From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book

By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 3 posts · 1370 views
last updated Jan 18, 2013 07:12PM
showing 10 of 34 topics
view all »
Other topics mentioning this book
1001 Books Around the World
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 34 posts · 2031 views
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 34 posts · 2031 views
last updated Sep 19, 2022 04:25AM
Free and Cheap E-Books
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 694 posts · 7674 views
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 694 posts · 7674 views
last updated Sep 05, 2025 07:28AM
Reading Plans for 2013
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 32 posts · 233 views
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 32 posts · 233 views
last updated Jun 07, 2013 09:48AM
Diane's 2013 Reading Road Trip
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 65 posts · 149 views
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 65 posts · 149 views
last updated Jul 23, 2013 07:20PM
Diane's ATW1001 Books
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 631 posts · 859 views
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 631 posts · 859 views
last updated Oct 27, 2019 11:29AM
Tanya's 1001 Books Around the World
By Tanya (aka Li… · 70 posts · 220 views
By Tanya (aka Li… · 70 posts · 220 views
last updated Jan 09, 2014 01:46AM
Reading Plans for 2014?
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 53 posts · 253 views
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 53 posts · 253 views
last updated Feb 25, 2014 07:46AM
What Members Thought

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, it ultimately disappointed me. I didn't find some of the characters or their situations quite believable. As someone else wrote, it felt as though the author created stick figures to move around where he wanted them.
That said, I couldn't help caring about each of them. Their predicaments and foibles endeared them all to me. The book is absorbing, touching, funny and a page turner for most of it.
What got me in the end was I couldn't understand why Henry ma ...more
That said, I couldn't help caring about each of them. Their predicaments and foibles endeared them all to me. The book is absorbing, touching, funny and a page turner for most of it.
What got me in the end was I couldn't understand why Henry ma ...more

This book should be required reading for anyone who loves baseball. There were so many scenes with drawn out descriptions of games and unfortunately as a fairweather fan of the game, I could not appreciate the drama. But I got so involved in the characters and really cared about them. I loved the last third of the book when the drama got stronger and then everything got resolved. Very well written and great unusual characters.

You can tell that many years of work went into the writing of this book; the language is carefully polished and the story moves deliberately and precisely towards the inevitable ending. Still, it never felt predictable or boring, except for the descriptions of baseball games - I'm not a baseball aficionado. But this isn't really a novel about baseball: there is as much Melville as baseball, and the five stories of love, loss, success, failure, and, above all, family, kept the novel interesting f
...more

Jun 13, 2012
Dawn
marked it as to-read

Nov 19, 2012
Jamie
marked it as need-to-get

Dec 22, 2012
Stacy
marked it as to-read

Jan 07, 2013
Terri
marked it as boxall-s-1001

May 12, 2013
Meghan
marked it as to-read

Oct 10, 2013
Lori
marked it as didn-t-finish

Dec 30, 2013
The Literary Nomad (aka Alex)
marked it as to-read

Apr 05, 2015
Diane
marked it as to-read

Nov 06, 2016
Ginny
marked it as to-read

Apr 15, 2020
Mary Paul
marked it as to-read