Dinner with Anna Karenina

by Gloria Goldreich

Dinner with Anna Karenina by Gloria Goldreich released on Dec 27, 2005 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Fiction, Books About Books, Contemporary, Womens, Novels, Womens Fiction, Chick Lit

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Gloria Goldreich graduated from Brandeis University and did graduate work in Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was a coordinator in the Department of Jewish Education at National Hadassah and served as Public Relations Director of the Baruch College of the City University of New York.
While still an undergraduate at Brandeis, she was a winner of the Seventeen Magazine short story contest where her first nationally published work appeared. Subsequently, her short fiction and critical essays have appeared in Commentary, McCalls, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Mademoiselle, Ms., Chatelaine, Hadassah Magazine and numerous other magazines and journals. Her work has been widely anthologized and translated.
She is the author of a series of children's books on women in the professions entitled What Can She Be? She has also written novels for young adults, Ten Traditional Jewish Stories, and she edited a prize-winning anthology A Treasury of Jewish Literature.
Her novel, Leah's Journey won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction in 1979, and her second novel Four Days won the Federation Arts and Letters Award. Her other novels include Promised Land, This Burning Harvest, Leah's Children, West to Eden, Mothers, Years of Dreams and That Year of Our War. Her books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, the Literary Guild and the Troll Book Club.
She has lectured throughout the United States and in Canada.
Gloria Goldreich is married to an attorney and is the mother of two daughters and a son, and the grandmother of six grandchildren.

Reviews

[Ghost of the Library · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, confusing and impossible to engage with...mostly I wanted to slap some sense into all these ladies and beg them to do no more book club meetings...for something that starts with such high purposes and claiming to be different, it turns into a mismach of bad literary discussions thinly disguising the gossiping and the attempts at uncovering the dark secret one of them hides....blergh that's all.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was warned that this wasn't the best book in the world and that was an understatement. This is the WORST book I read in 2009. It was so repetitive, a boring plot, 2D characters, etc. etc. etc. Wow – it was bad. It was so bad that I had to read it completely to fully appreciate it's true crapiness. I try to avoid reading reviews and even the back covers of books, but this book was so unbelievably terrible that about halfway through, I took a good look at the cover in case I was missing something… imagine my surprise to see 'award winning author above Gloria Goldreich's name'! How? Not this book! The book is so bad that the synopsis on the back had 4 out of the 6 characters WRONGLY NAMED. I think the editor and the reviewer didn't even read this book. Wow. It was BAD! Painful! Brutal!

[Cornelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Citisem o carte cu subiect similar: Citind Lolita în Teheran de Azar Nafisi care mi s-a părut genială. Și poate că mă așteptam ca această carte să fie măcar o umbră palidă a celeilalte.

Dar nu mi-a plăcut aproape deloc. Am terminat-o din inerție-pentru că era ușor de citit nu datorită dificultății și pentru că speram ca măcar ultimele pagini să fie altfel. Pe scurt, 6 femei diferite-cariere și caractere diferite- fac parte dintr-un club de lectură. Focusul e totuși mai mult pe vieților lor decât pe lecturile în sine-se tot menționează că le place atât de mult să citească și cât de mult înseamnă lectura pentru ele, dar rămân doar la nivel de cuvinte. Intriga-generată de despărțirea Cynthiei, femeia care avea viața perfectă, de soțul ei- duce doar la discuții inutile: ce li s-o fi întâmplat? gata să ne trezim și noi ca să nu pățim la fel. Sfârșitul sec m-a făcut să mă gândesc de ce mi-am pierdut timpul cu cartea asta. Dar mi-am dat seama că mi-a plăcut totuși ceva: discuțiile despre cărți și viețile autorilor așa vagi cum erau ele.

[beti_czyta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zacznę od tego ,że jeśli nie czytaliście "Anny Kareniny" , "Pani Bovary" ,"Lolity" czy "Małych kobietek" a macie te książki w planach to uwaga ,ale tu są spojlery .

Cynthia ,Trish , Jen , Elizabeth ,Donna ,Rina ,sześć różnych kobiet które połączyła pasja czytania .
Tytuł moim zdaniem lekko zwodniczy , a może powstał dlatego że była to pierwsza z omawianych książek w tym gronie .

