book data
4,589 ratings,
3.45
average rating, 428 reviews
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published
January 3rd 2002
by Belfond
(first published 2000)
details
Paperback, 310 pages
isbn
2714438350
(isbn13: 9782714438355)
description
Oprah Book Club® Selection, August 2000: The narrator of Elizabeth Berg's Open House calls divorce "a series of internal earthquakes ... one aft…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 5,847)
All ratings
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5 stars (621)
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4 stars (1535)
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3 stars (1812)
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2 stars (536)
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1 star (85)
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avg 3.45
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
a retard
True to form, Elizabeth Berg sucks again.
What do I care about a dumpy, depressed, middle-aged divorcee who spends her evenings reading Oprah book club selections and chowing down chocolate bars?
On the up-side, it made me feel thin and accomplished.
What do I care about a dumpy, depressed, middle-aged divorcee who spends her evenings reading Oprah book club selections and chowing down chocolate bars?
On the up-side, it made me feel thin and accomplished.
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Read in December, 2008
I am going to review this book based on the first 3/4 and the last 1/4.
At first, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked this one up. Berg described feelings and characters in such detail that I was eager to read more of her work. I really felt for Sam, the main character, and I loved how Berg added Sam's inner thoughts as an aside of the regular plot. I was debating between 4 and 5 stars because I kept thinking about what would happen at the end and I was really into the book.
...more
At first, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked this one up. Berg described feelings and characters in such detail that I was eager to read more of her work. I really felt for Sam, the main character, and I loved how Berg added Sam's inner thoughts as an aside of the regular plot. I was debating between 4 and 5 stars because I kept thinking about what would happen at the end and I was really into the book.
...more
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Read in June, 2008
Next time I find myself thinking that I need a really easy read, I'll edit my thought to be "I need an easy, BUT STILL WORTHWHILE, read."
Although I hate to love, and love to hate on Oprah and her book club books, they usually are pretty decent. Oprah needs to fire who ever read this book for her, at once!
And the thing I find the most perplexing is that my mom left it in my room at home to read. I mean, she actually read this book and thought to herself "L...more
Although I hate to love, and love to hate on Oprah and her book club books, they usually are pretty decent. Oprah needs to fire who ever read this book for her, at once!
And the thing I find the most perplexing is that my mom left it in my room at home to read. I mean, she actually read this book and thought to herself "L...more
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Read in March, 2009
p. 201
Everything is there, in science. Even human emotions, I mean. It's as though they're represented by certain universal laws.
[Naked stars:] are stars with most of their gaseous atmospheres stripped away. And you know why they're revealed like that? Because of close encounters with other stars. I find something very human about that.
Do you ever think about how hard it is to say something and have it be precise? Especially the things you care most abou...more
Everything is there, in science. Even human emotions, I mean. It's as though they're represented by certain universal laws.
[Naked stars:] are stars with most of their gaseous atmospheres stripped away. And you know why they're revealed like that? Because of close encounters with other stars. I find something very human about that.
Do you ever think about how hard it is to say something and have it be precise? Especially the things you care most abou...more
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Read in November, 2009
I like Elizabeth Berg, her books have kind of crept right up on me and grabbed me. I like her character's eccentricities (even though if I knew them in real life I'd find them annoying)and the analogies she uses (example: "I save his confidence in me as though his words were silver dollars, knotted in a silk scarf and kept hidden in a dresser drawer". Just lovely, poignant imagery.
In this novel Sam (Samantha) is on a tail-spin after her husband abruptly leaves her and thei...more
In this novel Sam (Samantha) is on a tail-spin after her husband abruptly leaves her and thei...more
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Read in May, 2009
I'm surprised Oprah chose this one of Berg's books. I much preferred "A Year of Pleasures". Though maybe it is one of those you like best whichever you read first conundrums.
This follows a similar pattern (or I guess a Year of Pleasures follows a similar pattern to this) with a woman dealing with the loss of her life-force, in this case, an intact family unit. She starts to cope with her divorce, winds up with an abortion, then falls in love with the new perfect man. If tha...more
This follows a similar pattern (or I guess a Year of Pleasures follows a similar pattern to this) with a woman dealing with the loss of her life-force, in this case, an intact family unit. She starts to cope with her divorce, winds up with an abortion, then falls in love with the new perfect man. If tha...more
Read in February, 2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Read in March, 2009
I didn't want to read this book at first-- it seemed too depressing, the theme of divorce. I come from a split marriage, so it's a topic I kind of like to avoid. I was pulled, though, for some reason. The first couple of chapters were a bit depressing and difficult to get through, but by chapter four, I was hooked and wanted to keep reading to see how Sam, the main character, would develop throughout the pages. Berg did an amazing job at character and plot development, but she could have incorp...more
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Read in July, 2008
I was having trouble settling on a book after so much dense school reading, so I decided to let Oprah guide me. This book is kind of like advanced chick lit. The prose is simple and honest, and somehow very comforting. Ideal if you want to spend a weekend lying on the couch with some sort of snack food, but still sophisticated enough to not induce that "I just watched a marathon of The Bachelor" feeling.
