Beginner's Greek : A Novel

by James Collins
Beginner's Greek : A Novel  
published January 9th 2008 by Little Brown and Company
binding Hardcover
isbn 0316021555   (isbn13: 9780316021555)
pages 416
description When Peter Russell finally meets the woman of his dreams he falls as madly in love as you can on a flight from New York to LA.Her name is Holly. She's...more
date added
09-06-07



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 757)



Anne
Anne rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
02/05/08

Read in February, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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margueya
margueya rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
01/24/08

Be warned - I have found the secular world's answer to BD Dayehu - James Collins. Midway - no, actually, a few pages in - I thought, is this his first novel? Yep. Which would stand as good argument against the 'most authors best books are their first.' Not so much with Jimmy here.
So I was excited for this one because it sounded cute - like the movie Serendipity which I totally enjoyed - guy meets girl on an airplane, a life long fantasy of finding true love in a random twist of fate and al...more
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Stephanie
Stephanie rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
05/02/08

bookshelves: fiction
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Stephanie by: New York Times Book Review
Beginner’s Greek is a modern urban fairytale with fable-like archetypes and improbable twists of fate. It is unabashedly and quite unsubtly about love with the Austenesque quandries of true love vs. our society’s practicality.

The story centers on Peter Russell a young Wall Street financial guy who is wildly and somewhat unbelievably romantic. He believes that fate will one day sit him next to the woman of his dreams – his soul mate – on an airplane flight. This indeed comes true w...more
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Ben Babcock
Ben rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
06/03/08

bookshelves: from-library
Read in May, 2008
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Mark
Mark rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
01/28/08

Read in November, 2007
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Jeanne
Jeanne rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
01/19/08

Read in January, 2008
Before I say anything else, I have to say that I love this novel. I love the plot, I love the characters, I love the pace, and I love the ending.

Now, here’s the story (briefly): Peter meets Holly on a flight from New York to LA. They talk, they bond, and by the time the plane has landed, Peter is sure that he is in love. Holly gives him her phone number, but by the time he gets to the hotel, he realizes that he has lost it. He has lost the most important number in his life. And he do...more
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Cat
Cat rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
02/18/08

bookshelves: 2008
Read in February, 2008
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Kristen
Kristen rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
05/09/08

bookshelves: fiction, popularbooksthatididntlike
Read in May, 2008
It wasn't that I didn't like this book....its just that it wasn't what I was expecting. This book has been getting a TON of press. It is the author's debut novel and is being touted as "romantic." One person on the back cover compared him to Jane Austen. I can do "romantic." But I can't do cheese. This book bordered on cheese. It was just too neat and tidy. Perhaps life really is like this book--people pursuing the correct paths at every turn. Maybe I'm just too cyni...more
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Terri
Terri rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/25/08

bookshelves: book-reviews
Beginner’s Greek
by: James Collins

Holly and Peter meet on a flight from New York to Los Angeles and are immediately attracted to one another. At some inner level, they each know they met their life mate. This is an amusing chick lit romance in which one thing leads to another. Peter loses her number and years later Holly marries Peter’s best friend, will Holly and Peter ever realize they belong together or is it too late.

You will love the more surprising twists and turns in the liv...more
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Barbwebb1
Barbwebb1 rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
03/27/08

Read in March, 2008
This book is very popular with literary critics--I heard about it on the NYTimes book review podcast and have read other positive reviews. This is an odd book--a satire of relationships among people of a certain social class, but not always. That's fine, I guess. I'm not going to be one to hold a book to complete consistency. But I got the sneaking feeling reading it that the author started out writing a straight-ahead romance and then realized how sappy and unbelievable it sounded and turned it...more
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Chelsea
Chelsea rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
02/13/08

I really enjoyed this book. I had kind of taken a hiatus from reading since I finished the Bourne Identity, so it was nice to get sucked back into a book! The premise is really cute, Peter and Holly meet on a plane and instantly fall in love, but unfortunately Peter loses Holly's phone number and doesn't see her again for 4 more years. But by then she's involved with someone, various miscommunications and treacheries ensue and you'll have to read it to find out exactly what happens! If you'v...more
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Amy
Amy rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
03/28/08

Read in March, 2008
This book was lent to me by a coworker. She'd seen an ad for it in the New Yorker, and the author has written for that publication, so one would assume this book would be good. It is not. Actually, the whole thing reads like a formulaic romantic comedy, and it seems like Collins wrote it with the intention of getting it turned into a movie. The dialogue is ATROCIOUS and completely unbelievable (and often inconsistent in its cadence and use of slang). The characters indulge in mind-numbing monolo...more
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Karina
Karina rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
01/29/08

bookshelves: contemporary-fiction-chick-lit
Read in January, 2008
I loved the premise but it did not carry through.

