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Jul 21, 2008

Rita rated it:

I liked Goodnight Nobody. It's an easy, fun read.

Having said that, however, I am going to critique Jennifer Weiner's works in general. I have read three of them: Good in Bed, In Her Shoes and Goodnight Nobody. There are similarities between the three of them that are starting to make Weiner's work seem formulaic.

1. Each of the books features a protagonist who is very conscious of her own non-stick figure body shape.

GIB: Cannie
IHS: Rose
GN: Kate
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3 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 15, 2007

Abby rated it:

If Kate Klein, the protagonist of GOODNIGHT NOBODY, were real, we'd be best friends. Kate struggles with her life as a stay-at-home mom in suburbia. When she finds her neighbor stabbed to death in her kitchen, Kate launches her own investigation to find the killer. The investigation gives her life purpose again.

Author Jennifer Weiner is right-on with the desperation stay-at-home moms feel, as we put our skills aside and our lives on hold to change diapers and clean up spilled Ko More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kristen rated it:

When I saw this in the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble - I thought I struck gold! I had really liked Good in Bed and In Her Shoes and was excited to pick up another book by Jennifer Weiner. Unfortunately, this fell flat. It was stale and I wasn't involved with the characters at all. Her protagonist was annoying (i.e. mother dealing with a crush she had years ago and now is hemming and hawing about the what-could-have-been) all the while her husband makes attempts (small though they may be) More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

Kirsten rated it:

I have to admit - I was disappointed by this book. I felt the heroine, whose name I have already forgotten, was not, in fact, someone I would want championing for me if I was murdered! Why does this woman have to be such a bumbling doofus? Just because she is a stay-at-home mom? The scene at the memorial service was just one example of her embarassment. She's telling everyone she is going to speak at the service, and then she is surprised when she is pushed to speak! I do like how the auth More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2007

CJ rated it:

i didn't have a book to take on the bus/train for labor day weekend...a co-worker loaned me this...i was semi-interested b/c the author has another book i've wanted to read...anyhow, _goodnight nobody_ is a bit hackneyed. trite writing about the thin, beautiful, seemingly successful types...and i'm afraid the author didn't make me very empathetic to the more "realistic" narrator...she's supposed to be smart and not thin...looking for more stimulation than she's getting from being a st More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2007

Heather rated it:

Kate Klein’s life is not what she thought it would be. Trapped in suburbia with three preschoolers, her days drone endlessly by in a never-ending parade of carpools, play dates, snooty super moms, and household chores.
Kitty Cavanaugh is the undisputed queen of the Upchurch mommies. On the surface, she’s the perfect mom with the perfect suburban life. She’s gorgeous, with not a single ounce of “baby weight” hanging around her tummy or hips. Her twins are beautiful and well behaved. He More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 01, 2007

Lain rated it:

I am a little confused as to why Weiner, one of the hottest writers today, felt it necessary to try her hand at a mystery. After the raucous success of "In Her Shoes," "Good In Bed," and "Little Earthquakes," I expected her to keep moving on the same vein -- and I was excited about it.

But this book doesn't make the grade set by her previous three best-sellers. The mystery is clunky, the characters annoying, and the plot disjointed. This was a strange at More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2011

Michelle rated it:

Kate Klein, mother-of-three, leads a fairly quiet, boring life. Her days are filled with taking care of her children and being a house wife until another mother in the neighborhood is killed. Kate's former life as a reporter soon takes over and she conducts her own investigation. Her days are now filled with phone calls, trips to NYC to question people, and research. Now feeling as if her life has a purpose, she cannot give up the investigation until she has seen it through to the end.
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Jul 19, 2011

ErinReadsTooMuch rated it:

I have to say that I pretty much hated this book. I only gave it that extra star because the actual writing is pretty good. She spins a good tale, and pretty much the only person you like in the book is Janie, her best friend. Kate, the main character, is pretty much one of the most selfish people I have ever read as a main character. You just feel sorry for her husband, whom she doesn't really love, but thought was suitable to marry because he was "nice", and you really feel sorry More...

