Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Ruth Pennebaker

Mar 13, 2011 Wisteria Leigh rated it 4 of 5 stars

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKTHROUGH[return]by Ruth Pennabaker[return]Berkley Trade[return]January 4, 2011[return]978-0425238561[return]320 pp, $15.00[return][return]Synopsis from Berkley Books[return][return]Description[return]� Joanie's ex-husband is having a baby with his new girlfriend. Joanie won't be having more babies, since she's decided never to have sex again. [return][return]But she still has her teenaged daughter Caroline to care for. And thanks to the recession, her elderly...more WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKTHROUGH[return]by Ruth Pennabaker[return]Berkley Trade[return]January 4, 2011[return]978-0425238561[return]320 pp, $15.00[return][return]Synopsis from Berkley Books[return][return]Description[return]� Joanie's ex-husband is having a baby with his new girlfriend. Joanie won't be having more babies, since she's decided never to have sex again. [return][return]But she still has her teenaged daughter Caroline to care for. And thanks to the recession, her elderly mother Ivy as well. Her daughter can't seem to exist without texting, and her mother brags about "goggling,"-while Joanie, back in the workforce, is still trying to figure out her office computer. And how to fend off the advances of her coworker Bruce. [return][return]Joanie, Caroline, and Ivy are stuck under the same roof, and it isn't easy. But sometimes they surprise each other-and themselves. And through their differences they learn that it is possible to undo the mistakes of the past.� ~ HYPERLINK "http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/Bo..." Berkley Books[return][return]My Review[return][return]I must confess, when approached to participate in this blog tour, I was somewhat hesitant. This is not a book I would normally gravitate to. Contemporary women� s fiction, especially when quoted as � breezily hilarious� has me suspect. It� s like watching a movie intended to be a comedy, sometimes it is wildly entertaining as you nearly wet your pants laughing, or it falls flat and you wake up sometime later with a stiff neck. Either way in the end some body part hurts. [return]I prefer the former and when my stomach aches a bit and my emotions tingle with joy. Fortunately, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is hysterical, a real hoot and simply refreshingly astute with a candid and humorous look into the lives of four unique women, generations apart.[return][return]Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough follows the interaction of four women, three are related daughter, mother, grandmother with an ex-husbands girlfriend thrown in the mix. (see publisher� s description for plot summary). Surprisingly, Pennebaker is able to capture the distinct personalities of each character, who are generations apart. Her intuition into each personality is flawless. She is a sagacious manipulator of dialogue, able to assume the role of each woman� s soul. The result is a funny and warmly believable story every woman should read. All women will find an aspect of this book to identify with as they embrace the universality of this story. Pennebaker has separated the generations shaping their specific ideology and attitudes . I thank this writer for capturing the universality of women� s difference with an eye for their commonality and the unique beauty of women� s kinship. [return][return]On the author� s website, Ms. Pennebaker says to buy three copies of this book, I agree, you will want to pass this one around to all the special women in your life. Highly recommended.(less)

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Sep 08, 2011 Violet Crush rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own

3.5 out of 5

When 3 generation of women who cannot stand each other have to live under the same roof, you can definitely expect some entertainment. That’s exactly what we get in Women on the verge of a nervous breakthrough. For a minute I thought this would be a self help book, but not really. It’s a story about 3 completely different women and how they go through their almost nervous breakdowns and subsequent breakthrough’s.

Joanie is in her late 40’s and has just gone through a divorce with her...more 3.5 out of 5

When 3 generation of women who cannot stand each other have to live under the same roof, you can definitely expect some entertainment. That’s exactly what we get in Women on the verge of a nervous breakthrough. For a minute I thought this would be a self help book, but not really. It’s a story about 3 completely different women and how they go through their almost nervous breakdowns and subsequent breakthrough’s.

