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118th out of 180 books
—
133 voters
Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God
by
Joe Coomer
Nine weeks after losing her husband, Charlotte escapes to a wooden motor yacht in New Hampshire, where her shipmates are an aging blue-haired widow, an emotional seventeen-year-old, and the ugliest dog in literature. A genuine bond develops among the three women, as their distinct personalities and paths cross and converge against the backdrop of emotional secrets, abuse,...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
May 7th 1997
by Touchstone
(first published 1995)
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This is the story of three women who meet and become roommates on a boat. Grace, the older cantankerous owner, Chloe, the 17 year old pregnant girl, and Charlotte, who drives until she hits water after the death of her husband. Each woman brings baggage and love into this home on the water. Grace is bitter over life and her past, Chloe is afraid of her future, and Charlotte is unsure of her present.
Grace comes to terms with her agree by moving on from her husband’s death. Once she takes to boat...more
Grace comes to terms with her agree by moving on from her husband’s death. Once she takes to boat...more
Feb 27, 2011
Coralie
added it
This was the best book I've read in a long time. Charlotte left Kentucky because she jecause she had lost her husband in a car accident and her in-laws won't leave her alone. She is an archeologist. She went to Portsmouth, New Hamspshire because she had been there before and loved it. Plus the historical aspect of the city appealled to her. She gets there and rents a room on a houseboat, owned by an elderly woman who is also renting to Charlotte's roommate, Chloe. Chloe is seventeen, a nice girl...more
This book was centered around the life of one woman as she sets out to escape her past after her husband's death. She ends up far from home and rents space on a boat where she lives with two other women- one who is younger- a late teenager, and the other who is much older- in her 70's. To me this story felt like a snapshot of these women's lives, as if we just got a peak into it for a few months. At the end of the book, I felt as if their lives were still going on, the story was not closed. I en...more
Mar 13, 2008
Cindy Wilson-buranek
added it
I absolutely love this author, he is quirky and funny and knows women. I love all his books and no one knows about him.
Got this one because I loved the title. The book turned out to be worthy of it. Very good!
A WONDERFUL story.
It is the story of Charlotte, a middle aged widow who is escaping her past by renting a room on a boat where an older woman and an emotional 17 yr old live with their ugly dog.
The characters, three women of different ages and personalities, reside together on a boat at Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire. Each has their own story to tell and journey to live. I could not put this book down...each page was so very beautifully written. If you have ever lived near the water, each sce...more
It is the story of Charlotte, a middle aged widow who is escaping her past by renting a room on a boat where an older woman and an emotional 17 yr old live with their ugly dog.
The characters, three women of different ages and personalities, reside together on a boat at Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire. Each has their own story to tell and journey to live. I could not put this book down...each page was so very beautifully written. If you have ever lived near the water, each sce...more
Make sense of the past in found items and the memories they release to find oneself. Three women, three generations, three disparate backgrounds but they coalesce around a common center to form a kind of family. Each has their share of
needs, and baggage to deal with but it is easier in the close company and community they form an board ship.
Charlotte has recently lost her husband, who died after admitting he was ambivalent about their marriage. She has her own career as an archeologist so has c...more
needs, and baggage to deal with but it is easier in the close company and community they form an board ship.
Charlotte has recently lost her husband, who died after admitting he was ambivalent about their marriage. She has her own career as an archeologist so has c...more
I loved this book and it's one of the few I have read more than twice - so far. I've read other Joe Coomer books and they have all be really good. I never hear anyone mention him, but I recommend him. It's not super intense stuff. It's well written, funny, smooth and thoughtful fiction about people's lives, the people they love and figuring oneself out. He makes it look easy - which as you know is difficult. As the saying goes it's easy to be hard, but hard to be easy. Or something like that.
This was a "sleeper" in that I picked it up at the annual AAUW Used Book Sale, completely unfamiliar to me.
After a slow start, I found myself enjoying the quirky characters, 3 females who become unlikely roomates on a moored boat, as each works out her own predictament and grows in the process. It's plot is not without action, however, and there is a little bit of mystery and suspense. You'll be applauding the characters long after the final page has been read.
After a slow start, I found myself enjoying the quirky characters, 3 females who become unlikely roomates on a moored boat, as each works out her own predictament and grows in the process. It's plot is not without action, however, and there is a little bit of mystery and suspense. You'll be applauding the characters long after the final page has been read.
I read this book several years ago and forgot about it until I saw in a secondhand bookstore. I couldn't resist buying it to re-read because it is the story of 3 women in share living space on a wooden boat moored in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Portsmouth is one of my favorite places and I loved the author's blending of real and fictional details of location and history into his story of love, loss, and the strength and resilience of his character.
