Okay, so, obviously not my usual read, but I was given this by MMR just before we were "ripped apart by the cruel forces of fate" (had to part to spend Christmas with our respective families) for "twelve years" (fourteen days). This is her comfort book. It's bizarre and not hugely unproblematic (very 2003), but quite charming in the way it's written. It has gotten me through the worst period pains in the history of period pains - my first period for almost two years, how insane - and has also provided much needed support as I've read it with one hand, balanced on a cup of coffee caught between my knees, while my other hand held my nan's, in Myton Hospice. To be honest, it reminds me of M, and that's probably why I have a soft spot for it.

I really enjoyed reading this book which I didn't expect since I never particularly liked Bridget Jones book. This is a very funny, quick read about a wacky journalist whose "overactive imagination" and hunger for adventure lead her to uncover what looks like an al-Qaeda plot, nothing less! A fun read!

I thought it was quite far-fetched and lacked the humor and humanity of Bridget Jones' Diary.

It took me a while to read this book, but not because of the book. The book was awesome, especially the last 10 chapters or so. Very funny, exciting, and tons of "omg what's happening here?" moments!

Hey hey!

Sabem aqueles livros que vocês leem vezes sem conta e mesmo assim não se cansam? Uma leitura de conforto? Um livro que não querem nem por nada se desfazer? Para mim este livro é isso mesmo!

Li este livro pela primeira vez á uns 12/13 anos (por favor não achem que por ser um livro "velho" não vai ser bom! Este livro é bom!) e já o reli 5 vezes

True this book is not nearly as good as the Bridget Jones series, but it's a fun read. Olivia Joules is a quirky heroine and a Scuba Diver as well. I actually heard of this book through Scuba Diving Magazine!

Damn. I never had so much fun without moving an inch. Bloody brilliant.

Helen Fielding is finally back with a brand new heroine - Olivia Joules. Olivia is instantly likeable: down-to-earth, smart, self-made, and armed and ready to go with her own set of insecurities.

As the title suggests, Olivia's seeming downfall is her overactive imagination. She is berated by her boss and friends equally for it, especially because, as a journalist, she's been known to botch up more than a few stories along the way.

So this time, when a story about a possible major terrorist bent on the Western world's destruction waltzes in and invites her to his exclusive dinner party, she has to force herself not to get carried away.

Olivia's adventures in the name of journalism take her all over the world, armed with nothing but her wits, her quick thinking, her Survival Tin, and her Rules for Living.

The book starts dragging at some point, but when it finally gets out of that rut, it takes off again. I think that in this type of book - all about adventure and mystery - things have to happen fast, almost one of top of another, or it begins to drag. It becomes a bit unbelievable at certain points, but you can't fault it because it just goes with the storyline - and you need to have big imagination to keep up.

You might even learn a thing or two:

Rules for Living by Olivia Joules

1. Never panic. Stop, breathe, think.
2. No one is thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, just like you.
3. Never change haircut or color before an important event.
4. Nothing is either as good or as bad as it seems.
5. Do as you would be done by, e.g. thou shalt not kill.
6. It is better to buy one expensive thing that you really like than several cheap ones that you only quite like.
7. Hardly anything matters: if you get upset, ask yourself, "Does it really matter?"
8. The key to success lies in how you pick yourself up from failure.
9. Be honest and kind.
10. Only buy clothes that make you feel like doing a small dance.
11. Trust your instincts, but not your overactive imagination.
12. When overwhelmed by disaster, check if it's really a disaster by doing the following: (a) think, "Oh, fuck it," (b) look on the bright side and, if that doesn't work, look on the funny side.
If neither of the above works then maybe it is a disaster so turn to items 1 and 4.
13. Don't expect the world to be safe, or life to be fair.
14. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Added during her adventures:

15. Don't regret anything. Remember there wasn't anything else that could have happened, given who you were and the state of the world at that moment. The only thing you can change is the present, so learn from the past.
16. If you start regretting something and thinking, "I should have done..." always add, "but then I might have been run over by a lorry or blown up by a Japanese-manned torpedo."


Advice for Life:
"I don't feel good," she said.
"Bloody good thing too," he said. "Never feel good. The corruption of the good by the belief in their own infallible goodness is the most bloody dangerous pitfall in the human spectrum. Once you have conquered all your sins, pride is the one which will conquer you. A man starts off deciding he is a good man because he makes good decisions. Next thing, he's convinved that whatever decision he makes must be good beacuse he's a good man. Most of the wars in the world are caused by people who think they have God on their side. Always stick with people who know they are flawed and ridiculous."

Highly recommended for a fun time.

I hardly know how to rate, let alone review this book.