Joanie is in her late 40’s and has just gone through a divorce with her long time husband Richard because he cheated on her with a girl in her 20’s. Her mother Ivy whom Joanie is not very close to has also come to stay with her. Her teenage daughter Caroline is trying to come to terms with her parents’ divorce in her own way which has created a distance between mother and daughter. In addition to all this, Joanie has to take up an advertising job after years of staying at home. Obviously she is on an all time low.

All these three women are annoying and endearing at the same time. With her marriage broken, Joanie is always complaining and although you understand why, you wish she would just stop for a minute. But then she is also trying to get her life back on track by getting a job and working towards her issues by joining a divorce group. I disliked Ivy for always nagging Joanie and Caroline and finding faults in everything Joanie did. She’s also more biased towards her son even though its Joanie who has taken her in after she lost all her savings. On the other hand you also feel bad for her because she’s lost everything and has come to her daughter to stay. Caroline is a teenager, so obviously she is irritating and annoying and all that but you also feel bad for her because she feels invisible in school and everything is not good at the home front too.

As the novel progresses, each of these three women realize the worth of the other as they come to terms with their own loss and realize the value of the other. The author, Ruth Pennebaker, has written a thoroughly entertaining book and although the circumstances are depressing, no where does the book become overbearing or boring. I didn’t find it laugh out loud funny as written on the book cover but I did make me smile at places. Initially I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like the book because the characters were so unlikable. But as the book progressed and the layers peeled you realize they have their own charm.

The author has managed to show the fragile thread by which these relationships are hanging by and how they reluctantly work towards their differences and misunderstandings. Definitely give this book a try if you interested in reading about relationships between women.(less)

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Jun 22, 2011 Sharon rated it 3 of 5 stars

“Hell was three generations of women living under the same roof.”

Joanie “Roxanne” Pilcher is a divorcee who has found out that her ex is going to be a daddy with the young woman he is living with and her new boss, Zoe, thinks she is a charity case. From Joanie: “What was worst of all to Joanie was that Zoe hadn’t seen anything special in her. She had instead glommed on to Joanie as some kind of sad cliché. A shopworn, middle-aged housewife whose husband had dumped her. A feminist cause to be cha...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Helen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Ruth Pennebaker takes a unique perspective on a family of three generations living together. Joanie, the woman in the middle generation and the bread-winner, is dealing with her ex-husband who’s having a baby with his girlfriend, her mother who’s moved in with her for financial reasons, her daughter who’s experiencing her horrible teen years, and a co-worker who’s putting the moves on her.

The tale is often funny, sometimes rather heart-breaking, an...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Joanie Pilcher is about to turn fifty and has recently been left by her husband. If that’s not enough to make her feel overwhelmed, her eighty year old mother is also living with her and her sullen teenage daughter. When Joanie gets a call from her ex-husband letting her know he’s gotten his new twenty-nine year old girlfriend pregnant, Joanie begins to fall off the precipice of good mental health. Trapped in an ad-exec job she hates and a divorce support group that can sometimes be judgemental,...more Joanie Pilcher is about to turn fifty and has recently been left by her husband. If that’s not enough to make her feel overwhelmed, her eighty year old mother is also living with her and her sullen teenage daughter. When Joanie gets a call from her ex-husband letting her know he’s gotten his new twenty-nine year old girlfriend pregnant, Joanie begins to fall off the precipice of good mental health. Trapped in an ad-exec job she hates and a divorce support group that can sometimes be judgemental, Joanie is slowly losing it. Ivy, Joanie’s mother, is also deteriorating. Though she used to live on her own, the financial crash has eaten up her savings, forcing her into her daughter’s home, where she doesn’t feel welcomed or appreciated. Meanwhile, the teenage Caroline fears she has some sort of multiple personality disorder because she can’t understand why she’s so angry with everyone in her life except the handsome and oblivious Henry. As the three women orbit each other, they come to realize that life isn’t filled with the happiness they once expected to find, and must learn to navigate not only the waters of their tenuous relationships, but the wider waters of a life that fluctuates wildly from day to day. Infused with an offbeat and potent humor, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is the story of three women of three very different generations coming to terms with each other and with the wider world around them

