I really enjoyed this book. It took me a while to get into it, because every chapter is told by a different one of the 4 friends.
Emma, Lee, Rudy and Isabel have been friends for ten years, they call themselves "The Saving Graces" and together they go through the good and the bad times.
If you liked "The Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood" you'll like this book and its emotion and humour too!!

Release planned for Friday, January 09, 2004 at Pickwick´s Marc Aurel Str. 10-12 - 1010 Vienna in Vienna, Wien Austria.

After my friend has read it and then given it to her mother, it has finally come back to me and I will release it at our next monthly Meetup!

Read "The divine secrets" last summer, so I think I will like this one too.

from Amazon:
A sweetly affirmative if teary-eyed story, Washington, D.C.set, of four women who find consolation in friendship as they cope with clich issues from breast cancer to infertility. For more than ten years, Lee, Emma, Rudy, and Isabel have been getting together regularly for talk, dinner, and mutual support. They call themselves the ``Saving Graces'' because they once hit a dog while driving home after dinner, but managed to save it and named her Grace. Isabel, almost saintly in appearance and action, is the oldest, the group's den mother, and the only one with a child. As the story opens, she's divorced, trying to make a new life, and recovering from breast cancer. Lee, knowledgeable and professional, is married to Henry, a sweet hunk of a plumber, and wants a baby, but can't get pregnant. Rudy, whose family is a mess, is seeing a therapist and trying to make a life without angering her manipulative husband, Curtis. Emma, a single journalist, wants to write fiction and marry. Eventually, Isabel loses her battle with the cancer, but she finds a new love. Lee's marriage is strained by her unsuccessful infertility treatments. Rudy's struggle for autonomy is battered by Curtis's cruel lies. And Emma falls in love with a married man. But each woman can depend on the others for support, so that when the crises come, they're all there to pitch in with help, affection, and food. The dying Isabel, wise and loyal to the end, writes a letter to be read after her death that neatly counsels her friends on what to do with their livesadvice they immediately heed, thereby finding the requisite happiness such a tale demands. Strong characters making the best of an often schematic but always readable story.

My Review:

Finished the book last night. It was really sad at the end, and I have to admit that I had to cry.

I very much like the whole idea about a womangroup, have something like that with my 3 best friends from childhood-days. But since I moved away, I don't see them that often.

I could best relate to Emma, maybe because I didn't face the problems of the others (childlessness, cancer and crazyness) yet. So I was most curious about how her problem (in love with the wrong man) would work out.

RELEASE NOTES:

Karschtl was kind enough to offer to bring a book for me on saturday morning, since i have been missing all of the bookcrossing meetups lately, and am running out of english books! Both allbookedup and karschtl liked this book, so i thought i would give it a go too! Thanks for passing it along!

Hmmmm..... did i like this book?

I'm not sure.

And yet i kept reading it.

I like the idea of a grou p of women to share stuff with. But i don't think mine would be so dramatic or catastrophic... :)

It's not that i didn't like the book. It's kind of like watching TV on a tuesday night--- it's not that you don't like what you're watching, but you don't really like it either. It's on, and you don't feel like changing the channel--- it keeps you entertained and doesn't offend.

So this was an okay book--- but i felt like i saw everything coming. No kidding the guy was lying about his illness and the other guy would break up with his wife and the baby wouldn't happen, etc.... It just felt very predictable from the very beginning.

But I kept reading.

Funny.

I didn't cry--- mostly because i felt like they were trying to make me cry. And when i get like that, either I hold it back out of spite, or else i let it out and feel very resentful that i had to waste a kleenex... :)

For a book about four women (but not so touchyfeely) I much prefered Margaret Atwood's "Robber Bride". The women are a bit charicatured, like this book, but are more complex and human--- less soap-opera-y and more dark and real.

But that is my opinion. :)

Thanks for passing it along! Will release it soon-ish.

(PS: sorry if this journal entry makes no sense....)

Book found its way back to me and is now reserved for the English Bookbox.

RELEASE NOTES:

Wird heute abend zur Ladies Night mitgenommen.

bei der Ladies Night migenommen

wild release:
1100 Wien, Twin Tower, Bücherschrank

Lieber Finder!
Gratulation, dass Sie das Buch gefunden haben! Ich hoffe, Sie werden es mögen!
Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn Sie sich die Zeit nehmen, Ihre Meinung über das Buch nach dem Lesen hier einzugeben!
Das ist anonym und kostenlos für Sie!
Danke und viel Spaß beim Lesen wünscht,
SabinaLorenz

Dear Finder,
Congratulations on finding this book! I hope you enjoy it. I'd be thrilled if you took the time to let me know what you will be doing with this book once you've read it by making a journal entry.
Please note that joining www.bookcrossing.com is anonymous & free!
kind regards,
SabinaLorenz