false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180844249m/1083251.jpg 5190 23 <b>Oprah Book Club® Selection, August 2000:</b> The narrator of Elizabeth Berg's <I>Open House</I> calls divorce "a series of internal earthquakes ... one after the other." She ought to know. Samantha is abandoned by her husband in the opening pages of this three-handkerchief special, and the resultant tremors keep her off-balance for most of the novel. There are practical problems aplenty, of course, including a shortage of money and an 11-year-old son to raise. But Sam's sense of emotional bereavement is far worse, despite the fact that her husband had been giving her the conjugal cold shoulder for years: <blockquote> I miss David so much, yes I do, I miss the presence of another person in my bed at night, even if he doesn't touch me; the reliability of someone else being there in the morning, even if they only shave and stare straight ahead into the mirror while you lean against the bathroom doorjamb with your cup of coffee, chatting hopefully. </blockquote> The loneliness in her "as constant and as irrefutable" as circulating blood, Sam begins to rebuild her life. She finds herself a job and takes in a couple of boarders to help meet her mortgage payments. (One of them, a depressed student named Lavender Blue, informs her that "life was nothing but one major disappointment after the other"--the sort of homily that Sam is understandably reluctant to hear these days.) She also starts dating, with disastrous results. Yet this comically kvetching heroine does manage to find love in the ruins, and by the time <I>Open House</I> winds down, it's hard not to believe that she's much better off. Throughout, Berg alternates her snappy and sappy registers like a real pro. And the conclusion, which most readers will be able to spot a mile off, seems just right--the light at the end of the post-matrimonial tunnel. <I>--Anita Urquhart</I> 1070015 2000 Open House: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) total:4166|5:553|4:1409|3:1639|2:485|1:80| 4166 14368 5262 395 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 1 5 false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 15:41:29 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 15:43:16 -0700 2007
What do I care about a dumpy, depressed, middle-aged divorcee who spends her evenings reading Oprah book club selections and chowing down chocolate bars?

On the up-side, it made me feel thin and accomplished. ]]> 227442 0375506039 9780375506031 45 7 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172876626m/227442.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227442.Open_House 3 1 false Sat Dec 06 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jun 09 10:47:38 -0700 2008 Sun Dec 07 07:15:52 -0800 2008
At first, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked this one up. Berg described feelings and characters in such detail that I was eager to read more of her work. I really felt for Sam, the main character, and I loved...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 1 1 false Tue Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 10:12:08 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 10 08:53:00 -0700 2008
Although I hate to love, and love to hate on Oprah and her book club books, they usually are pretty decent. Oprah needs to fire who ever rea...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 0 0 false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 09 22:01:35 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 22:10:12 -0700 2009
Everything is there, in science. Even human emotions, I mean. It's as though they're represented by certain universal laws.

[Naked stars:] are stars with most of their gaseous atmospheres stripped away. And you know why they're revealed like that? Because of close en...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 4 0 false Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 11:28:23 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 11:35:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 2 0 false Thu May 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 18:03:16 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 18:09:16 -0700 2009 This follows a similar pattern (or I guess a Year of Pleasures follows a similar pattern to this) with a w...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 3 0 true Thu Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 08:57:27 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 12:12:39 -0800 2009
However, I did not buy this story ... for two reasons.
. So Sam's next true lo...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 3 0 false Fri Mar 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 20:31:49 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 20:48:01 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 4 2 false Fri Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 16:30:49 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 16:39:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 3 0 false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 12:51:10 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 10:19:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 4 0 false Wed Oct 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 08:41:28 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 09:01:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 2 0 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri May 08 19:07:11 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 19:45:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1083250 1565114663 9781565114661 4 1 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180844248m/1083250.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1083250.Open_House 3 0 false Fri May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Wed Aug 05 08:57:42 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 08:58:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 4 0 false Sun Nov 09 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Thu Mar 19 19:06:09 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 04:28:15 -0700 2009
So many characters in this novel, Sam, David, Veronica, Travis, King, Rita, Lydia, Thomas etc. This story was very well written and I'm in the process of searching for Berg's other books that I haven't yet...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 3 0 false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Fri Dec 05 12:11:52 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 12:12:11 -0800 2008
A story of growth, strength and humanity. Berg has a gift, it seems.


I'd read this a while back, but when I found this copy- I could no longer really remember the story- divorced woman finds self, is all I could com...more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 5 1 false Sat Jul 19 14:44:13 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 14:44:52 -0700 2008 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 4 0 false Tue Mar 03 13:01:15 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 16:15:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 1 0 false Fri Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 06:03:45 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 06:07:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 5 1 false Mon Aug 25 10:28:27 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 10:28:56 -0700 2008 5190 0345435168 9780345435163 4024 381 3.45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518190m/5190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5190.Open_House_A_Novel 3 0 false Fri Apr 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 09:03:14 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 07:50:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1083251