Rec. #130: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson

What: The books in Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicholson series are:
1) Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging
2) On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God (original title: It's OK, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers)
3) Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas
4) Dancing in My Nuddy Pants
5) Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (original title: And That's When It Fell Off in My Hand)
6) Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers
7) Startled By His Furry Shorts
8) Love Is a Many Trousered Thing (original title: Luuurve Is a Many Trousered Thing)
9) Stop in the Name of Pants
10) Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

From the titles, a few things should already be clear: Georgia Nicholson is a teenager. Georgia Nicholson is British. Georgia Nicholson is a bit of a goofy smart-arse. Rennison does an excellent job of showing the dual nature of the teenage monster --- half angsty self-involvement coupled with utter exasperation at anything parental; half daffy inside jokes and raucous laughter at anything approaching a double entendre.

Comparable to: Early on, she was marketed as a young Bridget Jones, but Georgia is more appealingly self-confident. The books are rather more like a British, lower-income-bracket, non-Austen-based Clueless.

Representative quote: "I can already feel myself getting fed up with boys and I haven't had anything to do with them yet."

Bonus representative quote: "Still not speaking to Jas, but things have gone horribly wrong in that she is not speaking to me either. I don't know how this happened as I was supposed to be in charge."

You might not like it if: You can't decipher the jargon of Georgia's world. On any given page, for example, you might come across the following: Stalag 14, Wet Lindsay, the Stiff Dylans, Operation Elastic Band, the Bummer Twins, Nauseating P. Green, and lunchpack berets.

How to get it: All ten books are in print, some of them are Kindle-able, and some of them are available on audio. If you have the chance to hear Louise Rennison read one of her own books, take that chance. She is properly hilarious (and incidentally sounds a bit like Frances O'Connor).