I was perhaps expecting too much of The Sweetheart Season, having enjoyed other titles by Karen Joy Fowler, but I did not feel that it lived up to the intriguing premise. I was well over half way though and still waiting for the the story to grip me. The narrative is quite confusing as it meanders back and forth in time, and none of the characters have much depth. There are some funny moments, and the author is always good at creating a sense of place and atmosphere. It has left me yearning to r...

This book surprised me by not really being what the cover advertises. It’s about growing up and it’s about 1940s America. The American Dream and it’s subsequent disappointments. Actually a very engaging novel.

I sure enjoyed being in the middle of this book, just ambling along with it. Sure, every now and then I thought about having to suspend my disbelief about it being the daughter telling her mother's story. (Because the details she "recalled" were delicious, but she wouldn't have known the story that closely.) But I enjoyed it anyway.I was sorry to reach the end, because it was a pleasure all along-- and also because the end wasn't especially satisfying to me. But I really did enjoy just ambling a...

I loved this book. The writer obviously loved her characters, faults and all, in a way that reminded my of John Irving or Ann Tyler. The prose was clear and engaging. And the story, about a dying mill town after WW II, really gave me a sense of that time.

Read this for an English class. Really made me think about the concept of home and how sometimes grief traps us there. Funny point of view in that it's narrated by the main character's daughter, who lets us know we are reading a story told by two liars. The character of Maggie Collins as a symbol for the ideal woman of the 40s and 50s (that eventually changes into something else) is interesting to examine. Laughed out loud while reading, it's a funny book

nothing but respect for MY karen joy fowler

Karen uses a first person, present tense frame around a past tense narrative that often sounds omniscient--a terrific risk that I love, getting omniscient effects out of a first person narrator, a gambit the novel shares with one of my favorites, The Great Gatsby. This approach is sometimes referred to as inference; it's the narrator taking on an omniscient mode as he or she infers what might have been going on in another character's head. If it works, the reader can actually forget it's a first...

I tried, and failed, to bond with any of the characters in this story. I should have loved it: it's set in the mid-west immediately after WWII, and there's baseball! But the story fell flat. It kept bouncing around in time, from present to past to future, back to the present again, with lots of hinting and an announcement at the beginning of the story that it was told by two liars (the narrator as well as her mother, whose story it was). There was a lot of talking about the baseball team, then f...

This was a sweet and gentle and funny read about a small town in the middle of nowhere that has a mill of importance, a drowned village, a women-only baseball team to promote the cereal (and to avoid them unionising), and life in 1947 with all its vagaries. It was slow-paced but there was plenty to enjoy and I liked Irini, or at least her daughter's version of her. The starry nights sounded rather splendid too. Bonkers at times but funnier for it too.

Truly a 2.5. I struggled getting depth to many of the characters. I started this book and probably stopped for a week and totally forgot it was a story being told through the granddaughter. I figured it out at the end and even that did not make me feel better about reading it.If you are one of those readers who truly tries to finish a book in the hope that somewhere it will redeem itself, do not waste your time. I was just glad to be done.

I picked this up as an ARC at the American Library Association conference, and I'm so glad to be introduced to this author. Her first novel, Sarah Canary, had been highly acclaimed, so I'm looking forward to reading that as well.The story is a quirky look at a post-WWII small town in Minnesota. The imaginary Maggie Collins – via a popular Q&A magazine column, breakfast cereal, and radio serial – encourages a role for women that is almost impossible for the residents of Magrit to attain, as the y...

I was disappointed with this book, having enjoyed the Jane Austen Book Club. I felt this story never really got going; I was waiting for 'something' to happen, and it never did. And then the whole Thomas Holcrow thing at the end was a bit ridiculous, like the author needed to wrap up and thought 'sod it, This will do'

Dear Maggie,I have been wanting to read a book for the longest time, but the ones I have are either too brief or deep. Could you advise me on which book I could pick up? - Bored in ManilaDear Bored in Manila,It seems to me that you would be better off reading magazines as they provide readers with light topics that books could not give you. You see, the intensity of issues within a story are very relative. What may be a serious topic for me might be a shallow matter for you. Therefore, I could n...

Would have been two stars, because the writing was decent, but I read the author interview at the back of the book and the author didn't like A League of Their Own because she thought it was "safe" and didn't touch on what the league meant to women, etc. Humph. Perhaps it's unfair of me to take off a star for that, but A League of Their Own is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the characters in the movie were so much more diverse and complex and interesting than any of the characters in Th...

One major inaccuracy. Women actually did play for the Indianapolis Clowns and Kansas City Monarchs. Other than that. Oh...My...God. It's like someone spent the night with me, learned all my secrets, and then gave me a gift.

I kept expecting this to get better.

Gave up after several chapters. Could not keep the numerous characters straight and did not like how the story jumped around .

I didn't hate it, I just couldnt get into it

Not as light as this blue cover implies, by a long shot. This is a book that rewards the patient, the experienced. Lots of subtlety to put together. I first read it years ago and though I didn't fully appreciate it then, it stuck in my mind as something I knew I wanted to try again. Finally found a copy and loved it, want everyone I know to be the kind of reader who loves it, and plan to reread it yet again. Again, because it's easy to read as if it's an easy, light story. Easy to miss all the i...

At first I really enjoyed the vibe of the book, but then the lack of coherent plot started to annoy me and when finally the "big revelation" kicked in 10 pages before the end, it was a mere disaster. I liked Magrit and its cast of characters, but it needed something more to hold it together and baseball sure was not it...