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Girls They Write Songs About
A power ballad to female friendship, Girls They Write Songs About is a thrumming, searching novel about the bonds that shape us more than any love affair.
We moved to New York to want, undisturbed and unchecked. And what did we want?
New York, 1997. As the city's gritty edges are being smoothed into something safer and shinier, two girls meet at a music magazine. Rose--brash and self-possessed--is a staff writer. Charlotte--hesitant, bookish-- is an editor. First wary, then slowly admiring, they recognize in each other an insatiable and previously unmatched ambition. Soon they're inseparable, falling into the kind of friendship that makes you better, makes every day an adventure, and makes you believe that you will be extraordinary.
Together, Charlotte and Rose find love and lose it; they hit their strides and stumble; they make choices and live past them. But then the steady beats in their sisterhood fall out of sync. They have seen each other through so much--marriage, motherhood, divorce, career glories and catastrophes, a million small but necessary choices--what will it mean to give up their dreaming together? That the friendship that once made them sing out shuts them down? And even if they can reconcile themselves to the lives they're living, can they survive the ones they didn't?
As smart and comic as it is gloriously exuberant, Carlene Bauer's Girls They Write Songs About takes a timeless story and turns it into a pulsing, wrecking, clear-eyed tale of two women reckoning with the lives they've chosen and the countless ways they--and all the women they've known--have made them who they are.
We moved to New York to want, undisturbed and unchecked. And what did we want?
New York, 1997. As the city's gritty edges are being smoothed into something safer and shinier, two girls meet at a music magazine. Rose--brash and self-possessed--is a staff writer. Charlotte--hesitant, bookish-- is an editor. First wary, then slowly admiring, they recognize in each other an insatiable and previously unmatched ambition. Soon they're inseparable, falling into the kind of friendship that makes you better, makes every day an adventure, and makes you believe that you will be extraordinary.
Together, Charlotte and Rose find love and lose it; they hit their strides and stumble; they make choices and live past them. But then the steady beats in their sisterhood fall out of sync. They have seen each other through so much--marriage, motherhood, divorce, career glories and catastrophes, a million small but necessary choices--what will it mean to give up their dreaming together? That the friendship that once made them sing out shuts them down? And even if they can reconcile themselves to the lives they're living, can they survive the ones they didn't?
As smart and comic as it is gloriously exuberant, Carlene Bauer's Girls They Write Songs About takes a timeless story and turns it into a pulsing, wrecking, clear-eyed tale of two women reckoning with the lives they've chosen and the countless ways they--and all the women they've known--have made them who they are.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 21, 2022
304 people are currently reading
8808 people want to read
About the author
Carlene Bauer
4 books91 followersCarlene Bauer was born in 1973 in New Jersey. She earned an M.A. in Nonfiction Writing from the Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars, and has worked in and around New York publishing for this last long while. Her work has been published in The Village Voice, Salon, Elle, The New York Times magazine, and on the website of n + 1. She lives and writes in Brooklyn, and hopes that you don't hold that against her.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 329 reviews
August 3, 2022
So many things about this book were here tickling my fancy. Intense female friendships? YES. Set in the 90s? YES. Elements of a musical leaning background? YES. A focus on woman and the issues that face them? YES. An excellent title! A great cover!
But what I got was something weirdly smug and awful.
Charlotte and Rose are messy and indulgent. They are, in a way, obsessed with each other and themselves. Connecting with each other over similar childhoods, intellectual interests and the blossom of their youth. They are the epitome of the drunk girl bathroom conversations that seem far more deep and meaningful then they probably truely are. Influenced by both your intoxication and the ignorance of the young. Frankly, they are the sort of unlikable that many twenty somethings are. Pretentious and judgemental.