One of the things I liked best about this story was the way Pennebaker was able to write from each woman’s perspective so convincingly. Joanie, a baby boomer, is frustrated with her life and struggles with it due to her bitter attitude. She struggles because she believes that life should and could be so much more. She expects it and demands it, and because of all the overwhelming things that are happening in her professional and personal life, she feels as though she’s slowly sinking into a place where she might not be able to cope with it anymore. Her relationship with Ivy, her mother, is filled with anger. Part of that anger stems from knowing that she was not the favorite child, and part because, even though she has bailed her mother out, Ivy still finds many things to criticize Joanie about. It’s an issue a lot of women face. Becoming the mother to your mother can be not only confusing, but also has an odd way of building up resentment and anger. Ivy does a lot to add fuel to Joanie’s fire because of her puritanical belief system and her constant and unhelpful interjections. On the opposite side, her relationship with her daughter is difficult because she really does struggle to be a good and compassionate mother but can’t help but to put all kinds of emotional pressure on her. She doesn’t understand why her daughter is so angry and resentful when, try as she might, she just wants to connect. It was easy to see that Joanie’s relationship with her daughter was the mirror reflection of the relationship she had with her mother, with Caroline treating her much the same as she treated her mother.

To be honest, though I did like her, I found Ivy to be a little too meddlesome and inflexible. She is of the generation that believes the women of her daughter and granddaughter’s generation expect too much for themselves and that’s why they’re never satisfied. They eagerly seek happiness only to end up disappointed. She speaks at length about her own relationship with her deceased husband and how there was little to no communication or emotional connection. Ivy doesn’t understand why her daughter is so angry and depressed, or why her granddaughter is so full of angst. She is so far removed from any forms of society that she’s sometimes misled in her beliefs by the things she reads on the Internet and the age old opinions that she stubbornly holds on to. In the latter half of the story, Ivy comes to realize that she too may be depressed and she begins to act out in some alarming ways. Her relationship with her son, the favorite, is a source of painful disappointment to her, and she, at times, mercilessly antagonizes both her daughter and granddaughter. While I could readily sympathize with Ivy, she sometimes maddened me with her strange ideas and proclamations and endless insensitive questions.

Caroline was the person I most identified with, which is strange for me because usually I don’t sync all that well with YA characters. Caroline is frustrated by the role she’s forced to play in her parents’ drama. She’s constantly filled with anger because she feels that the adults around her are trying to validate their feelings through her and that everyone expects something from her. She’s in love with a boy who is only using her for her intellectual prowess and who doesn’t know how she feels about him. Caroline also is basically friendless and sort of a social outcast. She comes into skirmishes with almost everyone around her, a fact which saddens and confuses her. She doesn’t think she’s a mean person, so why is she acting this way all the time? Looking deeper into the book, I think I identified with Caroline because I’ve been Caroline. There’s a tremendous pressure and weight on her, and her need for understanding herself and her parents is something she’s not equipped for. Her confusion and anger were so real for me, her unhappiness so palpable. Out of the three women, she’s the one who seemed the most confused and troubled, and because she was so young, she had no wellspring from which to draw comfort.

Though I’ve made this book sound rather dour and serious, there were a lot of laugh out loud moments and a sharp humor to the ways in which the women dealt with each other. I found the book to be surprisingly amusing and realistic in a way I hadn’t expected, and although the ending was a bit ambiguous, I could see that each woman was on the road to healing by the conclusion of the book. The issues that manifest themselves were not light and frothy, but something about the way they were portrayed enabled me to see them for who they were, and also let me get a glimpse of the redemption that they were on the road to finding. This is the type of book I think a lot of women will relate to for a host of reasons. I think each reader will have a very different reaction to the three women and will find something about each of them to admire, despite their emotional upheavals. A very worthy read.(less)

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Mar 16, 2011 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-s-fiction

Joanie and Richard are divorced and Joanie has taken a life-long vow to celibacy! Richard is living with, BJ, a girl half is age who is now pregnant and they are getting married. Joanie, almost fifty-years-old is in a divorcee support group and only talks to her best friend Mary Margaret outside the group.

