Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant book that I could not put down.
Review: "Shopgirl," represents a women of lost hope on life and love. Her mundane job and social life cause her to spindle out of control to a somewhat unstable life. This book is comical, desolate, and light-hearted. This novel allowed me to delve into the characters experiences, and in many cases her inexperiences. The novels love story aspect, hit close to home. Steve Martin portrays the evilness and quaintness of a women. If you did not know that the author was a man, you might think a women had wrote this novel. The story was beautifuuly written, and I advise you to purchase this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant book that I could not put down.
Review: "Shopgirl," represents a women of lost hope on life and love. Her mundane job and social life cause her to spindle out of control to a somewhat unstable life. This book is comical, desolate, and light-hearted. This novel allowed me to delve into the characters experiences, and in many cases her inexperiences. The novels love story aspect, hit close to home. Steve Martin portrays the evilness and quaintness of a women. If you did not know that the author was a man, you might think a women had wrote this novel. The story was beautifuuly written, and I advise you to purchase this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant book that I could not put down.
Review: "Shopgirl," represents a women of lost hope on life and love. Her mundane job and social life cause her to spindle out of control to a somewhat unstable life. This book is comical, desolate, and light-hearted. This novel allowed me to delve into the characters experiences, and in many cases her inexperiences. The novels love story aspect, hit close to home. Steve Martin portrays the evilness and quaintness of a women. If you did not know that the author was a man, you might think a women had wrote this novel. The story was beautifuuly written, and I advise you to purchase this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A mind numbing read
Review: "White Widow" is the slowest moving novel I've read since reading Middlemarch. Jack Oliver, the main character is devoid of personality. His favorite meal is meatloaf made with syrup?? which his wife fixes for him EVERY Friday evening after which they have sex. Routine, boring sex. They say the same things to each other over their dinner and later in their bedroom. Jack's hobby is decorating his front yard for Christmas; but there are twelve months in a year. Get the picture? And that gets you to approximately page 78 or so of a book only a little over two hundred pages in length! (You will learn lots of useless information about those huge buses you rarely see anymore unless you're in Branson, Mo attending the Wayne Newton show.) Mr. Lehrer would have us believe that a "White Widow" (an unusually beautiful and untouchable woman) who boards Jack's bus causes him to throw away his years of effort becoming a Master (bus) Operator. As Jack's life careers out of control over the fantasy life he creates for himself and his "Ava Gardner" he becomes less and less believable and more and more pathetic. I only kept reading because I am a fan of Mr. Lehrer's on PBS, and because my husband said he heard Imus on his radio television show that this was one of the best books Imus has ever read. Hmm...must be a guy thing.
Rating:
Summary: A mind numbing read
Review: "White Widow" is the slowest moving novel I've read since reading Middlemarch. Jack Oliver, the main character is devoid of personality. His favorite meal is meatloaf made with syrup?? which his wife fixes for him EVERY Friday evening after which they have sex. Routine, boring sex. They say the same things to each other over their dinner and later in their bedroom. Jack's hobby is decorating his front yard for Christmas; but there are twelve months in a year. Get the picture? And that gets you to approximately page 78 or so of a book only a little over two hundred pages in length! (You will learn lots of useless information about those huge buses you rarely see anymore unless you're in Branson, Mo attending the Wayne Newton show.) Mr. Lehrer would have us believe that a "White Widow" (an unusually beautiful and untouchable woman) who boards Jack's bus causes him to throw away his years of effort becoming a Master (bus) Operator. As Jack's life careers out of control over the fantasy life he creates for himself and his "Ava Gardner" he becomes less and less believable and more and more pathetic. I only kept reading because I am a fan of Mr. Lehrer's on PBS, and because my husband said he heard Imus on his radio television show that this was one of the best books Imus has ever read. Hmm...must be a guy thing.
Rating:
Summary: Small town Americana
Review: After reading and enjoying Lehrur's new title, "The Special Prisoner," I read "White Widow," a book about a bus driver obsessed with a beautiful, mysterious and unknown female passenger. The bus driver let's his imagination get carried away to the extreme. My wife, who read the book, could hardly accept that a happily married man could become so obsessed. I guess I would characterized "White Widow" as a story about ordinary, average folks living in South Texas, struggling with the same challenges we all face -- especially who we are and can we accept our ourselves and live in peace with ourselves. "White Widow" is a great read which will generate a great deal of thought and conversation. High recommended
Rating:
Summary: Tragic cautionary tale. Great story-telling
Review: As in classic tragedy, Master Operator (bus driver) Jack T. Oliver's fatal flaw - his attraction to a "white widow"- causes his inexorable fall from grace. Jim Lehrer's easy-going pace does not prepare the reader for the catastrophic events which ultimately occur. I highly recommend this not-too-long novel to fans of the classics and fans of suspense
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read and confirms that reviews are worth reading
Review: I was very pleased that I picked up White Widow --it was not the type of book I usually read --it was very small town and a subject that would ordinarily not interest me --but Jim Lehrer tells a wonderful and compelling story and it left me with a good sense of post-war rural texas and what Lehrer experienced working for a bus company
Rating: 
Summary: Oddly different bus ride
Review: I wasn't sure I would like White Widow. After all, just how much of a story can one make of a bus driver and his secret fantasies about a beautiful passenger who chances to take his route? So I was surprised to find myself getting caught up in this tale, finding a growing interest in a character who should be, by all counts, a total bore. But it's how he gets set-up by his own fantasies, born from his hum-drum life, which intrigues. I ended up liking this story, despite a main character who is far, too far fixated on imaginary scenes from his hoped-for life. "That's progress, you see."
Rating:
Summary: Leave the driving to Lehrer
Review: I'm not sure where to start with this review. First of all, I loved the book. Secondly, the premise is so simple, I don't understand why someone didn't think of it before and why, even though it IS simple, it works so well. The main character is a bus driver whose main hobby is decorating the house for Christmas every year. But before you yawn, know this: James and Jim Lehrer have written a fascinating book with a Walter Mitty-like charcter. The bus driver, though enamored and proud of his profession, finds himself looking for the ultimate White Widow who will board his bus one day--an Ava Gardner look-alike, if you will. The trials and tribulations--imagined and not--make for an easy yet fascinating read. Individual and promising, this Lehrer duo novel is just the right thing for a summer read. Also recommended: Rule of Four and McCrae's The Bark of the Dogwood
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