oh the boredom !!

I enjoyed this book. I may have had it for 20 + years... but worth the wait!

Not my usual genre and this was a book of two halves for me. The celebrity stuff with the annoying characters and endless drinks and parties I didn’t enjoy. Not one character you could feel empathy for. The other part of the story is set in the Refugee camps in Nambula, Africa. This part is interesting and thought provoking. The story is all a bit Band Aid/Live Aid-esq. a bit predictable in outcome but at least some of it was informative.

К счастью, обложка и вынос совершенно не описывают содержание. Ожидала бездумный дамский романчик, получила довольно серьёзную историю о голоде в Африке, благотворительности и двух параллельных мирах. Рози, главная героиня, пытаясь забыть абьюзный роман, уезжает волонтёром в Африку. Начинает совершенно иную жизнь, неплохо с ней справляется, пока не сталкивается с очень серьёзным вызовом.
Впрочем, милых благоглупостей здесь тоже немного отсыплют.

Good light reading

Again, I don't think I enjoyed this book as much as other people. It's about a woman, Rosie Richardson, who has a job in PR that brings her into contact with celebrities. She starts a doomed love affair with a selfish, narcissistic tv presenter who treats her appallingly. In a bit of a volte face, she decides to go and work in a refugee camp in Africa. After a couple of years there, a famine by locusts is imminent, but none of the large aid agencies believe the admittedly slight evidence of this impending catastrophe. Rosie decides to make a last ditch attempt to go back to London and drum up her celeb chums to raise money. The first half of the book was entertaining and believable. The camp setting less so, and the process of convincing celebs and getting them to Africa was frankly tedious. The writing reminded me a bit of Jilly Cooper at times (not a bad thing) but the subject matter was a bit jarring for that approach.

this book is like recent pixar movies; good, but there's just something missing if ygm. The best parts are definitely the Africa bits at the camp - really good descriptions. Still, overall nothing to write home about here

Okay, full disclosure, I did not finish this book. I picked it up thinking, "Hey, I wonder what Helen Fielding's writing is like when it's not BJ's Diary." To be honest, it's pretty darn good. I don't know if she's ever lived in Africa, but she really picked up on a lot of good detail. I stopped reading the book because it was breaking my heart. Too much human suffering for me to handle right now. Still too wound up from the whole Mommy hormone thing. I am impressed with HF's writing and will come back to this book when I have the chance. If you are not on the mommy hormone roller coaster, I would recommend giving it a try.

This wasn't a bad book,but it was no "Bridget Jones's Diary".A young woman who is a publicist goes through a bad time in her romantic relationship and decides to go off to Africa to work with refugees and help with famine relief.She uses her skills as a publicist to put something together and meets a bunch of wacky people along the way.It takes you into how that is done and the harsh realities that go along with trying to help refugees in need of food,shelter,and medical.She learns that there are more important things than herself and her relationship problems.Rosie learns what she is truly capable of and what really matters.It lags a little,but it wasn't that bad a book.You find little spots of humor here and there. It is worthy of a try.

Cause Celeb was interesting at the start and at the finish, but in between there was a lot of lag. The meetings and tactical information about the relief camp read more like a non-fiction book than fiction. It seemed that there were two thinly related books merged into one.

However, I did appreciate learning more about relief efforts and relief workers (I understand that Helen Fielding did have actual experience in these areas, as well as investigative journalism, so she is well qualified to speak and write on these subjects.)

I appreciated the discussions of "celebrity" and "celebrity worship". A quote:

".. I think the notion of celebrity is completely absurd. All it proves is how gullible everyone is."

"It's not the celebrities' fault"

"Quite so. It's the whole world that's mad. Everyone wants to imagine it's possible to achieve wealth and power out of proportion to what they do. So they pay to see and read about starts who've managed to do that. But the reason the stars managed it was because people would pay to see them and read about them doing it. It's completely nonsensical."

Ah... so THAT explains the Kardashians....

This is a seriously underrated book, I wish more people would read it, especially after living in Africa! There are some very interesting lines questioning the white savior trope. Helen Fielding was ahead of her time here. I've read it a few times now and also have it on audiobook.

This book was not at all what I expected. When I picked up this Helen Fielding book at a used book sale, I figured I would be getting another semi-silly, light, romantic read from her, but it turned out to deal with much more heavy issues including famine and emotional abuse. It was well done for the most part and I enjoyed the book.