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  <title><![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench<br/> <br/>Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense --and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;]]></description>
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        <name><![CDATA[Zoë Heller]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
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    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>12</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jan 16 09:47:52 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri May 16 13:42:26 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[An unforgiving, cold-eyed, wickedly beautiful little book.  <br/><br/>A warning: if you have ever been crushingly lonely -- particularly if you have, on occasion, feebly attempted to rationalize that loneliness as a burden of your superior and isolating intelligence -- then I suspect that you, lik...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12668046">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12668046]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>38017811</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Judith]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia]]></location>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Nov 17 23:57:34 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Nov 24 02:12:35 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I very much enjoyed the movie so I was slightly nervous about reading the book ~ how could it be better?<br/>Well it is ~ the narrative method is so much clearer and it makes for a wonderful read.  Not only is there the fascination with Sheba and her affair, but also the layer created by Barbara's ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38017811">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38017811]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>38960619</id>
    <user>
    <id>71127</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Alison]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
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  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[people riding a bus or trapped in an airport]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[several people, unfortunately.]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Nov 30 14:13:35 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Dec 02 08:15:22 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Is it fair to say that a book is predictable when you've already seen the movie version?  I think that anybody who's dabbled in the literature of stalker creepiness (e.g. Pale Fire) knows what it's all about:  stalkers don't ever recognize themselves as stalkers; stalkers justify their stalkiness on...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38960619">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38960619]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>28533797</id>
    <user>
    <id>1315004</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Traci ]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Orange, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1315004-traci-medeiros]]></link>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Jul 28 13:25:03 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Jul 28 13:50:34 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I thought this book was amazing and that the movie, while different, really got to the heart of what the book was about-- not an easy task for such a rich and complex read.  The thing that I thought was really amazing about this theme, in both the book and movie, was the way that it questioned our p...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28533797">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28533797]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28533797]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>2328820</id>
    <user>
    <id>144579</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Elaine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[London, The United Kingdom]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144579-elaine]]></link>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">871041</id>
  <isbn>0141029064</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780141029061</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">7</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.71</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>41</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. <p>Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Jun 24 10:33:02 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Jul 23 04:11:30 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Grim, grim, grim. Here's an unstinting, gaze-unaverted look at the nastiness, perversion and self-deluding aspects of human nature.  One woman would do anything to keep a friendship, another would do anything to seduce a young pupil.  Zoe Heller renders all of this in tense, compelling, page-turning...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2328820">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2328820]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2328820]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>1954993</id>
    <user>
    <id>130983</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Erik]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Goleta, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/130983-erik-talkin]]></link>
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  <isbn>0312421990</isbn>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">297</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13258.What_Was_She_Thinking_Notes_on_a_Scandal_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jun 14 06:12:43 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Jun 14 06:30:31 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I read the book then watched the movie. Okay, I did it the other way around, but this is practically a textbook example of how to succeed with a screen adaptation. Normally we're all whinging that the movie is not as good as the book, but here, playwright Patrick Marber’s screenplay is actually su...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954993">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954993]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1954993]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Petra X]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[St Thomas, VI]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1237196-petra-x]]></link>
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  <isbn nil="true"></isbn>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">7</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6320107.Notes_on_a_Scandal</link>
  <average_rating>3.53</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>34</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense--and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Mar 18 01:38:08 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Mar 18 02:04:33 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Wonderfully-written, brilliantly-drawn characters who each vie for the title of 'most despicable person in the book' as they live through a most despicable situation of a middle-aged teacher having an affair with a young pupil and the Machiavellian machinations of an older, bitter teacher, a repress...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/49638874">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/49638874]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/49638874]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>2719245</id>
    <user>
    <id>171439</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Amanda]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Austin, TX]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/171439-amanda]]></link>
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  <id type="integer">13258</id>
  <isbn>0312421990</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780312421991</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">297</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800m/13258.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800s/13258.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13258.What_Was_She_Thinking_Notes_on_a_Scandal_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jul 04 16:17:13 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 16 23:38:47 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Not a poorly written book, but I had a difficult time empathizing with the characters. When I read a book, typically I like to come away with something: more knowledge, deeper understanding, empathy, or just a riotous good time. None of that happened with this book. I just felt empty and sad, and ve...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2719245">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2719245]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2719245]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>51047196</id>
    <user>
    <id>2155468</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Merty]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Niceville, FL]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2155468-merty]]></link>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">7</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6320107.Notes_on_a_Scandal</link>
  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense--and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2004</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Mar 31 12:06:08 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Mar 31 12:09:32 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I'm reading The Believers right now.  I'm so glad she came out with a new book.  Zoe Heller is an amazing writer.<br/>A social satire, a must-read.  ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/51047196]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/51047196]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>70102022</id>
    <user>
