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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I read great reviews about this book and was looking forward to reading it, but I was very uncomfortable with the main character's struggle with alcohol and her denial of the problem. With each new page, I was afraid she may have caused harm to herself or someone else. Other than that aspect, I did enjoy the book and thought it was well written.
I love discovering new-to-me authors and that’s exactly what happened when I decided to read The Good House by Ann Leary. This book has been patiently waiting in my Libby app wishlist for so long I can’t remember how it got on my radar. Sometimes the amount of books waiting to be read on my bookshelves and devices can be overwhelming. In this instance, I let the universe decide my next audiobook by picking a random number, and the universe was extremely gracious to me with this book!
The Good House is set in a small community outside of Boston. Hildy Good is a well-respected, successful real estate agent who knows everyone and what’s happening in town. She’s divorced with two adult daughters, and one grandson. Her daughters organized an intervention because they perceived Hildy as drinking too much. We meet Hildy upon her return from rehab.
Hildy maintains a busy schedule with her business, babysitting her grandson weekly, and spending time with her two dogs. For the most part, her evenings are a bit lonely and being completely abstinent from alcohol isn’t that interesting for Hildy. She sells a house to a couple new to the area and becomes friends with the young wife, Rebecca. The two ladies begin spending time together sharing secrets and a little wine.
Commonly, addiction is progressive, and Hildy’s alcohol use isn’t the only thing in this community that escalates out of control. Many members of this community become apart of the story with their secrets and life struggles.
I was hooked on this story from the very beginning! Ann Leary’s writing is engaging and fascinating. She made me fall in love with her cast of characters, despite their flaws. The description of this book includes the phrase, “darkly comic,” which is perfectly accurate. There is a lot of humor in this story, along with some very seriously frightening, painful moments. As much as I didn’t want the story to end, the conclusion was beautiful.
As I previously mentioned, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library with the Libby app. The story is told from the perspective of Hildy Good and narration by actress Mary Beth Hurt was absolutely perfect!
The Good House has been made into a movie staring Sigourney Weaver as Hildy Good and Kevin Kline as Frank Getchell, Hildy’s love interest. I’ve included the trailer below for your convenience. (Please see the link below for my blog.) The movie looks fantastic! (I’m off to watch it now!
The Good House is set in a small community outside of Boston. Hildy Good is a well-respected, successful real estate agent who knows everyone and what’s happening in town. She’s divorced with two adult daughters, and one grandson. Her daughters organized an intervention because they perceived Hildy as drinking too much. We meet Hildy upon her return from rehab.
Hildy maintains a busy schedule with her business, babysitting her grandson weekly, and spending time with her two dogs. For the most part, her evenings are a bit lonely and being completely abstinent from alcohol isn’t that interesting for Hildy. She sells a house to a couple new to the area and becomes friends with the young wife, Rebecca. The two ladies begin spending time together sharing secrets and a little wine.
Commonly, addiction is progressive, and Hildy’s alcohol use isn’t the only thing in this community that escalates out of control. Many members of this community become apart of the story with their secrets and life struggles.
I was hooked on this story from the very beginning! Ann Leary’s writing is engaging and fascinating. She made me fall in love with her cast of characters, despite their flaws. The description of this book includes the phrase, “darkly comic,” which is perfectly accurate. There is a lot of humor in this story, along with some very seriously frightening, painful moments. As much as I didn’t want the story to end, the conclusion was beautiful.
As I previously mentioned, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library with the Libby app. The story is told from the perspective of Hildy Good and narration by actress Mary Beth Hurt was absolutely perfect!
The Good House has been made into a movie staring Sigourney Weaver as Hildy Good and Kevin Kline as Frank Getchell, Hildy’s love interest. I’ve included the trailer below for your convenience. (Please see the link below for my blog.) The movie looks fantastic! (I’m off to watch it now!
That was depressing. I thought I would like it because it takes place near Boston, but all the author did was name drop town names in each chapter. And the triggers. Boo to modermrsdarcy on this one.
3.5 stars. The audiobook was well done! The story itself was interesting but also quite sad. It doesn’t really seem like Hildy really learned who she is or healed from her past. She ended up being toxic to many of those around her. But overall an entertaining listen.
A fun read about a sassy older woman who doesn’t believe that she is an alcoholic despite her children performing an intervention. Makes you question the role alcohol plays in your social life.
If you are considering reading this book, I cannot recommend the audiobook more. Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy recommended it on her blog and I wouldn't have read or known about this book otherwise.
A great vacation read. I felt connected with Hildy and wanted to read more about her. The book ended leaving me wanting more.
Well. I just finished this one, and I"m still figuring out what I think about it. It starts very wry and funny, but it took quite a while for me to figure out where the book was headed. Hildy's clearly very misled about a lot of things, and lying about a lot more, and I'm just not sure how I feel about her or about the book's overall direction and message. I think I could have used a bit more development towards the end: the characters of Peter and Rebecca, not to mention Hildy herself, shifted a great deal, and I didn't really get a sense that Leary was sure how she wanted us to see them. A more deliberate and developed last quarter or so of the story would've helped. I loved Frankie, of course, and there were some great observations about small town life and real estate and such, but, overall, it didn't quite live up to its potential: too many plot lines and too much going on to be an excellent book. Close, though, and well worth listening to/reading!
Hildy drinks too much. She’s feisty, smart and observant. She’s an older female character who is three-dimensional. The book is about Hildy, her real estate business, her quaint New England town and what’s really going on underneath the surface of her neighbors’ lives.