The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (Thorndike Large Print General Series)

Rating:
Summary: OK not War and Peace, but fun anyway
Review: I was worried that this book would be another, whinning, I weigh 5 pounds more than last week and I am 29 book -- but this was a really funny and occasionally touching book. Admittidly, the book was light, but not everything has to be deep. I read the book outloud and my mother could not wait for me to be done to steal it (as well as loaning it to both my sister when she was done, so the book is mine no more.) Perfect summer book.

Rating:
Summary: Not as great as I was hoping for
Review: I'd say wait for it to come out in paperback, but at this price... what's the point. I was so exicted about this book I paid full price! I was dissapointed, though, as it took one night to read and i wasn't left as impressed as I hope. The type was blown out of proportion to make up for what little there was to say. It was fluffy and I didn't like the character. It's fine if your bored and the cover's damn cute, but dont' waste your time if you don't have the space to keep it. Overall: Overated.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving, Funny, Wonderful Short Story Collection
Review: If you like short stories, you will like this book. If you come to it looking for the sustained narrative of a conventional novel, you will have to either find a different book or give yourself over to the pleasures of the short story's different rhythm and motion. These stories were a long time in the making (one of them was published in Chicago Magazine about seven years ago and won the Nelson Algren Award; others, according to the copyright page, were published in various small magazines). They should be enjoyed one at a time, with breaks for coffee or even a night's sleep. Each story has its truly hilarious moments--I often laughed aloud as I read the book--but, collectively, they depict a life which is complex and which is engaged in much more than a search for a man, which, as it turns out, is the occasion for the journey the character Jane makes but not the point of it. Jane is looking for Jane or, rather, she is looking for a way to live inside of her own life on this planet. Her life has moments of sit-com farce, but it also is afflicted by tragedy and bad luck. What many reviewers neglect to mention is that the young, vigorous, witty Jane is nearly killed by breast cancer. Here's an excerpt: "After the first chemo treatment, before you lose your hair [your lover] will take you wig shopping. He'll make it fun, and annoy the saleswoman by trying on wigs himself. You get one that looks like the hair you still have, and another like the hair you wished for as a teenager." Melissa Bank writes with a light touch, and she writes comedy as well as anyone I can think of, but some of her stories will break your heart. Read this book. Pay no attention to comments by people who obviously didn't read the whole book, or do not like the short story form, or have been put off by the media blitz.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful summer read!
Review: This book is great for a quick read to take your mind off of things. It's also very well written.

Rating:
Summary: You'll laugh out loud and miss her when the stories are over
Review: Enjoy Jane through a series of snap shots of her life; each chapter is a short story. You'll giggle at her irreverance and love/hate relationship with her family. She says the funny things you wish you had, but you only think of afterwards. Meet the other characters through telling moments, humorous and revealing exchanges. Her brother is a guy you know, maybe dated once. You get to share the inside jokes. There's no pages wasted with superfluous background of events or people. You jump right into the middle of things and feel at home with these characters. It's a delightful summer read - but it goes very fast. As with the best entertainment, you are left wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: You-go-girl drivel.
Review: This is an astoundingly simple-minded piece of trash. This "book" is a compilation of short sentences, short paragraphs and lots of adolescent one-liners. This would be a good effort for a high school sophomore. I'm not surprised that it was somehow published or even that it has become a best-seller, but this drivel was given feature reviews by the New York Times and the New Yorker. Is this what we've come to? Save your money, buy a romance novel and pencil-in your own one-liners.

Rating:
Summary: F. Scott Fitzgerald it is not!
Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald? Is she kidding? Her writing is barely Judy Blume. As a single, professional woman from NYC, I certainly would not hold up Jane as the paragon of my species. Neither I nor any of my single, professional friends would take up with an abusive, drunk, wrinkled old man. As for the 'short story' approach, all it added was a sense of discontinuity. I'm with my other New York counterpart...I give this book a 'one' to bring down the curve. Don't believe the hype.

Rating:
Summary: captivating and delightful
Review: i enjoy ms. bank's sense of humor and found the book delightful and fun. however, like many readers, i got lost on the two unrelated chapters. i kept on hoping that it will all tie in at the end, but it didn't. even with that though, i enjoyed it greatly, esp. the last chapter. i'd recommend this as a quick fun summer read.

Rating:
Summary: Over-rated and shallow
Review: The book is lightweight; it isn't a book which should have gotten the hype it has. It should've come out as a paperback. Period. The stories (and it is obviously nothing more than a collection of short stories claiming to be a novel so that it sells better, no matter what those who stand to make $$ from it insist) are linked principally only by the fact that the character in each has the same name. The collection of one-liners and wanna-be-clever quips that permeate the thing make me think that the author would be better at writing a 1/2 hour sitcom. Not bad, but certainly no great shakes. Many better, truly well-written books deserve the attention hype has afforded this one. If Francis Ford Coppola hadn't been behind this, it would never have seen the light of day (Bank herself admits every story in the book was rejected everywhere it was sent). Kudos to her agent for pulling this off. (Oh, and I actually would've given the book two stars, but those who like the book seem to give it five stars without any thought, so I'm trying to bring it to where it really ought to be.)

Rating:
Summary: Fun summer read, but lacks depth
Review: I confess I bought this book strictly based on the hype and the slick packaging. I was looking for a light-hearted summer read, and that is what I got. Jane was a funny, wise-cracking and witty herione, and I laughed out loud more than once at her thoughts and comments...but I found myself wishing Ms. Banks would develop the character more in line with a traditional novel rather than jumping around from story to story. More like Dolores in "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb, really fleshing out a highly intriguing character. The stories that were not about Jane, although well written on their own, threw me for a loop, and were not resolved or concluded in a manner I found satisfying. They felt like they were pulled from another manuscript and just stuck in there randomly. I wanted more Jane! I think for now I will stick with another Jane....Jane Austen, and read about my favorite smart and witty ingenue, Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice.