The Reading Group : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Good 'Group,' but too many members
Review: Give it to Elizabeth Noble for being ambitious: "Reading Group" has enough characters and plot for 10 books. She's also got a real gift for allowing the reader into someone's head and making situations spring to life. But the strain of trying to keep up with half a dozen women and their many partners and children keeps bringing the narrative to a screeching halt. For women's fiction, this is a long book, but even in the final few pages I still had to struggle to connect the dots. Which was the divorced one? Was it the happily married one with the twins, or the one with the cheater? Whose husband was who? The editors also make no effort to make the minor changes that would make the book more accessible to American readers: Why did the the women keep putting their babies into cots--were they camping? (Cot is British English for crib, but I wish I hadn't had to dredge that up ever five pages or so.) In all a good effort, but "Reading Group" would have been great with a little editing.

Rating:
Summary: A BOOKLOVERS DREAM READ
Review: I adored this book! Any booklover should. I loved how
each book was discussed (pro and con)and how they were able to relate the books read to their life experiences and the things that were going on in their lives right at the time.

For instance with the last book, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING at the book discussion one of the characters says "I wish they would put what the book was about on the back. It's really off-putting when it's just quotes. You want to know what the story is about, not whether it's won loads of prizes or critical acclaim. That just makes it pretentious, doesn't it? This is a classic example of a book I would never have picked up if it hadn't been for the reading group." (something I agree with as a reader).

I should have marked all the passages in the book that had me nodding in agreement, the aforementioned was just one of them. The fact that not all the members had a chance to read each book was really great as well - just like my own f2f book and many online books.

Although the character of Clare wasn't as clearly fleshed out as the others, I found myself feeling that I knew each of these women. The book is told not only from the POV of the reading groups members, but others in their lives as well. There are some real surprises here and everything isn't as what it seems originally. Dealing with such domestic issues as infertility, teenage pregnancy, caring for an elderly parent, adult sibling issues, adultery, boredom, caring for young children, the women in the book deal with many of the same things we do everyday.

This is the best women's friendship book I have ever
read and I have read (and enjoyed) many.

Just to entice you the books read and discussed are:

Heartburn by Nora Ephron
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Atonement by Ian McWan
The Woman who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
Guppies for Tea by Marika Cobbold
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Memory Box by Margaret Forster
Eden Close by Anita Shreve
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

I own and/or have read, all but four of the books and plan on picking up the others (The Woman who Walked into Doors, Guppies for Tear, The Memory Box and Eden Close).

Read this book - I guarantee you won't be sorry you did!

Rating:
Summary: What a really great read!
Review: I loved this book! This story has about 5 main women characters and then alot of subcharacters (both male and female), but they are all wonderful. This is a story about life, marriages, divorce, children, parents, husbands, wives. It is all about the ups, downs and quirks life throws people on their journey through the world. I felt like I knew the characters personally. That doesn't happen all the time when you read a book. I thought it was so great as soon as I finished it I loaned it to a very dear friend of mine. I loved that at the beginning of every chapter they spoke about a book that really exists. Don't pass this one up!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story with book discussion bonus!
Review: I thought this was a wonderful book, great characters, real life situations and no perfect happy endings....real endings. It was a quick read,because it was enjoyable, and it only took a few sections before I was able to get all the characters straight, they were all very well defined. I also enjoyed the book discussions the freinds had in the reading group, seemed very honest! Read this book, well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Book clubs as group therapy.
Review: Reading groups have become all the rage and Elizabeth Noble's new novel features five British women who meet once a month to talk about a book and to catch up with one another's lives. The members of the group are Harriet, a stay-at-home mom, Nicole, a gorgeous woman whose husband is a compulsive adulterer, Polly, an independent single parent, Susan, a contented individual who feels lost when her adored mother's health starts to fail, and Clare, a midwife whose infertility threatens her marriage. These women lean on one another, give advice (both wanted and unwanted), and provide moral support as they struggle with life-changing events.

