Rating: 
Summary: Is it even possible to Be Good?
Review: How to Be Good, by Nick Hornby, was a great read, hard to put down, sail right through kind of book. An excellent, serious book, but with plenty of humor. Funny, yes, but he doesn't shy away from the difficult ending.
The characters are well formed, and brought to life with all their faults on display. Each character, in their own way, faces the question of "How to be Good." David was once proudly known as "The Angriest Man in Holloway." Now he's trying to convince his neighbors to take homeless kids into their spare bedrooms. His wife, Katie (the narrator of the book), is a doctor, which has got to be good, right? Except she's having an affair and wants out of her marriage. The children must take sides, all while being good, of course. And then there's GoodNews, an energy healer and David's spiritual guide, who seems rather guideless himself. Who's good? Who isn't failed in some way or another? Goodness may be something to find in the little, small moments, not in the grand gestures. Sometimes the moments are so small, they're easy to miss. Hornby, however, brings all these moments to light.
Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy, ...) is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I'm going to have to read more of him. Two thumbs up.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing Read
Review: The book is very pessimistic, and the characters are very unlikable. I kept hoping for an upbeat twist to the story - and it never came. You really want to grab the characters off of the page and shake them and scream "DO YOU HAVE NO PRIDE, SHAME, OR BALLS?!?!?!?!"
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: I discovered Nick Hornby just a few months ago, and quickly absorbed all of his books. His work seemed to improve with each novel, and so I was excited to learn of the release of How To Be Good. Unfortunately, I found the novel very disappointing. While the central question -- what does it mean to be a "good person," and should one really have to struggle to do it -- is interesting, the book lapses too often into caricature. That's the point, Hornby might say, since the man "being good" in the book has a quasi-religious conversion from petty nastiness into sickening do-gooder self-righteousness. But too many of the other characters -- a strange masseuse cum guru, a ne-er-do-well brother, a lumpish mediocre Anglican minister -- wander into the book and are not given much to do. Hornby, a "guy writer" with a strong masculinity in his writing, deserves credit for creating a female narrator and protagonist, and he is actually quite successful. But she deserves a better book to live in.
Rating:
Summary: A Question to Ponder
Review: How to Be Good, a question for all to ponder. What makes a person good ~ are you good when you are a dedicated doctor, like the main character Katie? Or are you good when you transform yourself from an angry, miserable person, to one who feeds and gives to the homeless, among other things, such as Katie's husband, David. What happens when GoodNews, a self-proclaimed healer and guru of good enters into the equation? Through the use of humor and everyday situations, Hornby has challenged the reader to evaluate the concept of good. The characters were very interesting and their process of change was compelling. 'How to Be Good' was a satisfying read; it was not life changing nor will be memorable for life. There have been mixed reviews on this novel so I will try 'High Fidelity' and reserve my judgement until then.
Rating:
Summary: Great Writing, Terrible Story
Review: If you're a fan of Nick Hornby's writing, definitely read this book. Save yourself the cost of the hardcover -- wait till it comes out in paperback or, better yet, borrow it from a friend -- but definitely read it. It's classic Hornby -- dry, witty humor, peppered with the occasional deep, usually dark, Truth about human nature. That said, the story stinks. It's not very interesting, it's totally unbelievable, and it goes nowhere. A spiritual healer comes to live with a family and chaos ensues. Maybe it could have worked as a short story -- maybe -- but as a full-length novel, not so much. I love everything else Hornby has written -- please, please, please make sure you read NippleJesus in "Speaking With the Angel." It's laugh-out-loud hilarious! -- but this one leaves me much less than satiated.
Rating:
Summary: Is Good News Really Good?
