Rating: 
Summary: Every woman's nightmare...
Review: Love, loss and betrayal are delicately woven throughout the amazing novel The Pilot's Wife. I truly detest Oprah and chose this book before I knew she recommended it. It is an amazing book. This woman... you just feel so bad for her. She has to live through both nightmares that women face and deal with them and you just can't imagine what'd you do. I really thought this book was well written, thought provoking and hypnotizing, keeping you reading until the very last word. A fantastic novel and another display of Anita Shreve's remarkable talent.
Rating: 
Summary: Needed a Punch
Review: The story started out well. But...I thought it was building to a big emotional "punch". It never happened. I did enjoy the story, even though parts were easy to predict. If you're looking for an easy read and a little suspense, it's a good choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Well this was CERTAINLY a disappointment. This is the first book I have read that was recommended by the now defunct "you know who's" Book Club. There was no believeable character development thus no empathy ensued for the book's characters. And to boot, there were improbable situations and reactions by all characters in the book. I slogged through the book as I am recovering from surgery. I'd have been better off napping. Perhaps her other books are better?
Rating:
Summary: An easy read is not always a good read
Review: I left this book feeling unsatisfied and in a way, grateful that is was over. I felt the book insulted my intelligence by asking me to believe anything within its pages. BORING!
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Starts off as an incisive and measured meditation on loss and grief, and turns into an hysterical, pulpy and thoroughly unbelievable soap opera about bigamy, terrorism and smuggling. A stunning failure of both craft and imagination. Yes, it is a page turner and one may find it hard to put down, but only in the same way that one might find it hard to look away from a grisly car crash. Overwrought, trashy, awful.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: This book could have been very good if the author had went into more detail, but nothing ever really happened. I kept reading thinking there would be some kind of great climax. Nothing. Not very entertaining. The characters were not well developed. I was somewhat dissappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story...Good Writing...What an Ending...
Review: This is a gripping story that caught my attention from the first paragraph. Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors so I am prejudiced on that account. I have read a lot of her books and although this is certainly a good read it is not, in my opinion, her best novel.
Kathryn Lyon is awakened in the middle of the night by a knock on the door which she knows means one thing. Her husband Jack is dead. The story takes off from there as Kathryn learns of her husbands death when the plane he is piloting explodes over the Atlantic Ocean.
Through her grief, Kathryn discovers inconsistencies and doubts about the man her husband really is. Shreve is a very clever weaver of stories and inconsequential items or memories always tie into the final conclusion. Kathryn eventually finds that her husband was not the man she thought he was and that her whole life is a fantasy which she has inadvertently helped to create.
The reader is compelled to finish the book as the plot grows more suspenseful and taut and draws to an almost unbelievable conclusion. This is the books strength and weakness as it almost works against the story as too contrived to be real. Shreve has explored the themes of jealousy, infidelity and loss in several of her books and she does so with style and a reality that leaves the reader with more to think about long after the novel is finished.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating, but sad
Review: This book was easy to get interested in, and suspenseful all the way through as the wife discovers more about her husband's secret life. It's a sad story, but no matter how well you know someone, there's always little secrets about that person that you don't know...it's just that some secrets are bigger than others! Quite a shocking and heartwrenching story - a good, fast read!
Rating:
Summary: Touchy Feely Girly Girl Stuff
Review: I like to read to my wife, and I got this book thinking You Can't Go Wrong With Oprah. Good Lord, was I wrong. So I'd like to thank Ms. Shreve for writing such a terrible book so I know to be more selective from Oprah's list. Since this snoozer we have very much enjoyed House of Sand and Fog, We Were the Mulvaneys, and currently The Corrections.Nothing happens in this book. Nothing. It's all just a bunch of thoughts and feelings from the wife. When she starts investigating the secret life of her dead pilot husband, you'd think she'd uncover something really crazy, like he was smuggling drugs or something. Nope, he just had a chickie and a kid on the side in a destination he flew to a lot. They meet and you think there might be this big confrontation. Nope. She just says, "Yeah, I knew about you." They both say, "Whatever" and the wife goes home. Meanwhile, there's some dude who keeps hanging around with her. A cop, or somebody from the FAA, investigating the plane crash. It's been so long I can't remember. An obvious love interest. He never says anything but the novel has such lines as "he looked forlornly at her," that you don't know why you want to puke - the schmaltzy dime store romance or the obviousness of why he's in the novel at all. But nothing happens there either. He shows up at the end of the book all, "Hey, maybe I'll come by more often," and she's all, "OK, whatever." For chrissake, Anita, if you're going to be ridiculously transparent with devices like that, you might as well just follow through with them. Oh, and also, her adolescent daughter Maddie is screwing around with guys, but that doesn't seem to bother Mom much either. Be sure and use a condom, hon! Boy, I wonder what they'll do if Maddie gets pregnant. One thing I've gotten used to from Oprah books are the subtle little superfluous political messages. I don't know. Maybe you want to read this book anyway. This stinker helped me to appreciate good books that much more.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable and dull
Review: I did not particularly enjoy this book for several reasons. First of all, I had absolutely no sympathy or any feeling at all for the main character. Secondly, her husband was a caricature of a man and it felt as though Shreve had spent very little time exploring his side of the story and more just trying to shock the reader with his betrayal. I have a hard time not finishing a book once I get started, and I did manage to make it to the end, but was bitterly disappointed by the conclusion. The one male character that was introduced ends up being her savior and her mate....blech....I would not recommend this to anyone.
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