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325th out of 2,390 books
—
15,580 voters
The Next Best Thing
by
Jennifer Weiner (Goodreads Author)
Blockbuster #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner returns with an irresistible story about a young woman trying to make it in Hollywood…
At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to be hired as a television writer. Four years later, she’s hit the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next B...more
At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to be hired as a television writer. Four years later, she’s hit the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next B...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
July 3rd 2012
by Atria Books
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Looks like I am in the minority here, but I expect more from Jennifer Weiner. The book club questions at the end of the book make it sound a lot smarter and deeper and more intellectual than it really was. I found this book to be rather boring, nothing like the JWeiner books of the past. The story was not something I found to be interesting (even though it was somewhat autobiographical) and I did not root for a single character. And, there were several instances of inconsistent details (like at...more
I struggled to FORCE myself to finish, "The Next Best Thing," by Jennifer Weiner. I fear Weiner has become a "has been" who is no more! Her early books were an assured good read ("Good in Bed," & "In Her Shoes" to name a few). The last 2 have been a chore, but I can't ignore one of her newly published books because I remember the joy the earlier ones brought me.
From the start, I felt this one was written with the hope it would be made into a movie, as was "In Her Shoes." I hope that is not t...more
From the start, I felt this one was written with the hope it would be made into a movie, as was "In Her Shoes." I hope that is not t...more
23 likes · like · see review
Ms. Weiner, it is time for you and I to part ways. This is the fourth book in a row that I have been disappointed with. Once again, the editing is abysmal and the story is just so-so.
The first 100 pages of this novel are mostly back story and even when you finally get to the actual plot, you continue to flip flop with the back story. After reading such excellent books as Gone Girl where the back story is excellently woven into the plot, I find this novel boring and choppy. Don't get me wrong, i...more
The first 100 pages of this novel are mostly back story and even when you finally get to the actual plot, you continue to flip flop with the back story. After reading such excellent books as Gone Girl where the back story is excellently woven into the plot, I find this novel boring and choppy. Don't get me wrong, i...more
20 likes · like · see review
I think I went in with pretty high expectations for this novel and it fell short.
While some of the characters, like the Two Daves, were exceptionally well drawn (and they happened to remind me of a more-comedic Penn and Teller), they didn't help with what I found the major flaw: that the protagonist, Ruth, wasn't exceptionally likable.
Ruth's given a tough lot in life and has a charming and modern-old-fashioned grandmother to help guide her through it, but she still comes off as a victim - and...more
While some of the characters, like the Two Daves, were exceptionally well drawn (and they happened to remind me of a more-comedic Penn and Teller), they didn't help with what I found the major flaw: that the protagonist, Ruth, wasn't exceptionally likable.
Ruth's given a tough lot in life and has a charming and modern-old-fashioned grandmother to help guide her through it, but she still comes off as a victim - and...more
My Thoughts:
The book was HUGELY entertaining. It has such a nice mix of Ruth’s contemplative thoughts, day - to - day activities and laugh out loud comments. The story flowed nicely and I enjoyed all of the characters, especially the two Daves (you’ll have to read the book to see what I’m talking about). When I finished the last page and closed the book, I thought - Yippee, add another name to my list of author’s I want to read more.
Don’t ask me why it has taken me this long to read a Jennifer W...more
The book was HUGELY entertaining. It has such a nice mix of Ruth’s contemplative thoughts, day - to - day activities and laugh out loud comments. The story flowed nicely and I enjoyed all of the characters, especially the two Daves (you’ll have to read the book to see what I’m talking about). When I finished the last page and closed the book, I thought - Yippee, add another name to my list of author’s I want to read more.
Don’t ask me why it has taken me this long to read a Jennifer W...more
4 likes · like · see review
This was ok. Jennifer Weiner likes to complain that male writers get more positive critical acclaim (like Jonathan Franzen---which is a big who cares? not me). But really they are a different caliber and guess what there are a lot of female authors who are worthy of more attention, you just really aren't one of them. This book was fine but face it Ruthie was not a terribly original character since she smacked of Tina Fey of the West Coast. And good for you for mentioning a Harry Crews book but t...more
Jun 23, 2012
Lexxie (un)Conventional Bookviews
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Strong women, who likes to read about strong women!
*I got a free copy from the publisher via netgalley in order to review this book*
This and other reviews can be found on my blog(un)Conventional Bookviews.
The Next Best Thing is simply delightful! It’s the only word I can use to describe it accurately. It tickled my funny bones, tugged at my heartstrings and made me root for Ruthie from the first sentence. All of the main characters seem so real to me that I wish they existed in real life. Ruthie needs a girlfriend, and I want to be that for her....more
This and other reviews can be found on my blog(un)Conventional Bookviews.
The Next Best Thing is simply delightful! It’s the only word I can use to describe it accurately. It tickled my funny bones, tugged at my heartstrings and made me root for Ruthie from the first sentence. All of the main characters seem so real to me that I wish they existed in real life. Ruthie needs a girlfriend, and I want to be that for her....more
1 like · like · see review
I feel for Jennifer Weiner, in a way--I really do. She's a powerhouse, a brand, and I have no doubt that her publisher demands a book a year from her. She must write quickly, and well, to sustain her enormous fan base. That said, this feels like a hasty effort. Not only did I have to wonder where her editor's mind was when polishing the book (the book, as a whole, is repetitious), I didn't engage with the protagonist, Ruth Saunders, as I engaged with all of Weiner's richly drawn, hilarious and w...more
I thought Kristin Hannah was the best discovery of the year for me [chic lit genre only]
I was soon a little dismayed to find most of her work was extremely formulaic and settings (Forks, USA) repeated themselves. I decided to check out this author's work and was slowly seduced into buying all of her ten novels. It was that good.
At first the 'so-good it couldn't be true' Grandmother & Grandaughter relationship made me wince with it's saccharine sentiments, but seeing that I read this genre f...more
I was soon a little dismayed to find most of her work was extremely formulaic and settings (Forks, USA) repeated themselves. I decided to check out this author's work and was slowly seduced into buying all of her ten novels. It was that good.
At first the 'so-good it couldn't be true' Grandmother & Grandaughter relationship made me wince with it's saccharine sentiments, but seeing that I read this genre f...more
This is a book I just pulled off the shelf at the library...I thought I had read another book by Jennifer Weiner, but wasn't sure. I almost gave up on this book halfway through it, but I persisted. And I loved the ending! It gave me a whole new perspective of this novel. The premise is that the lead character, Ruth, is a twenty-something young woman who was raised by her grandmother following the deaths of her parents in a car accident when she was three. She was thrown from the car and her face...more
I'm so disappointed in this book. I was excited to read it because I thought that "Swim" was captivating as a short story. To me it feels like Jennifer Weiner took a great short story and used is as a vehicle to vent about a personal experience rather than take the time to develop real characters and situations (case in point - I think that if I had as many self-esteem issues as the author portrays Ruth to have the fact that my love interest regularly consorted with prostitutes would be a little...more
I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down. I loved the characters, flaws and all. I think maybe I loved it so much because I am as close to my grandma as Ruth is, and I am also an aspiring writer, and I am also not beautiful. In a Hollywood sense anyway. So all the parts of Ruthie's self-reflection, her self consciousness and her pain, those all rang very true to me.
I adored ADORED all The Golden Girls references. How I loved that show.
The parts I did not like - there's a sex scene wh...more
I adored ADORED all The Golden Girls references. How I loved that show.
The parts I did not like - there's a sex scene wh...more
I want to start this by saying I generally have enjoyed Jennifer Weiner’s books. Particularly, Good in Bed is a really fun read. That being said, The Next Best Thing isn’t nearly as good as some of her previous work.
