Rating: 
Summary: THE SAME OLD THING......
Review: I saw this book reviewed in People Magazine and thought it sounded good and might be worth reading. I know many other reviewers gave this book high ratings but I found it so boring and unoriginal. The main character, Ave Marie, seems shallow and undecided about everything. The surprises in the book were poorly handled. I kept waiting and wanting for this book to get better but it never did. I don't know what the hoopla is all about regarding this book but I agree with the reviewer who said, Don't Waste Your Money on This One.
Rating: 
Summary: Love It, Love It, Love It!
Review: As soon as the Bookmobile appeared on page one, I was hooked. I was captivated by Big Stone Gap and the souls who inhabit the sleepy town. Ave Marie, the town spinster and pharmacist,is the main character. She is every person who has felt as though they didn't fit in, didn't look right, and felt there was some mysterious answer no one has yet told her. The day to day of Big Stone Gap life is shaken when Ave Marie discovers a secret kept by her recently deceased mother. Aided by some very loyal (and unforgrttable) friends, she sets out to find out where her place is in the scheme of things. The author has a real fondness for her characters, never making them too cartoony (a big problem in writing about southern hill people) and moves the story along at a enticing pace. I had originally checked this out from my library (alas, still no bookmobile)and then purchased my own copy, which I immediately gave away and replaced with another. This is a keeper!
Rating: 
Summary: Back to the Old Home Town for a good laugh
Review: Business is slack in Big Stone Gap, a tiny mining town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, near the foothills of Tennessee. So, Fleeta in the local greasy spoon rewrites her recipe-card box of five years standing. Here is one entry. With it, Trigiani sets the scene for her delightful visit and memories of her own home town.'Skin your possum. Place in a large pot and boil 'til tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Make gravy with broth and add 4 tablespoons flour and a cup of milk. Cook until thick. Save a foot to sop gravy. Reading this, Trigiani's protagonist Ave Maris Mulligan ponders what to do with the other three feet. She is a witty thirty-five year-old, not yet 'murried'. She owns the local drug store taht apparently has a net value of one dollar. Being pharmacist creates access to the town's secrets. Not that anyone gossips in Big Stone. We first meet her taking advantage of the Wise County Bookmobile's weekly visit, as it lumbers down the mountain road. She learns from a book how to read faces and starts observing and analyzing the populace. Then Elizabeth Tayor and her politician husband decend on Big Stone Gap. Elizabeth books the deluxe suite at the Trail Motel. 'Boy is she in for a surprise,' says Ave Maria. Based on an actual happening in 1978, the visit is hilarious. A bizarre football game precedes a dinner that boasts a program printed on lavender paper 'compliments of the Dollar General Store.' Liz ends up in Hospital, the culprit: Fried Chicken. Although author Adriana Trigiani grew up in this drab location, she now lives in New York, a successful producer and playeright. This novel revisits choice hometown characters, and her experiences there directing local plays that led her to a wider horizon of opportunity.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable read
Review: I must preface my comments with the fact that I spent four very formative years (1970 - 1974) living in Wise County VA as a young teenager. Having experienced this part of the world as a 'feriner' who lived in a trailer (a certified no-no), I know how Ave Maria must have felt. Fortunately for her, she was able to overcome the 'feriner' label and make a life among the locals in Big Stone Gap. This book brought back memories I'd forgotten: the country speech patterns immediately come to mind. I would like to have 'heard' the peculiar accent a little more clearly, but still a quite accurate protrayal of Southwest Virginia even if the details of TV stations and locations of particular landmarks weren't right on the mark. I have to say that the events of the Friday night half time show for Ms. Taylor made for one of the funniest passages I've ever read! And Ave Maria's experience with the need for change after the deep sleep rang true for this thirty-something in the midst of a crisis of purpose. I've been asked to write about some of my experiences living in this part of the world, and this book may be the catalyst to get that project off the ground.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. I found the characters to be shallow. I did not care what happened to them. There are way too many inaccurate discriptions of where things are located. An example, is that the last time I looked, Roaring Branch is located between Big Stone and Appalachia. At least that is where it was located two years ago when I was there. That was where it was when I was a child and went there with my grandfather to seine for minnows. I loved her Aunt. She is a true hillbilly type character.
