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Smart Girls Like Me Paperback – November 11, 2008

3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 22 ratings

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This is a story about what happens when you are twenty-four years old and it is 1999 and you are quite certain that everyone on the planet has been invited to super-fun New Year's Eve orgies, except you. There is sex, albeit awkward and tentative. There are drugs, however illegal. There is very little rock and roll, but there is, of course, a wedding, and possibly a heroine: Betsy Nilssen, who, daily, finds herself in the sort of Manhattan workplace frequently filled with fashion models. She has a best friend named Bridget, and all Betsy wants is to escape Y2K by fleeing with her to New Zealand, where they could kayak through fjords and make out with surfers.

But two things happen: Bridget deserts Betsy―if by that we mean that Bridget accepts her boyfriend's proposal of marriage―and Betsy meets the man of her quite literal dreams. This is a story about what happens when you love tremendously, and desperately, and occasionally unwisely. And it is a story of that one friend: your phone-a-friend with the definition of a tangelo at the ready, the one you call when the world is ending, the one you need, finally, more than any other person on the planet.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Diane Vadino is an exhilarating talent . . . This is a slight, beautiful novel that makes you wish there were more smart girls like her writing books.” ―Nylon

Smart Girls Like Me [is] like moving Bridget Jones to New York . . . Betsy's humorous internal monologues keep the reader engaged from first page to last.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

“A raw and honest glimpse of single life. The witty, poignant Vadino writes exactly how Smart Girls think.” ―
Entertainment Weekly

“[T]o maintain your dignity while giving into your chick lit urge . . .With seriously good writing by this
McSweeney's alum, Smart Girls is as fun and relatable as one of those silly pink books . . .” ―Marie Claire

“For many years I have marveled at Diane Vadino’s ability to take the plainest little sentence and extend and twist it into something finer, funnier, revealing, and sad. Like this one from the book you are holding right now and ought to buy immediately: ‘Or maybe this is all a fabrication, a way to soften the fact that she is sashimi at Nobu and I am Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese and that this is less an illuminating metaphor than it is an accurate description of what we both ate for dinner last night.’ That’s just one of the beguiling double helixes that make up the DNA of this book: a zippy-smart, bitter-funny read with a beautiful, accomplished novel hidden in its genetic code, expressing itself like a sudden bright blue eye in a family of brown-eyed children---at the most surprising times.” ―John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise

“Diane Vadino is a writer of enormous gifts, all of which are on display here, in her brilliant debut: a keen intelligence and wit, an amazing imagination, and an incisive understanding of human beings and the dilemmas---fantastical and mundane---in which they entangle themselves. She is that rarity: a young artist able to offer wisdom without pretension, inspiration without inhibition. I have no doubt this is the beginning of a long and wonderful career.” ―Nicholas Christopher, author of The Bestiary and A Trip to the Stars

“Diane Vadino is a warm, funny, and talented young writer. In her terrific first novel she transports us to the roller-coaster ride that is single life in the city---pleasingly paced, perfectly detailed scenes replete with Diane von Furstenberg dresses, meatloaf sandwiches, a job in media, credit card debt thanks to various bridesmaid honors, and crushing heartbreak at a downtown RadioShack. Never again will I reflect on those excruciatingly embarrassing moments of obsessive young love and feel alone.” ―Jenny Minton, author of The Early Birds

“Fabulously entertaining, insightful, and touching in its telling of a young woman finding her own voice, her own path in life. Diane Vadino is an exceptional new discovery in fiction!” ―Kirsten Lobe, author of French Trysts: Secrets of a Courtesan and the bestselling Paris Hangover

About the Author

Diane Vadino is a senior editor at Nylon, a paper artist on Etsy, the brains behind the sassy style blog, Bunnyshop, and regular eater of cakes and pies. She was the inaugural main staff person at McSweeney's and her writing on film, design, and travel now regularly appears in myriad publications. She is the author of the book Smart Girls Like Me. Born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, she now lives, mostly, in Brooklyn where her mission is to enjoy Chipotle in very fancy clothing.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition (November 11, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312385528
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312385521
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.62 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 22 ratings

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Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
3.3 out of 5
22 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2009
Betsy, the main character in this story of quarter-life-crisis, is an entertaining but familiar mess. She hates her job, and feels generally immature and inadequate in nearly every other facet of life. We've all been there: the place between college and the real-world, when it seems that everyone else "gets it". In the space of the ~270 pages Betsy learns about love, friendship, work, and how to be comfortable in her own skin.

This is an enjoyable and well-written debut novel. Vadino is a talented writer with the ability to articulate thoughts and feelings that often seem impossible to explain. This was a fun read, and one that I would definitely recommend for girls in their early twenties.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2009
Despite the title of this book, Betsy is not a smart girl. She may have better grammar than the people she works with, she may even be more intelligent than most of them, but she gives little evidence of actually being smart. She spends the bulk of the book being snippy about her best friend's upcoming wedding (to the point that if she were my maid of honor, I would have fired her!) and obsessing about her juvenile relationship with her maybe-boyfriend. At the end of the book she has the predictable revelation about her life and her relationships and the true meaning of being happy, but she spent so much of the book acting like an idiot that I couldn't really bring myself to care.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020
Smart Girls Like Me is smart, witty, and poignant. The kind of novel you want to give to your friends to let them know how much their friendship means to you. I can't wait to read the author's next book.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2008
Though Betsy, the main character, is realistic and usually likable, I could not relate well to her. She is self destructive at a point in her life where I would expect her to be getting it all together. Perhaps that is too judgemental, but I had a hard time getting comfortable in her shoes. As Betsy negotiates friendships, work, romantic relationships, and ultimately her own purpose, the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride through her many twists, turns, flips, and sometimes upside-down positions. From the way Betsy treats and is treated by her best friend Bridget, to her emotional havoc with boyfriend Ryan, the story does not always flow. Yet, in critiquing from a literary standpoint, the book is written well, with an excellent use of the English language, as Betsy loves words. From a plot perspective, though, I found the story lacking. However, the ending does not tie everything up in a nice knot, which is actually appreciated. The reader is left wondering a bit about Betsy's next decision, which may be full of possibility and discovery.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2010
Sorry but I just hated this book, at least the part I read. I forced myself to get to page 38 and had to stop the agony! I love Shopaholic books and was hoping this would be similar but I was so bored I could not go on. I never stop reading a book (or watching a movie I don't like) but this one just had to end, for me much before the actual ending. Move on to another one.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2009
This is a better than average chick lit book, with the main character Betsy being focused on more important issues than Prada shoes. But I kept trying to think back to what I was like at 24 - was I this scattered? Is she really wearing dirty clothes to work and not wearing a bra at 24? Betsy seemed a little stunted in her growth and I did not understand how she and Bridget were ever friends. That being said, it was an entertaining read, especially good for the summer.
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020
I loved this book from start to finish.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2008
Growing up and growing wiser tale from a young woman who's about to watch her best friend get married and wonders where her own future lies. Betsey cannot get into the spirit of being maid of honour for Bridget, although she tries because she loves and values their friendship. Vadino deftly conveys the limitless confusion and decisions that mark this time in a woman's life. When her friends start getting married and they start to ponder over their own failed relationships and going nowhere job. Betsey has a quirky romance with an office mate and her rapture (however brief) stirs doubt in Bridget's heart, having gone past the initial rush of new love and now settling into a life. The crossroads these two friends find themselves at is a familiar dilemma and this is a well crafted debut novel.
3 people found this helpful
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