- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Viking (7 July 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670915874
- ISBN-13: 978-0670915873
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 810,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Wonder Spot
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Prodigiously talented, mordantly wry and wise, Bank offers... irresistible reading." --San Francisco Chronicle
"A five-course meal: loaded with pleasure." --Los Angeles Times
"Bank possesses a prodigious talent for snappy one-liners, and her self-deprecating anecdotes belie intelligence and sophistication." --The Washington Post
"Bittersweet, tremendously winning... enthralling and engaging." --Entertainment Weekly
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"A five-course meal: loaded with pleasure." --Los Angeles Times
"Bank possesses a prodigious talent for snappy one-liners, and her self-deprecating anecdotes belie intelligence and sophistication." --The Washington Post
"Bittersweet, tremendously winning... enthralling and engaging." --Entertainment Weekly
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
Meet Sophie Applebaum - as enchanting a heroine as Jane in The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing. Sophie is an outsider and an inventor of rules, simply because she does not fit into any neat description of who she might be: she's Jewish, but lacks religious feeling; a book-lover but a mediocre student; a loyal friend often unpleasantly surprised and a less-than-devoted employee. She falls in love precipitously but isn't sure whom she should marry - or if she wants to marry at all despite all the family pressures and social clamour on this subject. We follow the life cycle of her family, and we follow her to school, through college, to her first job with terrible typing skills, through to the realisation that work isn't fulfilment, that your parents aren't quite what you thought and that Mr. Right is sometimes only all right...Readers who loved The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing won't be disappointed; this is a sparkling, heartfelt, deeply explorative book characterized, as always, by Melissa Bank's light touch, signature humour, and her vast talent for capturing a moment, taking it to heart, and giving it back to her readers.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
YOU COULD TELL it was going to be a perfect beach day, maybe the best one all summer, maybe the last one of our vacation, and we were going to spend it at my cousin's bat mitzvah in Chappaqua, New York. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
YOU COULD TELL it was going to be a perfect beach day, maybe the best one all summer, maybe the last one of our vacation, and we were going to spend it at my cousin's bat mitzvah in Chappaqua, New York. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Melissa Bank writes touchingly, beautifully and - most of all - wittily. How could anyone not love the author of words such as: "These meetings always made me feel that the clocks had stopped and all beauty had gone from the world"? Her book would be worth reading for such sparkling nuggets alone. But there is much more to it than that: her style is impeccable, her characters three-dimensional and delicately observed, and Sophie Applebaum's wanderings through the world of potential husbands gently grip the reader's attention. My only criticism is that the book seems less like a novel than a series of short stories, hastily strung together, and even more hastily brought to a shuddering and very unsatisfactory halt with the last chapter (oh yes, that and the weird title ...). Nevertheless, this is great writing and does not deserve to be linked in any way with the chick lit genre. Thanks, Ms Bank.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Melissa Bank's second book -- a novel, a book of linked stories-may disappoint some fans of A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but as a writer she has gone far deeper in her new book, The Wonder Spot. The wit is still there, the graceful prose, the deep empathy one feels for the main character, Sophie Applebaum. But in The Wonder Spot Bank shows new depths and nuances and shadows. She doesn't hide from sadness or loneliness or failure with her lightning wit-and her canvas in The Wonder Spot is broader. She deals with death and religion; with issues of class and money; with even deeper themes of identity and appearance in conflict with character and integrity that is nearly Jamesian. She is strong and smart and funny, but she is also no longer afraid to be vulnerable. Second books-especially after huge first successes-are tough, but Melissa Bank has far exceeded even our most generous expectations. She has written an important and brilliant new book. But try it for yourself. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, a funny, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
this wonderful novel gave me a warm feeling all over! I just finished it on holiday and so had the benfit of reading it all almost in one go which always is a bonus. Sophie is such a well drawn character, her constant asides to the reader really struck a chord with me each time she made them, and they made me laugh outloud. I don't often feel moved to contact an author after I have finished reading a novel but in this case I wanted to send a mail immediately to Melissa Bank and tell her how much ejoyment she had afforded me. The story is excellent but for me its all about characterisation and this cast all felt completely real to me. Take a chance, buy it and you'll not be sorry.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
wonderful wonder
Recommended by a friend, I found it slightly slow on wits to start with. But a few chapters in, it really gets going and becomes marvellously funny and a delight all through to the... Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by Josephine Huys
What Drivel
I had to finish this book because I was hoping against hope all the way that it was going to get better. The only thing I gained was some insight into Jewish life. Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2009 by Gale Roberts
loved it
Very funny, with an engaging main character that you really end up rooting for, and well written. Loved the way it jumped from one era and boyfriend to the next. Read more
Published on 7 July 2007 by Kate Marble
Loved It
Don't be fooled by the pastel cover, this book deserves better. I really liked the sense of family in this book, the serious brother and the bitchy grandmother and the grounded... Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2007 by Mrs Jones
So many women will feel they could have written this book!
Ok this is not an unusual story in real life; girl dates a succession of totally incompatible men! But Melissa Bank is such a good writer. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2006 by S. A. Chandler
The Wonder Stuff
I'd like to give this book 3 1/2 stars if possible. It wasn't quite a four star, as I lost interest a little half way through. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2006 by Ms. C. J. Malcolmson
Hard to score
We join Sophie at age 12 and leave her at about 34, when she finally seems to have found the right man for her. Read more
Published on 19 July 2006 by L. Brakspear
Be prepared to want to read all day
The wonder spot is another great book from Melissa Bank. Sophie, the main character is interesting and witty, so much so that you're compelled to read on and on to find out more... Read more
Published on 5 July 2006 by Peg Phillips
Bank deepens and broadens her range
Melissa Bank's second book-a novel, a book of linked stories-may disappoint some fans of A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but as a writer she has gone far deeper in her new... Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2005 by Debra Ebberg
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