Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes

A nervous breakdown seems like a great idea: all that lying in bed and watching daytime TV. But who's going to have it? Will it be housewife Clodagh, who spends her days microwaving pasta for her demanding toddlers and waiting for her beautiful husband Dylan to come home? Or Lisa, hard, brittle and shiny as an M&M, reeling from the shock of a demotion from her fabulous job in London to a one-horse magazine in Dublin? Or Ashling, so normal she's weird?

For many reasons I should have hated this (most of the characters are terrible, you can see the plot coming from a mile away, etc.) but... I rather enjoyed reading it. A guilty pleasure.

This was a fun read... I'm not that into chick lit but I'm picking up some weird books here in Peace Corps, I didn't like this as much as the other Marian Keyes book I read, but, it is what it is. You would probably like this if you like this kind of book.

It's been quite awhile since I read a Marian Keyes book and I forgot how much I love her. She seems to effortlessly write realistic and over-the-top characters.

Lisa is the Miranda Priestly of Colleen magazine, except less nutso and more believable. Sure, she was a bitch and all about how she was ruined by this move but even in her bitchiness I found something to like. As she grew into her own self-discovery I liked her more and more.

Ashling is the everyday girl. She's everyone's friend, always trying to make everyone else happy and so desperate not to be her mother that she finds herself there anyway. Her slow descent into depression was painfully heart wrenching. It happens, just like that and I didn't want it to happen to her.

And, minor spoiler**Clodagh deserved everything she got.*Spoiler Over.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. This is only the second non-Walsh family book of Keyes that I've read and I found that I could love the characters as much as I love the Walsh sisters.