Rating: Summary: Pass it On Review: This book should be passed on to everyone that enjoys reading. I have passed it on to all of my friends and relatives. All of us agree that this book is simply fabulous! Maeve Binchy has such a wonderful gift for writing that reading this book has inspired me to read more of her works. I promise that you will love her characters and feel every emotion with them. I highly recommend reading this book for pure pleasure.
Rating: Summary: A Book for Everyone. Review: When I started reading Tara Road I thought the story would be predictable. In ways it was. But it is the route this story took that kept me interested along with it's great characters. Binchy gives us a wonderful world of characters that are linked together in a beautifully believable way. I cannot see how anyone can read this book and not see themselves in at least one or more of these characters. This trully is a book for anybody. Ria, the main character, will give any reader a real story of strength and growth. This is a story about life, growing, friends and lies.
Rating: Summary: I couldn't get to the next page fast enough Review: This was my first Maeve Binchy book and I must admit I could not put it down. She brings the characters to life and keeps the plot going with short sections passing back and forth between the characters. However, I was very disappointed in the ending and only hope it was left the way it was because there is going to be Tara Road II. So much was left unsaid. Did Ria ever know her husband was her best friends lover. What did Ria say when she found out Mona had saved her beloved Tara road house? I felt cheated, let's hope there is a Tara Road II
Rating: Summary: As irresistable as a big bag of Cracker Jacks. . . Review: . . .this is my first Maeve Binchy novel. I picked it up on impulse to read one night when I had to wait someplace for 90 minutes and had nothing else to do. And was hooked in the first few pages, when Danny Boy storms into the Dublin, Ireland real estate office where Ria is working. The first two-thirds of the book deal with their lives and those of their friends and associates during the go-go 1980s, when divorce finally was legally permitted in Ireland, and the country seems to have been in a real-estate, yuppie mindset not unlike that of what was going on in the USA at that time. In fact, Ria and Danny could just as easily have been American, judging by their fever to fix up the Tara Road "money pit" and scout out auctions for the perfect pieces of furniture to put in it. Over the years, as they have children, parties, and material success, their friends and neighbors run in and out of there like it's Grand Central Station. The story just kind of coasts there for awhile, and then when Marilyn calls Ria from the United States with an offer she can't refuse right now, things truly get interesting again. What these ladies do in one another's houses changes everyone around them--and themselves, too. I found myself saying, "NO, NO--don't you DO that!" to Ria a time or two, and then, "Oh, yes, take that in your pipe and smoke it," when two characters were basically blackmailed into doing the right thing by two very clever women who, like Ria, are pros at making lists. Great fun! I dropped this a star mainly because the men are almost all one- and two-dimensional, and also I think the book would have been a stronger one if we could have had more of Marilyn's story cut in earlier rather than, as another reviewer put it, so many needless descriptions of Ria's latest culinary creation or Rosemary's "House Beautiful" decorator showcase home or Annie needling Brian to shut up yet again. The book would also have worked just as well without Gertie and Jack--who were just stereotype characters, anyway. As densely populated as this book was, the American relatives could just as easily belonged to someone else without cluttering up the storyline.Oh, well. Those are minor quibbles. This is a good one for airplanes, the beach, or stressful times at work when all you want to do when the kids are in bed is give your mind a vacation. I WILL be reading more of Maeve Binchy's things. . .only I'll just check them out of the library from now on.
Rating: Summary: Tara Road Review: I found Tara Road charming and captivating, capturing the the essences of triumph and struggle for its characters, following them from age sixteen to their forty's. Laughing and crying out loud, one gets to know the characters like family. The first of Binchy's books that I have read, I thought it was a real gem.
Rating: Summary: Tara Road by Maeve Binchy Review: I could not stop reading this book. I started to read Tara Road on a business trip to Japan. I found myself trying to accommodate my schedule so that I could get back to the hotel to read the next chapter. I was obsessed!
Rating: Summary: Riveting Review: Tara Road is one of the best books I have ever read. I had a hard time putting it down, the end of each page left me wanting to read more and more. I usually only read legal thrillers, but had heard such good reviews about this book that I decided to try it. I am so pleased that I did! I lent Tara Road to several of my friends and they keep telling me how good it is. I respond by saying, "I know!" Maeve Binchy created a wonderful character study of Ria Lynch. I look forward to reading more of her work. I recommend this book to any woman.
Rating: Summary: It wasn't bad, but not one to remember either Review: I enjoyed the book well enough, but it wasn't like some books that really gets you thinking, or keeps you from putting it down even when you should be doing something else important. I crave books that make me want to ponder the charactors after I've read the book, and this one just wasn't interesting enough to do that for me. Absolutely nothing extrodinary happens in this book. It's all predictable, uneventful and only some what entertaining.
Rating: Summary: disappointing Review: I'm a big fan of Binchy but I found this one rather disappointing, not nearly as good as "circle of Friends". The plot was thin, the characters got on my nerves - so much of it was predictable. If you want a really luscious read go to "of Marriageable Age" by Sharon Maas which I discovered in England this summer! It 's a bit expensive cos it's an import but worth it! (also available on the uk site)
Rating: Summary: A pleasant read. Review: She spins a good yarn, but it's formula Binchy again: Too long and rambling, weak and predictable ending. In the romance novel genre, I prefer books by Rosamunde Pilcher. They're written with greater depth and finesse.
|