Rating:  Summary: A great beach read! Review: As a former fat chick, I totally related to Jemima. I think the author must have at some point been plus-sized.This was a beach read. This isn't stellar literature, nor is it insulting to fat people. It was a fun, easy, engaging read. I do have some points of contention; I don't understand why Brad and Jenny's love had to be peverse. Can't a man get to be friend with, and know and love a fat chick, without there having to be a fetish involved? I thought that cheapened the plot. Also, yeah, I have not met anyone who just decides to lose 100 pounds and become an exercise freak in the course of like 7 months. She could have at least read "intuitive eating" and did something like give up dieting forever. But, that didn't take away from the read. I was hesitiant to put it down and eager to start reading again. It was worthwhile and fun.
Rating:  Summary: Not a quality novel, but good enough to pass a rainy day Review: After all the negative reviews of this book, I was happy to find it for $3 and so I didn't feel guilty about buying it. Sure, it wasn't a quality literature, but anyone who picks up chick lit thinking they're going to get Sylvia Plath deserves to be disappointed. The back of the book says that it's a Cinderella story, and that it is--purely fantasy and worth a read on a rainy day. No one should take it as commentary on the standard of beauty or thin vs fat or British vs American. There are many more offensive displays of all of those things on TV and in magazines and yes, even in literature, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. If Jemima had lost weight on Atkins (instead of starving herself) and dyed her hair black (instead of blonde), would that have made a difference? Every woman out there has wished to change some aspect of her life to fit whatever standard she has set for herself--for better or worse. Perhaps the negative reviewers were upset with being faced with their own insecurities and issues?
Rating:  Summary: Great Boooook! Review: This is the third book by Jane Green that i've read and she's such a great writer who writes about things that teenagers or even people (mostly girls) a little older can relate too. It goes through the struggles of an overweight women trying to impress an attractive guy. The book is empowering and lets everyone know they can do anything if they put there mind to it. It's great. I recommend this book to any girl having self esteem issues.
Rating:  Summary: sorry, but not overly impressed Review: Jemima J was mostly fluff. I picked up the book and read it because I was intrigued by the cover. I read it expecting the story to have some kind of depth and the character to experience some sort of significant growth and self-acceptance...but sadly, no. I mean, the protagonist loses a ton of weight and dyes her hair golden-blonde...just so she can finally be acceptable to some hunk? The story seemed to glorify standard physical beauty and perfection and equate one's self-worth with being physically stunning. How shallow can a story be? It was a Cinderella story of sorts but not one that's credible or with a message that I necessarily liked. On the other hand, if you are looking for a light 'beach read,' then pick this one up.
Rating:  Summary: Jemima J. Review: From the beginning I predicted the outcome of this book- a larger girl would somehow end up with the man of her dreams. It was hinted from the novel-summary that a body transformation would allow this happen. But the way the novel unfolded into a realistic account of an English woman who decides to loose the weight and get a man, develops into optimism for many rather than a comforting, but fanciful fairytale. Jemima transforms herself into a striking and gorgeous women, and in this new condition she experiences joy and passion, but also feels a lacking. Her mind eventually reworks her emptiness back into the inner beauty she had always had before. She reunites with her dream man (who had long been longing for her friendship, but combined with a physical attraction his eyes are open. Their devotion is so solid that the reader wonders if he had the same compassion for her before the weightloss, but her insecuritites had kept them apart. I enjoyed the struggles and outcome of this novel. It is inspirign but also educational, without being preachy. Through a direct stream of consciousness, we see the character of Jemima J.: we see her humor, her desires, her struggles, and her man. We pity her but in the world we live we see the reality in her accounts. She drools over a handsome great guy from within a socially unattractive shape. In words on paper with a clear view of the thoughts and personalities of Jeminma and Ben, her dream guy, we see a perfect couple. It is in the images that the dream seems inpossible. Jemima's weight struggle and humanity are clear to the reader through reference of common desires such as craving for Hagendaz ice cream and longing to wear small leather pants. Her loneliness results in the option of internet dating. She finds a seemingly perfect "hunk" in California and leaves England to persue this possiblity after her dramatic weightloss and makeover. Ironically this fit, healthy, and seemingly perfect man had taken up with her as a trophy girlfriend while he is really loving and having a realtionship with a larger woman. Her world is all shoock up, but in being rattled in such a way she is shook back to the reality that physical attraction can start something, but it cannot last if love is not at its base. In the end Jeminma finds her dream man again and he finals embraces what he had always found in her, a soulmate. In the end Jemima loves her man, her life, and her body. What a happy ending. :)
Rating:  Summary: Amazing! Lovely and funny... Review: This is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read in my life. After reading it I finally had the drive to loose 15 lbs! I think Jane Green did a wonderful job of describing exactly how an overweight woman feels sometimes. I can definitely relate to Jemima J. I loved the irony, humor, and simplicity of Green's writing style. I read what some other reviewers wrote about this book, and I have to strongly disagree with them. This book is not a classical literature work, but it makes you smile. I read other books by Jane Green, but this is my favorite. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs some extra motivation to change her life.
