Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding....once again! : )
Review: As a loyal fan of Elizabeth Berg I was anxiously awaiting this new book. I read it...as I have done with many of her other books...in one sitting, and my only disappointment came I was finished. Ms. Berg is an exceptional writer who never fails to amaze me with her insight and observations about people and their lives. Ordinary Life is a collection of short stories that introduces to the reader a wide variety of different characters and the happenings in their lives. One of my favorites is called Take This Quiz which is about a woman trying to get her husband to take a "Are You Really Happy" quiz that she found in a magazine. I'm sure many women, myself included, have tried to get our partners to take quizzes or answer questions that we hope will evolve into some sort of life-changing discussion on how we can improve ourselves and our relationship. What happens at the end of this story, and particularly the last paragraph, really made me see things in a different light and realize that sometimes life may not be as bad as it seems. I was so excited to see the short story Martin's Letter to Nan. I LOVED the book by Ms. Berg called The Pull of the Moon which introduced Martin and Nan, and, like all of her other books, I found myself wanting to know more about the characters after the book had ended. It was so wonderful to read things from Martin's point of view and I was, once again, awed by such insight into a man's way of thinking. To me, this didn't just seem like a woman writing what a man "might" be thinking, but an actual point of view from a man. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while reading The Pull of the Moon I was seeing things from Nan's point of view AND agreeing with her...but in Martin's Letter to Nan I found myself really seeing it a different way and realizing that when there are problems in a relationship it is very rarely only one person's fault. I can't say enough good things about Elizabeth Berg. All of her novels have touched me in many ways and in each and every one I have realized and learned things about myself. I have to say that my favorite is Until the Real Thing Comes Along...but trust me, it's hard to pick a favorite. I feel like she is someone I could call up, cook up some meatloaf and mashed potatoes (the lumpy kind) and we could sit and talk for hours without getting bored. I would strongly recommend this book to everyone who loves to read. If this is your first Elizabeth Berg book I'm sure that by the time you're finished with it you'll want to read them all. Thank you Elizabeth...I can't wait to see what you share with us next. :)
Rating: 
Summary: A brief taste, but no substance
Review: Elizabeth Berg books are a treat to be savored and "Ordinary Life" had all the promise of another delight. All the necessary parts are there, characters who ring true, family dynamics, true to ear dialogue.....but this book falls short. With all these pluses, it is all tossed into a thrown together book that seems more like some story outlines, not actual stories. Each story is brief, too brief and each one suffers from the brivity. There is no opportunity to develop each story, just a scrap here and there......This book is a disappointment, perhaps because I have come to expect more. This is like Elizabeth Berg lite. Go back to one of her others, and pass this one by.
Rating:
Summary: Ordinary Life is Extraordinary Reading!
Review: Elizabeth Berg is one of those writers who seldom if ever fails to entice her readers with a good book. Whether she is writing about a woman going through a divorce, Open House, or an adolescent on the brink of her first love, Joy School, to a woman turning 50 and questioning her life(Pull of The Moon), it's as if she writes about the breath and sole of women everywhere. As I've often said a so-so Berg book(which there has only been one in my opinion) is better than most other books. And now Berg offers her readers a new book which contains short stories called Ordinary Life: Stories. And while this may be a genre which man of her readres are not familiar with, it isn't a minutes too soon for them to fall in love with them as I did. I will be the first to admit that while I seldom if ever read short stories, I did find that Berg's writing and her characters, as always, imemdiately beckoned to me, intrigued me and left me sighing for more when I ultimately finished the book. The stories themselves are small vignettes about life and love among ordinary people. But in Berg's hands these peopel are anything but ordinary, quite the oppostie as for us the readers these people become extraodinary. The stories revolve around many of the themes Berg explores in her books. Unconditional love, betrayal, growing up , dealing with an illness but most of all how people affect each other's lives. One can't help but see the similarities between the character of Mavis from the story Life, A Love Story and Nan from Pull of the Moon. And comparisons can also be made betwen the young woman Katie Nash from Durable Goods and the narrator of Matchmaker. Or again between the nurse in Never Change to the nurse in Sweet Revenge. But most of all I was blown away by the relationship between Lizzy and her ill mother in What Stays and couldn't help but think about the story the dauhgters and mother from What We Keep. Finally for Elizabeth Berg readers who loved Pull of the Moon as I did, Berg offers us a glimpse into Martin's thoughts in a very poignant letter he writes to Nan as she travels about during her soul-searching odyssey. Berg is a master of describing the emotional fabric of her characters lives and often gives her readers the impression that she is writing about them. How many times, while reading this author have I wanted to say to her, "You write about me so well and we don't even know one another." If I had any obejctions to this book of short stories it would be that it was over much too quickly. As hard as I tried to read slowly, I couldn't help but gulp down the pages. And like eating a good piece of chocolate, Berg's writings leave me yearning for more.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Ordinary Here
