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Jan 10, 2012

Marci rated it:

See below... I finished the book. There was no good news. The characters were all thin, 1-dimensional angry/bitter or victims with NO redeeming qualities and few redeeming actions (which were performed grudgingly at best.) The male characters were simply parsley on the plate used ONLY to showcase the women...the entire preimise of the book apparently was "life's a bitch and then you die".

I am in the middle of this book...I have only gotten this far because...I continue t More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2011

CC rated it:

Two stars means it was "okay" and that's all the enthusiam I can muster for this one. The cover pulled me in, a woman on a beach, green sky surrounding her. It promised a fun literary beach read and unfortunately, for me, it didn't really deliver.

Three generations of Boston/Irish woman and another daughter in-law meet at the family's beach cottage (and two million dollar main house) in Maine. The narrative is told from the four women's points of view, which was a lot to ove More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2012

Anne rated it:

If you give me a book about several generations of women in the same family that is a relatively easy read - one that you could see yourself taking out at the beach or on any relaxing vacation, then chances are that I'm going to like it. Maine definitely fits the description. Shockingly, it takes place in Maine, at Alice's summer home. After the passing of her husband, she is left alone, except for the sporadic company of her three children - none of which she seems to particularly like, and More...

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Jan 14, 2012

Emily rated it:

This book kept my attention, but it wasn't the engrossing family saga I was hoping it would be. The characters, for the most part, are unlikable, selfish people who are content to wallow in their memories of what someone did to them twenty years ago. The only characters in the book I liked were Maggie and Ann Marie, and I kept waiting for them to finally have their shining moments and tell everyone else to go to hell. It didn't happen.

*SPOILER BELOW*

The ending left quite More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

LeeAnn rated it:

MAINE BOOK REVIEW by LeeAnn Sharpe

MAINE by J Courtney Sullivan

I so much wanted to be there for our Seasoned Readers Book Club at Barnes & Noble last night. But, Mom had an Alzheimer's melt down and I couldn't go. So to calm her I had a discussion of the book with her instead.

Our family spent summers in Maine near where this story takes place in Needick Beach, Maine, although our cabin was at Sebago Lake, not the ocean. Mom and Dad are both from the area and I still More...

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Jan 07, 2012

ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) rated it:

I felt like I read a different book/story than the one the jacket made me believe I was going to get. I didn't like many of the characters AT ALL, I don't even understand how these people got together every year at the cottage when they seemingly hated one another for so long. I don't know..too much to get into and I'm a very lazy reviewer, but while I don't feel like every character I come to know should be happy all the time, I can't stand reading about the most miserable people on the planet More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

I read and enjoyed Sullivan's earlier book, Commencement. But I didn't enjoy this book. It took me a long time to slog my way through. Sullivan tells the story from the rotating perspective of different characters, all part of the same family. Two of the characters were well-rendered, including, importantly, Alice, the family matriarch around whom much of the story unfolds. I also thought her daughter Kathleen seemed realistic, the daughter who strayed away after her beloved father died and is a More...

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Dec 30, 2011

Peggy rated it:

Maine is the narrative of three generations of the Irish Catholic family, the Kellehers. Alternating chapters are told by Alice, the 82 year old widowed matriarch, her daughter Kathleen, a divorced, recovering alcholic worm farmer, her daughter-in-law Ann Marie, an uptight, empty nester and her granddaughter Maggie, a 32 year old pregnant, single gal who has just been dumped by her loser boyfriend.
There are a few things I really liked about this book. First, I liked the way the author More...

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Dec 26, 2011

Bookreaderljh rated it:

I really liked this book. I had wanted to read it since it was a story of a family with a summer cottage in the NorthEast. I know that life very well. But I really loved learning of each of these characters - 3 generations of women in a large Irish Catholic family. Each one could have been a novel all unto themselves as they were so different. But when they all come together at the family cottage in Maine, their stories really gel. Each has their own demons but despite everything they do depend More...

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Dec 22, 2011

Larraine rated it:

Modern literature often seems to be more about mood or feeling and less about a good story. When I read a novel, one of the things I really want is a good story. "Maine" fit the bill admirably. At 385 pages and a plot that goes back and forth in time, it's not a fast read.

