Title: Joy For Beginners: A Novel
Author: Erica Bauermeister
Year: 2011
Page: 288
Genre: Fiction - Women
FTC Disclosure: Borrowed from the library
Summary (from goodreads.com):
At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate's recovery from cancer. Wineglass in hand, Kate strikes a bargain with them. To celebrate her new lease on life, she'll do the one thing that's always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they'd never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.
Shimmering with warmth, wit, and insight, Joy for Beginners is a celebration of life: unexpected, lyrical, and deeply satisfying.
First Sentence:
Life came back slowly, Kate realized.
My Thoughts:
- Rhapsody in Books highly recommend this book (see her review here). I really liked the premise of the story, so I decided to read this. Well, or tried to read it as I could not finish it.
- There were many positive reviews out there for this book, so I think it is really just me. I just can't seem to like Women Fiction. I don't know if that's because I don't connect with the characters or that I am not a girly-girl or what, but these books usually bore me. I read the first 92 pages and I had had enough. After the introductory chapter, each following chapter was about one of the 6 friends and what their dare was. I just got bored reading 40 pages about each of these women - e.g. [SPOILER] a woman who tried to find courage to box up her husband's stuff after he left for a younger woman, or another 40 pages about another woman who tried to learn to make bread [/SPOILER]. Their stories were just too predictable.
- So yeah, most female readers would probably like this book. It's just me being difficult :)
Overall Rating:
0 Star. Did Not Finish. I was bored.
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Posts
Ack! Sorry about that! I actually feel very much the same way you do about women's fiction, but I like Erica Bauermeister's writing!
ReplyDeleteJust hate it when a book is a snoozer. What even worse is if its a review copy!
ReplyDelete@rhapsodyinbooks - no need to apologize, it's hard to find a book that works for everybody! :) I probably didn't read it in the wrong mood...
ReplyDelete@Shannon - I know, I feel bad if it's a ARC I don't like... but gotta keep it honest. I try to be more picky accepting ARC now so that I know at least it's my genre...