This is just a great read: a novel about a group of women who form a book club and how their friendships hold them together through changing times, family stresses, and everything life throws at us.
This book will be available for loan at the end of July '04 (after my bookclub discussion).

Picture of the ladies in my bookclub (minus me, the photographer) taken in 2005

New Book Ring starting week of Sept. 1, '04
BACK HOME IN TUCSON AS OF FEBRUARY 2006

Please journal that you have received book so that we all can stay current with its progress. Do your best to read this book within 2 to 3 weeks of receipt.
Once you have read the book, journal your impressions.
PM the next person for their address and send it on its way.

Order of shipping is as follows:
Sweetpea0678 FL U.S. only COMPLETED
My PileofBooks MO COMPLETED
Icanfly MI COMPLETED
Indymomto2 IN will ship to Canada dropping out
(Jessibud was next, moved down the list at her request, after your-book-fairy)
Bookharlot NC (COMPLETED ) U.S. only
Dancing-dog TN (COMPLETED)
SandDanz IN U.S. only Found a copy, dropping out of ring
Sp4home IO (COMPLETED) U.S. preferred
Sunryzze CA (COMPLETED) U.S. only
Fizzfred CA (COMPLETED) U.S. only
Your-book-fairy NY (COMPLETED) will ship int’l
Jessibud ONT, Canada (COMPLETED), will ship int’l
Kiwiwonder New Zealand (COMPLETED) , as of October 10, 05
Piiku (COMPLETED) Finland will ship int'l
Kelwood Ohio, USA PASSED
then....back to hotflash in Tucson, Arizona

This book starts its book-ring journey on Sept 1. First person on the list is Sweetpea0678 in FL.


Book ring starts here, in Tucson, Arizona. Picture taken from a hill at the end of my street, close to sunset.

Will get to asap

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to next bookcrosser in bookring.

What a great book! What a wonderful thing to have friends forever like the women in this book! I can only hope to be so lucky!

Released on Tuesday, November 02, 2004 at about 11:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Bookring Release in Bookring Release, Missouri USA.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending on to icanfly!

Received in the mail yesterday. I'll start it this weekend!

My puppy took a large bite out of the corner of this book and unfortunately swallowed some text, so I've ordered a replacement copy from Amazon.com that I'll be forwarding on as soon as it arrives. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book and I'm really enjoying it. That puppy has some shart teeth!

Shipped replacement copy out to Bookharlot 1/3/05 after Guinness the Menace doberman puppy munched up the original a bit. I enjoyed this book. Sort of reminded me of the neighborhood where I grew up. Everyone knew everyone else. I've never lived in a place like that since.

Finally got to the post office and found this waiting for me!

A friend recommended it, so I'm looking forward to diving in. :-)

I LOVED this book. What a great book about the bonds women form and how they enrich our lives. I think I'll have to buy myself a copy because I know I'll want to re-read it. :-)

It will be on it's way to the next person as soon as I get an address!

Was kind of wondering what happened with this but the book has now arrived safe & sound and is settling in nicely in its new temporary home with me. Looking forward to reading it and will start it today!

Finished this over the weekend - what a fun read! Kind of reminded me of the tv show Desperate Housewives except not sleazy/cheesy like the show - but both have strong female characters who are friends and go thru the rigors of life together with spouse, children and family, all living on the same street. Liked the style of writing where each character has their own voice, speaking at different times throughout the book - I think this really helped develop their personalities well. Thanks for sharing this hotflash - very enjoyable. :)

Will get it out in the mail today or tomorrow to Sp4home!

The book arrived this morning. I have one book to finish reading, then I'll read this one. I'll post more after I read the book. :o)

I enjoyed this book. I think I will purchase it so that I can re-read it again later. It took me a few chapters to catch-on to the author's style of writing. I enjoyed getting to know the five women. I liked this book, and I would recommend this book to my friends.

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is being sent to Sunryzze. USPS tracking # 02010521297593455323 delivered at 12:07 pm on April 29, 2005 in SAN DIEGO, CA 92122.

Arrived at the end of April, and am starting to read it. So far so good... I am really excited to be reading this book. I will post again when it is on its way!

Thanks so much!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved learning about all of the characters, and it made feel as though I was in the group too! I sent it off yesterday, June 1 to Fizzfred, tracking number is 03041560000568030898. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for including me in the bookring! :)

Thanks Sunryzze. I received this on Friday. I am almost finished with my current read so I will jump into this soon. I can't wait!

Oh, I really enjoyed spending time with Faith, Audrey, Kari, Slip, and Merit (plus their children, husbands and Grant). This book made me cry a lot though. I identified with Faith but loved Audrey the best and looked forward to Kari's chapters the most. All of these women were great characters. I only wish I had read this with my book club. I guess reading it with my BookCrossing friends is the next best thing. :) I will send it to your-book-fairy as soon as I get an address. Thank you SO MUCH, hotflash, for sharing your book!!!

