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Book Reviews of Lake Wobegon Days

Lake Wobegon Days
Author: Garrison Keillor
ISBN: 187246
Publication Date: 1985
Pages: 420
Rating:
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0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Penguin
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Write a Review

35 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

sumagoo avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 25 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Loved the great stories of life in a small town.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 506 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Garrison Keillor's book that topped the bestseller lists across the country!
Filled with warmth and humor sadness, and tenderness, songs, and poems. Lake Wobegon Days is an unforgettable portrait of small town American life of why "we are what we are" and why "smart doesn't count for much".
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 88 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I love storytellers & Garrison Keillor is one of the best!
janeinthecity avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 18 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I don't know of a more totally humorous book. If you have ever enjoyed one of Garrison Keillor's monologs on the Prairie Home Companion show, you will enjoy reading this book even more. His gentle caricatures of the small town people of Lake Wobegon is so funny, I just want everyone to enjoy this book. Have yourself a good time and read it!
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 18 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Brings back memories of my youth.
readabk avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 62 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
"Garrison Keillor tells the story of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. With almost utter honesty, he chronicles the town's history, explains its traditions (including the Living Flag and the Sons of Knute Ice Melt contest), and gives the complete scoop on all the local celebrities, from Ralph of Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery to Dorothy of the Chatterbox Cafe."
SanJoseCa avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 328 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A brilliant book that celebrates the quirks of "small town America." The author has a wonderful story-telling ability and a great sense of humor!
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 275 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
"Filled with warmth and humor, sadness and tenderness, songs and poems, Lake Wobegon Days is an unforgettable portrait of small-town American life, of why 'we are what we are' and why 'smart doesn't count for much.'"
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 367 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
In a book that is destined to become an American classic, Garrison Keillor tells the story of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota (pop. 942). With almost utter honesty, he chronicles the town's history, explains its traditions (including the Living Flag and the Sons of Knute Ice Melt contest), and gives the complete scoop on all the local celebrities, from Ralph of Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery to Dorothy of the Chatterbox Cafe.

Filled with warmth and humor, sadness and tenderness, songs and poems, Lake Wobegon Days is an unforgettable portrait of small-town American life, of why "we are what we are" and why "smart doesn't count for much."
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
If you like the radio program, "A Prairie Home Companion," you'll enjoy this book.
Hophead avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 285 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Dang. Prairie Home Companion is one of my favorite radio shows and News from Lake Wobegon my favorite segment. Plus, this book was a #1 bestseller -- so it's gotta be a great book, right? Well, not so much. I'm an avid reader who finishes a new book ever couple of days, but this took me more than two weeks to read! Not because it was too long at 420 pages, but because it was ... boring!

There is no plot, no characterization, and no continuity. This is nothing more than a series of Keillor's rambling Wobegon anecdotes strung together back to back for interminable pages. After a page or two discussing one Wobegon resident, Keillor skips to someone else entirely unrelated -- over and over again.

As a child of the 1950s I was expecting this book to paint a picture of a time gone by. And it does, in a way, but the paint brush is so small that reading the book is like death by a thousand strokes. I am so glad I have finally finished it so I can move on to something else! Not recommended.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 48 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
If you like to read about old times, this is the one for you.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 7 more book reviews
Charming. A good read.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 715 more book reviews
Back cover--filled with warmth and humor, sadness and tenderness, songs and poems...unforgettable portriat of small-town American life...
DsuzieC avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 159 more book reviews
Excellent! I absolutely loved this book.
SouthernDestiny avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 156 more book reviews
In 1985, Keillor had been doing _Prairie Home Companion_ for nearly a decade and this volume was a semi-novelization of the stories he was telling about his mythical home town on the show's "News From Lake Wobegon" segment, frequently the best part of the show -- not because it was funny but because it was (and is) funny-sad, funny-sentimental, funny-bizarre, and funny-ludicrous. Another twenty years have now passed and we've come to know the characters of Lake Wobegon intimately: the locally wealthy Krebsbach family, Pastor Ingqvist and Father Emil, Herman Hochstetter and the annual Living Flag, the Sons of Knute, and the rules for visiting on front porches. But this book is where you'll found the multiethnic history of the town, how tiny Mist County was formed, and why neither of them appear on any map. Did you know the local paper, the _Herald-Star,_ got its name because it was bought by Harold Starr? Or why a Lutheran upbringing is likely to cause emigrants from Minnesota to compose their own Theses and look for a door to nail them to? (You'll find a hilarious and largely true list of ninety-five of them here.) Keillor has the gift of taking the small and ordinary, approaching them in a profoundly sympathetic yet skeptical way, and making them universal in their strength.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 34 more book reviews
Popular Prarie Home Companion's first book about the goings on in Lake Wobegon, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 11 more book reviews
Like listening to you grandpa's stories.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 25 more book reviews
This book is like reading someone's else's diary, but it is a novel.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on
Funny book. Keillor is great.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 6 more book reviews
a classic taking place in Minn. easy reading
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 4 more book reviews
If you're a Garrison Keillor fan- this is a must-read!
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on
I really liked this book. A good read
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 3 more book reviews
From the back cover: "In a book that is destined to become an American classic, Garrison Keillor tells the story of Lake Wobegon, Mn (pop. 942). With almost utter honesty, he chronicles the town's history, explains its traditions, and gives the complete scoop on all the local celebrities..." I love Garrison Keillor's writings. You will enjoy this one.
Tesstarosa avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 151 more book reviews
Yes, I've finally read Garrison Keillor's stories of Lake Wobegon. What's crazier is that it took me over six months to finish it. Mostly because I had to start reading something else, and didn't get back to this book. Worse still, I only had about 20 pages left.

If you enjoy Keillor's stories on his NPR radio program, "A Prairie Home Companion," you will enjoy reading the stories of the people living in Lake Wobegon.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 29 more book reviews
Full of fun, laughs, and various emotions! Try it, you'll like it!
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 18 more book reviews
Pure Garrison Keillor
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 597 more book reviews
This is a long version of the news from Lake Wobegon.
hubby avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 108 more book reviews
A collection of stories adapted from A Prarie Home Companion.
hubby avatar reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 108 more book reviews
A funny and engaging book about growing up in a small town in Wisconsin.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 87 more book reviews
the book that topped the bestseller lists across the country! an American classic.
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 279 more book reviews
Great book
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 33 more book reviews
From the book back:
In a book that is destined to become an American classic, Garrison Keillor tells the story to Lake Wobegon, Minnesota (pop. 942). With almost utter honesty, he chronicles the town's history, explains its traditioons (including the Living Flag and the Sons of Knute Ice Melt contest), and gives the complete scoop on all the local celebrities, from Ralph,of Ralph's Pretty Goodgrocery to Dorothy of the Chapper Box Cafe.

Filled with warmth and humor, sadness and tenderness, songs and poems,Lake Wobegon Days is an unforgettable portrait of small-town American life, of why "we are what we are" and why "smart doesn't count for much."
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on
Dust cover worn
reviewed Lake Wobegon Days on + 4 more book reviews
I never read it.