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Sep 22, 2010

Marie rated it:

I really, really wanted to like this book. It had a great plot and premise. Annie Freeman dies of cancer, and before she dies she arranges a "traveling funeral" for her closest friends. She sends them airline tickets, rental car vouchers, and credit cards to take a journey around the country to places that gave her life meaning. In theory, it was a wonderful setting for a meaningful story about women's friendships and the journey of grief and life. I would give the idea three or four s More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

Kathleen rated it:

I started out with high hopes for this book, but it turned out a little anticlimactic for me. What a brilliant thought - a traveling funeral, sort of like the movie "Elizabethtown", but with 5 older female characters in the title role. But the author really litters the plot with flowery prose on the meaning of life and how people grieve for the dead in so many different ways, and that there's not a wrong way to do it.

By the end chapters, I sort of wanted to skip to the end More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2010

Angela2932 rated it:

The Beautiful Ms. Bonnie (my very old dog) felt compelled to review this book and warn all potential readers to avoid it! She borrowed the book from me, as I was reading it for my book club, and then she did me the splendid favor of throwing it in the trash. Bonnie said that I should not even donate it to a thrift store as it would be almost criminal to inflict this drivel on someone else.

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish LOOKED like it would be a funny and woma More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2008

Heather is currently reading it

I have to say, I'm disappointed with this book so far. The writing is so flowery (not the right word) that it gets in the way of a potentially great story.

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2009

Jackie added it

The concept of a traveling funeral is fascinating! Especially as the pallbearers are women friends of the one that is being honored. I can't imagine spending 9 days with 4-5 other women I don't really know, but that we would in the beginning all have in common one dear friend.

Things I pocketed from the book include a roving funeral book for them to write their thoughts in; some of the feelings that are described in which I can relate with; I pondered on what I want to leave behind More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Kathleen added it

Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral, by Kris Radish. Narrated by Linda Stevens. Produced by Recorded Books and purchased through Audible.com.

This book is one of those delightful books which, I suppose might be called chick lit. Annie Freeman had four very dear friends from different phases of her life. Then while she was dying she became close to her hospice nurse as well. So, she left a letter with one of the women, Katherine, in which she had arranged plans for after he More...

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Nov 30, 2008

Tara rated it:

In my sophomore English class there was a girl named Pamela Salter who really didn't like to read, or analyze her reading, or something. When we had independent reading assignments, she would always pick the most insipid novels she possibly could find that met the page number requirements, and read those. It became a running joke, the teacher would ask what this month's "Pammy Book" was. Occasionally she would pick up something I had read, and I felt a sort of mortification, because ma More...

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Jan 20, 2012

Aaron rated it:

I had to read this for a book club I was hosting a few years ago. Being a man (apparently the author thinks that this is a huge disadvantage), I knew that I would be a little out of my element, but I volunteered to head up said club and vowed to give every book an honest, earnest chance. That being said...I absolutely hated this book.
The vast majority of this novel is spent granting 'magical' status to anything and everything in the known universe. The male characters might as well be card More...

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Aug 23, 2011

Holly rated it:

I'm not even sure where to shelve this book. Chick- lit? Duds? I need a new shelf- meh.I really, really wanted to like this book. It had a great plot and premise. Annie Freeman dies of cancer, and before she dies she arranges a "traveling funeral" for her closest friends. None of whom knew each other, by the way.She sends them airline tickets, rental car vouchers, and credit cards to take a journey around the country to places that gave her life meaning. Sounds good doesn't it? It was More...

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Jul 27, 2011

Kristal added it

I'm lucky to have not yet lost anyone really dear to me, so the grieving issues didn't really hit home for me. I'm also quite happy with my life, not feeling trapped in any part of it, so those themes also didn't resonate as much with me as they would with some. I DO have some wonderfully long female friendships and you can't help but imagine a traveling funeral for yourself or one of your friends as you read this book. I doubt that it would go the same way for me, though, because there's almost More...

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Jun 04, 2010

Ruth rated it:

352 pages. Donated 2010-01.

