Calendar Girl by Naomi Neale

Nan Cloutier is 28 years old and still living life as if she was just out of school. Rather than hold down a regular job, Nan drifts from one temporary job to another, barely making enough money to pay for her apartment, which also doubles as a storeroom for old bakery equipment from the bakery downstairs. Life is wonderful or at least it’s better than being an accountant, stuck in some stuffy old office day after day. But when Nan’s brothers move in because their lives hit rock bottom, Nan dreams of the day she can escape the insanity.

This is a classic chick-lit novel: the ditzy girl narrates the story in first person, she has a bunch wacky friends and a strange family, plus she enough bad luck to drive most people insane. However, like most chick-lit books this one wandered all over the place. It was hard to keep the people and places straight and while the last quarter of the book shows a marked change in Nan, it felt fairly abrupt and left me wondering how I got here. But if you like chick-lit, you’ll probably like book and even if you don’t, some of her imagery is worth reading.

Details: Making It, February 2006

Bottom line: A pretty good book