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1st out of 24 books
—
18 voters
Wife 22
For fans of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.
Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained.Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her.Maybe it was because af...more
Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained.Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her.Maybe it was because af...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
May 29th 2012
by Ballantine Books
(first published 2012)
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The title conjures images of polygamy, but this is very much a novel of modern monogamy. Along with traditional narration, the story unfolds in a series of Facebook and Twitter updates, text messages, e-mails, Google searches, and even playwriting scenes. This can be disorienting at times, but it effectively mimics the minute-by-minute, need-to-know lifestyle of the typical plugged-in American. For an atypical, mostly unplugged American like me, this was quite a revelation.
Alice Buckle is a war...more
I'm a sucker for good chick lit. Or women's fiction. Or domestic fiction. Whatever it's called these days.
This is the story of Alice Buckle. Alice signs up for a study about marriage in the 21st century and realizes she isn't as happy as she thought. Alice isn't perfect, her husband and kids aren't either, but this book is pretty close. The ending is fantastic with a bit of a twist I didn't expect. A great read for a summer day.
This is the story of Alice Buckle. Alice signs up for a study about marriage in the 21st century and realizes she isn't as happy as she thought. Alice isn't perfect, her husband and kids aren't either, but this book is pretty close. The ending is fantastic with a bit of a twist I didn't expect. A great read for a summer day.
CUTE. So cute.
I was looking for a light non-teen perfect-for-summer read and I decided to pick up Wife 22. I hadn't heard anything about it. UNFORTUNATE. I don't know how this book hasn't gotten more buzz. It's just the perfect choice for Chick Lit lovers.
One thing that surprised me about this light and sweet read is that it had a lot of depth. Do not confuse it for a mindless read. The characters were complex and each one was dealing with real, difficult, life-changing choices and handling the...more
I was looking for a light non-teen perfect-for-summer read and I decided to pick up Wife 22. I hadn't heard anything about it. UNFORTUNATE. I don't know how this book hasn't gotten more buzz. It's just the perfect choice for Chick Lit lovers.
One thing that surprised me about this light and sweet read is that it had a lot of depth. Do not confuse it for a mindless read. The characters were complex and each one was dealing with real, difficult, life-changing choices and handling the...more
Osobně bych dala 4 a půl hvězdičky, ale tady to nejde. :) Moc se mi to líbilo a bylo to příjené zpestření jindy sáhodlouhých popisných příběhů. Až moc reálné a typické pro 21. století.
Pohled do manželství v jednadvacátém století. Alice Buckleová se ocitá na prahu dvaceti let v manželství s mužem, který ji respektuje a ona respektuje jeho, ale najednou má pocit, jako by se z nich více než manželé stávali spolubydlící. Spolubydlící se dvěma dospívajícími dětmi, s problémy v práci a především v kom...more
Pohled do manželství v jednadvacátém století. Alice Buckleová se ocitá na prahu dvaceti let v manželství s mužem, který ji respektuje a ona respektuje jeho, ale najednou má pocit, jako by se z nich více než manželé stávali spolubydlící. Spolubydlící se dvěma dospívajícími dětmi, s problémy v práci a především v kom...more
I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. Thank goodness for a sick day!! I am Alice Buckle...minus the friends. :) I was hooked from the beginning. I related to Alice and needed to see where the journey took her, her husband and her family. Do they make it? Do they succumb and become another statistic? Do they beat the odds which in todays society are all too often stacked against us, or so it seems. Maybe it just speaks to those of us in the middle-aged doldrums of parenting and marriage but...more
Apr 23, 2013
Sindhu
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
All Women above 30
Recommended to Sindhu by:
Chance reading
Seriously funny – Wife 22
The title gives the impression that it’s going to be an intense and emotionally taxing story of a woman who shares a husband with 21 others. But, you are pleasantly surprised with a humorous story that scores on the universal issue of midlife crisis in married couples, mainly women, with rib-tickling ease.
All the fears and paranoia of a mother of adolescent children are so realistically and humorously portrayed, nothing profound though.
Among the many worries she has, Ali...more
The title gives the impression that it’s going to be an intense and emotionally taxing story of a woman who shares a husband with 21 others. But, you are pleasantly surprised with a humorous story that scores on the universal issue of midlife crisis in married couples, mainly women, with rib-tickling ease.
All the fears and paranoia of a mother of adolescent children are so realistically and humorously portrayed, nothing profound though.
Among the many worries she has, Ali...more
I ended up really enjoying this book. It was clever, fun, and creative. Some might call it chick lit, however, make no mistake, it is an intelligent read, with smart and realistic characters.
The first few pages seemed busy, crazy, and somewhat shallow. Maybe even a little frenetic. I almost put it down, but I'm so glad I didn't. It turned out to be a page turner!
Our main character is a busy, working wife, mother, friend, and teacher. She's smart, she's well-rounded, she's funny, and she's flawed...more
The first few pages seemed busy, crazy, and somewhat shallow. Maybe even a little frenetic. I almost put it down, but I'm so glad I didn't. It turned out to be a page turner!
Our main character is a busy, working wife, mother, friend, and teacher. She's smart, she's well-rounded, she's funny, and she's flawed...more
I don't know what I was expecting when I started this novel (perhaps light chick lit?), but what I got was a story that resonated with me. As I and my husband enter our 16th year together (nearly 10 of which we've been married), I felt I could really identify with some of the feelings Alice, the protagonist, was experiencing after 20 years with her husband.
The book is about a woman, firmly ensconced in her life as a wife and mother, who will soon be left solely with the relationship she has with...more
The book is about a woman, firmly ensconced in her life as a wife and mother, who will soon be left solely with the relationship she has with...more
Alice, a wife who was suddenly lost in herself, questioning her marriage, concerns over her son's sexual preference and dealing with her physical changes appeared to have gotten a little to comfortable in her life and maybe a bit lost…as many of us are guilty of.
I was totally nervous to read this book when I first picked it up. I had read a lot of reviews and being close to her age, I somehow wondered what it would be like to be in Alice's (Wife 22's) shoes…what were the problems in her life, h...more
I was totally nervous to read this book when I first picked it up. I had read a lot of reviews and being close to her age, I somehow wondered what it would be like to be in Alice's (Wife 22's) shoes…what were the problems in her life, h...more
I liked this book very much. Although I'm younger than Alice, I could relate to her problems and her worries. Especially the way her constant worrying over her children is described was hilarious at some points and I often found myself laughing out loud! The way the new social media types like twitter and Facebook are built into the book also seems natural and extremely funny. The best parts for me, however, where the 'potlucks', gatherings Alice and William had with two other couples. The dialo...more
This is a charming offering of chick lit, kind of like a "Bridget Jones grows up" story if you can imagine a middle aged Bridget coping with the natural decline of passion in a marriage lasting over twenty years. Alice Buckle is a playwright and drama teacher about to reach her turning point year of 45, the age her mother was when she passed away, and as a result, Alice is reevaluating her once solid marriage. She is approached via email by a marriage researcher who encourages her to participate...more
While reading Wife 22 I engaged in simultaneous duty-shirking and exaggerated eye-rolling. I certainly had better things to do, yet I couldn’t put the silly thing down. The perfect formula for a rainy Saturday afternoon read, in my opinion.
Wife 22, otherwise known as Alice Buckle, is engaged in an on-line survey about marriage. In answering the questions, Alice realizes that she is bored and possible unhappy in her marriage to William. She eventually engages in communication with Researcher 101...more
Wife 22, otherwise known as Alice Buckle, is engaged in an on-line survey about marriage. In answering the questions, Alice realizes that she is bored and possible unhappy in her marriage to William. She eventually engages in communication with Researcher 101...more
Alice Buckle is a forty-something mother of two who feels her children do not need her as much, her husband is a little boring, her job is frustrating and not what she envisioned herself doing and all her friend’s lives seem so much more exciting than her own. At a cocktail party at her husband’s work she overhears his colleagues discussing a little competition they have going on … who has the most hits when they Google their own names. She goes home that evening and tries it – nothing! Feeling...more
Loved Wife 22. Went into it with a little trepidation, just sounded a little...boring? Not sure why I got that impression.
When you see the title without looking more you will think it's another polygamy fiction book (or at least I did), much like the 19th Wife. It's not though. The protagonist in it is a definitely monogamous woman, married with 2 kids.
The reason I ADORED this, wasn't necessarily because I adored Alice Buckle the main character (I liked her but didn't adore her), but the autho...more
When you see the title without looking more you will think it's another polygamy fiction book (or at least I did), much like the 19th Wife. It's not though. The protagonist in it is a definitely monogamous woman, married with 2 kids.