We move through time with these two. Charlotte and Rose. The evolution of their friendship and themselves. The latter having very little evolution at all. And this is truely the crux of my issue with this book. Charlotte and Rose start out as two twenty somethings who could have evolved into truely fascinating characters struggling with the force of reality that erodes their philosophies. Instead they continue to have circular conversations about how much more they are than those around them while criticising the forces of the patriarchy while not, at any point, examining their own participation in it. They are blameless in all their actions. And particularly in Charlotte's case, make the same mistakes over and over and over again with absolutely no self reflection or growth at all.
There's a quote on the front from Ada Calhoun calling this "The instant feminist classic" and I'm struggling to see exactly what is so feminist about it? Is it because Bauer's characters are allowed to be as messy and indulgent as some male characters usually are? Because they are allowed to languish in their petty jealousies over the choices of other women? Because they are allowed to wallow in the smug satisfaction of their ambitions? I'm so confused about the aims of the narrative.
Dreary, tedious and self indulgent. Two instances of an ableist slur in the first sixty five pages which would normally I might dismiss as period appropriate but the complete and utter lack of self reflection either character has on her past thoughts/actions undermines that completely as well as the discourse I've seen about the same word in both a Lizzo song and a Beyonce song this year has just ... soured me on the ignorance of it.
Mostly I'm desperate to tell Charlotte to grow the fuck up.
But what I got was something weirdly smug and awful.
Charlotte and Rose are messy and indulgent. They are, in a way, obsessed with each other and themselves. Connecting with each other over similar childhoods, intellectual interests and the blossom of their youth. They are the epitome of the drunk girl bathroom conversations that seem far more deep and meaningful then they probably truely are. Influenced by both your intoxication and the ignorance of the young. Frankly, they are the sort of unlikable that many twenty somethings are. Pretentious and judgemental.
We move through time with these two. Charlotte and Rose. The evolution of their friendship and themselves. The latter having very little evolution at all. And this is truely the crux of my issue with this book. Charlotte and Rose start out as two twenty somethings who could have evolved into truely fascinating characters struggling with the force of reality that erodes their philosophies. Instead they continue to have circular conversations about how much more they are than those around them while criticising the forces of the patriarchy while not, at any point, examining their own participation in it. They are blameless in all their actions. And particularly in Charlotte's case, make the same mistakes over and over and over again with absolutely no self reflection or growth at all.
There's a quote on the front from Ada Calhoun calling this "The instant feminist classic" and I'm struggling to see exactly what is so feminist about it? Is it because Bauer's characters are allowed to be as messy and indulgent as some male characters usually are? Because they are allowed to languish in their petty jealousies over the choices of other women? Because they are allowed to wallow in the smug satisfaction of their ambitions? I'm so confused about the aims of the narrative.
Dreary, tedious and self indulgent. Two instances of an ableist slur in the first sixty five pages which would normally I might dismiss as period appropriate but the complete and utter lack of self reflection either character has on her past thoughts/actions undermines that completely as well as the discourse I've seen about the same word in both a Lizzo song and a Beyonce song this year has just ... soured me on the ignorance of it.
Mostly I'm desperate to tell Charlotte to grow the fuck up.
September 28, 2022
feminism isn’t feminism unless it’s intersectional so maybe don’t market this as a feminist book…
June 16, 2022
Don't ever leave me, she said, and I linked my arm in hers - just like Anne and Diana did as they walked along the Lake of Shining Waters.....just as girls across centuries have done, as they walk streets and sketch dreams ...
Girls They Write Songs About
Carlene Bauer
•
My review will never adequately describe all the adoration I have for this book. A huge thank you to @fsgbooks my finished copy which was not only a 5 star read but shot up to the top of my 2022 favorites.
•
Girls They Write Songs About is a story for women about women. It is one of the most authentic portrayals of female friendship I've ever encountered; friendship at its best, at its worst, at its most dependent, at its most jealous, at its most loving. It tackles big topics, like whether to become a mother, and what can happen when envy taints a friendship.
•
The book opens as Rose and Charlotte move to NYC in 1997 as 20-somethings and meet while working at a music magazine. Their friendship blossoms out of the need for companionship, and from there we follow them over decades through their careers, their relationships, their disagreements and their sacrifices. We bear witness to all their choices and how they compare themselves to one another based on those choices.
