Rating: 
Summary: Author charming & enjoyed the book thoroughly!
Review: Read this book in less than a day and met the author at a book club meeting last night. Wonderful interaction between Olivia & her sister ... a must read for even "non-fiction" readers out there!
Rating: 
Summary: It Helps When The Publisher Pours All Its Money Into Your PR
Review: For all the hype the publisher paid into and the sentimentalized reviews of "you'll laugh, you'll cry"... when it comes down to it, the writing is hackneyed and amateurish. Quick fast sentences. Cynical nasty comments. A personal bravado about the main character's (ie, the author's) brilliance. This is most definitely no example of great literature. The letter format is also not as unique as the reviewers are attempting to pretend. It's been done in a more striking and literary way in other books-- as, for example, in The Color Purple. Last year's Ella Minnow Pea also gave the form some excitement. This is EZ reading and EZ writing. There is a show-offy quality to the author's name dropping of celebrities and a paint by numbers use of plot. Yes, you can read the book in a day. But the same can be true of People Magazine.
Rating: 
Summary: i loved it
Review: I love this book.I laughed,and I cried.I was happy I was sad.It made me look at life so much different after I read it! It was werid at first to get use to the fact that the whole story was writen in letter form but then I loved it.I couldn't put the book down.I read it in 2 days and I hope she plans to write some more!
Rating: 
Summary: Confessional
Review: Forget the note about all similarities being coincidental...This is a thinly masked autobiography. While it is difficult to say anything against a book that presents an experience through which the author so clearly has suffered, the one thing that goes against it the most are the strains of Hollywood manipulation that tug and pull here and there. At times, too, the author's insistent adoration of herself (yes, even with the 'warts and all' portrayal, it is clear in the author's appearances that she is quite taken with herself, and has gone so far as to say things such as 'people want to be me' 'everyone has always commented on how brainy I am and how beautiful.' Or 'It is not easy being beautiful and smart.' Gag. The book is a very easy read, due mostly to the format. There is no great literary style. No great poetics or poetry. Yet the writing is good, and there is certainly a fair amount of honesty in the author's emotional writing. Besides being an associate producer (not the actual producer!) on Braveheart, the more murky credits to the author's name via Hollywood include the bombs "The Man Who Knew Too Little" and "Simply Irresistable" which also have their fair share of shameful Hollywoodism-- the one place, besides the weaker letters to the boyfriend in the book-- where the book wanders into the territory of standard LA Producer Manipulation. The book is undoubtably winning fans via "Terms of Endearment." Perhaps, however, the author gives her self too much credit. She is not a great producer, and is NOT, in reality, much different than the very unscrupulous sort who she sets herself apart from and lambasts in the book. She is one of them, and not one of the more talented producers. There are rumors about her ethics and her way of getting to where she needed to go, but that's for another page and another magazine. The ego of the book (in term's of the author's presentation of herself, and its self serving multiple arrows placed on her) I found to be a real huge, major turn off and put-off.
Rating:
Summary: An unexpected source of inspiration
Review: Don't let the letter based style of the book deter you from reading it. I read this book fully expecting to become disinterested half way through because I expected a choppy format and the tragic tale of a dying sibling. Instead I found that I could not put this book down! The characters were engaging and real. The contrasts between the main character's life as a Hollywood producer and her best friend a suburban career mom were insightful. But the best surprise of this story is the inspiration and drive that was inspired from the main character's relationship with her sister. It made me wish that people really wrote letters like the ones in this book! ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in 2004
Review: Ms. Robinson has succeeded in writing a masterful debut novel about Hollywood, cancer and love. Her characters, especially Olivia, are so real and powerful. This book made me laugh and if I weren't so jaded I might have cried. Required reading for older sisters; for everyone else it's an enjoyable, easy read. I can't imagine how it won't be a great movie, too.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Full Novel
Review: It's hard to say I enjoyed reading this novel because of the subject matter. Watching someone you love fight cancer is never pretty, but this is a wonderful book. The characters were real, honestly portrayed people, with warts and all. Yet I loved these characters, and found myself laughing and crying along with them all.
The author, Ms. Robinson, is an excellent writer and was able to say so much without a lot of unnecessary words, and was able to stir up emotions, good and bad, with each turn of the page, or the next letter.
This is well worth the read, don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Start Writing More Letters
Review: This masterful epistolary novel has a really girly cover, but don't let that fool you - this is no mere chick lit. Olivia Hunt is fiery, wickedly smart, sarcastic, opinionated, protective, selfish, insistent, loving, complex. In short, real. For Olivia alone, this book is refreshing enough to be worth the price of admission. And as a bonus, you'll finally learn what being a Hollywood Producer actually means.
Rating:
Summary: you'll laugh, you'll cry, you get the picture...
Review: A truly emotional tale of the love between two sisters. Be prepared to love these characters. Added bonus is the behind the scenes look at what it takes to produce a movie in Hollywood. Especially as the author is a screenwriter.
Rating:
Summary: JUST BUY IT !
Review: I consider myself a hard bitten cynic , but this was just lovely and i got a bit teary at the end much to my own surprise It's a bittersweet story especially if you have a younger sister like i do . forget disappointing badly written nonsense like THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA this is the real deal !
|
