Loh is a sharp and witty everylateboomer in LA. She observes the quintessential LA lifestyle - the gifted-child artistic type who remains just outside The Industry and therefore justifies doing what it takes to get by. She willingly admits her down to earth opinions- $8.99 represents a fabulously expensive bottle of wine, IKEA furniture is rapture, Nintendo is great fun, etc. I got a slight sense that the self deprecations were artificial, but no matter - the book is quite good.

An LA woman outgrows the student-style, bohemian, idealistic world of academia and ideas, which leads to some harsh realities of life, some indictments of the life and culture of LA, and some classic coming-of-age stuff. The story is fine, but predictable. Loh leaves a vast amount of LA's competitive and harsh culture untouched, but does nicely with LA's drive to appear to get ahead. Though there's too much emphasis on real estate, and a fairly narrow view, that view is fairly well done.