•
Bauer does an incredible job at making NYC a living, breathing character here - she flushes out the way one can love and hate the city often in the same moment, and her descriptions of spots from Flatbush to Park Slope, to Bemelman's Bar to the East Village - it's all done to perfection.
•
This book had everything I look for when I read: thoughtfully crafted characters, a believable progression of plot, a setting that I adore. But the style of the writing and the voice was also pitch perfect, not to mention that literary references abound.
•
I do not think there is a woman out there who won't find a way to relate to this book. I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS NOVEL.
•
Wow, my next book has big shoes to fill.
Girls They Write Songs About will be available June 21!
Girls They Write Songs About
Carlene Bauer
•
My review will never adequately describe all the adoration I have for this book. A huge thank you to @fsgbooks my finished copy which was not only a 5 star read but shot up to the top of my 2022 favorites.
•
Girls They Write Songs About is a story for women about women. It is one of the most authentic portrayals of female friendship I've ever encountered; friendship at its best, at its worst, at its most dependent, at its most jealous, at its most loving. It tackles big topics, like whether to become a mother, and what can happen when envy taints a friendship.
•
The book opens as Rose and Charlotte move to NYC in 1997 as 20-somethings and meet while working at a music magazine. Their friendship blossoms out of the need for companionship, and from there we follow them over decades through their careers, their relationships, their disagreements and their sacrifices. We bear witness to all their choices and how they compare themselves to one another based on those choices.
•
Bauer does an incredible job at making NYC a living, breathing character here - she flushes out the way one can love and hate the city often in the same moment, and her descriptions of spots from Flatbush to Park Slope, to Bemelman's Bar to the East Village - it's all done to perfection.
•
This book had everything I look for when I read: thoughtfully crafted characters, a believable progression of plot, a setting that I adore. But the style of the writing and the voice was also pitch perfect, not to mention that literary references abound.
•
I do not think there is a woman out there who won't find a way to relate to this book. I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS NOVEL.
•
Wow, my next book has big shoes to fill.
Girls They Write Songs About will be available June 21!
August 8, 2022
I can’t remember the last time I read such a boring book. Why did the author think I needed so much detail on characters that would not appear again in the book after they were described? There was no real plot, just a series of banal scenes. Two drunk friends meandered through drunken nights out and many men but even they didn’t earn the wisdom and introspection that normally come with age. They were the same people two decades later as they were in their 20’s with their dreams and energy to take on NYC and the publishing world. This is NOT a feminist novel. Marrying and dating for money and security negates these two characters as feminists. They were passive sell outs. I wanted to understand why their friendship fractured and I still don’t get it. People who mean that much to each other work it out.
August 29, 2022
Oh, man. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but it just wasn’t for me. I found myself asking: “Why can’t a woman be independently strong and also be compassionate? Why can’t motherhood be satisfying and freeing?” I struggled to empathize with the protagonist, and I found her to be selfish and irritable. Perhaps she had moments of kindness and vulnerability, but I found myself forgetting huge chunks of the book as I read, which might be in part because I listened to it. I think, as many others have said, the author started off strong and the story had potential, but it fell short for me because it lacked true depth regarding the immutable bond of friendship between women.
July 12, 2022
The first half of this book was excellent. I was right there in those shitty bars on the LES and on St. Marks Place. I had friends like Rose, and we were inseperable. Life was so immediate, and we thought we were it. We were not nearly as introspective as Rose and Charlotte were - or as cool. I worked retail forever. But still. I remember what it was like to watch as your friend got something you wanted, and trying to bury your jealousy and just be happy for her.
But the second half, holy cow. Talk about telling rather than showing - by the end I couldn't even decipher the point. Which was a bummer because I was pulling for Charlotte! But by the time I got there I didn't care all that much.
