About this title: With her incomparable humor and heart, the author of the bestselling "Good in Bed" and "In Her Shoes" returns with a novel that depicts the nuances of female friendship.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atria Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743294294ISBN:0743294297
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Excellent Condition. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 359 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atria Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743294294ISBN:0743294297
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Minor shelf and edgewear. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 359 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atria Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743294294ISBN:0743294297
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 359 p. Audience: General/trade. NF/NF Stated first edition with complete number line. read more
Description: New. A Brand New Copy. Never Read. Buy with confidence from an Independent Bookstore where the owners, a husband and wife team, have over 30 years of combined bookselling experience. read more
Description: Very Good. Paperback ARC book with plain cover and publisher stickers. Save some $$$. Perfectly Good Reading Copy. Shelfwear from storage in box with other books. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743582315ISBN:0743582314
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Center Point Pub
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781602855588ISBN:1602855587
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atria
Date Published: 7/14/2009
ISBN-13:9780743294294ISBN:0743294297
Description: Fine. 0743294297 1ST PRINT. Looks like new. Clean text. SATISF GNTD + SHIPS W/IN 24 HRS. Sorry, no APO deliveries. Ships in a padded envelope with free tracking. 61, 630. read more
Description: New. 0743294297 NEW-Great condition. Pages are clean and white, spine has no cracks, cover is excellent, no dog ears or page marks. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Date Published: 01/01/2010
ISBN-13:9781847370211ISBN:1847370217
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
"This book was billed as heart-break betrayal, small town scandalous, funny, Thelma-Louise Style adventures. I just want to know what book these individuals read because it certainly wasn't this one. The storyline was beyond stupid, Addie fat girl odd ball loses weight reunites with former best friend Fox News Weather girl Valerie who abandoned her after Addie told her parents that Valerie was raped by Dan the Jock who everyone including Addie had a crush on. Valerie seeks revenge on Dan at her High School Reunion making him strip down to take nude picture of him ( (really does this seem appropriate way to deal with someone who raped you it wasn't like a high school prank that some boy pulled on you by snapping your bra and stealing your panties from your gym locker) then almost kills him with her car. This leads to more stupidity including police investigation w/ Jordan the fame divorced cop who falls asleep jerking off to children's show host who falls in love with formerly fat Addie, botched "bank robbery" where women actually withdraw money from Addie's account, a visit to the Florida Keys and Addie's being pregnant by her 50ish Indian boyfriend/swim partner who is actually married and never ever had any attentions of leaving his wife of 20 some odd years. These are all run on sentences but represents clearly the ridiculousness of this story. Just a Run on hot mess."
"I looked forward to Jennifer Weiner's latest novel, Best Friends Forever: A Novel. I've enjoyed her previous books and I naively thought I'd like anything she writes. I was wrong.
The book's structure is nothing short of awkward. Weiner tells the story from a few characters' points of view, but there is nothing signifying the change except for a new chapter number. But, a new chapter doesn't always signify a new point of view. I had to backtrack several times to get my bearings on where I was in the story and it jolted me out of the novel's flow.
Addie Downs, the main character, is a giant cliche, pun intended. Did her last name really have to be Downs? As in Downs Syndrome? Very creative taunt for her high school classmates to chant... I was hoping for something more original. Why did both of her parents have to die and her brother be in assisted living all before she hit 20? Too tragic, even for chick lit.
Addie's best friend Val. Where do I begin? I couldn't help but think that she had a severe mental imbalance and needed treatment. I didn't think it was funny to have a comedic relief character who furthered the plot into a mess of implausibility to also suffer from a mental disease or defect. I found it mildly insulting for those out there who do suffer from a mental disorder.
Dan Swansea. I doubt that his encounter with Val and Holy Merry would transform him into a respectable and decent human being who knows right from wrong, even with the flashback to the defining moment in Dan's relationship with his mother where she tells him that she's given up on him. (really? Holy Merry? Again... where is the originality? I understand that the author has creative license in character naming, but setting up your characters' names to perpetuate the stereotypes you are having them play is just a little too much for me.)
