Helpful Score: 9
Let me start by saying that my friend loved this book and gave it to me to read. Unfortunately, I thought the two characters were a couple of idiots and I wouldn't have even finished it except that my friend wanted me to. Maybe you'll like it as much as her.
The story tracks two young women who meet as dorm roommates in college in 1973. They are from different regions and backgrounds but forge a strong friendship. The years pass, the women become professionals but still maintain a friendship, with one always going to visit the other in LA. Secrets in the LA family threaten to ruin one of them.
The story tracks two young women who meet as dorm roommates in college in 1973. They are from different regions and backgrounds but forge a strong friendship. The years pass, the women become professionals but still maintain a friendship, with one always going to visit the other in LA. Secrets in the LA family threaten to ruin one of them.
Helpful Score: 7
Although I read the whole book, I didn't really âget into it.â (I have a hard time leaving books unread even if I don't really like them.) There just wasn't enough depth to any of the charactersâ¦they seemed so two-dimensional. Although the book is supposed to be about the staying power of women's friendships, my thoughts are that Sally and Clare are friends because no one else would really like them.
Helpful Score: 7
If you are focused on worldly things, I guess this book fills the bill. Very depressing for those of us who want more. I am ashamed that I had to finish it. This author could do better if she left out the pure nastiness in several parts of the book.
Helpful Score: 6
This book was okay but if you really want a book about enduring friendship, read Between Friends by Debbie Macomber.
Helpful Score: 5
I was so disappointed to see such negative reviews on this book. I really liked this book and recommend it to anyone. I thought this book was really enjoyable, well-written and absorbing.
Yes, the protagonist is annoyingly focused on her work and unmotherly. I guess I like having to search for the good in characters. Sally, however, was real and fully drawn and was someone I would totally want to befriend.
Some of Moody's turns of phrase are still whirling around my little brain.
Also, the drama? That's probably what made it a bestseller. People generally eat that sort of thing up. Me, included I guess.
A great beach read or anytime read. I really enjoyed this book and I feel badly that some of these reviews are so vitriolic. I think the author is talented.
Yes, the protagonist is annoyingly focused on her work and unmotherly. I guess I like having to search for the good in characters. Sally, however, was real and fully drawn and was someone I would totally want to befriend.
Some of Moody's turns of phrase are still whirling around my little brain.
Also, the drama? That's probably what made it a bestseller. People generally eat that sort of thing up. Me, included I guess.
A great beach read or anytime read. I really enjoyed this book and I feel badly that some of these reviews are so vitriolic. I think the author is talented.
Helpful Score: 3
I really liked this book. Some of it is predictable but you don't mind because it is fun and the story pulls you in. A great summer read.
Helpful Score: 2
This book is very good. It's a different kind of story than I might've read or that anyone might have written when I was growing up. The characters are very well developed.
Helpful Score: 2
Better than expected.
Helpful Score: 2
Such an entertaining and heartfelt book
Helpful Score: 2
A wonderful read about friendship over the years.
Helpful Score: 2
Loved this book! It's great how two friends meet in college and are from such different parts of the country, but still remain friends. Through thick and thin. This was a great read and I loved how it traveled through time telling the story.
Helpful Score: 1
Wow! The things they go through and stay friends through all the years. An interesting story. It's a book you should share with your best friend, mail it to her and then call to chat!
Helpful Score: 1
Makes you want to call your best friend to come over for a glass of wine and talk for hours on end.... great book to pass to girlfriends!!
Helpful Score: 1
This is a really good book. I like how it goes from their friendship in college all the way through the stages of adulthood.
Helpful Score: 1
for anyone who has a best friend, the kind of friends like sisters.I was completely absorbed by the character's choices and didn't want it to end. this book is emotionally complex, smart, and holds up a mirror to our own lives.
Helpful Score: 1
A great story of a rare female friendship and how it solidifies over time. Interesting read, good characters and character development. I really enjoyed this book.
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this book. I didn't want to put it down.