The reason I ADORED this, wasn't necessarily because I adored Alice Buckle the main character (I liked her but didn't adore her), but the autho...more
This is a great book. All about looking for something that you finally realize you have had all along. Alice has reached the stage where her kids are growing up and she's married to a man that she isn't sure she wants to be married to any more. The spark has gone out, she can't remember why she fell in love with her husband. She becomes involved in an unexpected online "relationship" and in doing so she remembers a lot of details about the earlier years of her relationship with William and has a...more
What a great, light, enjoyable book! I had compiled a large list of books to read over the past few months--so many that by the time I actually received a book from the library, I usually could not remember why I put it on my list in the first place. I have been disappointed frequently--sorry, Overseas--by some of the books on that list, but Wife 22 is not one of them. The main character is Alice Buckle, a part-time drama teacher in an elementary school. Alice's husband William has lost his job...more
Alice Buckle, wife, mother of 2, elementary school drama teacher, signs up to participate in a survey about marriage. As the survey goes on, she begins to question her marriage, her husband, and her life. Gideon uses the survey questions, along with Facebook statuses, texts, scenes from a play Alice may or may not be writing, along with traditional prose to tell Alice's story. Alice comes across as an older, married, American version of Bridget Jones, and the book was equally appealing to me; fu...more
Very quick read. I liked how the author used emails, text messages and Facebook statuses to progress the story. It was like following someone through their Facebook statuses (which I embarrassingly do). The main character, Alice, is an almost 45 year old woman who is coming to her tipping year. Her mother died when she was young (45) and now she is coming to the point her mother never made past. She begins to take a survey about marriage in the 21st century. It starts to make her question her re...more
While the title, Wife 22, initially had me afraid the book was about polygamy, it is actually the story of a modern mid-life (non-polygamous) marriage. I started out listening to it as an audio book, however, this is one of those books that really doesn't work in an audio format as a good portion of the action is carried forward in Google search results, e-mails, and Facebook statutes, comments, and chats. As the narrator reads reads the to/from/date/time header each time it becomes tedious. So...more
This novel is about a women caught in mid-life and marriage boredom, who starts filling out an online marriage survey. First of all, I would advise anyone who has a Kindle/eBook reader NOT to buy this book because it doesn't show you the survey questions as the book goes along-- only her answers to the questions, most of which are entirely useless without context. If you have a hard copy of the book you can bookmark the survey and flip back to it each time she answers a question (but even that i...more
Picking this book up , I wasn't sure what to expect but as I plodded along with it , the end result was that I loved It :). Told in a series of different formats from emails , to facebook entries , to diary entries, twitter etc. Wife 22 is the ideal read for anyone who is up to the play with Social Media applications. The novel starts off with Alice Buckle joining a marriage in the 21st Century research programme and has been given the identification number of Wife #22 by the researcher who is k...more
Aug 23, 2012
Lisa Beaulieu
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People who don't mind putting down a book to bang their head against a table from time to time.
So cute! So clever! So nauseating!
She spends too much time online. Can she reconnect with her husband? Can she recover her creative spark and become the playwright she once wanted to be? What about her children? Is her son gay - not that there's anything wrong with that! - her best friend is a hip lesbian. Is her daughter bulimic, or is it something much more ridiculous and twee? Oh the handwringing! And look, here comes another man ... who likes pina coladas. But does he like getting caught in...more
She spends too much time online. Can she reconnect with her husband? Can she recover her creative spark and become the playwright she once wanted to be? What about her children? Is her son gay - not that there's anything wrong with that! - her best friend is a hip lesbian. Is her daughter bulimic, or is it something much more ridiculous and twee? Oh the handwringing! And look, here comes another man ... who likes pina coladas. But does he like getting caught in...more
3 1/2 stars.
This book is not about polygamy. Just so you know. :)
It is about a woman in her mid-forties struggling with a distant husband, a boring marriage, money troubles,etc. She begins filling out a marriage survey she received via email and finds herself confessing more than expected about her life and family to "Researcher 101" (the man assigned to read and interpret her responses).
The book is very current, with references to people and media that are around us today. It feels genuine and...more
This book is not about polygamy. Just so you know. :)
It is about a woman in her mid-forties struggling with a distant husband, a boring marriage, money troubles,etc. She begins filling out a marriage survey she received via email and finds herself confessing more than expected about her life and family to "Researcher 101" (the man assigned to read and interpret her responses).
The book is very current, with references to people and media that are around us today. It feels genuine and...more
I LOVED this book.
I read it in two sittings (it would have been one, but I had to sleep...my eyes made me...but as soon as I woke up I started reading again.)
The story is about a woman, who feels trapped in an unhappy marriage. She's not miserable, but often finds herself looking at her husband and wondering when she stopped knowing who he was. One day she finds an invitation in her e-mail inbox to participate in an online anonymous survey about her marriage. In a spur of the moment decision, s...more
I read it in two sittings (it would have been one, but I had to sleep...my eyes made me...but as soon as I woke up I started reading again.)