Katherine, Laura, Rebecca, Jill and Marie scatter Annie's ashes across the country, discovering themselves as they go.

For Katherine Givens and the four women about to become her best friends, the adventure begins with a UPS package. Inside is a pair of red sneakers filled with ashes and a note that will forever change their lives. Katherine’s oldest and dearest friend, the irrepressible Annie Freeman, left one final request–a traveling funeral–a More...

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Mar 23, 2010

bookczuk rated it:

Recommended with hesitancy by harper415sc, who I think was worried that the death and funeral aspect would be to much for me. But when the story has things like a character clad in hiking shorts, a T-shirt that says, Why eat when you can read? a baseball hat and a pair of red, high-topped sneakers, I figured I'd keep reading. After all, I am travelling the path of the memory of Bumma's Marvelous Life Journey. Two memorials, (one at a Jazz festival and one at the beach) and the sharing of memo More...

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Aug 10, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

This book explores the relationships between woman and the important roles they play in each other's lives. Annie Freeman dies after a battle with cancer. Instead of a traditional funeral, she wishes to have her ashes spread by 5 of her dearest friends. The only catch is that these woman have never formally met. Each has played an important part in Annie's life at very different stages of her life. The funeral is to take 1 week and cover 5 different locations in the United States. Annie has More...

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Aug 16, 2010

Sunkissd1 rated it:

The quote stating that Thelma & Louise should move over was a promise unkept. The author played it safe with the story when she really could've made it something spectacular. I am a Leukemia survivor and liked the overall idea about a dear friend passing and her planning a pre-paid traveling funeral for her friends, taking them to places she'd been and to discover secrets and answers to questions about her past. There's so much promise in that storyline.

I would love for someone to r More...

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Feb 09, 2009

Linda rated it:

I would never have picked up this book in a million years - not from a library shelf and certainly not a bookstore shelf. Circumstances being what they are I stayed with a friend and she gave me a some books to take home with me - even then I skimmed it and shoved it to the bottom of the stack; however my friend said it was her favorite and I trust her judgement so I thought, "Why not?" Why not indeed. So far I'm enjoying it immensely ...

... and I did enjoy the first par More...

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Aug 30, 2010

Sally rated it:

Rarely do I review a book but this one ticked me off so much I can hardly stand it!!!
I gave the book one star because I think the premise was great. The execution left much to be desired.
Here are a few of the troubling highlights.
Just because five women are grieving does not mean they all burst into tears simultaneously throughout their travels.
If five women are drinking together and someone buys them a round of drinks, (on two separate occasions) surely one of them is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2007

Diane rated it:

When I finished this book I felt fulfilled, satisfied, contemplative and slightly giddy. Also, desireous of a traveling funeral (many years from now). While reading it, I laughed a lot, cried more than once, saw myself, my sisters and my friends in many of the traveling moments. The opening description of how a seemingly small incident (the disintegration of a favorite and dependable undergarment) can be the last straw was a hoot.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2010

Ida rated it:

Basically, a woman dies, leaving postmortem instructions to her closest friends to conduct a traveling funeral for her. Concept: fantastic! Delivery: not so much! The entire first chapter is devoted to a disintegrating bra and the delivery of a package! Chapters 1 and 2 could have been combined. LONG run-on sentences...the use of the decimal system to describe length of time in months, years, seconds...some didn't-make-sense similes (what does a "wand of elegance" have to do with the t More...

