I just wish there were lots and lots more books by Laurie Frankel!!! She writes the entire story---looking at all the different possibilities in a situation and who can help but adore her narrator---in this case, Janey? Wonderful, wonderful book from the first page to the last. ( )

I loved so much about this book! I genuinely enjoyed the quirky characters and their unlikely friendship. I loved that with very little thought they came together to create their own little village. I liked the banter and even the arguing between the characters and that each had a bold enough personality to show through - even the more minor characters. But more than all that, I adored how others so readily accepted and even celebrated this unique portrait of family.

Beyond the plot and the characters, I found the story flowed very well and was easy to read. I’m quite shocked at the number of negative reviews but as Frankel wrote, “One way or another books tell the stories of their readers.” I liked what I read of my world, here. ( )

I loved so much about this book! I genuinely enjoyed the quirky characters and their unlikely friendship. I loved that with very little thought they came together to create their own little village. I liked the banter and even the arguing between the characters and that each had a bold enough personality to show through - even the more minor characters. But more than all that, I adored how others so readily accepted and even celebrated this unique portrait of family.

Beyond the plot and the characters, I found the story flowed very well and was easy to read. I’m quite shocked at the number of negative reviews but as Frankel wrote, “One way or another books tell the stories of their readers.” I liked what I read of my world, here. ( )

I went into this not really knowing what it was going to be about. I was not expecting this to take the turns it did. There are triggers for abortion and pregnancy.

This started off strong with finding a newborn baby at a shopping center. I thought this was going to be such a strong read, but once the story started it lost me. This deals with college age (master level) friends in which one ends up pregnant. There are trigger warnings around abortion discussions. This had everything I would normally love in a story, but I was just bored. I felt there was no movement or development within the characters to have me care about their story. I ended up DNF this one. ( )

I finished this yesterday and immediately recommended it to a friend. It's not that it was the absolute best book I've ever read, but it had moments of such insight, clarity, and humor, that it captured me. I think one of the things I enjoyed the most was that this patchwork family of three women who come together to help raise the baby one of them has are all English Lit grad students. The constant interplay of literature in their lives was like hot fudge on ice cream, certainly not necessary, but once added, turned that plain old scoop of frozen deliciousness into a sundae.

There were many, many moments that captured me. I blogged about one here and then just nodded in agreement with a number of others. The author has a knack of adding little touches that made the characters and the situation seem very real. (Like the story of the candlesticks that Janey's grandfather gave her grandmother. He brought them back for her from Paris, instead of the perfume most men bring their sweethearts, because he remembered how beautiful she looked in candlelight, and carried that image, and the candlesticks, until he could return to her. I'm betting that's a real story, from Frankel's own family lore, incorporated into the story, with love.) (And, for the record, Janey's grandmother is a fabulous character, reminding me so much of someone close to my own heart, that I'd swear Frankel and I were related, though we're not.)

Anyhow, this is a novel both literary, and lovely. Thank you Laurie Frankel. ( )