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The Unfinished Journals of Elizabeth D
by
Nichole Bernier (Goodreads Author)
Summer vacation with her family was supposed to be a restorative time for Kate, who'd lost her close friend Elizabeth in a plane crash. But when she inherits a trunk of Elizabeth's journals, they reveal a woman far different than the cheerful wife and mother Kate thought she knew.
The complicated portrait of Elizabeth - her upbringing, her marriage, and journey to motherhoo...more
The complicated portrait of Elizabeth - her upbringing, her marriage, and journey to motherhoo...more
Paperback, Australian Edition, 408 pages
Published
July 30th 2012
by Allen & Unwin Australia
(first published June 5th 2012)
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There are different kinds of books. There are the "reads", the ones that whisk you along on an entertaining ride. There are informative non-fiction books. There are books of opinion and personal revelation. There are Great Books, written decades, even centuries ago, but which people still read, because they're original communications about important things. The Great Books will always be discussed.
There's a newer type of book which means to usurp the function of the Great Book: the Book Club Boo...more
There's a newer type of book which means to usurp the function of the Great Book: the Book Club Boo...more
This debut novel had been hailed as "THE book club book of the year", so I was quick off the mark to order it in the week of its publication.
Well, I am glad I read it before suggesting it to my book club because in my opinion there isn't much in the book at all that seems worth discussing to me, or at least you don't need to read a book to stimulate a discussion on the career vs children dilemma for mothers, the work a marital relationship requires and that people are not always 100% honest wit...more
Well, I am glad I read it before suggesting it to my book club because in my opinion there isn't much in the book at all that seems worth discussing to me, or at least you don't need to read a book to stimulate a discussion on the career vs children dilemma for mothers, the work a marital relationship requires and that people are not always 100% honest wit...more
Nichole Bernier reminds one (in finely-wrought, clear, solid, turn-the-page prose) that in motherhood, in friendship, in marriage, there are no easy answers. None of us have one side--we are instead faceted prisms, showing a side here, a side there--and when we are lucky, we find people who we can show almost every version of ourselves. Bernier catches the rarity of those moments--and explores a grief rarely looked at; the grief of losing a friend. Wonderful book that I highly recommend.
This book, about a woman who receives the journals of her dead friend in the aftermath of 9/11, delves into so many big, human questions about the nature of our connections to each other and our ability to ever fully know one another - even the people we love the most. Are the parts of ourselves we don't share any more or less true because we keep them to ourselves? How important is it for us to feel safe, and is that antithetical to feeling truly seen and understood?
This book knocked me on my...more
This book knocked me on my...more
I admit it: I am a journal junkie. Any time notes or diaries appear in novels, I’m hooked. They offer a depth of characterization – a window into the private parts of the soul – that just makes for good reading. So, yes, I enjoyed the epistolary aspects of this novel (journals are essentially letters to self, right?).
Best friend Kate is entrusted with Elizabeth’s journals as part of the conditions of Elizabeth’s will. The story made me wonder: what would I do if my best friend died, entrusting...more
Best friend Kate is entrusted with Elizabeth’s journals as part of the conditions of Elizabeth’s will. The story made me wonder: what would I do if my best friend died, entrusting...more
From the moment this book was released in hardback, I wanted to read it, but I stubbornly wanted to wait for the paperback. This would have been money well spent hard or soft cover, though I did the kindle version.
I was hooked from the blurb, and this well-written novel has not disappointed.
Kate's friend Elizabeth has been dead less than a year, when Kate learns she has been bequeathed Elizabeth's journals, dating back to childhood, before Kate even knew her friend.
Kate starts with the most rec...more
I was hooked from the blurb, and this well-written novel has not disappointed.
Kate's friend Elizabeth has been dead less than a year, when Kate learns she has been bequeathed Elizabeth's journals, dating back to childhood, before Kate even knew her friend.
Kate starts with the most rec...more
This is a amazing novel of two women, Kate and Elizabeth. We are introduced to the character of Elizabeth only after her death in a tragic accident. Kate, who was a good friend of Elizabeth, inherits an old truck of journals that have all been written by Elizabeth before her death. These journals contain her deepest secrets, hopes, wishes and regrets.
