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Jul 27, 2010

Jennie rated it:

I first gave this three stars, then in looking over my past reviews, I realized I generously gave 3 stars to some pretty crappy books (Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult? Seriously?) Clearly, I'm an easy grader. So I'm upping this to 4 stars. I agree with previous reviews that this book is compulsively page-turning. I read this while laid up with pneumonia and stayed awake far later than was healthy or advisable, anxious to see what would happen next. However, some of the story endings left me going More...

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Dec 31, 2009

Andrea rated it:

I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. I found it compulsively readable, compelled to begin each story as soon as the one before it had ended, but at the same time at no point did I feel emotionally engaged, or impressed with the writing. The characters were decently well done, but as I went on I would forget which character had been in which story, or what happened. I guess that with other short story collections that I've read, like Delicate Edible Birds, and Brief Encounters with C More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Kurt rated it:

This is a lovely collection of stories about a variety of ordinary and fascinating women. Ward is not attempting to reinvent the short story genre, as the tales tend to have pretty straightforward structures, but she does a phenomenal job crafting authentic and witty dialogue to flesh out her complex but approachable characters. I have read Ward's three novels, and while I loved How To Be Lost, I was less impressed with Sleep Toward Heaven, and I really disliked Forgive Me, so I felt like I was More...

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Mar 19, 2010

Christina rated it:

I really enjoyed Love Stories in This Town. Amanda Eyre Ward populates her stories with realistic and engaging characters. I like the way Ward ties the title of each story into a piece of dialog from that story. It ties title and story together nicely, and also imparts meaning to the titles. (Some other stories I have read seem to be named rather arbitrarily; I'm not fond of that).

My favorite character is Lola, around whom the last six stories in the book are centered. Someth More...

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May 20, 2009

Deirdre rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It was recommended to me by the owner of a Great Good Place for Books, a wonderful bookstore in Oakland, CA, and I am so glad she suggested it to me. I was very taken in by the female narrators in the stories in Part One. They said things that were funny and surprising. I really enjoyed their struggles with marriage, family relationships, and fertility. The author's writing is both elegant and nervy, and the stories stayed with me for a long time. I especially en More...

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Mar 29, 2011

Peter rated it:

I liked this well enough. Half of the stories nearly all center around someone who is married, going to get married, pregnant, or going to get pregnant. The other half all follow the same character through the stages of her life, picking up every 4 or 5 years as she grows up, gets married, gets pregnant, etc. It's an interesting gimmick and the stories fit together well. A couple of the stories are noticeably, deliberately post-9/11 stories. They're some of the stronger stories in the book. They More...

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Jan 12, 2011

Laura rated it:

I loved that so many of the characters were going through various stages of relationships and motherhood, and the humor and light touch Amanda Eyre Ward uses is remarkable. One of my favorite stories was The Stars are Bright in Texas, maybe because I've lost a baby, maybe because it has elements of that in the story without allowing itself to be melodramatic. Some of the male characters in the book are really harsh (Lola's dad is SUCH an asshole) and I was disappointed initially when I realize More...

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Jan 05, 2010

Madameugly rated it:

This collection was trying too hard to follow the "academic ending" way of writing. Parachute into the short story with a snappy opening, numb the reader with a bland character doing bland things, and finish with the "academic ending" (an ending that's deliberately loose and unfinished, almost begging for some first year lit student to write an essay about the deep meaning). The female leads in each piece just reinforced the stereotypes that women only long for marriage/bre More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Michelle rated it:

I adore Amanda Eyre Ward and love a well-written short story collection so was thrilled to see this come out. It did not disappoint. Each story is delicious and satisfying and beautifully written. I fell in love with many of the characters, even the ones we know only for a few pages. In terms of character studies, I’ve scarcely read anything better. My only quibble was that I wanted some of the people to get more pages! Whole novels even! Really just perfectly rendered. There are no “love storie More...

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Dec 02, 2009

Jessica rated it:

Review published here: http://www.hipsterbookclub.com/reviews/c...

Amanda Eyre Ward delivers 12 beautiful and memorable tales in her short story collection Love Stories in This Town. Despite what the title may imply, these are not idealistic tales of naïve romance. Rather, Ward’s stories are fiercely realistic, sometimes cynical and always raw.

The first six stories in the collection focus on different women struggling through critical times in their lives. On the surface, m More...

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Oct 18, 2009

Dawn rated it:

A short, sweet read. The first couple stories didn't develop quite enough to fully engage me as a reader, but luckily the remaining stories seemed to develop more weight and a few really resonated. The one that I was really looking forward to was a bit of a disappointment... It's about a librarian in a small mining town in Montana who must choose between a new life and the only life she's ever known. I thought that more could have been done with this premise and with the story, and it ended More...

