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My first impression of Angela is that she is childish, mean spirited about her own children, and self-centered to the point that she wishes her children more happiness just so she could feel better about herself.

First impression of Angela is that she is childish, mean spirited toward her own children, and completely self centered, wanting her adult children to be happier just so she could feel better about herself.

"The defeated are those who never fail."

It was a proper little cottage like something from a story with snowdrops in January and daffodils in spring and a patch for vegetables and another for herbs to put in spells and remedies There was a rain barrel and a henhouse and a jam jar full of water and wasps that had drowned in it and a tiny scrap of land behind with a cow that would come over to the gate and lick your face There was an Infant of Prague in the

It was a proper little cottage like something from a story with snowdrops in January and daffodils in spring and a patch for vegetables and another for herbs to put in spells and remedies There was a rain barrel and a henhouse and a jam jar full of water and wasps that had drowned in it and a tiny scrap of land behind with a cow that would come over to the gate and lick your face There was an Infant of Prague in the

After a fairly strong start the book deteriorated into a trite, maudlin handling of a serious subject. A blind immigrant girl who sees her guardian angel and struggles to be strong for her widowed mother? A hard bitten corporate attorney who volunteered to represent her only because he was smitten by the recruiting advocate but made a complete political and moral about face after just one meeting with the girl?

I fear the entire book will be what the first 20% has been, nothing but a grinding polemic on the plight of women who aspire to be scientists.

The first few pages were so far from what I typically enjoy about a book that I almost stopped reading. Now, almost halfway finished, I'm hooked. It's not a comedy (I don't like comedies), but you'll almost certainly find yourself laughing out loud in spite of overriding themes of loneliness, desperation and suicide. If it were a movie, only Fellini could do it justice.

Horrible book.

The author, early in the book, slyly, obliquely, equates support of Palestine (not even full-out anti-zionism) with Holocaust denial. Now, 20% into the book, I'm still continually distracted by thus annoying recollection. A personal weakness, I'm sure.

"The last thing she wanted was to love someone else who looked just like herself. "

The case she is trying to make is obvious. Trying to justify not buying a new alarm clock ($5.49) when the clock you own loses 5 minutes per hour and you have a job to get to is not helping to make that point.

Can't put it down.

Agnes is my favorite. I want to BE Agnes.

A book about community, women's power, simultaneous southern directness and doublespeak with unselfconscious southern humor throughout. Religious faith is only a gentle background.

Liking this book. Here's something to think about. "If peoplehad true knowledge of the world perhaps they would not take up arms and so perhaps he could be an aggregator of information from distant places and then the world would be a more peaceful place. He had been perfectly serious. That illusion lasted from age 49 to age 65 (which is his age as his story is being told. )"

Having completed the chapter entitled A Brief History of Anger the question of nature versus nurture comes up. For psychoanalysts I don't believe this is much of a question and that nurture is the fallback explanation for behavior thereby lending that behavior to the possibility of change via psychoanalysis. One question is, are ethnic Jews, as Yalom self describes, given by nature to flight vs fight?

I LOVE this book! I've lived in houses without plumbing or electricity and visited small, sparsely furnished homesteads during summer harvests. I know the silence and isolation and everyday mundane beauty described in this book. What I haven't personally experienced is the unromanticized purity and goodness to be found in these characters.

Although the book includes some amusing or thought provoking quotes ("waiting is the rust of the soul") it is essentially a series of illicit sexual encounters, all of which have predictably dire consequences. With few exceptions, the characters resemble each other, making it hard to sympathize with them.

Loving the use of language and humor in this book.

Stopping at page 88. May try again later.