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Summary: Melissa Banks-The Girls Guide To Fishing and Hunting
Review: THE GIRLS GUIDE TO FISHING AND HUNTING is an a good book. It goes by very fast! Banks does skip around a little bit but the way it is written makes you feel like your bestfriend is talking to you.
The book is about Jane, and young woman who is experianceing and expanding her relationships with her parents, brother, her bosses and her boyfriends. Basicly going through life. She explains her relationships, and experiances as if you wish you were there. Banks also tells Janes story through other people, yet is almost a mini-story of the person. Though Jane never really goes Fishing of Hunting, THE GIRLS GUIDE TO FISHING AND HUNTING is a good book, and I reccomend reading this book to anyone.
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Summary: A Personal Journey (but not in chronological order)
Review: I loved this book! It follows the life of a woman named Jane, and her relationships with men. She has a wonderful father figure and it seems is constantly searching for that kind of devoted and committed love from her romantic partners as well. However, she is continuously making mistakes and blunders but in the process learning about herself. This book is a bit like Bridget Jones' Diary but is a look at a woman's LIFE and not just a constrained space of time. This book jumps around a lot, first she's living with a man then the next chapter is what is happening with her fully grown children and their relationships.I was very surprised that so many people didn't enjoy this book. I thought it was a very clever look at what a typical woman living in Manhattan goes through in her evolution as a person. I mean, I think that most career oriented women can say they too have days when their date for the evening is the cleaning lady or janitor in your office that takes away the trash later at night. You find yourself cheering her on, much like Bridget JOnes, even though she makes mistakes. This book, while an easy read, has depth and character development that was somehow lacking in Bridget Jones' Diary. I greatly enjoyed reading this book and it made me laugh out loud more than a few times. Which is never bad!
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Summary: 3 is doing it justice
Review: I think this book would have been better if it actually was about hunting and fishing. It starts off, Bank is trying to be witty. She jumps around too much. The first chapter gives me a headache. It's boring. The writing in mundane. It reminds me of stories I used to write in high school. The "he said" then "she said" stuff. She pulls it together a little half way through the book. I enjoyed bits and pieces but the overall story was just lacking something. Each story connected but I felt like she left too much out. I wanted to relate with her but I couldn't. It seemed really wishy washy. The characters weren't very believable. They were cartoons of characters. Overall, it was an easy read. It kept me busy for a few hours but if you really feel like you must read it, borrow it from someone or get it at the library. Don't spend your money.
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Summary: disappointing
Review: I was looking for a fun, easy-going book when I came across The Guide. It took me less than 3 days to get through, and I was partially confused the entire time. I never found the "fun, sexy" main character that was advertised on the book jacket. What I did find was random stories that never gained enough depth to give insight into the art of "hunting and fishing." Actually the only time these terms were brought up was in the last few pages of the book. The rest of the book just told parts of Jane's life and two random chapters of other people's life. I found never found any guidance for life, dating, or love... Each chapter started with me guessing who's head I was in and who they were, how old they were, anything. Most were about Jane, but it could of been a new person each time - I never saw connections from chapter to chapter. I will comend Melissa Banks for making it very easy to read and in the end showing hope for love.
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Summary: It made me laugh for minutes on end.
Review: I didn't put this book down from the minute I got it in the mail until I had finished. I think it is a light-hearted book on some heavier issues of relationships, both romantic and in the family. It's a shame not all of its readers found this book as funny as I did - in each chapter there were bits of sarcastic humour that had me laughing out loud for minutes on end - my husband commented that it must be good, he's never heard me laugh that hard over a book. I'm a cheap-o when it comes to book-buying - I bought it used and it was worth it!
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Summary: A perfect companion
Review: Having recently found myself in the position of having an abundance of time and a shortage of cash, I have started to re-read the books I already own and so had the happy accident of rediscovering 2 books which are both improved by each other's company. The Girl's Guide... is short, sweet, witty and to the point. I wish Ms. Bank had spent more time with adolescent Jane but overall the book had depth in it's brevity and a surprising sympathy for the male characters (not always present in "girl fiction").
The "unrelated middle chapter" that has been much critisized did not jar me as much as it has some readers because, be honest, who hasn't peeked out their windows at the neighbors and wondered "Why can't my life just be normal like theirs?" This glimpse of the neighbor's reality emphasises that Jane's on the right track to having a "normal" life even if she doesn't know it yet. The perfect companion book for this is "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby. Read them together for a terrific he said-she said look at what it means to grow up emotionally and get over past mistakes. Read them both also for the witty quips that you can file away and pass off as your own at the next appropriate moment. That's what I'm going to do!
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Summary: Highly recommended
Review: Don't make the mistake of pigeon-holing this book as romantic lit for young unmarrieds, or, in the current vernacular, as chick lit. Also, don't buy the line that it will make you scream with laughter as did BRIDGET JONES. There is considerable wit in the dialogue and in the narrative voice that imbues most of the stories, but for the most part the situations are not hilarious. It is about blindly negotiating the rapids of love, but it is more than a simple gloss on romance. It is a striking, literary look at how love as defined first by family expands to a scary, complicated new world in which the self is in peril of being lost. You should also know that GIRL'S GUIDE is not a novel as it is sometimes referenced. It is a collection of confluent short stories, most featuring the continuing saga of Jane Rosenal in an effervescent first person narrative. If there is a flaw in Bank's plan, it is that the Jane stories present such a strong, chronological projectile that two other interspersed pieces that provide different perspectives on this thing called love seem intrusive. Thematically, though, they work well and offer some experimentation. The author's style shows a spine made of contemporary literary fiction mores, but her voice breaks free of prescription. Since the reader spends considerable time with Jane, you should know that she is a very warm, intelligent, REAL person. She is very witty. She gets a lot right about love and jobs. She makes the book go down easily and leaves you interested in seeing what Bank does next.
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Summary: Clean and Clever
Review: Because I was tired of people asking me why I haven't yet read the "Harry Potter" books, I decided while I was waiting for my bus at Port Authority to buy a paperback copy of the first book in J.K. Rowling's series. It was there that accidentally happened across Melissa Bank's book. I started reading it on the bus. Got home, had some lunch, did a little nothing, and finished reading the book before dinner. It wasn't that the story was so riveting that I was compelled by some external force to finish; but it was a good story relayed in a clever fashion that kept me interested and entertained, and I'll admit that that's a hard thing to do. Bank's writing style is clean and her dialogue is realistic. Kudos!
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Summary: FABULOUS Storytelling
Review: The author weaves a tale of love, pain, and life like an intricate afghan. Initially, upon picking up the book, I thought the book was actually a number of short stories. Each "chapter" could be read as a short story, but together provide a more all-encompassing picture of the heroine. Each chapter discusses an important relationship with a man in her life. Highly recommend this book for any girl.
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Summary: totally enjoyable
Review: I kept seeing this book in the bookstore.. and after hearing some friends mention it - I decided to read it... Wow, what an enjoyable book! I finished it in a day or two - I just couldn't put it down. I'll definitely be recommending this one to friends.
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