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Oct 21, 2007

Jenny rated it:

I did not like this book. We read it for our book club, thinking we should try out a local author. There was no climax and a lot of very strange things that just did not work. The one bright spot, Radish's description of New Mexico. It's just beautiful. I know this. I have been there, but not since I was much younger.
I'm all about books about women and relationships, but this was too much for me.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Lynn rated it:

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Loved the premise: a group of women who mostly only know "of" each other because of a mutual friend, the titled Annie Freeman, get together in order to celebrate her life and receive closure by traveling to various parts of the country which had been important to the deceased. Annie was quite the woman, apparently, and she spent her dying days planning this all-expenses-paid traveling funeral for her closest friends. Should have bee More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Linda rated it:

This book made me laugh and cry all while pondering how ironic life can be! It made me want to write a letter to all of my girlfriends - new and not-so-new - telling them all how much they mean to me. We are so lucky to be women...we can talk and share, laugh and act goofy and carry each other through the rough times. No wonder men are so dark and brooding - societ tells them to deal with all that on their own, not to share their 'feelings', as if that was somehow a weak thing to do! But wom More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Sonny rated it:

I finally got fed up with this book and skimmed the second half of it. There was a lot of introspection about dealing with loss and the trials and tribulations of being a woman. I got a few "aha's" from it, but overall, I felt it was repetitive and seemed to drag on. I did, however, like the idea of a traveling funeral and think it should become a new trend.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 21, 2010

Corky rated it:

While Katherine is lamenting the demise of her favorite Bali bra, her doorbell rings. The UPS delivery women hands Katherine a box. In her typical fashion Katherine invites the woman into her home for a glass of tea and spills her guts about her favorite bra.

Opening the box a bit later she discovers the ashes of her best friend Annie G. Freeman inside a pair of red high tops and instructions for her funeral. Traveling funeral that is. Katherine and Annie's other closest friends have More...

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Apr 27, 2009

fyc rated it:

This book was just Fabulous until the pallbearers got stranded at the airport. That was when, for me, it just became too long. To avoid being “hokey”, the book should have ended before that. However, its message did not “fall on deaf ears”. The whole point is to LIVE your life while you are alive because you never know when your last day may be. That is sound and good advice. If you haven’t lost enough, you won’t really get it. It was written for those of us that have felt immense pain du More...

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Jul 19, 2010

Jan rated it:

This was recommended by a friend. The premise was fabulous. I usually give a book 50 pgs., before I throw the towel in. This one didn't make it past 30. This author's style of writing was intolerable to me. She writes a tidbit and then continues to add to that tidbit over and over again by saying the same thing, just phrasing it in a different way. You know when someone pauses in their conversation then picks up again when you thought they couldn't possibly add anything more....they do...o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Kiwimonster rated it:

Probably my favorite fiction read of the year (which also means of the decade since I've already read almost as much fiction in 2009 as in the last decade). A fun "chick" read which someone at book group said sounded like a multi-cache funeral procession that goes around the country with a group of women all of whom were close to the person who died which as it turns out is the person who arranged for the traveling funeral. All of which sounds morbid but I found it thoroughly enterta More...

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Aug 23, 2008

Denise added it

The notion of a traditional funeral is thrown out the window. 100% of us will die. This book seems to give permission to think outside the box. In doing so, support in the death of a friend can be found in this unusual situation.

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Nov 02, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Annie G. Freeman has just died from ovarian cancer. Her friends are struggling with her death and the loss of a huge part of their lives, when a UPS package arrives at the home of her childhood friend. Within that package is a request that will change the lives of six women forever. Annie wants her friends to embark on a traveling funeral. As the six women come together to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of their friend, they are also forced to explore their own lives and the journey i More...

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Aug 06, 2011

Lisa added it

Wow, I can't believe how much I didn't like reading this book. It was a selection for our book club, so I felt obligated to finish it, but it was really quite painful. I think the underlying message is great, go out and enjoy life now and so on. But the author insisted on bashing the reader over the head with the message on every page and paragraph. There was no subtlety whatsoever. I think the poor quality of the writing was really what distracted me the most in the book along with the wri More...

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Mar 08, 2011

Paula rated it:

For anyone who has dealt with loss, especially to cancer, this book is at times oddly comforting. It's basically about death being part of life, and how you can choose to embrace that fact (or not) while still celebrating the human spirit, life, love, smelling the flowers, etc. as a way to honor the one you've lost. The notion of a traveling funeral itself is entertaining, but it's just so very "chick flick" and even preposterous at times, that it's hard not to roll your eyes at the sa More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

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