Tragically, Elizabeth has left behind a husband and three small children. Kate, who tries to be both confident and competent in her role of mother...more
Tragically, Elizabeth has left behind a husband and three small children. Kate, who tries to be both confident and competent in her role of mother...more
In your will, you left a trunk full of journals to go to someone who is not your partner. Why? Now that you are dead, your partner gets a whiff of something he doesn't understand about you while glancing in your current unfinished journal. What? An unknown person is mentioned in your journals with such a depth of emotion that it doesn't track. Who? You were taking a trip to somewhere other than where you claimed to be going when you died. Where? And so goes the story of The Unfinished Work of El...more
I won this book as part of Firstreads Giveaways.
I won this book as part of the First Reads program over on Goodreads. I got super excited about it, but I had to put it off because of a million reasons. Turns out I just wound up with a bunch of sad books to read all at once because I had The Last Lecture at the same time. It still made for a good summer read.
I will admit I cried a little while reading this book. I was read a lot of sad books at the same time, but it was very sad reading about you...more
I won this book as part of the First Reads program over on Goodreads. I got super excited about it, but I had to put it off because of a million reasons. Turns out I just wound up with a bunch of sad books to read all at once because I had The Last Lecture at the same time. It still made for a good summer read.
I will admit I cried a little while reading this book. I was read a lot of sad books at the same time, but it was very sad reading about you...more
I enjoyed this thoroughly, despite having nothing in common with the characters. This isn't so much about Elizabeth's journals as it is about being adaptable, rolling with the changes, and realizing that whatever you get in life is what you have to work with. It's senseless to live in a state of constant anxiety about the evils of the world and how they may or may not be visited upon you.
Kate has suffered a devastating blow. Her close friend Elizabeth has passed away, a casualty in a plane crash. When Kate finds out that it was Elizabeth's wish was that Kate would take on the task of taking care of Elizabeth's precious journals, Kate is taken more than shocked.
All of a sudden Kate is given the opportunity to see her beloved friend in a new light. Elizabeth was an avid journal writer who painted a picture of each event with extreme clarity. Kate not only learns that her friend wa...more
All of a sudden Kate is given the opportunity to see her beloved friend in a new light. Elizabeth was an avid journal writer who painted a picture of each event with extreme clarity. Kate not only learns that her friend wa...more
Although I read this book before attending Booktopia in Manchester, Vermont this past weekend, I hadn't gotten around to this Goodreads rating. I loved the author, Nichole Bernier, who was present at the weekend, and I appreciate learning about her writing and her journey.
While I enjoyed the journals, and the stories left by Elizabeth to Kate, 2 things stood out for me as life lessons, and very worthy of discussion: One, the intensity involved in grieving the loss of a friend, and two, the fact...more
While I enjoyed the journals, and the stories left by Elizabeth to Kate, 2 things stood out for me as life lessons, and very worthy of discussion: One, the intensity involved in grieving the loss of a friend, and two, the fact...more
This debut novel by Nichole Bernier really resonated with me. She describes in perfect prose the powerful and transforming love of a mother for her children. She expertly explores the complexities of marriage and friendship, and her portrayal of a woman who loses the dear friend she has raised her children with nearly did me in. Since Chanya's death in February 2012, no book has been harder or more cathartic for me to read. In this story, Kate is given the journals of her best friend Elizabeth,...more
Apr 02, 2013
Michelle Lancaster
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-i-ve-reviewed
By Nichole Bernier
Crown/Random House, 309 pgs
978-0-307-88780-1
Rating: 5
"Kate lowered her nose to Emily's head and breathed in Johnson's baby shampoo, a hormonal cocktail that among women who have children not long out of diapers drew the Pavlovian, Another." There, there. Is that not the most beautiful sentence you have ever read? If not then please leave me a comment with your contender because I have to read that book now. I read this sentence, page 9, and swooned. I knew then that Elizabeth D...more
Crown/Random House, 309 pgs
978-0-307-88780-1
Rating: 5
"Kate lowered her nose to Emily's head and breathed in Johnson's baby shampoo, a hormonal cocktail that among women who have children not long out of diapers drew the Pavlovian, Another." There, there. Is that not the most beautiful sentence you have ever read? If not then please leave me a comment with your contender because I have to read that book now. I read this sentence, page 9, and swooned. I knew then that Elizabeth D...more
This was an all right book. I think I was waiting for it to be something more than a solid story about women and their work-life conflicts, and it never quite reached that place for me. During the summer of 2002, Kate reads her dead friend Elizabeth's journals, which have been willed to her, and reflects on her own life and marriage. I felt that this book did a decent job bringing up Kate's sense of disorientation and insecurity in her marriage and the post-9/11 world, but didn't take it anywher...more
A beautiful story about how well you think you know your friends. Kate moved away from her best friend Elizabeth a few years ago. When Elizabeth dies tragically in a plane crash, she leaves her journals to Kate, with no instructions on what to do with them. Elizabeth's husband is uneasy about this, he thinks he should have the journals.
