Journal Entry 1 by editorgrrl from New Haven, Connecticut USA on Thursday, April 28, 2005

Trade paperback bought at the thrift store. Reading group guide available at readinggroupguides.com. Listen to an interview with Melissa Bank at npr.org.

Almost too smart to be chick lit. Each chapter can stand alone as its own short story. I've heard "The Best Possible Light" (the story about Jane's neighbors) read on the radio. It must've been Selected Shorts, as Katherine Minton & Isaiah Sheffer are thanked in the book's acknowledgements.

From Publishers Weekly
This is one of those rare occasions when a highly touted book fulfills the excitement and the major money (in this case, $275,000) surrounding its acquisition. Reading her debut collection of seven tightly interlinked stories featuring (with one exception) heroine Jane Rosenal, one marvels at Bank's assured control of her material, her witty, distinctive voice and her ability to find comedy, pathos and drama in ordinary lives without resorting to the twin crutches of dysfunctional families and sexual abuse that seem to prop up much current fiction. Jane is notable above all for her smart, irreverent sense of humor, evidenced in a typical teenager's mocking attitude when we first meet her at age 14, and irrepressibly sardonic and self-deprecating as she gets older, enters and leaves relationships and progressively doubts her ability to inspire or recognize romantic love. From girlhood, Jane is bewildered by the nuances of adult behavior, which seems like a secret code evident to everyone but her: "I should know this already" is her recurrent lament. She looks for insights everywhere: in her fickle brother's succession of girlfriends, in her parents' affectionate (but, as it turns out, secretive) marital bond, in the attractions between other couples. From her childhood in a Philadelphia suburb and the Jersey shore to her adult life in Manhattan (with visits to St. Croix and upstate New York), she is always testing the limits of her understanding and tending to doubt her perceptions. Though Jane is quick with a quip, she's sensitive and vulnerable, and when she finds herself falling for a handsome editor 28 years her senior, she knows she is out of her depth. Eventually, we follow Jane through several failed love affairs; career crises in publishing (a chapter about a viperish female editor is a gem) and advertising; the wrenching deaths of loved ones; and increasing fears that she'll never learn to play the mating game. By the time readers reach the final, title story, they'll be so firmly attached to self-doubting Jane that they'll track her misguided seduction of Mr. Right with drawn breath. "Beautiful and funny and sad and true" (to quote Jane), this book is also phenomenally good.

FYI: A movie is in pre-production, with Sarah Michelle Gellar attached. It's a comedy. 

Journal Entry 2 by editorgrrl from New Haven, Connecticut USA on Saturday, May 21, 2005

Journal Entry 3 by MarahSulloy from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Saturday, July 09, 2005

Just got this in the mail today - thanks editorgrrl! 

Journal Entry 4 by cliff1976 from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Monday, August 01, 2005

We took this book with us on a recent trip to the U.S. but I think my wife had finished it beforehand. I was absorbed in The Time Traveler's Wife on all of my plane time (which wasn't spent sleeping), so I'm just now getting to this one. So far (I'm about 20 pages in) it strikes me as a sort of Judy-Blume book or something. It's not unpleasant, so I'll keep going. It feels like a quick read (a rather large font helps).

Thanks for sending it to us editorgrrl! 

Journal Entry 5 by cliff1976 from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Friday, August 05, 2005

I wonder if this didn't much appeal to me due to my genetic make-up (no, I'm not talking DNA-based cosmetics here). I liked the oddballness of the story. It kinda reminded me of a Are-You-There-God-It's-Me-Margaret book that makes it past adolescence physically, but not very much emotionally.

The final installment was by far my favorite. Some of the other ones just left me scratching my head. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be realistic or representative or just entertaining or what. Oh well, at the least the author's humor kept me entertained, even if the plot didn't (thus the 6).

I'm off to find a new home for it now - probably in trade (unless editorgrrl says she wants it back). 

Journal Entry 6 by MarahSulloy from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Tuesday, August 09, 2005

This book wasn't bad, but the plot seemed kind of scattered. I didn't really care a whole lot about the main characters. The beginning chapters are much stronger than the middle and end. 

Journal Entry 7 by cliff1976 from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Saturday, July 14, 2007

Putting it up for grabs on BookMooch.com!