- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Hutchinson; First Edition First Printing edition (7 April 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0091799902
- ISBN-13: 978-0091799908
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,800,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Elizabeth Berg
"The day you open this book you will miss all your appointments, because . . . you will read it straight through. . . . Berg's writing is to literature what Chopin's etudes are to music-measured, delicate, and impossible to walk away from until their completion."
-Entertainment Weekly, about "Range of Motion"
"Lyrical from start to finish . . . Shaped by Berg's artistic talents, these stories of ordinary people in ordinary situations are anything "but" ordinary."
--Fort Worth Star-Telegram," "about "Ordinary Life"
"Truth rings forth clearly from every page. Berg captures the way women think-and especially the way they talk to other women-as well as any writer I can think of."
-The Charlottesville Observer,"" about "Talk Before Sleep
"
"Berg's lovely novels examine how some families grasp blindly at the ties that hold them together and some pluck them apart. "Mending" is no exception."
-Entertainment Weekly, about "The Art of Mending"
"Elizabeth Berg is one of those rare souls who can play with truths as if swinging across the void from one trapeze to another."
-Joan Gould, about "Talk Before Sleep
"
"The day you open this book you will miss all your appointments, because . . . you will read it straight through. . . . Berg's writing is to literature what Chopin's etudes are to music-measured, delicate, and impossible to walk away from until their completion."
-Entertainment Weekly, about "Range of Motion"
"Lyrical from start to finish . . . Shaped by Berg's artistic talents, these stories of ordinary people in ordinary situations are anything "but" ordinary."
--Fort Worth Star-Telegram," "about "Ordinary Life"
"Truth rings forth clearly from every page. Berg captures the way women think-and especially the way they talk to other women-as well as any writer I can think of."
-The Charlottesville Observer,"" about "Talk Before Sleep
"
"Berg's lovely novels examine how some families grasp blindly at the ties that hold them together and some pluck them apart. "Mending" is no exception."
-Entertainment Weekly, about "The Art of Mending"
"Elizabeth Berg is one of those rare souls who can play with truths as if swinging across the void from one trapeze to another."
-Joan Gould, about "Talk Before Sleep
"
"From the Hardcover edition." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
'What a lovely writer. Clever, compassionate and superbly skilled, she writes about her characters so poignantly and perceptively that few can match her.' Elizabeth Buchan, bestselling author of Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to say, I had my reservations about this book. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but when I picked it up at the library the style seemed to be aimed at more mature women (I'm 22), and I worried that I didn't have enough life experience to fully appreciate a book about a woman who has lost her husband of many years to cancer.
I needn't have worried. I became thoroughly absorbed in the story of Betta Nolan, a woman in her fifties, recently bereaved and trying to follow her husband's last wishes for the direction her life should go after his death. The reader first meets her driving through the American countryside. She and John had dreamed of packing up their lives and driving randomly until they came across a nice town where they could start a new life. Now Betta is taking up the challenge on her own, both as a distraction from her grief and to honour her promise to live her life to the full.
The story meanders through her unhappiness, her bravery, and her faltering steps as a single woman in a new place. She meets new people, catches up with old friends, and nurtures her lifelong dream to open a beautiful shop called 'What A Woman Wants', full of vintage treasures and comforting femininity. She reaches out to young people and old people alike, takes risks, and reaps the rewards. Slowly grief begins to give way to hope and the whispers of a happy future, with wonderful memories instead of painful regret.
I think this story has something for everyone - it is full of wisdom and humour, it has a mixed bunch of characters to appeal to different readers, and anyone who has ever lost anyone can relate to Betta's journey, whether they have been bereaved after thirty years or broken up with a boyfriend after a few months. Ultimately it is a novel about simple pleasures, counting blessings, taking chances and making the most of every precious day - and that's something we could all do with being reminded of every once in a while. I might just read more of Elizabeth Berg's work now...
I needn't have worried. I became thoroughly absorbed in the story of Betta Nolan, a woman in her fifties, recently bereaved and trying to follow her husband's last wishes for the direction her life should go after his death. The reader first meets her driving through the American countryside. She and John had dreamed of packing up their lives and driving randomly until they came across a nice town where they could start a new life. Now Betta is taking up the challenge on her own, both as a distraction from her grief and to honour her promise to live her life to the full.
The story meanders through her unhappiness, her bravery, and her faltering steps as a single woman in a new place. She meets new people, catches up with old friends, and nurtures her lifelong dream to open a beautiful shop called 'What A Woman Wants', full of vintage treasures and comforting femininity. She reaches out to young people and old people alike, takes risks, and reaps the rewards. Slowly grief begins to give way to hope and the whispers of a happy future, with wonderful memories instead of painful regret.
I think this story has something for everyone - it is full of wisdom and humour, it has a mixed bunch of characters to appeal to different readers, and anyone who has ever lost anyone can relate to Betta's journey, whether they have been bereaved after thirty years or broken up with a boyfriend after a few months. Ultimately it is a novel about simple pleasures, counting blessings, taking chances and making the most of every precious day - and that's something we could all do with being reminded of every once in a while. I might just read more of Elizabeth Berg's work now...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thoroughly enjoyed this book.....it was the first I have read by this author and you will not be disappointed.. It's about a woman whose husband dies at a relatively young age - early 50's and her coming to terms with it. She takes a different approach to this than most people would. She and her husband were so close they never needed anyone else, when he dies she finds she is completely on her own.
Format:Hardcover
There is something really comforting about this book and in they way that the author has written this. I know its about death and new beginnings which is emotional, but its also like putting on your favourite snuggly clothes. I really like the way Elizabeth Berg describes the ordinariness of life in such a sumptuous way. I think I could read this book more than once and that I'd feel satisfied every time I read it. The characters and situations are so real and easy to like and get involved with. Perfect really.
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