The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

Event:Kitap Klubu Mart Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Alkim'in Evi
When:Thu, 03/12/09, 7:30PM

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

The new novel from Jill Smolinski ("Flip-Flopped") takes a trendy concept and spins it into a charming tale, albeit with a few holes. She creates yet another cookie-cutter chick-lit world, where the heroine, June, is a little witty and a little self-conscious and works at a job in which she is underappreciated. Then comes the whirlwind transformation that turns her world upside down and elicits positive change.
After a Weight Watchers meeting, June is in a car accident. Her passenger, a 24-year-old woman, dies. After soul-searching and a push from outside forces, June decides to finish the dead girl's list of "20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday."
From "eat ice cream in public" to "change a life," the items begin to make June into a better person. She sees the world around her differently and opens herself to new possibilities. The story is complicated by June's attraction to the dead girl's brother, a traffic reporter who can help her career, one in which women climb the corporate ladder if they look good in a tight skirt.
June's lack of self-esteem muddles the plot as everyone around her has to build her up to see what they see: an attractive and able career woman who can stand on her own feet. Also troubling is June's lack of emotion; Smolinski would have made the novel more interesting if she included the emotional turmoil of a woman trying to make amends after a fatal accident.
This is summer reading candy. The pages seem to turn themselves, but the story never quite reaches the emotional or adventurous pinnacle it strives to attain.

http://www.tbo.com/entertainment/books/MGBN8ZHR42F.html