Customer Reviews

You Could Do Better

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Thank goodness I checked this book out of the library instead of buying it because it was absolutely awful. I'd recommend against reading this, but if you absolutely have to, go to the library instead of the bookstore. Eek.

From page 1, Daphne is completely unlikeable. Her live-in boyfriend wants to propsoe to her, but she's more excited about watching TV and then, after accepting his proposal, is glad he's too tired to have sex. She goes on to complain about how their love life is far from hot. The book continues with her having trouble telling everyone about her engagement because she isn't very excited, and then she meet Johnathan, a rich TV producer, and becomes interested in him.

Standard chick lit. Which is fine, as I enjoy chick lit. The problem is how it's written.

Every character, instead of describing their appearance, is summed up in lines like, "She reminded me of Ruth on All My Children" or "He was so cute, in an Adrian Grenier from Entourage sort of way." Mmm-hmm. And if you haven't watched these shows, you're sort of out of the loops. It doesn't stop there either - everything is compared to something that's on TV because Daphne works for the Museum of Television and Radio. It's just way overdone and gets more than irritating. I began to want the book to have more of a plot than rehasing incidents from TV.

You feel no sympathy for Daphne. Sure, her love life might not be as red hot as she wants it to be, but she's the one who picked her boyfriend as a partner, and she's clearly making no effort to change matters; all she wants to do is for him to leave her alone with her TV shows. She comes across as extremely shallow and unlikeable, not caring how she's hurting him in her pursuit of another guy. The chemistry between Daphne and the new guy, Jonathan, isn't all that convincing, and you wonder why she's so intent on destroying the relationship with Charlie, the boyfriend who may not be great in the sack but clearly loves her and is doing whatever he can for her. From her descriptions of him he's clearly loathed - truly, HE could do better.

I couldn't read past a quarter of the way into the book, it was just that bad. I ended up flipping through the rest of the novel to see what happened, just out of morbid curiosity. I wasn't too impressed, but that was to be expected.

There are many more, many BETTER chick lit novels out there. Do yourself a favor and read one of those instead.

A smart, funny novel.

Like Stephanie Lehmann's earlier novels, YOU COULD DO BETTER is funny and entertaining while also digging deep. She touches on some of her favorite subjects: sex, guilt, death, sibling rivalry... And she also has her main character Daphne face something that's a challenge for many women: asking for what you want! I don't want to give away the story, but I really identified as Daphne grew to realize that it was okay for her -- that she even deserved -- to "do better," whether it was at her job at The Museum of Television, in her relationships, or in bed...

One of the interesting and fun things about this novel is how the author has worked in a decade by decade history of television. For example, you can find out how Lucille Ball changed the entire industry (and became incredibly rich and powerful in the process) because she wanted to keep her husband Desi from cheating on her.

I loved the book. The characters are so real. They stay with you long after you've finished reading the book. I also really liked all the tv trivia. The main character works at the Museum of Television and Broadcasting.

was O. K. It held my interest for the most part although it did get bogged down in several places. Light patio & iced tea read.

This is the first book I've read by Stephanie Lehmann, and I thought it was ok. The characters in this book were not so likable and I couldn't really relate. It's a good read (not bad), but the storyline is so very predictable. There are much better chick-lit novels out there!

This is the first book of Stephanie Lehmann's that I've read. And I'm not particularly inspired to pick up another. There's a lot of good chick-lit out there, this just doesn't happen to be one of them.

I think that for someone who REALLY enjoys television and has followed a wide variety of TV shows, this would be an enjoyable book. I personally found all the TV references highly distracting (as others have noted), and had a hard time picturing a lot of the characters based on their descriptions, since they were mostly described as being "like" a television character.

I did think that the author did a nice job with the sibling rivalry aspect of the book, and I thought that - by the end - some of Daphne's actions and attitudes were explained as more of the history between she and her sister unraveled. I also liked the gradual way she built up Daphne's attraction to Johnathan, and Daphne's budding relationship with Johnathan's daughter Lily. In fact, I liked the storyline in general - I guess it was the writing that I found uninspiring. If you want to read a lot of exposition and very little dialogue, this is a good choice.

