Rating: 
Summary: Jane Austen meet Shalom Aleichem
Review: This is without a doubt one of the best books I've read this year. It's funny, utterly engaging, charming and deliciously funny. WHile the plot is about a free-spirited convert who moves into a small closed community, it's also about community -- the ties we create to connect us and the ones we need to loosen in order to be ourselves. It made me think about conformity, and how powerful of a force that is, and about tradition and why we want to belong to it. As far as I'm concerned, this one is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: A sparkling literary accomplishment
Review: This book is beautifully written and introduces us to a new writer with incredible talent. The book is filled with original ideas and techniques -- from the first person plural narrator that presents the women of Memphis in a chorus to a plot that refuses to go where more predictable stories have gone. I just finished the book and I already miss the ladies, each with her own gripes against the community. And Batsheva is a refreshing character who breathes life into the new world that she joins. Everyone should read this book and the issues it brings up create great opportunities for book club discussions. The novel is both Southern and Jewish and the rich traditions of both worlds are woven together to form a unique tapestry.
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Summary: The secret world of women revealed
Review: Tova Mirvis is quite a find! This book is a masterpiece of structure. Mirvis skillfully weaves a human tale through the collective and singular eyes of an entire Orthodox Jewish community in Memphis. Though only a slim volume, each of the female characters is vividly drawn. They are never caricatures or types, but real people I have known. The women in this community are the story. And it is a refreshing change of pace to read a sympathetic portrayal of Orthodox Judaism from the woman's perspective. My only criticism is that the male characters are for the most part, mere phantoms and could have been fleshed out a bit more. This novel grew on me at the same pace the plot grew. I hated for it to end. I wish Mirvis would write a sequel so I know what happens to Bathsheva and Josef. I can't wait for this author's next book.
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Summary: This one's for the book clubs
Review: I LOVE this book. My book club read it and we had a great discussion. I could identify with all the characters. They are all amazingly well-developed and each one is unique and comes to life. The plot -- a convert moves into a close and insular world -- was fun and filled with suspense. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't want to put it down, (even though my husband kept asking me when I was going to be done reading!)What made it even more interesting was that I have a friend who lives in the Memphis Orthodox Jewish community, where the novel is set, and she said it's exactly like the way Tovah portrays it in the book. Apparently, the people my friend knows there think they can figure out who all the ladies are. Maybe, but I think I know them too in my own community in New Jersey.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is pedestrian at best.
Review: It is inexplicable to me how such a mediocre book has garnered so many positive reviews. I can only speculate as to why this is so. I have read numerous books about the Jewish experience and most all of them have been superior to The Ladies Auxiliary. This book is a pedestrian exploration of the Orthodox Jewish community of Memphis. None of the characters emerge in any compelling way. Batsheva is the convert/outsider who becomes the fulcrum of acrimony among the Ladies Auxiliary. But the ladies who consider her a threat are burdened with cartoonish characterizations. The plot crawls along at a not very compelling pace. By the time I slogged my way to the end of this book I was relieved to be rid of Batsheva and her cohorts.
Rating:
Summary: My Surprise!
Review: Ms. Mirvis's book really struck a chord with me. I cried at the book's climax when the women reach a new level of spiritual understanding. I think the struggles of all the characters to find a place for themselves in a tradition and maintain that tradition, speak to all people who are challenged to find spiritual meaning among the mundane.
Rating:
Summary: Sparkling Debut Novel! A Jewel of a Read!
Review: With sparkling wit and graceful prose, Tova Mirvis gives the reader a very special gift --a miraculous jewel of a novel that tells the captivating and poignant story of a small Orthodox Jewish community in Memphis, TN... their faith and foibles, their good works and all too human flaws. Batsheva, artist, single mother, Jewish convert, a shimmering free spirit that yearns for connection to community and to God, moves to Memphis, TN where she meets head on the colorful yet proper ladies of this community as well as their rebellious teen-aged daughters. Each scene of the novel is so perfectly connected one to the other with breathtaking skill and subtlety that you are pulled into its richness with lightening speed: you experience the smell of fried chicken and matzoh ball soup as Shabbos begins; the glow of the candles on Friday night; Batsheva jogging through the winding streets filled with the scent of Magnolia...... and Mrs. Levy that formidable, larger than life matriarch of the community who is its eyes and ears; a new Moon Rosh Chodesh party at Batsheva's house with the ladies in attendance.... and then there is Yosef, the Rabbi's son.....together these elements make for a one-of-a-kind all encompassing, refreshing reading experience! Mirvis creates a highly original novel of depth and wisdom, grace and sparkle that the reader will cherish long after the last page is turned.
Rating:
Summary: loved it
Review: I am not a big book reader and I just could not put this one down. I in fact was so disappointed when my absolute favorite tv show was on and I had to put my book down to watch it. I recommend it highly. I recommended it to my family.
Rating:
Summary: A book that aspires to be lackluster.
Review: This book has all the depth of a petri dish. There are no fresh insights into the human condition. The characters are flat, uninteresting and unsympathetic. The dialogue is trite. I was so frustrated with the book that I was hoping that the ladies of Memphis would succeed in driving Batsheva from their midst. I found her character to be insipid and uninspired. Don't be mislead by all the other positive reviews. This is not quality fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't quite work
Review: It's all a little too pat, Tova Mirvis' debut novel -- the free spirit, the gossipping yentas, a world turned upside down. The characters rarely emerge from two dimensions, and the Memphis setting could be any city with a small Jewish community -- or small ethnic community. The one attempt at experimentation, the first-person-plural viewpoint, should have been put aside. Mirvis has talent, but this novel should have been left in a drawer as a guidebook for the next project.
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