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Sep 17, 2010

Jlaurenmc rated it:

Reading Ilana Stanger-Ross's debut novel Sima's Undergarments for Women is an exercise in anxiety, primarily because the reader is so thoroughly immersed in main character Sima Goldner's uncertain, self-conscious thoughts. Sima is one of the most skillfully developed characters to enter the world of fiction in a long time. Stanger-Ross writes in third-person narrative, but the novel's voice is so completely Sima's that it seems as though she narrates herself. The marginal distance third-person More...

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Jul 14, 2010

Laurie rated it:

In the network of basement shops that serve Brooklyn's neighborhoods, Sima Goldner runs a lingerie shop renowned among locals for superior bra fitting. When Sima hires a young Israeli woman to be her new assistant, she begins an exciting new friendship. Timna, the new employee, reminds Sima of the opportunities and excitement of her youth. But these memories are not entirely welcome, and Sima is reminded of the disappointments of her own youth. Infertility left Sima and her husband childless, an More...

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Apr 30, 2010

Louise rated it:

Sima Goldner owns and operates a bra shop in the basement of the home she shares with her husband Lev. Lev, a retired teacher spends his days reading the newspaper from cover-to-cover and drinking coffee. Sima teaches the women who frequent her shop, located in the Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, how to look at their bodies differently and to appreciate what they have no matter what their size is. But Sima is still ashamed of herself for making a mistake when she was sixteen-years-old which resul More...

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Jul 19, 2009

Diane rated it:

In Sima's Undergarments for Women, Sima Goldner is a 65 year old woman, who runs a lingerie shop out of the basement of her Brooklyn home, which she shares with her husband, Lev of 46 years.

(Chapter 1- first paragraph......

"SIMA SURPRISED HERSELF BY BLUSHING AT THE ROUND perfection of the young woman's breasts. For thirty-five years, after all, breasts had been her business: she knew the slight curve of the preteen breast, its nipple rigid when unveiled in the cool a More...

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Apr 17, 2009

Deirdre rated it:

I love love love this book, I couldn't put it down! It's beautifully written, alternating the humor and the tragedy of lives lived. Stanger-Ross has crafted rich, genuine characters - I felt Sima's silent emotional struggle as though it were my own, while Timna felt like so many young women I have known.

Sima is a local wonder in her tiny basement lingerie shop, where "in a glance she could see their size, the back and the cup combined. '36-D,' she'd say ... In vain the women pro More...

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Jun 17, 2010

Kalen rated it:

*** 1/2

I liked this one fine but not as much as I'd hoped to (I guess that's always the case.... why would we pick up books we might just like "okay"?) I don't know why, but I expected it to be funny rather than sad. The characters are well-developed and the plot is solid. It's anything but funny.

Sima is a complex character and I liked her much in the same way I liked Olive Kitteridge--I didn't always like her actions and thoughts, but you know that deep down i More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Khaya rated it:

There’s a social situation which has always interested me, both in life and in literature. It’s when a person, usually older and more competent in one or more ways, takes a younger and more vulnerable person under his wing, motivated at least as much by his own desire for a protégée as by genuine interest in the younger person’s perceived need. Of course, the relationship goes awry. Janice Erlbaum’s memoir “Have You Seen Her?” is a great description of such a situation; the novel “What Was Sh More...

24 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2010

Susan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Apr 23, 2010

Tonya rated it:

I was sure I would enjoy this book before I got it, and I am so utterly thrilled I got to read it. Ilana Stanger - Ross hit the mark. Sima is a married woman, unable to have children. She has an undergarmet store in her basement, just like many of her neighbors who have stores out of their basements. It is what she is. One day a young woman comes into the store. Sima was taken by her beauty. This woman comes back, and asks for a job as the seamstress. Timna ends up feeling like a daughter to Sim More...

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Dec 17, 2011

Deborah rated it:

Probably somewhere round 3.7 stars for me. Well written and almost unsympathetically written at times, and I suspect that's why some readers have such a problem with Sima. She has become a bitter person but I love the way her story unfolds little by little, through a mixture of flashbacks and conversations with customers and friends. As an infertility sufferer myself I had no problems relating to Sima - almost no friends or family have a clue how to deal with it in the 21st century so in the More...

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Apr 28, 2009

Kathy (Bermudaonion) rated it:

By all appearances, Sima Goldner has it all - a thriving business and a solid marriage, but she's missing the one thing she wanted the most - a child. When she didn't conceive early in her marriage to Lev, Sima went to a fertility specialist and discovered that her fallopian tubes were blocked because of a mistake she made as a sixteen year old. When a young Israeli, Timna, enters her life - first as a customer and then as an employee - things change for Sima. Sima is fascinated by Timna, a More...

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Aug 26, 2011

Scarlett.speaks rated it:

I just finished this book today. Actually it only took me two days to read. Sima is the owner of a basement shop in Boro Park that sells lingerie. Boro Park an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Sima's childless and unhappy. Timna is an Israeli woman who needs a job while she waits for her boyfriend to finish his stint in the Israeli military. The two hit it off and their relationship hits more than a few notes of codependency. Sima's marriage has become loveless and she pretty openly liv More...

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Aug 14, 2011

Chris rated it:

This was a read for one of my book clubs. I was not eager to read it. I thought it to be just fluff. But it was a very well written book with an interesting subject. The story was basically a woman who could not have children due to something I will not reveal - you need to read for yourself. She hires a girl that in her mind she adopts as her daughter. The story goes back and forth in time to reveal more about Sima, her relation with her husband, and her fixation with this girl. Many tim More...

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Apr 05, 2011

Mark rated it:

This was a very entertaining read, about a woman whose youthful indiscretion had burdened her with a lifetime of guilt and shame and had caused her marriage to wither. Sima had insulated herself from the pain of her barren life by retreating into her refuge, a basement lingerie shop where she sold comfort and dispensed wisdom to her loyal customers. Enter a beautiful young Israeli immigrant, Timna, who goes to work for Sima and shakes Sima out of her complacency and teaches her to embrace life o More...

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May 02, 2010

Chrystyna rated it:

Didn't like this book at all. The main character, Sima, was creepy to me. She was an older Jewish woman in NYC that had an undegarment business in her basement. There is nothing creepy about that. But she becomes totally obsessed with a young woman, Timna, from Israel who works for her. We hear in detail Sima describe Timna's figure, beauty, breasts and Sima even goes so far as to follow Timna around to see what she is up to. Sounds like a stalker to me. Although Sima is childless and we think t More...

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Jul 26, 2011

Alex rated it:

I was expecting a lot more from this book. It is competently written but not exceptional, and the characters are not terribly interesting. I liked the Brooklyn setting, but didn't get a huge emotional catharsis from the plot. It was also quite slow in parts.

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Mar 29, 2011

Alexa rated it:

I really liked the idea of this book ... that it was going to be about this woman and her lingerie store. It was about that for approximately the first paragraph, and I truly enjoyed that first paragraph. It all went downhill from there. I found nothing particularly likeable in any of the characters, and the most positive feeling I had toward any of them was pity. There was little resolution in the end - why was Timna sick? Where was she going all those nights? - and really the ending didn't see More...

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Jan 28, 2009

Heather rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Apr 26, 2011

Bonny rated it:

This is a really good book. It's about two very different women working in a basement shop selling undergarments. Gradually we read about the life of each woman, about their secrets, their hurts, their shame, their struggle to make a meaningful life for themselves.

At one point, confrontation about a situation happening in the present day echoes a past life of the other woman and challenges are given and accepted with life changing results. Sometimes it isn't too late to start again to More...

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Nov 06, 2010

Marie rated it:

In Sima's Undergarments for Women, Sima runs a lingerie shop from the basement of her home. One day Tinma wanders in to buy a bra, but stays on as a seamstress when she learns that Sima is hiring. Tinma's youth and beauty also allow her to model some of the merchandize for the customers. Together, Sima and Tinma forge a friendship that takes on different forms throughout the book. The story of their friendship is interspersed with memories of Sima's life, her relationship with her husband, Le More...

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Feb 09, 2009

Colleen rated it:

This book goes so much further than the synopsis captures, though it is hard to say too much about that without spoilers. In the very beginning, it was hard to connect with Sima, but the narrative quickly reveals the depths of her pain and her tragedy. I though this would be a novel about friendship, but it isn't really- it is a story about love and loss and small decisions that have lasting consequences.

Stanger-Ross has created a moving tale of one woman's battle with infertility, More...

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Sep 09, 2010

S rated it:

This was a nice, light and quick read which I enjoyed.

The story is set in Sima's basement Undergarment for Women's store in an Orthodox, Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn. The story starts with Sima having just lost her seamstress and Timna, a fresh off the boat girl from Israel arriving into her shop to buy a bra. It turns out that Timna is looking for a job and is handy with a sewing machine and what follows is the story of a very unlikely friendship between two women with an age dif More...

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Feb 05, 2011

Freda rated it:

This was a good solid read, featuring a very strong woman and a young woman that shows her to be more of herself.
It is a good book, but I don't know how memorable it will be a week from now.
I also wonder if Sima has lesbian tendencies. Read the book and tell me if you agree. Not that it bothers me. I just felt like she was a little confused about her own sexuality at times.
The other thing that kind of bothered me was the author describing the setting. I would have thought it to More...

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Jun 13, 2010

Kristen rated it:

A solid debut for Ilana Stanger-Ross, Sima's Undergarments for Women is a tale of one woman's awakening. An unexpected new employee, with whom she bonds, becomes a catalyst for Sima to revisit her heartache and loss. In many ways, this novel could be depressing, but the warmth and tenacity of the characters in the midst of many flaws makes it believable and lovable.

I appreciated the author's research and attention to detail, which also served to bring the story to life. In spite of t More...

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Jan 02, 2011

Nicole rated it:

There are books that you just don't like, and then there are books that are made all the worse because you expected them to be something different and uplifting, and when they turn out to be unhappy, it's that much worse. This was one of those books. For some reason I expected this to be a story of empowerment, a story about repressed women that come together to create lingerie and find their self worth.
Instead it is a story of a bitter old woman who tries to control her beautiful, young More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Holly rated it:

This is a sweet touching book. On the surface it's about a woman who owns a lingerie shop in her basement. People come from far and wide, knowing about it from the lips of their friends, to be fitted by Sima, who can name the correct bra size the minute a customer enters the store. Underneath it's a story about regrets and hopes. Sima lives her life burdened by choices she made early in life that have colored her entire existence. It's a quick read that's heartwarming and delightful. Reall More...

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Aug 26, 2010

Amanda rated it:

Reading the cover, I thought this book might be a bit more about the city and less about the individuals moving through it.

Given that the book focused on Sima and her obsession with her employee Timna, it wasn't what I had expected when I picked it up.

It's an okay book, not great but not bad. It paints a picture of what life might be light for an older, childless couple who have always lived in NYC. I had just hoped that NYC would be a bigger part of the story.

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Mar 15, 2010

LynnB rated it:

Sima's Undergarments for Women is a story about the life of Sima Goldner, the owner of a lingerie shop in Brooklyn, New York. Sima is heavy with regrets about her life and her childlessness. She feels a total loneliness and bitterness in her life and marriage, but discovers that sometimes love is there even when it is not noticed nor felt.

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Nov 17, 2010

Ellen rated it:

I finished this book because I bought it, but otherwise it would have fallen to the bottom of the pile. It has some merit as a slice of life - a middle-aged childless woman in Brooklyn takes in a young Israeli woman to help her with her lingerie shop in the basement of her house. Gradually the older women learns a bit about life and makes a few discoveries through her relationship with the younger woman. Pleasant reading but not remarkable.

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Sep 07, 2011

Nesa rated it:

Whether they're looking for demi-cup bras or full-body girdles, for more than thirty years women of all ages have come to Sima Goldner's shop. Tucked away in a basement deep in the orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Boro Park, New York, the tiny store is a community treasure -- a place to congregate, commiserate and buy new lingerie.

With her sharp and experienced eye, Sima can size up a woman in an instant, and with a stitch, some underwire, and a few words of encouragement, her customer More...

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