You Could DO Better - swept me away like a movie. The book way easy to read, and fun and funny and interesting. I rushed home every day from work thinking and wondering what is going to happen next. I hated having to stop in the middle of my reading to be interrupted by silly little things like SLEEP and WORK!!!
Really kept me on the edge of my seet and i loved every minute of this book. I told all my friends to go out and buy it, they will love it!!

I really liked the writing style of this book and I really liked the storyline but I HATED THE MAIN CHARACTER. Although some reviewers felt she was shallow, it seems to me she just wasn't that bright. 'I want to get married in a cemetary, 'I talk to my mother in the refrigerator'....

These could have been cute, nostalgic moments, but instead the author made them sound ditzy and silly. At one point, I wanted to scream at the number of times 'she teared up over her parents death'.

The most interesting character in this book was Billie. Daphne was indeed boring and I just could not care less about her wants and whiny desires.

Of course the storyline was a little too perfect - but that I can live with if the chick lit is good.

One other positive point - hurray to the author for actually creating a main character who was not dying to get married - nice change of pace for chick lit.

Keep up the nice writing, but next time, can we please have a smart, intelligent main character?

TV trivia and history fans who enjoy summer-style reading will quickly devour this story and its references to TV shows: past, present, and fictional. Lehmann introduces us to Daphne Wells, a TV lover who has the perfect job: museum curator at the Museum of Television and Radio.

Daphne meets Charlie, also a TV aficionado, who has written several unsold TV show pilots. As their relationship develops, Charlie works as an English teacher and has the opportunity to buy his grandmother's house in New Rochelle. He decides to buy the house and propose to Daphne.

After the proposal, Daphne struggles with the thought of living life like Rob and Laura Petrie in the quiet suburbs of New Rochelle, leaving her love of city life in New York behind. The move would shorten Charlie's commute, but lengthen Daphne's. Throughout the story, we watch Daphne grapple with decisions regarding the wedding, the move, and her life with stable and "good man" Charlie.

A good novel has several dimensions and in this one, we learn of the special relationship between Daphne and her older sister Billie -- a bond created by the death of both of their parents in a plane crash.

Meanwhile, we follow her life at the museum and learn about the themes behind each decade of television. Jonathan Hill, the book's version of Steven Boccho or David E. Kelley and television producer of the hot and shallow TV show Supermodels, stops by the museum to look at film from a past TV show for inspiration as he's run out of creative juice.

As Daphne and Jonathan get to know each other, Daphne hopes to link him with her sister, Billie, who is in a relationship with a married man. In reading about the interactions of the characters, Daphne compares her life to TV shows and lets them get in the way of tuning in to Charlie.

Daphne and Charlie are likeable characters who sometimes disappoint the reader with their imperfect human behavior. Most of the book explores the "compromise" relationship between Daphne and Charlie, the bond between sisters Daphne and Billie, and figuring out what will happen with Jonathan Hill.

The last part of the book feels rushed in an attempt create a conflict, resolve it, and work its way to the ending. The book might do better by condensing the interactions between Daphne and Charlie and prolonging the last bit of the book.

The story contains people with professions that only a lucky few can enter; the tie in to TV history makes the story different from your average escapist novel. I appreciated Lehmann's attention to details that you won't find in most fiction books -- like a character using Spybot to clean the computer. Though it's a small detail, computer users and TV lovers relate to the little things that enhance the story.

The minor faults don't affect the reader's enjoyment of the story, a textbook poolside read that takes only a few hours. I don't read much fiction, and You Could Do Better satisfied my need to read a fantasy especially since I have an interest in TV history.

I've read her other books and like them...this one just didn't ring true for me. I still read the whole book in an evening, because I wanted to see how it ended. I was disappointed. I even reread some parts this a.m. to see if the story became more believeable for me - it didn't. I don't want to spoil the story so I won't go into any details. I'll be interested to read other reviews.