Rating: 
Summary: Heart warming little story
Review: Distant Shores is a nice feel-good story about Elizabeth 'Birdie' Shore, who find herself lost in a bad circle of emptiness at the age of 45. Her daughters have left home, her husband is chasing a dream and their love has grown lukewarm. Birdie realizes that she has put the need of other people in front of her own needs for too long. She tries to talk it over with her husband, Jack, but he is too busy chasing his dream of becoming a famous anchor-person with a tv-show. The only good thing in Birdie's life is her house at the beach in Oregon. Jack hates the house and the endless rain, and he is ecstatic when he one day returns home, to announce that he has landed the job, and that they are moving to New York. Birdie reluctantly follows him, as she has done always, very sad to have to leave her beloved house. Before she has had time to settle down, a death in the family occurs, and Birdie decides that it is time for change. She goes home to Oregon, instead of going to New York, and in the next months, she is slowly 'waking up' to find a long lost talent, new friends, new hobbies and a changed step-mother, with whom she has always had a bad relationship. Jack, in New York, is in danger of just being a distant memory. But will their love for each other survive this separation? Will their family once again be a whole family, living together? Will Birdie learn to think of herself an take care of herself and her needs as much as she has done with others? Will she find a new and better life without a husband? The story moves nicely along, the characters are described in a sympathetic way, and Distant Shores is the perfect beach-book for the summer.
Rating: 
Summary: insightful middle age relationship tale
Review: Forty-five years old Elizabeth feels her marriage to former Superbowl MVP Jackson Shore is failing as she feels she has lost her identity to her children and her spouse. With the kids in college, Elizabeth needs something else to overcome the empty nest syndrome and her perception of lost purpose, but concludes that her relationship to Jack is not the answer to her needs. Jack has his problems too as he threw away a golden opportunity in the broadcast booth due to drug abuse and is struggling one step at a time towards redemption.Jack obtains the break he needs when Portland, Oregon station intern Sally Maloney provides him a tip on a story involving college basketball superstar Drew Grayland. As he seeks collaborating proof on Drew's wrongdoing including date rape, his own marriage is collapsing. As Jack breaks the Drew story, Elizabeth withdraws further from him. Is this marriage between two college sweethearts over or will they find a path to happiness together? This is an insightful middle age relationship tale that goes deep inside the psyche of the two lead characters, in which love no longer fosters communication. The story line takes the reader inside the head mostly of the disenchanted Elizabeth, but also provides a chance to see what motivates a disgraced former golden boy to seek his former glory. Though the ending is a bit too idealistic for the tone of the plot, fans of powerful dramas with strong characters will want to read Kristin Hannah's DISTANT SHORES. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic
Review: Her children are grown and her husband is eagerly pursuing an opportunity to recapture the brilliance of a lost career. Suddenly she has no purpose, feels lost and out of touch with herself. Kristan Hannah delves into that segment of life that seems to hit all of us as our children reach out and discover their own independence and she does it as if she had lived each scene. A touching tale from a fabulous writer with the talent to keep us reading more from her in the future.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful new beginning!
Review: How many of us spend out lives taking care of everyone else and letting our own needs fall by the wayside? Kristin Hannah takes us into the life of Elizabeth (Birdie) Shore who is doing this very thing. A death in the family at a time in her life when she has so many questions helps her to break away to try and find the answers. Along the way she learns to no longer take herself for granted and to accept that she is a person with her own needs and wants. She resurrects her dreams and takes those first frightening steps to make those dreams come true. In the end she finds that she can be her own person as well as a loving wife and mother. A wonderful book for all of us needing inspiration to take that very first scary step to make our dreams come true and to learn to appeciate ourselves in whatever relationships we have in our lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Elizabeth get a life!
Review: I love this author and have read most of her books, but this one just bothered the heck out of me. She has written a book about a woman who has let a man rule her life because he was once a football star and who (poor baby) hurt himself and now just can't find the glory again. She is a doormat for her husband, children and friends. I only wanted her to tell them all to go away and to reclaim her life , if she can remember when she had one! More "brand names" of products used in this book, than in a catalog, what does it add to the story? So what did we learn? Be a doormat for years, give all to everyone in your life, let your husband come back time and time again after affairs to "help him cope" have a co-dependent relationship with your children. I don't think so! Nothing to cheer about, very predictable ending, Can she work Columbia into her life? I don't think so. She will quit as soon as someone has a problem in their life.
Come on Kristin, you can do better than this and have. Write about strong women. There are so many out there and they deserve for you to tell their stories.
Rating:
Summary: Schmaltzy, Predictable but Enjoyable.
Review: I read this book while on vacation and rather enjoyed it's simplistic subject (wife and mother whose 'lost' herself) and easy flow. I thought it a perfect 'poolside' book, nothing more, nothing less. The only real 'groaner' part for me was when the step-mother miraculously changed from Dolly Parton-like to a bun-wearing granny type.
Rating:
Summary: Schmaltzy, Predictable but Enjoyable.
Review: I read this book while on vacation and rather enjoyed it's simplistic subject (wife and mother whose 'lost' herself) and easy flow. I thought it a perfect 'poolside' book, nothing more, nothing less. The only real 'groaner' part for me was when the step-mother miraculously changed from Dolly Parton-like to a bun-wearing granny type.
Rating:
Summary: This book is exactly what I needed.
Review: I'm feeling a lot of the same things that Elizabeth (our heroin) went through. I am on the back burner. I'm still raising my children (13 yrs. & 2 yrs) and I have been married for 14 1/2 years. We were married at 19. My children come first (that will always remain), then my husband, and finally me.
Like Elizabeth, I was feeling like I didn't matter very much. I don't work out of my home, so I felt that my needs are not as important. After reading this book, I realized that I am a person of my own. I became my own mother and I was feeling unhappy. I DO matter and I have dreams worth following and fighting for.
I see that it's too easy to loose yourself. I'm only 33 and already I couldn't see myself in the mirror.
Thank you Ms. Hannah, I'm learning to find my voice again, and the spunky girl my husband fell in love with. I love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming
Review: I've read all of Kristin Hannah's recent works and Distant Shores (as well as the rest) is EXCELLENT! Elizabeth and Jackson's struggles are very well written and true to life. If you've had a marriage in crisis this book will warm your heart. While entertaining, it helps you to look deep within, remove your rose-colored glasses and open your eyes. This book illuminates the splendid journey of life and the value in the ups and the downs. Truly wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, soul-searching novel
Review: Jack and Elizabeth "Birdie" Shore are at a crossroads. After 24 years of marriage, they have raised two beautiful girls and withered the storm of Jack's rise and fall as a football star and his addiction to pain killers. Now Jack's career as a sportscaster is rising, and on the outside, everything looks perfect. But Elizabeth feels she is losing herself. She has raised her children, lifted Jack when he stumbled, and forgiven him for the times he strayed earlier in their marriage. She gave up her dream of becoming a painter because she thought that was what she was supposed to do. But when he beloved father dies suddenly, she realizes how empty her life truly is. And when Jack takes a job that will take him to New York, Elizabeth, for the first time, doesn't follow him and remains in Oregon, hoping to find what will give her her own identity. Distant Shores is a wonderful, soul searching novel about two people who have lost their way. They're not bad people, and they haven't done terrible things. They still love each other, but as times change and they become different people, they wonder if they love each other enough. Few writers get to the heart of this as well as Kristin Hannah. You will sympathize with both Jack and Elizabeth, understand both their points of view, and hope they will find their way back to each other before it's too late. Very highly recommended.
|
