Rating: 
Summary: Moving and powerful
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found this book to be incredibly moving and powerful. Radish's insights into the ways we can be hurt only by those we love best are spot on. Towards the end of the book, there is about a page describing motherhood which makes the entire book worth reading. I have recommended it to countless female friends and will continue to do so.
Rating: 
Summary: Soon to be inelegantly gathering dust ...
Review: What a stinker! "The Elegant Gathering of White Snows" is a story about how seven women get together for a "whine" fest and somehow all telepathically come to the same decision to chuck their families, jobs, responsibilities, problems, and lives, and start walking on a rural Wisconsin highway until such time as they experience some kind of simultaneous group epiphany and return home as changed women. I picked up the book because the premise sounded promising, but this book absolutely does not deliver. The characters are flat, if somewhat despicable, and don't inspire any sort of sympathy. In fact, an underlying message in this book seems to be "if it feels good, do it." Never mind that you're warping your kids ... it's all about YOU.Among other problems, there is a notable lack of description of the country side the women are walking through so that the story really seems to take place in some sort of void. Also, a couple of new characters are introduced throughout that simply drop out of the story without explanation, like a female reporter that changes into her grubbies so she can tag along but never makes another appearance. Parts of the book read like a cheesy pulp romance. There was definitely some overuse of the words heart, beating heart, touch, whisper, beautiful, and soul, frequently used in corny metaphors and similes that made no sense. Even the title of the book was garnished from a tea reference made by one of the characters that doesn't tie in to anyone or anything else in the story. I'm all for "girl power" and I understand the special bonds we women share. "The Elegant Gathering of White Snows" fails
to capture any sort of spirit of sisterhood and has only inspired me to read a chapter or two of a book from now on, before I actually spend money on it. If you're looking for a story with strong likable female characters who overcome life's trials and draw strength from one another, go rent "Steel Magnolias." If you're hoping for a story with interesting quirky characters that hit the road together, pull out your high school copy of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."
Rating: 
Summary: Friendship at its finest
Review: While I enjoyed this story about the women and their close relationship to one another, I found that the circumstances were not always credible. I do not think that such an event would have sparked such a media frenzy.
Despite this, I liked the differing stories told by the women and their bond with each other would make any woman envious. Such friendship and loyalty is refreshing to read about.
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