Customer Reviews

The Reading Group

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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!

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

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

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.

It's about time there is a book about ordinary women who meet together once a month to talk about books only to bond through life's ordinary travesties! Sure the book starts out with a group of women meeting together to discuss a book or two ~~ but this novel is more of women and their relationships with one another among the ordinary backdrop of life itself in an ordinary English town. This time, it's women that you and I can relate to ~~ it's about your mother, sister, best friend, your daughter and you ~~ all the women you know and love in your life all wrapped in this book. You know the characters because you live their lives.

These women, Clare, Susan, Polly, Nicole and Harriet meet once a month to discuss that month's book. Through their conversations with one another and separately, you begin to gleam their characteristics. Nicole and Harriet are best friends who pull no punches when it comes to the hard issues of life (like betrayal/infidelity, babies and so on). Susan and Polly have the older children ~~ they met through their children. Susan is also taking care of an elderly mother. Clare struggles with her own problems of being unable to have children. These women bonded together over books at first then over each other's dilemmas. Reading these books for their bookclub gave each woman an opportunity to open up and be rewarded with friendships that is life-enriching and meaningful. It's like reading gives you an opportunity to open up to other rewards that is being offered to you by other readers. It is a gift that keeps on giving.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Once my mom reads this book, I plan to get my bookclub to read it. I have not read most of the books listed in there ~~ but that's ok. I will now! I love how these women have opened up since the first bookclub meeting ~~ makes me wish there is a sequel. This is a book that clamors to be shared ~~ so don't hesitate in making this one of your bookclub reads or even for your own personal enjoyment. It's one of the best reads for my 2005 list!

2-24-05

This book is solid British chick-lit for the crowd who is a little older than the Jane Green fans may be. It was interesting enough to keep me entertained on a boring business trip and plane ride, but overall not a big intellectual thrill. The list of books that the club read, the little descriptions, and their discussions of the books gave me a few good ideas of books to read (some classic). I would have liked the book discussions to be a little longer, and segue into their personal dramas a little more cleverly.

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.

This book is a little gem. It follows the lives of 4.5 (the half point is for Clare) English women who belong to the same reading group. They are of different ages and have different socioeconomic status, but they are all literate and they all love to read, and I enjoyed spending time with each of them.

The characters aren't explained well at first, and I think that's because the author included a cast of characters at the beginning. The way it's written, I found myself flipping back and forth a lot at first, trying to answer the questions, "Which one is she again?" and "How are these women related?" It got really tiresome really fast. If Ms. Noble hadn't relied so on that cast of characters, I think she would have been more careful in her exposition and I would have enjoyed the begining more.

But if you pick this book up, do yourself a favor and stick with it past the frustrating beginning. I found the women believably drawn, and now it's hard to accept that once I didn't know that Harriet and Nic were best friends, as were Polly and Susan. Their personalities are each so well defined by the end that I could tell which book comments were made by which characters without the attributions.

The book is about the love of reading. But it's also about female bonding. I had a lovely time with it, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon it.

This is a warm souled, heartstring tugging story of the deep friendships of five English women who form a book group. The women cope with the many challenges life throws in their respective paths and forge deeper bonds with each other. The books that they read for their group open an opportunity for introspective thinking and each novel seems to reflect some aspect of the challenges facing them.

They learn to face and contend with life's unexpected turns, playing the cards they are dealt, although none of them are above stacking the deck to help each other or themselves!!

This is a fun story about these very different women, different ages, different backgrounds and different needs.....yet there is something of all of them in each of us. This is the thread that Elizabeth Noble uses to weave her delightful tale.

Being a lifelong book lover, I was immediately attracted to this book by its title. Being a fan of womens books and the dilemmas facing contemporary women, I was attracted to the back cover which explains about the problems the women in this book will face (no listing of prestigious awards since the women in this club hate that type of thing.)

Harriet, Nicole, Polly, Susan, and Clare come together once a month to read a book chosen by one of the members. Some are heavy (My Antonia, The Alchemist) some are lighter and more contemporary (Heartburn) and some are classics (Rebecca). Some are beloved by the members and one or two are branded as 'stinkers.' The women have an interesting but brief discussion of each book which will be especially interesting if you have read the book being discussed. If you haven't, that's ok too, as it is not essential to the storyline. However, it is amazing how the women's lives mirror to various extents the books they read. These are 21st century women facing real issues: infertility, a cheating spouse, an unwed and pregnant daughter, a terminally ill parent, and a marriage whose flame has burned out.

I loved getting to know these women and seeing how they worked out their problems over the course of the year. They made choices I agreed with and choices I wanted to scream at them for. But they managed to survive and thrive and give readers a relatively happy ending with lots of smiles and a few tears.

Witty and engaging, this book shows female bonding at its best.