Fifteen-year-old daughter, Caroline, is a secretive, manipulative, unhappy teenager whose best friend, Sondra, just introduced her to marijuana.

Ivy, Joanie’s mother, lives with her and Carolin...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/20...

It’s a drag getting old, everyone knows that. Ivy didn’t think that her faith in God or devotion to her family would ever let age have her against the ropes. Yet, here she is, watching her fifty year old daughter let a nice marriage die and a her teenaged granddaughter join gangs or cults or whatever it is that young people have found to get into, now a days. She wishes for a simpler time as she continually shakes her head and sighs.

Joanie didn’t exactly l...more http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/20...

It’s a drag getting old, everyone knows that. Ivy didn’t think that her faith in God or devotion to her family would ever let age have her against the ropes. Yet, here she is, watching her fifty year old daughter let a nice marriage die and a her teenaged granddaughter join gangs or cults or whatever it is that young people have found to get into, now a days. She wishes for a simpler time as she continually shakes her head and sighs.

Joanie didn’t exactly let a good marriage die. It’s more like her husband of over a decade, woke up one morning, out of love, in love with a wispy blonde thing that happened to be carrying his baby. She’s over the divorce, over her teenager slamming her door, over her mother bombarding her with criticism and very over her divorcee group. Oh, and she’s over sex. Forever.

Caroline is not over sex, although, she has yet to have it. She’s smart and skinny but why does any of that matter when no one notices you? Getting old may be a drag but high school is downright unbearable.

There is something really unique about the way this story is told. Instead of a header telling which character is speaking or thinking, the inner monologue and rolling commentary simply flips from one to the next. This method seemed to give the impression that all three women comprised one whole person at various states of existence, watching and noting the other quirks of age or youth.

I found the book hilarious, throughout. Of course, I’ve recently been informed that my sense of humor is in full on desert drought stage and needs to be used only with people who have similar inclinations. I tend to find humor in almost everything and I like snarky, wry commentary, especially about really normal stuff.

For some reason, I suppose it’s more a matter of appealing to target audience than a true gender leaning, I’ve had a hard time finding very dark, satirical humor in female voice. I think Pennebaker does a great job in three voices, nailing my type of shown, not told, humor.

This is a book to be read but to be read with care. I loved it, again, but I’ve seen a few reviews that felt it missed the mark. It’s a witty commentary on, not family dynamics but rather people and their insecurities, dreams, failures and rhythms. Read it with that in mind and you’ll enjoy it wholeheartedly.

(less)

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Jan 19, 2011 Mtnbookworm rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found myself uncannily motivated by Pennebaker’s title alone. Frankly, it describes me and many others in my circle of family and friends to a T. I suspect if you're dealing with either raising kids or handling eldercare drama (or both) ... the title probably describes your life too.

Based on her other writing, I knew I could count on Pennebaker for a respite from and a laugh about real life. I’ve had a hard time reading lately because I’m so distracted, so if a book can hold MY attention, that...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Jennifer Jensen (Literally Jen) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-publisher

I wish I could go back in time a few weeks and ask myself what appealed to me about this book, because once I started reading it there wasn't really much in it that I enjoyed. What was I thinking?

