book data
2,198 ratings,
3.26
average rating, 365 reviews
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published
May 30th 2006
(first published 2005)
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
binding
Paperback, 336 pages
isbn
0143037218
(isbn13: 9780143037217)
description
Six years after her amazingly successful debut, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Bank rewards her fans for their patience with The Won...more
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avg 3.26
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in June, 2006
recommends it for:
people who like memoirs from women with relationship issues
I'm so-so about this book. I found it very uneven. There's a clear division here - childhood, relationships - both of which can be interesting in the hands of the right writer. It's obvious that she writes well, and this has its magical moments, but overall it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. As she gets more and more into the relationships, she speaks less on her life outside of them and jumps from one to the other, without transitioning very effectively. The ending also feels like a huge co...more
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Read in March, 2007
This is Banks' followup to A Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing. She follows a young Jewish woman from girlhood to adulthood through relationship after relationship, each one seeming like the end all at the time. It's interesting to see the character's point of view change over time, as well as to witness the changing/maturing of her familial relationships.
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Read in March, 2007
“I hesitated, but when she handed the cigarette to me I took it, and when she lit the match I leaned forward. I imitated my mother accepting a light from my father and exhaled as she did, ceiling-ward.
Margie held her own cigarette between her teeth like a killer; she was imitating someone, too - maybe the Penguin from Batman.”
“Up until that moment, I’d been at the earliest stage of love, when you feel it will turn you into the person you want to be. Now, his gen...more
Margie held her own cigarette between her teeth like a killer; she was imitating someone, too - maybe the Penguin from Batman.”
“Up until that moment, I’d been at the earliest stage of love, when you feel it will turn you into the person you want to be. Now, his gen...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
not really anyone...
The pointless ending made me realize how pointless Sophie's life is. I felt disappointed for her. She seems unable to love, or unable to commit. Is it that hard to fall in love with one of her many boyfriends? No one is perfect, but that doesn't mean no one is worth your love. I think Sophie is typical of many people in our culture, which makes me sad. The writing is not bad (despite its many similarities to The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing); if you're a mediocre, middle class perso...more
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recommends it for:
Anybody who just can't get it right with relationships.
Melissa Bank is not Chick-Lit.
And why is that?
Because her heroines never fixate on their weight, their clothing, their hairstyle, their men.
Bank has this way of skimming over all of those, and while the men are still existing (especially in Wonder Spot), her heroine Sophie is analyzing more why she needs them than the fact that she DOES need them.
Sophie can't commit. She doesn't order for herself in restaurants or at bars. She has no ambition or i...more
And why is that?
Because her heroines never fixate on their weight, their clothing, their hairstyle, their men.
Bank has this way of skimming over all of those, and while the men are still existing (especially in Wonder Spot), her heroine Sophie is analyzing more why she needs them than the fact that she DOES need them.
Sophie can't commit. She doesn't order for herself in restaurants or at bars. She has no ambition or i...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
All those who've spent more than 10 years single
Whoever said those who were mediocre and middle class might like this was apparently right. I'm presumed to be both, and I think Melissa Bank has the best handle on the three-dimensional reality of being a single woman of anyone writing about "bachelorettes" today. Her protagonist has strong family relationships, complex friendships, moves through serious career changes, goes to school more than once, and gets beyond herself to examine others who have the same set of life's trials and ...more
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Read in May, 2008
I thought the book was well-written and perceptive but I got tired of Sophie's passivity and her inability to commit to a relationship or a career. And as so many other readers have commented, I thought the ending was contrived. My favorite part of the book is actually the chapter in which her sharp-tongued grandmother has a stroke and becomes sweet--if only it weren't combined with a description of an annoying doctor Sophie is dating. Although each chapter can stand alone, Bank makes desultory ...more
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Read in December, 2008
If nothing else, former lovers should give good fodder for brunch conversations. Laughter (and mimosas and cosmopolitans) mitigates the grieving process for relationships, particularly important for a the "chick lit" cottage industry that Melissa Bank is said to have spawned with her Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing in 2000.
Much like her previous collection of short stories (the format perhaps best suited for her style), this novel opens with a protagonist of biting wit...more
Much like her previous collection of short stories (the format perhaps best suited for her style), this novel opens with a protagonist of biting wit...more
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I've read this before although I didn't realise it when I got it out of the library - partly because of the US / UK covers I expect. It's more like a series of short stories about the same characters than a novel. I've read other stuff by her & liked it - she's always very readable. I think she tends to write the same stuff over again - sticking to what she knows.
Just recently I was telling a friend about the episode when she is in a life-drawing class. I had forgotten the author, the ...more
Just recently I was telling a friend about the episode when she is in a life-drawing class. I had forgotten the author, the ...more
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not as good as her debut novel, but still very sincere and simple. she's a great writer. from the book description, a sample of her writing as the main character observes during a seventh grade skating party: "I felt sure that everyone was looking at me and then realized that no one was, and i experienced the distinct shame of each."