I sent this to your-book-fairy today. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Got this one in the mail today and will be starting it by the weekend -- I can't wait after reading all these reviews! Thank you to hotflash and everyone else who got the book this far!

I started this book on Saturday afternoon, right when my one month old daughter began one of her 24 hour growth spurt marathons where she can't decide whether she'd rather eat or sleep so she ends up alternating between the two every ten minutes (or doing both at the same time). As a result, I spent a ton of time this weekend in my rocking chair with her on my lap, and I was so glad to have this book to keep me company -- even if it meant racing through from cover to cover and finishing the book by Sunday morning!

This was a really nice book, as a NYC native it sometimes made me wish I'd grown up in a big house where I could plsy outside in a cul de sac and know the same families for years and years. It also made me wish for a book club like these ladies, I think the author did a good job of showing how they grew over the years and I liked that she didn't try to keep things perfect; the occasional conflict between the women or in their family made it more realistic for me. I agree that the use of the different characters' voices really added to the story, and I liked how the author used the different book club selections to tie that in.

What I didn't find so realistic were Faith's letters to her mother. I think they were important to the story and her character, but they so often seemed to me more like a literary device for filling in information than they did like a letter anyone would actually write.

If you enjoyed this book, I also recommend The Future Homemakers of America (http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1972520/pjmom8025/book_-The-Future-Homemakers-of-America-Laurie-Graham), which also follows some interesting women over the course of a few decades (and includes some good recipes!).

I have Jessibud's address and will be taking this to the post office tomorrow, assuming these thunderstorms ever let up!

It's here! This book arrived in my mailbox today and it will be the next one I begin! I have only a few more pages left in the book I am currently reading and that one should be finished before today is done.


I am now officially on vacation and this looks like the perfect summer read, arriving at the perfect time. Thanks for letting me move down on this list from where I was originally, Hotflash! I promise I won't take forever with it! ;-)

Just jumping in here to say how much I am enjoying this book! I also agree that the author's style of having each character narrate her own chapters in the first person, is an excellent device and I also like that the book takes place over a passage of time, not just in one place, in one time. I feel that the combination of these devices really allows the characters to grow and develop, and lets us see them as real people.

I'm just over halfway through now but will PM the next person so I can be ready to send it off as soon as I'm done, hopefully in a few days.

Thanks, Hotflash. Once again, our taste in books jives...!

Oops! I was away when I finished and mailed this book and forgot to journal it. I mailed it on to Kiwiwonder on July 27.

I have to say how much I enjoyed this book. Landvik's way with words and her style of allowing the characters to grow, develop and reveal themselves to us, is a wonder.

Here is one of my favourite passages, so visual, so sensuous:

"She loved watching the seasons, which reminded her of people: spring with its softness and tender green buds was a baby, and as the flowers burst forth and the leaves unfurled, a toddler. Brash summer was a child, all blue lakes and blue water and yellow sunshine -- full of possibility -- until around mid-August it became a teenager, sulky and stormy, a little dangerous. Autumn, beautiful rusty gold and maroon autumn, was a matron in tweeds and sensible shoes who begged you to come outside and take a walk with her while listening to her recite Shakespeare and Byron and Shelley. In very late October, when the crispness of the air was turning cold and the billowing blue sky was now a gray canopy, Kari thought of her grandmother, who had lived with Kari's family after her stroke. The air and the earth at this time of fall was kind and wistful, just like her grandmother, who always seemed happy to see you, but you knew you wouldn't be together long."

Finally arrived! Must have taken the row boat over here :) On the bottom of the short list for now as I have a couple other rings already here.

The book is safely in Finland. I will start reading it this weekend.

The book wasn't really what I expected, so I gave up after about 50 pages. Kelwood wanted to skip also, so I'm waiting for instructions from hotflash.

*** Edit Feb 6th: now I have the address, will send the book back to hotflash.

This is my first book-ring book to travel full circle !

Thanks to everyone who participated in the ring and kept the book moving. Thanks for all the journal entries: good, bad, or indifferent, just like a real book club !
Thanks to Piiku for the postcard from Finland. (It's been wonderful watching all the amazing athletes from Finland who have been competing in the 2006 Olympic games !)

Thanks to whoever tucked the dried leaf between the pages. I love leaves.

This book is now available for trade...or it might be released in the wild to continue its adventures.

This was was scooped up by my mother today and taken back to Phoenix with her....will retrieve at some point and make available again.

Edited to add: She thoroughly enjoyed it. Took her ages to read it, but she loves it. Made a comment about how she can't understand anyone staying with an abusive husband. I was quite impressed that she remembered details of the story line (she has dementia).

Finally found this book in my mother's closet, stashed with a sweater. Oh well, she is 80 after all. Will add to my PCs for now but might send out if someone wants to read it badly enough.

Decided to pass this book along to a new BookCrosser in Tucson.
Just can't let it languish on my shelf - this one is too much fun to not be enjoyed by someone else.