Kate discovers that Elizabeth has journals back to her teen years. She starts reading at the beginning, and is shocked to discover many things she didn't know abo...more
Kate discovers that Elizabeth has journals back to her teen years. She starts reading at the beginning, and is shocked to discover many things she didn't know abo...more
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. was Nichole Bernier's debut novel. As is often the case with debuts, I want to go back and read the author's other books. I hope the thing that's often true isn't for Bernier--that the debut was so much better than the second book.
I guess that's beside the point...
Here are some of my thoughts:
1. I take my friends at what I believe to be their face value. It never occurs to me they might have journal-like secrets. Perhaps that's because my life is an open book....more
I guess that's beside the point...
Here are some of my thoughts:
1. I take my friends at what I believe to be their face value. It never occurs to me they might have journal-like secrets. Perhaps that's because my life is an open book....more
Interesting fictional study of the nature of friendship (particularly those based on being in the same time/place in life as an adult--in this case, playgroup moms) and of marriage. Set in the summer following 9-11, an event which, coupled with the sudden death of her good friend, has left main character Kate with an existential crisis of sorts. She is uneasy, she feels vulnerable, and she even feels foolish for having lived her life without anticipating these sorts of catastrophic upsets, thoug...more
after a woman dies in a plane crash, a friend of hers learns that she has inherited the woman's trunk full of journals. she hopes to learn from these journals why the woman was on the plane. supposedly she was going to a painting retreat in new mexico, but when the narrator flips ahead & scans one of the more recent journals, she learns that her friend was meeting secretly with a man, possibly from her past, who was stirring very questionable feelings in her, considering that she was married...more
How well do we really know the people in our lives? How do the secrets people keep affect how we perceive them? What is true? What is important? How can we affect the legacy we will leave to the people we love? Is there any stronger desire in the human realm than to be truly known and understood? Kate is a young mother, a former pastry chef living in Washington DC in the disturbing time just after 9/ll. Shortly before that horrific day, her best friend, Elizabeth had been killed in a plane crash...more
Aug 26, 2012
Sam
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those looking for an interesting book
Recommended to Sam by:
from the publisher
This review is divided into 3 parts (it was for a read along, thank you to the publisher for providing the book). Please note there are **spoilers**.
Week 1
Once I opened this book, I already knew that something bad had happened to this Elizabeth D – why else would she leave her journals unfinished? The beautiful cover of the book (a picnic basket left on a bench on a verandah) was also slightly ominous. (Off topic, this is one of the most beautifully designed books I’ve read for some time – beaut...more
Week 1
Once I opened this book, I already knew that something bad had happened to this Elizabeth D – why else would she leave her journals unfinished? The beautiful cover of the book (a picnic basket left on a bench on a verandah) was also slightly ominous. (Off topic, this is one of the most beautifully designed books I’ve read for some time – beaut...more
When I finished this novel I realized how well I had come to know the two female characters who are at the center of the story, how I had been allowed in to the most intimate corners of their lives. And yet, this is a novel that questions how well you ever know anybody: friend, spouse, parent. I particularly liked the way both Elizabeth's and Kate's stories emerged as Kate read her dead friend's private journals. The reader is allowed into some portions of the journals, but the process of Kate...more
a freebie from another website. a good read overall, it kind of reads like a mystery which is not a genre i generally like but it had a captivating story line! i actually finished this in one sitting since i wanted to find out what happened. the plot revolves around two women, kare & elizabeth, who are as close as sisters. they find commonality in the lives they lead, married, kids, not fitting in with all the other mommies in play group etc they know everything about one anther, or do they?...more
Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D is an unflinchingly honest novel about love, friendship, marriage and motherhood. It takes us on a journey through one woman’s life via her journals after her untimely death and that of her friend Kate to whom Elizabeth has bequeathed the journals in her will. Kate’s only instructions are that she determine their fate and that she must read them from the beginning.
I alternated between finding this novel extremely depressing...more
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D is an unflinchingly honest novel about love, friendship, marriage and motherhood. It takes us on a journey through one woman’s life via her journals after her untimely death and that of her friend Kate to whom Elizabeth has bequeathed the journals in her will. Kate’s only instructions are that she determine their fate and that she must read them from the beginning.
