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300th out of 1,228 books
—
3,014 voters
The Wonder Spot
by
Melissa Bank
Melissa Bank's runaway bestseller, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, charmed readers and critics alike with its wickedly insightful, tender look at a young woman's forays into love, work, and friendship. Now, with The Wonder Spot, Bank is back with her signature combination of devilishly self-deprecating humor, seriousness and wisdom.
Nothing comes easily to Sophie A...more
Nothing comes easily to Sophie A...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
May 30th 2006
by Penguin Books
(first published 2005)
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“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 gentle voice and sage advice took me...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 gentle voice and sage advice took me...more
May 23, 2007
Taylor
rated it
2 of 5 stars
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
Aug 17, 2007
Kate
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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 person, you...more
Apr 18, 2007
Abby
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anybody who just can't get it right with relationships.
Shelves:
fiction
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 ideals for what she wants to do. Every relationsh...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 ideals for what she wants to do. Every relationsh...more
I saw Melissa Bank speak while I was still in college in 2005, when she had finished "The Wonder Spot" but had not yet published it. I really liked "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing," so when I saw this book at the Dollar Store (for a dollar!), I just couldn't pass it up.
"The Wonder Spot" follows Sophia Applebaum from late adolescence to adulthood and chronicles events & feelings that many of us experience: loss of a loved one, the disappointment of a failed romance, and anxiety over...more
"The Wonder Spot" follows Sophia Applebaum from late adolescence to adulthood and chronicles events & feelings that many of us experience: loss of a loved one, the disappointment of a failed romance, and anxiety over...more
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.
This book sucked. I like the statement in the review that a woman named Kate left about this book-Sophie's life is pointless. And since the book is centered around her-thus the book is pointless. Sophie is not likeable-she's a train wreck, which is fine to be a train wreck and to center a book about a train wreck but there is nothing redemptive about this character. Sophie never learns anything, her life never improves, she never learns anything about herself and relationships, it is just a blah...more
Aug 11, 2008
Alison
rated it
4 of 5 stars
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 tribulatio...more
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
Uno de los mejores libros que he le��do hasta ahora en lo que va de a��o. Despu��s de seguir su estupenda gu��a de caza y pesca, no pod��a dejar de leer la otra novela de Melissa Bank, muy en la l��nea the "The Girl's Guide for Hunting and Fishing". Por ah�� he visto este libro descrito como parte del g��nero de literatura para chicas, lo cual me parece una l��stima porque el estilo y la calidad est�� a a��os luz que casi cualquier otro t��tulo de ese tipo. Es m��s, yo dir��a que lo ��nico que h...more
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, cigarette gestures,...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, cigarette gestures,...more
I wanted to give Melissa Bank a second chance after being underwhelmed with her debut novel, but I found her follow-up, "The Wonder Spot" to be equally underwhelming. This is not to say that the novel is without merit, as there are things that Bank does very well.
She doesn't write plot, she write slice of life and character sketches. This entire book comprised of slices of the main character, Sophie Applebaums, life. It's an examination of how a woman grows (or is stuck) as she develops relation...more
She doesn't write plot, she write slice of life and character sketches. This entire book comprised of slices of the main character, Sophie Applebaums, life. It's an examination of how a woman grows (or is stuck) as she develops relation...more
The story teller here is Sophie Applebaum. First chapter starts with 12 year old Sophie describing her experience going to a bat mitzvah for the “perfect” Rebecca who is a friend of the family. You learn Sophie has with two brothers, a father who is a judge by profession and a mother who worries about what other people think. You start to get the character development and personalities of the brothers and parents right away.
It’s not an extraordinary coming of age story but an honest depiction of...more
It’s not an extraordinary coming of age story but an honest depiction of...more
It really takes awhile for some things to sink in. When you miss
the joke, a story can be far less than interesting. And the set-up
for the joke when not seen as such can be just so much blather
(talking long-windedly without making very much sense).
This second novel follows a bit as a formula to the Girls Guide
to Hunting and Fishing (which I loved, see review) though with both,
I start out with a so-so opinion of and then work up to
understanding. With the first (Girls Guide) I had it by the end...more
the joke, a story can be far less than interesting. And the set-up
for the joke when not seen as such can be just so much blather
(talking long-windedly without making very much sense).
