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Barefoot
Three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a Nantucket native home from college for the summer. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, the women--two sisters and one friend--make their way to the sisters' tiny cottage, inherited from an aunt. They're all trying to escape from something: Melanie, after seven fai...more
Mass Market Paperback, 504 pages
Published
August 2nd 2009
by Little, Brown and Company
(first published 2007)
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BAREFOOT ~ A beach house, two sisters, and a girlfriend...Sounds heavenly--relaxing, even with a couple kids in tow…
Now, I can handle a bit of vomit and lost luggage, but Hilderbrand mercilessly tugs at all of my feminine heartstrings; marriage, motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship…oh, and that pesky fear-of-death thing.
Meet the Girls:
Melanie deals with infertility overshadowed by infidelity, and then further complicated with pregnancy — “POW!”
Brenda’...more
Now, I can handle a bit of vomit and lost luggage, but Hilderbrand mercilessly tugs at all of my feminine heartstrings; marriage, motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship…oh, and that pesky fear-of-death thing.
Meet the Girls:
Melanie deals with infertility overshadowed by infidelity, and then further complicated with pregnancy — “POW!”
Brenda’...more
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Don’t do it. I bought this book after returning from the beach in Martha’s Vineyard this past summer. I thought it was about girlfriends at the beach…What I didn’t know was that none of the female characters were likable. I think this is an important hook for any book – likable characters…instead we are presented with the worst of feminine traits – martyr, hysteria, anxiety, selfish…Ughh.
Honestly I couldn’t get over the beginning when they head to the beach and all hell breaks lo...more
Honestly I couldn’t get over the beginning when they head to the beach and all hell breaks lo...more
This is the story of three women and the trials that life brings to them. It is a bittersweet novel depicting the importance of family and friends when life hits a rough patch. It also demonstrates that one never knows where help might come from. This was a well written fluff novel. It dragged slowly by in certain parts. I felt the end wrapped up too nicely and too neatly for all of the characters. It would be great if life worked in such wonderful ways, but alas I found the ending unreali...more
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I'd like to begin by stating that once I started this book, I truly did not want to put it down. The lives of Brenda, Vicki, Melanie, and Josh are so captivating and genuine, making it hard not to become invested. The setting is summer on Nantucket, and Hilderbrand's artful use of descriptive language truly made me feel as if I was there, providing yet another reason for why I couldn't put this novel down.
While there is a certain, underlying thread of sadness that runs through the ...more
While there is a certain, underlying thread of sadness that runs through the ...more
“Barefoot” is a terrific light summer read. (Of course, just to go against the grain I actually read it in November I believe.) The story is well written and the characters are likeable.
Did “Barefoot” cause me to do any soul-searching, or reveal hidden truths in a startling way? No. But that isn’t the purpose of this book. (At least not in my opinion.) It tells a wonderful heart-warming (I know it’s an overused cliché, but in this case it’s accurate) story of three sisters, e...more
Did “Barefoot” cause me to do any soul-searching, or reveal hidden truths in a startling way? No. But that isn’t the purpose of this book. (At least not in my opinion.) It tells a wonderful heart-warming (I know it’s an overused cliché, but in this case it’s accurate) story of three sisters, e...more
Marilyn
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Yes
Recommended to Marilyn by:
My friend Lou-who gave me the book
This is about 3 friends that have had catastrophic recent events in their lives, who escape for the summer to Nantucket. Very good character/relationship study.
Three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a Nantucket native home from college for the summer. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, the women-- two sisters and one friend--make their way to the sisters' tiny cottage, inherited from an aunt. They're all trying to escape from something: Melanie, after seven failed in-vitro attempts, learned her husband was having an affair, and then discovered she's pregnant; Brenda embarked on a pa...more
It's summer, and three women are sharing a house on Nantucket. A small house, one that's been in the family for ages, and they're all wondering if the walls can contain all the problems they're bringing with.
Melanie's husband is cheating on her, something she's only recently discovered, even though they've been going through round after round of in vitro fertilization attempts, all of them unsuccessful. And of course, now that their relationship is up in the air, Melanie discovers she'...more
Melanie's husband is cheating on her, something she's only recently discovered, even though they've been going through round after round of in vitro fertilization attempts, all of them unsuccessful. And of course, now that their relationship is up in the air, Melanie discovers she'...more
There are a few things. I would have improved about this book, overall I really liked it.
