Around the World in 80 Dates
by Jennifer Cox
This was a completely fun book. A career woman decides to put all the effort she has put into her career, and use it to find a soul mate. She plumbs her contacts around the world to find her dates in countries all over. Some are good dates, and some are very very bad. And Metallica makes an appearance. Who can shake a stick at that? This is, by the way a true story, although someone in the train station looked down at me for reading this in public, calling it "chick lit."
The author used to work for Lonely Planet, and her writing as a travel author completely shines through. You really travel all the way around the world with her. She is very funny, and the Britishisms were cool.
On the other hand, there are a lot of assumptions about dating you have to swallow, which I wasn't completely in agreement with. This book is very funny, but it is a bit serious too. Cox repeatedly ascribes many people's (and specifically women's) unhappiness to spending a lot of their life in their careers. She is clearly opposed to the idea of "the right person will just come along." That's fine by me, but the fact that women have to quit their jobs and date 80 men in a few months to find a soulmate is sort of, um sexist. Clearly it isn't intended this way, and it's her book and her journey (she began the journey well before getting the book or movie deals), but I bristle at the idea that women working is what makes them unable to catch a man. She does have an idea of multiple soulmates (ie you don't get one for your whole life, but a whole bunch for different periods in your life), which I liked.
In the interest of full confession though, I was predisposed to like this book as I got it at an author reading that included MANY raw oysters and wine. Which were excellent. And the author was very nice and funny in person. So I could really see her participating in the story. I do recommend this book. I couldn't really put it down even though I had other things to read!
This was a completely fun book. A career woman decides to put all the effort she has put into her career, and use it to find a soul mate. She plumbs her contacts around the world to find her dates in countries all over. Some are good dates, and some are very very bad. And Metallica makes an appearance. Who can shake a stick at that? This is, by the way a true story, although someone in the train station looked down at me for reading this in public, calling it "chick lit."
The author used to work for Lonely Planet, and her writing as a travel author completely shines through. You really travel all the way around the world with her. She is very funny, and the Britishisms were cool.
On the other hand, there are a lot of assumptions about dating you have to swallow, which I wasn't completely in agreement with. This book is very funny, but it is a bit serious too. Cox repeatedly ascribes many people's (and specifically women's) unhappiness to spending a lot of their life in their careers. She is clearly opposed to the idea of "the right person will just come along." That's fine by me, but the fact that women have to quit their jobs and date 80 men in a few months to find a soulmate is sort of, um sexist. Clearly it isn't intended this way, and it's her book and her journey (she began the journey well before getting the book or movie deals), but I bristle at the idea that women working is what makes them unable to catch a man. She does have an idea of multiple soulmates (ie you don't get one for your whole life, but a whole bunch for different periods in your life), which I liked.
In the interest of full confession though, I was predisposed to like this book as I got it at an author reading that included MANY raw oysters and wine. Which were excellent. And the author was very nice and funny in person. So I could really see her participating in the story. I do recommend this book. I couldn't really put it down even though I had other things to read!
posted by jenny bento @ 8:56 PM
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