    <id>185656</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Joe]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Bronx, NY]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/185656-joe-sherman]]></link>
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  <id type="integer">6739892</id>
  <isbn>0786162325</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780786162321</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">1</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6739892-what-was-she-thinking</link>
  <average_rating>4.20</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>5</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Sep 04 19:06:13 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Sep 04 19:09:27 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book is outstanding! A writer's tour-de-force. One of the best first-person narratives by a deranged character since Edgar Allan Poe. Page 197 and the first paragraph of page 198 contain the greatest testimony of human anguish that I've ever read. Brava Ms. Heller!]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70102022]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70102022]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>42846712</id>
    <user>
    <id>611408</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Carrie]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/611408-carrie]]></link>
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  <id type="integer">13258</id>
  <isbn>0312421990</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780312421991</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">297</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800m/13258.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800s/13258.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13258.What_Was_She_Thinking_Notes_on_a_Scandal_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Jan 12 18:13:00 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Jan 12 18:14:34 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[NB - I wrote this review before I saw the film (indeed, before there was a film, so I didn't mention it)<br/><br/>New book! - This is the story of a teacher, Sheba, who has an affair with her sixteen-year old student. It is told by her friend and colleague, Barbara, and it becomes clear over the c...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42846712">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42846712]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42846712]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>76193913</id>
    <user>
    <id>2147949</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Victoria]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Barry, Z3, The United Kingdom]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2147949-victoria]]></link>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">17018</id>
  <isbn>0141012250</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780141012254</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">24</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166795547m/17018.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166795547s/17018.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17018.Notes_on_a_Scandal</link>
  <average_rating>3.66</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>173</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. <p>Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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        <shelf name="read-in-2009" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Oct 30 05:30:42 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Oct 30 05:44:55 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I'm not really sure what I was expecting with this book.  I had a cold and had just finished reading a classic so I picked it up for something relatively easy yet entertaining to read.  That is certainly what I got.  The novel is extremely easy to read and the narrative flows brilliantly - I almost ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76193913">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76193913]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76193913]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>66176988</id>
    <user>
    <id>2595349</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Cindy]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Berkeley, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2595349-cindy]]></link>
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  <id type="integer">13258</id>
  <isbn>0312421990</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780312421991</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">297</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800m/13258.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800s/13258.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13258.What_Was_She_Thinking_Notes_on_a_Scandal_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2125</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2003</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="five-star-fiction" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Aug 04 12:33:05 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Aug 04 19:01:17 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Barbara Covett, the narrator of Heller's novel, appears to be an opinionated but harmless, even kindly, older woman who has taken an interest in the naiive struggling new teacher Sheba. It is only as the novel progresses that the reader begins to realize Barbara's true nature, that she is in fact ma...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66176988">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66176988]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66176988]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>63258442</id>
    <user>
    <id>2453064</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Naimisha]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[London, H9, The United Kingdom]]></location>
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  <isbn>0312421990</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780312421991</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">297</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800m/13258.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166550800s/13258.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13258.What_Was_She_Thinking_Notes_on_a_Scandal_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[This is one of those disquieting novels that proffers its apparent theme then cunningly reveals itself to be about something else altogether. As its title and first pages suggest, its surface plot concerns a tabloid-pleasing sizzler of a scandal. Sheba Hart, a 41-year-old pottery teacher, arrives at...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63258442">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Beginnings. . .<br/><br/>The book starts off as a diary where the date &quot;1st March 1998&quot; is written and is a particular of the book, its could be therefore assumed that it is also a promise of the events that happened that day.  Zoe Heller plunges us straight into the story and begins at ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63140280">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench<br/> <br/>Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense --and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[&quot;Notes on a Scandal&quot; tells the story of two slightly with completely skewed and slightly perverse world views.  One obsessively justifies her love affair with a fifteen year old, and the other chronicles her betrayal of her best friend without realizing its implications.  It was very dark,...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50682648">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal]]>
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    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. <p>Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Having just read Lolita, I thought it would be interesting to read a more modern take on such a difficult subject, albeit with genders reversed... <br/><br/>It's the story of Sheba, a married middle class middle aged pottery teacher who has an affair with a 15 year old pupil. It is told by Barbara...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43469719">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[What was she thinking: Notes on a Scandal, by Zoe Heller.  B-plus.<br/>Downloaded from Audible.com.  Narrated by Nadia May.<br/>This book was made into a movie.  Somehow I think the movie would have been better than the book.  But this is a character study really of a middle-aged single female tea...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42728353">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in <em>What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal</em> and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them. Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons. <p>Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --<em>Roz Kaveney</em></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[If there is one book a single woman in her 30s should <em>not</em> read, it’s this one.  Not that I’m in my 30s, of course, but I have always been told my maturity exceeds my age, so for all intents and purposes, I may as well be 30.  I hang out with people in their 30s.  Who have husbands.  And ex-husba...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41545512">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench<br/> <br/>Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense --and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[I never thought I would side with or empathize with such a manipulative character.  It is obvious that Barbara Covett (such a fitting surname), wormed her way into the life of Sheba Hart in such a clever and subtle way that it seemed natural to Sheba, befriending someone in a new workplace.  <br/>...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74003032">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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