And WHY was I so predisposed to shopping? Probably because I've just finished Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella, famed pen-name of British author Madeliene Wickham. I have been reading the Shopaholic books since 2000's Confessions of a Shopaholic and, --what I really want to write here is some sort of excuse as to why I would spend two days absorbed in chicklit. It's embarrassing, right?, to admit you enjoy such drivel. But I won't make excuses. I truly enjoy drivel-- Kinsella is a gifted comic writer. In addition, she is a clever person in general whose ability to market herself has me planning my own entry in the publishing industry.According to Wikipedia, Kinsella graduated from New College, Oxford in 1990. She worked at at investment firm until the publication of her first novel, under her real name, when she was 24. After six pretty successful novels, "Wickham" sent the first Shopaholic book to her current publishers under the pseudonymous Kinsella and they jumped at promoting this new voice. Kinsella did not divulge her real identity until five years later.
Mini Shopaholic continues to follow the shopping-induced traumas of Rebecca Brandon (nee Bloomwood), who now has a two-year old daughter named Minnie and a birthday party to plan for her workaholic husband. It's great.
