Beautiful Bodies : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A diamond of a novel, true and brilliant beautiful souls
Review: Educated women only. Bimbos beware -- this is a finely written actually intelligent account of how six single women conduct their friendships and love lives in a big city. Hilarious and sad, I was drawn in, like a member of the party.

Rating:
Summary: Enticing at first, then not.
Review: Cunningham's descriptions of each of the five friends in this book are vivid and real- with each one experiencing the pleasures and pains of life for single women in their 30's. Maybe it's my personal preference, but I found the book a page turner until halfway through, when it became somewhat ho-hum with an anticlimatic ending. Nevertheless, I recommend this book for a quick, light read.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this for five of your friends!
Review: Sheer pleasure from beginning to end. Cunningham's prose is both gorgeous and laugh-out-loud funny, and the six women characters are instantly recognizable. There's more here than meets the eye, too, as the Aussie Red wine starts to flow and the layers of friendship unfurl just enough to hint at the characters' unfulfilled longings and deep disappointments. This is a book to savor and share with your friends.

Rating:
Summary: five stars for six best friends
Review: ...this could be me, and my five best friends. we are all single, working women in a big city. Finally a book that shows what life can really be like, the actual way it works. More hope than sex, more undercurrents and literary cache. We loved this because it excited and comforted. Laugh out loud but achingly true to accumulated urban truths of our lives. Very sensitive and smart.

Rating:
Summary: Bland Buddy Book
Review: Friends attempt to make it to a dinner party/baby shower...hostess is rushed, critical snob friend doesn't make it a priority, pregnant friend insecure....blah, blah. The information you get on these gals is not enough to connect you ...but if you had more time with them, you may not find it all that interesting anyway. I love books about female friendships but not this one. This one is just okay. If your reading time is precious, don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: Blissful Beautiful Novel
Review: Made me blissful, happy, lost myself in it, the dream of love, the best friends-- this is the girl talk novel that will endure as literature forever. Awe-ispiring in its truth and honesty. Delicious, like having a souffle cake. Second helpings, por favor. A blur of beautiful revelations as six best friends spill the beans and all their secrets at a party for the mystery guest.

Rating:
Summary: Dazzling Debut Novel
Review: How funny is this book? I could not control myself. The women are are a riot and right on the money. The big mouth realtor who eats her Prada wedgie every time she opens her trap is the most hysterical creation, but they are all good. It is also true, I cried . True to life -- six best friends who love each other (most of the time). ...

Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this tender exquisite novel of women's true lives
Review: My group is reading this and we are spellbound. This is an exquisite read for women in their 30s and up..I found it dignified and truthful, while being hilariously on the mark. I loved the actress who leaves her husband and arrives at her freind's party with a suitcase! And the woman who picks the wrong man for a one nighter (Is there any sound as loud as a zipper on its way up?) I'm still laughing.

Rating:
Summary: You've got to be kidding
Review: This book, which was recommended in a reputable book review, is one of the biggest wastes of time I've spent in a long while. (I only finished it becayse my book group is reading it.) The characters are caricatures: Not one of them seems remotely believable, and nothing that happens to them rings true. Even the small details are off the mark: A woman from Kentucky pronounces the word kids as "keeds"? Sorry, but I don't think so.

Rating:
Summary: only because I was marooned
Review: Really, really bad. Gross misuse of commas, so that I had to read and reread sentences twice to understand. Inappropriate use of quotation marks ("outed" doesn't have to be put in quotation marks anymore. What about this -- It was like waking up in a "foreign" country. Excuse me?) Repetitive character thoughts and dialogue. And these women are 38 -- do they not use contractions when they speak? . "I have a threshold and she is at the brink of it. One more truly terrible, hurtful remark and she is out of here." If the author can't police herself, where were the editor and line editor? Annoyingly drawn-out suspension over ridiculous issues (200 pp to find out if a boyfriend will call?)with little to no payback and the unforgiveable convention -- usually employed in children's books -- of forestalling suspense with a ringing doorbell or phone or arrival of another person. Presumption that readers are interested in many details and pitfalls of buying and owning New York City real estate. Interesting premise but inherently risky (all action takes place in two hours, 6 female characters, each with some secret they're debating telling their other friends) Some frequently clever turns of phrases, but after the first three chapters, a dud. (I was marooned with nothing else to read, so I finished it)