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Jun 18, 2011

Britni rated it:

This was the first book I've read by Jennifer Weiner and probably will be the last. It was okay, but I wouldn't recommend it. The novel is basically about a stay at home mom (she doesn't want to be a SAHM) who moved with her husband from NYC for safety reasons to a small Stepford Wives type town. All of the mothers are perfect in every way. Until one day the ring leader of the Wives gets murdered. The rest of the novel is about the SAHM trying to crack the case. The book is supposed to be full o More...

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Oct 09, 2010

Jessica rated it:

Since I adore Jennifer Weiner’s writing, I was very excited to read Goodnight Nobody. Unfortunately, now I have read all of Weiner’s novels, so now I’m just waiting for her to write another!
Goodnight Nobody tells the story of Kate Klein, an unsatisfied suburban mom with three kids who misses life as a working woman in New York City. Trying to fit in with the other mom’s in the Connecticut town of Upchurch proves difficult for Kate, but just as she feels like she could make a connection wit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 20, 2010

Mel rated it:

Kate Klein is a stay-at-home mom with three young children and a successful husband. She leaves the city and a best friend behind for suburban life, and a visit to the local park tells her she doesn't quite fit in. While Kate has messy hair, baggy clothes, kid-friendly food and simple birthday parties, the other mothers are primped, plucked and perfectly styled. Their children are well-behaved, eat organic food and have over-the-top birthday parties. The one that irritates Kate the most is Kitt More...

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Mar 02, 2010

BarkLessWagMore rated it:

This story is about a desperate housewife who doesn't seem to fit in. After a surprise invite to the meanest of the "in" mom's home, Kate arrives to find her hostess dead on the floor with a knife poking out of her back. It's time to run, methinks.

She instead decides to spice up her boring life by investigating the murder. It reads to me like a very dull episode of Desperate Housewives with some flashbacks to the past thrown in for added tedium. I don't know if I'll finish More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 25, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Apparently all housewives in Connecticut are bored- and I was NOT the only one.

Jennifer Weiner's Goodnight Nobody is her latest novel and the author finds herself straying from her lighter more romantic stories to one of mystery. Kate Klein is the heroine, stuck in boring Connecticut, in kind of a Stepford Wives hell, a hell she feels in no way in which she belongs. The "mommies" around her are perfect and she feels like she and her family don't fit in to the perfect little More...

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May 21, 2009

Alison rated it:

All in all: read the book. It's a good one. Honestly, read anything by Jennifer Weiner. She is very talented, even if I don't always agree with her decisions.

Surprisingly, I probably liked this book the best out of any of Jennifer Weiner's books. I say surprisingly, because it is probably the most different. It mixes mystery, suspense, and romance all in one, and does a very good job with all three. I didn't see the ending of the mystery angle coming until Kate did, which I alw More...

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Oct 23, 2009

Olivia rated it:

I LOVE Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed and enjoyed In Her Shoes and Little Earthquakes, but Goodnight Nobody just doesn't measure up. Maybe it is just slow to start, but I kept trying and couldn't finish it. In the other books, Weiner's characters aren't perfect and you love them that way, but the main character of GN is downright negative to the point of being extremely annoying. If I met her at the park, I would not befriend her either. (If you have read the book, you know what I mean by this.) More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2009

Laura rated it:

I went in blind...having no clue it was a murder mystery...what do I not read front covers?? ha! This book could easily be a season out of "Desperate Housewives". I found it entertaining and I wanted to keep reading. I even found myself becoming a bit nervous/anxious towards the climax/conclusion. With that being said I wish Weiner did not feel the need to involve such explicit sexual details...and I felt like I was almost home free without encountering too much "adult language" More...

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Dec 15, 2010

Jamie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 29, 2010

Julie rated it:

Kate Klein is a displaced suburban mom of three who misses her former life in New York where she used her brain and didn't feel completely inadequate compared with the playground supermoms she associates with (none of whom she'd actually call a true friend). When one of the ubermommies turns up dead, Kate can't resist the lure of trying to solve the crime, which causes her path to cross with a former boyfriend -- the one that got away.

Part who done it, part a commentary on married li More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Joanie rated it:

It took me 3 months to finish this book. I liked the first third of the book. The second third lost me. I did like the fish out of water angle, but the contrast was too extreme. She was portrayed a a bumbling idiot. When she kept using the Hello Kitty notebook throughout her entire "investigation" I wanted to scream and ended up feeling very disconnected from her. There were so many interviews and suspects I got lost. While the last third of the book was paced more quickly and a little More...