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Read in October, 2009
This was an Oprah's Book Club book so I had high expectations going in. It was okay...a book about a woman going through a divorce. I thought the author captured the emotions of the main character very realistically. We women are strong and brave one minute then crying on the floor in a self defeated heap the next. That part I really connected with. But the story line was predictable and cliche...and I am so tired of books and movies celebrating couples who divorce and then "find"...more
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Read in October, 2009
What a fun, crazy book. I recommend it to anyone who wishes to be amused by the antics of a recently separated woman ("Sam") with an 11-year-old son, who takes on a roommate to help pay the mortgage. The subsequent revolving roommates are absolute characters who add immensely to the drama. Sam's preteen son's indifferent, sometimes nasty attitude is right on (I would know). I loved the other characters in the book as well. Sam's long-distance friend, Rita, is blunt and honest and over-...more
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Read in January, 2009
A fairly quick read. Nicely written in terms of flowing realistically. Samantha's husband leaves her after almost 20 years of marriage. She has to figure out how to remake her life for herself and her 11-year-old son, when all she really wants is to have her husband come home to her. Sometimes she seems a little pathetic and needy in trying to get him back. But there are amusing parts, as well as the interest added by the boarders who rent rooms in her house and the series of odd jobs she t...more
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Read in February, 2010
I didn't really care for this book. I understand how devastating a divorce can be, but was thoroughly irritated by how pathetic Sam became (at one point even throwing herself at the very man who abandoned her and her son). I could've really gotten behind this character and cheered for her if she had pulled herself up, quit feeling sorry for herself, and strived to create a new life for herself. She did eventually do that but I still felt that she was letting life happen to her rather than livi...more
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Read in May, 2004
Sam must find herself after years of marriage to David and raising 11 year old Travis. She has been dumped, unwillingly and faces up to the financial challenges by opening her home to roommates and thus opening her life and her heart. The first person to move in is elderly and quickly becomes a friend and offers good advice and company. Next is an oddball with a very pessimistic attitude toward life-Lavender something or other. And finally a gay man who becomes a part of the family. Travis goes ...more
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Read in November, 2003
Another Berg book that I truly loved and enjoyed reading. I read it in one sitting.
So many characters in this novel, Sam, David, Veronica, Travis, King, Rita, Lydia, Thomas etc. This story was very well written and I'm in the process of searching for Berg's other books that I haven't yet read.
From the dust jacket:
"Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-ye...more
So many characters in this novel, Sam, David, Veronica, Travis, King, Rita, Lydia, Thomas etc. This story was very well written and I'm in the process of searching for Berg's other books that I haven't yet read.
From the dust jacket:
"Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-ye...more
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Read in January, 2003
Picked this up at a local book sale to read and release.
A story of growth, strength and humanity. Berg has a gift, it seems.
I'd read this a while back, but when I found this copy- I could no longer really remember the story- divorced woman finds self, is all I could come up with.
But it is a lot more than that. The path to the finding of herself and feeling secure is well told. (I must admit I chuckled at the image of Sam sewing shut the flies of her husb...more
A story of growth, strength and humanity. Berg has a gift, it seems.
I'd read this a while back, but when I found this copy- I could no longer really remember the story- divorced woman finds self, is all I could come up with.
But it is a lot more than that. The path to the finding of herself and feeling secure is well told. (I must admit I chuckled at the image of Sam sewing shut the flies of her husb...more
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What happens when your husband leaves and you have to make a living all on your own? It can happen...and sometimes it turns out better than imagined.
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I had to give up my prejudice against Oprah's book club, at some point accepting that most of the books she picked were interesting. Yes, they were frequently about a female protagonist having emotional issues, man issues, money issues, baby issues. Yes they are often distinctly and singularly 'feminine' in perspective, audience, etc, but it turns out that I happen to enjoy some of those sometimes. You've got to mix them up with other things, but still.
Anyhow, I think.... this one is...more
Anyhow, I think.... this one is...more
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Read in February, 2009
Shallow sketches of uninteresting characters paired with the bare outline of a plot whose every development was easily guessed. Had Berg gone any deeper into any of the characters, we might have had a reason to empathize or sympathize with them, to root for them even, but instead we can hardly wait for the book to end. Which doesn't take long, because there's nothing of substance to slow down the page turning. I started the book two weeks before I finished it, because I set it down after the fir...more
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I love Elizabeth Berg, you can just see yourself in her characters or at least aspects of them.
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