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Read in April, 2009
"The Wonder Spot" -Melissa Bank (2005)
While I admit to loving short stories, the one issue I have with a collection of them is that reading it in one setting tends to blur the story lines and characters. Admittedly, I'll sometimes begin reading the next story and forget what the one before was about. What I like about this book, is that each "short story" is a chapter in the same character's life, making it part short story collection and part novel. While the tim...more
While I admit to loving short stories, the one issue I have with a collection of them is that reading it in one setting tends to blur the story lines and characters. Admittedly, I'll sometimes begin reading the next story and forget what the one before was about. What I like about this book, is that each "short story" is a chapter in the same character's life, making it part short story collection and part novel. While the tim...more
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I actually finished this weeks ago, but am now just updating my review. I listen to the audio book for this one which was read by the author, who had a nice dry "npr" kind of tone to her reading. I definitely recommend the audio version. Parts of this were just downright hilarious. Other parts were just very astute observations about life and people, which is the kind thing I enjoy. On the surface, this book could seem uneventful and boring. The main character is really just an ordinar...more
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Reviewers likely licked their chops when they got the galleys to The Wonder Spot in the mail__a chance to take superstar Melissa Bank down a peg and write the predictable second-novel review: "Bank was just a one-book wonder_" But Bank defied them, and critics roundly agree that her second book shines just as brightly as The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (1999). Yes, the two books share certain superficial similarities__young female protagonist, the presence of poodles, the deat
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Read in December, 2008
Yet another $2 book from Goodwill. I remember vaguely liking Melissa Bank's first book, but I also remember feeling some ambivalence about it, which I also feel here. While it's an engrossing book - I stayed up late reading it - the main character is just sort of a sad sack. She's non-committal, lazy, passive, and not particularly intelligent, and at one point I just wanted to smack her and yell at her that her problems were of her own making and to stop whining about it. But I suppose lots of p...more
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Oh my god, I LOVED this book! One of my favorites. Warning: with one exception, everyone else I recommended this book to didn't respond the way I did. (Which of course I took to be their failing, not the book's. Heh.)
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Read in October, 2008
loved loved loved it. i am sophie want to be sophie at the same time. every girl should read this. much much much better than the girl's guide to hunting and fishing.
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Read in June, 2008
I resisted reading Melissa Bank's first book, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, only succumbing after its popularity had peaked. Much to my surprise (I was expecting something like Brigit Jones' Diary) the book was funny, wise, and sad. This is a hard act to follow.
Bank's current book, a series of linked stories focusing on Sophie Applebaum, is not as successful as her first. The problem is Sophie herself. Rather than ironic and tongue-in-cheekish she comes across as pathetic an...more
Bank's current book, a series of linked stories focusing on Sophie Applebaum, is not as successful as her first. The problem is Sophie herself. Rather than ironic and tongue-in-cheekish she comes across as pathetic an...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommended to Gale by:
Melissa Bank herselfrecommends it for: N-KNEE-ONE
I first heard of Ms. Bank last fall when our Sunday paper ran an advance on her appearance at a local college. In the article she resisted being called a writer of chick lit, noting the media's tendency to lump all women authors of a certain age together as chick lit writers.
Now that I have read both her books, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing being her first, I understand why Ms. Bank doesn't like the categorization.
Nor is she that handily categorized.
...more
Now that I have read both her books, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing being her first, I understand why Ms. Bank doesn't like the categorization.
Nor is she that handily categorized.
...more
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Read in March, 2008
I was completely disappointed with this book. Although some parts were funny, I thought that author Melissa Bank kept the reader too much at bay by jumping from one time frame to another, choosing to tell readers some of the mundane events of her protagonist's (Sophie Appelbaum) life, and in some cases, refusing to elaborate about some of the most important events of her life (her father's death, for instance).
I didn't feel too close to Sophie, which unfortunately, means that I could...more
I didn't feel too close to Sophie, which unfortunately, means that I could...more
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Read in March, 2008
Amazon Editorial: ...a refreshingly honest interpretation of one young woman's journey into adulthood. As we follow heroine Sophie Applebaum through a comfortable, yet awkward childhood in suburban Pennsylvania to the challenges of finding love and a career in midtown Manhattan. Undeniably clever, occasionally hilarious, and often poignant, The Wonder Spot is captivating enough for readers to forgive Sophie's indecisive, self-destructive tendancies and simply bask in her sincerity. - -Gisele To...more
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quotes from this book
"When he takes off his shirt, I see that his shoulders are narrow and his chest almost hairless and almost concave. For a second I’m disappointed but right away I think, Grow up; this is the chest of a husband."
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