Helpful Score: 4
I absolutely loved RANGE OF MOTION! I thought the main character's faith and devotion to her husband was very touching, almost romantic. I found myself looking forward to her conversations with the "ghost woman" and her interaction with her neighbor. Both of the supporting characters came across very "real." Even though there as a lot of sadness in the book,I found it to be very poignant and ultimately uplifting.
This was not a challenging read, but a very satisfying one. Berg was almost poetic in her writing about everyday things. A joy to read!
This was not a challenging read, but a very satisfying one. Berg was almost poetic in her writing about everyday things. A joy to read!
Helpful Score: 3
"I can tell you how it happened. It's easy to say how it happened. He walked past a building, and a huge chunk of ice fell off the roof, and it hit him in the head. This is Chaplinesque, right? People start to laugh when I tell them..."
So begins the exquisite new novel by New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg. As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. While he lies motionless, she hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared--sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spices from their kitchen. And throughout her ordeal, Lainey is sustained by her relationships with two very special women, each of whom teaches her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.
So begins the exquisite new novel by New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg. As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. While he lies motionless, she hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared--sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spices from their kitchen. And throughout her ordeal, Lainey is sustained by her relationships with two very special women, each of whom teaches her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.
Helpful Score: 3
Readers who thought The Bridges of Madison County was a romantic book should try this story of honest and enduring love from the author of Talk Before Sleep (LJ 3/15/94). The first-person narrative describes an ordinary woman caught up in unusual circumstances. Lainey is a wife/mother/office worker whose life is suddenly changed when her husband is sent into a coma by a freak accident. The only one who believes that he will one day wake up, she visits him daily, bringing him stimulus from everyday life in an attempt to reach him. "I line up the little spice bags all across his chest. All across his University of California T-shirt are requests from the kitchen. Come back, says the curry, the oregano. And me." Lainey is sustained through her ordeal by the support of two special women: Alice, who lives next door, and Evie, the ghost of the woman who lived in Lainey's house in the Forties. A touching and enjoyable read, this novel is romantic without being a romance. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.?
Helpful Score: 2
Elizabeth Berg just gets it! I loved this one too!
Helpful Score: 1
Range of Motion was a very enjoyable read. Megan Gallagher (the narrator) is very pleasant to listen to and the story, about a young woman's life after her husband is suddenly left in a coma after a freak accident, is very engaging and very moving. Elizabeth Berg does a superb job of conveying the depth of honest,deeply felt emotions.
Helpful Score: 1
This book was delightful! Really made you think, too!
Helpful Score: 1
Another winner by Berg. Lovely, realistic story; she really knows how to portray inner emotions with words- not an easy task.
Helpful Score: 1
love this author- 4 stars
Helpful Score: 1
A wonderful love story. Easy to read but complex enough to stick with you a long time. Excellent.
Helpful Score: 1
Heartwarming story. What love is all about.
Helpful Score: 1
I didn't like this nearly as much as some of Berg's other books, but I did keep reading to find out how it ended. While I felt that most of the secondary characters were very well formed, I found the main characters rather insipid and it was difficult to become attached to them.
Helpful Score: 1
What a lovely read. Very simple, but inspirational. Really enjoyed it!
Helpful Score: 1
If you like Elizabeth Berg, you'll love this.
Helpful Score: 1
Definitely one that I would recommend - I'll be looking for more books by this author.
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book. It makes you think about love and what you might do when facing similar accidents.
Helpful Score: 1
This was an interesting novel detailing the thoughts and actions of a women whose husband was in a coma following a freak accident. After three months in the hospital Jay was moved to a nursing home, but Lainey could not give up hope that he would wake up and come home again. She continuously brought familiar clothes, food, spices and other items from home to surround Jay with his "regular" life.
Helpful Score: 1
Good book.
This is a love story so touching, without sex, that it brings tears to your eyes. It was so good that i just read and read, i could not put it down. I had to know what was to happen in the end. Life when your spouse is in a coma will bring many different emotions and this book is just so beautiful. I absolutely loved the nurse Wilma, her last loving gift caused me to actually sob. This book was powerful.
