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Shopaholic (novels)
''Shopaholic'' is a series of novels written by the UK author Sophie Kinsella, who also writes under her real name Madeleine Wickham. The books follow protagonist Becky Bloomwood, Rebecca Bloomwood, an idealistic, but intelligent and hard-working financial journalist through her adventures in shopping and life. Each book typically centers around a large shift in Becky's personal or work life and details the trouble that ensues as a result of her quirky personality and unrealistic goals. As of October 2019, the series has ten books. The novel series has been optioned by a Hollywood studio, with the first Shopaholic film being released 13 February 2009. The Books *''The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic'' (2000) also published as ''Confessions of a Shopaholic'' (2001) *''Shopaholic Abroad'' (2001) also published as ''Shopaholic Takes Manhattan'' (2002) *''Shopaholic Ties the Knot'' (2002) *''Shopaholic & Sister'' (2004) *''Shopaholic & Baby'' (2007) *''Mini Shopaholic'' (2010) *''S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term ''romance''. Such romances should not be con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Dancy
Hugh Michael Horace Dancy (born 19 June 1975) is an English actor who rose to prominence for his role as the title character in the television film adaptation of ''David Copperfield'' (2000) as well as for roles in feature films as Kurt Schmid in '' Black Hawk Down'' (2001) and Prince Charmont in ''Ella Enchanted'' (2004). Other film roles include Joe Conner in '' Shooting Dogs'' (2005), Grigg Harris in '' The Jane Austen Book Club'' (2007), Luke Brandon in '' Confessions of a Shopaholic'' (2009), Adam Raki in ''Adam'' (2009) and Ted in '' Martha Marcy May Marlene'' (2011). On television, he portrayed criminal profiler Will Graham in the NBC television series ''Hannibal'' (2013–2015), Cal Roberts in the Hulu original series '' The Path'' (2016–2018) and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in the Channel 4 miniseries ''Elizabeth I'' (2005); the latter role earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Dancy currently portrays Senior Assistant District Attorney Nolan Price on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novel Series
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher. Publishers' reprint series Reprint series of public domain fiction (and sometimes nonfiction) books appeared as early as the 18th century, with the series ''The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill'' (founded by British publisher John Bell in 1777). In 1841 the German Tauchnitz publishing firm launched the ''Collection of British and American Authors'', a reprint series of inexpensive paperbound editions of both public domain and copyrighted fiction and nonfiction works. This book series was unique for paying living authors of the works published even though copyright protection did not exist between nations in the 19th century. Later British reprint series were to include the ''Routledge's Railway Library' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conspicuous Consumption
In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen coined the term ''conspicuous consumption'' to explain the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury commodities (goods and services) specifically as a public display of economic power—the income and the accumulated wealth—of the buyer. To the conspicuous consumer, the public display of discretionary income is an economic means of either attaining or maintaining a given social status. The development of Veblen's sociology of conspicuous consumption also identified and described other economic behaviours such as invidious consumption, which is the ostentatious consumption of goods, an action meant to provoke the envy of other people; and conspicuous compassion, the ostentatious use of charity meant to enhance the reputatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consumerism
Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the purchase and the consumption of products have evolved beyond the mere satisfaction of basic human needs, Stearns, Peter (2006). ''Consumerism in World History''. 2nd ed. Routledge. p. vii–viii. transforming into an activity that is not only economic but also cultural, social, and even identity-forming. It emerged in Western Europe and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and became widespread around the 20th century. In economics, consumerism refers to policies that emphasize consumption. It is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly inform the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefore influence the economic organization of a society. Consumerism has been criticized b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weighted Arithmetic Mean
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The notion of weighted mean plays a role in descriptive statistics and also occurs in a more general form in several other areas of mathematics. If all the weights are equal, then the weighted mean is the same as the arithmetic mean. While weighted means generally behave in a similar fashion to arithmetic means, they do have a few counterintuitive properties, as captured for instance in Simpson's paradox. Examples Basic example Given two school with 20 students, one with 30 test grades in each class as follows: :Morning class = :Afternoon class = The mean for the morning class is 80 and the mean of the afternoon class is 90. The unweighted mean of the two means is 85. However, this does not account for the difference in numbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor Theatre, stage performance, the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film ''Léolo''. Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster, which was in turn acquired by Warner Bros. in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango Media, Fandango ticketing company. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. The site is influential among moviegoers, a third of whom say they consult it before going to the cinema in the U.S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normalization (statistics)
