Rating: Summary: Wonderful, beautiful story of love Review: I don't care if Ruby and Jack were together for true love or for need, but this novel was a definite story about love of some sort. I was touched, moved to tears, and laughed off my seat. A VIRTUOUS WOMAN was beautiful, heart-wrenching, sweet and honest. Definitely one of Oprah's better choices, but read it for other reasons, too.
Rating: Summary: A GOOD book to read!! Review: I thought that the book was good, It was confusing in the beginning, but in the end the pieces seem to fall together. I enjoyed reading this book because it is about hardship, love, and the goals Ruby and Jack had to overcome. I felt this book was good,but not as good as Ellen Foster. Now I am looking forward to reading another book by Kaye Gibbons to compare the two.
Rating: Summary: Could Not Put The Book Down!!!!!!!!! Review: I found this novel not only intriguing but a good lesson for all of us in society today. Money does not buy or make happiness. Happiness comes from the heart and these two characters exemplified this through the good and bad times. It was a simple tale of love and inspiring to all of us single people.
Rating: Summary: Calm down, everyone! Review: In my opinion, this book was certainly not a must-read or a "rare gem" or a highly-recommendable book, as the earlier people who reviewed this book wrote. Neither is it a book that is so horrible it can't be finished, or one that damns Oprah's selections forever (though I must say I don't let daytime talk show hosts dictate my book selections), as more recent reviewers leaned. First of all, I'm shocked by all of the reviewers who seem to be equating a depressing book with one that's not worth reading. Some of the best books ever are quite sad. To all those people, I say: go buy a magazine, a trashy romance novel or a comic book. Furthermore, although I did almost cry a couple of times, I didn't find this book depressing at all. It was a sad story--of Ruby's abuse and then of her dying--but the love between Ruby and Jack made this more of a love story than anything else. I liked the switching back and forth of narrators, and I especially liked that Ruby and Jack were speaking from different time periods, too. I liked reading about Jack's life following Ruby's death in one section, and then reading about Ruby preparing for her death in the next. I found her preparation of months' worth of food for Jack touching, and it was very clear throughout how much the couple loved each other. Whether this was based on true love or on need, as some reviewers suggest, is debatable, but does not speak to the strength of the connection between them, which I felt was very powerful. I think a lot of Southern literature is tough for readers from other parts of the country/world, and this novel is no different. However, isn't that why people read? To learn about experiences not just of people and surroundings very similar to their own, but of different types of people from different parts of the world, with different lifestyles, perspectives, vocabularies, accents, values, interests and lives? I'm planning on reading "Ellen Foster," as that seems much better received.........
Rating: Summary: This book didn't do anything for me. Review: I read it because there were so many good reviews, but I just didn't think it was that good. I definitely didn't like the writing style. Thumbs down for this one.
Rating: Summary: I could hardly wait to finish this book Review: I was glad it was short. It should have been a quick read but it wasn't. I labored to get through it. I was determined to finish to get my moneys worth. I was very disappointed and bored. I realize it was written in the narrative style but I found it too simple. The story line jumped around too much. I found it irritating. I can't recommend this to anyone.
Rating: Summary: Blah Review: From the first chapter you can tell when a book will be worth reading or not. This one's the later. Full of dull discriptions, overused phrases, bombed with cliches. Avoid if at all possible.
Rating: Summary: Interesting characters Review: I am a huge fan of Kaye Gibbons and I thought the characters in this story were interesting. I also liked the way each character ping-pongs off the other. I read this book in like one day.
Rating: Summary: No motivation to read entire book! Review: I found this book difficult to read. All though it did have some touching parts in it, I had no desire to pick it back up to read the ending.
Rating: Summary: Not in my book club... Review: I found this novel to be dull and tedious, despite the fact that it should have been a quick read. While it is touching in parts, overall, I found it to be uninteresting. You can keep this book in your book club, Oprah. It is no longer in mine.
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