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 | | How to Be Single: A Novel by Liz Tuccillo ISBN-10: 9781416534129 ISBN-10: 1-4165-3412-1 ISBN-13: 9781416534129 ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3412-9 Hardcover 2008-06-10 Atria Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description It's the most annoying question and they just can't help asking you. You'll be asked it at family gatherings, weddings, and on first dates. And you'll ask yourself far too often. It's the question that has no good answer. It's the question that when people stop asking it, makes you feel even worse: Why are you single? On a brisk October morning in New York, Julie Jenson, a single thirty-eight-yearold book publicist, is on her way to work when she gets a hysterical phone call from her friend Georgia. Reeling from her husband's announcement that he is leaving her for a samba teacher, Georgia convinces a reluctant Julie to organize a fun girls' night out with all their single friends to remind her why it is so much fun not to be tied down. But the night, which starts with steaks and martinis and ends with a trip to the hospital, becomes a wake-up call for Julie. Because none of her friends seems to be having much fun right now: Alice, a former legal aid attorney, has recently quit her job to start dating for a living; Serena is so busy becoming a fully realized person that she can't find time to look for a mate; and Ruby, a curvy and compassionate woman, has been mourning the death of her cat for months. So, fed up with the dysfunction and disappointments of being single in Manhattan, Julie quits her job and sets off to find out how women around the world are dealing with this dreaded phenomenon. From Paris to Rio to Sydney, Bali, Beijing, Mumbai, and Reykjav'k, Julie falls in love, gets her heart broken, sees the world, and learns more than she ever dreamed possible. Back in New York, her friends are grappling with their own issues -- bad blind dates, loveless engagements, custody battles, and single motherhood. Through their journeys, all these women fight to redefine their vision of love, happiness, and a fulfilled life. Written in Liz Tuccillo's pitch-perfect, hilarious, and relatable voice, How to Be Single is the ultimate novel for the adventurer in us all. | ||
Reviews | ||
How Not to Write a Novel So this is a novel about a woman who gets an advance to write a non-fiction book about single women all over the world. Written by a woman who got an advance to write a non-fiction book about single women all over the world, but...something went wrong, I guess, because she didn't do it. Half of the book is like a poorly fictionalized version of a college research project that didn't work because the writer was too busy going to bars, and the other half is like a "Sex and the City" fanfic. Oh, dear. And I haven't even gotten to the "self-realization through adultery" theme yet. I bet Liz Tuccillo can write a good book. This, however, is not it. She should have either written the non-fiction book she got an advance for, or written a novel that didn't rehash so much of the "Sex and the City" ground. | ||
A lot of fun! I bought this book for a summer vacation I was taking a couple of weeks ago and found it to be a fun, fast read that had me chuckling quite a bit. It was a really interesting juxtaposition, because I read it right after a book about marriage and commitment, and it was nice to read something that celebrated the single life in many ways. I have never read He's Just Not That Into You, but I could definitely see the elements of Sex and the City in this book, with the witty asides and the occasionally zany storylines. I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a life-changing or unputdownable book, but for summer reading, this is a fantastic choice. | ||
From a guy's point of view As a guy, I read these types of books mostly to see what the other side is thinking. Like the women in the book, I'm single and in my late thirties and even us guys hear a clock ticking if we want to marry someone our own age and start a family. So I could relate in a way to their search for love. As for the book itself, hey, I read it, didn't I? If it wasn't any good I would have put it down a long time ago. Not the manliest book cover for a guy to be carrying around. But I gave the first few pages a chance and kept turning them. A few points of view. The main women in the novel bemoan their fate, but I think the fact that they are still single is a lot of times their own fault. Not to say guys are blameless, yeah, we're pretty bad. Too much like Sex & The City. I wonder what single women in the Midwest or South go through? Or single women serving in the Armed Forces? I've seen this New York crowd so often in movies and TV, that it didn't break much ground for me. The International women were a little more interesting, but even then it was mostly city women going to bars and dancing - which is exactly where all the "great guys" are. I didn't like that the main character slept with a married man. Guess what? You're the freaking bad guy when you do that. So I couldn't really care for her to do much of anything after that. Do I recommend this book to single people in their 30s and 40s? Yes. Not that I agree with all the characters in the book and the decisions they make with their lives. I also read He's Just Not That Into You, which Liz Tuccillo co-wrote. That was the main reason I picked up How To Be Single in the first place, because I enjoyed reading He's Just Not That Into You from the other side as well. What did I learn from that book? If you are into a girl...tell her! | ||
