Aurelie SheehanRezensionen

Quick read. captured my imagination

Winona Bartlett is a wannabe film-maker living in New York City. Although she doesn't own a camera, she spends lots of time imagining her first film, to be called "The Anxiety of Everyday Objects," a plotless piece that will illustrate the ways in which we continually misperceive the world around us, for example when we misread a sign that says "Turn ahead" as "Turn ahead." Yet while Winona's artistic aspirations run to the philosophical and ponderous, her day-to-day life is, well, predictably boring. She works as a secretary in a small law firm where she obsessed about making coffee that is just the right strength for her boss, she lives alone with her cat Fruit Bat, she is bossed around by her self-centered older sister, and she dates a series of unsuitable men. Things start to change when her firm hires Sandy Spires, a mysterious, sophisticated blind lawyer to help with a lawsuit they're working on. Sandy shakes up the firm, but in the end, and frankly as any even somewhat astute reader could have guessed--Sandy turns out not to be who she seems, and the revelation of this leads to a series of events that set Winona on a much more promising course. The book ends with the kind of explain-it-all scene one sees in TV detective shows, as where Monk exclaims "Here's what happened."

Meh!

My favorite thing about the book was the title, but it was a sweet and easy read during a stressful week.

Story of two girls from wealthy Weston, Connecticut in 1976. Allison is 12, has scoliosis, wears a back brace 23 hours a day, and has just moved to Weston with her painter mom and poet/professor dad. Luckily she has her horse Jazz to keep her grounded. Kate is 12, rich, popular, and doesn't care much about anything except her horse Peach. The two girls find a connection in their love of riding, and become inseparable as girls often do. But Allison's back is not getting better, her parents start falling apart and doing stupid things--but Kate's family is much, much worse and the pain of it might just turn out to be too much to take. Well written, poignant, disturbing, and sad. A pretty great book.

I loved History Lesson for Girls; it was better than I expected. A very sad book. 4 out of 5 mysterious guys that randomly appear out of thin air right when something needs to be said.

A good story, though, I thought it starts a little slow.

This book was a breezy 6 or 7 hours to get through. It was amusing if not terribly insightful or absorbing. Fairly typical girl-novel where nothing very consequential happens, but all is made well in the end by getting of crushable boy. Had so many aspects reminiscent of the movie "Secretary" I am convinced the author of the screenplay lifted much of the stroyline from this book. I found this a little distracting, particularly because I enjoyed the movie far more.½

This didn't quite do it for me, though it did grow on me a bit as it went on. Standard chick-lit sort of fare, with single girls yearning for more and lawyers and moral conflicts and finding oneself. But the author's way of describing things sometimes irked me, seemed oddly pretentious, and I am not sure I would much like Winona if I met her in real life.

SO good. If you're a fan of 'My Summer of Love,' then read this.

I really liked this book. I think it might be good reading for a mature high school student. I wish the ending hadn't been so predictable; it reminded me in places of the movie "The Ice Storm." Otherwised, it was definitely a good read and I'm off to find more by the author.½

A very nice book about a girl with scoliosis and her friendship with another 13 year old daughter of a gury in a very disfunctional family. Lovely clear writing from her pov. Awful horrific events at the end.

A little shallower than History Lesson for Girls. About a secretary in a law firm and her various relationships. It got a lot better halfway through - she packs her endings a bit improbably though.