Good in Bed

by Jennifer Weiner

"At first my eyes wouldn't make sense of the letters. Finally, they unscrambled." Loving a Larger Woman, "said the headline, by Bruce Guberman. Bruce Guberman had been my boyfriend for just over three years, until we'd decided to take a break three months ago. And the larger woman, I could only assume, was me."

Cannie Shapiro never wanted to be famous. The smart, sharp, plus-sized pop culture reporter was perfectly content writing about other people's lives on the pages of the "Philadelphia Examiner." But the day she opens up a national women's magazine to find out that her ex-boyfriend has been chronicling their ex-sex life is the day her life changes forever.

Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in our world, Bruce has written. And Cannie -- who never knew that Bruce saw her as a "larger woman," or thought that loving her was an act of courage -- is plunged into misery, and into the most amazing year of her life.

For the previous twenty-eight years, things had been tripping along nicely for Cannie. Sure, her mother's come charging out of the closet, and her father's long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her job, her friends, her tiny rat terrier, Nifkin, and her life in Philadelphia. She loves her apartment, and her commodious, quilt-lined bed. She has made a tenuous peace with her non-size 6 body. And she'd even felt okay about ending her relationship with Bruce. But now this.

After finding herself publicly humiliated, with the most intimate details of her life in print, Cannie embarks on a series of hilarious and heartbreaking adventures. From showdowns with her snooping office nemesis to run-ins with her mother's less-than-lovable lifepartner, from trips to the glamour spots of New York City and Los Angeles to a disastrous reconciliation with the man who took her heart and tossed it onto the New Jersey Turnpike, Cannie navigates an odyssey she never planned on taking. She mourns her losses, faces the past, and figures out who she really is, and who she can become.

Radiant with wit, bursting with surprises, and written with bite and bittersweet humor, Jennifer Weiner's deliciously readable debut novel reaches beyond Cannie's story and into the heart of every woman. It features an unbelievably funny cast of supporting characters, the strangest dog you'll ever encounter, and, best of all, Cannie Shapiro -- a heroine you'll never forget.

• ISBN10: 0743418182
• ISBN13: 9780743418188
• Publish Date: 2 April 2002 (first published 1 May 2001)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

This is my first Weiner book, and I have to say, Ms. Weiner has made a great first impression on me. I love chick-lit, and this is the type of chick-lit that keeps me coming back for more. The heroine is smart and sassy, but slightly damaged. She has a strong friend-base, which always adds to the overall good vibe of the story. There is drama, but not so much drama that I want to rock in a corner. It is a little bit of drama, but mostly a fairly light read. Just perfect: fun and breezy, but lots of heartfelt moments, and Cannie grows a lot too. She starts to make peace with her past, and begins viewing her future with an open mind and heart.

Overall: light and fun, sassy and smart.

[ibeforem]

Weiner is known for her "plus-sized girls can have happy endings too" books, but the first one of hers I read (Goodnight Nobody) wore me out with the main character’s constant whinging about her thighs. Wore me out enough that I waited over three years before I read another. Thankfully, I liked Cannie much much more. Cannie’s thoughts and feelings and actions felt more authentic. The book takes a couple of big turns that I definitely wasn’t expecting. I didn’t even see the love interest coming! Overall, I enjoyed this and won’t wait so long this time to read another novel by Weiner.