However, it is immensely satisfying and really very wonderful. The book centers around three generations of Irish-American women and their relationship problems. After reading it, I've decided to read her f More...

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Dec 18, 2011

Betsy rated it:

This book read like a meandering daydream, wandering here and there amongst the lives of 4 women in the Kelleher family. It was interesting in that it showed the various life views from the perspective of each of the women and demonstrated how each person's view can vary greatly from another person's view of themselves and others. It also demonstrates how these different viewpoints can cause misunderstanding between people. Other than that though, not a whole lot actually happens in this book More...

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Dec 14, 2011

Natalia rated it:

I really enjoyed reading this novel about the matriarch - Alice - of the Kelleher family and how their lives revolved around their summer cottage in Maine. Each generation had their own story to tell. I liked Maggie - the pregnant and single writer from NYC. I liked Kathleen - the former alocoholic and current worm farmer from California. I even liked Anne Marie - the empty nest homemaker looking for something and someone to fill the void in her life. The biggest problem was that Alice was More...

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Dec 13, 2011

Ann rated it:

Maine by J. Courtney is a novel about the Kelleher family relationships set in current times and is centered on the women. Grandmother Alice Kelleher and her late husband built a wonderful summer home in Maine about 3 hours north of their Boston homes many years prior to this novel. However Alice's children and grandchildren have fought for years about this and that regarding their summer vacation time at the house so she has decided to will the house, cottage, and land to a small nearby Catholi More...

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Nov 14, 2011

Katy added it

Maine by Courtney Sullivan, read by Ann Marie Lee, 2011, Random House Audio, CD ISBN: 978-0307917294, 14 discs 17.4hr. $34.20.
4 Stars
Maine is told from the revolving perspectives of four Kelleher women: Alice, the widowed, 82-year-old matriarch, a distant, lonely, devout Catholic; Alice’s daughter, Kathleen, a sober alcoholic, owner of a worm farm in California; Kathleen’s daughter Maggie, a writer living in New York City, and Alice’s daughter-in-law, Ann Marie, the uptig More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Kim rated it:

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

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Nikki rated it:

I listened to Maine rather than read it because there were over 300 holds on 34 copies in our ILL system, but I just happened to see the audiobook on the shelf! Lucky for me. I found myself keeping the earphones in for quite a while after the dogwalk ended just to see what those women would do and say next.

The book focuses on four women of a prosperous Irish Catholic family (grandmother Alice, her daughter Kathleen, Kathleen's daughter Maggie, and Alice's daughter-in-law Anne Marie) More...

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Oct 15, 2011

Alex rated it:

New-England-family-in-crisis novel #2 of the month! I was looking forward to reading it, having read Sullivan's prior novel, "Commencement", and getting totally into the characters. I was similarly invested in the main characters of this novel--family matriarch Alice, defined in some not very positive ways by one terrible act in early adulthood; her recovering alcoholic and black sheep daughter, Kathleen; Kathleen's pregnant daughter, Maggie, who has just broken up with her boyfriend; More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Valerie rated it:

*Sigh*

I wanted to love this book. One review I read said to make it your final summer read. I was expecting something fun and light, but there was nothing fun about this book. Once I realized it wasn't the light read I thought it was going to be, I just went with it. The story is told from the points of view of four women who cover three generations: Alice, the matriarch; Kathleen, her daughter; Ann Marie, her daughter-in-law, and Maggie, Kathleen's daughter. None of these women More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Kevvy rated it:

Story about four women, spanning three generations. The characters are;

Alice: The bitter 83 year old, matriarch who is living with the guilt that she played a part in her sister's death many years ago. She is known for her mood swings that go from passively offensive to completely belligerent. Her saving grace is her faith in the Catholic church. She holds on to her faith because to her it is the only family she has left after what she considers a complete let down by her relatives. Al More...

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Sep 27, 2011

Kim rated it:

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting seeing how the characters perceived one another and projected the reasons why the other would act as they had. Having several narrators allowed insight into each person's actions from their own perspective, and then I got to see how someone might perceive that same act or behaviour if they didn't know the true reason behind it.