Ruth Saunders has had a tough life. When she was a child, she and her parents were in a car accident that sent Ruthie flying through the windshield and killing her parents. Although she survived, she’s had to endure several operations and quite a bit of pain, leaving her permanently...more
Ruth Saunders has had a tough life. When she was a child, she and her parents were in a car accident that sent Ruthie flying through the windshield and killing her parents. Although she survived, she’s had to endure several operations and quite a bit of pain, leaving her permanently...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Definitely had potential with your atypical protagonist and love interest in a chick lit - we actually have characters who are disfigured and disabled (instead of your normal nonexistent flaws in lead characters). However, I never fell in love with Ruth, despite her background, and felt she was pretty bitter and judgmental . (view spoiler)...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Inside cover blurb:
Actors aren’t the only ones trying to make it in Hollywood…
At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders left her childhood home in Massachusetts and headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to make it as a screenwriter. Six years later, she hits the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, "The Next Best Thing," has gotten the green light, and Ruthie’s going to be the showrunner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, numbe...more
Actors aren’t the only ones trying to make it in Hollywood…
At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders left her childhood home in Massachusetts and headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to make it as a screenwriter. Six years later, she hits the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, "The Next Best Thing," has gotten the green light, and Ruthie’s going to be the showrunner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, numbe...more
WARNING: This book will leave you captivated, so much so that you’ll find yourself crying fat, warm, silent tears on your flight back from San Francisco. Other passengers will be concerned and will avoid looking in your direction. You’ll try to explain that it’s the book, that “Ruthie doesn’t feel like she’ll ever be beautiful”. Nice old ladies will soothingly pat your shoulder and offer you gum. You’ll be yelled at by flight attendants for not turning off your iPad during landing. You’ll ignore...more
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I had mixed feelings about this book.
On one hand, I really wanted to like Ruth. I related to her close relationship with her grandmother (I spent at least 25% of my time living with my great-grandmother until I graduated high school), and I sympathized with the difficulties her disfigurement caused her (because we all know a Jennifer Weiner protagonist has to be “damaged” in some way). But that was pretty much it. I didn’t love her, and I feel like I only rooted for her because the author told m...more
On one hand, I really wanted to like Ruth. I related to her close relationship with her grandmother (I spent at least 25% of my time living with my great-grandmother until I graduated high school), and I sympathized with the difficulties her disfigurement caused her (because we all know a Jennifer Weiner protagonist has to be “damaged” in some way). But that was pretty much it. I didn’t love her, and I feel like I only rooted for her because the author told m...more
Warning: Chick Lit Review.
I have been a fan of Jennifer Weiner’s since I grabbed the book Good in Bed back in 2001. Jennifer lives and writes about Philadelphia and she worked hard to achieve her dream of becoming a professional writer. That is something I would be over the moon crazy-happy to have achieved. But I didn’t work hard at it. Jennifer Weiner did.
I am so lazy that working out for me consists of lifting a book or Kindle for personal pleasure and then writing about my reading experien...more
I have been a fan of Jennifer Weiner’s since I grabbed the book Good in Bed back in 2001. Jennifer lives and writes about Philadelphia and she worked hard to achieve her dream of becoming a professional writer. That is something I would be over the moon crazy-happy to have achieved. But I didn’t work hard at it. Jennifer Weiner did.
I am so lazy that working out for me consists of lifting a book or Kindle for personal pleasure and then writing about my reading experien...more
It's hard to believe such a sophomoric book like this got published. Jennifer Weiner is a pretty bad writer, rambling on and on about almost 400 pages of nothing instead of having a tightly-edited plot that is worth reading. It's like an 8th grader writing fiction that includes hip television references. You'll find yourself quickly skipping through pages to get past the dull parts.
The book is supposed to be about a woman whose new television pilot gets produced, but it's filled with all sorts o...more
The book is supposed to be about a woman whose new television pilot gets produced, but it's filled with all sorts o...more
I often hear interviews with writers bemoaning the fact that their baby was absolutely gutted and destroyed by the powers to be in Hollywood, but have not truly understood it. The Next best Thing documents the entire process from the point of view of one young writer who has created a touching sitcom about a young girl and her grandmother moving to the big city. Given that Jennifer Weiner herself has recently creating a sitcom for network TV I am willing to believe there is a lot of truth to be...more
The main character of the book, Ruth was horribly disfigured as a 3 year old when her parents were in a fatal motor vehicle accident. Although she underwent numerous surgeries as a small child, her face remains permanently scared. Her grandmother raised her. Ruth has found her niche in the journalism world, moving to Hollywood to try to break into the world as a writer. She gets a big break when a screen play she wrote gets picked up by a network but she soon finds her dreams being challenged by...more
I liked this book for its insights into Hollywood and the TV show development process. The story features a 20-something girl who moves with her grandmother to Hollywood after college. Her goal is to be a television writer and we follow along through the various steps in the process. I found that plot generally more interesting than the main character's evolving maturity, which wasn't anything particularly new.