I should mention here...I'm not that deep. That's just not how my mind works. There's a line in a Queens of the Stone Age that my husband says is me: "These mysteries of life/That just ain't my thing/If I told you that I knew about the sun and the moon/I'd be untrue/The only thing I know for sure/Is what I wanna do" So I could only take so much ruminating and railing against the patriarchy before I had enough.
Finally I'm not sure I believed the whole Elinor bit. Not even a little. And that influenced my feelings in the second half for sure.
But the second half, holy cow. Talk about telling rather than showing - by the end I couldn't even decipher the point. Which was a bummer because I was pulling for Charlotte! But by the time I got there I didn't care all that much.
I should mention here...I'm not that deep. That's just not how my mind works. There's a line in a Queens of the Stone Age that my husband says is me: "These mysteries of life/That just ain't my thing/If I told you that I knew about the sun and the moon/I'd be untrue/The only thing I know for sure/Is what I wanna do" So I could only take so much ruminating and railing against the patriarchy before I had enough.
Finally I'm not sure I believed the whole Elinor bit. Not even a little. And that influenced my feelings in the second half for sure.
July 14, 2022
Thanks to @fsgbooks for an electronic ARC of #girlstheywritesongsabout.
𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝗪𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 by Carlene Bauer is a story of the enduring friendship between two young women, Charlotte and Rose, who meet while working at an NYC music magazine in 1997. After a bumpy start, the two become almost inseparable, fully occupying each other’s lives, sharing a wholly feminist outlook on life, and an unwavering determination to make it as writers. Their youth and their twin outlooks on life sustain their friendship for many years, but as they get older, a gap between them slowly begins to grow.
I really loved the first half of this book, as Charlotte and Rose were living life on their own terms and, despite some setbacks, enjoying every minute.
Theirs was the sort of friendship other women long for and that was so fun to read about, as was the early 2000’s era and the New York setting. The second half of the book grew a little tedious for me, but not because the two drifted apart. That’s to be expected as people grow older. Instead, what bothered me was the rigidity of one of the characters, and her unwillingness to accept change, even as doing so made her miserable. Though such an outlook is not unusual, it put a damper on the overall story. Thus, a ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 rating of a book I initially thought I’d be rating much higher.
𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝗪𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 by Carlene Bauer is a story of the enduring friendship between two young women, Charlotte and Rose, who meet while working at an NYC music magazine in 1997. After a bumpy start, the two become almost inseparable, fully occupying each other’s lives, sharing a wholly feminist outlook on life, and an unwavering determination to make it as writers. Their youth and their twin outlooks on life sustain their friendship for many years, but as they get older, a gap between them slowly begins to grow.
I really loved the first half of this book, as Charlotte and Rose were living life on their own terms and, despite some setbacks, enjoying every minute.
Theirs was the sort of friendship other women long for and that was so fun to read about, as was the early 2000’s era and the New York setting. The second half of the book grew a little tedious for me, but not because the two drifted apart. That’s to be expected as people grow older. Instead, what bothered me was the rigidity of one of the characters, and her unwillingness to accept change, even as doing so made her miserable. Though such an outlook is not unusual, it put a damper on the overall story. Thus, a ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 rating of a book I initially thought I’d be rating much higher.
January 1, 2022
(Technically I read a big chunk of this in the last hours of New Years Eve, but it's nice to start the year by immediately adding a book to my list)
What a great book. I was immediately swept up in it, and I loved the friendship between the main characters. They felt like real people, and their world was immediately real to me. I'll admit that the book faltered a lot for me in the last third or so. Far too much casual cheating and, even though the cheating usually did end the relationship, I can't really abide that sort of thing in my fiction lately (despite the fact I've written it in the past).
That said it's a fantastic read, and I'm proud to have it as my first read of the year.
What a great book. I was immediately swept up in it, and I loved the friendship between the main characters. They felt like real people, and their world was immediately real to me. I'll admit that the book faltered a lot for me in the last third or so. Far too much casual cheating and, even though the cheating usually did end the relationship, I can't really abide that sort of thing in my fiction lately (despite the fact I've written it in the past).
That said it's a fantastic read, and I'm proud to have it as my first read of the year.
