The Anglophile

August 1, 2005
Nice Jewish Girl makes good, as in Shapiro's previous offering, The Matzo Ball Heiress. Shari Diamond is living in the uber-hip East Village, working on her graduate degree in the little-known language Volapuk and dating a Nice Jewish Boy. Happy? Not she. Her long-sought-after research subject has bitten the dust, her NJB Kevin has shown his true boring colors and her passion for all things British remains unfulfilled; she's never set foot on the other side of the Pond. A conference in Chicago finds her squiring about a charming, appropriately pasty gentleman of the English persuasion, by the swoonable name of Kit Brown. Letting Kevin float conveniently out of her mind, she passes a delicious night in the company of His Britness, only to discover in the morning he is the mysterious world expert in Volapuk-and he's already solved her thesis. Bugger! What's a girl to do? Why, make a public fool of herself and then invite him back to New York, of course. The story unrolls according to chick-lit formula; astute readers surely won't be in breathless anticipation of which man she ends up with. Tales of Shari's Queens upbringing and glimpses of her hilarious family (Aunt Dot and her pet skunk, for instance) add humor and humanity to an otherwise blase tale.

August 22, 2005
Nice Jewish Girl makes good, as in Shapiro's previous offering, The Matzo Ball Heiress. Shari Diamond is living in the uber-hip East Village, working on her graduate degree in the little-known language Volapuk and dating a Nice Jewish Boy. Happy? Not she. Her long-sought-after research subject has bitten the dust, her NJB Kevin has shown his true boring colors and her passion for all things British remains unfulfilled; she's never set foot on the other side of the Pond. A conference in Chicago finds her squiring about a charming, appropriately pasty gentleman of the English persuasion, by the swoonable name of Kit Brown. Letting Kevin float conveniently out of her mind, she passes a delicious night in the company of His Britness, only to discover in the morning he is the mysterious world expert in Volapuk-and he's already solved her thesis. Bugger! What's a girl to do? Why, make a public fool of herself and then invite him back to New York, of course. The story unrolls according to chick-lit formula; astute readers surely won't be in breathless anticipation of which man she ends up with. Tales of Shari's Queens upbringing and glimpses of her hilarious family (Aunt Dot and her pet skunk, for instance) add humor and humanity to an otherwise blase tale.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2005
Doctoral student Shari Diamond has two passions: her study of Volapuk, a lost language, and all things English, including Englishmen. She unwittingly discovers a man who embodies both: handsome Englishman Kit Brown, whom she meets on a tour in Chicago before a linguistics conference. She quickly beds Kit, then is shocked to discover that he is a presenter at the conference on the very language she has been studying. To make matters worse, Kit has found the last living Volapuk speaker, a farmer Shari has spent several years searching for. Despite the fact that Kit has shattered her dissertation dreams, Shari can't deny her attraction to him, and she finds herself jetting off to England with him where her studies fall by the wayside as their romance heats up. Anglophiles will enjoy the British references and the romp through England in this charming tale from the author of " The Matzo Ball Heiress" (2004).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)