I can't recall where I first heard about Jessica Grose's "Sad Desk Salad", or who recommended it. The title alone is intriguing and I’ve wanted to read it for a while. The copy I checked out had the feel of having been read in a bathtub, or in some other watery, steamy place.

The first chapter, where Alex describes her morning routine of waking to coffee followed by searching the internet for new stories to post on the women's website she writes for, almost wore me out from reading it. She is under considerable pressure to research and post her stories before another site picks them up, so I knew this would be a quickly-paced sort of novel. And the website, Chick Habit, catered to readers looking more for gossip than for substance, which bothered Alex even though she did like the excitement of it all.

After chapter one, I decided to skim ahead a bit, didn’t follow the plot well, and ended up quickly at the final chapter, "Nine Month's Later." That chapter was interesting enough to make me want to find out some of the things it mentioned. What was this website, BTCH, that wanted to undermine Chick Habit and especially Alex? What happened between Alex and her boyfriend, Peter, between her and her mother? Who was Cassandra?

I found answers to all those questions here and there, and had a good, if non-linear and non-exhaustive read of this interesting novel. ( )

I listen to the Slate podcasts so Jessica Grose was a familiar name to me and while I am not a particular fan of the Double X podcast or of Jessica's work on that show, I felt like I wanted to support her efforts as a novelist so I picked up this book.

It's a total page turner about the behind the scenes machinations at a small gossippy web site called Chick Habit. A scandal involving cocaine and some pseudo-celebrities, drama between catty co-workers who interact almost exclusively via IM, and a rocky week with her live-in boyfriend make for a fast romp through a week in our main character's life.

There's nothing spectacular here but it feels very true to life. I enjoyed it for the bit of fluff that it is. I'd read another of her books and I think she's better at chick lit than feminist ranting on the podcast.

Also, had to laugh when she crammed in YET another plug for the "End of Men". Listeners of Slate and Double X will totally get that reference! ( )

This was a fun quick read, I finished it in during the winter storm that never was, and really enjoyed it. I can now never look at my favorite news blogs the same and I have a much greater appreciation for bloggers in seeing how much work goes into maintaining one. The story was cute although I found some things annoying like the drawing out of her fight with Peter and the absurdity of the hate site. I think this a great book for the early to mid twenty crowd as it focuses a lot on the after college life/ quarter century crisis that so many of us experience. ( )

I needed something light and funny and this was the perfect book for that. Though it was not just happiness and sunshine, no this book did look at the internet a bit more closely too.

Alex the heroine gets up around 6 am and then works for almost 12 hours. She does not dress, take a shower and often forget to eat. She is obsessed with her work as the tempo is high and she needs to find and write several pieces a day and get a lot of traffic for the website. Is she happy? I think she is too busy to consider this. But I did like that she wanted more.

The book takes place during a hectic week as she gets an email with a video. Do post or not to post? Where does one draw the line? She already has angry comments on some post and this, this could be really bad, but also really good for the site. There is pressure and figuring out what really is the right thing to do. Not to mention, getting out of that disgusting muumuu she is wearing.

I liked the light was it was written, and there was a lightness in the air too. But it did not get too light thanks to the drama going on.

A fun book that you can read in a heartbeat ( )

This book was okay, but I kept hoping that Alex would learn something. I was a little disappointed that she never seemed to have that a-ha moment that will prevent to drama of this book from happening again. ( )