This novel centers around 3 women, each with their own set of problems. The reader gets an up close and personal play by play of everything each of them thinks about things from sex to illegal aliens. None of these women came across as sympathetic to me, especially since their problems are so trivial co...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Marquetta (LoveToReadForFun) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, tlc-book-tour

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is a story about three generation of women living under the same roof trying to cope with each other and with life. Joanie, Ivy and Caroline are each going through changes in their life that they are finding difficult to handle. Joanie is a soon to be 50 divorcee. Her husband is living with a woman half his age and just announced that they are having a baby. Ivy is a widow whose savings has quickly dwindled thanks to the bad economy. She can no longer...more Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is a story about three generation of women living under the same roof trying to cope with each other and with life. Joanie, Ivy and Caroline are each going through changes in their life that they are finding difficult to handle. Joanie is a soon to be 50 divorcee. Her husband is living with a woman half his age and just announced that they are having a baby. Ivy is a widow whose savings has quickly dwindled thanks to the bad economy. She can no longer afford to live on her own and moves in with her daughter Joanie. Caroline is a typical teenager, dealing with her parents divorce, living with her grandmother and being a pea in the very big pond known as High School. What all 3 of these women have in common is that they are trying to find their place in the world and with each other.

I enjoyed reading Women on the Verge. The tone is light, funny and sometimes snarky. The story is told from 3 POVs - Joanie, Ivy and Caroline - so that you get a bird's eye view of what each character is thinking. The character I could relate to the most is Caroline. She doesn't connect with her mother and grandmother. She only has one friend. And she tries to avoid her father completely. I could understand why Joanie's relationship with Ivy was tenuous. Ivy undermines Joanie constantly. She insults her in an infuriating passive-aggressive manner. There was a scene where Joanie finally gave into her anger with her mother and I was happy that she did. Although, I felt sympathy for Joanie, I felt that she was so consumed by her own misery that she couldn't or wouldn't see her daughter's misery. And in typical teenage fashion, Caroline started acting out.

I felt that the "breakthrough" for these women was a little anti-climatic. Towards the end, they do come together and start to see each other in a different light. I felt that the ending was just the beginning for Joanie, Ivy and Caroline. I would have loved to have read more about these women working through their issues with themselves and each other.

Note: I love the cover. Very original and cute.(less)

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Mar 16, 2011 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars

Three female members of a family at different stages of their lives are trying to coexist.

Sandwiched between her seventy-six-year-old mother, Ivy, and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Caroline, Joanie Pilcher (approaching fifty) feels overwhelmed at times, emotionally bankrupt, and definitely misunderstood. She is so "done" with men that she has vowed never to have sex again. Caroline is at a point of fearing that she will never find anyone to love her, much less to have sex with her. And Ivy is f...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was looking for a light, after the holidays type book and came across this one. It's premise is three women (a 15 year old daughter, 50 year old mom, and a grandmother) living under one roof. The mom went through a divorce and her ex husband is getting married to a young girl who happens to be pregnant. The grandmother had to give up her house due to the economy and crash of the stock market. The young daughter is having a hard time socially in high school. Lots of realistic challenges going o...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Marie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, didn-t-finish

http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...

I picked up this book at the library (on the "new" shelf) and decided to read it, mostly based on the recommendation of Sarah Bird, a talented Texas writer. Ruth Pennebaker is another writer from Texas. According to the book jacket she is a commentator for an NPR facilitator and keeps a blog (which looks much better than her novel!).

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is about a trio of generations living under the same roof. Joanie is mom to Car...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: received-for-review

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is a book that took me through a wide range of emotions. At different points, the book made me laugh, it made me angry and a bit depressed, and it ended on a hopeful note.

Set in a multi-generational household of three women, the book explores the daunting emotional baggage that each woman is carrying. Caroline, the youngest, is a teenager struggling to find her identity. She is shy and smart, but feels invisible at school and has only one close friend...more Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is a book that took me through a wide range of emotions. At different points, the book made me laugh, it made me angry and a bit depressed, and it ended on a hopeful note.

