|
The Beach House | 
 enlarge | Author: Jane Green
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.93
You Save: $14.02 (56%)
New (54) Used (21) Collectible (1) from $9.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  137 reviews
Sales Rank: 594
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0670018856
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780670018857
ASIN: 0670018856
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - EXCEPTIONAL VALUE - EXCELLENT BUY
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The perfect title for the perfect beach read from the New York Times bestselling Author
Jane Green is one of the preeminent authors of womens fiction today, and with each new novel, her audience grows. Greens avid and loyal fans follow her because she writes about the true-to-life dilemmas of womenand The Beach House will not disappoint.
Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesnt care what people think. At sixty-five-years old, her husband died twenty years ago, her beauty has faded, and her family has flown. If her neighbors are away, why shouldnt she skinny dip in their swimming pools and help herself to their flowers? But when she discovers the money she thought would last forever is dwindling and she could lose her beloved house, Nan knows she has to make drastic changes.
So Nan takes out an ad: Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach. Slowly, people start moving into the house, filling it with noise, with laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside-down.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 132 more reviews...
 Not her greatest work, but definitely not "Babyville" October 6, 2008
I picked up "Babyville" a couple of weeks ago and realized that I have read it or have read so many books like this one that I have forgotten it. So I didn't finish reading it since there are so many other books clamoring for my attention and "Babyville" just didn't grab my attention. When the library called and told me that "The Beach House" was in, I thought it was going to be funny.
It is, but it isn't. The best thing about this book is that it's a very fast read. I read it in almost two days. Thankfully. It didn't drag nor did it sink. It is just a so-so novel from an author that I know is quite capable of producing better books. This is definitely not her best book and it is definitely right for a beach read or for a long plane ride.
This book reminds me of Maeve Binchy's short stories collection, where you have five different characters with different viewpoints and their stories intermeshed somehow into making this a novel. Green really needs to stick with novels with one main character as that is her strongest strength ... not books like this one.
There is Nan, matriach and widow who lives on Nantucket. She lives in the ancient Powell home and her son, Michael, returns home from NYC in disgrace. Then there's Daniel, a gay man who just outed himself for the first time and is in the midst of a divorce where he worries about never seeing his two daughters again. Then there's Daff, a young divorcee with a very moody teen-age daughter who decided to spend the summer with her dad. The stories are stereotpyical and predictable and unrealistic.
But if you want to escape reality for a few hours, this book would do the trick. However, hopefully sometime soon, Green will go back and write her fun novels and stick with a formula that is truly hers instead of just cranking out books that doesn't inspire readers to keep reading.
10/6/08
 Beach House well worn territory October 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The last few Jane Green books I have read seem to have the exact same people going through infidelity, divorce, pregnancy issues, etc, the only difference is that she changes the characters names.
I really wish Jane Green would get back to writing novels with a main protaginist instead of having the plethera of characters she keeps throwing in her novels. It drove me nuts that once I got involved in someone's story the next chapter moved on to someone else.
I finished The Beach House in one afternoon and all in all I have to say the entire book just had me feeling unsatisfied since there were way too many plots going on and I think she would have been better served in just writing several different books or short stories instead of trying to tie things together with everyone staying at at "beach house" for the summer and having the wise old woman solving all of their problems. All of the plots were tied up too neatly.
Not awful, but not great either October 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I would recommend this book if you like sweet stories that wrap up into a nice little package at the end, but it's not for the serious, discerning reader. It was somewhat unoriginal, with little character development and a very predictable outcome. But I did enjoy the Nantucket setting and it left me feeling nice at the end, although it was incredibly unrealistic.
 Wonderful Read October 4, 2008
Loved this book so much I was sad when it came to an end..... I could not put it down. I loved all the relationships and witty words...such a wonderful story of Nan and her new "found" family...and the unsuspecting turns her life takes (don't want to give anything away)...really great real life lessons in this book..... funny and clever... A great story that really sticks with you... I want to be like Nan when I grow up..her attitude..and fox like smarts..!! THANK YOU! Jane Green for such a wonderful book to read on my vacation! Cheers!!!
 This book represents a new low September 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As another reviewer said Green's books have been going steadily downhill since 'Babyville' but the fall in quality between this and her last book (which I didn't actually like) is a major one. TBH I wonder if she even wrote it. It is flat and lifeless and the characters are really all the same person - Nan is supposed to be this wonderfully eccentric older lady - but in reality she isn't any different from any of the other characters. Jessica is a spoiled selfish brat but she really isn't any worse than any of the adult characters.Relationships break up so that the participants can find their 'true soulmates' (yawn) who it many cases seem to be indistinguishable from their original soulmate or for that matter any other male/female character in the novel. Jordana is supposedly to be incredibly tarty, shallow and materialistic but frankly I couldn't see any difference between her and the other female characters except they went for a more low key but also expensive look. The conversations in particular are unbelievable - whether characters are male/female/old/young/gay/straight they all have exactly the same voice. In particular she seems to have lost the insight she used to have into male characters - the lowlight for me came when Michael is trying to persuade his married lover to get rid of their baby - he tells her about a friend of his who decided to become a single mother but regretted it - the whole thing sounds like a conversation between two girlfriends, like nothing at all a man would ever say.
The only twist I hadn't forseen was when someone from the past turns up again in Nan's life (I didn't think even in this poor form JG would be so obvious) and the story turns mildly interesting - but needless to say this character is killed off before he can pose any threat to the happy ending we find ourselves rushing towards at breakneck speed. (There is no imagination at all in these pairings - what's the betting that Daniel will fall for what is apparently the only other unattached gay male in Nantucket or that Michael won't have to look too far from his mother's house to find the low-maintenance soulmate he craves?) There are absolutely no consequences at all for bad behaviour - Daf's ex (having been ditched by the woman he left her for) quickly finds another woman who seems perfect for him, Michael behaves outrageously by sleeping with his boss's wife - and not only gets off with it but is rewarded by finding true love and a better lifestyle, Jessica steals from shops and her mother responds by buying her more stuff (!). Is this really the same woman who wrote 'Spellbound'?
I wonder how much longer Green will get off with peddling these stories of rich self-satisfied people who have no real problems whatsoever - I found it impossible to sympathise with the so-called problems of Nan who has at least the option of selling off her house and land for millions - when these days many people have not only debt but negative equity and can't sell their property at all!
|
|
|
video game stores
Copyright ©2006-2007 All rights reserved.
| Links | |
Computer Games, Video Games, PC Games, Computer Video Games, Xbox, Xbox Games, Playstation 2, PS2, PS2 Games, PSP, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Grand Theft Auto, Warcraft, Action Games, Kid's Games, Children's Games, Dreamcast, Battlefield 2, Sims, Madden, Warcraft
Shipping Information Privacy Policy Disclaimer plasma tv review plasma tv reviews uk digital picture frame digital camera review canon digital cameras sony ericsson music videos garden furniture video games stores
|
|
|
|
| |
