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Any Place I Hang My Hat
by
Amy wasn't born to fortune. Her mother abandoned her before her first birthday and her father couldn't handle anything as conventional as parenting. Amy worked for her luck. At age fourteen, she got herself a scholarship to a New England boarding school, then to Harvard, then to Columbia School of Journalism. She's smart, she's enterprising, but after a few years as a repo
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Paperback, 400 pages
Published
April 18th 2006
by Scribner
(first published January 1st 2004)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
I have always liked Susan Isaacs. She is witty & funny & writes great dialogue. Most of her humor is wonderful sarcasm - a personal favorite. But she overdoes it to the extreme in this book - she's just not content to write one witty, sarcastic remark at a time. Even the smallest observation that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story merits sometimes 5 or 6 comments - each good in its own right but it gets annoying. The story itself is a good one but it too is overdone. Almost ever
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This book captures in an unexpected way the intersection between what we want from the people we love and our ability to trust them to give it to us. It's nuanced in an unusual way so that you're right with the narrator.
[I also finished it in the hours of our car ride home, despite four other awake people distracting me. That is the measure of a good book, right? heh, heh:]
[I also finished it in the hours of our car ride home, despite four other awake people distracting me. That is the measure of a good book, right? heh, heh:]
I'm giving this three stars because really, the writing is good. Isaacs is queen of the one-liners and witty observations, none of which I could remember five minutes later. And the story ended up the way it should, in my mind -- a love story without any sap or melodrama.
That said... the central plot line (even that is difficult to really say -- is it Amy and John, or Amy's search for her mother?) was drawn waaaaay out with information that in no way seemed necessary. Lots of information about A ...more
That said... the central plot line (even that is difficult to really say -- is it Amy and John, or Amy's search for her mother?) was drawn waaaaay out with information that in no way seemed necessary. Lots of information about A ...more
Maybe I'm a cynic. I found this at a used book sale, signed, and gave it a go. I thought I'd relate to it, despite the chick-lit feel to the plot. The main character is a writer who had a rough start, but has a strong will and work ethic. And yet I didn't end up wanting to relate to her at all.
Usually, if I don't like a main character I have a hard time finishing the book. I made myself finish the book.
For starters, the first few chapters include startling spelling and grammatical typos. What ...more
Usually, if I don't like a main character I have a hard time finishing the book. I made myself finish the book.
For starters, the first few chapters include startling spelling and grammatical typos. What ...more
I enjoyed this book well enough. It was a nice "finding myself" story with a a cheesy love story thrown in, minus a lot of the cheese and a bit of real-life relationships-are-not-always-awesome thrown in. You meet the main character after her rags to riches conversion from daughter of a criminal turned Ivy League educated gorgeous journalist, which is admittedly hard to relate to for us "normal" people. The first person perspective is nice, and the writing style is very detailed. Although the au
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Amy Lincoln, the main character,in "Any Place I Hang MY Hat", is a smart young woman who has made her way in the world. She is plucky and flawed. Even though Issacs is wonderfully talented and has a great way with modern description and insight into the life of the single women, however,I never really got immersed in the plot. I always felt like an outsider and kept thinking that the story could have been told in half the time and been twice as engaging. This book was not for me.
Enjoyed this book quite well. How is it that I've been picking books that all seem to have a common thread of being grateful for what we have and looking at the positives in life?
Smart, successful Amy Lincoln has made her way out of poverty, but as she nears 30, she realizes she's brought an awful lot of emotional baggage with her on her journey out of the housing projects of New York.
Finally realizing that she'll never get free of her past - and attain what she really wants: a loving family of her own - Amy goes looking for (dare I say it?) closure by seeking out the mother who abandoned her.
I liked it. The emotions and issues were real, but the tone was light enough th ...more
Finally realizing that she'll never get free of her past - and attain what she really wants: a loving family of her own - Amy goes looking for (dare I say it?) closure by seeking out the mother who abandoned her.
I liked it. The emotions and issues were real, but the tone was light enough th ...more
This is the second Susan Isaacs book I have read and it will be my last. I was very happy to finally read the last page of a novel that seemed full of filler narrative. Some of the characters are just too gratuitously ludicrous. A farting, spitting boss - really? A handsome, loving crook of a father now been kept my a ‘sugar mommy’ who believes him to be twenty years younger than his actual age; a spoilt rich girl best friend who has a deep interest in couture clothing and whose parents are so d
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Dec 27, 2018
Georgina Lacayo
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
adult-fiction,
fiction
As I feel that now Young Adult isn't doing it for me anymore, I'm venturing into Adult Fiction, or Fiction in general. This book is a really good choice. I'm almost never wrong when I pick books. I almost always end up liking them all. This one was amazing. Amy Lincoln is a relatable character. Isaacs did a good job at writing a story about a woman who's reflecting over her life and finding gaps and bumps and just wanting to fix everything up. The story is emotional and dramatic, also beautiful
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I rarely cry reading, but this one got a tear or two out of me. The theme of abandonment and longing to belong are poignant- and made more so by where I am in life's journey.