Kobiety ustalają daty ,i osoba u której ma odbyć się spotkanie wybiera ,jaka książka będzie następna .
Sześć kobiet , którym różnie się w życiu układa ,ale starają się wzajemnie wspierać .
Jedna z nich szczęśliwa mężatka ,pewnego dnia oświadcza koleżankom że rozstaje się z mężem ,ale na tym zamyka dyskusję i nie chce nic więcej zdradzić .
Kobiety próbują dociec prawdy ...Czy wyjdzie ona na jaw ? Czy małżeństwo przetrwa?
Co wydarzy się w życiu pozostałych kobiet?

Fabuła książki jest bardzo spokojna , polecam na leniwą niedzielę ,lub jeśli potrzebujecie czegoś lżejszego do poczytania .

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drie sterren is misschien teveel, maar 2 vond ik dan weer te weinig. Teveel herhalingen, te weinig over Anna Karenina, maar toch vlotjes uitgelezen tijdens treinritten naar opleidingsdagen en enkele andere klassiekers leren kennen die ik dan ook wel eens wil lezen. Dus wel OK maar had er meer van verwacht.

[Tania · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t read Jane Austen’s Book Club, I only watched the movie. Perhaps I wouldn’t have liked that book either, but that movie inspired me to read this book, which I definitely didn’t like. I found it pretentious and self-serving that the characters were constantly guilt-ridden about their curiosity of their friends’ marriage, became more important that the stories of their lives, that they had to state over and over again how much they loved literature and how because they wanted to discuss it and the authors it put them above the average reader, these were all annoying points.

Along with the annoyances – this wasn’t anything special. The characters were your run-of-the-mill “groupies” their storylines were predictable and their decisions were boring. While everyone was mulling over Eric’s possible offense, I called the secret halfway through and I was only skimming. After the first painful 100 pages I took to speed reading – blowing past the mental angst to pick up the meat of the story and get to the end.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading books about books and this one was quite good. Six friends get together for regular book club meetings and throughout the year make changes to their own lives based on their reactions to the books they've read and their reactions to what's going on in each other's lives. I thought the author did a really good job creating the book discussions. The book club had read the biographies of the authors as well as their major literary works and each character had a fresh and unique perspective on the books and the authors' lives as they related to their own. I also thought the author portrayed a women's group in an authentic way. They like each other, they're friends, they enjoy each other's company but they also irritate each other, gossip about each other and envy each other. The book got a little mawkish at times but overall, I really enjoyed it.

[Bookaholic]

Dacă e ceva mai rău ca o carte proastă, e o carte proastă care promite, exact cînd eşti gata s-o laşi din mînă, că ar putea fi altceva decît pare. Nu m-am chinuit cu prea multe, dar m-a ros curiozitatea să văd ce-i cu Cină cu Anna Karenina, şi ca să fiu în stare să vă povestesc despre riscurile de a investi în aşa ceva, a trebuit să merg pînă la capăt. De ce m-am apucat s-o citesc, cînd am cît de cît un fler care funcţionează? Păi pentru că am vrut să văd ce face o new-yorkeză dintr-un subiect din care Azar Nafisi a făcut Citind Lolita în Teheran: discuţiile unor femei despre cărţi şi despre propriile vieţi. (continuarea cronicii: http://bookaholic.ro/o-alegere-riscan...)

