Rating: 
Summary: Great read!
Review: I read this while on vacation and had trouble putting it down. This was the first Binchy book I read, definitly not my last!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read it if you want to read quality literature.
Review: She may have creative storylines but she is an atrocious writer. Don't do it. Save your reading energies for quality writing.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: I love this book. I would recomend it to almost anyone!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great travel reading
Review: A quick read, as are all of Binchy's books. Very predictable...the women are strong and most men jerks.
Rating: 
Summary: Circle of Friends, this is not...
Review: If I had been asked to rate this book when I had read just the first 200 pages, I would have given it one star. However, I had nothing else to read at the time so I continued to read it. At that early stage the book seemed poorly written and terribly dull. I couldn't fathom why Oprah chose it for her book club. The story picked up for me over half way through and by the end I couldn't put it down. Once I was finished I could begin to understand why Oprah chose it, but I'm still surprised that the book was published without some major editing. If I recommend it to anyone I will be sure to provide a list of the characters and tell the reader to begin reading after the first two hundred pages. This is not Ms. Bincheys best, by far.
Rating:
Summary: Ignorance is bliss?
Review: Is it better to live a lie or face the truth? I think this is probably the most important question in Tara Road. So many characters in this book are living a lie and in the end either face the truth, go on choosing to ignore it, or never find out what the truth is because of the others who are trying to protect them from it. Mona is one in the first group. All her life she has chosen to ignore the fact that her husband, Barney, has been carrying on a long-term relationship with Polly. In the end, however, she finally confronts the situation and in her bail-out deal with Barney, forces him to give up his mistress. Gertie is from the second group. All her life she has refused to face facts: that her husband, Jack, is a total loser. She defends him to the entire community in spite of his alcoholism and the regular beatings that she endures. Then, even after his death, she goes on with the lie, having totally convinced herself that indeed she did have a great marriage. Marilyn also comes from this group. For over a year she couldn't deal with the death of her son. However, when she finally gains the strength to accept this tragedy, she is able to repair her marriage. Marilyn is also in the third group, those who never find out the truth, because those who know it choose not to tell them (supposedly for their own good). Marilyn never finds out the truth about what happened that terrible night when her son died- that it was not another boy's fault- as had been assumed- but her own son's. And Ria, too, falls into this category. She never finds out that her wonderful best friend Rosemary and wonderful husband Danny have been carrying on a long-term affair. So, is ignorance bliss? Or are we better off knowing, no matter how hard it is to face facts? Colm was one character who faced the truth. He was an alcoholic but pulled himself up out of it. He said that it was a lonely time for him. However, he may have been one of the nicest, most genuine characters of the book (there were a bunch of losers in this one). On the other hand, we have Marilyn, who was certainly better off not knowing all the circumstances of her child's death. What good would it have done? And what good would it have done Ria to find out the truth about Danny and Rosemary? She was so stupid she still probably would have taken him back, if he would have had her (and he probably would have, along with all the other women in town). This book was full of stupid, stereotypical characters. However, it does bring up some interesting issues that make you think.
Rating:
Summary: Missing in action - Ms. Binchy's editor
Review: One star because it's mostly set in Ireland (personal prejudice); another star because of Maeve Binchy's earlier work. But where was the editor? The 'action' doesn't start until around page 250 and it's a slog to get there. Even the most neophyte of writers wouldn't be allowed to get away with the broad generalizations and cliches that run throughout this book. For emotional depth, for a real insight to Ms. Binchy's strengths, read The Copper Beech or Circle of Friends. Give this one a miss.
Rating:
Summary: You've got to be kidding
Review: I am amazed as I read the other reviews of this over-long, tedious, trite "Oprah-pick," bestseller. Reading a grocery list would be infinitely more exciting than this drivel. The woman has no style, no flair, no talent - but then Danielle Steel has made quite a living with the same set of credentials. The cardboard characters on the front of cereal boxes have more credibility.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down Book
Review: I could not put the book down. I loved the way the characters were portrayed. Much of the action centered around the likeable naive Ria who fell in love and married the selfish shallow boy/man Danny. It gave me much pleasure when things started falling a part for him and Barney. Another digusting character was Jack who was really a minor character. When he died, just like Rosemary, I said aloud,"Good". The story line was predictable to some extent because of the fortuneteller's predictions but this did not take anything away from the story itself.
Rating:
Summary: The usual Binchy themes, developed by a true virtuoso
Review: This is a richer, more ambitious novel than the other three Binchy books I've read (Circle of Friends, Glass Lake, and The Copper Beech). In other respects it is typical Binchy. She creates a powerful empathy between her characters and the reader. If you're like me, you will hope, fear, love, and despair moment by moment along with her people. The main character in this one is Ria (short for "Maria"), a true and decent Dublin woman. As a young woman, she lands (much to her own amazement) the best-looking and most ambitious man in her office. Danny is an up-and-coming real estate agent. His charm and ambition soon earn them a gracious home and a very upper-middle-class lifestyle, well beyond anything Ria had expected for herself. Life progresses so smoothly and happily in the first half of the novel that you know it isn't going to last. It doesn't. Ria discovers that Danny has been cheating on her, has impregnated a much younger woman, and wants to leave her. So she now has to confront the questions we all have to face eventually: who is she, what does she really want from life, and how can she get it. There are many other characters in this book, all of them vividly portrayed. As in her other novels, Binchy has an obvious sympathy with every one of them (with one exception - and he ends up dead anyway). And again, as it always does with Binchy, the novel ends with hope - a hope that is grounded in open-eyed realism instead of the earlier naïve romanticism. Binchy plays this theme as well as any writer around. If she has really stopped writing novels, I mourn for the unborn characters she will no longer create, and whom I will be unable to love. I am just one of many to whom she has given truly gratifying reading experiences.
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