Set in a multi-generational household of three women, the book explores the daunting emotional baggage that each woman is carrying. Caroline, the youngest, is a teenager struggling to find her identity. She is shy and smart, but feels invisible at school and has only one close friend. The one thing that gives her hope in her day is the boy she has a crush on, who barely seems to know she exists. She clashes constantly with her mother, Joanie. Joanie is 49-years-old, divorced, and trying to get the hang of her new job at an advertising agency. She just found out her ex-husband is having a baby with his newest girlfriend, which doesn't help her healing process after the divorce. She clashes pretty regularly with her mother Ivy, who has moved in with them because her life savings went down the drain when the stock market fell out. Ivy doesn't quite know how to handle living in someone else's house, especially when her relationship with Joanie has never been the best. In the beginning of the story she seems like she is in her own world, not really connecting with the other women in the house until later in the book.

Based on memories of my own teenage years, Caroline's almost constant negativity is annoyingly realistic. I was a shy girl in high school, and would always wish that I was different than myself, so I felt a connection with Caroline in a small way. And I could see a lot of realism in the way that Ivy was portrayed as well, just from watching the way that my mother and her elderly mother have switched roles as time has passed. I think I probably sympathized with Joanie the most, and although she could be a bit short with her mother, you could tell she was making progress in understanding and accepting the changes in her life.

There were several places in the book where I giggled out loud (especially when Ivy exclaimed to Joanie and Caroline that she knew how to "Goggle" *snicker*), and there were several points when I wanted to shake the characters and get them to look outside of their own sadness to really see each other. Having been in a place like that (a sad place where it's hard to see anything else), I felt a connection to these ladies. By the end of the book, they find a way to reconnect, and even when they are just taking baby-steps, you can tell that things will be better.

I enjoyed this book, and it seems to me that any woman whose teenage years seem overly dramatic in hindsight, or whose mother-daughter relationships (on both ends) have seen their ups and downs, will see aspects of themselves or their family members in these characters. The relationships they have with each other are realistic, funny, frustrating, and hopeful, and that is just what we come to expect in life.(less)

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Jan 30, 2011 Alisa Bowman rated it 5 of 5 stars

I finished this book last night. The author artfully tells a tale from three perspectives and generations. Each perspective is realistic, and even though all of the women in the book are deeply flawed and neurotic, they are also wonderfully likable. An irreverent sense of humor runs through the book. Some of the lines are classic and memorable and I found myself wanting to read with a highlighter. One scene toward the end of the book made me laugh so hard the dog jumped off the bed. This is a gr...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Mary Pessaran rated it 3 of 5 stars

I avoided it as long as it was humanly possible for a reader/writer to avoid. Yes, that's right. Three days before it closed forever, I went and feasted on the dead body that was Borders. I bought this book. I am sad to tell the author that I bought it for 80% off, but I am glad to tell the author that it is worth more. Well, maybe not the full cover price, because if people were willing to pay full cover price, then Borders would not be wormsmeat today. But if I knew about the book, and the aut...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Alexandra Grabbe rated it 4 of 5 stars

When Ruth Pennebaker places three generations of women under one roof, sparks fly. This novel is about learning to appreciate family members, a subject many of us can relate to. Reading Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is like drinking fine champagne: the bubbles tickle as you drain your glass. The dialogue sparkles. The characters feel real. I loved the author's dry wit and especially appreciated the description of the relationship between Joanie and her elderly mom Ivy, since I too...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A sad but realistic view of life.
1. Woman whose husband left her. She is working, has a daughter and her mom has come to live with her.

2. Daughter- Dad is getting married because his current girl friend of 3 month is pregnant. Each partner told her a secret which she didn't want to know. She is experimenting with cigs and pot.