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have known better than to pick this one up, but at least now I can warn the rest of you. This book barely has a plot, the characters are flat and two-dimensional, and their secrets, when revealed, turn out to be not all that interesting after all. Even if reading a book about women using a book club as an excuse to talk about their troubles with relationships, children, etc., is your cup of tea, you can do better. If it's not, Dinner with Anna Karenina won't win you over. Stay away.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can I give it nothing? It was so horrible, I did something that I loathe. I skipped/skimmed pages to the end to see if the question they are asking through out the entire book is ever answered. It's my book pet peeve, where they constantly ask the same question and never answer it in a book, and never just come out and ask the person what they are thinking. Sorry, what a waste of time.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel featuring books and book clubs, Dinner with Anna Karenina follows the lives of six women throughout the course of a year as they work their way through literary classics as well as a host of personal problems. Rather than focus on a central character or couple, the novel encompasses the professional and personal lives of each of the six ladies—Trish, Donna, Rita, Cynthia, Jen, and Elizabeth—while chronicling their bimonthly book club dinners and progressively deepening friendships. It is at the first of these meetings, hosted by the “prom queen” of the group, Cynthia, that she announces she is separating from her husband. Cynthia’s lack of an explanation for the dissolution of her glamorous and perfect life prompts unintended introspection and change in the lives of the other ladies as they ponder what must have happened to end Cynthia’s marriage. Each book club member in turn must take a closer look at her own life choices and decide what changes are necessary. As the months pass, the book club friendships deepen as the ladies open up to each other and begin taking control of their lives, setting up dramatic and surprising changes for all of them by the end of their year together.
***Because this novel centers on members of a book club and their meetings, author Gloria Goldreich includes several well-known literary classics for her characters to discuss. For each meeting, one member of the group leads the discussion, summarizing the text and including biographical notes on the author before the others contribute their opinions. Therein, it is not necessary to have read the book club’s selections to be able to follow and enjoy their discussions, but for anyone who would like further reading as suggested by Goldreich, her selections include: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert, The Reef by Edith Wharton, The Letters of Edith Wharton, "The Lottery" and Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, The Bell Jar and the Ariel poems by Sylvia Plath, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.***

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro sui libri, di quelli che piacciono a noi lettrici patologiche. Un gruppo di donne a Manhattan che si riunisce periodicamente a casa di una di loro per una cena seguita dall’analisi di un libro. Si passa dall’Anna Karenina di Tolstoj a Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott a Sylvia Plath e ad altri ancora. La preponderanza delle scrittrici donne e delle protagoniste femminili è influenzata dall’abitudine di queste donne di considerare i libri come uno strumento per interpretare le loro realtà, per analizzare sé stesse e la loro vita. Ognuna di loro ha un motivo per rifugiarsi nel santuario della letteratura fin dalla più tenera età, e con il tempo le pagine scritte sono diventate un modo di ritagliare del tempo per sé stesse. Il gruppo di lettura, che per ognuna di loro è l’impegno più importante, ed inderogabile, diventa a volte motivo di un occasionale e moderato fastidio da parte dei compagni o mariti, che si sentono scavalcati od esclusi.
Nonostante il titolo un po’ furbetto, questo romanzo merita veramente, sia per le appassionate interpretazioni del gruppo di lettura (che fra le altre cose fornisce molti gradevoli spunti di lettura) sia per le vicende delle protagoniste, che vengono seguite nelle loro vite piene e complicate e il cui approfondimento psicologico è magistrale. E’ un romanzo non solo sull’importanza della lettura, e sulla valenza che essa può assumere, ma anche sui rapporti sentimentali, sul delicato equilibrio nelle coppie e nelle famiglie, un romanzo sull’amicizia ma anche sui rapporti famigliari. Ne emerge un quadro affettuoso di donne forti ed indipendenti (a volte eccessivamente) ma anche fragili e bisognose di rapporti forti, immerse in un mondo metropolitano, lavorativo, affettivo e familiare che a volte esige tanto, troppo da loro, ma che non impedisce a queste lettrici di sapersi analizzare, capire, reinventare.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'unica cosa che non mi piace di questo libro è il titolo.
In effetti quando l'ho comprato, quest'estate da una bancarella estiva, ho davvero creduto che leggendolo mi sarei trovata, non so come, seduta al tavolo per una piacevole cena e un'ancora più piacevole chiacchierata con Anna Karenina. Ma questo è molto lontano dalla realtà. Anzi, il problema è che di Anna Karenina se ne parla poco e niente, solo qualche piccolo riferimento qui lì. E questa volta non si tratta di una brutta traduzione come spesso, ahimè, capita perché lo stesso titolo originale è Dinner with Anna Karenina.
Comunque, invece che a cena con la protagonista di Tolstoj, mi sono ritrovata trasportata nelle vite e nelle case di 6 piacevoli donne americane che davvero mi piacerebbe molto avere come amiche, o che, perlomeno, lo sono state in queste due settimane di lettura. Trish, Donna, Jen, Elizabeth, Rina, Cynthia sono 6 donne accomunate da un'unica cosa: la passione per la lettura. Per loro la lettura è evasione, è vivere la vita degli altri, è crescere e confrontarsi... insomma per loro la lettura è quello che è per me. Una volta al mese si incontrano per cenare tutte assieme e parlare dei libri di cui leggono, delle loro opinioni. E intanto noi lettori ne approfittiamo per conoscerle meglio, per conoscere le loro paure, i loro legami, le loro vite. Davvero un bel libro!
Una piccola nota negativa è da fare al revisore di questo libro: qualche errore di troppo, su cui ci si inceppa durante la lettura.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Some reviewed it as slow and wordy. It was pretty predictable, but I was interested in the characters, and I don't mind slower stories, so I liked it. I also have read The Jane Austen Book Club and The Friday Night Knitting Club, which are slightly similar to this book. I found that toward the end of this book there is meaning, and it contains some honest/frank examples of friendships between women.

