Prep- the book
 

Anyone else read this? I got a signed copy from UVA last week and I read it in 2days. I LOVED it. It was very much like Pledged in that it gave insight into a world that most people only speculate about, but it came from one perspective instead of many.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can see it being a "big thing" as more people catch on to it since it's just now starting to be talked about more.

PS- it's by Curtis Sittenfeld

I think I read this last summer.

Does it have a green/pink ribbon belt on the cover?

I thought it was a great book :)

I enjoyed it. It was one of my beach reads last summer, I think. It defintiely kept my attention.

Sure is.

And with her 2nd book coming out next month the media is starting to pay more attention to this one now.

I liked it. I had decided against prep school because I'm too independent for highly structurized schooling (so many years ago), but my cousin read the book and loved the idea, so she's all gung-ho about going in a couple of years.

I thought the book was well written and reminded me of a other authors that I enjoy.

I wanted to read this when it first came out, but I never did because it got all these crappy reviews. But now I'm thinking about reading it...

i recently read the book too. i got into it, it was a good read. very interesting details the author wrote very well. the book reminded me of "i am charlotte simmons" by tom wolfe, similar themes of race and class.

i'm definitely looking forward to her next book, due out in may.

I thought it was interesting material, but I wasn't impressed by the writing.

Anyone recall this from 1980?
 

Re: Anyone recall this from 1980?
 

The Social Handbook of the 1980's!

The saddest part was that it was so true for sororities & fraternities of the time, too!

Re: Anyone recall this from 1980?
 

Oh yeah. We even have a facebook group devoted to it at my school that lots of the Greek kids are in... :p

Am I the only one who didn't enjoy Prep? A friend lent it to me and was raving about it. I read it and was just like "I don't get what the big deal is." I didn't like the author's writing style, I felt like she tended to go off on tangents and drone on and on.

I actually didn't think it was the great either. I read it when it came out just because there was a lot of hype about it and wasn't that impressed.

You got me right there, Xylochick. If there's one thing I can't resist it's a good, juicy beach read! :)

OK, I got it at the library and am reading it now. So far I like it, but if it suddenly ends up sucking, then hey, I'm not out anything. :p

I'm in the middle of it and I really like it! How'd you like it, Dana?

I read it a few months ago, and really liked it. I just finished reading "I Am Charlotte Simmons" and I agree that the two have a similar theme.

Believe it or not, I'm stillllll not done with it...damn school keeps getting in the way. :p But I'm loving it so far.

I enjoyed it as well...i met the author at a book signing for it in DC when it first came out in hardback....she teaches school really close to where i live.

hey masha--u still have that book? cause i dont think i ever got it back from you!!!

No, I gave that and the other book to you a while ago.

k sorry wasnt sure and didnt want you to graduate and leave with it--especially if you didnt like it!!!

i'm a dork, and it made me cry at the end.
which is a rareity when i read a book.

i think i just identified with Lee in some ways, and it made me think about myself and things i do that i didn't want to think about.

even though it had a slow start, it was a really good book. any word on the title of her second book?

Lyrica, I got the following summary and reviews from my county library's website. I don't know exactly when it will be released, but my library has it "on order" so I think it will be soon.

The man of my dreams : a novel
Sittenfeld, Curtis.

Summary:
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Prep" comes a disarmingly candid, coming-of-age novel about a young woman's fantasies of family and romance colliding with the realities of adult life. (Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Review)

Sittenfeld's poignant if generic follow-up to her bestselling debut, Prep, similarly tracks a young woman's coming-of-age, but rather than navigating an elite school's nasty and brutish social system, this time the narrator contends with a dysfunctional family and her own yearnings for love. Fourteen-year-old Hannah Gavener is abruptly shipped off from Philadelphia to live with her aunt in Pittsburgh when her mercurial, vindictive father breaks up his marriage and family, which includes Hannah's older sister, Allison, and their browbeaten mother. Sweet but insecure and passive, Hannah had "been raised... not to be accommodated but to accommodate," an upbringing that hobbles all her subsequent relationships. The novel follows Hannah through her teens and late 20s (from 1991 to 2005), as she searches for romantic fulfillment, navigates friendships (e.g., with her larger-than-life cousin Fig) and alternately tries to reconcile with her father and distance herself from him. But the most influential connection Hannah makes is with her psychiatrist, Dr. Lewin, whom she begins seeing her freshman year at Tufts. Although the novel aspires to be taken seriously and Hannah is a sympathetic protagonist, she remains a textbook case of a young woman who wants "a man who will deny her. A man of her own who isn't hers." (Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Appeared in: Reed Elsevier Inc. (c) Copyright 2006, Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Sittenfeld's second novel is as sharply written as her first, Prep(2005), which chronicled one girl's experiences at an elite private high school. The heroine of her follow-up novel is Hannah Gavener, who, at age 14, is grappling with her mother's decision to stand up to her controlling father. The storyline follows Hannah through college and afterwards as she tries to find the kind of romance she believes she's looking for. Her glamorous, beautiful cousin, Fig, never seems to have trouble finding guys, and it is one of Fig's on-again, off-again boyfriends, Henry, who captivates Hannah and becomes her ideal. She goes through two boyfriends--one who is smitten with her, and one who isn't able to stay faithful--before deciding to pursue Henry and find out if he really does hold the key to her happiness. As is often the case in life, things don't work out quite according to plan, and the result is a novel that rings completely true. The magic of this coming-of-age tale lies in how it captures a generation of young women's anxiety and confusion about finding love and direction in their lives. (KristineHuntley. Appeared in: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.)

It made me cry too!