Rating: 
Summary: Great book!!!
Review: I love this one, I picked it up one night and I couldn't put it down. It took me 1 1/2 days to read. There were so many things
the character felt about growing up it was very similar to when I
grew up. It was fun.
Rating:
Summary: Got me hooked on Elizabeth Berg!
Review: This book was the first I read of Berg's. It was enough to get me hooked. Within the last 4 months or so I have read every one she has written. I recommend them all!!
Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL, SIMPLY, BEAUTIFUL
Review: I have just discovered the magic that is Elizabeth Berg in the last year. I began with "Pull of the Moon" and am gliding my way through the remainder of her precious works. "Durable Good's" is her first book which is amazing when you read the stellar quality of this effort. Katie, a tender, blossoming 12 year old, steals your heart at first page and never let's go. Berg writes effectively in choppy paragraphs the feelings, the observations, the problems, the joys, the experiences of our Katie. Exactly like a child would think....darting from one subject to another without elongated deliberations. So magical and beautiful, that the more maudlin theme of this book can be digested by the reader with the hopefulness of a twelve year old girl. This is brilliant, impassioned, wise, cultured writing. Elizabeth Berg never fails to thrill me with her inventive techniques and tender stories.
Rating:
Summary: Painful
Review: A very painful tale of growing up in a dysfunctional home. Katie is the main character and lives on an army base with her abusive father and sister. While she struggles with the confusion of growing up she must also cope with the loss of her mother and the abuse of her father. The book does have its lighter moments.
Rating:
Summary: Very Intriguing
Review: Durable Goods is a story of a young girl named Katie who is anxious to grow up and at the same time is dealing with problems that the average teenager should not have to go through. She's just lost her mother to cancer, her father beats both her and her sister Diane, and she often feels lost and alone. She misses her mother very much and often envisions seeing and talking to her under her bed. I thought the author created a very likeable character in Katie. The first half of the book builds the character and introduces her relationships with her father, who is abusive; her sister-who is kind to her sometimes and mean other times; and her best friend CherylAnne-who is two years older and is very wise and womanly for her age. atie is a strong person for being so young, and that is what makes her so likeable. Dealing with the death of her mother and her father's abusive actions show how strong she really is. Whereas Dianne tries to escape from her problems by running away to Mexico with her boyfriend, Katie confronts them. Since the book was written from Katie's point of view, I got a more personal perspective. Of Elizabeth Berg's books, this is the first one that I have read. I think it was an excellent book. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading short yet intriguing books.
Rating: 
Summary: Coming of Age novel
Review: Durable Goods is the story of young Katie, a pre-adolescent girl that is anxious to grow up and at the same time is dealing with things that the average teenager shouldn't have to go through. She's just lost her mother to cancer, her father beats both her and her sister Diane, and she feels often that she's all alone. She misses her mother terribly,and often envisions seeing and talking to her mother as if she had never passed away. The book is written from her point of view, so the reader learns about Katie from a more personal perspective. The plot line in Durable Goods is thin, I thought, but the author created a very likeable character in Katie. The first half of the book builds up the character and introduces her relationships with her father (abusive) and sister (sometimes friend, sometimes enemy) and her best friend CherylAnne, who is two years older and is very wise and womanly for her age. Katie is a strong person for her young years, and that is what makes her so likeable. Dealing with the death of her mother and her confrontations with her father show how strong she really is. Whereas Dianne tries to escape from her problems, katie tries to deal with them. This is Elizabeth Berg's first novel, but it was not the first novel of hers that I've read. I think it was an impressive first novel and would be a good place to start for anyone new to her books. Other books I'd highly recommend is Joy School, which continues the saga of katie, and What We Keep, a story about an older woman who is trying to deal with her past.
Rating:
Summary: Durable Through It All
Review: A coming of age story full of the pain and confusion of adolescence. Twelve-year-old Katie lives with her older sister Diane and widowed father. The recent loss of her mother, the upcoming move to a new Army base, and Diane's romance with Dickie Mac coincide with Katie's sometime reluctant loss of childhood. The writing is emotionally wrenching. "I fold up my pajama bottoms into a neat square. My mother gave them to me. They are too small, but I am running out of things she touched to put next to me." "I have started my period and I am alone...I lay my hand across my stomach, feel the outline of the belt. Just making sure. It's always that way with the biggest things: they never feel real. You have to keep on checking them forever." The contrast of child-to-adult thinking sears the story of a young girl who can't connect with her surviving, sometimes abusive, parent. She is left to find her own way. She is durable.
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly Entertaining
Review: I fell in love with Berg's writings through "Pull of the Moon" and "Talk Before Sleep" and couldn't get enough of her writings. Well, I read "Durable Goods" and found that adolescence wasn't a connecting point for me. I think Berg's strength is in describing and conveying being a woman. This book was a miss.
Rating:
Summary: Not Worth Buying
Review: Usually I love coming of age stories but I felt this one was way too underdeveloped. All in all it took me about 40 minutes to read (very short book with large type) and I put it down feeling I didn't really know the characters at all. I haven't read anything else from this author and I'm not at all sure that I want to after starting with this one. I'm very surprised at how many positive reviews this book got by (presumably) adults - it seemed to me that it would be better categorized as a Young Adult selection.
Rating:
Summary: story of a motherless family
Review: These 2 teenage girls lost their mother and are both in search of a way to fill that void in completely different ways. They have a tough, military dad that truely loves them and is trying to raise them the best he knows how EXCEPT ----the only way he knows how to raise them is by example of his childhood, which was apparently abusive. I lost my mother to cancer when I was 8, and this book really touched my heart.I remember laying in my bed at night and "talking" to my mother and also thinking she wasn't really dead and she'd be back and also be upset that God could let that happen. My father was very kind but he also would not speak a word about my mother. Very good story and an easy book to read and understand the characters.
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