Finished

• Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl by Debra Ollivier
  

  Rating: ****½
  
  Surprisingly insightful. Granted, it's quite biased (pro-French) and full of advice, but it's not preachy. I thought it captured cultural differences in an interesting way that made me want to know why the French (women) behave they way they do. The tips on living à la francais felt admirable, although I can't imagine them working anywhere but their native land.
  

• Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
  

  Rating: **
  
  I don't quite see what would have made a producer think this was sitcom material. It's an intriguing slice of modern life, that is often funny, but in a pathetic way. Actually, I found it a really depressing and morally shallow protrayal. I can't help thinking it would have come off better as a satire, à la Jane Austen. I suppose I could have appreciated it as is, if there weren't two blinding flaws. The first, the writing, is inexcusable. Stylistically, SATC was flat and uninspired mostly, a little too simplistic for someone who writes for a living. The second isn't Bushnell's fault. It really threw me off to read about Carrie, for example, and find her not at all like the TV Carrie. It's twofold, I guess. Producers kept the original characters' names and then the show developed their characters so well, that the latter became mentally indelible. A remarkable phenomenon, but it doesn't help the reader any.