Great afternoon read!
This is an excellent book. One of my favorite by this author.
This was my first Berg book, years back, and remains my favorite. I worked 11 years with TBI's and was amazed at the accuracy of the research in this novel. And the true heart. A funny thing that rang truer than anything was when the poor guy was being wheeled down the hall and "Gloria, your admission's here!" rings out, very unprofessionally. Your ADMISSION. No, besides not yelling out anything like that, you never refer to a human as an ADMISSION, esp in front of the family! Yet, many a day, someone would call out to our own Gloria, "Hey, Glo, your admission's here!" A great book.
Great book!!! couldn't put it down. Really makes you think about marriage and what you can handle
Excellent book. Sat down and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting.
Another delightful read from Elizabeth Berg.
Very emotional book. I had a hard time putting it down.
I have read Berg before, and loved. This book was saddening. A father and husband has ice fall on his head and thus pushing him into a coma for 4-5 months. The wife, Lainey, starts to see the enchanting ghost of a woman living in the 1940's in her home. The ghost helps pull Lainey through the difficult time in her life. Berg doesn't develop supporting characters well in this book, but the story is an easy read.
Trade Paperback size w/ ISBN 0-679-43745-2 on back cover and inside pg
From Amazon:
The first-person narrative describes an ordinary woman caught up in unusual circumstances. Lainey is a wife/mother/office worker whose life is suddenly changed when her husband is sent into a coma by a freak accident. The only one who believes that he will one day wake up, she visits him daily, bringing him stimulus from everyday life in an attempt to reach him. "I line up the little spice bags all across his chest. All across his University of California T-shirt are requests from the kitchen. Come back, says the curry, the oregano. And me." Lainey is sustained through her ordeal by the support of two special women: Alice, who lives next door, and Evie, the ghost of the woman who lived in Lainey's house in the Forties. A touching and enjoyable read, this novel is romantic without being a romance.
The first-person narrative describes an ordinary woman caught up in unusual circumstances. Lainey is a wife/mother/office worker whose life is suddenly changed when her husband is sent into a coma by a freak accident. The only one who believes that he will one day wake up, she visits him daily, bringing him stimulus from everyday life in an attempt to reach him. "I line up the little spice bags all across his chest. All across his University of California T-shirt are requests from the kitchen. Come back, says the curry, the oregano. And me." Lainey is sustained through her ordeal by the support of two special women: Alice, who lives next door, and Evie, the ghost of the woman who lived in Lainey's house in the Forties. A touching and enjoyable read, this novel is romantic without being a romance.
I really enjoyed this book.
As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. While he lies motionless, she hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared - sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spices from their kitchen. And throughout the ordeal, Lainey is sustained by her relationships with two very special women, each of whom teaches her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.
Great read, my husband and I both enjoyed it.
Elizabeth Berg is always a good read. She has good characters and surrounds them with a good story. Recommend this one.
An excellent read. Plan on spending an evening reading, you won't be able to put it down. This is a second copy since I have a library collection of her works that I keep for myself. Wanted to share this with others. Enjoy!
I love all of her books!
A young wife and mother struggles to cope as her husband lies in a coma. This is one of Berg's earliest books and the plotting is a little too pat and predictable; I think her later works are better, but this one was well reviewed especially for its attention to the small details of women's lives and friendships.
Light, women's fiction. A good beach book. Fast read, but good.
joy is found in the simplest things - sweet-smelling flowers, softly textured shirts, spices form the kitchen - and in the least likely places. love is not pain-free, and this story shares the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.
"I can tell you how it happened. It's easy to say how it happened. He walked past a building, and a huge chunk of ice fell off the roof, and it hit him in the head. This is Chaplinesque, right? People start to laugh when I tell them..."
So begins the exquisite new novel by New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg. As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. While he lies motionless, she hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared--sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spices from their kitchen. And throughout her ordeal, Lainey is sustained by her relationships with two very special women, each of whom teaches her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.
