Product Description

Readers fell in love with Cannie Shapiro, the smart, sharp-tongued, bighearted heroine of Good in Bed who found her happy ending after her mother came out of the closet, her father fell out of her life, and her ex-boyfriend started chronicling their ex-sex life in the pages of a national magazine.

Now Cannie's back. After her debut novel -- a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life -- became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable -- knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy's drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha.

As preparations for Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception -- the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy.

Radiantly funny and disarmingly tender, with Weiner's whip-smart dialogue and sharp observations of modern life, Certain Girls is an unforgettable story about love, loss, and the enduring bonds of family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #996 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Following the story collection The Guy Not Taken, Weiner turns in a hilarious sequel to her 2001 bestselling first novel, Good in Bed, revisiting the memorable and feisty Candace Cannie Shapiro. Flashing forward 13 years, the novel follows Cannie as she navigates the adolescent rebellion of her about-to-be bat mitzvahed daughter, Joy, and juggles her writing career; her relationship with her physician husband, Peter Krushelevansky; her ongoing weight struggles; and the occasional impasse with Joy's biological father, Bruce Guberman. Joy, whose premature birth resulted in her wearing hearing aids, has her own amusing take on her mother's overinvolvement in her life as the novel, with some contrivance, alternates perspectives. As her bat mitzvah approaches, Joy tries to make contact with her long absent maternal grandfather and seeks more time with Bruce. In addition, unbeknownst to Joy, Peter has expressed a desire to have a baby with Cannie, which means looking for a surrogate mother. Throughout, Weiner offers her signature snappy observations: (good looks function as a get-out-of-everything-free card) and spot-on insights into human nature, with a few twists thrown in for good measure. She expends some energy getting readers up to speed on Good, but readers already involved with Cannie will enjoy this, despite Joy's equally strong voice. (Apr.)
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Review
"Hilarious. Weiner offer her signature snappy observations and spot-on insights into human nature."-- Publishers Weekly

"Heartfelt and funny...A touching examination of both the comic and tragic moments that mark the mother-daughter relationship." --Kirkus Reviews

Review
"Hilarious. Weiner offer her signature snappy observations and spot-on insights into human nature."-- Publishers Weekly

"Heartfelt and funny...A touching examination of both the comic and tragic moments that mark the mother-daughter relationship."-- Kirkus Reviews

"Clear your calendar and prepare to read: Cannie Shapiro is back! Weiner is a talented writer who consistently delivers the goods. Readers will laugh and cry..."-- Library Journal (starred review)

"Weiner displays her signature wry voice and sap-free knack for capturing heartfelt moments; an unexpected plot twist gives her story emotional heft. Fans should find Girls a worthy successor."-- People

"Filled with family tumult (lesbian mother, rebellious teenage daughter, nutjob sister), career uncertainty, heart wrenching plot twists, and plenty of Weiner's classic sass, Certain Girls is like literary cotton candy -- it's light, fun and sweet, yet sticks with you long after it's gone. Label it a beach season must."-- Gotham

"Weiner's follow-up to Good in Bed is, in a word, fantastic. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, you'll cry as you follow Cannie and her now nearly teenage daughter, Joy. Told through alternating first-person narratives, Weiner's tale gives mothers and daughters alike a treat to devour."-- Romantic Times

"Weiner is a talented and accomplished novelist, with real stylistic flair, excellent and sometimes laugh-out loud wit, and good insight into her characters...Cannie has retained her wit and her sharp takes on the world she lives in, but she has evolved. Weiner's voice is smart and edgy, and her male characters are sharply drawn. She writes about issues, such as the dynamics of family life, that are of interest to all humans." -- Philadelphia Inquirer

"In this smart-mouthed sequel to Good in Bed (a chick-lit classic), heroine Cannie is older but thinner, and in a terrible tussle with her soon-to-be-bat mitzvahed daughter." -- Good Housekeeping

"Jennifer Weiner's new book, Certain Girls, is a sequel to her huge best-seller, Good in Bed. For those of us who loved Cannie Shapiro, it's a chance to see her years later, married, a mother and coping with a new set of challenges." -- Cape Cod Times

"A daughter's journey through teen angst to realizations about family, acceptance, love, and the nature of truth." -- Elle magazine's "Elle's Letters" Readers' Prize April Winner

Customer Reviews

Another exquisite book; this time the story of Cannie Shapiro from Good in Bed continues...
Cannie married Dr. Peter Krushelevansky after giving birth to her daughter Joy, whose father is Bruce, Cannie's dope head ex boyfriend.
The book is mostly about how Joy and Cannie interact as mother and daughter.
Joy is not an easy child, she was born ahead of time and has hearing problems so she has to wear hearing aids that she just hates to wear. She is insecure and is looking to be approved by the collest girl of her class. She wants to be treated as a grown up and make her own mistakes but Cannie is overprotective and tries to help her too much so they fight a lot and now that Joy will turn 13 and celebrate her bat mitzvah everything just blows apart and both mother and daughter will have to learn to live with each other since Peter dies of a heart attack leaving them all alone and with a baby on the way. They had opted for a surrogate mother to carry their child and now that peter is gone, Cannie and Joy will have to take care of the new family member and try to get along and accept their differences.

Weiner with her brilliant eye for character sketches and her natural art of storytelling makes her characters messy, lovable, funny, and smart.
Her warm heart makes her connect with her readers and we all empathize with her and her characters.

A Beautiful Act of Insight
The only complaint I have about Certain Girls is how forgettable the title is. This book is not meant to be the same kind of book as Good in Bed. This is the book about what happens after Prince Charming comes along and the gorgeous child becomes a teenager. Jennifer Weiner does a stunning job of voicing the concerns of the mother: her love for her daughter, her inability to see her daughter accurately, her fears for her daughter, her personal and professional struggles, her faith, her fears--and the separate but equal concerns of her daughter: her love for her mother, her inability to see her mother accurately, her humorous and heart-twisting attempts to discover who her mother is, her struggles to be accepted at school, her need to assert herself, her personal struggles. As a mother and a daughter, I know how incomprehensible mothers and daughters can be to each other--how deeply intertwined the love and pain can be.

Reading the other reviews I wonder two things: first, if others who heard the story on CD/cassette (as I did) loved it more than those who read it. The reader is extraordinary. Second, if there is a correlation between the age of the readers and their ratings. Maybe you have to have been both daughter and mother-of-a-teenager to appreciate what Weiner has done here. Or maybe you just had to be ready for Weiner to be writing something different. I think it's her best book.

I missed the Shapiro's-a great addition to the family
I love Jennifer Weiner's funny, flawed characters. I was so excited to see this book I bought it in hardback and proceeded to read it during the first week of summer break even with my kids out of school! I had missed Cannie and crew. I enjoyed catching up with her 13 years later, and again exploring family relationships this time with her in the role of a mother to a teenage girl. Weiner again is hilarious and poignent. I was sad when Certain Girls ended.