I'm a big fan of Fielding's Bridget Jones books and the movies based on them. The best parts of this book capture the breezy voice, realistic flaws, and humor that make those charming.

The worst parts of it are so bad that I nearly stopped reading multiple times. This book is definitely a product of its time, but even back in a post-911 world, it's hard to call the storyline anything but racist. Uncomfortably racist. It falls into the worst tropes that spy parody seems prone to in that regard.

The central premise is ridiculous in a way that's insulting. The narrative voice switches randomly to another character's perspective in such obscure moments that it seems jarring. The characters are not likeable and the love interests less so.

But parts of it had me engaged and fully reading and wanting to know what happened next. I can't recommend this book in good faith.

I didn't really enjoy this book that much. The main character reminded me of Bridget Jones on speed. I finished it, but only because I had nothing else handy to read.

The end of my three-book-long failed experiment in getting into chick lit. What an utter load of tripe: the story of a slim, beautiful, plucky and slim upstart English journalist who roams the world trailing along drooling hotel bellboys and sniffing out suspicious activity that eventually leads her not only to an underwater terrorist cave, not only to Osama Bin Fucking Laden, but to Hollywood where she FOILS A BOMB PLOT DURING THE ACADEMY AWARDS CEREMONY.

If you're ok with that, go ahead and read the book; you're beyond help.

A light, fluffy read. Fielding is always clever and is a talented writer, packing the occasional powerful description and one-liners, but the story never grabbed me. It dragged and I felt more obligated to finish than wanting to. And hate it when a love interest calls the heroine "baby." Gag. Can sense Fielding trying to break away from Bridget Jones, but fell flat.

3.12 stars! Very generous. Helen Fielding, you have a loyal fanbase that recognised the genius of Bridget Jones for all it was worth (a maddening yet undeniably realistic lead who was like ‘one of us’), and are willing to pick up other material with your name on the cover. Rookie mistake.

Someone in the reviews commented that readers are ‘disappointed’ OJATOI (that title!) is unlike Bridget Jones and they shouldn’t be compared. Of course it’s no Bridget Jones (great, that Wombats song is now stuck in my head) and I don’t think that’s the point of reader disappointment. Fielding provides such a unique voice in Bridget Jones, conversational yet with enough magic to make it almost escapism, you would imagine this form of prose would carry through all her fiction. It is what appeals about Fielding. This book, however, is far removed. I’m not going to bother detailing the plot, only to comment that it is, yes, a piece of fiction but let us not forget that Moby Dick is a piece of fiction. David Copperfield, Convenience Store Woman, fiction can be great and it can be ‘real’, or believable on some level. This delivered nothing; it felt like Fielding was almost taking the piss.

Maybe I’m being too harsh, she is entitled to write whatever she wants. And I suppose, I can review a book how I choose to. There were two, maybe three, things I didn’t mind. One, Olivia Joules’ (and remember it’s “j.o.u.l.e.s. the unit of kinetic energy” yes I am rolling my eyes) Rules for Living, that someone has posted in a review below. It’s a fine enough list. The second was her penchant for margaritas and third, how the book was quick to skim through.

Is it even fair for me to draw comparison to Bridget Jones? The thing is, the crux of it all, is that Bridget Jones is likeable (well, I think so) whereas Olivia is not only a cliché but annoying. The whole book reminded me of those creative writing assignments we had to do in high school, hyperbolic puff pieces with any sense of reality removed: the stock standard thin, pretty (but doesn’t know it, key) lead who wants to be a spy, somehow is clumsy but cute, can outwit the CIA/ Scotland Yard/ al-Qaeda/ the Police with ‘hunches’, gets the ‘hot guy’ and a new job at the ending. At the end of the book I was half-expecting Fielding to pen ‘…and then Olivia Joules woke up from her daydream and went back to writing that article about Miami from her London flat’.

I have to say I skimmed through it all but the ending got to me. I was angrily flipping page after page wearing a face mask and eating from a bag of chips, annoyed at the unbelievability of it all, Olivia’s mad winning 'hunches' streak and how the entire bombing at the Oscars was reminding me of Naked Gun 33 1⁄3: The Final Insult. I don’t know for certain if Fielding is a Leslie Nielsen fan, but the fact I was reading it and thinking of Naked Gun as a reference, and a better reference, says it all. In fact, all the diving is similarly in early scenes of another Naked Gun (that would be The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, also very good).

Look, I read it. It was…fine. But I wish I hadn’t read it, I feel it’s tainted the fun that is Bridget Jones. Please also never turn this into a film. Naked Gun 33 1⁄3: The Final Insult already exists and it is a much better film than this ever could be.