Review: Elizabeth Berg's book of short stories, ORDINARY LIFE, is as good as everything else she has written. I love to read a good short story and was not disappointed with any in this book. She shows us how even an ordinary life can be remarkable, how something as simple as sharing a story, looking in the mirror, or saying a few words at the right time can make our lives extraordinary, even if only for a moment. Elizabeth Berg's world is our world, not one that exists only on soap operas or in the movies. She is one of us and reading her words brings her right into your home where you feel you could welcome her with a cup of tea and some interesting conversation. Perhaps these stories reflect an ordinary life, but they are written exquisitely.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy Reading
Review: Fourteen thought-provoking short stories make up "Ordinary Life"
by Elizabeth Berg. Berg is known for writing the intimate secrets that few can safely express. She writes about the difficulties of marriage, the struggles between mother and a daughter, the harsh acceptance of a family member 'as is'. "What Stays" is the story about a mother and daughter; "The Matchmaker" deals with the relationship between a young girl and older woman and "Ordinary Life: A Love Story" deals with working out an almost-over marriage and coming to terms with the acceptance of each other. My favorite of all the stories is "One time at Christmas, in my sister's bathroom." I think i liked it most because it hit home for me. a daughter deals with the aloofness of her father. They all come home for Christmas and the father is as always: consumed with television, oblivious to anything moving. She gets angry and heads for the bathroom where her epiphany came. I love this line: I understand that he is made up of working cells, just like me-- crowded and confused pieces of genius that have been tampered with and now, wounded, go along in the way that they are able. Wow, what a profound statement! I've just about read every novel Berg has written and I'm still pleased. If you like simply written short stories about the hustle and bustle of living, then i'm certain you'll enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Ordinary Life is anything but ordinary... :)
Review: I am not normally a fan of short stories. I have tried to read them for years and I can't get into them. The stories never seem to sum up a point, it feels like as soon as I start getting into it, it ends! The only reason I tried this one is because I have read a few of her books and loved them. I read this book in two days! I had to keep coming back to it! Some of my favorites:
The first story "Ordinary Life: a Love Story" gets you right off the bat because the main character locks herself in the bathroom for a week! It's as almost if everyday life is too loud sometimes and the only way you can think is to shut yourself out from it for a while. A seventy-nine year old woman does this and her husband thinks that she has gone crazy. She just sits back, relaxes, and thinks about her life.. her marriage, her children, her sister that died of breast cancer. Memories plague her and she gets the relaxation she needs. The third story in this collection is called "Things We Used to Believe" This is about a women Martha, who spends her time with a male best friend. "She thinks sometimes that she would like to marry him, but she is already severely married." This story got me.. how many times have I been with someone, wondering what it would be like to be with someone else, someone you are close to, but never attempted a relationship. (though I am not married) One of my favorite lines: "They get up, and she sees that his sneakers are huge. She understands that there is much about him that is unfamiliar to her. They start walking toward the lake. They walk to keep from the bedroom, where things would only get more difficult." "Take this Quiz" is the sixth story about a husband and wife who have been together for a while, and the wife wants her husband to take a quiz in a magazine asking, "How Happy are you?" I once attempted something like this by trying to make my ex-boyfriend read "Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus." It didn't work. SPOILER: The most beautiful lines, metaphor in this story, and maybe the whole book in my opinion, was the way she described what happened to them after she was pushing about the quiz. "She is remembering the time she was nine and took apart a jewelry box she loved, to see what made the ballerina turn around. Though she paid careful attention to each step, when she tried to reassemble it, it didn't work the way it had before. No one else could fix it, either.The ballerina stayed in place, permanently turned away, oblivious to the music she had danced to before." There are so many beautiful stories in this book. It's as if Elizabeth Berg takes the small, yet still important things about everyday life and creates descriptions so pure and beautiful, they remind you of the things you miss everyday when you are in such a hurry. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable.
