Rating: 
Summary: It goes on & on & on-- & FINALLY it ends-honestly.
Review: This book doesn't hold a candle to Map of the World by Jane Hamilton, another Oprah recommendation. It is WAY too filled with unimportant details in a writing style that certainly is very easy to read but offers NOTHING noteworthy in it's style. Evil man comes into town and walks over people one by one, over and over and over again, ad nauseum. Is it actually possible that ALL these Vermonters were this naive back in the '50"s? I hardly think so, or they must have started adding IQ's to our water supply over the past 20- 30 years. Why did I read to the end? Good question. I guess cuz I paid good money for the book so I wanted to find something redeaming about it. Also I kept thinking maybe it would finally GO some place. which it didn't, although the last 100 pages are a bit more substantive, plot-wise. Forget this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the time and effort!
Review: I found this book very difficult to read-it took me almost a month! I put it down several times and read 3 other books in between, but I always came back to it. I'm very glad I stuck it out through all 800 pages! This novel goes to show you that what appears to be ordinary, often is not. These people had so much complexity in their "ordinary" lives, which I think is probably true for most people. I enjoyed getting to know the whole town and was quite surprised to find out who were the "good" people and who were the "bad" ones. Most were not what you expected! Anyone able to contain so much "story" in one book is an amazing writer, in my opinion. For those of you who haven't read or finished it yet-DO-it's well worth the effort!! Another great selection by Oprah!
Rating:
Summary: Moving but long!
Review: I liked this little story. And that is all it is really: a little story in a big book. And that is the reason it doesn't get five. Mary McGarry Morris writes very well, developing the characters extremely well, making us understand, question and then accept their actions and motives but it is too long. Perhaps about 100-150 pages too long there are just a couple of stages of tedium but if you like Maeve Binchy then you'll like Songs In Ordinary Time.
Rating:
Summary: Mary McGarry Morris is a tougher, more complex Maeve Binchy
Review: This novel reads like a grittier version of one of Maeve Binchy's Ireland-based addictive novels. Songs in Ordinary Time reveals the tougher side of living in the supposed idyllic time of the late 1950's. The Fermoyle family represents the frustrations and joys of living in a highly Catholic small town with the disgrace of divorce and alcoholism hanging over their head. The characters rise above stereotypes and leave the reader breathless with pride, anger,sympathy, and most of all, hope.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps the worst written books I've ever attempted.
Review: "It was a dark and stormy night". If Morris had written that line it would have been more like:"During the winter soltice a memory flooded back from his miserable childhood in which the evening was damply cold, unsettlingly gloomy, with wind-shattering, rain-driven clouds darkening the stormy night." At least 50% of this book could have been eliminated and the descriptive phrases would have still been overbearing.
Rating: 
Summary: It takes courage to read this book!
Review: This is not an "easy read." I found it reminiscent of William Kennedy's "Albany novels." The characters are complex and real--and, often, not very pretty. A plot summary might sound like a soap-opera, but it would miss the best part of the narrative: people do not act rationally when they lack all strategies for dealing with the vagaries of life. This is definitely not an escape or a "beach book," but rather one which tests the reader's ability to see through characters' reactions to the events and recognize the love and fear which motivates them.
Rating:
Summary: What was the point?
Review: I'm an avid reader so I don't give bad reviews (like I'm about to give) lightly. I haven't read all the books in the Oprah book club, but I've read a number of them and this is by far the worst selection. Compare this book to greater books like Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons and you'll see what I mean: negative characters with little or no redeeming qualities in a story that meanders from pointless situation to pointless situation. The only emotion I registered was boredom and I left the book wondering "Why did I bother?". I understand the premise of the title "Songs in Ordinary Time" meaning that we'll look at the smaller more ordinary moments of life and not at great achievements or transcendence. A little hope would have been nice but even that wasn't necessary. Ordinary moments can be illuminating in fiction but that was simply not accomplished in this dull, lifeless novel.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I could give it no stars!!!
Review: When I was choosing a book to drive cross country with, I picked up this book thinking - it's long, the synopsis showed potential and Oprah thought it was good. It was the only disappointing aspect of my trip! It was an easy read - fairly interesting characters and evoked disgust and utter frustration at Marie's unwillingness to see what Omar really was. The reason this book was so awful was the ending - or rather the lack of an ending. I truly thought that a chapter had been left out of my book. It almost as if the author got tired of writing and just sent the book off to the publisher with out finishing it. I would have liked to see some sort of resolution or closure, but there was none! I am disappointed that I spent so much time and money on this book and my mission is to make sure no one else does the same!
Rating:
Summary: Hanging in there !
Review: I couldn`t seem to get into this book. I`m going to continue ,only because I`m on page 502. I`m starting to think I should have put this book to rest long ago. I`ve read 5 other novels in between this one since the beginning of june. I will persevere only because I`m sure in the end I`ll be glad. Maybe ,just maybe ,there will be some kind of life lesson to be learned. Although I see none in sight ! Laurie Marchand
Rating:
Summary: A horrible waste of time
Review: This book is one of the worst I've ever read. Somehow the storyline does not hang together so the reader is compelled to finish this very long, surprisingly dull book. Do yourself a favor, read something else!
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