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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
The Book That Matters Most follows recent divorcee Ava Tucker as she adjusts to her new normal. After twenty-five years, she finds out that her marriage is not as happy and fulfilled as she thought when her husband Jim lives her for yarn grafittist Delia Lindstrom. To fill the time, she joins her librarian friend's exclusive book club just in time to learn their topic for the following year: the book that matters most. Each member must choose the book that matters most to him or her and facilitate a discussion at one of their monthly meetings. Most of the members choose classics, like Pride and Prejudice or To Kill A Mockingbird, but Ava selects a book no one else has heard of. In fact, the deeper she and her group mates search for the book, the more perplexed they are. It doesn't seem to be anywhere. In Paris, Ava's daughter Maggie loses herself in a destructive relationship with an older man. Denying to herself and to others that she has a drug problem, she puts herself in danger again and again while sending chipper updates to her mother and brother--but not her father, whom she hasn't spoken to since he moved out. Ava and Maggie's stories are told in alternating persons as they move through the calendar year.
I'm always skeptical when approaching a book that is, like this one, clearly written for book-lovers. Will it be pandering? Cheesy? Superficial? Pair this with a genre like women's fiction, and I'm doubly nervous. Don't get me wrong, I love women's fiction--it's one of my favorite genres to read, and I write it myself, but sometimes books carrying the label take a wrong turn. As intrigued as I was by the thoughtful, emotional story description, I was worried this would become more of a shopping-and-shoes tale. There's nothing wrong with a good shopping-and-shoes book, but this premise seemed to promise something deeper. I could only hope it would deliver.
And deliver it did. Ann Hood's writing is phenomenal, and her storytelling even better. Initially I assumed each book the group selected to read was chosen by Hood at random, but I was delighted to see how well each selection worked with Ava and Maggie's stories month to month. I guessed one of the plot twists early on, but the rest were total surprises. I haven't been so surprised by a book in quite a while. The characters were well-developed, even those on the margins, and I was happy that it didn't turn into a full-blown romance when it easily could have. I enjoy romance, and there are elements of it here, but this story was so much bigger than that, and I'm glad Ms. Hood didn't succumb to what I'm sure was a temptation.
I've already recommended this book to a few friends and will continue to do so. This would be a perfect book to read over Christmas break, or any time you have the opportunity to curl up in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot tea. I can't wait to read more of what Ann Hood has to offer.
I received a complimentary copy from W. W. Norton & Company via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I'm always skeptical when approaching a book that is, like this one, clearly written for book-lovers. Will it be pandering? Cheesy? Superficial? Pair this with a genre like women's fiction, and I'm doubly nervous. Don't get me wrong, I love women's fiction--it's one of my favorite genres to read, and I write it myself, but sometimes books carrying the label take a wrong turn. As intrigued as I was by the thoughtful, emotional story description, I was worried this would become more of a shopping-and-shoes tale. There's nothing wrong with a good shopping-and-shoes book, but this premise seemed to promise something deeper. I could only hope it would deliver.
And deliver it did. Ann Hood's writing is phenomenal, and her storytelling even better. Initially I assumed each book the group selected to read was chosen by Hood at random, but I was delighted to see how well each selection worked with Ava and Maggie's stories month to month. I guessed one of the plot twists early on, but the rest were total surprises. I haven't been so surprised by a book in quite a while. The characters were well-developed, even those on the margins, and I was happy that it didn't turn into a full-blown romance when it easily could have. I enjoy romance, and there are elements of it here, but this story was so much bigger than that, and I'm glad Ms. Hood didn't succumb to what I'm sure was a temptation.
I've already recommended this book to a few friends and will continue to do so. This would be a perfect book to read over Christmas break, or any time you have the opportunity to curl up in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot tea. I can't wait to read more of what Ann Hood has to offer.
I received a complimentary copy from W. W. Norton & Company via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
3.5 very well written, predictable outcome. I really really really enjoyed the book discussion between club members, but did not enjoy detail of the drug use/depression.
3* but I'm being generous. I'm surprised this book has such high ratings. There was definitely some potential to the storyline, but this book really needed some help or editing or something. I liked the idea of a book club where each person chose "the book that mattered the most to them". But then all the various storylines got so convoluted, that they were really hard to swallow. I wasn't a huge fan, but I didn't hate it. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a friend.
I gave it 3 stars but would not recommend it for most of my friends. It was very contrived & the plot wasn't very original, plus I didn't connect well with any of the characters. I enjoyed the comments about the books that the book group chose during a year when the theme was the book that matters most. I found these reflections on the books insightful.
I really enjoyed this book. It was everything I expected, a fun novel with its own story lines going on, and discussions of literature interspersed throughout. The book makes me want to read (or reread) many of the novels the characters picked. I read it fast- it was pretty engaging for me!
Not quite what I was expecting, but still pretty good. Once I saw where it was going, I figured out the twist rather easily. I am looking forward to reading other book by this author.
Opening scene: yarn bombed marquee. Bombed by the woman who stole the primary character, Ava's husband.
To dig out of her humdrums, Ava joins a book club, a tight knit group hard to infiltrate unless happenstance voids a slot. Selecting books for the year, they theme them as "the book that mattered most". Ava's is an obscure novel she read repeatedly the year her sister and mother both died. She was but 12.
Sharing chapters with her wayward daughter, supposedly studying art in France, when all she really was doing was skirting a STD & liver damage until becoming a kept woman by a libidinous, married man who expresses her into a junkie.
Hank, a detective and foie illicite, also gets to speak his parts as they all twist into a tidy bow at the end. One, I might add, that tho it really held no surprises, was comforting to meet. I'm so glad Ava came out so strong, finally.
Ironically, tho not so much, this was our book club selection. I'm glad for that choice.
To dig out of her humdrums, Ava joins a book club, a tight knit group hard to infiltrate unless happenstance voids a slot. Selecting books for the year, they theme them as "the book that mattered most". Ava's is an obscure novel she read repeatedly the year her sister and mother both died. She was but 12.
Sharing chapters with her wayward daughter, supposedly studying art in France, when all she really was doing was skirting a STD & liver damage until becoming a kept woman by a libidinous, married man who expresses her into a junkie.
Hank, a detective and foie illicite, also gets to speak his parts as they all twist into a tidy bow at the end. One, I might add, that tho it really held no surprises, was comforting to meet. I'm so glad Ava came out so strong, finally.
Ironically, tho not so much, this was our book club selection. I'm glad for that choice.
A touching book of love, family, and relationships. The chapters on Maggie seem the most credible. The book group chapters feel a bit forced and cliched. Overall a great read. I recommend it.
Books discussed:
1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5) To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
6) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
7) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
8) The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
9) Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
10) As You Like It by William Shakespeare (not discussed at book group, discussed between Hank and Ava).
Books discussed:
1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5) To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
6) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
7) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
8) The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
9) Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
10) As You Like It by William Shakespeare (not discussed at book group, discussed between Hank and Ava).