If you've ever seen the movie "Serendipity," the back-cover copy reads something like that: boy and girl meet on the plane, fall in love, he loses her number, she marries his friend, yada yada until they finally get together. And the reviews on Amazon claimed that this was a notch above the other romances and chick lit out there.

It could have been, had I cared more about the characters and had less of the book happened inside the...more
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Chris
Chris rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/05/08

Read in February, 2008
We meet the young, successful, neurotic Peter on a flight from New York to Los Angeles, where he strikes up a conversation with Holly, an attractive school teacher. Five hours later, Peter has shared his life story and concluded he has met his soul mate. Holly suggests they meet again while in California; Peter agrees and takes her number down on a stray piece of paper--which mysteriously disappears.

Ten years later, Peter has fallen victim to the boss from hell, marries a woman he doesn’...more
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Anna
Anna rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
05/20/08

Read in May, 2008
Hmmm...this book feels like three stars. I'm kind of torn. On the one hand, the writing is lovely and the author did a great job with the omniscient point of view. Also, I loved the opening set-up of the man and woman meeting on the cross-country flight and falling in love at 40,000 feet, only to have logistics and other people get in the way once they are on the ground again. (Don't worry, I'm not giving anything away here.) On the other hand, there were times when I felt the story sputter...more
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Sue
Sue rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
06/28/08

bookshelves: modern-lit, new-york-books
Read in June, 2008
I was disappointed in this book. I didn't like the characters, so who cares what happens to them? Not funny, not smart, not romantic because the whole thing was so one-dimensional. The plot could have worked if I'd liked the characters, if they had anything to offer. Instead, we're told about how great they are (and even that's questionable--Holly is beautiful and Peter is "Good old Peter"), but never see it by anything they say or do. Right from the start, Peter wants a girl who is be...more
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Bruce
Bruce rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
02/01/08

Read in January, 2008
The language and sensibilities are gentle and civilized, in the way of an Alexander McCall Smith book. Much of the dialogue seems to be in (what I imagine is) the style of romance novels.

A blurb on the book compares it to Jane Austin, but I don't think it comes close. Its central characters are too nice to be borne for much longer than it takes to finish the book, and its villans aren't menacing enough for long enough.

Still, appropriate comeupances are inflicted or bestowed upon everyone...more
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Chase
Chase marked it as to-read
02/07/08

bookshelves: to-read
According to the Week:
James' Collins' debut novel relies on a 'stunning number' of familiar romantic comedy tropes...Peter, a slightly awkward young financial type, meets the woman of his dreams on an airplane, misplaces her phone number, then spends years waiting for life's soap opera to bring his soul mate back to him. But Collins infuses each twist along the way with 'so much old-school charm' that it becomes escapist magic...Collins 'sly humor' makes such faults (as filler prose) forgivab...more
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Candice
Candice rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
03/12/08

Read in March, 2008
recommends it for: Ellen, Jamie, anyone who's ever been in love
This book was a delight from start to finish! It was sweet and funny with well-drawn characters. It's a love story, but so much more - the story of two people who meet on a plane and are instantly drawn to each other, but who just can't seem to get together. I can't say it's totally believable, but I can't say that I cared how believeble it was because it was so enjoyable. The only flaw, from my point of view, was that the part about the background of one of the characters, Julia, was ...more
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Helen
Helen added it
03/04/08

Read in April, 2008
I officially decided to give up on this book. I rarely abandon a book, but I could tell after reading first few chapters (and then skipping ahead to the middle of the book) that it simply isn't worth my time to wade through the author's self-indulgent ramblings that are intended to be character development (of characters who, as far as I could tell, were not particularly important to the story).

Far too much time is spent drifting through various characters' thoughts, flitting from the past...more
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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.39 (347 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 3.39 (347 ratings)
number of reviews: 169






other editions

Beginner's Greek: A Novel (Audio CD)