This second novel follows a bit as a formula to the Girls Guide
to Hunting and Fishing (which I loved, see review) though with both,
I start out with a so-so opinion of and then work up to
understanding. With the first (Girls Guide) I had it by the end...more
February last year I read The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by the same author and wasn't terribly impressed. It was all very Bridget-Jones-try-hard, Jane the main character was incredibly dull and I am just did not get it. In fact when the book was published, according to Wikipedia, Melissa Bank was compared to Helen Fielding (creator of Bridget) and held, along with Helen, for being the creators of chick lit. Maybe in America...So I wasn't terribly fussed about starting this one, but bec...more
Nov 07, 2010
Stephanie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Stephanie by:
Night Owl Book Club
I liked (not loved) this book. I found myself not wanting to put it down, but mostly out of hope. Hope that the main character Sophie would soon have some breakthrough towards maturity. Throughout the book, and especially toward the end, I alternated between hopeful expectation and frustration. There were times that I found myself nodding and thinking "I've done that / felt that / wished I was or wasn't that". However, there were more times I felt myself getting frustrated with Sophie's seemingl...more
A GIRL'S GUIDE TO HUNTING & FISHING got passed around my friends in college after a very smart professor included it on her women & lit syllabus. Fortunately for me, the dearth of what I think I want to read at the Shirlington Library made me find THE WONDER SPOT.
It was cathartic. I could have written the chapter "Teen Romance" and "The One After You." Slight spoiler: I welled up a bit reading the "Teen Romance" one in particular. I had almost exactly the same experience earlier this spr...more
It was cathartic. I could have written the chapter "Teen Romance" and "The One After You." Slight spoiler: I welled up a bit reading the "Teen Romance" one in particular. I had almost exactly the same experience earlier this spr...more
I really like Melissa Bank as an observer, and this book has a lot of passages that take her out of the realm of "chick-lit" (if she ever was in it) and into the category of writer who wastes her talents on talking about the same people in every book. I really connect to her descriptions of the places she sets this book's stories in, and to certain aspects of her protagonist's character and story arc, but ultimately I think Bank falls short of drawing a complete or compelling human being in Soph...more
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank is unique chick-lit in that it combines extreme sarcasm, humor, and wit with your typical coming-of-age novel.
Our heroine is Sophie Applebaum, a Jewish girl with two brothers, a judge for a father, and a scatter-brained mother. We meet Sophie initially when she is about twelve years old, and we join her in growing up well into her late thirties or so. Along the way we encounter and share with Sophie her many boyfriend experiences, as well as adventures with schoo...more
Our heroine is Sophie Applebaum, a Jewish girl with two brothers, a judge for a father, and a scatter-brained mother. We meet Sophie initially when she is about twelve years old, and we join her in growing up well into her late thirties or so. Along the way we encounter and share with Sophie her many boyfriend experiences, as well as adventures with schoo...more
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 bookan...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 bookan...more
I am really enjoying this book. I like books written by "observers" of life - not necessarily people who have books written about them because they are so outstanding themselves in some way - but those who keenly observe the lives taking place around them and who are able to read facial expressions and perceive the hidden meanings we all convey whether or not we want to do so. The main character, Sophie, is one such observer rather than an outstanding achiever and her take on life is often quirk...more
Jul 31, 2011
Sarah
added it
This book was not near as good as People magazine made it out to be. I guess I was hoping for an ugly duckling type transformation story and that’s not what I got, not even remotely close. The main character is a lost female searching for things that all of us at some point are looking for security, love, career, and most of all happiness. The words wonder spot appear only 2 times each and it’s towards the end. This book was very average although I could relate to the main character because...more
The Wonder Spot is quirky and funny in a subtle way. It details the social life (from childhood to almost middle age) of a woman who hasn’t quite found her place in the world. When her romantic life flourished, I cheered. When a relationship ended, I mourned. I found myself protective over the main character, loathing anyone who treated her poorly. I easily imagined all of the characters and found people in my own life who they were just like.
