Rating: 
Summary: Pure pleasure
Review: A perfect summer book, one to savor and share. Six thirtysomething New York women gather for a baby shower (the mother is happily single) as the "storm of the century" gathers outside. Laura Shaine Cunningham's characters feel like old friends, but still have the freshness to make you laugh out loud. Beautiful Bodies is funny, funny, funny, but the six women's longings and disappointments as they hurtle towards forty give it a much deeper resonance. This is one you'll be recommending to friends for a long time to come.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it every page - Sheer pleasure
Review: As a single woman, aged 35, living in a big city but not New York, I was breathless from start to finish. I did not stop reading this book for a day and a half. Went without sleep. For me, this is the first book that describes a world I know, a life I lead. I identified completely with Jessie, the woman who must throw the party - and clean the cat box, cook the meal & and is so totally distracted yet pulls it off. A loving spirit infuses the very exciting sex with so much more than I accustomed to finding in a "great read." The stories are truthful, hilarious and heart breaking. Laugh, cry, lend to your best friend, your sister, your mother. A true depiction of female friendhip. I fell in love with the book, hope it is a movie or a tv series. Out-sexes sex and the city, with compassion for its characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining
Review: If you're looking for a book to hold your attention for a few evenings, you found it. Last week I had back surgery and was looking for a book that would hold my attention in spite of being halfway knocked out by pain killers. I tried a few other books- each lulled me into a drug induced sleep- before finding Beautiful Bodies. This story of six friends who met years ago while residing at the Theresa House in New York City and have maintained their friendships- in spite of growing apart- will entertain you from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: If you're looking for a book to hold your attention for a few evenings, you found it. Last week I had back surgery and was looking for a book that would hold my attention in spite of being halfway knocked out by pain killers. I tried a few other books- each lulled me into a drug induced sleep- before finding Beautiful Bodies. This story of six friends who met years ago while residing at the Theresa House in New York City and have maintained their friendships- in spite of growing apart- will entertain you from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Great female friends
Review: Laura Shaine Cunningham explores the immense power and importance of female friendship. Friends truly are the family you choose! Cunningham's writing is funny, honest, and cuts straight to the heart.
Rating:
Summary: Blissed Out with these Beautiful Bodies
Review: Lucky for me, I borrowed this from the library. how angry would I have been to have wasted money on this! What could have been an AMAZING story, falls flat, dead. ONE character out of the six MAIN characters has a MINIMAL resolution to her issues. The others have NONE. ZERO. One character--one of the more interesting characters in the book--has a big "secret" that we wait most of the book for her to reveal... and when she does... YAWN! The character from Kentucky... pul-lease, did this woman do ANY research??? Be serious! Martha, who by all standards, should have had some experience to teach her something valuable... no, she is unchanged. Just a ridiculous waste of my time!
Rating:
Summary: Six single women, six stars!
Review: There should be a higher rating to express my utter rapture with this fantastic book. I never thought there would be an accurate novel to depict the real life stories of working women in their 30's, 40's This is so much more intelligent than Sex and the City, they are not on the same planet. These women make their way in the world, navigate through city life and have believable affairs with men. I loved the Postcoital divide...into which a man disappears after sex. Too funny, so true. I fell in love with the Native American man who sweeps the hostess off her feet, their love scene is truly beautiful. This is sex that is not embarassing to read, yet true and utterly evocative. My friends are all reading it and say the same thing. This is a gift!
Rating: 
Summary: Ahh, the dynamics of female friendships. . . .
Review: This book took me a while to get into, but once I did, it was worth it. Beautiful Bodies chronicles the events of one night where 6 late-thirties women, friends since their first days in NY, meet up for a baby shower. Cunningham chooses to first introduce us to each of the women by writing about their separate journeys to the baby shower, and then observes what happens when the women meet up, one by one. But the book really doesn't get started until all of them are together. I've read several books about female friendships, and, honestly, this book is one of the most accurate in describing how the relationships among female friends, particularly when there is more than two, can alternate between gentle, strenuous, compassionate, then explosive (not necessarily in that order) all in one evening. I totally saw myself and my friends in these characters, and loved how Cunningham expertly described the mood shifts as the evening progressed. I'd recommend this to any woman, as long as they are not expecting a standard plot where everything is tied up in a neat bow at the end. Unlike most of my favorite reads these days, this book isn't perfect as a beach read -- I think it would be best enjoyed on a weekend night by yourself with a great dinner and a glass of wine.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! I want to be invited to the party!! Well maybe.
Review: This is an excellent novel. I loved every minute of it. It is the tale of a dinner party of a somewhat dysfunctional group of friends. I love how the beginning chapters focus on one character at a time...then when it comes time for the dinner party, it all comes together. Reading stories about women, their struggles, and their day to day lives makes me feel like I am not alone in the world...and I had a constant companion with this book. I did not want it to end. Can't wait to read future novels from this author.
Rating: 
Summary: boring
Review: Very slow moving, overall not a very interesting story.I was expecting something more chic lit and funny and it wasn't that at all.
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