Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful page turner
Review: I have just started this novel after hearing Ms. Trigiana speak at the bookstore where I work. She was a very delightful woman, I was thoroughly entertained from the moment she stepped into the store until the moment she left. From what I have read so far, I love it.. I really can't put it down, she really has touched on "small town" life and captured the realism of it. I recommend this book to anyone, it really is a attention grabber. I can't wait to see the movie! Again Ms. Trigiana thanks for visiting us at the Little Professor!
Rating: 
Summary: I found this to be extraordinarily charming...
Review: With much regret, I just finished "Big Stone Gap". I say with much regret, because I truly enjoyed spending time with Ave Maria Mulligan and all her cohorts.This story is set in 1978, in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which is just a stone's throw away from my hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. I recognize so many of the characters presented here - author Adriana Trigiani really captures the heart and soul of the people who populate the area. Although there are many threads throughout this story (and a hilarious, and reality-based, incident involving Liz Taylor and an unfortunate chicken bone!), the theme of this novel is relationships: mother/daughter, father/daughter, men and women as friends, men and women as "more than friends", and good girlfriends. Trigiani has a captivating voice, each page was a delight. If you enjoy a pleasant tale, with a definite Southern flavor, you will enjoy this book. I would put it together with the works of Terry Kay, or Fanny Flagg.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertainment industry hype?
Review: I suspect this book has such great blurbs (Whoopi Goldberg, Rosanne Cash, etc) because this woman made so many contacts when she worked in Hollywood. It's the only thing that would explain why this mediocre book has such a buzz right now. I finished it and it was ok in a Hallmark Hall of Fame kind of way. But it is certainly not a great romance novel or anything. Read a good Nora Roberts instead.
Rating: 
Summary: ZERO STARS IF I'M ALLOWED
Review: I don't even know which adjectives to use to describe this book. I found it so BORING. It is predictable, sophomoric, juvenile -- I don't know how anyone could rate this as high as some of the reviews I've read. While Ave Marie is charming at times, the book reads like a bad Fannie Flagg novel. I know one other reviewer said not to waste your money on this one -- I agree.
Rating:
Summary: How did this book get published?
Review: Because my mother's family has lived in or around Big Stone Gap for upward of 200 years, and because some of my fondest memories are of living in a little red house on Gilley Avenue on the river there during World War II and again briefly in the early fifties, I was compelled to read this book. I found the story line thin and trite and the characters so one-dimensional that I didn't really care what happened to them. I read the entire book only out of nostalgia and for the spark of recognition when two or three real family names I recognized were used. That part of the country is spectacularly beautiful and, last time I looked, still suffering from terrible economic problems. "Big Stone," as we used to call it -- not "the Gap," as the book terms it -- was and I'll bet still is filled with interesting people who speak with a wonderful Appalachian accent (which only occasionally come through in the book) and have real problems and real experiences that do not revolve around Liz Taylor's famous chicken bone incident. This is an airheaded book that in no way reflects the richness of the characters and the landscape of Big Stone Gap. A real novelist not looking to make yet another "Steel Magnolias" copycat movie should go there and try to do justice to the setting.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed it!
Review: Like a previous reviewer, I am also from Johnson City, TN. and I too enjoyed this novel. Initially, I feared Big Stone Gap would be a "chic" book, but quickly discovered that wasn't the case at all. I find Ms. Trigiani to be a great storyteller. Juvenile and hokey? I think not! I just feel that the author has truly touched on the small-town ways of Southwest VA/Northeast TN and this might not be palpable to all readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Charming, but predictable
Review: Ave Maria Mulligan and her band of mountain friends are a very likeable and amusing group to kick back and spend summer down time with. Ave Maria's life at the opening of the book is really jam-packed with wholesome activities! As the story develops, however, we understand why she feels the need to fill every waking minute. If I hadn't read it at a time when I was on vacation, though, I might have thought I had wasted my time due to the predictable, fairtale nature of the story. And Theodore's sexual nobility is really hard to believe!
Rating:
Summary: So happy I did
Review: I picked up this book on a whim after seeing it at the bookstore. What a happy day that was. I read the entire book in one day - couldn't put it down - had to find out what happened to everyone. After finishing it, I sat there just patting the book and saying I loved this book, I loved this book! I loved Ave Maria and Jack Mac, Iva Lou, all the Italian relatives. Some of the sentences and passages in this book were so beautiful and lyrical that I sat there with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. I hope to hear alot more from Adrina Trigiani
Rating:
Summary: This hits close to home...
Review: I loved the story of Ave Maria and her friends and family. Since I only live about 40 minutes from Big Stone Gap, this was truly a treat. I know many mountain folk whose lives are exactly as she mentions. Ave Maria has the qualities some of us wish we could possess. Go Ave and go Adriana Trigiani.
Rating:
Summary: wish 0 stars were an option
Review: Juvenile and boring! What a disappointment. Couldn't finish it. Lesson learned: frequent the local library or at the very least wait for the paperback - you're out less money.
| 