Helpful Score: 1
Good story about the lives of two women, how their lives intertwined and how their friendship endured and thrived through all the twists and turns of life.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book. The characters' lives are very interesting...much more drama than I could ever imagine. A lot of surprising moments, and a few fairly predictable ones. Kept me entertained...had to keep reading to find out what happened. I didn't get much sleep for a couple nights once I started reading.
Helpful Score: 1
first novels that track a pair of friends from collete days through their subsequent lives. this book never loses its edge, at once compassionate and humorous.
Helpful Score: 1
When Clare Mann arrives at OBerlin in 1973, she's never met anyone like Sally Rose. Rich and beautiful, Sally is utterly foreign to a middle-class, Midwestern Protestant like Clare-and utterly fascinating. The fascination only grows when Sally brings her home to L.A. Mr. Rose-charismatic, charming, and owner of a profitable business shrouded in secrecy-is nearly as compelling a figure ot Clare as he is to his own daughter. Californis seems like paradise after winters in Ohio. And Clare begins to look forward desperately to these visits, to carefree rides in Sally's Kharmann Ghia and lazy poolside days. As the years pass, Clare becomes a doctor and Sally a lawyer, always remaining roommates at heart, a plane ride or phone call away. Marriages and divorces and births and deaths do not separate them. But secrets might-for as Clare watches, the Rose family begins to self-destruct before her eyes. And the things she knows are the kinds of things that no one wants to tell a best friend.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book from the first page. I loved how the characters change as they mature and age. I thought the author did a great job of showing how our perceptions of individuals change as our understanding of the world at large emerges. The characters are wonderfully flawed but realistically so. If you like character driven stories, this would be an excellent choice.
Helpful Score: 1
With characters you won't forget, this is a believable account of female friendship.
Helpful Score: 1
I was pleasantly surprised at how well written this book was...I enjoyed the writing and thought the storyline was good. I liked both the characters in the book, and could relate to some of their problems.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a good book about friends with some interesting twists.
Helpful Score: 1
You'll definitely see elements of yourself and your girlfriends in this terrific novel. Like many close friends, Claire and Sally sometimes lose touch for months, but they can always depend on each other when times are tough, and isn't that what friendship is all about...
Martha Moody's first novel, Best Friends bodes well for the future of
this talented author..
Martha Moody's first novel, Best Friends bodes well for the future of
this talented author..
Helpful Score: 1
This book was a bit surprising in that the story line took the characters to emotional places I did not suspect they would go. Each woman had depths I did not expect, which caused me to shift my sympathies more evenly between them by the end of the story. Provocative read.
Helpful Score: 1
A great novel that kept my interest. Completely different than what I expected when I started.
Helpful Score: 1
A heartfelt book about two college best friends as they grow up and move through their lives.
Helpful Score: 1
Had a hard time staying intersted in this book - and actually didnt even finish reading it.
Helpful Score: 1
Moody's first novel examines the dynamics of friendship between two very different women, Clare Ann Mann, a small-town Ohio girl, and Sally Rose, who hails from Los Angeles. Meeting as college roommates, the girls are surprised to learn that, paradoxically, Clare Ann is the worldlier of the two. Despite their many differences, the two form a bond that will last a lifetime or at least until the end of the book. Pared to one-third its length, this might have been a valid study of friendship. However, the drama disaster, disappointment, revealed lies, childbirth, drug abuse, AIDS, and so on continues ad infinitum and strains credibility. Expecting some form of closure at the end, the reader is left wondering where the next page is.
Helpful Score: 1
Interesting summer beach book
Helpful Score: 1
Pleasant to read. It isn't so gripping that you can't put it down but it's intriguing to read how the friendship develops. I like the transformation of the protagonist Clare into a grown-up.
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book, but the author stole my own title. I have always wanted to write this book. The lives of these women were fascinating. A real page turner!
Helpful Score: 1
This is a pretty good book. It's about 2 women who come from very different backgrounds one who is poor and one who is rich. But they become very good friends all through college and long after college. They both go through a lot and their friendship is tested many time. A very good book, not a lot of action involved tho.
A good read about a lifelong friendship of two VERY different college roomates.
