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190th out of 199 books
—
144 voters
London Is the Best City in America
by
Laura Dave (Goodreads Author)
London is the Best City in America, is the insightful, wickedly funny story of two siblings who have found themselves at a crossroads. In mapping their struggles over one wild and emotional wedding weekend, Laura Dave gives us a brilliantly subtle and honest look at contemporary courtship, family tension, and the angst that we all experience when we have to make difficult...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
May 18th 2006
by Viking Adult
(first published May 1st 2006)
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Overall I really enjoyed this book. Far more than I expected to. After reading so many just ok books this one really stood out for me. I enjoy books that I feel like I can relate to and this one I could. The book is about family, relationships, and figuring out who you are and where you want to be with your life. I recommend reading this one.
This was funny and really well-written for a light read (aka, realistic, yet not depressing). I really loved the anecdote about the offshore fisherman's girlfriend who would watch for her boyfriend as he came back into port, and then run away after she caught his eye. That way, she could leave him for a change. I should mention that I listened to this one on my commute, instead of reading it. My only beef is that while the person reading the book made an attempt to differentiate between the char...more
A story about seeing love from all sides. How easily it's found, and how easily it's lost. Just a tiny change in timing could make all the difference. Even when both parties want it to work out, and they love each other, there are no guarantees. That ultimately, you have to make decisions based on where you're at in your own story, not looking back and not waiting for the future to change it.
Favorite Quotes (there were many more that could've easily made this list):
"Part of me wanted to…sneak i...more
Favorite Quotes (there were many more that could've easily made this list):
"Part of me wanted to…sneak i...more
I happened to read Laurie's review and it made me curious. I read this in one weekend, which I never do with adult books! I felt a strong kinship with the character of Emmy and her love for her brother Josh. The book unfolds over a single weekend. As Josh begins to have doubts about his impending wedding (due to feelings for another woman), Emmy is forced to deal with a topic she's been avoiding: her own engagement that she ran out on three years before. Laura Dave writes about relationships (fa...more
I read this one last night because the author was listed on Amazon as similar to Liana Moriarty, whose book I read the day before last and loved. Both authors write about situations that could plausibly happen in real life and about human relationships. The similarities end there.
The characters in this book were not well developed so I felt no attachment or investment in them at all. While the brother/sister dynamic and conversations were somewhat realistic, the other conversations were not at a...more
The characters in this book were not well developed so I felt no attachment or investment in them at all. While the brother/sister dynamic and conversations were somewhat realistic, the other conversations were not at a...more
This book has nothing to do with the title, AT ALL. I really don't know why it had this title. There was something at the end, when it referenced this, but other then that, it had nothing to do with each other. This was a typical family drama book, but short and not epic at all. Girl was in long term relationship and left her fiance right before the wedding and ran off and lived a small life in some sort of fishing village were she is now in the process of making a doco that is going nowhere. Sh...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
See my full review here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
Fact: I’ve never got back together (even for a moment) with an ex-boyfriend*. My motto is “The only break is a clean break”. This is pretty much my approach to everything – once I make a decision I don’t dwell on it, I forge ahead (for better or worse). Which is why I picked up Laura Dave’s novel, London is the Best City in America, a story about decisions and indecision.
The story begins with Emmy making what I considered a bold an...more
Fact: I’ve never got back together (even for a moment) with an ex-boyfriend*. My motto is “The only break is a clean break”. This is pretty much my approach to everything – once I make a decision I don’t dwell on it, I forge ahead (for better or worse). Which is why I picked up Laura Dave’s novel, London is the Best City in America, a story about decisions and indecision.
The story begins with Emmy making what I considered a bold an...more
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The prologue seemed promising, along with these moments in Part One: - "Here's the thing about going home again. You don't always know what you'll remember." (13)
- "And suddenly I felt oddly aware of how clear the sky was... how everything was bright and fluid even while it was happening--already existing closer to memory than reality." (13)
Then some pages later I realized we were moving downhill. Dave attempts to add dimension to the story with repetition, an integration of the history of wedd...more
- "And suddenly I felt oddly aware of how clear the sky was... how everything was bright and fluid even while it was happening--already existing closer to memory than reality." (13)
Then some pages later I realized we were moving downhill. Dave attempts to add dimension to the story with repetition, an integration of the history of wedd...more
Ok. I have to say, I've now read two of Laura Dave's books this week, and I have enjoyed both thoroughly. After finishing another predictable Stephanie Plum novel, "London is the Best City in America" proved to be refreshing and well-written. The characters had more depth than most of the "chick lit" I generally read, and I was hooked the entire time I was reading it. Now that I've read both "The First Husband" and this book, I will be on the lookout for more things to come from Laura. One of my...more
I picked this up in a South Beach bookstore when on my honeymoon basically because it had a favorable blurb by Melissa Bank, one of my favorite girl authors who writes about complicated relationships, and I was not disappointed. The main character, Emmy, goes home for her brother Josh's wedding, and is not looking forward to it, basically because she has ran away from her life and her now ex-fiance, and is not exactly living up to her career dreams. Once there, she is quite shocked when her with...more
Wow, the parents in this book must have nerves of steel. Not only does their daughter cancel the engagement/wedding to her fiancé, three years later its like deja vu and their son, the promising, high flying doctor, is having a crisis on the eve of his wedding and his sister is only just finding out how screwed up things are.
After breaking off her engagement, she settles in a sleepy fishing town, under the guise of creating a fishermans wives documentary that's going no-where fast. She's workin...more
After breaking off her engagement, she settles in a sleepy fishing town, under the guise of creating a fishermans wives documentary that's going no-where fast. She's workin...more
I bought the audio version for $1 in the bargain bin. The reader was so whiny and annoying, I then went to the library to check out the book because I couldn't take listening anymore.(Once I start a book, it MUST be finished.) So I read and listened.
Reading didn't help me like this any better than listening to the audio reader.
Grow the eff up! Stay out of your brother's business. It's none of your business. Who cares if he liked a woman other than his fiance for awhile. How does that affect you...more
Reading didn't help me like this any better than listening to the audio reader.
Grow the eff up! Stay out of your brother's business. It's none of your business. Who cares if he liked a woman other than his fiance for awhile. How does that affect you...more
LONDON was a great, quick read about the choices we make in life. My favorite insightful line was: "You need to choose among the choices that are there, and not the ones that aren't anymore. At least now how you need them to be. You're still stuck on some imaginary idea you have of how it could have been. You need to think about how it is now. And how you want it to be."
Emmy makes her first choice when she abandons her fiance in a hotel room because she just can't imagine being with him for the...more
Emmy makes her first choice when she abandons her fiance in a hotel room because she just can't imagine being with him for the...more
I was so sure that I'd love Laura Dave's most recent novel, The First Husband, that while just one day into reading it, I happened to stumble across this book, London is the Best City in America (a title which thoroughly, albeit momentarily, confused my son) on sale in my local library for .50¢. That was just too good a deal to pass up, and while I did not end up loving TFH, I still decided to give this one a go, and I'm so glad I did!
Ms. Dave did such a wonderful job of capturing the complexit...more
Ms. Dave did such a wonderful job of capturing the complexit...more
Jan 21, 2011
Cara
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audio,
fun-or-frivolity
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I actually read this book cause I heard that Reese Witherspoon optioned the rights to the movie version, should be a good one. It has nothing to do with London, it's about a girl who was engaged and broke it off and moves to a small fishing town in Rhodeland to find herself.
Laura Dave can do no wrong in my book (pun intended)! Her writing is so intuitive and clever, for someone as young as she is. She writes as if she has lived well into middle age. Her books make me laugh, make me cheer, make me feel strong emotions, and catch me up in a dizzying speed of literary joy.
London is the Best City in America is a wonderful story (which I read in one sitting, because there was no way NOT to do so once I started)! It is the story of a brother and sister, each thinking the...more
London is the Best City in America is a wonderful story (which I read in one sitting, because there was no way NOT to do so once I started)! It is the story of a brother and sister, each thinking the...more
Hey look I read a totally chicklitty book and liked it. Actually I don't really know what chick lit is but I am worried this might be it. I mean it is clearly a book for women... but lets pretend I'm not embarrassed to have read it.
100... Yay 100... I can calm down I am not a failure.
Okay I liked this book. I as a general rule like any book about relationships in which the resolution is fuzzy at best and everyone is constantly making the wrong decision.
I think that this really comes down to t...more
100... Yay 100... I can calm down I am not a failure.
Okay I liked this book. I as a general rule like any book about relationships in which the resolution is fuzzy at best and everyone is constantly making the wrong decision.
I think that this really comes down to t...more
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Haven't ever read Laura Dave until now ... I'm left wanting to read everything she's written N O W!! Very much enjoyed Ms. Dave's characters and her writing. When I picked up this book & began reading, it was like I was reacquainting myself with an old friend & her family. I had trouble putting the book down; couldn't wait to see where it would all lead. But the kids needed meals, bathing & such, so, I had to(darn it! ;). Still, in a very busy weekend, with all the kids out of school...more
I saw this book at the Book Thing and took it because it had "London" in the title....it wasn't until the last 1/4 of the book that you figure out why the book refers to London....and that was fine (though confusing!)....The inside cover states that this book is a very humorous read.....I do NOT agree. It was more of a deep think about book. It started as an awkward read....that I was hesitant to continue, but I am glad I continued perusing. I was much surprised and enjoyed her observation of fa...more
I'm not sure how I heard about this book, but it was a fun, breezy read which did have some depth to it. Most of the novel takes place over the weekend of the wedding of Emmy's brother, Josh. Emmy is nervous about coming home after she bailed on her own engagement and dropped out of her NYC life to take up residence in a small Rhode Island town working at a tackle shop and embarking on a documentary of fishermen's wives. I really don't like to give anything away, but I will say that it deals wit...more
"London Is the Best City in America" failed to engage me on any level. The characters were underdeveloped and despite a cloying repetition of "great truths" about love and relationships and "moving on" I never managed to find the "A Ha" moment with any character's life choices. The couples that got together were completely predictable and the Rhode Island references seemed random and bizarre. I felt the urge to play the teacher handing back a report with the words "What happened to these charact...more
It's actually unfair that I write a review of this novel because I am returning the audiobook version to my local library after enduring only three of the six CD's. Good Grief! There are so many GOOD books to be read, why would I waste my time on this one, hoping that the second half will be an improvement over the first?
I know nothing about the author, but she shows the writing skill of a precocious junior high student. Or maybe an average junior high student. The characters are shallow and des...more
I know nothing about the author, but she shows the writing skill of a precocious junior high student. Or maybe an average junior high student. The characters are shallow and des...more
This was not a favorite of mine from Ms. Dave at all. I felt the plot dragged and the characters were lifeless. I found the entire story rather boring. The story centered around relationships, family, character and figuring out who you are and what you want out of life and love but it was a yawner!!! There was zero zip in this book. The book explored choices and my choice was to close the book and forget it but I didn't. I managed to finish the book but barely, too dull for my tastes.
You'll have...more
You'll have...more
I picked this up because I was looking for another book by Laura Dave that Jill Monahan recommended on Good Reads. This is a good, light read with interesting enough plot lines to keep you hooked. The main character, Emmy, goes between making one relationship mistake after another to being very deep and understanding about what they mean. At one point, toward the end, I just wished she would stop reading anything else into what is happening. I liked this book enough that I'll continue to look fo...more
After seeing (500) Days of Summer and listening to this book, I have discovered a certain aspect of love. If, as one goes through life one comes closer and closer to finding the person they are meant to be with, what is soul-mate minus one? Years later, Emmy is still trying to reconcile her broken engagement while her brother is in the midst of breaking his, both have other choices hovering in the wings. Sibling relationships, the ghosts of the past and finding not only love, but it's meaning ar...more
Not 100% sure why I picked this book up...I'm not exactly the target market for Chick lit. If you want to examine the choices or decisions (or lack there of) you've made in your life - you might want to pick this one up...got me thinking about past decistions and relationships I've been in - not necessarily in a good way. Maybe I don't really want to revisit old wounds. But it did get me thinking. Evidently the book is optioned by Reese Witherspoon or someone like that if that will sway your opi...more
For some reason, this book got a lot of rave reviews. Personally, I wasn't too impressed with it, but I did enjoy bits and pieces of it. In this tale, we follow Emmy Everett, a young woman whose present life is dictated by the fact she broke up with her ex-fiancee three years ago. Yes, you read that correctly. For starters, I didn't like Emmy very much. Instead of moving on with her life and becoming herself, she decides to stay in the small village in Rhode Island where she left her fiancee. Sh...more
I'm totally in love with the hot chef in London is the Best City in America. Thank you Laura Dave. I loved this book. I read it in a matter of hours. When I went to the library, I was searching for something romantic, not cheesy, not life-altering and definitely not preachy, stuck on itself. But mostly romantic/escapist. I'm not a book reviewer so I'm not going to dive in the deep end with this, but I give it an A for awesome so check it out. Highlights: "Gay-American," anything to do with JAMES...more
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I'm the author of the novels: The Divorce Party and London Is The Best City In America. And... THE FIRST HUSBAND (coming this May from Viking Penguin).
I will post about books that I am reading and enjoying. And I look forward to meeting other readers and writers on goodreads---
More about Laura Dave...
I will post about books that I am reading and enjoying. And I look forward to meeting other readers and writers on goodreads---
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“I couldn't help but wonder if that was what love was -- believing that someone was going to come through, in the end, and that it would still count”
—
31 people liked it
“Josh had told me a long time ago that he had this theory that an entire relationship was based on what occurred over the course of the first five minutes you know each other. That everything that came after those first minutes was just details being filled in. Meaning: you already knew how deep the love was, how instinctually you felt about someone.
What happened in their first five minutes?
Time stopped.”
—
20 people liked it
More quotes…
What happened in their first five minutes?
Time stopped.”
