Title: The Carrie Diaries
Author: Candace Bushnell
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Year Published: 2010
Pages: 416
Price: $9.99 (iBook)
Rating: ★★★
This is actually the first ebook I've ever read! I like printed books a lot because I don't have to spend much time in front of the computer. But since last night I was waiting for my friend to send me her assignment, I decided to read this one. I got this free from a giveaway (lucky me!). This book is on my wish list and I'm not gonna remove it until I get the printed one. I'd like to see it on my bookcase. Wouldn't it be lovely? So I have seen the tv series and it's one of my fav. I will tell you some differences of the book and the tv ;) Keep reading!!
Carrie Bradshaw lives with a father and two younger sister, Missy and Dorrit. She lost her mom for a cancer and her mom is her role model. Carrie goes to Castleburry High School as a senior. She has lovely best friends: The Mouse, Maggie, Walt, and Lali. Maggie and Walt are dating for more than two years. Mouse is the smartest and has a friend named Peter. Lali and Carrie go to swim practice together. There are The Jens who seem like rule the school. Everything are normal until Sebastian Kydd comes back to town.
But there always is a good side. Because of her problems, she can write better, she writes something real like what George suggest her to do. She's finally accepted in The New School for summer. Donna LaDonna thinks she's funny now, in her own way. The book ends with a scene where Carrie just lost her moneys and the address for her new place in NY, and she finds out the number of Donna's sister, Samantha Jones.
I'm so curious about the next book, Before Sex and The City. There are few things that not match with the tv series.
First, Carrie Bradshaw smokes pot in the book but not in the TV. I'm kind of relief for that. Because I can't imagine the nice Carrie smokes! Can't you? It doesn't suit her.
I know Sebastian Kydd is a jerk. But in TV, he acts like he loves Carrie so much. He's willing to take care of her anywhere. He can't live without her. In the book, it doesn't sound that way. It looks like Sebastian only take advantage of her and he doesn't want to hurt her but he does!
In the book, Carrie meet George when she visits Brown with her father. And they just click! George ask her for a date and she always says yes because of her father and she doesn't want to be rude. George takes her to Bunny, one of best writer. In the TV, Carrie starts dating George when she takes break with Sebastian. They meet at Carrie's internship. George takes her to see his mom who's apparently her mom's friend.
The break up of Maggie (middle) and Walt (left) isn't exposed too much in the book. So it looks easy and both parties are okay. They get another lover soon. But in the TV, the desperation of Maggie breaks up with Walt is like a big scene. Walt can't continue the relationship because he knew he's not straight. While Mags doesn't want to loose Walt but she's cheating behind him.
Eventhough there are many differences, but I still like both. I enjoy the difference. The story line is also different because Carrie hasn't go to The City yet. But probably, the TV series is already adapt from both books. I'll let you know my opinion further after I read Before Sex and the City ;)
About the Author:
Candace Bushnell is the critically acclaimed, international best-selling novelist whose first book, Sex and the City, was the basis for the HBO hit series and subsequent blockbuster movie. Her fourth novel, Lipstick Jungle became a popular television series on NBC. Bushnell's novels include Four Blondes (2000), Trading Up (2003), Lipstick Jungle (2005), One Fifth Avenue (2008) and The Carrie Diaries (2010). Bushnell grew up in Glastonbury, Ct, and moved to New York City at age 19. She attended Rice University and New York University, and began her professional career at 19 when she wrote a children's bok for Simon & Schuster.
Throughout her twenties, Bushnell developed her trademark style as a freelancer, writing darkly humorous pieces about women, relationship and dateng for Mademoiselle, Self Magazine, and Esquire. In 1990, she wrote a column that would become a precursor for Sex and the City, called "The Human Cartoon", a fictional serial published in Hamptons Magazine. She began writing for the New York Observer in 1993; in November of 1994 she created the column Sex and the City, which ran in the New York Observer for two years. The column was bought as a book in 1995, and sold to HBO as a series in 1996.
Recently, she hosted a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio, called Sex, Success, and Sensibility, which aired from October 2006 to October 2008. She is currently at work on two young adult novels, The Carrie Diaries, which will explore the life of Carrie Bradshaw during in her teenage years in New York. Through her books and television series, Bushnell's work has influenced and defined two generations of women. She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Awar for books (other winners include Joan Didion and Amy Tan), and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. She currently resides in Manhattan. (Source: Goodreads)
About the Author:
Throughout her twenties, Bushnell developed her trademark style as a freelancer, writing darkly humorous pieces about women, relationship and dateng for Mademoiselle, Self Magazine, and Esquire. In 1990, she wrote a column that would become a precursor for Sex and the City, called "The Human Cartoon", a fictional serial published in Hamptons Magazine. She began writing for the New York Observer in 1993; in November of 1994 she created the column Sex and the City, which ran in the New York Observer for two years. The column was bought as a book in 1995, and sold to HBO as a series in 1996.
Recently, she hosted a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio, called Sex, Success, and Sensibility, which aired from October 2006 to October 2008. She is currently at work on two young adult novels, The Carrie Diaries, which will explore the life of Carrie Bradshaw during in her teenage years in New York. Through her books and television series, Bushnell's work has influenced and defined two generations of women. She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Awar for books (other winners include Joan Didion and Amy Tan), and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. She currently resides in Manhattan. (Source: Goodreads)
I love the series! I dunno whether I was gonna read the book or not, because I am afraid I will be disappointed, because I love the series so much.
ReplyDeletewell, i love the series both! but i think even some plots are different, but they don't make me dislike one of them ;)
DeleteI liked the books a lot better. Somehow in the book, everything felt more real. As you also pointed out, Sebastian was indeed a perfect boyfriend who loves Carrie so much and always there for her, so the drama that the writers tried to create to make their relationship seem complicated wasn't natural and didn't make any sense. It did get complicated at one point when Sebastian and Maggie made out but even the way it happened wasn't a good plot. In the book, it wasn't Maggie who Sebastian cheated on with Carrie, it was Lali her best friend. Lali and Sebastian's thing wasn't a one night stand/mistake either, they liked and kept seeing each other even after they were done with Carrie. To be honest, it was really easy to emphatize with Carrie and understand her. In the show, Maggie and Sebastian shared a kiss, later that night Sebastian and Carrie came back together and in the morning a regretful Maggie came to Carrie's house to beg for her forgiveness. She accuses her for trying to make everything about her and doing everything to get attention. But i never felt that way about the tv Maggie character. I think both Maggie and Mouse were there for Carrie and always took care of her unlike Lali, who was the back stabbing best friend in the book.
ReplyDeleteThe book Carrie had more real struggles than the show Carrie. She had that dream and passion to be a writer but she couldn't get the acceptance to that journalism program in New York. Even after she finally did, she needed to change his father's mind about letting her to go New York. The show Carrie somehow gets everything a lot easier. She goes to Manhattan for the first time and she immediately charms the Interview magazine's style editor. She climbs the ladder fast, and soon becomes an intern there, she gets to be at the same parties with lots of cool people, from Andy Warhol to Madonna. The show Carrie is more like Carrie's fairytale. But i like the book Carrie a lot more, with her flaws and struggles, she wasn't always the best at whatever she does, but she was smart to learn from her mistakes and always fight for being better.