3. Widowed older mom- finally came to the realization daughter are the ones who take care of you, even when you've always favored your son. Not financially able to cope. De...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Shari rated it 4 of 5 stars

gave it four stars instead of three and a half for it's amusemnet factor. three generations under the same roof (women) and their trials and tribulations. somewhat amusing.Joanie Pilcher is about to turn fifty and has recently been left by her husband. If that's not enough to make her feel overwhelmed, her eighty year old mother is also living with her and her sullen teenage daughter. When Joanie gets a call from her ex-husband letting her know he's gotten his new twenty-nine year old girlfriend...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an easy to read book about people who you’ll recognize. Although it dealt with weighty issues, it never became a heavy book. It managed to maintain its light feel while still touching you. My only disappointment was that the end seemed to just peter out. It really needed more of a conclusion, or if you are going by the title, a breakthrough. It was still a very enjoyable book.

there's more on my blog http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/201...

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May 12, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: My mom

Was a quick and easy read. Liked the switching between characters. It helped to show the different perspectives these 3 women had. One was able to hear from a teen, a "middle-aged" woman, and a senior citizen.

They each had their own issues to deal with and I didn't feel like they were "resolved" at the end, but each character was on her way to deal with them. I really liked Joanie, the middle-aged mom - in my opinion, she ended up being the strongest character in the book. Kudos to her.

(Might c...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: impossible-to-finish

I hate to say I wasn't as happy with this book as I thought I would be. At first, I hated it. I wondered why I was still reading it if I wasn’t obliged to. But as I continued to read it, I enjoyed it a little more. Still, the ending was too, as my friend Gino would say, 'floppy' and didn't particularly feel like an ending. I know Pennebaker was getting at a message—having all four girls together—but all the same, I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't a proper ending. As a matter of fact, the s...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Bridget rated it 5 of 5 stars

While reading Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough, I couldn't help but think about my own experiences with the important women in my life. Whenever I am going through something rough, I try to concentrate on how it will benefit me in the future. I was immediately captured and was unable to put this book down. I highly recommend it, especially for those of you going through a rough patch.

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Feb 16, 2011 Allisson Seiler rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: so-bad-i-threw-it-against-the-wall

Had high hopes for this ... it wasn't badly written just not well written. I tried to care for the characters for 84 pages but in the end thought there were better things to read or re-readThree Women: A Novel which also deals with three generations of women and the intricacies of their lives.

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Mar 21, 2013 LuAnn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is a humorous look at three women who are at different stages in their lives – a mother, her daughter and her mother – who are living together. They each have different takes on life in general and those opinions tend to clash … and often! Funny, poignant and brutally honest. This is a must-read and would make an excellent choice for book groups.

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Jun 09, 2011 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars

well...i thought this was really promising...I loved this .."Mary Margaret had never been in therapy. She'd grown up on a ranch in West Texas, where people believed you should shut up and stop whining and get over your problems. Life was supposed to be hard. And Unfair. So what?"

that was the end of the first chapter and the last thing i liked about this book...

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Apr 22, 2011 Crystal rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I will admit straight off that this title kind of had me at hello. Don’t you love it? Add to that this adorable cover, which makes a whole lot of sense once you’ve read the book, and it’s all kinds of fun.

Aside from that, this was a very entertaining look at the generally ordinary lives of these women living in Texas. It’s the kind of scenario I’d never really thought about – being a middle aged woman with both your mother and teenage daughter living with you. I don’t have any children of my own...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Gloria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book - three generations of women struggling to live together in the same house. Teenager (didn't WE struggle in those years!), recently divorced mom who is trying to "find her sea legs" in an advertising job, and the grandmother who has had to move in since the stock market collapse ate through her retirement savings. Very good read, highly recommended. P.S. Austin author - her first "adult" book, was writing for young adult audience.

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Oct 15, 2010 Carol Flake Chapman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Three generations under one roof, the universe in a grain of sand. Wry, wonderful insights about women of different ages, temperaments and experiences linked by blood and circumstance, managing to find common ground. Ruth is a sharp, witty and very wise writer who can find humor and insight in the most unlikely situations.

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Mar 25, 2011 Shaheen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit, fiction

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

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title link	preview: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9256468-women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakthrough?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348886119l/9256468.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9256468-women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakthrough?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Ruth Pennebaker[/url]

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough

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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough

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