What I did appreciate as new were the some of the unique, fleshed out main characters,...more
What I did appreciate as new were the some of the unique, fleshed out main characters,...more
Jennifer Weiner writes the kinds of characters it’s hard to let go of when the book is over. Ruth Saunders has never been Hollywood-pretty, but that’s where she is, working as a writer. She moved there with the Grandmother who raised her, and though her love life has had a few bumps Ruth’s dream is about to come true—the sitcom she created based on her life with her grandmother is going to be produced. But nothing about the show is turning out the way she pictured it. The jokes have been coarsen...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jennifer Weiner's THE NEXT BEST THING surprised me, honestly. I picked it up on a whim to balance the more "serious" literary fiction and nonfiction tomes I had brought up to the lake with me. I threw it in for fun, thinking beach read, light women's fiction. And it is, yes, all those things. But I found myself noting the author's skill and construction of her novels and character, respecting the talent of her novel construction. In fact, impressed. The book is actually a study in mastering the...more
Not bad, but not her best novel either. The book centers around Ruth, an aspiring writer that gets her show produced in Hollywood. There's also her grandmother who raised her after her parent's death and a two man writing team that helps her get her start (and provides romantic interest). The show producing goes horribly and Ruth has to try to deal with all sorts of challenges until she finally decides to live big and take a chance.
The most entertaining part of this is what I assume is a semi-tr...more
The most entertaining part of this is what I assume is a semi-tr...more
Was this the funniest book Weiner has ever written? No. Was it the most infuriating? YES.
In this book we meet Ruth, a writer-wannabe-TV-producer who was disfigured as a child in a car crash that also took her parents lives. Ruth moves to Los Angeles with her grandmother, who has been her only parent since the accident. Ruth has a boring boyfriend but a great job working as an assistant to two high-level TV producers - Big Dave and Little Dave. Ruth has a huge crush on Little Dave, who is so name...more
In this book we meet Ruth, a writer-wannabe-TV-producer who was disfigured as a child in a car crash that also took her parents lives. Ruth moves to Los Angeles with her grandmother, who has been her only parent since the accident. Ruth has a boring boyfriend but a great job working as an assistant to two high-level TV producers - Big Dave and Little Dave. Ruth has a huge crush on Little Dave, who is so name...more
I loved Jennifer Weiner's "Good in Bed" and "Little Earthquakes." This one, like her previous three, "Best Friends Forever," "Fly Away Home," and "Then Came You," was just fair for me. The story stars Ruth, who was badly injured in a car accident that killed her parents when she was 3. As a result, her face and part body were left permanently disfigured and scarred, and she was raised by her loving grandmother. Ruth and her grandmother end up moving to LA so Ruth can pursue her dream of becoming...more
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Jennifer Weiner was born in 1970 on an army base in Louisiana. She grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Princeton University. She worked as a newspaper reporter in Central Pennsylvania, Lexington, Kentucky, and Philadelphia, before the publication of her first novel, GOOD IN BED, in 2001. She is the author of the novels IN HER SHOES (2002), which was turned into a major motion picture; LITTLE...more
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“You don't get perfect-but I was going to grab this happiness and hold it as tightly as I could. I was going to enjoy it for as long as it lasted.”
—
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“One of its ears stuck straight up, the other flopped as it ran, and I remembered something I'd read somewhere--that when God sees a dog he likes, He folds one of its ears down to remember it.”
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1 person liked it
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Ruth is the kind of girl that made me the wallflower/bookw...more
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