The Devil Wears Prada

I laughed out loud listening to this. This was hands down one the funnest books i have purchased from audible. The main character had spunk and was very likable. It was great watching her evolve into a "grown-up".

Excellent narration and a humorous story make this a great audiobook for a long drive. Young Andrea ends up working for the boss from hell. Her sharp observations of co-workers in the inanity of fashion journalism are great. I still think the movie is just as good as the book, in this case. But the book has a better ending!

I don't say this very often, but I enjoyed the movie more than the book. There was unnecessary detail. If you listen, get the abridged version.

This is definitely my favorite listen to date! The characters are colorful, sincere, and absolutely believable (and unbelievable!) - even the walking nightmare, Miranda Priestly. It's a great and entertaining story of a college graduate's first job, and the expectations and pitfalls of "paying one's dues" in starting a career. I could not put this one down, and continually listened until I had to recharge my iPod! Great NYC flavor, excellent narration style, and an ending that was better than expected (and not as predictable as I expected). You won't be disappointed!

The inside look at the fashion world was mildly interesting, but for me was not enough to sustain the entire book. By midpoint, I was tired of the whining tone of the book and was beginning to feel disdain for the main character. I chose this story because others stated it was funny, however I did not laugh out loud even once. Interesting in a voyeuristic sense, but in the end, not worth my time.

I loved this book! It was a pleasure to listen to while commuting to work each day...it was not only fun to listen to, but after hearing about how horrible the 'job a million girls would kill for' was on a daily basis, it made me appreciate going to work a little more than I might have normally. The book is filled with humor and I actually found myself dreading finishing it, as I enjoyed listening to the everyday escapades of Andrea and all the other characters that made up Runway magazine! If you are looking for a lighthearted, funny and entertaining diversion, I recommend this great 'listen'....

As a more "mature" Audible listener, I found this story more tragic than funny. In the real world there are tirant managers and my heart aches for their victims. Listeners "over 40" probably will not "enjoy" this book. The literary quality, however, is excellent.

Toward the end of this book, the heroine, a budding author, says her aim is to write stories with "just the right chords of funny and touching". After hearing that statement, I realized that that was exactly what Weisberger was trying to do with this book. Attempt acknowledged, but the effort failed.

At first, I asked myself what I had had in mind in selecting/downloading this book. Of course the answer was I wanted some whimsical, satirical, funny story lines. I completely forgot that I also need a certain amount of depth in characters in order to love/hate/enjoy them. So I made a note to self: "just what was I expecting?' I think the answer is I wanted fun -- but I got insipid.

The narrator was pretty good, particularly with female voices and accents. She tried a little too hard with the male voices and missed.

I did finish the book and didn't find it a complete miss. Some of the scenes and stories were entertaining. But all in all there was a pervasive sense of meanness that took over the book.

The story was longer than necessary (which, I suspect, is the reason the abridged version is one-third the length of the unabridged). This unnecessary length adds an almost whiny tone to the novel as the narrator informs us of how hard her job is again and again, and again. All I needed as a few impossible tasks to get the picture.

In comparison to the movie's character development, the book's character development pales in comparison. In the novel, the reader never sees the humanity of Miranda Priestly, and so in the book, she is a hollow apathetic antagonist. I like fleshed-out villains, characters which have depth and layers, but I can't seem to crack Miranda's upper crust in this book. We never learn her motives or clarify her reason for her actions--which is something the movie strove to correct.

One point that I do approve of, neglected in the movie, was the Lily's alcohol addiction, which accentuates the disconnect between the narrator and the characters which she has left behind before her pre-Runway life.

All together, however, the book seemed superficial. The characters are one-dimensional, and it feels like a debut novel to me. This was not a book which I was particularly motivated to finish.

I saw the movie and got the book hoping to learn more about the fashion industry (I loved Meryl Streep’s discourse on how fashion trickles down to Casual Corner- a view which the NY Times rebutted in “The Devil Knows Nada”). This isn’t one of those learn- by-osmosis books written by James Michener or Alex Hailey. But it is entertaining and, even though I sometimes sided with Miranda that Andrea was a slacker, I thought it actually more compelling than the movie (which changed everything). The narration was ok- the narrator didn’t do so well with male voices but was clear and understandable.