January 17, 2023
middle-class, literary white women who went to college and know who Elliott Smith is love to think they are so very interesting when in reality they are boring, smug, self-indulgent, and narcissistic. it takes a white woman to write a book about new york and... not have any non-white people as characters!!! YOU ARE BORING!!!!! 0 stars if I could.
May 21, 2022
A meandering wander through one woman’s life. We meet friends, lovers, family, hopes, sorrow, etc.
Overall Charlotte is not the most likable person. She is selfish, idealistic, and judgmental. She wants so much but is in turn, timid or overly reckless.
It struck me that her ideals, particularly about the best way to woman, is narrow. She thinks women should only aspire to be more than wives or mothers. Those roles are pitiful in her view.
The ending is not entirely satisfactory, but I can imagine Charlotte going on in her life even after.
Overall Charlotte is not the most likable person. She is selfish, idealistic, and judgmental. She wants so much but is in turn, timid or overly reckless.
It struck me that her ideals, particularly about the best way to woman, is narrow. She thinks women should only aspire to be more than wives or mothers. Those roles are pitiful in her view.
The ending is not entirely satisfactory, but I can imagine Charlotte going on in her life even after.
July 9, 2022
My god. This is a book I want to read from the beginning again. It's a book that I am sad is over. I want a sequel, but it's not meant to have a sequel. I want to keep living in this book. This is my favorite book I've read in a while.
And the writing. It's stellar. Truly.
The characters are witty, and I want to be them in the 90s. The relationship between Rose and Charlotte is so complex and warm, and sad and true. This book. Read this book
And the writing. It's stellar. Truly.
The characters are witty, and I want to be them in the 90s. The relationship between Rose and Charlotte is so complex and warm, and sad and true. This book. Read this book
December 28, 2024
An honest portrayal of female friendship and the competitiveness between women & interesting perspective on mothering. 90’s New York City vibe
March 16, 2025
Nije moj fazon. Feminizam i antibračne fantazije prosječnih Amerikanki.
August 28, 2022
*2.5 stars
The premise of the book sounded really interesting and I wanted to love it, but I could never get into it. I really think I would’ve liked it better if I had listened to it instead of read it. There were no quotation marks (the author used italics instead), and the paragraphs were way too long sometimes. It also felt like the author was telling us everything instead of showing us.
The premise of the book sounded really interesting and I wanted to love it, but I could never get into it. I really think I would’ve liked it better if I had listened to it instead of read it. There were no quotation marks (the author used italics instead), and the paragraphs were way too long sometimes. It also felt like the author was telling us everything instead of showing us.
September 1, 2024
Droning writing with some sweet moments. Reminded me to be grateful that I don’t center my life around men because god forbid I ever act like the main character(s)…
thirty minutes later and I’m left wondering if any conversation in this book passed the bechdel test
thirty minutes later and I’m left wondering if any conversation in this book passed the bechdel test
June 9, 2022
Refreshing, honest, unforgettable
I lost myself in this exquisitely written story of two women finding their place in New York.
Carlene Bauer has created characters so authentic, so honest and so complex that you will feel you’ve known them for decades. The New York setting is thrilling and the sweeping timescale is deeply satisfying.
Bauer tackles the interplay between friendship, feminism, motherhood and creativity and, as great writing should, leaves her readers not with answers but with lingering questions. I find my mind wandering back to the theory posed by one character, for example, that "it takes real work for a woman to sustain something outside herself that is not a child." If you are a book group looking for a story and characters to disagree over, this is it! And I mean that in the best possible sense - narrator Charlotte is likeable, even vulnerable, but also wonderfully flawed. At the same time she is so refreshingly candid. She rarely does what the reader might want and it's a joy to live through. I am desperate for my friends to read this book so that we can spend hours discussing Charlotte and Rose and their disasters and triumphs.
The prose is sharp, atmospheric and often comic - I found myself hoping for more places and characters to be introduced just to savour their descriptions - lines like 'her hair was long, but not long enough to make you wonder if she’d been homeschooled.'
