Customer Reviews

Family Acts: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I have yet to be disappointed with a book from this author. Ms. Shaffer tells such great stories, they are almost impossible to put down. I am not interested in theater life AT ALL. I have never cared for Shakespeare, plays, and the whole drama that goes along with theater folk. But when Louise Shaffer writes about it, I'm hooked!

This is they story of the Venable's and their theater. In present day, Randa and Katie, who are complete strangers and from opposite coasts, inherit the Venable Opera House in a small Georgia town. The chapters go back and forth between Randa and Katie's individual stories, and the stories of past Venable's...going back as far as 1873. We learn the history of the Opera House, those who fought to keep it going, and the secrets that some of them tried to keep buried.

Ms. Shaffer has developed some very real, and interesting characters, my favorites being the early Venable's from 100 years ago. The story is set at a great pace, and there are surprises all along the way, right up to the very end. I highly recommend this book, as well as her two previous books, 'The Three Miss Margaret's' and 'The Ladies of Garrison Gardens'.
As usual, I'll be looking forward to the next novel from Ms. Shaffer...she's become one of my favorite authors :)

In New York City soap opera script writer Katharine Harder hates her job especially since she knows she has it only because her late mom Rosalind was the superstar of the show; in fact she was a soap opera legend. In spite of being a mom to eleven year old Susie, Hollywood business manager Miranda Jennings still feels the pain of loneliness growing up as the offspring of an actor; in fact she has vowed to insure Susie has a happy childhood. Although they have heard of their famous parents, neither Kate nor Randa know one another

However these bicoastal strangers inherit the Venable Opera House in Massonville, Georgia. They each skeptically want to know the catch, how they can dump the dump, how are they related beyond the Bard who gave them their first names, and do they give up the big city for sleepy hollow. Each travels to Georgia as they learn that the Venable family has "always named their children after characters in Shakespeare's plays" and strong women for over a century have somehow always saved the place. Randa and Kate must decide between a sale that means tearing down the opera house and saving it with no performances planned.

FAMILY ACTS is a terrific character study of two adult females who must decide between the pragmatic destruction of a heritage vs. the romantic notion of making it work. Kate and Randa are fabulous protagonists as they share in common skepticism that they can save the opera house yet as they learn of the Venable females (all named after a Shakespearean character) caught at the same crossroads, they wonder can they do this too. Although the ending is too fast and too neatly perfect coda, fans of contemporary character driven tales with strong symbolism will appreciate Louise Shaffer's fine tale.

Harriet Klausner

Saw this book reviewed in a local newspaper. found it to be a good story (as my background is in theater) but was put off by the gratituitous vulgar language. Keep a bottle of "white-out" handy if you plan to pass it along after you read it.

ms shaffers books just keep getting better. this is the third book in her series and i found it quite delightful.. she has a real insight into setting the scene and bringing out the plot.. and keeping the surprises to the very end. i am so looking forward to seeing more of this author.

I enjoyed the book--until I got to the end! Help me, I must have missed something- what was the significance of the "empty rocking chair"? Did anyone feel that the ending was missing something? What did I miss?

They were named after Shakespeare characters and live less-than-happy lives. Other than that, Katharine Harder and Miranda Jennings seem to have nothing in common--until a mysterious letter from an attorney beckons them to Georgia, to receive inheritance from an anonymous person. What follows is part mystery, part family saga and a total delight. Schaffer moves skillfully and confidently between the present --as Katharine and Miranda try to decide what to do with this sudden, and not very welcome, gift -- and the past--where lies the secret of a long-forgotten Opera House and several skeletons in their families' closets. A highly recommended read.

I have read all of Louise Shaffer's books and she just keeps getting better and better. Being the founder of the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the cosmos, The Pulpwood Queens, I place great thought and consideration into the twelve books I select each year. "Family Acts" was our September 2008 Official book club selection and we were fortunate enough to have just had the author here in person.
Louise Shaffer is one class act and we love the theater aspects of her books. She is also one of the most dynamic authors and speakers I have had in the same vein as Lorna Landvik, Ronnie Claire Edwards, Rue McClanahan, Alan Eisenberg, Phil Doran, and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. That just goes to show that those in the acting business or television and film writing business also can tell some pretty good stories in books. I just love it that we get to help those get out of those neat and tidy boxes that society seems to want to place us in. What be an actress, television writer and become a book writer too? Yes, and it just so happens, these are books that the women in my book club LOVE TO READ!
Read them all folks and now my book club members are just waiting for someone to scoop up the film rights as these are books just made to be read and then made to film.
Attention real women and yes, women of age. We have decided that baby boomer women should unite. These are the stories we like to read and plan to become very verbal about it! Onward baby boomer book soldiers!
Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs