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Apr 27, 2011

Claire rated it:

Four young women with very different personalities are thrown together in a Freshman dorm at Smith College and quickly become best of friends. This novel follows them through college and the immediate following years.

I was happy to pick this book up after reading Sullivan's Maine which I thoroughly enjoyed. The book is a good look at the bonds formed in college and womens' friendships in general. It was also an fun look at life on the women's college campus which has it's own quirks More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2010

Athena rated it:

This book is about a group of Seven Sisters grads a few years out of college, like me, which is why I was curious enough to read it as soon as it came out. The first part of it looks back on how the friendships between them formed when they were in college. The second part has them grappling with their feminist politics in their relationships and life choices 4-5 years after graduating. The first part is steeped in the cult of the women's college, painting Smith as a queer feminist utopia. I alw More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 24, 2011

Karyn rated it:

This is the best chick-lit book I have read in a very long time. Witty, fun, some interesting twists, and the fact that it doesn't revolve around one silly character and their strained relationship with boy X. Sullivan gives an interesting perspective on all types of relationships, something I found very refreshing. I should also say, I am from the Northampton area and really related to a lot of the book in ways others may not if you are not from that area, so I very well may be biased. In t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2012

Larraine rated it:

I read this book after reading Maine, Sullivan's second novel. I'm glad I read Maine first because I think I would have resisted reading her second novel. A New York Times Review refers to the book as "affable." She also works/worked at the New York Times editorial department so I would take the review with a grain of salt. The book centers around four young women from very different backgrounds who become friends as a result of an accident of living arrangements. I really don't see th More...

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Dec 19, 2011

Heidi rated it:

This book was recommended by several Smith classmates from the late '90s, but I have to say I'm deeply underwhelmed. Yes, it was fun for nostalgia's sake to read about familiar places (drinking at Packard's, skinny dipping in Paradise Pond, etc), and to recall those first few disorienting days after arrival as a first year (keeping straight all the acronyms, HONS and SAAs and JMG and so on). But beyond that pleasant jolt of recognition of the general, I was put off by how much I did not recogniz More...

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Sep 14, 2011

Liz rated it:

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

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Aug 27, 2011

Katie rated it:

I thought this was a wonderful, engaging story about 4 women who met at their freshman year at Smith College. They are different people, but become instant soulmates, and we hear all about their lives and stories throughout their college careers and on into their mid-twenties. Naturally after college they grow apart and don't live together anymore, and so this book is really about what happens to soulmates as they inevitably have to develop their own lives and other relationships.

I rea More...

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Aug 11, 2011

nicole rated it:

When I finished reading When Tito Loved Clara, I had a copy of Maria Kalman's And The Pursuit of Happiness at the ready. I liked her work with The New York Times and loved her work with Why We Broke Up. But after a few lunch time pages, I couldn't get into it and I disappeared into the stacks.

That's right. Someone has foolishly allowed me to work in a library, where I can immediately comb the stacks for my next read (or books to be brought home and left in piles on my floor to be usurp More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Roxanne rated it:

Before I started this book I checked out many of the reviews. I had mixed feelings. Mostly good reviews if you were a former Smithie, or knew a Smithie. Many other reviews not so good. I went ahead and began my reading.

WOW. My years at college were nothing like this. Thank goodness. The storyline is a little outlandish and unbelievable to me. The second half really seemed to drag on and on. I found myself skimming pages more than reading them, just to move things along.
More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

Shaida rated it:

QUINTESSENTIAL summer read for girls! We all look at tv shows like FRIENDS and Sex and the City and wish and hope that when we are adults that we will have a group of friends like them. This books follows four girls from all different backgrounds, who meet at an all girls college, and live on the same floor. Each girl has different aspects that they bring to the group (e.g. Celia is the peacemaker). The girls' relationships with each other are not perfect, but whenever one is in need for should More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Whoo! Another book I enjoyed more then usual. I am on a roll! This book is about 4 college friends who went to Smith College and what happened during school and the four years after, hence the title as one of the characters referred to each of the four years after graduation as the same as the when they were in school. The girls couldn't be more different (of course) but because of where they were placed in the living arrangements, they became friends. It's books like this that make people think More...

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Jul 15, 2011

Pam rated it:

http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2011/...

I really need to quit judging books by their covers. After Vaclav & Lena surprised me, one might think that I would be less judgmental of books that seem frilly on the outside. Yet, here I am, once again, reporting on the deep and gritty content within a seriously “chick-lit” cover.

I’ve had Commencement on my shelf for almost a year without so much as cracking the cover. I don’t know why it took me so long as I grew up in the area More...

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Jan 30, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Commencement is J. Courtney Sullivan's first novel and centers around a group of first-years at Smith College. Sullivan attended Smith as well, and writes for a number of magazines and various publications.

Celia, Bree, April and Sally are four young women who couldn't be more different from one another, but when they share the same level of a dormitory together, strong bonds and close friendships are forged. The novel spans back and forth between present day and college days, as we c More...

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Jan 20, 2011

Chloe rated it:

I read this because it seemed like I should. The story was different than I thought it would be, but I didn't particularly like or sympathize with any of the 4 main characters. I think J. Courtney Sullivan was trying to incorporate the major stereotypes of students at Smith into the four girls, but it didn't work. I was constantly surprised at what each character said and did.

One thing I realized after finishing the book is that a typical Smithie wears many hats. Occasionally, people More...

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Aug 28, 2010

Tiny Pants rated it:

After months of Facebook ads pushing this book on me (with the headline "Vassar Grad?" no less), I succumbed as part of my project to read more fiction written for adults. Lesson learned: Don't listen to Facebook ads. Further, don't listen to blurbs from the New York Times when the author is on the editorial staff of the New York Times, and ignore blurbs from Gloria Steinem when said book contains passages of rapturous, glowing Gloria Steinem worship.

The Group it ain't. Thi More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

Meredith rated it:

There’s something magical about the bond between female friends, one that has enticed writers for years. And so it is with J. Courtney Sullivan and her debut novel, Commencement. Sullivan’s story revolves around four very different friends: April, Bree, Celia and Sally. They meet as first-year students at Smith College, a long-standing bastion of women-only colleges. Initially brought together by the random assignment of rooms, these women quickly become each other’s lifeline during an emotional More...

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Jul 15, 2010

Tamara rated it:

This book is really engaging, and the author has an impressive knack for dialogue. I also love how honestly she talks about female friendships and the way they change along with the people involved. But what could have been a really smart, modern drama ended up being a frustrating read because of the author's ambivalence about the kind of book she ultimately wanted to write. She seems torn between a roman-a-clef about a real place and real people on one hand, and a genuine piece of fiction with More...

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Jul 11, 2010

Adele rated it:

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

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

This book was an ideal vacation read, though not likely a book I'll spend loads of time thinking about now that I've finished it. (Entertainment Weekly's jacket blurb that calls it "a beach book for smart women" is accurate.) That said, there is a lot to like about this novel in addition to its compulsive readability. Sullivan makes her characters seem real, and accurately renders many of the emotions and joys that are part of the college experience with both skill and sensitivity. As More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 14, 2010

Betsy rated it:

I cannot give this book an unbiased review. The first chunk of the novel takes place in the early 2000's at Smith College in a house only a few steps from the one where I lived a few years prior. The author made me nostalgic for Smith traditions and oddities while also doing an excellent job of describing the special and sometimes puzzling bond between women living together in Smith's unique housing system. That portion of the book made me long for my Smith girlfriends who maintain a closenes More...

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Jun 08, 2010

Annalise rated it:

Because my commute on the train is about 3 hours a day (there and back), I’m often looking for books that will entertain me, even if they don’t change my life. This book falls into that category. I plowed through it slightly more than a day’s commute; it’s an easy read.

This is a story about girls becoming young women and young women becoming (mostly) adults. But unlike many similar stories, you won’t find a ridiculous amount of pageantry and angst. It’s four different women whose More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 30, 2010

Maureen rated it:

I wanted to like this book far more than I ultimately did. The first 1/3 of the novel reminded me so strongly of the relationships that I developed with my closest friends from college - the initial, bumbling attempts to get through homesickness together during freshman year, the arguments and disagreements as we grew and changed, together and individually, by senior year and everything in between. And while my college experience was, in many ways, markedly different from the all-woman's-colle More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 05, 2010

Jess rated it:

I'm not sure I would have liked this book as much as I did if I hadn't had a very similar college experience. I went to that other women's college up the road from Smith and I graduated the year before the characters in this book would have, so the quad, Mountain Day, Amherst keg parties, and the Holyoke Mall are familiar settings. Sullivan gets the college scenes perfectly right - she has a keen eye for detail and captures grief and tension extraordinarily well. It's when the girls get out of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2010

Amy rated it:

The premise of this book pulled me in from having some similar history -- attending an all women's college and still close to some of the women I met there. I knew from the inside cover blurb that it would be a light read about four twenty-something women. So my literary expectations weren't set very high. And I'd say it did the trick -- was a fast read, was fun, had some likeable characters and (mostly) believeable situations. It definitely had some annoying stereotypes and flimsy character More...

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Dec 27, 2009

Mallory rated it:

This book is the best kind of chick lit: basically fluffy and feel-goody, but not totally man/relationship centered and with just an ounce of weight to it. A fun, light read that is not to be dismissed as just a fun, light read.

This book captures that intense friendship that groups of females tend to have; that I'd-do-anything-for-my-girlfriends sort of thing that happens to all of us in our late teens/early twenties. The personalities are distinct and each girl has her own voice, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 15, 2009

Samantha rated it:

I had read two book reviews of Commencement and immediately knew that I was interested. A story of four women, who could not be more different than each other, finding themselves hallmates during their first year at Smith College. Sally and Bree are more the pearls and sweaters kind of Seven Sisters students while Celia seems the mother of the bunch and April is an ultra-radical feminist extremist. The book begins as their group comes together to celebrate Sally's wedding and their years at Smit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2009

Emily rated it:

Commencement is a novel about four white heterosexual women who attend a prestigious private college and later are able to stop going to work without worrying about money or giving up their premium cable packages. I mention this because the author seems not to have thought about it.

The four women are shown as they attend Smith and become friends, and later as they graduate and decide how they want to live their lives. Bree and Sally seem to come from the pearls-and-cardigans school of More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2009

Kelly rated it:

It's going to sound a little bit like I'm dismissing this book when I say this, but the thing that Commencement most strongly reminded me of was a grown-up, feminist, rather more gay version of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. I mean all of this in a very good way -- I really enjoyed the Sisterhood books, and I think it's really wonderful to have books about strong female friendship out there. Also similar to the Sisterhood books, you can really tell that J. Courtney Sullivan loves t More...

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Sep 05, 2009

Kate rated it:

At first I loved this book and thought it was my generation's great feminist novel. The story is about four friends who meet at Smith, and trials and tribulations of their friendships. Sullivan does a great job capturing life at a women's college turn of the millenia-- the running around, the chasing of boys, the trying on of different ideologies. Also it was one of the first books I've read in a while that honestly draws in feminist theory, as the women in the story discuss the choices they hav More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2009

Kate rated it:

The NYT bookreview surveyed this summer's "chick lit" and pull out this excerpt from one of the chapters in COMMENCEMENT. “When a woman writes a book that has anything to do with feelings or relationships, it’s either called chick lit or women’s fiction, right? But look at Updike, or Irving. Imagine if they’d been women. Just imagine. Someone would have slapped a pink cover onto ‘Rabbit at Rest,’ and poof, there goes the ... Pulitzer.” It's a snarky, though justified, comment -- but More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)