Review: Nick Hornby's "How to be Good" is like it's chief protaganist, Katie Carr in that she means well but doesn't succeed as often as she'd like. Katie is a harried doctor and primary bread winner married to David,crabby newspaper columnist a la Andy Rooney and mother to Molly and Tom. Suddenly, almost overnight David transforms himself into an erstwhile Gandhi and attributes this change to a "hot hands" healing man that calls himself "Good News": "Good News is my name now. Because that's what I want to bring, see." David and Good News strike out with a plan to save the world by placing street people into neighborhood homes and giving away Tom and Molly's toys, computers and clothes to those more in need and encouraging everyone to do the same. The party that David throws to introduce this idea to his neighbors is hilarious as most of his neighbors think David has gone bonkers yet produces homes for 6 street people nonetheless! All through this book Katie has a running commentary and much of what she says is funny and witty. As in this scene with one of her regular patients, "Barmy" Brian who Katie invites to the "save the homeless party." Brian replies: "How many people are at a party? More than seventeen?" Katie: "There will be more than seventeen at this one, probably, Why?" Brian: "I can't go anywhere where there's more than seventeen people.That's why I can't work at the Supermarket, you see...could I come maybe the day after, when they're all gone?" Katie: "Then it wouldn't be a party, though.....we'll try and have one with sixteen. Another time." Brian: "would you?" Katie: "I'll see what I can do." A lot of the book is written in this loopy style with an auditorium full of people moving in and out, some literally, of Katie and David's life. In a strange way we are pulling for both Katie and David to succeed in their opposite goals but by the last third of the novel a sourness takes hold in David that simply does not ring true to the general tone of the book heretofore and to the natural progression of David's character. It's as if Hornby loses interest in the story and in David and hurries the novel to a close. I think he would have been better served with a stronger editor but there is definitely some fun stuff in "How to Be Good" and I recommend it nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Nick Hornby does it again!
Review: The first book I read by Nick Hornby was High Fidelity and from there I was hooked! With his latest, How To Be Good, Hornby doesn't let me down. Again his wit and sarcasm comes out perfectly. Wonderful character take you on a ride I was definetively not expecting. With a woman (Katie) who's more like a man, and her husband (David) who's more like a woman,the exagerated events that happen along the novel are sometimes so unbelievable and ridiculous you definetively want to find out what happens in the end. How To Be Good is everything and more that you expect from this wonderful new writer. Can't wait forthe next one!
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking but a little loose at the end
Review: I have just read some of the other reviews on this site and have to say that most of them are ridiculous. How to be Good is NOT an awful book. It is an intelligently written, thought-provoking novel written by a very talented man. Like many other reviewers, High Fidelity is one of my favourite books. How to Be Good is a much bleaker novel and deals with entirely different issues - issues that are not as easily resolved as the standard "will-guy-who-can't-settle-down-eventually-do-so-with-the-right-woman" type plot. It raises complex issues in an intelligent way and forces the reader to consider aspects of themselves that they may not have before. The central theme of the book (what does it mean to be good?) is fascinating and dealt with in an insightful way. The characters are more thinly drawn than in High Fidelity (or even About a Boy for that matter) but only because there are more central characters and the plot is more 'issue driven' than character driven. Some aspects of the plot are plainly unrealistic (ie: cynic converted to the cause of good by a 'mystic faith healer' called DJ Good News) but are INTENDED to be so and didn't bother me at all. The only disappoiting aspect of the book is that it did unravel somewhat at the end. I get the impression the author deliberately did this to make the point that there are no 'easy answers' to the issues raised in the book - but regardless of this, it still leaves the reader feeling a little flat. I particularly disliked the way some themes were suddenly introduced towards the end for no apparent reason (such as the main character's resolve to escape into the world of literature, which really came out of nowhere and added little to the book). Despite it's patchy ending, How to Be Good gives a reader more to think about than your average ten books combined and (as with all Hornby novels) is a brisk read full of intelligent insights into people and their motivations for doing things. Don't go into it expecting it to be as funny as High Fidelity - it is not and does not attempt to be. Enjoy it for what it is!
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best
Review: Somewhere in Nick Hornby's wandering meditation of just what constitutes good and bad I got lost along the way. I loved both "High Fidelity" and "About A Boy", but found alot of this book hard to even like let alone love.His narrator Katie Carr is a married doctor who's having an affair. Her husband David is a bitter syndicated columnist who undergoes a spiritual transformation which has resounding effects on Katie and her two children. The book never bored me, more just left me baffled. The characters were not particulary likable and the ending seemed too pat and neat.I came through the book not rooting for Katie or believing the novels outcome, just with a vague notion that I should be doing more for the homeless.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Disappointment
Review: This book is good for the odd chuckle, but you have to wade through too much boring dialogue from unbelievably self-absorbed characters to find the little gems hidden here and there. Hornby is a master of weaving pop culture with a plot and coming up with a relevant statement about life, but in this book his formula just falls apart. First, the characters in this book are boring, and not only that, they whine incessantly. This book may be thought provoking, but only thought it provoked in my mind is which character I would strangle first if given the chance. Secondly, the pop culture references that Hornby has used with great success in his previous works just fall flat in this book; everytime you read one here it is like a red flag reminding you of the nonexistent plot and the annoying characters. Sadly, however, these references are what is most real about this book as most of the characters seem to be caricatures of real human beings. Considering the time it took Hornby to give us a new work (over 3 years), I was expecting much more.
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