[S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

a literary groundhog day...what might have been a good story at 100 pages was brutally dragged into 360. for all the talk of insightful literary critique, the author gives her own readers no credit to pick up on even the most blatent concepts.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expected something more literary. This was really just chick lit that mentioned literary fiction.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise. Detours over duplicative territory; this really needed a good editor.

[Sue.the.very.busy.reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had Dinner with Anna Karenina on my bookshelf FOREVER! I don’t know when or why I picked it up but the book has been there collecting dust for a long time. After I finished reading Anna Karenina I decided I wanted to read Dinner with Anna Karenina. I thought it would be fun to read a book where the characters discussed Anna Karenina throughout this book. I was a bit disappointed because AK was only mentioned a few times at the beginning and just briefly at the end. Dinner with Anna Karenina was about a group of women who lived in New York who met almost monthly in their book club and discussed one or two books and the authors who wrote them. Every two to three chapters would follow the lives of the characters and how their lives related to the books they were discussing at the time. If you are interested in this book here is the book list of books the characters discuss throughout the book. You don’t need to read these books ahead of time, however if you are a book nerd like me, I think it is nice to have some background on them before you read.

Books mentioned in this book:
Anna Karenina By: Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary. By: Gustave Flaubert
The Reef. By: By: Edith Wharton
Reading Lolita in Tehran By: Azar Nafisi
Lolita By: Vladimir Nabokov
The Bell Jar By: Sylvia Plath
Little Women By: Louisa Alcott

Overall I liked this ⭐️⭐️⭐️ star book and enjoyed reading how these books affected the lives of these fictitious women. “They were...no ordinary group, gathering together to kill an evening, to seek refuge from critical husbands and demanding children while idly discussing their new best-seller. They met because literature was their shared passion. Books were as important to them as breath itself. They shared the ability to immerse themselves in the lives of fictional characters, to argue passionately about the development of plots, about decisions taken, dilemmas resolved.”

[Maria Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

La storia è ambientata a New York, dove un gruppo di donne si incontra mensilmente per discutere di un libro in precedenza scelto e letto da tutte. Ognuna di loro a turno mette a disposizione la propria casa per gli incontri e il libro viene discusso durante la cena (da cui il titolo del libro).
Gli incontri del gruppo di lettura e le trame dei libri discussi, si intrecciano con le vicende personali di queste 6 donne con i loro matrimoni/relazioni più o meno felici, con i loro figli più o meno problematici e con le loro professioni più o meno redditizie e soddisfacenti.
Il libro non è un capolavoro (infatti credo sia pressoché sconosciuto e pure irreperibile) e l'edizione italiana è poco curata: ho trovato parecchi refusi, errori di concordanza maschile/femminile, errori nei nomi dei personaggi.
Tuttavia è un libro che si lascia leggere e che coinvolge perché crea quel minimo di suspense nelle vicende delle protagoniste che invoglia a voltare pagina e a scoprire che cosa succederà.
Ero inoltre parecchio curiosa di scoprire quali libri avrebbero letto.
Questo l'elenco completo:
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
Madame Bovary, Flaubert
La scogliera e le Lettere di Edith Wharton
La lotteria, Shirley Jackson
Leggere Lolita a Teheran, Azar Nafisi
Lolita, Nabokov
La campana di vetro e Ariel, Silvia Plath
Piccole donne, L.M. Alcott

È il libro che fa venir voglia di leggere altri libri. Per esempio, io credo che entro la fine dell'anno leggerò finalmente "Lolita" e qualcos'altro della Jackson. E forse sarebbe anche ora di rileggere Madame Bovary, è passato tanto di quel tempo...