We all have such rich inner dialogue and tend to believe that our rules for behaviour apply to others. Sometimes w More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Dknight rated it:

Irish Catholic families have it all! Tradition, guilt, honor, poor communication skills, internal conflicts, external angst, yearning to be good, better and best, disappointments, alcoholism, hope and above all love of family, no matter how badly they treat each other... and
This book brings out the additional factors stirring up so much misunderstanding. That being the clash of old time culture and expectations and this contemporary American culture. The great divide between today's mindse More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 18, 2011

Christine rated it:

I was a little concerned when I first started this book because of the similarity between it and "Wish You Were Here", which I'd read very recently. Both books concern the last summer at a family vacation beach house because of the matriarch's decision to dispose of it -- so I had kind of a "been there, done that" feeling at the beginning. But there became enough distinction in the characters and their history to set it apart and make it feel fresh compared to the other boo More...

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Sep 13, 2011

Peggy rated it:

The inspiration for updating my list! I loved this book (except for the cover)!!! I saw this book on a recommended summer read and so I placed a hold on "Maine" and then ordered her first book, "Commencement." Tried to read "Commencement" and couldn't get through it so when "Maine" appeared at the library right before I was going to leave town I had to ask myself...does this book make the trip? Starting with a two hour delay at the airport that night " More...

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Sep 04, 2011

Julie rated it:

I liked Maine, which I picked up on a whim from the speed-read, 10-day rental table at my library, having considered it and rejected it earlier in the summer. I rejected it, because while I liked Smith's inaugural effort, Commencement, well-enough, I didn't love it and this sounded so similar: a story about the lives of four women, told alternately in their voices. Maine worked much more for me that Commencement did, and I think it's because a major theme of this book is motherhood. All four More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Crystal rated it:

Maine is based on a dysfunctional family. Need I say more? Well, I will anyway. I liked the book. I felt myself relating with (not to) some of the characters, being the fact that...well, I don't know about the rest of you, but isn't there always someone in the family that is the kiss-up do-gooder just so she can reep the inheritance when someone dies, or the daughter that never really felt good enough, etc. I enjoyed the drama unfolding in the book. It was good to see some get what was com More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Jamie rated it:

This is yet another case where I'm unsure of a star rating. I enjoyed this book, hence the four stars. But I am a bit ambivalent about how much it'll stick with me. I wanted to read it because I had read "Commencement," J. Courtney Sullivan's first book, and because the setting reminded me of my husband's family's house in Michigan.

"Maine" is structured much like "Commencement," in that each chapter alternates between the point of view one of four mai More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 23, 2011

Joanne rated it:

Chick lit + Beach Read about a multigenerational Irish Catholic family which always vacations at a summer house in Maine. Chapters are from four different family members' point of view, though towards the end as they converge it's hard to keep the voices straight. Some of the characters are not particularly likable, which adds to their interest and complexity, but at the same time makes the book less fun to read, since I don't want to spend time in their heads. But they have some quirky quali More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Dani rated it:

Many of you may remember by review of the author's first novel "Commencement". While I didn't give it that great of a review, I did mention that I was looking forward to reading her books in the future as I thought she had some potential as a writer. It is for this reason that I jumped at the chance to her new novel "Maine". This is certainly very different from her first novel and I love it!

The novel follows four women in the Kelleher family during a monumental sum More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 20, 2011

Deborah rated it:

Maine follows the same structure as J. Courtney Sullivan's first novel, Commencement, alternating between the point of view of four woman one chapter at a time. The women in Maine are connected by the same dysfunctional Boston family headed by Alice, an unlikeable matriarch. Alice's daughter Kathleen is a recovering alcoholic who has successfully avoided the family for a decade but is drawn back into the fray when her daughter Maggie becomes accidentally pregnant, on purpose, by a d-bag boyfrien More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 14, 2011

Karen rated it:

I loved this book. At the beginning, I admit that I got a little confused by all of the characters introduced in quick succession at the outset, but it's certainly possible that I wasn't focused enough and missed something, so I don't blame the author for this, especially because once I realized that I was a little lost and started paying closer attention, I was completely engaged in the story. Usually an author needs to make her characters likeable, but in this book that rule is definitely NOT More...

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