In statistics and applications of statistics, normalization can have a range of meanings. In the simplest cases, normalization of ratings means adjusting values measured on different scales to a notionally common scale, often prior to averaging. In more complicated cases, normalization may refer to more sophisticated adjustments where the intention is to bring the entire probability distributions of adjusted values into alignment. In the case of normalization of scores in educational assessment, there may be an intention to align distributions to a normal distribution. A different approach to normalization of probability distributions is quantile normalization, where the quantiles of the different measures are brought into alignment. In another usage in statistics, normalization refers to the creation of shifted and scaled versions of statistics, where the intention is that these normalized values allow the comparison of corresponding normalized values for different datasets in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999, and was acquired by Fandom, Inc. in 2022. Metacritic turns each critic and user review into respective percentage score. This can be done either by calculating the score from the rating given or by making a subjective decision based on the review's quality. Before averaging the scores, they are adjusted based on the critic's popularity, reputation, and the number of reviews they have written. The site also includes a summary from each review and links to the original source, using colors like green, yellow, or red to indicate the overall sentiment of the critics. Metacritic won two Webby Awards for excellence as an aggregation website. It is regarded as the foremost online rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isla Fisher
Isla Lang Fisher (; born 3 February 1976) is an Australian actress. Born in Oman to Scottish parents with whom she moved to Australia during her childhood, she began appearing in television commercials and came to prominence for her portrayal of Shannon Reed on the Australian soap opera ''Home and Away'' (1994–1997), for which she received two Logie Award nominations. Fisher transitioned to Hollywood with a supporting role in the comedy horror film ''Scooby-Doo'' (2002) and has since starred in films such as '' Wedding Crashers'' (2005), '' Wedding Daze'' (2006), '' Confessions of a Shopaholic'' (2009), '' Bachelorette'' (2012), '' The Great Gatsby'' (2013), '' Now You See Me'' (2013), and '' Nocturnal Animals'' (2016). Her other credits include '' I Heart Huckabees'' (2004), '' Definitely, Maybe'' (2008), '' Keeping Up with the Joneses'' (2016), '' Tag'' (2018), and '' The Beach Bum'' (2019), in addition to voice roles in animated films such as '' Horton Hears a Who!'' (200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sophie Kinsella
Madeleine Sophie Wickham, known by her pen name Sophie Kinsella, is an English author. The first two novels in her best-selling ''Shopaholic'' series, '' The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic'' and '' Shopaholic Abroad'', were adapted into the film '' Confessions of a Shopaholic'' (2009). Her books have sold over 40 million copies in more than 60 countries and have been translated into over 40 languages. Early life Madeleine Sophie Wickham is the eldest sister of fellow writers, Gemma and Abigail Townley. She was educated at Putney High School, St Mary's School, Shaftesbury and Sherborne School for Girls. She graduated from New College, Oxford, where she initially studied Music, but after a year switched to Politics, Philosophy and Economics ( PPE). She worked as a financial journalist (including for ''Pensions World'') before turning to writing fiction. Life and career At the age of 24, Kinsella wrote her first novel, which was published when she was 26. ''The Tennis Party'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mini Shopaholic
''Mini Shopaholic'' (2010) is the sixth book of the Shopaholic series. It is a chick-lit novel by Sophie Kinsella, a pen-name of Madeline Wickham. It focuses on the main character Rebecca (Becky) Bloomwood, her husband Luke Brandon and their daughter Minnie. Plot summary Rebecca Bloomwood and her husband, Luke Brandon, want to buy a home of their own so that they do not have to live with Becky's parents anymore. Their young daughter, Minnie, exhibits behavioral problems and seems to be incapable of being controlled by either parent, giving Luke doubts about having a second child. In addition to the difficulties of raising Minnie, Becky is also planning a surprise party for Luke. In her efforts to keep it a secret from Luke, she encounters several obstacles. At first, several of her friends and members of her family doubt Becky's ability to keep such a colossal secret and she faces the financial problem of throwing a grand party. This includes the hardships in a potential ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