Some of the themes that Noble tackles in "The Reading Group" have soap opera elements. However, to Noble's credit, she creates recognizable and sympathetic female characters who are three-dimensional people, and I was anxious to find out how they would resolve their problems. Will Nicole, whose husband repeatedly cheats on her, have the courage to throw him out? How will the infertile couple deal with their inability to have children? Can Harriet, the discontented wife, learn to appreciate her devoted but unexciting husband? These questions may sound trite, but throughout most of the book, they make for a compelling and fast-moving narrative.

The dialogue is funny and true, and Noble's empathy for and understanding of women lends authenticity to her novel. The male characters, unfortunately, are not as fleshed out as their female counterparts. Most of the men can be described in one sentence. In addition, this 400 plus page book drags a bit towards the end as Noble gamely attempts to tie up the many loose ends that she has created.

However, for the most part, "The Reading Group" succeeds. It is less about book discussions than it is about life. Although each month the women start to talk about whatever book was assigned, they always end up airing the pressing issues that are on their minds. Noble's characters use literature as an impetus to explore the stresses and rewards of parenthood, the difficulty of sustaining long-term relationships, and the painful necessity of sometimes having to make tough and often irrevocable choices. There is enough genuine emotion, compassion, and good storytelling here to make "The Reading Group" a worthwhile pick for an individual or perhaps, for a book club.

Rating:
Summary: A year in the life
Review: The Reading Group tells the story of 5 women from different walks of life, ages, and experiences that come together each month to discuss books and how the stories relate to their day to day troubles. Over the course of a year, each one of these ladies go through their own trials and tribulations but one thing stayed steady, the friendship that has blossomed between them.

If you are a member of a reading group, I would highly suggest you read this book and then try to read each one of the twelve books listed. You will get so much out of this original women fiction novel you will want to pass it along to your friends.




Rating:
Summary: Female Bonding- Well, I Guess!
Review: This novel is the English version of an Oprah's Book Club. It takes place in small community outside of London. However, this group of women needed a place and reason to meet, drink wine and talk. What better idea than to talk about a book they have all read? That's how it started, and it all evolved into a look into each of their lives. Everyone thinks the grass looks greener on the other side, well, no, it isn't, we learn.

Five women, four of them friends and one pushed into the book group by her mother:

Harriet, co-founder of the group- thirty something with a husband who adores her and two children who adore her.

Nicole- friend of Harriet and co-founder of the group. Her husband is a problem but her three children are not.

Polly- a single mother who wants the best for her college age daughter.

Susan- Polly's best friend and all around great person. Married to a physician and mother to two grown boys.

Clare- the women who was pushed into this group by her mother. She is a midwife, unable to have children of her own and she and her husband are at a crossroads.

Into this book group, come 12 books, one for each month. Books, they talk about, love or hate and then they relate to the book in some fashion. And, then they discuss their individual lives. Many problems abound, as you can imagine. The book is slow to get into, but after awhile you enjoy hearing about how their lives are progressing or not as the case may be. The stories are funny, sad and honestly stated. But, some are overstate and surreal. How could this happen to this smart woman, well, you know, you love a man and then you don't always see what is under your nose.

I found myself rooting for several of these women and feeling sorry for some. True life, maybe not, but a fun read. Recommended. prisrob


Rating:
Summary: Stories read and stories lived
Review: When these five women get together to form a reading group, little do they realize that they will experience more changes and turmoil in their lives than those of the characters in the books they discuss: infidelity and divorce; infertility, abortion, and pregnancy out of wedlock; forging of new loves and rekindling of older ones; even a revelation about one's roots. Through it all, these women forge strong bonds of friendship that support them through the rough times and help them celebrate their successes.

The novel is divided into twelve sections, one for each month that the reading group meets. At the start of each section is a summary of the book the group will discuss. Very little of the story actually takes place at the group's meetings, however. Nor does it draw many parallels between the titles read by the group and the lives of the women in the group. The one warning I have to give about this novel is that it divulges spoilers about the endings of the reading group's books. So although you could use this novel for suggestions for your own reading group or list, it might spoil the fun of discovering the stories for yourself.

In spite of that shortcoming, this is a great book for women about women that's sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and always entertaining.

Eileen Rieback