Rating: 
Summary: Good Chick Lit.
Review: My son saw me reading this and broke out in hysterical laughter, saying, "Mom, you're never going hunting!" Good story but I don't get why the part about the family that lived below Jane at her aunt's condo is included in this book? I thought she would come back to that relation but never does, and it's never explained how it related to the rest of the story. And what happened to Archie? Lots of loose ends, but I particularly liked how she wrote the last section with the two authors speaking to Jane as if they were actually her straight talking girlfriends right in the room with her. Interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: How did this book get published??
Review: I have to confess that I purchased my copy of "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing" when it first came out in hardback back in 1999 and for next few years it sat in bookcase, well now that I have just finished it, I wish I had just left it where it had been. This book was the worst ever! I can't believe that I bought it. All this time I kept thinking that it was like "Bridget Jones" and it was not anywhere near the quility of "Bridget Jones" or any book for that matter. The bottom line that book contains seven short stories and the only thing that ties them together is the main character of Jane. Do your self a big favor and just stay away from this book!
Rating: 
Summary: a good way to spend an afternoon
Review: This book has been likened to Bridget Jone's, and while I have read and enjoyed them both, I do not think you can easily compare the two. Hunting and Fishing is a much more serious book and deals with issues beyond Ms. Jones. Which is not to say that it isn't funny. It is, but it is blended with growing up, losing a parent, and learning to love and be loved. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to all.
Rating:
Summary: Retarded
Review: This book is badly written. The cover likens it to "Diary of Brigid Jones" but it's nowhere in that league. Throughout almost the entire book, the mood and narration is dark, with the headstrong "heroine" jumping from one dysfunctional relationship to another, lonely and full of insecurities. This part was fine.
But all of a sudden, in the last chapter, she meets Mr. Right, and finds out that--gasp-- she has not been able to find Mr. Right beforehand because of her overreliance on reading self-help books and acting how "everyone" told her women should act. NOWHERE beforehand in the book does she even mention a self-help book or playing into some mold of "only call back after three days" etc; the ending is a complete cop-out. Even the style of the writing does a 360 in order to try and sell. Most of the book left me unsatisifed or sad, but the last chapter or two just plain annoyed me. This writer just tried way too hard to create a chick-novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fresh Perspective
Review: I don't know where I was in the world when everyone else was publicizing this book, but I had never heard of it until it landed on my desk. Literally. A coworker of mine set the hard cover version of this book on my desk because she had lost my Harry Potter book. In all honesty, I did not consider it a fair trade because I don't like hunting and I don't like fishing and Harry Potter. C'mon! Doesn't compete! AND what was this book about, anyway? Well, without any bias and VERY low expectations, I loved this book, and read it in two days' time. I loved it so much that after I returned it to my coworker (who miraculously recovered my Harry Potter, thank goodness), I went out and bought another copy and sent it to my best friend in Florida. Hopefully, my Florida friend kept the chain going. This is a great book, and if the stories make you think that Jane has a low self-esteem, well, she does. I think that is more realistic than Smug Marrieds might realize (or not, as I am one of Those). But I suggest giving this book a chance. It's a good one, even with its misleading title.
Rating: 
Summary: low self esteem, no plot
Review: I was excited about reading this book after all the buzz that had surrounded it. While reading it, I kept waiting for it to get good. It is a collection of short pieces most of which focus on a central character as she matures through adolescence and toward middle age. I kept thinking that she would blossom and become someone I admired. It never happened. I read for escape or for inspiration. I dont have time to read about boring characters who have no self esteem and consistently sell themselves short. Read something else instead.
Rating:
Summary: Sitting on the dock of the bay.
Review: Not sure if this book of vignette's would suit Otis Redding, but I found it interesting. Future fisherwomen are advised to be patient; it's a slow-burner/nibbler and just when you think you've hooked the crook of the story, Jane twists until you've almost lost her. In youth, Jane is me - Girl Ganglia, tripping over her tongue and legs of knobby knee. Midway through, she morphed (at least for yours truly) into someone out of Sex And The City. Jane with Archie could have been Carrie with Big. Jane with Robert might have been Miranda with.... Begs to wonder how many fictional characters of NYC are somehow stamped with that comparison from today on? --Laurel825
Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining, not about fishing and hunting :(
Review: This book was forgetable! I like to fish and hunt and bought it on a whim but was thoroughly disappointed with the pathetic nature of the main character. There's way more to life than fishing and hunting for men! It's almost as bad a Briget Jones diary!
Rating:
Summary: Completely Forgetable
Review: This book is a bore. It doesn't pull the reader in, connect with you and make you want to keep on reading. It isn't horribly written, it just doesn't spark interest. Ask me in a week what it was about and I guarantee I won't remember.
Highly disappointed for all the praise it got!
Rating:
Summary: one of my favorite books of all time
Review: I ADORE this book. It's got heart. And MB has written something true. I recently re-read it and I found it holds up on repeated reading as good or better than the first time through. It seemed to deepen for me the second time. In response to negative criticism, I will point out that some of the reviewers may not have understood that it is a book of short stories, not a novel. They mention it "jumping" into the future.....this is because it's short stories, not a novel. Did I say it's not a novel? hehehe Just thought I'd straighten those people out. I've thought of writing MB a letter thanking her but who really reads their fan letters anyway? I doubt it would get through and besides, what good are compliments from people you don't know? Sigh. Too bad. Because I like this writer so much, I'd really like her to feel thanked and appreciated. I'd kind of like to buy her a Christmas present. You know? =) The story "You could be anyone" was first published in Cosmo where I loved it so much, I retyped out the entire story (don't have xerox at home and I couldn't wait for a trip to Kinko's) and emailed it to my closest women friends with the message "I wish I had written this." (I am a writer). Just thinking about that story is painful for me because I had an astonishingly similar experience as the character Jane does in the story. This is partly what I mean by MB having written something true. Some readers may read that story and not "get it" because it's an experience that perhaps not everyone has had.....and they will then not "recognize" the truth in it. It might even seem hard to relate to....but is being able to imagine ourselves in that EXACT circumstance a really good litmus test of fiction? It's true that we are attracted to those writers and stories which resonate with us....that feel Real in our personal universes. MB's stories do that for me. Since I had experienced in a remarkably, even agonizingly, similar way the events of "You Could Be Anyone", it was soaring, zinging, singing Truth to me with every line. It was so true it hurt like seeing a portrait of yourself during a rough time that you went through. But even if they don't do that for you, I can't imagine how even the most jaded reader (ESPECIALLY the most jaded readers, come to think of it) could fail to be charmed. So, please give MB's book a chance. It's smart. It has heart. It will make you laugh. It captures something real and elusive and beautiful about life in the white space between it's words. It suggests more than it says, but it's in the suggestion of a way of being, that I find it's greatest power. If you read this Melissa, by any strange quirk of fate....thank you. Your book is my friend. ~X~
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