CALENDAR GIRL

Author: Naomi Neale ISBN: 0843954701 1/2005 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: DORCHESTER/Making It

RESUME Address: Follow the gang graffiti until you reach the decrepit bakery. See the rooms above that even a squatter wouldn't claim? That's my little Manhattan paradise. Education: Liberal Arts degree from an Ivy League university. In other words, totally useless. Employment History: Cheer Facilitator for Seasonal Staffers Inc. Positions include Cindy-Lou Who Impersonator, Valentine's Day Purple Box of Chocolates, and Easter Egg-Carrying Girl in Bunny Suit. Responsible for spreading merriment and not throttling fellow employees or irritating seasonal shoppers, as appropriate. Career Goal: To seek stable livelihood as...Heck. Is there a career track that will rid my apartment of my competitive brothers and a father who's exploring his metrosexuality? Or prevent my old college crush from marrying the mistake of his life? Or get me through a year of flash mobs, karaoke bars, Greek weddings, snuggle parties, and my family's attempts at a total 'make-better' of myself? Or maybe, just maybe, help me attract the attention of the department store heir of my dreams? No way. That's a full-time job in itself!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Sassy, fun, and offbeat is the best way to describe CALENDAR GIRL, by Naomi Neale. I will also say that it will appeal to the women out there missing Sex In The City and Friends, or who enjoy their contemporary reads, well, more contemporary. The kind of book with the slang of a well educated, yet not-quite-sure-of-her-life's'-goals late twenty-something girlfriend.

There are some very funny scenes in CALENDAR GIRL. The laugh-out-loud funny, and the funny-that-hurts, because it's embarrassing to witness the heroine screwing up yet again. Not that Nan Cloutier should be embarrassed, despite the fact that her job consists of dressing up in ridiculously uncomfortable costumes for a department store. She has a lot to deal with.

Nan is feisty, dreamy, and in touch with herself, though she lacks self-esteem and is a little bitter at her lot in life. Somehow she manages to have some true friends to keep her grounded and put up with her temper tantrums, while she figures out what she truly is looking for and deals with her unorthodox family. In other words, Nan is very similar to some of my own friends, though they are firmly entrenched in their thirties; she is even a bit like I used to be.

So, if you are looking to replace a favorite TV show involving some career and love-life challenged friends in the Big Apple, pick up CALENDAR GIRL. It won't last as long as a series, but it will fill the void for a bit.

Shannon Johnson