Girls They Write Songs About is wise, witty, atmospheric and layered. Its characters are rich and surprising and the narrator Charlotte is wickedly eloquent and direct. She is by turns inspiring and tragic and sometimes infuriating, but she is always captivating.
I lost myself in this exquisitely written story of two women finding their place in New York.
Carlene Bauer has created characters so authentic, so honest and so complex that you will feel you’ve known them for decades. The New York setting is thrilling and the sweeping timescale is deeply satisfying.
Bauer tackles the interplay between friendship, feminism, motherhood and creativity and, as great writing should, leaves her readers not with answers but with lingering questions. I find my mind wandering back to the theory posed by one character, for example, that "it takes real work for a woman to sustain something outside herself that is not a child." If you are a book group looking for a story and characters to disagree over, this is it! And I mean that in the best possible sense - narrator Charlotte is likeable, even vulnerable, but also wonderfully flawed. At the same time she is so refreshingly candid. She rarely does what the reader might want and it's a joy to live through. I am desperate for my friends to read this book so that we can spend hours discussing Charlotte and Rose and their disasters and triumphs.
The prose is sharp, atmospheric and often comic - I found myself hoping for more places and characters to be introduced just to savour their descriptions - lines like 'her hair was long, but not long enough to make you wonder if she’d been homeschooled.'
Girls They Write Songs About is wise, witty, atmospheric and layered. Its characters are rich and surprising and the narrator Charlotte is wickedly eloquent and direct. She is by turns inspiring and tragic and sometimes infuriating, but she is always captivating.
March 29, 2022
A super exciting coming of age novel set to the backdrop of 90's rock and roll in New York City. Shy Charlotte and intense Rose circle one another at their rock magazine first as enemies and then as friends. They team up to tackle the city and make their names. It's fantastic to live vicariously through them as their friendship grows via concerts, parties, and endless nights in bars.
When their dream jobs and famous futures do not materialize, the two make life choices and support each other through major obstacles. This novel describes the friendship between woman and the importance of that bond.
If you love novels of true friends, rock and roll 90's scenes or just want a terrific character study, grab #GirlsTheyWriteSongsAbout. #NetGalley #NetgallyReads #FarrarStrausGiroux
When their dream jobs and famous futures do not materialize, the two make life choices and support each other through major obstacles. This novel describes the friendship between woman and the importance of that bond.
If you love novels of true friends, rock and roll 90's scenes or just want a terrific character study, grab #GirlsTheyWriteSongsAbout. #NetGalley #NetgallyReads #FarrarStrausGiroux
July 2, 2022
3.5 - I really want to give 4 stars because I was engrossed with the first half of the book but my interest waned through the last quarter and I struggled to finish it. When Charlotte and Rose’s friendship ended (not a spoiler, it’s mentioned on pg. 1) the book really lost its sparkle for me, but it’s worth the read. The first part of the book makes up for the abrupt ending. It felt incomplete. It was either too long or not long enough. I can’t decide. This book definitely gave me Firefly Lane vibes.
October 7, 2023
I don’t even know what to say about this book because its own words say it all, gracefully and assuredly. With poise and composition. The narrative is compelling in its plot without ever losing sight of prioritizing the characters. I don’t know what to say, except to say that I hope to cultivate an ability to write like this.
It’s a story about sisters, even though these two aren’t sisters by birth. And it’s a story about growing up, and it’s a story about being a woman and figuring out what you want out of this world while occupying that context, and how maybe what you want will change, or maybe it won’t, and which is more unsettling? And this beautifully written narrative weaves those three threads together into a lovely tight plait, that rolls off the tongue like slam poetry.
This book is for you if you want a story about the romanticized writing world or the romanticized music-adjacent world. Or a story about female friendship. Or about coming of age (in the metropolitan sense of mid-twenties until forties) in New York. This book is for you if you wanted to like HAPPY HOUR but are afraid to admit out loud that you were bored by it.
