Business first: Don't forget that if you want to vote for our next Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) book, head over to the Google poll and do it! I'll be tallying the votes sometime on Wednesday the 21st, so do it before then.
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Our first IRL book club meeting of 2026 covered I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue. We had a run where everything we read was depressing and sad and this was supposed to be lighter fare.
Jolene hates her job and her colleagues even more. What does she do to combat this feeling of irritation? She writes mean postscripts in emails to her co-workers and then changes the text color to white. Until the day she forgets to change the color. She has to work with the new HR guy on sensitivity training or she might lose her job. Meanwhile, when IT was supposed to be putting monitoring software on her computer, they actually gave her the ability to read everyone's emails and DMs. What secrets about her co-workers does she learn?
There is a genre of book I can't stand. It's women who don't have their shit together. Think the Shopaholic series, the Bridget Jones books, or, to talk about books from the last decade, Margo's Got Money Troubles or Finlay Donovan. I just can't deal with people incessantly complaining about unhappiness and not doing anything about it. I also can't deal when they make decisions that will obviously make the situation worse. It makes me anxious, it leads to stereotypes of ditzy, incompetent women, and I frequently opt out of them.
So when I started this book and there were gems like these:
I don't have a life, and I will likely celebrate by drinking alone and going down Reddit rabbit holes researching random and upsetting things like fecal-matter transplants, or the Golden State Killer, while making myself regret everything. (page 1)
I turn sharply to face a golden sedan that could be considered vintage if the world didn't want to forget this model ever existed. (page 57)
"But I think we need to normalize being comfortable roasting people. Everyone is way worse than they pretend to be. We should start discussing it openly - it might be a good way to connect people." (page 108)
I was up in arms, ready to DNF, but realizing I would never DNF a book club book. I finished The Luminaries. I finished The Joy Luck Club. So I kept on trucking.
And, dang it, Jolene starting doing things. Her motives were messed up, but she was actively trying things to make her life better. And I started to like her more and more. And by the last 100 pages, I was glad I had read this book.
The book club discussion was SO GOOD, though. For real. One person really felt like Jolene's character nailed working in a capitalistic society. She liked how the trauma storyline was developed. One person was obsessed with the portrayal of an HR professional who wasn't incompetent (she is in HR, as you might have guessed). A couple of us really just wanted Jolene to stop complaining and do something. But, seriously, I was shocked at how interesting and wide-ranging the conversations went. At one point, we were talking about bullying in the workforce and it turned into all the moms in the room worrying SO MUCH about their children. Egads.
Should you read it? I don't know. Do Sophie Kinsella books make you shiver in fear? Probably not. Are you interested in a fictional accounting of how big corporations in Canada operate? Maybe. Are you an HR professional? Hm. Hard to say. 3/5 stars
Lines of note:
Grace laughs, because it sounds like I'm joking. Not the rantings of a woman who still hasn't nailed existing in public as a skill set. (page 174)
"I'm going to be too old to work here soon. No one needs me anymore. I'm already useless." (page 231)
This might be the line that turned the book around for me.
Hat mention (why hats?):
The electronic screens above them are playing an absurd animation of bowling pins wearing cowboy hats breaking each other out of a jail cell. (page 177)
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How do you feel about the women who need to get their shit together genre? Do you find them frustrating or funny?
I read this and didn’t love it. I found aspects of the book unbelievable, if I remember correctly? I do want to write invisible ink messages to people I loathe at my company but instead I have SOS bitching sessions with my retired colleague.
ReplyDeleteI can be patient with people who don’t have their shit together, especially in a coming of age story. But I don’t like overly silly stories. I did enjoy Sophie Kinsella books in my 20s, though. Did you know she recently died from brain cancer? I think she was in my 50s. So I feel a tenderness towards her because she died so very young. I could not stand to read one of her books as a fully functioning adult but I did enjoy them when I was in the middle of figuring life out.
I read this and I also gave it a three star rating, I see. I think I wanted to like it more than I did.
ReplyDeleteI DNF'd after a few pages because this was at the height of my job misery and I just could not read a book about work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the label - the "women who don't have their shit together" genre. It depends on the woman and how believable the situation is, so essentially it depends on how good the author is. If it's just someone behaving ridiculously and a ton of improbable things happening, I'm out. If it's a "this is a relatable person that I like" situation, you can't tear me away from the book. I loved Margot, and Sky Daddy and Discontent come to mind as two other titles that I loved.
Hmm. I would say I don't like this genre, but I did like the Bridget Jones books. So I guess it could go either way for me. I'm kind of interested in this, but probably won't read it because no one seems to be raving about it. I have so many books on my TBR, I don't want to spend time reading a three star book.
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