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Jun 15, 2009

Lori rated it:

I love good short stories, but these weren't as good as I'd hoped. They have quirky beginnings and premises---that's good for me. They handle heavier topics than so-called chick lit---fine there. But they were so light, I hardly remember them after only two days. Half the book is a set of linked stories, but I didn't end up caring much about those characters. I'm not saying I hated this book. I would even hand it over to some of my friends. But if you like good short stories...these are not.

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Oct 07, 2011

Jodi rated it:

Since my patience has not been much for novels lately, I have been more interested in short stories. I found the stories in Ward's book to be interesting and well written. I did not care much for the endings. The stories felt like they were lacking something at the end...left a reader wanting (which I am NOT a fan of.) Maybe it is time to go back to novels for me.

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Jul 19, 2009

Sherry rated it:

i'm not normally a fan of short stories but i've really liked all of AEW's other books so wanted to read this one. i liked the stories- not all had happy endings and that was good- more realistic. the second half of the book's stories revolved around one person, lola, and her family. i'd love to see AEW write a book about them!

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Dec 20, 2009

Lisa rated it:

Not really my kind of thing, but points for some great opening lines. "I had heard about the rib, of course, but did not expect it to be at the Smiths' Christmas party. Yet there it was, on the mantle, sandwiched between a bowl of cinnamon-scented potpourri and a holly sprig. Merry Christmas! Here's our daughter's rib."

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Sep 16, 2009

Nancy rated it:

Normally short stories never grab my full attention. They always seem incomplete somehow. Ward does get it right though. The stories are composites of all of us, sometime during our lives; sweet, tender, loving and sad. And because she always inserts Montana into her stories I have to read them!

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Feb 16, 2010

Annie rated it:

A mediocre collection of short stories. I read this around Valentine’s Day but most of the stories were a depressing take on love. My favorite was “The Stars Are Bright In Texas.” There wasn’t a crazy amount of language but enough to bother me.

No favorite quotes.

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Apr 23, 2009

Michelle rated it:

I read Amanda Ward's books like they are candy....savoring individual pages and stories and rereading when I'm having a rough day or just need something sweet and beautiful.
The story "The Way the Sky Changed" made me hold my breath at the end of each page because it was just that good.

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Dec 30, 2009

Caitlin rated it:

I was going to say this book is not about a "typical" relationship, but then I thought, what really is a typical relationship? I liked how the author describes the raw emotions of each character and what we see on the outside does not always indicate what is going on in the inside.

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Jun 18, 2010

Jenny rated it:

Quite good, but most of the stories are relentlessly sad. I imagine I'll work my way through a few more of her novels in the next several months - she's a good writer.

From the author interview in the back of the book:
"There are times I think my reading and writing life are truer than my real one, the one I have to brush my teeth for...
I read, I re-wire my brain, to expand my sense of what is possible."

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Apr 23, 2009

Alison rated it:

each story offers one of the many puzzle pieces to understanding female emotion. i could relate to every one of these characters, found myself crying and laughing not only about their plight but about things i have experienced as well. a beautiful collection.

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May 30, 2009

Janeene rated it:

short stories just aren't my thing, though I love this author and wanted to try reading. Some of them were good, but for me, I much prefer a novel with lots of character development.

Her novel, Sleep Toward Heaven is one of my very favorite books of all time

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Jan 05, 2010

Erin rated it:

These stories center on young women in search of something more; I liked them because unlike books in this same genre, these women have to grow up in our post 9-11 world, with all its attendant fears and heartbreak.

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Jan 29, 2012

Allison rated it:

This was my first Goodreads recommend, from my college friend Michelle, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, short stories about love in all different ways, some related, some not, all enjoyable and engaging.

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Apr 23, 2009

Krysia rated it:

quirky short stories, including one about a bunch of librarians in a small town and one day there's a masturbator in periodicals. What should they do? How will they catch him? Who wants to catch him? etc.

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May 16, 2010

Julie rated it:

One of the best collections of short stories that I've read in a long time. Mostly about young couples starting out together, Part 2 is all interwoven stories about the same character. A quick read, Ward has crafted each story so well that it feels complete and conclusive. A true gem.

One small criticism though. There is one story in this collection that perpetuates the misconception that you can just be a librarian without going to school for it. For those of us that have worked th More...

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Dec 07, 2009

Rachel rated it:

I enjoyed the writing style and most of the characters. However, many of the stories focused on pregnancy and motherhood related issues which I didn't really expect or particularly enjoy.

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Aug 16, 2010

Virginia rated it:

I picked this up from the "February" book display at my library, hoping it would be at least okay, with short stories. UGH. I would NOT recommend this one. Uninspiring and bland.

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Jun 25, 2010

Michelle rated it:

Collection of short stories. First half are not connected; second half has a character that shows up in each one. I liked the second half better, but the character is not endearing, quite weak. I read another book by this author and liked it better than this.

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Aug 20, 2009

Julia rated it:

I came to the opposite conclusion of the reviewer on bookslut.com. I really liked the Lola stories, the first half was ok but just too sad. I really liked Nan and Claude.

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