Babes in Captivity

Rating:
Summary: Was a great read!!
Review: as a mom of several kids I found this book one hard to put down, it was able to capture my attention for well over five minutes!!

Rating:
Summary: chick lit with a little WHINE
Review: Four friends gather monthly and chat about their lives and basically moan about how they miss their 'babehood' before marriage and children. I found the story boring as it went back and forth to each mother and their married stories. It was a whine-fest and I was happy when the book was over.

Rating:
Summary: Good premise, but doesn't carry through
Review: I love chick lit and will read books with similar premises simply because they are well-written and entertaining, so when I bought Babes in Captivity, I was expecting something along the lines of "Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons."

I was disappointed.

The story begins with Dierdre, a woman married to a perfect husband and the mother of twins, but what she wants is to renew her old singing career. When her ex-partner and ex-lover moves to NYC, she sees it as the perfect chance to make that change and perhaps hook up with her "true love." Talking about it during a Mom's Dinner with her friends -- Anne, Juliette and Lisa -- the women make a pact to take steps to change their lives so they can get what they really want. This is where the book loses its focus.

Anne and her independent filmmaker husband are always financing his movies, so she is the main breadwinner, but she wants to have her own restaurant. It is unreal why she wants to do this and her announcement of it seems to come from nowhere, as she isn't a chef, but readers are supposed to accept her want as fact.

Juliette is a stay-at-home mom. Her son has asperger's syndrome and her husband is a man more concerned with things than people. At first, her story seems the most real because she wants a second child and her husband is against it.

Lisa is an obessessive-compulsive mother of four who combats an illness during the book. She despises weakness, so she doesn't let anyone know how sick she is until the very end.

Readers are supposed to relate to these women as they go through life's path, but all I could do was shake my head. Dierdre is so spolied, wanting everything but not wanting to work for it. (And Ilove how she can lose all of her extra weight just like that. Juliette goes from one man telling her what to do to a new man taking care of her (of course, this time she's in love so that makes everything OK). Anne has googly eyes over her husband forever, then wises up and sees him for the dirtball he is and managaes to make everything work in her favor in just a few pages. And while Lisa is the character I could feel for the most, I can't imagine any husband letting his wife tell him she's fine after surgery and believing it. If I remember correctly, she doesn't even tell him why she had surgery and he still takes her word for it.

This is a story with a good idea, but it never truly takes off. And the ending is tied up so neatly, it doesn't seem possible -- even for fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Great book-Easy and fast to read!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It is light and funny. The characters were easy to envision as my own friends and myself. I would recommend it to others and hope that they enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Humor and Insight
Review: Reading this book is like spending time with a group of friends who are smart, funny, and determined to figure out how to get what they want from life. They've been focused on their roles as wives and mothers, but suddenly they reconnect, through their friendship, to something they'd left behind in their "babe" days: desire. Their stories will make you laugh a lot, cry a bit, and will encourage you to think differently about your own life. A great read to share with your book group, mom's group, or your best friend.

Rating:
Summary: REAL WOMEN, REAL PROBLEMS
Review: The characters in this book seems like real women to me, dealing with real problems. Infertility, divorce, cancer, the wish for a career or the drive for more closeness with children or husbands -- talking about, laughing over, struggling with these issues seems to me to be anything but whining. I really loved this book, was entertained and enlightened by it, and am recommending it to all my friends. The writing is lovely, the scenes vivid and engaging, the message an important one for all women. Read it!

Rating:
Summary: Great characters and a terrific storyline
Review: The cover art for this novel caught my attention when I went browsing for a novel to dive into while on holidays (how could you help but notice this book on the bookstore shelves?!!!), but once I finished reading the first few pages, I was hooked. Pamela Redmond Satran has written a terrific novel that tackles such themes as the ebb and flow of passion in marriage, the importance of chasing after your dreams, and the power of female friendships to sustain women during those times when your life seem to be spiraling out of control. Pamela Redmond Satran has a gift for creating great characters who really help to drive the story forward. It was her characters who kept me reading well into the night when I really should have been sleeping. I simply couldn't put this book down.

Rating:
Summary: interesting look at family life in suburbia
Review: The four Homewood, New Jersey women are best friends living the American dream of raising a family in suburbia. They meet regularly to share their disasters (child or spousal related), but for the most part they seem contented with their lives.

The contented illusion ends when Deirdre informs her cell mates that she hates her nice spouse Paul. She explains to her amused pals, who think Paul is the poster boy for the perfect husband that she wants to restart her singing career with her former Berkley lover. Nick "Mr. Sexy" Ruby who has relocated fifteen miles to the east in New York. Finally she laments that she has had no passionate orgasms since Ruby. Her confessions lead to two of the others moaning their desires. Juliette wants another child, but her husband Cooper hesitates since their son Trey suffers from Asperger's syndrome. Anne wonders if she should leave her philandering spouse filmmaker Damien. Supermom of four, Lisa refuses to reveal to her buddies or her too busy husband Tommy her desire to write a book for fear they will laugh at her "How to Live" tome.

This is an interesting look at family life in suburbia starring four wonderful women, who share fears, disappointments, and dreams with one another that they find difficult to disclose to their spouses. The story line rotates the lead role between the four women using alternating chapters so that fans receive four subplots that tie together through their friendship. BABES IN CAPTIVITY is not a lighthearted chick lit romp, but instead is a fabulously deep character study that compassionately captures the ambivalence and conflict of motherhood and marriage vs. personal dreams.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: My New Favorite Writer
Review: This book caught my interest right away and kept it going all the way to the end. I laughed, I cried (twice!), and best of all, I couldn't stop reading. I'm sending copies to my mom, my sister, and my three best girlfriends!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This book has a great cover, but don't judge the book by it. I like all kinds of chick lit--it doesn't have to be funny--but if it's not funny, it should at least be very well written with characters that captivate you. This book doesn't deliver on any of these counts. I found the characters hard to identify with and the plot predictable.