4. The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld

I saw The Man of My Dreams while browsing at the library. I had previously read books by Curtis Sittenfeld and enjoyed them, and this one looked like something that I would enjoy. It was a short read and one that I liked and I give it a B.

From Amazon:
Hannah Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah’s own life, her parents’ marriage is crumbling. And somewhere in between these two extremes–just maybe–lie the answers to love’s most bewildering questions. But over the next decade and a half, as she moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Albuquerque, Hannah finds that the questions become more rather than less complicated: At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed-up childhood? Is settling for someone who’s not your soul mate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky–or just pathetic?None of the relationships in Hannah’s life are without complications. There’s her father, whose stubbornness Hannah realizes she’s unfortunately inherited; her gorgeous cousin, Fig, whose misbehavior alternately intrigues and irritates Hannah; Henry, whom Hannah first falls for in college, while he’s dating Fig; and the boyfriends who love her more or less than she deserves, who adore her or break her heart. By the time she’s in her late twenties, Hannah has finally figured out what she wants most–but she doesn’t yet know whether she’ll find the courage to go after it.

I think that each woman who reads this story can find a bit of herself in it. While Hannah isn't the most likeable person, she is an honest character and one you can relate to. I have to admit that there were times that I really didn't like her, but there were also times that I felt so bad for her. The story was a bit "clunky" at times, where there was just a big info drop, but I kept reading. The ending was also a bit of an info dump, written in letter form, so while it wasn't the best written book in the world, it was an enjoyable one to escape with for awhile. While some might say this was chick lit, I would classify it more as women's fiction