So begins the exquisite new novel by New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg. As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. While he lies motionless, she hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared--sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spices from their kitchen. And throughout her ordeal, Lainey is sustained by her relationships with two very special women, each of whom teaches her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.
Jay Berman lingers in a coma and only his wife Lainey believs he will recover. Lainey is sustained in her ordeal by two very special women. This is a book about love, friendship, and hope.
I first heard of author Elizabeth Berg when she (or the book "Durable Goods") was on someone's recommended list. I read the three books of the "Katie" trilogy (which I liked) and then read "Talk Before Sleep" (which I didn't like). I decided to try "Range of Motion" next and got that (like the others) through paperbackswap.com or the local library. My opinion of this book is the same as "Talk Before Sleep"--I don't care for it.
Early on in the book, Lainey, the narrator, mentions that her family lives in a duplex just outside of St. Paul. I've lived in the Mpls.-St. Paul area since 1972. If you live "just outside of St. Paul" you are in a suburb. So why not just use the name of the suburb? My guess is that the author has probably never been to this area but, for some reason, decided to set the story here.
I didn't find Lainey to be all that interesting. The numerous appearances of the "ghost" didn't add anything other than pages (the book is only 217 pages in my paperback version, so would be even slimmer without the ghost appearances). Alice, the neighbor, was a much more interesting character than Lainey. Lainey's two kids, who were supposed to be four and ten, talked like they were older than their actual ages. The older girl sounded like a teen.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: Ted was a good looking, young (I think 30s) guy who often visited his wife at the care center where Lainey's husband was. Ted's wife was in a coma from a brain hemorrhage and eventually died. I expected that Ted and Lainey might gravitate toward one another and eventually have an affair. That didn't happen but if it had, it would have added more interest to the story. END OF SPOILERS
The other thing that drove me a little crazy is that there are no chapters in this book. When the story changes location, etc., there is a one inch gap where the previous scene ended and the new one begins. Maybe the publisher was trying to save on paper.
After reading two "clunkers" in a row, I'm not sure I will continue reading Elizabeth Berg.
Early on in the book, Lainey, the narrator, mentions that her family lives in a duplex just outside of St. Paul. I've lived in the Mpls.-St. Paul area since 1972. If you live "just outside of St. Paul" you are in a suburb. So why not just use the name of the suburb? My guess is that the author has probably never been to this area but, for some reason, decided to set the story here.
I didn't find Lainey to be all that interesting. The numerous appearances of the "ghost" didn't add anything other than pages (the book is only 217 pages in my paperback version, so would be even slimmer without the ghost appearances). Alice, the neighbor, was a much more interesting character than Lainey. Lainey's two kids, who were supposed to be four and ten, talked like they were older than their actual ages. The older girl sounded like a teen.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: Ted was a good looking, young (I think 30s) guy who often visited his wife at the care center where Lainey's husband was. Ted's wife was in a coma from a brain hemorrhage and eventually died. I expected that Ted and Lainey might gravitate toward one another and eventually have an affair. That didn't happen but if it had, it would have added more interest to the story. END OF SPOILERS
The other thing that drove me a little crazy is that there are no chapters in this book. When the story changes location, etc., there is a one inch gap where the previous scene ended and the new one begins. Maybe the publisher was trying to save on paper.
After reading two "clunkers" in a row, I'm not sure I will continue reading Elizabeth Berg.
Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors and I love that I discovered her completely by accident. Or was it fate? That is what this book explores - fate. A tragic accident befalls a husband and father and leaves his wife struggling with all of the responsibilities and questions and longings that you would expect in the aftermath. But everyone handles grief and anger in their own way and this is the story of one woman's struggle - and her faith.
An unlikely accident & an unlikely friendship bring about comfort & support in the lives of 2 women. Very touching & heartwarming.
I love Berg.
Fabulous!
I read ANYTHING Elizabeth Berg writes.
As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, struck by a huge chunk of ice, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. She hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared: sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spices from their kitchen. Two special women help to sustain Lainey, teaching her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope. (Cover blurb)
