Best Friends

Rating:
Summary: Interesting But........
Review: I felt as if I were ready someone's diary.

Rating:
Summary: this books rocks
Review: I have many friends that are women. I have one in particular that I have known since 4th grade. This novel articulated the feelings that I have for her in exact wording. It kept me wanting to know what happened between them. The only thing I would implore the author to do is develop Clare into more than just a friend. We don't get to know more about her life outside of Sally. This book really moved me- more than any other book about women's friendships has done.

Rating:
Summary: Not totally bad and not the best I've ever read
Review: I have to agree with the review above that say they were dissapointed at the lack of intamacy with the characters. When you think about where they come from, you understand why it lacks. But still, wemen talk, connect and bond on every level when you call yourself a Best Friend. It dissapointed me that Clare and Sally held back so much. At the same time, it did keep my interest and I finished the book. There have been books in the past that I could not even get through.

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to like this, but found it slow and boring
Review: I honestly thought this would be a great read - my best friends are my room-mates from college, and it is now 20 years later, we all live within 5 miles of each other, and as the years go by, we get closer than sisters. This book i found to be slow - the 'big secrets' were obvious or not really very ineresting- the main 'best friends' in the book seemed to be sad, lonely and not very likable. The dysfunction of thier families was not something that really made them intersting or tragic, just blahhhhh... I had to struggle through this book, it seemed to drag on and on, and the trips to los angeles just more and more boring and uneventful. The friendship did not seem to be balanced, and there did not seem to be a strong bond between the two women, they were just so different and selfish. I was not thrilled with this, i would recommend Summer Sisters, that was a much better read.

Rating:
Summary: A realistic look af friendship
Review: I liked this book, for the exact same reasons that others who reviewed it did not. Although there are many women who have the type of best friend with whom they share every detail of their lives, there are just as many who love each other so much that they honor the idea of keeping secrets from each other. In contrast to an earlier reviewer's experience, my very best friend and I were inseparable from the age of 5, but we could not have been more different, and there were things I never knew about her until she was terminally ill. Only then did she feel that she could/should share certain "secrets" with me. This book is a testament to the fact that not all women "tell all" even to their best friends. The two main characters, Clare and Sally, although very different in temperament and social upbringing, are very similar in their inability to develop deep emotional ties. Sally seeks to fill her emptiness by having children and avoiding unpleasantness, while Clare seeks to fill hers by surrounding herself with the cold reality of death in her work with AIDS patients, and in relationships with men she cannot have. Both are deeply scarred and shaped by their childhood experiences, and this book explores the effects of poor parenting in an unflinching manner. I enjoyed the book, although I would have preferred a more concrete ending. For a first novel, it is quite good, and I would certainly recommend it. It would make a great book for a women's book club, for I would imagine the debating about the depth of the character's devotion to each other and what they "should" have shared would be a hot topic!

Rating:
Summary: Try this book
Review: I love this book! I have a best friend that I have known for so many years I can't count them. I tell her a lot about my life and her life, but I don't tell her everything. I think this author has the maturity (regardless of her age) to realize there are and always will be some things we must keep to ourselves for whatever reason. It is a great read and I highly recommend it. I have been an avid reader my whole life and books like this, are hard to find in this day and age.

Rating:
Summary: A very engrossing and mature read
Review: I love this book! I have a best friend that I have known for so many years I can't count them. I tell her a lot about my life and her life, but I don't tell her everything. I think this author has the maturity (regardless of her age) to realize there are and always will be some things we must keep to ourselves for whatever reason. It is a great read and I highly recommend it. I have been an avid reader my whole life and books like this, are hard to find in this day and age.

Rating:
Summary: great summer reading
Review: I picked this book up on a whim and read the whole thing in one sitting. The style I found refreshing, with the stops and starts and skips ahead interesting...there was always something new coming up. Although the premise might not be groundbreaking, the sheer number of issues and situations covered in the book are staggering...which I didn't really realize until I was finished. I really could identify with the characters and found myself thinking about my life during and after my read. I am a student, so the chance to lounge in the sun reading so intently for a day was is a luxury...and I'm glad I spent my time with this book! It's a good summer read, but that's certainly not to suggest that it's fluff. Personally, I found it much more substantial and eloquent than Summer Sisters.

Rating:
Summary: Not a book for superficial souls
Review: I read all the reviews above, and I must say that in order to appreciate this book, you have to have deeper understanding and insight into the lives and choices of the people you care about. That's what this book portrays the best: seeing your friends for what they are, accepting their choices, and respecting their dignity, and understanding that noone's life is perfect, including your own. Above all, this book reminds us how rewarding it can be to give out more than you recieve.

Rating:
Summary: Author Makes Characters Real
Review: I read this book partially because of the reviews . . . seems people either LOVE this book or HATE this book. I loved it. The author makes these characters so real and the details in the book so real it seems this could be a true story.
The true gift Martha Moody has is that if these characters weren't so real and the story so interesting, people wouldn't expect them to grow. The readers who hated it wouldn't be so passionate about their anger. I think the people who didn't like the book were really just angry at the characters, not the book.