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  <id>9817</id>
  <title><![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]></description>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
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  <average_rating>1.67</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>3</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>4</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[those who read a lot]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Aug 31 20:02:34 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Nov 11 13:40:59 -0800 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[There is an early renaissance work called The Decameron, by one Italian bloke named Boccaccio. The book is a thinly veiled excuse to collect a bunch of smutty stories under a thinly veiled excuse for a framing plot (ten young men and women escape to the hills outside plague-ridden Florence, and beha...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5455826">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5455826]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5455826]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>21721432</id>
    <user>
    <id>182379</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Gregg]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.44</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>611</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue May 06 13:31:34 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue May 06 13:35:50 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[My typical response to a Smiley novel: she cites ten or twelve other books that look even more interesting than whatever I'm reading of hers at the moment. This book (a modern-day Decamaron (sp)) has the reader eavesdropping on several Hollywood residents in a palatial house over the space of a week...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21721432">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21721432]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21721432]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>10094856</id>
    <user>
    <id>137566</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Kate]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/137566-kate]]></link>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Dec 07 10:47:42 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Dec 07 10:57:28 -0800 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Honestly, I didn't like it and I didn't finish it. Which surprised me, because I read the Decameron as a teenager and liked it, and I like Jane Smiley generally. <br/><br/>The Decameron is all about stories, and so is this book. Just like the Decameron, the characters sit around all day telling st...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10094856">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10094856]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10094856]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>2454922</id>
    <user>
    <id>22890</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Jenna]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22890-jenna]]></link>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jun 27 13:32:06 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 16 22:54:22 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Sometimes you start a book and you think, &quot; Oh man, this is gonna suck.  But, I think I should give it a shot.&quot;  More often than not, you regret not paying this voice more heed, and stopping at page 10, 15, 40...whenever the urge to do anything but continue reading first strikes.  Usually,...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2454922">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2454922]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2454922]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>26304749</id>
    <user>
    <id>1274744</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Christine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Rockford, IL]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1274744-christine]]></link>
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    <book>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[Smiley fans, people who like good characterization]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Jul 04 11:52:33 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Aug 01 12:41:17 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is one of those books that you don’t know whether to love or hate. How you feel when you finish reading it may not be how you’ll feel days or months later. The strength of the book is not what has been pushed as the book’s most outstanding feature. It all makes for a confusing situation i...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26304749">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26304749]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26304749]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>23128640</id>
    <user>
    <id>72257</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Maya]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[New York, NY]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/72257-maya]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1177882590p3/72257.jpg]]></image_url>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Wed May 28 09:47:49 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed May 28 09:59:34 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This was a tough call.  I read about fifty pages (two chapters).  Some lines I'd think, right on.  But then for paragraphs and paragraphs at  at time I'd feel like I was being crushed under her words.  Also the first chapter was so dull and the dialogue did not ring true...the characters had great i...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/23128640">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/23128640]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/23128640]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>22541665</id>
    <user>
    <id>749137</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Heather]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Pittsburgh, PA]]></location>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri May 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon May 19 07:08:41 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat May 24 16:26:17 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I was expecting to enjoy this book far more than I did. Rarely is there a book I start that has me so uninspired that I just want to throw in the towel, and this happened to me several times along the way, though there were moments when I thought it might redeem itself. I've only read one other Jane...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22541665">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22541665]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22541665]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>21172413</id>
    <user>
    <id>173023</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Lynne]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Apr 28 09:58:01 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue May 13 14:27:48 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I just started this, I'm hoping for some Laurel Canyon-like Hollywood shenanigans combined with Smiley's usual sharp and devastating observations.<br/><br/>I just finished this. It was so much better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be good, but not great, and maybe a little boring o...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21172413">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21172413]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21172413]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>14040207</id>
    <user>
    <id>129343</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Charity]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Columbus, OH]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/129343-charity]]></link>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[movie buffs and politicos]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jan 30 07:40:03 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Mar 02 13:07:22 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<em>&quot;But a little after nones, they all went and refreshed their faces in cool water before assembling, at the queen's request, on the lawn near the fountain, where, having seated themselves in the customary manner, they began to await their turn to tell a story on the topic the queen had proposed....</em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14040207">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14040207]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14040207]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>9329068</id>
    <user>
    <id>67550</id>
    <name><![CDATA[liz]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Philadelphia, PA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/67550-liz]]></link>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="literary" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Nov 19 17:20:08 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Dec 08 12:19:24 -0800 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Loosely based on the Decameron, and all about sex and politics.  Not too shabby!  There were times when I couldn't put it down.  It follows ten Hollywood-types in the days after the Iraq war has just been declared.  Very well-written, interesting political arguments, interspersed with amusing and ju...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9329068">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9329068]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9329068]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>29540725</id>
    <user>
    <id>1406227</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Nancy]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1406227-nancy]]></link>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Aug 07 13:44:32 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Aug 07 13:48:46 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[If I ever pick up another book by Jane Smiley I hope somebody shoots me. I thought this would be a fun summer read. Wrong. The L.A. Times calles it &quot;a blazing farce, a fiery satire of contemporary celebrity culture and a rich, simmering meditation on the price of war and fame and desire.&quot; ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29540725">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29540725]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29540725]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>45461454</id>
