the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride through her many twists, turns, flips, and sometimes upside-down positions. From the way Betsy treats and is treated by her best friend Bridget, to her emotional havoc with boyfriend Ryan, the story does not always flow. Yet, in critiquing from a literary standpoint, the book is written well, with an excellent use of the English language, as Betsy loves words. From a plot perspective, though, I found the story lacking. However, the ending does not tie everything up in a nice knot, which is actually appreciated. The reader is left wondering a bit about Betsy's next decision, which may be full of possibility and discovery.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars BORING! Could not finish!
Sorry but I just hated this book, at least the part I read. I forced myself to get to page 38 and had to stop the agony! Read more
Published on April 29, 2010 by Sue
4.0 out of 5 stars Smarter Chick Lit But Needs a Little Work
This is a better than average chick lit book, with the main character Betsy being focused on more important issues than Prada shoes. Read more
Published on July 23, 2009 by Stacy Y. Correll
4.0 out of 5 stars Cute but forgettable story of the the early 20's girl that we all know...
Betsy, the main character in this story of quarter-life-crisis, is an entertaining but familiar mess. Read more
Published on April 2, 2009 by KL
3.0 out of 5 stars Fine debut
Growing up and growing wiser tale from a young woman who's about to watch her best friend get married and wonders where her own future lies. Read more
Published on March 6, 2008 by groovymamma
5.0 out of 5 stars A hidden gem
This is a fabulous book - before I even finished it I bought it for three of my friends for Christmas - it's just that kind of book you'll want to share with all your best friends. Read more
Published on December 21, 2007 by Nicholas Smalle
4.0 out of 5 stars An achingly funny, truly bittersweet novel
In SMART GIRLS LIKE ME, her debut novel, writer and blogger Diane Vadino turns the typical "chick lit" formula on its head. Read more
Published on November 30, 2007 by Bookreporter
5.0 out of 5 stars So Hot!
I'm a guy. I don't usually read books like this - ones about relationships from a girl's point of view. Read more
Published on November 17, 2007 by Norin Rad
4.0 out of 5 stars A DELICIOUSLY FUNNY DEBUT
Remember your childhood best friend, the one with whom you played every day? Then, in high school you shared the most intimate secrets, called each other in the mornings to decide... Read more
Published on October 21, 2007 by Gail Cooke
5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book
I'm definitely not a chick lit kind of girl but I loved this book. My best friend gave it to me, and so I was willing to deal with the pink cover - and I am so glad I did, because... Read more
Published on October 16, 2007 by nicole a.
5.0 out of 5 stars Chick lit has a new star!
This book makes me nostalgic for that first fever-pitched step into adulthood, the 20's, where love, work, friends and family fight it out for top billing. Read more
Published on October 9, 2007 by Lacey A. Rzeszowski
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