Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful book -- A must read
Review: This is the first book I've read by Elizabeth Berg and it certainly will not be my last. I could not put the book down. Berg is a subperb writer! The book has everything -- humor, well developed characters, love, and thought provoking, self-examination all wrapped up in beautiful poetic prose. One of the best books I've read in a long, long time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Heartwarming Tale
Review: Elizabeth Berg knows how to write about women -- her clear-eyed insights and respect for her characters make for great reading. She hits every note with her graceful prose and in her latest book, "Never Change," she has created one of her best characters yet in the self-appointed, fifty-one year old Myra Lipinski -- not to mention the fabulous characters surrounding Myra: DeWitt (the cantankerous patient/drug dealer), Murray & Ethel (the ever fueding couple she takes care of), Marvelous (the name says it all), Grace the teenage mom ("sorry for the swears") and of course Frank the dog (who gets to watch The Discovery Channel when Myra goes out). Throw in the most popular guy from high school Chip (who is dying from a brain tumor) and his girlfriend Diann (who is still cheerleader perfect) and you have the makings of a warm, emotionally charged, sometimes witty, and sometimes sad story. "Never Change" is a book about the importance of connecting with others. It is about a woman who has been lonesome her whole life and is about to realize what it means to open herself up to love and to trust that others care for her well-being. This is a wonderful book -- the perfect gift for a friend, mother, sister, or yourself!
Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly strong and tender story
Review: After the deluge of popular acclaim for Open House which was an Oprah Book (and not one of Berg's best efforts) I was leery about another book. In "never Change" Berg returns to familiar ground, characters who are in the midst of everyday life, not especially unhappy, but somehow sensing something could be better. Myra Lipinsky is still in her old hometown where she was a prickley high school outsider. Now she is a nurse, still single, living a somewhat successful life, yet there is that something. The call comes to provide care for Chip, the golden boy of her high school years, and she is forced to confront the walls she has erected all along. Elizabeth Berg is deft in her drawing of everyday people, dealing with ordinary life. There is compassion and dignity in their composition, and a great deal of humanity and humor. The theme that we are all intertwined and none really are able to stand as alone as we want to believe is subtlely told and the resolution of the grace and joy that can come with a good death is heartwrenching. This is Elizabeth Berg's best, not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Elizabeth Berg does it again
Review: Elizabeth Berg's books make me want to turn off the phone, put some logs in the fireplace, get a good cup of coffee and not leave the couch until the book is done. The pain of Myra is so palpable. When she meets up with a man from her past, you cheer for her and want only the best. Plus she has a cool dog. I thought the book dealt really well with the issue of assisted suicide and terminal illness; thought provoking and challenging.
Rating:
Summary: BUY THIS BOOK!!
Review: I literally read this in one day. I would put it down and be drawn back to it. I became an Elizabeth Berg fan with 'Open House' and will now be purchasing all of her books. This book had me laughing and crying. I truly cared about these characters and their stories. What a great book!
Rating:
Summary: Never change, Elizabeth Berg
Review: Elizabeth Berg is one of a handful of authors I buy in hard cover, and she never disappoints. This is one of those books you hope will never end, and yet you can't keep from reading it straight through, so of course, it ends way too soon! Beautifully written in deceptively simple prose, it is not only a warm, intelligent commentary on life and the human condition, it is great storytelling. A thoroughly wonderful and satisfying read, I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Heart Warming and Wrenching all in the same breath!
Review: This was by far one of the very best books I have read in a long time. It's as if Myra Lipinski is swimming in Elizabeth Berg's veins the entire time she is writing. There is such a connection and such realness there. It's amazing. Ms. Berg's guides us thru a life of one stuck in a cocoon of such unsureness and fear to a beautiful emerging butterfly with hope and freedom. This is such a powerful, passionate read! I hurt from laughing and yet, my eyes were rarely dry!!!
Rating:
Summary: As only Ms. Berg could tell it!
Review: Elizabeth Berg masterfully creates characters and handles them with exquisite care. With her uncanny ability to make us laugh and cry, we find ourselves doing both throughout this book. Always a quiet loner, at 51 Myra lives quite an isolated yet satisfying enough existence, working as a visiting nurse, with her dog as her only companion. As fate would have it, she finds herself nursing her old classmate Chip, the former heart-throb who is now terminally ill. As she and Chip spend his last days together, they share some very tender moments described with the infinite grace we've come to expect from Ms. Berg. This story is not sad, as the storyline may suggest. . . it is also humorous and heart-warming. . . Elizabeth Berg has not let us down, she keeps getting better and better!!!
Rating:
Summary: So - Touching...
Review: I loved this book! Of course I love everything by Elizabeth Berg but you can actually see her writing get better with each book she pens. This book touches you to the point where you can actually find yourself tearing and and wondering, "What's Next?". I know I was. The ending is truly something great and totally worth waiting for. Although you wish it would turn out differently - like life - we can't always control it. She does a great job in this book - worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Touching...and laugh-out-loud funny...
Review: "Never Change" is a perfect Elizabeth Berg book. She takes a wonderful fairy tale, infuses it with unconventional and the most unlikely heroes, spices it with her cleverly-crafted irony, and keeps us laughing with her self-depreciating sense of humor. The result is a perfectly believable, romantic fantasy that is a pleasure to read. Berg doesn't indulge in the "bodice-ripping" imagery of other romantic fantasies. Instead, Myra Lipinski, a 51 year old visiting nurse who sleeps with her dog, guides us through this sensitive love affair with the man of her dreams, as she removes her inhibitions and her poor self image, one sensible shoe at a time. But wait! This is not "Cocoon." Berg's characters and story are kept young and vibrant by the wonderful characterizations of Myra and her far-out patients. And the author's characteristic sense of humor keeps you reading. Great reading with more substance than your average summer reading book.
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