1 comment like

Jan 24, 2012

Jill rated it:

I enjoyed the book. I love mysteries and a little romance. I kinda guessed "whodunnit" early, so that was kind of a disappointment for me. Also, the author seems to always write the same characters. the same leading lady. Unhappy with her body... and this one had messed up hair and clothes but never really tried to fix it even though it bothered her. And in this book I never felt I really got to know Kate as well as some of the other leads in other books. And I never got the feel More...

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Jan 10, 2010

Tamara rated it:

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Jun 29, 2009

Caitlin rated it:

This is the first book I have read by Jennifer Weiner and I must say I am slightly disappointed. I definitely expected a light, chick lit kind of book and was surprised to find a chick lit twist on a murder mystery (which trust me, isn't as good as it may sound). I have no idea what her other books are like, but I was left wanting more from my first experience. Nevertheless, I still found it mildly entertaining but its definitely no page turner. I will admit that I didn't figure it out ahead More...

1 comment like

Feb 27, 2010

Ryan rated it:

I'm only about halfway through, but that's enough to give a 2 star rating. The blurb on the back says this book begs to be read in one sitting, but that is incorrect. It's painfully slow. I'll give it two stars just because I haven't stopped reading it yet, but reserve the right to downgrade my review later.

Suburban mom turns investigator when she discovers her neighbor has been murdered. Insert every cliche imaginable about suburban moms. Main character is the one who doesn't c More...

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Feb 07, 2009

Curtis rated it:

Goodnight Nobody may not be Weiner's best effort, and for some of her followers it's their least favorite book. But Weiner is such a terrific writer that even at half speed she's still leader of the pack... and that's not to say she's at half speed here.

Initially this suburban tale starts off lighthearted and maybe even a tad cliche, but nevertheless I was entertained from the start. Besides, what do I know about being a white, upper middle class housewife, who may or may not have ma More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2009

Katie rated it:

I can never say enough good things about the casual read of a Jennifer Weiner book. I laughed out loud througout and felt a sincere connection with the thoughts and feelings of the main character, Kate. Hm, maybe the name had something to do with it?

I felt Kate's struggles to move beyond the mundane existance that had become her life, living as a stay-at-home mother with three children in an upper-class town in CT called Upchurch. The relationship between Kate and her best friend More...

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Mar 05, 2010

Nancy added it

I thought this was a fun, quick read. It was the first of her books that I'd read and I will be reading more.

For Kate Klein, a semi-accidental mother of three, suburbia has been full of unpleasant surprises. Her once-loving husband is hardly ever home. The supermommies on the playground routinely snub her. Her days are spent carpooling and enduring endless games of Candy Land, and at night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety.

When a fellow mother is mur More...

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Nov 25, 2008

Anna rated it:

I was hoping to like this book more than I did. I liked Good in Bed, and this one had an interesting premise. Kate is a mother of three under the age of 4 (horrors!) and has been uprooted by her overprotective husband and plunked into perfect suburban Connecticut. All the Mommies are put together, uber-groomed, and their children are over-booked and over-dressed. But then Kate discovers Kitty Cavanaugh has been murdered in her immaculate Martha-Stewart kitchen. Kate (bored as she is) decides to More...

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Oct 20, 2010

Kelly rated it:

I am starting to see a theme in Jennifer Weiner's books...heart-broken girls that immediately meet a guy that they dont really like but dont find completely repulsive that can financially support them and they end up marrying the guy, not being extremely happy, regretting not being with the guy they were passionate with...makes me wonder about Jennifer Weiner's husband. Also-I feel like there are two types of parents...well that's debatable-but two types of GOOD parents...the kind that TRULY TR More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2009

Heather rated it:

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I found some of the similarities of living in suburbia quite ironic, considering some of my neighbor ladies seem so similar. :)

The main character, Kate Klein, becomes entangled in a local murder case. When Kate discovers the stabbed body of neighbor Kitty Cavanaugh, her detective work gives her suburbian, mundane life a new sense of purpose, but her zeal puts pressure on her already wobbly marriage.

I liked her writing style. Kate and More...

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