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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

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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:] ...more
[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:] ...more

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 every time s
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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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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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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.
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While the premise of the book was interesting enough, the main character is just so pretentious, catty, and at times downright mean, I found it difficult to get to the end. I had such a hard time finding anything likable about this girl, from her petty rationale about John to the awkward back-and-forth between her and the estranged mother. If you're looking for a book that will bring up some actual emotion, this ain't it.
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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?
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Very disappointing. I was so happy to find a Susan Isaacs that I hadn't read. This book was just plain boring.
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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

Dec 27, 2018
Georgina Lacayo
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
adult-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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Great story with a great main character searching for her mother who left her when she was 10 months old. She deals with a father who spends most of his life in and out of prisons, a rocky romance, covering a news story about a sleazy Senator running for president. This is not the type of book I usually like but it is a page turner. Author's character, Amy, ruminates in a delightful way on important personal and issues of the day . Good read!
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I enjoyed some parts of this story about a girl confronting her abandonment, but I think it tied together a little to neatly for it to be believable. There's just too many emotions that surround abandonment and I'm not sure this book captured it in a way that was gripping for the reader. I also found some of the parts surrounding her job tedious to read and couldn't really see how it tied in to the story, other than her meeting with the political candidate's son.
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Was disappointed in the overall portrayal of the main character. Felt there was too much narrative of Amy berating herself. So much of Amy's self deprecation could have been eliminated and nothing would have been lost in the entire story line. Found myself skipping over paragraphs at a time because the narrative really didn't do anything to enhance the story.
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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 ...more
Already a fan of Susan Issac's Shining Through, I am planning on adding her novels to my reading list ...more

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.
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Jul 26, 2018
Robin Mansfield
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
book-club
Great book. Great read. Totally enjoyed it.

I didn't love this book, but it was easy to read and had some good characters
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Although I enjoyed Isaacs' somewhat snarky narration style, I felt that the book was a little too cliched, especially the ending.
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Oct 22, 2019
Becca Holwick
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
oldschool-book,
skimmed-n-skipped
I was not intelligent enough to catch most of the references so it was dragging.
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Madison County NC...: Didn't love this strong resilient woman | 1 | 3 | Feb 17, 2020 08:18AM |
Susan Isaacs is the author of fourteen novels, including Compromising Positions, Shining Through, After All These Years, and As Husbands Go. Her newest novel, Takes One to Know One, will be published in October 2019. She is a former editor of Seventeen and a freelance political speechwriter. Susan is chairman of the board of Poets & Writers and a past president of Mystery Writers of America.
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