Already a fan of Susan Issac's Shining Through, I am planning on adding her novels to my reading list
Already a fan of Susan Issac's Shining Through, I am planning on adding her novels to my reading list
Amy Lincoln is a young political reporter in NYC, covering the democrats leading up to the 2004 Presidential election. This first person narration is generally compelling, often amusing, and sometimes touching only occasionally bogging down in the topical or veering too close to the maudlin.
What started out as a 3.5 turned into a 4 for me by the time it was over. I do not like to give up on books and I am glad I stuck it out with this one. It was a bit of a struggle for me for a little while.
This book could not keep my attention. Could not finish it.
I didn't love this book, but it was easy to read and had some good characters
This was a light, fun, summer read for me. I enjoyed it, and it didn't require a lot of effort, which is sometimes exactly what you need.
It just never seemed to get started and I felt no connection with any of the characters.
Although I enjoyed Isaacs' somewhat snarky narration style, I felt that the book was a little too cliched, especially the ending.
Jul 26, 2018
Robin Mansfield
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
book-club
Great book. Great read. Totally enjoyed it.
Fluffy read; good for vacation. Main character has very tough childhood, finds it difficult to commit as an adult. Nevertheless, she finds true love. Ok – very fluffy.
The first book I've read by this author is the story of a woman who was abandoned by her mother. Her in-and-out-of-prison-again father and grandmother raised her. She is a writer for a magazine in NYC and uses her connections to find her mother. This book kind of dragged in the middle. The author went off on wity tangents that maybe were just a little too intelligent for me to follow.
I almost put this one down to move on to something more interesting because I just couldn't get drawn in to the plot right away. The reader first meets main character, Amy Lincoln, on assignment for In Depth, the cerebral magazine that offers no photos, only "in depth" articles about current events and political happenings. She is at the fund-raising event in the private home of newly declared Democratic candidate for presidency--Senator Thomas Bowles. She has spent several days with his campaig
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I didn't really like this one and I struggled to finish it. The writing wasn't bad. I just didn't care much for the story. Kind of a bummer. It does have a pot of gold under the rainbow when it ends. Not my favorite by far!
Audio Book. Fun.
Typically, I gravitate towards mysteries, so this book is outside my preferred genre, but it's fun to mix things up sometimes. I have great respect for intelligent writing, and Susan Isaacs is brilliant. In fact, I'd venture to say she added more witty quips and metaphors than necessary while weaving this yarn. She's funny and clever, but I skimmed over a lot of these analogies and side bars trying to get back to the plot. The narrative covers the post-college, pre-marital stage of life of an in
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I have become very fond of Susan Isaacs because of her saucy heroines, who seem to live the good life that I missed out on by being born before the sexual revolution really took hold. This one is about an interesting character, Amy Lincoln (no relation) whose mother abandoned her as an infant, after her father was sent to jail. Amy managed to climb out of poverty because of an inherent high intelligence and now is a writer for a very posh NYC magazine, enjoying strange friends and very much in l
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The writing style is witty and engaging, and there's a mystery to solve, and a romance, all very skillfully tied together. But don't look for complexity or depth here. Just do what you're told and root for the plucky, virtuous heroine, whose few endearing "flaws" are the result of having had a rough childhood, whose success in life is entirely due to her own wonderfulness, and whose suffering has always been caused by other people: other, lesser, people whose flaws are not easily attributable to
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Amy Lincoln is a journalist at In Depth magazine; she has a best friend, Tatty, from one of New York's elite families; a great boyfriend, John, a documentary filmmaker; and, oh yes, a criminal father and a mother who abandoned Amy as a baby to her Grandma Lil. Amy is writing a story on Presidential hopeful Thomas Bowles, and when a college student shows up claiming to be Bowles's illegitimate son, Amy's involvement with that story causes her to want to discover the truth about her own family.
Alt ...more
Alt ...more
This is the story of Amy - Harvard grad, successful journalist, raised by a witless grandmother and criminal father, abandoned by her mother at 10 months - Lincoln. The plot line is of a three fold search - for her mother, for belonging and for love - and how they interfere and overlap with each other.
The plot, which was generic but with redeeming parts, was second to the real journey, into and out of and churning through Amy's troubled but thoroughly normal mind. Now minds can be very fun place ...more
The plot, which was generic but with redeeming parts, was second to the real journey, into and out of and churning through Amy's troubled but thoroughly normal mind. Now minds can be very fun place ...more
It took me 100 pages to become interested in this book, but fortunately it started to click after that. One story arc is the standard romance - boy and girl in love unknowingly, break up, fail once to reconnect, try again, reunite melodramatically in the end. The second arc gives the book its depth and appeal - the search for one's history and specialness. The protagonist's search for the mother who abandoned her is done with humor and affection. The story successfully portrays the reality of se
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Susan Isaacs is a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award and the John Steinbeck Award. She serves as chairman of the board of Poets & Writers and is a past president of Mystery Writers of America. She is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Coalition, PEN, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the International Association of Crime Writers, and the Ada
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