Funny Girl in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jan 18, 2015 Chelsea rated it liked it

A cute jaunty little story. I can't say I connected with the characters as much as I should have, but I did enjoy myself along the way. Barbara is a beauty queen who moves to London to pursue an acting career. She changes her name to Sophie and lands a role in a tv series. She hopes to become the next Lucille Ball instead of the beauty queen she is known as in her hometown of Blackpool.
ARC from Shelf Awareness.
#readharder challenge--opposite gender ...more

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Apr 12, 2015 Julianne Dunn rated it liked it · review of another edition

While I have always loved Nick Hornby, this might be my least favorite novel of his. Based in the 1960s, centered around the creation and development of a tv show on BBC, the book switches narration frequently between Sophie/Barbara (the leading lady), Bill and Tony (the writers), Clive (the leading man), and Dennis (the producer). I liked the idea of a type of kismet happening, with all of them coming together to create a better show, but with the frequently changing narratives and time skips, ...more

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Jun 19, 2015 Jane rated it liked it

A great summer read. Fun, quirky characters. Set in England during the sixties as the Beatles began to surge and a sit com with sexual overtones could take off, as this one does--Barbara (and Jim) becomes a huge success and catapults former Miss Blackpool to fame. Barbara's goal has always been to entertain people the way she'd been entertained by Lucy as a child. It's the story of her pompous leading man (and Jim), the producer and writers of the show...her absent mother and her friend Diane. I ...more

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Feb 22, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, england, historical-fiction

I really wanted to love this! In the end, I think Hornby didn't give us a funny girl, or even a funny story. Funny Girl is about a young woman who comes from the North, follows her dream to move to London and is magically discovered and ends up with a successful comedy tv series just like her hero Lucille Ball. This is all very neat, and the storyline lacks any real conflict (could have been internal or external).
And maybe as Americans, we miss out on the subtleties of British tv in the 60s and ...more

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Feb 07, 2015 Kate rated it liked it

A nice easy read, but Sophie was just a bit too dim for my liking, dammit. C'mon Hornby!

Also this book could have ended about fifty pages before it did. ...more

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