My September bookclub selection. Finally getting to do a review. Nine weeks after her husband dies Charlotte winds up in Portsmouth Harbor New Hampshire. She somehow finds herself rooming on a boat with 2 other women. This story shows how their friendship grows between the 3 of them even though they are of 3 different generations. All 3 women have issues they need to resolve. I will be looking for other work by Joe Coomer.
I started reading this book back when it was a new book (1995), but it moved too slow for me then. I picked it up again because I loved Pocketful of Names.
Beachcombing was a good story with good characters- I enjoyed it this time through. I could definitely see how much Joe's writing has improved over the 10 years between the writing of Beachcombing and Pocketful. I ordered one of his older books from Amazon to further enjoy his writing.
Beachcombing was a good story with good characters- I enjoyed it this time through. I could definitely see how much Joe's writing has improved over the 10 years between the writing of Beachcombing and Pocketful. I ordered one of his older books from Amazon to further enjoy his writing.
Beachcombing is a page turner. I really cared about these three women of different ages living on a boat mored in a Maine harbor. I followed their adventures with interest and curiosity. I learned about human nature, archeological digs,the Northeast coastal history, drawing and painting in public areas, boating, and Anne of Green Gables. Great fun here.
This is a beautiful story about three women who come together, each with her own unique baggage, and forge an unlikely friendship. Coomer does a commendable job of writing in a female voice and of addressing female issues with empathy and believability. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from Joe Coomer.
Along with the other two books I've read of Joe Coomer's I love this book....it's one of those I didn't want to end. It's fascinating to watch how the three quirky women fall into such close relationships with one another and provide just the perfect support each needs from the others. I wanted to join them on the boat - I wanted to reach down onto the sidewalk for the dropped $5 bill!
Intriguing novel featuring unusual characters and some beautiful writing. It's marred by at least two too many subplots (including a ludicrous one concerning the main characters in-laws), but it's a great effort.
I love this book~ I read it about 15 years ago~ my mom loaned it to me and it was one of the first things I read as an adult and probably was the start to my love of reading. It had been so long I had forgotten most of it so I read it again and I am so glad I did~ I really enjoy this book.
i really enjoyed this book! It wasn't too long, was easy to get into right from the beginning. It is the story of a young woman whose husband is killed in an accident. To try to escape her grief and figure her life out she moves to a seaside town. She takes up residence on a permanently docked boat with an older lady and a teenaged girl. A really nice story!
I really enjoyed the characters in this book. They are "real" creations, just like the characters in his books, THE LOOP and POCKETFUL OF NAMES. I'm not sure I finished the story extracting the same meaning as the author might have intended, but it was a great read!
This was a fairly good book. A quick read. I enjoyed it because it takes place in Portsmouth, NH, a city I am reasonably familiar with. A woman's husband passes away and she cannot deal with his family so she takes off to be by herself.
Can't believe it was written by a male, and one from Texas to boot. Takes place in Portsmouth, NH and I could clearly picture everything he wrote about. Very good book.
Enjoyable book about a woman who looses her husband and wants to escape the past. She escapes to a wooden yacht with two other woman and the ugliest dog in literature.
Despite an abrupt ending that left me a little bewildered, this is a very good read, a Thelma and Louise on a boat. I loved all the characters and now that it's done, I miss them.
There are some descriptive phrases in Joe Coomer's writing that made me halt and say "wow". Try this story if you know loss, Portsmouth or teenagers.
Examining the human psyche and the healing process a support system of REALLY interesting characters. Books involving the ocean always interest me.
Great book! I couldn't put this one down - Exploring friendship between three diverse women. Good character build - excellent story.
I do like Joe Coomer's books. He is very much able to write in the voice of a woman. I don't know how he does it but he does.
Love this book and all things Joe Coomer! Recently re-read it, and it is staying on my bookshelf as a favorite.
Three women, all different ages, living together on a boat in New England. Coming together at a time when being together was needed by all three.
I really liked this book and the characters. It was set on a houseboat in Portsmouth, NH and I just felt I was there.
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Joe Coomer is a fiction and nonfiction writer who lives outside of Fort Worth, Texas, and on the coast of Maine. He "spends his winters in Springtown, Texas, where he runs a pair of large antique malls. He lives in a fairly new Victorian house that he spent a year and a half building in the late eighties, a project he wrote about in Dream House [1991]. His wife, Isabelle Tokumaru, runs her paintin...more
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Oct 11, 2008 06:07pm