Review: I became acquainted with Elizabeth Berg with OPEN HOUSE. I loved that book and found myself reading bits of it aloud to my partner. I am slowly working my way through her other books. This book, for me, was a mixed bag. I found a few stories to be annoying and a few stunningly beautiful, with the rest in between (closer to beautiful than annoying, by the way.) One story I did NOT care for was the title story, "Ordinary Life". I see I am in the minority here but I found it gimicky and the resolution wasn't enough for me. I LOVED "Caretaking", "The Matchmaker" (great coming-of-age tale there) and especially "One Time at Christmas..."
Berg is a formidably talented writer, expressive and dramatic, and she makes it look so easy. This collection is recommended - the true gems easily made up for the weaker stories. (By the way, I have not yet read PULL OF THE MOON, so I know that after I do, I'll finally be able to read "Martin's Letter to Nan" - I just couldn't read the story first!)
Rating:
Summary: Anything but Ordinary
Review: I'm not a short story fan, but in this case I've made an enjoyable exception. Each story is a little gem of insight and understanding. Elizabeth Berg creates wonderful conversations that just sing off the page. As a mother and author of a book for mothers, NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL, I especially appreciated the poignant tale of a litle girl and her mentally fragile mother. Worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Ordinary Life Honored
Review: Not always a fan of short stories, I was entranced by the stories in this collection by Elizabeth Berg's.
I was hooked, right off the bat, by the first story, "Ordinary Life, A Love Story" and by Mavis' wish that she had more records or photos of things that were just ordinary items in her life. I have been looking at the everyday things and happenings a bit differently since reading that. I loved "Martin's Letter to Nan". In "Pull of the Moon", one of my favorite books of Berg's, Nan leaves on a journey of self-discovery without telling her husband Martin in advance. The book consists of Nan's letters to Martin and her journal entries. The letter referred to in the short story title lets us in on Martin's thinking during the time when Nan was gone. Berg says that she wrote the story because when she meets readers, she is always asked "What was Martin's response?" Another story that I thought was wonderfully done was "One Time at Christmas, in My Sister's Bathroom" which was about a woman who must come to terms with a difficult father. Berg manages to authentically detail her painful attempts to understand her father. Worthwhile reading!
Rating:
Summary: Ordinary stories with extraordinary characters
Review: The thing I love about Berg is that she says what women think, understands where women are coming from, and know what women want. And she writes about it! "Ordinary Life" is a book of 13 short stories. Each one taking us on a journey....places we know, emotions we have experienced, thoughts we have thought, situations we are living in. "Ordinary life-A Love Story"... my favorite, by the way, is about Mavis, a 79 year old woman who has locked herself in the bathroom and will not come out... "You might as well go to Big Boy for supper" she tells her husband through the crack of the door. She reflects. The first time she made love with her husband, how many pets have they had, the smell of their babies skin, what the wall paper looked like 20 years ago, her friendship with her sister. How the simple things in life, the ordinary things, were truly more important and joyous than most anything. Oh, to lock myself in the bathroom for one whole week....what luxury!!!! I cryed when I read "Caretaking" A daughter reversing roles with her mother as the caregiver. The daughter remembering her mother comforting her... whispering...
"Don't you know I will always take care of you?" And of course....."Martin's Letters to Nan" Nan acually takes off, leaves everything, travels around the country to find her identity once again.
She is my hero!!! What mom and wife would acually have the nerve to do just that??!! Have we thought of it?
YES. Martin's letters to her are superb, hilarious, moving...
I read this outloud to my husband.... ---Let me be the one to say this first. You say, oh Martin, look at that painting! Look at it! Oh Martin, listen to the violin, Listen to it! It's like your a culture Nazi. I see it, Nan, I hear it, I taste it, I ... smell it, I just do not need to TALK TALK TALK TALK TALK about it! My husband laughed....That's you, he said! Berg's gift is capturing the ordinary and making it extraordinary... The simple things,
hot sun on skin, the smell of soap on fingers, the sound of a mother's voice, even the pattern of wall paper. This is about me! This is how I feel! My husband is that way! These are sentences you may utter as you read "Ordinary Life" Berg is just like us... She is our girlfriend....
Let's do lunch soon, Liz!
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