The story is about a woman, who feels trapped in an unhappy marriage. She's not miserable, but often finds herself looking at her husband and wondering when she stopped knowing who he was. One day she finds an invitation in her e-mail inbox to participate in an online anonymous survey about her marriage. In a spur of the moment decision, s...more
A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about the newish genre of “women’s fiction.” What exactly is it? How do you define it? I’m not a reader of this genre for the most part so this was a mostly intellectual discussion. But this weekend I read Wife 22 and I am confident now that even if I don’t really understand it, I will know women’s fiction when I see it. Why? Because I can measure a book up against this one and see how many points match. Female narrator? Check. Focus on family issues?...more
Alice Buckle is in turmoil as her 45th birthday approaches. Her own mother died at age 45, Alice’s relationship to her husband, William, has become distant, she worries that her daughter has an eating disorder and suspects that her son is gay and in denial. When she receives an email asking her to participate in a marriage survey, she does so without telling anyone (becoming “Wife 22”). Complications arise as she pursues an increasingly personal email correspondence with “Researcher 101.”
What I...more
What I...more
Very quick read. I liked how the author used emails, text messages and Facebook statuses to progress the story. It was like following someone through their Facebook statuses (which I embarrassingly do). The main character, Alice, is an almost 45 year old woman who is coming to her tipping year. Her mother died when she was young (45) and now she is coming to the point her mother never made past. She begins to take a survey about marriage in the 21st century. It starts to make her question her re...more
Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes
Wife 22is like a grown up Bridget Jones’s Diary but the difference is that it isn't quite all giggles. A novel about love, marriage, and family and how modern communication affects it all, Wife 22 is cute, fun, funny and easy read. With just as many insecure antics as Bridget, Alice is about to mark the anniversary of her mother's death. But this year is different, this year Alice is surpassing the age her mother had lived to which deeply unsettles her.
We me...more
Wife 22is like a grown up Bridget Jones’s Diary but the difference is that it isn't quite all giggles. A novel about love, marriage, and family and how modern communication affects it all, Wife 22 is cute, fun, funny and easy read. With just as many insecure antics as Bridget, Alice is about to mark the anniversary of her mother's death. But this year is different, this year Alice is surpassing the age her mother had lived to which deeply unsettles her.
We me...more
Four and half really. I read it in a day!
This is a great find, and it is told in such a modern-inventive way. It is told through google searches, through emails, through facebook newsfeeds and status updates, brief bursts of script writing (as Alice is a playwright this makes total sense) and of course through the survey questions about marriage.
*Note the questions are listed in the back of the book in an appendix. I forgot about this and was annoyed that the questions weren't just listed norma...more
This is a great find, and it is told in such a modern-inventive way. It is told through google searches, through emails, through facebook newsfeeds and status updates, brief bursts of script writing (as Alice is a playwright this makes total sense) and of course through the survey questions about marriage.
*Note the questions are listed in the back of the book in an appendix. I forgot about this and was annoyed that the questions weren't just listed norma...more
A novel about Alice Buckle, a failed playwright now teaching drama to 3rd graders, whose looming 45th birthday, anniversary of her mother's death, and 20th wedding anniversary throw her into a midlife crisis, so she takes part in a marriage survey and ends up having an emotional, online affair with the researcher. Since the affair takes place via email and Facebook, much of the book is also written in the style of emails, Facebook posts, chats, texts, tweets, and Google searches—which was gimmic...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Received a free copy? | 8 | 75 | Apr 10, 2013 09:43am | |
| Gwinnett County P...: Wife 22 | 1 | 12 | Feb 25, 2013 02:01pm | |
| Book Giveaways: 22 Copies of Wife 22 to Give Away! | 2 | 29 | Apr 06, 2012 01:26am |
Melanie Gideon is the author of the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, an NPR and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2009, and a New York Times bestseller, as well as three young adult novels. Her latest novel, Wife 22, will be translated into 26 languages and is currently in development with Working Title Films. She has written for the New York Times, the San Francisc...more
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“For the first half of your life each minute feels like a year, but for the second half, each year feels like a minute.”
—
31 people liked it
“What was unspoken between us, what need never be explained or said, was that nobody would ever love us again like our mothers did. Yes, we would be loved, by our fathers, our friends, our siblings, our aunts and uncles and grandparents and spouses--and our children if we chose to have them--but never would we experience that kind of unconditional, nothing-you-can-do-will-turn-me-away-from-you kind of mother love.”
—
17 people liked it
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Apr 26, 2012 12:09pm
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