The three main characters, Vicki, Brenda and Melanie, were great women to get to know in this story. The 3 drastically different worlds they were coming from made for an intriguing dynamic, espcially when you read about the close quarters of the Nantucket cottage they share for the summer. It was heart wrenching to read about Vicki's battle with cancer, exciting to learn about Brenda's fiascos, and...more
The three main characters, Vicki, Brenda and Melanie, were great women to get to know in this story. The 3 drastically different worlds they were coming from made for an intriguing dynamic, espcially when you read about the close quarters of the Nantucket cottage they share for the summer. It was heart wrenching to read about Vicki's battle with cancer, exciting to learn about Brenda's fiascos, and...more
Barefoot is a book that was recommended to me (Thanks Lani) because I really enjoyed The Castaways by this author and I wanted to read more of her books. I actually started out not liking any of the characters, and surprisingly by the middle to end, I ended up loving them all! Each character had their own reason for being who they were, and I was endeared to each of them. However, it wasn't until halfway through the book that I became involved enough with the characters that it became a page tur...more
Let me start by saying I was expecting this to be a throw-away book. Something I could start, put down if something else caught my attention, and/or never pick back up (and never regret missing out on if I didn't return to it). I think that impression was the fault of the editors, or whoever put the front cover together. With the tagline, "Three women. Three Secrets. One long, hot summer." and a quote reading, "Summer reading fun. ... Twenty pages in, you'll be ready to drop ...more
I began reading this book during the holiday season but after several attempts to continue, I decided to table reading the book until summer. It wasn't the fact that the story takes place during the summer and we are in the midst of winter, but rather the tone and subject of the book made it difficult for me to engage with the characters. The story revolves around 3 women, each with a slate of personal problems ranging from marriage, health, and career issues. Rather than being uplifting, t...more
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In her novel Barefoot, Elin Hilderbrand tells the story of three women from New York who spend a summer on Nantucket. Two of the women are sisters and one is a friend. They are all running from their problems and spend the summer trying to forget the reality of their situations. The friend Melanie, has just discovered her husband is having an affair and that she herself is pregnant with their first child after years of trying to fall pregnant. Brenda has just been fired from her position as an E...more
Great exchange at "Book Club" with this title.
Much of the draw with this book for me was the "cancer-patient". Having recently lost my dear friend Jeannette to the disease, I recognized the experience of fear for those left behind, and of the "need" Vicki had for Brenda (sister) to be all she would not be there to be, herself. I found the book unrealistic.
Sharing a poem....
Eating Together
I know my friend is going,
th...more
Much of the draw with this book for me was the "cancer-patient". Having recently lost my dear friend Jeannette to the disease, I recognized the experience of fear for those left behind, and of the "need" Vicki had for Brenda (sister) to be all she would not be there to be, herself. I found the book unrealistic.
Sharing a poem....
Eating Together
I know my friend is going,
th...more
Another book set on Nantucket about 3 women (2 of which are sisters and the other is the best friend of one). All three have come to spend the summer in Nantucket and leave their lives and dramas. Vicki has lung cancer, Brenda, her sister has come to care for her whilst she has chemo but also because she has trashed her career as a professor and damaged a Jackson Pollock at the University, and lastly Melanie has a cheating husband whilst she is madly persuing IVF. So they flee to the family home...more
I started this book thinking that it was going to suck because a friend of mine said she hated it. But, turns out we completely disagree on books (or at least this one) because I liked it a lot more than I expected to. I'd probably give it a 3.5 if I could because I'm in between liking it and REALLY liking it. I don't know, maybe it's something about having a sister that makes the book mean more to me. But, I liked all the characters and I became invested in their stories. I really, really liked...more
This book had the story line and potential to be something great but it fell short. I tried to like it, I wanted to like it but I just didn't.