I alternated between finding this novel extremely depressing...more
Jul 11, 2012
Virginia Campbell
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
womens-fiction
Author Nichole Bernier touches many levels of emotion in her riveting, revelatory novel, "The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.". I read the book all in one fell swoop, and I cried off and on as the "real" Elizabeth was uncovered through her own words. Elizabeth Martin, wife, mother, and reluctant flyer, suddenly decides to take a trip--flying off to partake in a painting workshop over a long weekend. Tragically, her plane crashes soon after takeoff, and Elizabeth is killed, leaving her family and...more
A beautiful novel. At once an ode to friendship and a page-turning mystery.
Thoughts written in a journal, only to be opened after her death. What secrets will they reveal?
Kate's friend, Elizabeth, was the perfect mom, wonderful wife, and reliable friend. When Elizabeth died suddenly in a plane crash, her friends and family are left in a wake of sadness. Along with their grief, there was doubt. Where was she really going? Who was she going with? What secrets did Elizabeth have?
A line item in El...more
http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/...
Did anyone see To Gillian on her 37th Birthday? That movie where Peter Gallagher still mourns his dead wife (played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who has looked 37 for about three decades now--I'd mourn her too) two years after her death? No, me neither. But I always imagined it was something like this book. Kind of sentimental, kind of sad, but mostly about how we hold on to our impression of a person even when the real person is dead and gone.
Elizabeth has died...more
Did anyone see To Gillian on her 37th Birthday? That movie where Peter Gallagher still mourns his dead wife (played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who has looked 37 for about three decades now--I'd mourn her too) two years after her death? No, me neither. But I always imagined it was something like this book. Kind of sentimental, kind of sad, but mostly about how we hold on to our impression of a person even when the real person is dead and gone.
Elizabeth has died...more
Following her friend's sudden death in an airplane crash, Kate is surprised, honored and concerned when she learns that Elizabeth added an addendum to her will giving Kate the journals she has written during her life. Unsure what to do with them and upsetting her friend's husband who believes that he should be the one to keep the journals, Kate decides to spend her summer reading of Elizabeth's deepest thoughts on marriage and motherhood and answer questions to the mystery surrounding Elizabeth'...more
This novel is a family drama that deals with the topics of losing a friend in death, marriage, the challenges of motherhood and pursuing one's career vs staying at home. It is ambitious for a debut novel, but Bernier handles this deftly with writing that is introspective, thought-provoking, and beautiful. It's a character-driven story with slow-moving action and flashback scenes.
Kate Spencer is given a trunk filled with the diaries and journals that her late friend, Elizabeth, left for her as st...more
Kate Spencer is given a trunk filled with the diaries and journals that her late friend, Elizabeth, left for her as st...more
What if everything you knew about your best friend was a lie? This is the situation that Kate Spenser finds herself when her best friend, Elizabeth Martin, dies in a tragic plane crash leaving behind a husband and 3 small children. Agonizing over the loss of her friend, Kate is surprised when she receives a letter from Elizabeth's lawyer. Elizabeth has left Kate all of her journals with a simple statement of "Start at the beginning."
The story follows two story lines, Elizabeth's journal entries...more
The story follows two story lines, Elizabeth's journal entries...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ravelry Knitters: February 2013 group Read - the Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. | 22 | 73 | Mar 13, 2013 04:28pm | |
| Read It Forward: * THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D. by Nichole Bernier | 12 | 63 | Jul 05, 2012 02:51pm | |
| Read It Forward: THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D. by Nichole Bernier | 13 | 42 | Jul 05, 2012 12:29pm | |
| Read It Forward: THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D. by Nichole Bernier | 1 | 10 | Jul 03, 2012 06:02am | |
| Book Giveaways: The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. Giveaway! | 4 | 70 | Jun 21, 2012 01:21pm |
Nichole Bernier is author of the novel THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D, and has written articles and essays for publications including Psychology Today, Elle, Health, Redbook, The Huffington Post, Salon, The Millions, and Post Road literary magazine. A 14-year contributing editor for Conde Nast Traveler, she was previously on staff as the magazine's golf and ski editor and columnist. She is one...more
More about Nichole Bernier...
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“But there are no real accidents, only decisions that feel like accidents, one after another, that take you down a certain road and take on a momentum that can't be reversed.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
Mar 26, 2013 05:29pm
I fully expected one of the kids to get that rabbit disease. It seemed like a Chekhovian gun to me.
Mar 26, 2013 05:46pm