HOW TO BE SINGLE will appeal both to fans of Carrie & Co. and to readers looking for their own answers to that question. "Why are you still single?" Thirty-eight-year-old Julie Jensen is really tired of that question. The problem for Julie is that no one --- not meddling aunts, not well-meaning strangers --- wants to know the answer more than Julie herself. Attractive, fit, kindhearted, with a good job and a fabulous New York City life, Julie would seem to be any man's prize. But yet, she's still single. So are her friends Alice, Ruby and Serena. Even her formerly married friend Georgia is single again. Is there something wrong with these women? Or are they just dealing with a phenomenon that plagues millions of women around the country? Where are all the decent men? Julie's friend Alice is so desperate to find one that she's quit her successful job in order to devote herself full-time to pursuing love. But, when disappointment follows disappointment in this guerilla dating mentality, Alice resolves merely to settle for the next guy who comes along --- regardless of whether she's head over heels in love. Will compromising her ideal of romantic love and undying passion result in long-term happiness for Alice? Ruby is mourning the death of her beloved cat, so much so that she's having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. But her grief over a lost pet is nothing compared to how she deals with bad break-ups --- which have been so devastating that she is reluctant even to try dating again. Can she find love when she's having a hard time even being happy with herself? Serena has outright renounced her desire for love, even going so far as to take a vow of chastity and become a yoga swami. After a series of betrayals and losses, though, will Serena close herself off to love forever? Or will she finally realize what she's been missing all along? Georgia thought she was happily married with two children --- until her husband left her for a nubile young samba instructor. Now she's determined to get back into the swing of dating and not let Julie's dating horror stories ruin her optimistic approach toward finding love again. But after a series of dating mishaps results in near-disaster for Georgia's family life, will she give up on ever re-achieving happiness? As for Julie, a completely disastrous girls' night out provides the much-needed impetus for her to quit her job, buy a round-the-world plane ticket, and pitch the idea of a self-help book about how women the world over deal with being single. While she's busy jetting from France and Italy to Brazil, Bali, Australia and India, searching for answers, her friends (none of whom knew each other previously) are forging their own bonds, making their own mistakes and finding out for themselves how to be single. Liz Tuccillo, who was one of the co-authors of the phenomenally successful book HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, clearly understands the self-help market. Despite several snarky asides about the monotony of self-help tomes marketed to single women, Tuccillo often relies on their language to make her points: "We have our jobs and our friends and our passions and our churches and our gyms and yet we still can't escape our essential nature of needing to be loved and feel close to another human being. How do we keep going when that's not what life has given to us?" Particularly when Julie analyzes the cultural and romantic mores of other nations, some readers may feel that they're reading another how-to book rather than a cohesive novel. Many more, however, will respond both to Julie's own revelations as well as the combination of self-awareness and gal-pal bonding that characterizes her friends' stories. Tuccillo also clearly owes a debt to "Sex and the City." With her analytical eye for male-female relations and her gift for bringing together disparate personalities into a unified "girl posse," Julie Jensen is a veritable Carrie Bradshaw. Filled with the glamorous details of living and loving in Manhattan but tempered with thoughtful reflection and a realistic but hopeful outlook, HOW TO BE SINGLE will appeal both to fans of Carrie & Co. and to readers looking for their own answers to that question. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl | ||
Barely through... Oh, my good heavens. I'm going to make this brief, but first-off, what's with the 5-star reviews? I'm ALMOST finished with the book and the only reason I'm going to finish it is because I want to see what the point was. Julie's whole trip overseas could have been accomplished in about a chapter. I found the 'Back in the States' parts far more entertaining, and I'm using the word 'entertaining' lightly. I think a few of the characters/scenes were pretty unbelievable, and yes, I know this is fiction, but shouldn't there be elements of truth? I also found nuances of Sex and the City littered throughout the book which was disappointing. I'm an AVID book reader and this is an interesting concept, without an enjoyable climax. I urge anyone to buy a used copy, if you absolutely have to read this, or buy it new and keep your receipt. You'll need it. | ||