Rating:  Summary: An Amazingly Fun Book Review: Maybe this isn't the best-written book in the world--in fact, it rather disturbingly switches from tense to tense in a very disconcerting manner--but the story is so endearing that it makes up for everything. Our heroine, a typically Brit lit woman in her thirties, is grossly overweight and can't stop eating. She has a dead-end job at a local paper, and even though she is highly talented, she will go nowhere and she knows it. People do not look at fat women as superstars, she thinks. But Jemima knows deep inside, and we do too, that she is most definitely a star. And so, through this fun and lovely book, Jemima slowly, slowly, slowly begins to pull herself together and take control of her life. And it is told with such humor, and such love for the main character, that the reader is brought right along on the ride, from cheerless London to impossibly sunny Los Angeles in a truly baroque adventure. I loved this book. I still do not think that Jane Green is the writer that Marian Keyes is, but "Jemima J" is a classic in the new genre of young British women writers. In impossibly American slang, I just have to say to Green: You go, girl!
Rating:  Summary: Were you a Jemima J? Review: The plot was predictable. Middle of the book I knew who Jemima would eventually end up with. Her roommates Sophie and Lisa are truly annoying and shallow. I did not enjoy the way it was written. Her achievement of being skinny was unrealistic. However, I got hooked with this book because of this line. "My size controlled my social life." I bet there are many of us that restricted ourselves from having fun with our friends because we didn't want to be surrounded by beautiful people. While your skinny friends were sashaying in halter necks and mini skirts, you shy away in long sleeves to hide your flabby arms and clad in black because of its minimal slimming effect. When you're overweight and do not have an ounce of self-confidence, you rather coop up in bed, have that xtra large pizza and forcefully deny that you aren't a party person. It's not a fantastic book. But I read on because I know how it was like being overweight, pretending to be someone I'm not online, and having that internet boyfriend that I'd love to forget (he didn't look like Brad).
Rating:  Summary: I can't believe this got published. Review: I'm nearly finished this disaster of a "book". Green writes one-dimensionally with flat humor and broad, BROAD stereotypes. For instance, her heroine is up to here w/ dumb, fitness-obsessed, dim-witted, culture-deprived, sarcastic-less Angelenos (can't remember the last time I heard that word used). Come to think of it, I think Green throws in all of America into most of those stereotypes. Green switches from first to third person throughout the book; not only does it lead to a rocky read; it's just bad form. It's really, really bad. And, while I can agree w/ another review that mentioned the initial potential of Jemima Jones. It fizzles quickly. This book is literary nails on a chalkboard.
Rating:  Summary: A Great Read! Review: Jemima J is impossible to put down!!! This book is NOT AT ALL insulting to women, as some reviewers on here have reported. In fact, while reading it I was very comforted and inspired by Jemima's thoughts and feelings since they were so familiar to me, as well as many other women I know. Overall, a fun and light-hearted story with a main character who females in today's society can easily relate to. I would most definitely recommend this book!
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