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so dull! So very, very dull. It was repetitive and in my opinion pretentiously written. Yes, I chose keep reading it thinking something was going to happen. No. Not really. Yes, I could have put this book down and walked away. The description was very enticing to me and I just knew it would pick up and have something interesting or big somewhere soon for goodness sake something HAD to happen. What really bothered me the most about this snoreville of a read was that there was this big question alllllll the way through the book as to why Cynthia would end her marriage. Why? Why? Why? All her girlfriends wondered? They had coffee, lunch and dinner dates together to speculate. If your really friends just come out with it and ask. Cynthia said she didn't want to talk about it and so for months these ladies speculated over it. Perhaps I'm rude but I still would have been like, come one girl what's the deal? You kicked him out, you have kids what is so bad you are ready to end your marriage? Well the big secret wasn't that bad. But this book was.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dinner with Anna Karenina. This book is the perfect book club read. The characters were a little difficult for me to separate but i decided to make some notes to keep ithe story of each person clear in the early chapters. Gloria Goldreich described each of the characters. Each of the women had careers that they were passionate about through their bookclub enriched each other's lives. Interestinly, although they met monthly for an evening of interesting food and conversation about the selected book they really didn't KNOW each other, each woman mostly guarded about their personal lives.

Dinner with Anna Karenina made me envious of the camaraderie and shared love for their immersion into literature. There is so much in this book to discuss and share as a reading group and so much to learn about not only yourself but about how you naturally compare yourself to other women in your life. I also added a couple books mentioned in this book to my goodreads reading list.

A very good book!!

[Anna J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book hasn't received the greatest reviews, I actually really liked it. I was drawn into the story and I felt that the characters were pretty relatable. The novel centers around a book club made up of six accomplished, brilliant women - a psychiatrist, nutritionist, graphic designer/artist, marketing director, school guidance counselor, and a PhD student - all with different personalities, upbringings, dreams, and life challenges. They discuss wonderful literature, mostly classics, such as Anna Karenina (obviously), Little Women, and Sylvia Plath, but their group also become a haven of support to the women as they navigate the curve balls that life throws them. There was a little bit of drama, and I do think that at some points I questioned just how close these friendships actually were, but overall it was a cozy read and I loved the literary references.

[Nancyann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am puzzled by the angry one star reviews. Dinner with Anna Karenina was a fine story about six female friends who meet once a month in their own private book club. All six are accomplished women in their own rights and all six women also have problems with their spousal (or lack there of) relationships. These issues manage to be mirrored in the book selections and so their stories build. Yes, the characters were fairly two dimensional and the ending was too neatly wrapped up, but so what? It was an entertaining read especially for those of us who have been members of book clubs...and haven't we all had challenges in our personal relationships that seem reflected in books?

[Darlene Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the first book club meeting of the year, one book club member reveals that she and her husband have separated. The other members are stunned and spend the rest of the year trying to figure out why. Lots of gossip and speculation, but also lots of thoughts about marriage/relationships and what make them work or not work based on the book club members' experiences and the books they read. This book club approaches a discussion seriously in both reading and research and food preparation, but it was fun to be a part of this nerdy group of book lovers.

[Lucinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long standing bookclub members often become support systems. As they work through the readings often these contain a learning experience for their own lifetime experiences.
I could draw parallels with my own Literary Ladies Group the former Book Chatter book discussion group now in existence twelve years. We laugh together , dine together and at times cry together and learn from one another. Thanks ladies.

[Michelle Deister · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. The character names in the text didn't even match the summary on the back of the book jacket. It was a mess. I think I made it to chapter three. In summary: Women who don't really even seem to like each other have a book club. They are all different. They all like books. I couldn't care about any of them. Ugh.

[Jmb Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books about books. And I find book clubs fascinating, this was a good read with information about the book authors and certainly the lives of the book club members. Some day I will read;
Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, The Lottery, The Bell Jar, and Little Women. I found the lives of the author's as interesting as their books

[Jay Frimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about a book club and how the members are all affected by one member's decision to have her husband leave the household. A bonus, discussions about several books, mostly classics, form a significant part of the book.

[Anita Reiley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Characters were utterly boring. The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to know the heinous thing Eric did. And now I can’t even remember. My bookclub is SO much better than this bougie bunch.

[Susan Spindell · Rating 1 out of 5]

did not love the book. parts of it were enjoyable, but overall not a great read