The main characters were ANNOYING. They grated my nerves. Brenda and Melanie were so self involved and immature, they read like late teens or early twenty year olds, not women in their 30s and certainly not ones who excel professionally. I could not wrap my head around who incredibly selfish they were while "helping" the very sick V...more
The main characters were ANNOYING. They grated my nerves. Brenda and Melanie were so self involved and immature, they read like late teens or early twenty year olds, not women in their 30s and certainly not ones who excel professionally. I could not wrap my head around who incredibly selfish they were while "helping" the very sick V...more
I read Barefoot because it was on everyone's summer reading list. I love stories where people with little in common get woven together. In this book, you meet three sisters: Vicki, a mother of two battling lung cancer, Brenda, her sister who had the academic world on a string before throwing it all away on an affair with a student, and Melanie, Vicki's friend from Suburbia, finally pregnant after too many tries but with a husband who is having an affair with a coworker. They hole up in a family ...more
Alright, if you would delete all pages from about 30% to 75% this book might have gotten 4 stars.
First off, no one can identify with these characters. The women are all totally pessimistic and broken, the children are your typical American kids: spoiled brats and all the men have macho-man issues (with the exception of John Walsh, but we don't get to know him well enough). I understand that sometimes life gets you down and occasionally you might feel like there's nothing left except d...more
First off, no one can identify with these characters. The women are all totally pessimistic and broken, the children are your typical American kids: spoiled brats and all the men have macho-man issues (with the exception of John Walsh, but we don't get to know him well enough). I understand that sometimes life gets you down and occasionally you might feel like there's nothing left except d...more
Three women, two of them sisters, head to the beach for the summer. All have baggage. The oldest sister has brought her two young boys and is about to undergo chemo for lung cancer. The younger sister has lost her job as college professor and reputation after sleeping with a student. The friend has found out that, after several in vitro attempts, she's finally pregnant. And that her husband is cheating.
As usual Hilderbrand does a great job of drawing each woman's personality as well as...more
As usual Hilderbrand does a great job of drawing each woman's personality as well as...more
I thought that this would be a nice and easy summer read, but I was mistaken. It is a story about three women that escape for a summer to Nantucket to deal with their problems. The one has cancer, the one is running from her cheating husband after she finds out that she is pregnant, and the third is dealing with the loss of her job due to an affair with one of her students. Stick them all in a little cottage and introduce a sexy college guy who becomes their babysitter and you have a "ch...more
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The characters were interesting but not particularly likable in the beginning. By the end, they were slightly more likable and definitely not as interesting. It was a good set-up but I felt like the novel really didn't have much to say. What I think is bothering me the most is the pat ending- there is not one negative consequences for any of the character's choices that last longer than the summer. But not because the characters do much to change their circumstances (although there is a little...more
Good beach read! I am getting quite annoyed at all of the adultry going on in books these days; or am I just a crazy christian who believes that marriage is a sacred commitment?
I did enjoy the story line of this book, although I found it hard to believe that a happily married mother of two would leave her own home (and husband behind to work during the week) and go to her summer beach house to go through chemo; dragging her two very small children along with her and expecting her l...more
I did enjoy the story line of this book, although I found it hard to believe that a happily married mother of two would leave her own home (and husband behind to work during the week) and go to her summer beach house to go through chemo; dragging her two very small children along with her and expecting her l...more
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click here.
This was a book that I picked up at the hospital in our breakroom a couple of days ago and was unable to put it down! As a new writer to me, Hilderbrand I think is excellent and am glad I found her. This book spoke to me in so many ways. The morals of the characters are definitely not in aline with I believe, but there are so many good lines in this book.
One when Vicki (diagnosed with cancer) was by herself thinking. "Quite frankly, she could imagine nothing more lonesome than d...more
One when Vicki (diagnosed with cancer) was by herself thinking. "Quite frankly, she could imagine nothing more lonesome than d...more
Everything matters. Every little thing. The power of love. This book reminds us all of what's important, family. As we all know the future is unpredictable so we have to do our best to make sure that we absorb life and be in the "now" moment. Each character embodied a trait in all of us specially the women. You have Vick who represents what a perfect mother should be the organizer, the glue that binds them all, and loving to her children. While reading the book, I couldn't but wish tha...more
So this book was good...not great but good. Three women stay at a beach house over the summer, two of the women being sisters. You have Vickie and Brenda who are sisters, and then Vickie's friend Melanie. Each of these women have problems and they want to forget about them over the summer. Vickie has lung cancer, Brenda was fired from her college teaching job for having an affair with one of her students...and Melanie is pregnant after trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant. She also just found ...more
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| Strategic Reading: Chemotherapy or Relaxation? | 10 | 12 | Dec 01, 2011 11:28am |
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Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.
More about Elin Hilderbrand...
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