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Summary: Find a friend in Sarah Hurlihy
Review: If you need a fun book that will truly make you laugh out loud, then go pick up a copy of "Must Love Dogs" by Claire Cook. Despite the title, this book wasn't all about dogs. The dogs that show up in this novel are just cute, sweet, lovable characters, much like the people who seem very real. If you're a woman, you'll most likely find yourself in Sarah, the main character. Her crazy family, her hilarious dating escapades, and her job will have you tossing your head back to laugh. You'll quite possibly be saying to your husband/boyfriend, "Hey, listen to this," and even they will cackle. Besides the humor, there are even a few parts that will tug at your heart and make you remember a time when it was once broken.
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Summary: As Much Fun as a New Puppy
Review: Laugh out loud funny, this book is as much fun as a brand new puppy (without the messy cleanup and chewed up shoes). Claire Cook takes us on a life journey with Sarah Hurlihy, 40 year old divorcee, pre-school teacher, and member of a large, wild and rowdy Irish American family. In her first foray into the world of personal ads, Sarah manages to select a Mr. Right who is none other than her own widowed father. Will she have any better luck when her sound-alike sister writes a personal ad for Sarah, and records a voice message? The importance of family relationships and the dysfunction of same glows through every single page in this delightful and frothy little book. Fun, uplifting, and insightful, I highly recommend this charming book.
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Summary: Charming
Review: Many of the negative comments missed the point. Sure, there are books out there like The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, the meat and potatoes of reading, that leave you feeling full and perhaps a bit heavy.Must Love Dogs is a light lunch and a sinfully sweet dessert eaten knee-to-knee with a funny, charming and sharply insightful woman. There are certainly times you want that satisfying meal, but more often than not, I'll take the light and tasty lunch.
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Summary: All the right places
Review: Right from her hilarious first date, you can tell that Sarah Hurlihy is going to have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a new prince after her divorce. You can also tell that the pleasure of this smartly written and funny novel is in Sarah's madcap journey - through all those personal ads and blind dates, setups and chance encounters. A must-read for anyone who has ever found themselves looking for love!
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Summary: Funny Look at Re-Entry into Dating...
Review: Sarah Hurlihy is forty years old, divorced, and a preschool teacher. She has started dating again, thanks to the personal ads, and her first date is so hilarious I woke my husband up laughing out loud. A great start to a funny and upbeat book. Sarah is one of six children in a close-knit Boston Irish family. Everyone is involved with everyone else's business. Her widowed father, Billy, is dating at least two women, one is a raucous woman named Dolly who doesn't take "no" for an answer. Sarah's sister Carol convinces Sarah to place her own personal ad, including the words "Must Love Dogs"...although Sarah does not own a dog of her own. The ad produces multiple hilarious dates, many including her brother Michael's dog, Mother Teresa. Who will Sarah choose? John, the quiet dog lover? Bob, the handsome single parent? George from Hanover? Maxwell, the Hemingway look-alike? Can Sarah's family back off long enough to avoid scaring all of the men away? MUST LOVE DOGS focuses on a family who just can't keep their noses out of each other's lives. Many scenes of the book had me laughing so hard my sides hurt. One that comes to mind is when Sarah is having a lonely evening at home, even the personal ad responses she calls aren't home. Then Dolly shows up looking for Billy. One by one Sarah's siblings show up with problems, then two of the men Sarah dated arrive. Next, the phone calls are returned. Her house becomes a three-ring circus. The interactions between the various individuals left me in stitches. The characters have true-to-life experiences with love and hurt, which give the book depth and meaning, as well. Sarah's brother Michael and his wife, Phoebe, struggle with their marriage. Carol and her daughter, Siobhan, strive to find common ground. The family is able to forge solutions without alienating, all the while meddling in Sarah's dating life. I highly recommend MUST LOVE DOGS, which gives an optimistic look at re-entry into the dating scene with the help of family. It is the perfect summer read to share with friends
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Summary: A pleasant and humorous book
Review: Sarah, a tad over 40 and from a large Irish family, has just divorced her husband. She hasn't started dating but is under pressure from her family to do so. She answers an ad in the paper that turns out to have been placed by her widower father, who is ALSO looking for romance, and within hours everyone in the family knows about the mixup and is teasing her unmercifully about it. THis incident more or less describes the book -- funny mixups, funny family, trying unsuccessfully to find romance. There are several men in Sarah's life, thanks to an ad her sister places in the paper for her and men she meets in other ways, but the encounters with these men are ludicrously brief (dates lasting ten minutes, as nearly as I can tell). My first reaction was not so positive, but I'm glad I kept reading. There's a family get-together at the beginning that is full of stereotypes about Irish-Americans (no family could be quite THAT Irish) but once the story moved away from this gathering to concentrate on Sarah in her own spaces (work and home), I began to enjoy the book more. THis is not great literature but well-written enough to keep me reading it, and the characters are vivid and likeable. Altogether a pleasant and readable book -- great for the airplane or beach, but not going to be winning any awards.
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Summary: FINALLY! A book about a real woman.
Review: Since Bridget Jones' Diary, I've been looking for an amusing book about a single woman. There have been dozens of books that are: Bridget Jones meets Jacqueline Susann. Bridget Jones meets Sex and the City. Bridget Jones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But I don't want another Bridget Jones! As if in answer to my plea, Claire Cook has given us Sarah Hurlihy, an average American woman recovering from a divorce and trying to find a life again with the help and sometimes despite the help of her family. The characters are human, embodying the traits of real people, meaning that at times we love them and at other times we hate them. Cook is a good enough writer that she doesn't need to paint her characters either black or white. The humor of the story sneaks up on you. The writing is done as if Cook has been smiling the entire time and the reader just can't help but smile with her. By the end, you wish you were on the busload of Hurlihy family and friends so that you could continue in their company. Thank you, Claire Cook, for showing us that you don't need high society or gobs of sex or name dropping to produce a rewarding novel. You just need to write honestly about real people and us real people will be there in droves to read it.
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Summary: Must Love This Book!
Review: This book has the funniest first chapter I have ever read! The characters were warm and funny and real, and I wish Sarah Hurlihy could be my new best friend. I hated to have this book end, though I loved the way everything wasn't tied up too neatly, because it kept me wondering about all the characters, both the people and the dogs. As soon as I finished it, I read it all over again, which I never do. Then I read her first book, Ready to Fall, which was very funny in a totally different way. Does anyone know when Claire Cook's next book will be out? I hope she hurries because I'm anxiously awaiting another one. This is the kind of book I'm always looking for but hardly ever find.
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Summary: I love dogs, but not this book!
Review: This book is about a divorced woman named Sarah and her quest for love. She places a classified ad, plus has a couple of other love interests. I didn't like this book. The characters were so underdeveloped that you don't know enough about them to care who Sarah chooses at the end. The author never explains why the main character does some of the things she does. There are some subplots, but the only one that affects Sarah is the one with her brother. The others just seemed like filler to me.
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Summary: I love dogs, but not this book!
Review: This book is about a divorced woman named Sarah and her quest for love. She places a classified ad, plus has a couple of other love interests. I didn't like this book. The characters were so underdeveloped that you don't know enough about them to care who Sarah chooses at the end. The author never explains why the main character does some of the things she does. There are some subplots, but the only one that affects Sarah is the one with her brother. The others just seemed like filler to me.
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