The story wasn’t entirely linear, and this is what I...more
The story wasn’t entirely linear, and this is what I...more
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."
I finished Melissa Bank's The Wonder Spot a couple days ago. This is another collection of "short prose," same character throughout the collection of short stories... so it's not a short story collection, but it's not a novel (so it IS like Moral Disorder). Are there lots of books like these?
'Cause I like 'em.
I've read Bank's The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing at least four times, so I knew what I was getting into. I liked the stories quite a bit, but they all left me feeling unsettled - the...more
'Cause I like 'em.
I've read Bank's The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing at least four times, so I knew what I was getting into. I liked the stories quite a bit, but they all left me feeling unsettled - the...more
I loved, loved, loved this book. Sophie is that underdog heroine who is just a normal girl with an awesome deadpan sense of humor. I found myself nodding my head and thinking, I remember doing that, feeling that, wishing I was/wasn't that. She is the super-hero for those of us who aren't the prettiest, smartest, most talented, consistently tardy and whose whites are never that white. I read other reviews saying that her inability to commit to a job or relationship got annoying, but I felt like i...more
This book spans the life of Sophie Applebaum from her young pre-teen years to her 40s. Her experience at Hebrew school was very familiar to me including hiding out in the santuary bathrooms on weekday evenings. Sophie is a directionless woman who drifts around Manhattan to various apartments, jobs and boyfriends.
I felt like the chapters were all vignettes of her life. There was consistancy of characters with her family, but her close friends changed from chapter to chapter, and I guess that happ...more
I felt like the chapters were all vignettes of her life. There was consistancy of characters with her family, but her close friends changed from chapter to chapter, and I guess that happ...more
"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 time line doesn't follow an exact s...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 time line doesn't follow an exact s...more
I picked up this book because I loved another of this author's books (The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing). Unfortunately, I found this book terribly disappointing.
I don't even know what the point of it was, as the main character, whose name I've already forgotten, spent the whole entire book going from one bad relationship to the next (friends, family, and romantic relationships) and one dead-end job to the next. I'm pretty sure she never reached the "wonder spot," whatever that's supposed...more
I don't even know what the point of it was, as the main character, whose name I've already forgotten, spent the whole entire book going from one bad relationship to the next (friends, family, and romantic relationships) and one dead-end job to the next. I'm pretty sure she never reached the "wonder spot," whatever that's supposed...more
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 ordinary person,...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Another chick book | 1 | 19 | May 28, 2009 06:57am |
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“You did the best you could," and she seemed to believe I had.
I said, "I've just been going through the motions," using the expression my father had after he'd watched my first tennis lesson.
"Sweetie," she said, "that's what a lot of life is.”
—
11 people liked it
I said, "I've just been going through the motions," using the expression my father had after he'd watched my first tennis lesson.
"Sweetie," she said, "that's what a lot of life is.”
“He gives me a kiss that barely touches my lips – it means nothing or everything.
After he’s gone, I think, Happy birthday to me.
Jack says, ‘That was the guy?’
‘That was him.’
Jake shakes his head.
‘What?’
‘He’s not for you,’ he says.
I say, ‘How do you know?’ but what I mean is, How do you know?
‘He’s like Ashley Wilkes,’ he says. ‘Any one of these guys is Rhett-ier than he is.’
Again, I ask my benignly inflected, ‘How do you know?’
‘How do I know?’ he says, tackling me into a bear hug. ‘How do I know? I know, that’s how I know.”
—
11 people liked it
More quotes…
After he’s gone, I think, Happy birthday to me.
Jack says, ‘That was the guy?’
‘That was him.’
Jake shakes his head.
‘What?’
‘He’s not for you,’ he says.
I say, ‘How do you know?’ but what I mean is, How do you know?
‘He’s like Ashley Wilkes,’ he says. ‘Any one of these guys is Rhett-ier than he is.’
Again, I ask my benignly inflected, ‘How do you know?’
‘How do I know?’ he says, tackling me into a bear hug. ‘How do I know? I know, that’s how I know.”
Dec 28, 2007 07:51pm