Rating:
Summary: An okay read
Review: I am still reading Big Stone Gap and it's a fast little read. However, I think Ms. Trigiani should've researched her Tennessee cities a little better because the NBC affiliate station WCYB is NOT located in Kingsport, TN. It is located in Bristol, TN/VA, though Johnny Wood IS in fact the weatherman at WCYB and STILL is! WKPT is the ABC affiliate in Kingsport. This may be trivial, but for me living in the area, it felt like a slight. The characters of Big Stone Gap are likeable although I would like to tell Ave Maria to quit whining so much. I did like how she handled her Aunt Alice, though she should've told her where to stick it. All in all this is a good weekend read or vacation book.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down.
Review: I am a person who love's books like this one. I could not put it down, I read it in two days and loved every word of it. It is extremely descriptive, a wonderful tale and I related to all the characters. The lead character Ave Maria was vivid and beautiful and you can't help but get to know her. I am recommending this book to all of my friends!
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Southern Novel!
Review: Within twenty pages of Big Stone Gap, I knew I'd fallen in love. This novel has everything a great Southern novel needs: wacky but loveable characters, a gorgeous backdrop, mysteries of the past and a sizzling romance. Even more interesting is that the novel is not set in the typical Southern time period of the late 1800s, but in the late 1970s. Ave Maria, the town's thirty-something pharmacist, begins a soul-searching journey in the months following her mother's death. She realizes that her father was not Mr. Mulligan, the stern disciplinarian, but a mysterious man from her mother's homeland of Italy. As she becomes more involved in learning about her mother's past, Ave Maria finds herself the subject of not one but two marriage proposals by the most eligible bachelors in Big Stone Gap. While Ave Maria is working through issues of her own, the town plans for a visit from Elizabeth Taylor, herself. The town's high school band puts on a show never before imagined during a football game halftime and the bookmobile's librarian hosts a library fundraiser to build a full-scale public library. All of the townfolk are realistic and endearing, and a heck of a lot of fun too. I urge those who love novels like Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts and The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver to read this book! -Melissa Galyon
Rating:
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS ONE
Review: The previous reviews on this book are either very high or very low. I might be in the minority here but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked. It is a story that has been told dozens of times before except that the setting is different here -- Big Stone Gap. There were a few parts I did find enjoyable but for the most part, I couldn't wait to be done with it. The main character, Ave Maria, seemed so one dimensional to me. Nothing she did was a surprise. The rest of the book was mundane and trite. The trip by Liz Taylor and her husband was supposed to be the highlight of the book; perhaps in the author's eyes -- not for this reader. My opinion is don't waste your money on this one.
Rating:
Summary: I absolutely adored it!
Review: Every once in a great while, a book comes along that you absolutely adore. You devour every word and are incredibly sad when it ends. Then you realize happily that you can go back to the beginning and enjoy it all over again. "Big Stone Gap" by Adriana Trigiani is just that sort of book. Overflowing with humor and compassion, "Big Stone Gap" is the enchanting story of a woman who thinks life has passed her by, only to learn that the best is yet to come. Set in Virginia's Appalachian mountains, the novel follows Ave Maria Mulligan on her quest to discover just who she is and what she wants out of life. As the local pharmacist, Ave's been keeping the townsfolk's secrets for years, but she's about to discover a skeleton in her own family's closet that will blow the lid right off her uneventful life. After the death of her mother, Ave Maria kept herself busy with the pharmacy, volunteer work, and as director of the town's long-running outdoor drama. She's content with her life when, suddenly, she discovers that the man she called Daddy was not her real father, and her life might not be all she always thought it was. While trying to come to grips with this new self-realization, Ave finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a vicious family feud with her feisty aunt, and planning a life-changing journey to Italy to locate her real father. And if that isn't enough, Ave finds time to help her friend Theodore, the high school band director, design a half-time show to dazzle Elizabeth Taylor when the Hollywood star comes through town on a campaign stump with her husband, senatorial candidate John Warner. Yes, this is a very busy book. Filled with a delightful assortment of small-town eccentrics, "Big Stone Gap" is a treasure trove of unique, wise, and wonderful characters. Author Adriana Trigiani grew up in the actual town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, during the 1970s. Honing her storytelling abilities by writing and producing some of television's top-rated shows, including the groundbreaking Cosby Show, Trigiani proves with her first novel that her talents extend to more than one medium. Production on a movie version of "Big Stone Gap", which will be written, directed and produced by Ms. Trigiani, is already in the works. -Sharon Galligar Chance
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