The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Rating:
Summary: This publisher was hard up for new material!
Review: I wasted an hour of my time reading about an undramatic woman's lifetime of trials, tribulations, woes and sorrows. I wish women would quit buying these books that continue to keep them at levels of general mediocrity. Surely, men don't sit around reading soppy books like this. I actually was looking forward to learning about hunting and fishing. The best part of the book was the quotes before each chapter.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED this book- and I'm picky!
Review: I can't say enough about this book. Read it in 3 days. It's fabulous. I'm pretty picky about books and tend to stay away from anything that's too cheesy or drama-ridden, or books where the main character is angst-ridden and rambling on and on for pages. This book looks like it could go there, but in fact fabulously suprised me. Jane's perspecitve and humor about life and the sometimes clueless and insecure search for love mimics the conversations that are carried on in the bar with your friends right before it gets busy for the night. The meaningful things, the stupid things, the silly things, the conversations you're not sure whether to laugh or cry about- that's what this book is about. It's funny and it's sad. It's dry and witty and heartfelt (but not that cheesy remember!). Jane's personality shines through- and while she does allow her insecurities to be a bit glaring at times, it doesn't make her seem winey or weak. It makes her seem even more like an everyday-just-like-you-and-me character- which is why she is so great, so funny, and so easy to identify with. READ THIS BOOK- you WILL NOT be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Great with a single exception
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. I found the narrator quirky without being odd, dissatisfied without being whiny, and particularly funny. I was distracted by a single chapter that appears out of context in the middle of the book. It is the only chapter that the main character does not appear in and seems to be completely irrelevant to the development of her story, character, ect. It is never tied in to the story, except it appears that the family lives in the same building as the main character's aunt. I kept waiting for closure with these characters, but never got that from the author. I found it distracting to the point that I ended up recommending this book with the caveat that they understand this chapter may be out of context. With this knowledge, I may have been able to enjoy it more.

Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful book of short stories
Review: This was a fabulous book, but I have a tiff with the author. Since you wrote and had such a fantastic book published, now all the publishers seem to be publishing anything about single women in their thirties. Beware readers! Don't bother with Bridget Jone's Diary, and especially avoid The Perfect Elizabeth. There are two examples that are just awful. Melissa Bank, please keep writing and please keep showing these other wanna-be authors how it's done!

Rating:
Summary: Pointless Ramblings
Review: This book is very disappointing...it rambles on with no point. Bridget Jones, the book's comparison, is much, much better. Bank also offended me personally referring to her slurred words as "being stupid with a no running water, Appalachian accent". How can an author be respected that would lower themself to think so stereotypically? I'm very sorry I wasted my precious time reading this book. It is not even worthy of one star!

Rating:
Summary: "Hooking" Men
Review: When I first picked up this book I didn't know what to expect, I had heard that it was a good quick read even though it did contain 274 pages of medium sized print, so I emerged myself into the plot not realizing that what I had picked up was to become one of my all time favorite books. The first chapter does not do justice to the book, and it is because of this opening chapter that I rated it a 4 star book, instead of a 5 star story. If you can get over the narrator's sarcastically witty tone and onto the second chapter you will find that the book becomes increasingly better, and before you know it, you will, like me, realize that you are on the 274th page both glad and upset that the tale finally comes to an end. The book starts off with the narrator being a fourteen year old girl, full of spite and hate like many fourteen year olds. She talks of her brother Henry and his girlfriend, picking their relationship apart piece by piece. "She seemed to be asking if Henry had told me he loved her--which made me feel even worse for her." This is Jane, the narrator's, first experience with love and she is intrigued as well as bewildered. She learns through the rocky ending of her brother and Julia's relationship that love is not always tender and kind but can be brutal and hard, a lesion which will be reinforced through her own experiences later in life. In the following chapters the narrator explains the hardships in her love life and the way she overcomes the pain that follows. She goes through three lovers, the first we do not hear too much about, the second we hear almost too much about and the third is the one that she briefly describes, ending right as they are beginning. Occasionally a random story about totally different people are thrown in between chapters without warning. For example, there is one that tells of the love lives of the people she shares her apartment building with and also one that is a totally hypothetical situation where you, the reader, become the character, looking in on you life with your "Mr. Right". Through each story, no matter how random or unconnected they may seem, the reader learns the lessons of love and life as if looking through a window into the ever changing world of others. The last chapter holds a surprise and a twisted climax which leaves the reader with one clear point of advice about love...to always be yourself. Throughout the book Melissa Bank is able to capture your attention and hold it, letting you live through the fictional characters she creates in the hypothetical situations which come up once in a lifetime, or in Jane's case, quite often. The moment I opened the book (and got through the first 44 pages) I was trapped in the world the author so cunningly spun, eating up every detail, feeling the pain and pleasure of each character, and relating fully to the situations and thoughts of Jane. This book is not only a New York Times Bestseller, but it is also a must in the bookshelf of every female who is looking for or has looked for love in all the wrong places.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Perhaps I had too high expectations, or perhaps there was too much hype, but I was very disappointed in this book. The characters were all like Jane's farm animals---cardboard. They also all seemed to possess the same sense of humour and wit---not too believable. It was a light and easy read---just not very filling.

Rating:
Summary: great writing--no wasted words
Review: I am a super picky reader. Rarely do I even finish books that I start. I finished this one in 3 days. Great laughs--great story. Easy to read because it was SO well written. I applaud Melissa Banks and hope she keeps writing.

Rating:
Summary: Good, not wonderful!
Review: I had been wanting to read this book for 6 months and finally got it for Christmas. I liked the book although what it lacked was keeping my attention. I like Bank's style of writing. She has this humor about her writting that you dont find with many authors. That I praise her for. The idea of the storyline is fun, but it lacked excitement.

Rating:
Summary: Expected More
Review: At first I thought this book was going to be another incredible tale for woman. In the end I was a bit disappointed. Bank starts off strong. Telling a story that all woman can not only relate to but can say, "YES! I have been there!." Although half way through the book she looses it. An interesting book that leaves your imagination to fill in where the author left out.