Oberlin College, Ohio, 1973 - When Clare Mann arrives at Oberlin, she is absolutely ecstatic to be on her own finally. She lives in a small Ohio town somewhere between Akron and Youngstown, but the novelty of being even an hour away from home thrills her. Clare first meets Sally Rose - a transplant from Los Angeles - at freshman orientation and they are basically thrown together as college roommates.
Clare, the daughter of a Protestant, working-class family from Ohio, has never met anyone like her new roommate, Sally. Wealthy and beautiful; and Jewish, Sally is barely emancipated from her close-knit Los Angeles family, and has led an otherwise sheltered life. She is utterly foreign to the hard-working, jaded Clare - and utterly fascinating.
Clare's fascination with Sally only intensifies, when she brings Clare home to Los Angeles to meet the Rose family. Sid Rose, Sally's father, is charismatic, charming; the owner of a profitable business which is shrouded in secrecy. He is almost as compelling a figure to Clare as he is to his own daughter. California seems like a veritable paradise after spending winters in Ohio; and soon Clare begins to look forward to these visits with an almost desperate enthusiasm; to the numerous carefree rides in Sally's Kharmann Ghia and the seemingly endless lazy days spent poolside.
Despite their many differences, the free-spirited Clare and a frequently homesick Sally soon overcome their mutual bafflement with each other to form an extraordinary friendship; a complicated, but tenacious bond that endures through the years. As the years pass, Clare becomes a doctor and Sally a lawyer; but they always remain roommates at heart, just a plane ride or a phone call away. Marriages and divorces, births and deaths do not separate them; but secrets just might - for as Clare watches, the Rose family begins to slowly disintegrate before her eyes. And the things she knows are the kinds of things that no one ever wants to tell a best friend.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book; the story was totally engrossing and I almost didn't want it to end. With the various plot twists, intrigue, secrets and intricate family dynamics, this story held my interest right until the end. As I've said before, I always enjoy reading stories about families, and most especially about the enduring friendships between women.
I give Best Friends by Martha Moody an A+! This is Ms. Moody's debut novel, and I'm delighted to say that I have her next book - The Office of Desire - somewhere on my bookshelf as well. In my opinion, she is quite an excellent writer.
Clare, the daughter of a Protestant, working-class family from Ohio, has never met anyone like her new roommate, Sally. Wealthy and beautiful; and Jewish, Sally is barely emancipated from her close-knit Los Angeles family, and has led an otherwise sheltered life. She is utterly foreign to the hard-working, jaded Clare - and utterly fascinating.
Clare's fascination with Sally only intensifies, when she brings Clare home to Los Angeles to meet the Rose family. Sid Rose, Sally's father, is charismatic, charming; the owner of a profitable business which is shrouded in secrecy. He is almost as compelling a figure to Clare as he is to his own daughter. California seems like a veritable paradise after spending winters in Ohio; and soon Clare begins to look forward to these visits with an almost desperate enthusiasm; to the numerous carefree rides in Sally's Kharmann Ghia and the seemingly endless lazy days spent poolside.
Despite their many differences, the free-spirited Clare and a frequently homesick Sally soon overcome their mutual bafflement with each other to form an extraordinary friendship; a complicated, but tenacious bond that endures through the years. As the years pass, Clare becomes a doctor and Sally a lawyer; but they always remain roommates at heart, just a plane ride or a phone call away. Marriages and divorces, births and deaths do not separate them; but secrets just might - for as Clare watches, the Rose family begins to slowly disintegrate before her eyes. And the things she knows are the kinds of things that no one ever wants to tell a best friend.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book; the story was totally engrossing and I almost didn't want it to end. With the various plot twists, intrigue, secrets and intricate family dynamics, this story held my interest right until the end. As I've said before, I always enjoy reading stories about families, and most especially about the enduring friendships between women.
I give Best Friends by Martha Moody an A+! This is Ms. Moody's debut novel, and I'm delighted to say that I have her next book - The Office of Desire - somewhere on my bookshelf as well. In my opinion, she is quite an excellent writer.
This was a fine book.
Weird. I liked it at the beginning but towards the end I just wanted it to be over.