    <user>
    <id>1008236</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Bookmarks Magazine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1008236-bookmarks-magazine]]></link>
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  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

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  <date_added>Thu Feb 05 09:42:22 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Feb 05 09:42:22 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<p>Jane Smiley, who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for <em>A Thousand Acres</em>, has written on a range of topics: horses, midwestern university life, real estate, Greenland, and, most recently, literature (<em>13 Ways of Looking at the Novel</em>, ***1/2 Jan/Feb 2006). <em>Ten Days</em>, a social satire, tackles the superficial l...</p><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45461454">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45461454]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
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  <date_added>Thu Sep 25 10:00:09 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Sep 25 10:04:11 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I didn't dig this book. I found it boring, and, because of that, it took a long time for me to slog through. It was essentially a modern-day retelling of The Decameron, set in Hollywood. The one part I did enjoy was the discussion of movies, both real and imagined, that the characters participated i...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/33816911">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
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    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
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  <read_at>Sat Dec 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Dec 13 09:55:17 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Dec 13 10:11:28 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[How can anyone compete with John Updike's comments in his long appreciation in The New Yorker?  Smiley is a good writer; this is an entertaining book if essentially trivial.  Her challenge to herself seems to have been, just how explicit can I make the sex and what can I have the people do in betwee...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80856116">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80856116]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Charles]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Dec 06 22:03:06 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Dec 06 22:04:17 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[It’s an old trick: You put together a group of people in a semi-isolated setting such as a country house or a vacation retreat and see what happens. It’s worked in everything from Chekhov’s plays to Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game to Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (and its source,...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80140184">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80140184]]></url>
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      <review>
  <id>68555356</id>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <date_added>Sun Aug 23 09:45:25 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Aug 23 09:58:24 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Against all odds, I loved this book. Normally, I'm put off by lots of stories w/in stories because I don't care for short stories. I love long novels, even better give me a saga or trilogy. I enjoy full immersion in places and in characters' lives (Suitable Boy, Forsyth Saga, Strangers and Brothers,...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68555356">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68555356]]></url>
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Apr 26 13:04:32 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Apr 26 13:15:02 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This one is a hard book to rate, because it was desperately uneven, gold and dross. I dragged myself through the first third of the book with the mantra that I shouldn't stop reading just because I found the characters deeply, truly unlikeable -- so I'd give that third 1 star. The next third had bet...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54032116">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54032116]]></url>
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    <name><![CDATA[Elizabeth]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
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  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
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  <read_at>Wed Feb 18 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Feb 18 12:51:02 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Feb 18 12:58:13 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This fictional book is a series of conversations and encounters of a house full of people in Hollywood. (I listened to the audio version.) They are all involved with movies in some way so there is a lot of discussion of movies as life/life as movies.  The book begins at the beginning of the Iraq war...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46775669">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46775669]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46775669]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>53636843</id>
    <user>
    <id>529705</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Beverly]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Niles, IL]]></location>
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  <id type="integer">9817</id>
  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Apr 22 14:41:19 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Apr 22 15:00:51 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Oddly, a replay of At Paradise Gate with more sophsticated and complex characters, setting, and relationships. As with two other Smiley novels, I was not quite able to finish although I enjoyed reading it. This is due to lack of a plot. Smiley also has a strange take on the war in Iraq (which is ost...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53636843">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53636843]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53636843]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>45046959</id>
    <user>
    <id>945556</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Linda]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Colorado Springs, CO]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/945556-linda]]></link>
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  <isbn>1400040612</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781400040612</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">204</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Ten Days in the Hills]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309m/9817.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166065309s/9817.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9817.Ten_Days_in_the_Hills</link>
  <average_rating>2.43</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>652</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>A glorious new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner: a big, smart, bawdy tale of love and war, sex and politics, friendship and betrayal&#8212;and the allure of the movies. With Giovanni Boccaccio&#8217;s <em>Decameron</em> as her model, Jane Smiley takes us through ten transformative, unforgettable days in the Hollywood hills.<br/><br/>It is the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards. Max&#8212;an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned&#8212;and his lover, Elena, luxuriate in bed, still groggy from last night&#8217;s red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, and talking about the war in Iraq, recently begun. But soon their house will be full of guests, and guests like these demand attention. There is Max&#8217;s ex-wife, &#8220;the legendary Zoe Cunningham,&#8221; a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star, with her new lover, the enigmatic healer, Paul (fraudulent? enlightened?). Max&#8217;s agent, Stoney, a perhaps too easygoing version of his legendary agent father, can&#8217;t stay away, and neither can Zoe and Max&#8217;s daughter, Isabel, though she would prefer to maintain her hard-won independence. And of course there is the next-door neighbor, Cassie, who seems to know everyone&#8217;s secrets.<br/><br/>As they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, watch films in Max&#8217;s opulent screening room, gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms, the tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers an exquisitely woven, virtuosic work&#8212;a Hollywood novel as only she could fashion it, told with bravura, rich with delightful characters, spiced with her signature wit.  It is a joyful, sexy, and wondrously insightful pleasure.</p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2007</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Feb 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Feb 01 10:27:01 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Feb 06 15:50:41 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book is about politics and sex.  And it is words, words, words, words.  How does Jane Smiley do it?  Puportedly, based upon the DECAMERON by Boccaccio, it supposedly covers 10 days in Hollywood, but I counted 13. Since I do not have a classical education I had to look up the DECAMERON and I gue...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45046959">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45046959]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45046959]]></link>
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