Police Chief Jordan. Now there's a winner. Masturbating to a children's show at night and saving the suburbs by day! And what was the deal with that Key West trip? Police work at its worst... It was incredibly unbelievable.
Needless to say, I couldn't believe (not even for a second) that this story was plausible. Unfortunately for me, it read like a train wreck and I just couldn't look away. At least I can move onto something with more substance now."
"Highly enjoyable chicklit. Maureen Corrigan said the only thing chicklit about this was the title, but I can't really agree with that. This is the story of Addie, who grows up with a loving family but all suffer terrible health issues, and as an adult she is left to manage. As a young woman, she becomes horribly obese, developing an eating disorder to cope. But by the time we meet her, she has came to grips and lost the weight. Still, she works as an illustrator from her childhood home, which she has beautifully remodeled, and doesn't get out much. The action starts when her best childhood friend, who betrayed Addie and has been estranged ever since, shows up after their high school reunion, saying she thinks she killed the misogynist football quarterback who caused so many girls so much pain. That sets into action a road trip, and an investigation by a kindly police detective. By coincidence, while I was reading this, my daughter asked us to watch "Thelma & Louise" with her, and the parallels were striking. The novel does a nice job of rethinking childhood perceptions and misunderstandings about family and friends, so it definitely goes beyond chicklit. It's chicklit plus. I liked it a lot."
"Thirty-something Addie Downs lives in the home she grew up in, works from home, has no friends, no love life, and is tethered to her Chicago suburb by a dependant brother. Nonetheless, she remains hopeful about life. Her past is marked (and her present overshadowed) by a tragic event that happened during the fall of her senior year in high school when, betrayed by her best and only friend, she began retreating into a lonely world and bingeing on junk food late at night for comfort. Years later, having made over her body, her home, and her life, Addie returns from a disastrous date to find her long-estranged childhood best friend, the glamorous Valerie Adler, at her front door, bloodstained and shaken. Valerie asks for help, and the ties that bind the former friends prove stronger than Addie thought when she agrees to accompany Val on a type of manhunt, a bungled robbery, and a flight from the law.
The book bounces between points of views. It follows Addie most of the time (in first person) but breaks off to follow several secondary characters (in third person). Told largely through flashbacks, the story isn't linear, but the flashbacks are so smoothly integrated that they don't distract the reader from the narrative flow.
I really liked this book a lot, and I loved parts of it. I was slow to warm up to most of the characters, but the author really hits home for me with the character of the lonely police chief, Jordan Novick. When the story shifts to his point of view for the first time, I was totally entranced from almost the first sentence. A little bit pathetic, down-on-his-luck, and painfully human, Jordan is also intuitive and, as unlikely as it sounds, kind of mystical in a salt-of-the-earth, small-town way. His story is both realistic (his failed marriage and past stupidity) and surrealistic (his blind and dogged pursuit of Addie as both a suspect and a soul mate). I love the idea that he falls "in love at first sight" with Addie's house. I completely get it. There is a quality about him that is burned out and used up, yet also hopeful and earnest. He makes a captivating character, and his story is my favorite aspect of this book. That said, all the characters in this novel are extraordinarily well-developed. None of them is without flaw-on the contrary, this book's characters have more than their share of flaws. But they are all likeable. Even the most insidious character is likeable in a way when the author gives the reader a glimpse into his psyche.
In addition to Jordan's character, I love the humor and the dead-on descriptions of personalities, memories, and suburban life in the book, like the moms at the coffee shop, sensory memories of a childhood vacation, and the delicious descriptions of the colors, smells, taste, and feel of home. The writing in this book is not only good for chick-lit, but good for any literature. The plot is predictable in some ways, but in others was a total surprise. The characters seem real, the problems seem overwhelming, but from beginning to end this is a feel-good book. Reading it makes you want to make the most of yourself."
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