I'm listening to this on audio book and have enjoyed parts of it. It's VERY long and I nearly gave up after disk 6...but things finally got interesting and began to make sense around then. The author is a physician, and she writes about docs, hospitals and illnesses very convincingly. That said, this isn't a sweet story about 'best friends.' But it's worth listening to or reading if you want a good story.
Great book! The author captures the characters and the changes in their lives well.
I loved this book. It's not for everyone. The main characters are very complex and not always likeable...but very real. It's not a neat tidy story and so if you need a clean story with a wrapped up ending this may not be the book for you.
It took me a little while to read, but I enjoyed it. It's a great book about two friends and their friendship throughout the years.
Unusal friendship but it takes all kinds
Being from OHIO I could register with Clare Mann who meets her college roomate At Oberlin College in Cleveland. Their friendship moves through several decades. I enjoyed this book very much.
A story of best friends, tha begins in college, and remains through their subsequent lives. Slow start, but good story.
Engaging, easy read with just enough humor thrown in.
Great book !! Explores the friendship of two women from college through adulthood ~ on so many dofferent levels ... a must-read !!
Great read! A book about close friends. That friend that knows you inside and out.
This was a wonderful read....I was sorry when it ended and really missed the characters!
Clare and Sally become fast friends and this novel portrays their frienship through their youth into the later years. very easy read.
Great book, I read it twice.
I loved this book! I started it the beginning of a weekend and finished by Sunday night! I could not put this one down.
I tried to read, but too slow for me. The story is about 2 best friends growing up through college to adult life.
First book by this Author, very interesting relationship of 2 women who remain best friends throughout their lives starting when they met in college.
An interesting story with some juicy secrets!!
A complex story about two women who became best friends during college, and no matter what life threw them since meeting (and life threw themplenty!), they always remained faithful best friends.
A good story about 2 best friends that begin their friendship in college and continues on through the years......
I didn't think it was a very good book.
Character-driven first novel about college roomates growing older.
A great story about two friends with an intriguing plot line with twists you would never expect
When Clare Mann arrives at Oberlin in 1973, she's never met anyone like Sally Rose. Rich and beautiful, Sally is utterly foreign to a middle-class, Midwestern Protestant like Clare-- and utterly fascinating. The fascination only grows when Sally brings her home to LA to Mr. Rose-- charismatic, charming, and owner of a profitable business shrouded in secrecy--is nearly as compelling a figure to Clare as he is to his own daughter. California seems like paradise after winters in Ohio. And Clare begins to look foward desperately to these visits, to carefree rides in Sally's Kharmann Ghia and lazy poolside days.
As the years pass, Clare becomes a Dr and Sally a lawyer, always remaining roommates at heart, a plane ride or phone call away. Marriages and divorces and births and deaths do not separate them. But secrets might-- for as Clare watches, the Rose family begins to self-destruct before her eyes. And the things she knows are the kinds of things that no one wants to tell a best friend...
As the years pass, Clare becomes a Dr and Sally a lawyer, always remaining roommates at heart, a plane ride or phone call away. Marriages and divorces and births and deaths do not separate them. But secrets might-- for as Clare watches, the Rose family begins to self-destruct before her eyes. And the things she knows are the kinds of things that no one wants to tell a best friend...
Unexpected plot. Well drawn characters.
A novel tracking the lives of two best friends, Clare and Sally.
Well-written, interesting story of a friendship beginning in college and spanning many years. The characters are interesting and the story moves along well.
My sister gave this book to me several years ago, so it's been a while since I read it. I think it took me a while to get into it, but I eventually started to like it. Some twists were predictable, but not in an "oh how lame" sort of way. This is the kind of book to me that is good to read during a "resting" phase. You know, the book you read AFTER you've finished a book that was emotionally exhausting? It's an easy read, not too deep.
The characters aren't too likeable, disappointed by the ending.
This was a fabulous book about two women who were friends from college and remained friends, across country though thick and thin.
It was an enjoyable read and difficult to put down.
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Note: there is a bookcrossing.com sticker inside of the book.
It was an enjoyable read and difficult to put down.
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Note: there is a bookcrossing.com sticker inside of the book.
it hasn't quite grabbed my attention yet...maybe it will grab yours?!