I loved this read, it took me longer than intended to finish it because of how often I had to pause and underline bits. It’s one I would aspire to emulate.
It’s a story about sisters, even though these two aren’t sisters by birth. And it’s a story about growing up, and it’s a story about being a woman and figuring out what you want out of this world while occupying that context, and how maybe what you want will change, or maybe it won’t, and which is more unsettling? And this beautifully written narrative weaves those three threads together into a lovely tight plait, that rolls off the tongue like slam poetry.
This book is for you if you want a story about the romanticized writing world or the romanticized music-adjacent world. Or a story about female friendship. Or about coming of age (in the metropolitan sense of mid-twenties until forties) in New York. This book is for you if you wanted to like HAPPY HOUR but are afraid to admit out loud that you were bored by it.
I loved this read, it took me longer than intended to finish it because of how often I had to pause and underline bits. It’s one I would aspire to emulate.
February 6, 2023
Such a thought provoking book about the choices women have to make throughout their lives and the aftermath of these decisions
July 28, 2022
I mostly liked the first half of this book, but I felt it went a bit off the rails in the second half or so. I really liked the author’s writing style, but after awhile it felt like she was trying too hard to be edgy and clever.
June 25, 2022
I am 100% totally obsessed with this read and its in my top10 this year so far.
Refreshingly raw and honest and confronts feminist issues and shows friendship in a real and emotional way.
I was gripped to see where this would go, and many characters coming and going along the way kept this interesting and engaging.
Refreshingly raw and honest and confronts feminist issues and shows friendship in a real and emotional way.
I was gripped to see where this would go, and many characters coming and going along the way kept this interesting and engaging.
July 25, 2022
This book set me back on my heels, shaking my head. What the hell??? By the end of it, I was head over heels in love with it, with the author, with the 110% truth of it. This is the truth of girls. Overwhelming, underwhelming, weird, unpredictable, wonky, brilliant, hate 'em, love 'em girls. By the end, I was completely won. No doubt about it.
It is uncomfortable reading, often. Punctuation, mostly on the fly, or missing. It is hundreds of pages of free association, right to the very last sentence. Wearying, whiny, lyrical, breathtaking, laugh-out-loud funny it is so SPOT ON. . . .tear spilling in places it is so SPOT ON. . .all those hard decisions that slap a girl upside her life as she's living it and daring her to make the right choice . . . whatever that is. . . .
Men are there, as they are in our world. Important. This just isn't about them.
Girls. A book long definition of girls friending (or not) girls. . . .but it never forgets that girls come from girls, and we love those first girls in our lives, we form our whole future dreams on those first girls who take care of us and love us (or don't), and our dearest wishes are for the girls that come from our bodies, our efforts and life alliances, the girls we love and for whom we'd die in a moment - we want for them to have some of those same precious slices of girl-happiness we had once upon a time. . . .
Absolutely.loved.this.book.
A sincere thanks to Carlene Bauer, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #GirlsTheyWriteSongsAbout #NetGalley
It is uncomfortable reading, often. Punctuation, mostly on the fly, or missing. It is hundreds of pages of free association, right to the very last sentence. Wearying, whiny, lyrical, breathtaking, laugh-out-loud funny it is so SPOT ON. . . .tear spilling in places it is so SPOT ON. . .all those hard decisions that slap a girl upside her life as she's living it and daring her to make the right choice . . . whatever that is. . . .
Men are there, as they are in our world. Important. This just isn't about them.
Girls. A book long definition of girls friending (or not) girls. . . .but it never forgets that girls come from girls, and we love those first girls in our lives, we form our whole future dreams on those first girls who take care of us and love us (or don't), and our dearest wishes are for the girls that come from our bodies, our efforts and life alliances, the girls we love and for whom we'd die in a moment - we want for them to have some of those same precious slices of girl-happiness we had once upon a time. . . .
Absolutely.loved.this.book.
