Trading Up [Import] [Hardcover]

Candace Bushnell (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books; First Edition edition (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316725846
• ISBN-13: 978-0316725842
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 8.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (229 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,503,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Candace Bushnell is the critically acclaimed, international best-selling novelist whose first book, Sex and the City, published in 1996, was the basis for the HBO hit series. Bushnell captured the country's attention with Sex and the City by breaking down the bedroom doors of New York City's rich and beautiful to expose true contemporary stories of sex, love and relationships. The book introduced the nation to "modelizers," "toxic bachelors" and the women who are looking for Mr. Big as they glide in and out of a star-studded social scene. With Four Blondes (2000), Bushnell gave readers another uncensored look into the mating rituals of the Manhattan elite. In each of this book's four linked novellas, Bushnell uses wry humor and frank portrayals of love and lust to deliver clever, hilarious and socially relevant portraits of women in New York City. Four Blondes was a critical and commercial hit. And the successes of Sex and the City and Four Blondes created high demand for a new genre of fiction; the chick-lit phenomenon had begun. Bushnell's third novel, Trading Up (2003) is a wickedly funny social satire about a lingerie model whose reach exceeds her grasp and whose new-found celebrity has gone to her head. The book takes place in the months leading up to 9/11, and portrays an era of wearily decadent society in New York. A sharply observant, keenly funny comedy of manners Trading Up is Bushnell at her most sassy and entertaining; this novel caused the The New York Times to call Bushnell "the philosopher queen of a social scene." A movie of Trading Up is currently in production at Lifetime Television. In Lipstick Jungle (2005), her fourth novel, Bushnell explores assumptions about gender roles in family and career. The book follows three high-powered friends as they weather the ups and downs of lives lived at the top of their game. Salon called Bushnell's work "ahead of the curve" Once again, with Lipstick Jungle, Bushnell captured the paradigm of a new breed of career woman facing modern challenges and choices. Lipstick Jungle became the basis for the popular drama on NBC, currently in its second season, and starring Brooke Shields, Kim Raver, Lindsay Price and Andrew McCarthy. Bushnell serves as an executive producer on the show. Bushnell's new novel, One Fifth Avenue, is a modern-day story of old and new money, the always combustible mix that Edith Wharton mastered in her novels about New York's Gilded Age and that F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminated in his Jazz Age tales. Bushnell's New Yorkers suffer the same passions as those fictional Manhattanites from eras past: thirst for power, for social prominence, and for marriages that are successful-at least to the public eye. "Here are bloggers and bullies, misfits and misanthropes, dear hearts and black hearts, dogfights and catty squalls spun into a darkly humorous chick-lit saga," says Publisher's Weekly. Through her books and television series, Bushnell's work has influenced and defined two generations of women. She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Award for books (other winners include Joan Didion and Amy Tan), and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. Bushnell grew up in Connecticut and attended Rice University and New York University. She currently resides in Manhattan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An absolute waste of paper..., June 8, 2006

By 

A. Sharp "book witch" (book witch) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trading Up (Paperback)

This is the first book that I have read by Candace Bushnell and I was very disappointed. Instead of wasting the paper it was printed on, the story should have instead been made into a cheesy Lifetime movie starring Tori Spelling. The plot was slow, boring and predictable while the main characters were detestable. Don't waste your time reading this book!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Very Own Sex and the City, July 9, 2003

By 

L. Langford "Big D" (Cleveland Hts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trading Up (Hardcover)

I loved it; it was like having my very own Sex and the City. Bushnell is an astute observer of social castes and manners. Bushnell never describes the main character's beauty; instead, she writes about her in such a way that you completely believe this woman could roam the earth wreaking havoc as the result of her stunning good looks. Things happen quickly-- at the end of one chapter, Janey is sitting next to some guy and at the start of the next, she's married him-- but you never feel cheated; you just want to turn the page and find out what happens next. Perfect summer book. I missed the Janey so much I went out and bought 4 Blondes.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the worst book I've read, but I still wouldn't bother, November 18, 2003

By 

Julia Flyte - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Trading Up (Hardcover)

This is a pretty mediocre book. Its worst flaw is that every one of the characters is so downright despicable that you end up not caring a jot what happens to any of them. You find yourself hoping that Janey will get her come-uppance, but unfortunately when she does, it's short-lived. The writing is barely okay, certainly nothing outstanding, and the plot development is sluggish.

On the positive side, Candace Bushnell obviously knows the Manhattan social scene well and at times you feel that the descriptions are depressingly accurate. I say depressing because it comes across as being such a shallow and superficial world that I am happy to be well removed from it. It's kind of fun to guess at the inspiration behind some of the characters - Gwyneth Paltrow, Rupert Everett, Anna Wintour, Aerin Lauder...

I continued with this book hoping it would get better. It didn't. It's not the worst book that I've read, but I still wouldn't recommend it.