Sexiest Man Alive - Diana Holquist

Title: Sexiest Man Alive Author: Diana Holquist Genre: Chick-lit Rating: 4.5/5 # pages: 320 Date read: September, 2007

Review:Jasmine is not just shy around men. No, she suffers from a social anxiety so bad that she gets tongue-tied, freezes to the spot and pukes if she has to any spend time around men - especially handsome ones. So while her dream is to become a grand costume designer, for now she caters only to women.

But what's a poor girl to do when she has a job interview with one of the most gorgeous theater directors around? What any other self-respecting shy costume designer would do, of course - she drops her portfolio and flees. Fortunately the theater director mistakes her nervousness for arrogance and self-confidence: "My work speaks for itself", and as he likes eccentric artists, he hires her on the spot - meaning she has to work for Josh Toby.

Josh Toby - the actor twice voted as the sexiest man alive.

Josh Toby - who also just happens to be the man her psychic sister has declared to be Jasmine's One True Love.

Josh has his work cut out for him getting Jasmine to feel at ease around him. He thinks she's a great girl, and would like nothing better than to spend time with her in peace and quiet, but unfortunately his fans don't agree, and the press will do anything to get a photo of the star - especially when they start suspecting a new love-affair.

Add to the mix a jealous co-designer, a fake girlfriend with a crush and a librarian who's convinced that everybody else is insane, and you end up with the entertaining and fast-paced story that is Sexiest Man Alive. The perfect chick-lit for when you just want to forget all about real life for awhile and disappear to a world where the good girl always gets her guy.

While the ending does get a bit unrealistic and makes use of a deus ex machina to get everything sorted out properly, it does not diminish my enjoyment of the book at all. By far the wittiest, smartest and hottest book I've read all year. This book fairly sizzles!
(Written for Armchair Interviews.)

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The Wind In The Willows - Kenneth Grahame

Title: The Wind in the Willows Author: Kenneth Grahame Genre: Classics Rating: 6/10 # pages: 74 installments on DailyLit Date read: September, 2007

Summary: A linked series of animal tales by Kenneth Grahame, considered a classic of English children's literature. The book was begun as a series of bedtime stories for Grahame's son and was published in 1908. The tales relate the adventures of four animal friends and neighbors in the English countryside--Mole, Rat, Toad (of Toad Hall), and Badger. Although the animals converse and behave like humans, each creature also retains its distinctive animal habits.

Review: I know it's a classics, but I was disappointed. Sure it's cute, but only slightly, and I got so incredibly annoyed with Toad I couldn't enjoy the last few chapters at all. I can't even say that it's because I was too old for the book, because I first tried reading it as a tween and found it too boring to finish. How did this ever become a classic?

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James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

Title: James and the Giant Peach Author: Roald Dahl Genre: Childrens Rating: 6/10 # pages: 156 Date read: July, 2006

Review: One of my friends 'forced' me to read this one!!! Well... not quite, but we got talking about favourite childrens books, and she mentioned this one. As it's one of the few Roald Dahl books I couldn't remember having read, I had to get it out of the library and change that :-) It's typical Roald Dahl in every way. Absolutely delightful.

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