A sincere thanks to Carlene Bauer, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #GirlsTheyWriteSongsAbout #NetGalley
August 21, 2022
Charlotte and Rose are best friends, growing up in NYC in the late 90s, while writing for publications, hanging out at concerts and trying to figure out what adult world is all about. While Rose gets married and eventually settles down, Charlotte's marriage disintegrates within the first year. It seems she's desperate to hold herself to a higher, feminist ideal of a world that may have passed her by. As she gets older, she moves away to San Francisco and her lasting bond with Rose falls apart. Through a myriad of failed relationships, pregnancy, an abortion, the closest relationship she seems to nurture is one with a university age daughter of a former lover (this is where plausibility goes out the window). What kept me reading is a wish to see Charlotte's damning and self-perpetuating narcissism come to an end. Unfortunately, her ideals trump her ability to love and tie herself into any meaningful relationship. She's a perfect example of a forty year adult who's really a spoiled child unable to take the next step on the path of growth and self-development.
May 30, 2022
Excellent lit-heavy book from Carlene Bauer, both about friendship and about growing up and living a life of one's own. A life that doesn't follow along a standard path of marriage, kids, house, dog, and so on.
Charlotte and Rose meet as young women in late 90s New York at a music magazine. While their friendship is all consuming, there is an underlying river of tension and competition between the two. They are as close as family and in each others lives as long as possible.
The chapters speed through the years, through many relationships and affairs, from one city to the other, from one failure to the other. This is another book about female friendship, about toxic female friendship, about motherhood, both of the standard and unconventional kind. It's beautifully written. I feel that it will go above many readers heads but I hope that it will capture even more hearts.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Charlotte and Rose meet as young women in late 90s New York at a music magazine. While their friendship is all consuming, there is an underlying river of tension and competition between the two. They are as close as family and in each others lives as long as possible.
The chapters speed through the years, through many relationships and affairs, from one city to the other, from one failure to the other. This is another book about female friendship, about toxic female friendship, about motherhood, both of the standard and unconventional kind. It's beautifully written. I feel that it will go above many readers heads but I hope that it will capture even more hearts.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.
June 12, 2022
An interesting reflection on the intensity of friendships between women and how they morph over the years. I enjoyed the writing style (although I'm less a fan of the dialogue without quotation marks trend) but I found it quite repetitive. Some of that is intentional, you come back around to the same thoughts and moments that altered a friendship. But I did start getting weary of it.
Overall otherwise it was an honest story. Even if I didn't love the characters, they felt like real people trying to navigate life. I think this one will do well.
Overall otherwise it was an honest story. Even if I didn't love the characters, they felt like real people trying to navigate life. I think this one will do well.
October 2, 2023
Nothing has ever made me as angry as this book. Imagine if Carrie Bradshaw - CARRIE BRADSHAW - was somehow MORE annoying??? Such good prose and great plot and good pacing and then the narrator. is. so. insufferable. THE DAUGHTER OF THE GUY WHO IS CHEATING ON HIS WIFE WITH CHARLOTTE NAMES HER DAUGHTER AFTER CHARLOTTE???? COME THE #%%% ON. (Censored for aunt Dan). I hate this because of how much potential was squandered. DID YOU ALL GO TO THE LENA DUNHAM SCHOOL OF WRITING OR WHAT IS GOING ON ?????
August 8, 2022
Read about 50 pages & couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’m too old for these hijinks but I don’t find it charming when the 2 girlfriends skip out of a restaurant without paying their bill. I can’t see why this book got all those great reviews.
September 27, 2022
DNF @ 48% (and then I skimmed the ending)
I tried but the characters were so flat and the story was boring.
I tried but the characters were so flat and the story was boring.
Read
March 8, 2023This is about an intense friendship between Charlotte and Rose from their twenties to their forties. Their loves and their losses. Their ups and their downs as they navigate the way to the lives they want. There are hard things here, and the truth too about women's lives and the choices we make, and it will mean something different for everyone that reads it. I loved it.
-Amy, North Independence
-Amy, North Independence
Displaying 1 - 30 of 329 reviews