I Read A Couple Of Books Last Week...
Boned by Anonymous - the book apparently written by someone high profile in the TV industry. It's all about the career of one tv journalist and for those in the know (I'm not) it must be quite easy to pin point who it is. There would only be about half a dozen possibilities - Yana Vent, Liz Hayes, Tracey Grimshaw, Jessica Rowe..... The writer certainly has an intimate knowledge of the workings of a tv journalists career and interestingly gives a fairly insightful view about being an attractive woman who has to work so much harder to be taken on the merit of her brain and not her looks. Which makes me think that the writer would be Yana Vent. From what I've observed of her career, it's been very much about this theme. The book was savaged by one review I read and I couldn't disagree more.
Air Kisses by Zoe Foster. Very cute and I love her wit and prose. It reminded me of what it was like being a single girl dating - lots of fun and sometimes a real head f---. I am so glad to have moved beyond that life stage! I will definitely buy Zoe's next book. I'm a fan.
Apart from sharing my thoughts on these books with you, I wanted to point out something that stood out in both books - in a huge way. Alcohol. Both protagonists are very successful career women who drink a lot. Alcohol could almost be another character in each book as the women use it for winding down, partying, work networking, drowning their sorrows, for dutch courage and for writing themselves off when life gets overbearing. What scared me the most about this is that it is absolutely spot on. It's everywhere and especially in a professional setting. Lunches, dinners, launches, events, drinks meetings - and in these types of settings, it's usually on tap, expensive stuff and free. When you're in it, it doesn't seem so bad but after reading these books I've found it to be quite confronting. Scary. I'm going to review my own alcohol consumption - after I get through two events this week ;)
*** Someone quite rightly pointed out (I accidently deleted the comment - sorry and thank you whoever you are) that it should be Yana Went not Vent as I incorrectly wrote. I really must lay off the early morning champagne ;)
