Week 26: Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries

This week's book:
Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries
By Helen Fielding

I have a confession, I have loved Bridget Jones since middle school. I loved the movies and the books. It prompted me to write in my own journal/diary. I'm sure I wasn't the only girl that was in love with Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver at the same time. The original story is a loose adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which is not actually my favorite of Austen's works, (Sense and Sensibility). We all know she should stay away from the turd that Cleaver truly is, but really Darcy is kind of poop as well. Bridget is a shallow/flake of a woman, unlike the heroine of Austen's fantastic novel. Let's just be honest, the whole Bridget Jones's Diary series is just mind candy. But sometimes you have to enjoy some fluff as my sister likes to say.

If you haven't read the first two books of the series, you will be totally lost when reading this week's book, which is the fourth in the series. All the characters aren't exactly explained, so you can't really jump in to the fourth book. But to be honest, who would jump into a well known series and not have read the first books? The third book of the series doesn't really make sense due to the fact that Bridget is a widow and has two kids, which takes place before the fourth book, which she has never been married or has children. I will say as a stand alone book the third book is okay, but as part of a series it doesn't fit.

This past summer I was just about to go on vacation with my in-laws and I wanted some light reading for when we came back to the hotel from doing whatever we had done during the day. Well turns out we went to the zoo two days in a row in one billion degree heat and the kids and I fell asleep the second we got to the hotel each night. The book was put back on the unread shelf and was kind of forgotten until a few days ago. I have started planning my best friend's baby shower this past week and it got me into a baby mindset. I have been working on a baby quilt for hubby's college roommate’s daughter, and I didn't realize that a major chunk of it has to be done by hand. I needed a break and read this week's book in less than two days. I recommend the book if you like the series. Of course it's predictable but who cares, everything doesn't have to be Dicken's.