The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

After reading Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, I have been on the prowl for another story about female coming of age and discovery of identity. I finally decided to give The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing a try after being on my reading list for over a year. The book, consisting of many short stories and vignettes, is written by Melissa Bank. The reader follows the protaganonist, Jane, through the ups and downs of love.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed by this book. I would have stopped reading it, but the book moves very fast and is a quick read. At the most, I recommend this as a beach read. The author's writing is not anything special. I felt there wasn't enough character development of Jane. We are introduced to her as a very young teen in the first chapter, but even the author's attempt of writing Jane from a teen point-of-view was not believable. Then, the second chapter immediately jumps to Jane in her 20s and the reader is left feeling like many years of life development is lost. What happened to the character in one of the most pivotal stages of life- college?

Apparently, there is a movie out there based on this book. It is called Suburban Girl and features Sarah Michelle Gellar. It seems like a lot of books turn into movies. This is great for screen play writers, which is a profession I've thought about quite a bit (would it be as fun as it sounds?). However, how do certain books turn into movies and others don't? Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress was a far superior book, but it never became a New York Times Bestseller and is not turning into a movie. What is the special formula that makes one book a success over another?

Side Note: Speaking of books turning into movies, I finished reading Stephanie Meyer's second book in the Twilight series. This one is called New Moon. Without giving too much away, it follows the author's same recipe of built up cliff hangers with action written near the end of the book. There is a twist in this story and it is a little darker. It follows a similar theme to many series: the middle book has to be dark in order to build up a story. Take Empire Strikes Back for example- it was the middle story in the Stars Wars Trilogy and it was very sad and dark to allow Return of the Jedi to have even more of an impact. However, I look forward to a better story for the third and fourth book.

Once Twilight is finished, I will be sad. However, my friend Laney just gave me the first three books of the True Blood series. It now seems like I cannot get enough of vampires!