Helpful Score: 2
When I read the blurb for this book I thought it was similar to my life. I worked on the East Coast and relocated to the Southwest. But that's the end of the similarity. I guess it's an okay book but why do authors think cliches and stereotypes are the way to go? You could really see the developments happening before they did. Also, why do people repeat the back-cover description instead of giving an honest review? I would like an opinion, not something that came off the back of the book. Stop the insanity! If you didn't read the book, don't write about it! Sounds fair, doesn't it?
a good "get away from it all" read
Helpful Score: 1
the simple life never looked so complicated.
New York television reporter Lucinda Trout is in search of greener pastures. Her self-imposed mission : move to the slower-paced, friendly and vastly more affordable midwestern town of Prairie City, USA. Her search includes but is not limited to : a decently sized apartment with a few aesthetic qualities; a job that is not all about pleasing her conniving, urban terror of a boss; the love a good man; and maybe a dog. And so Lucinda departs with a plan to deliver televisied reports to her New York aucience abouth the sweeping landscapes, charming farmsteads and quirky locals that will constitute her newfound quality of life.
Through a series of unexpected turns, help from quarters where she least expects it, and a growing love a landscape that is undeniably real. Lucinda comes to realize that "quality of life" is much more complicated - and ultimately richer - than she ever imagined.
This was a GREAT read.
Through a series of unexpected turns, help from quarters where she least expects it, and a growing love a landscape that is undeniably real. Lucinda comes to realize that "quality of life" is much more complicated - and ultimately richer - than she ever imagined.
This was a GREAT read.
This book was not as good as I thought it would be.
I thought this book was alright, but I didn't think there was really an arc to the plot. The story is as cliche as they come- jaded New Yorker seeks a simpler existence in a small town, but ends up with a much more complicated one. There are some funny parts to the book, but most of it consists of the main character, Lucinda Trout, moaning about the mess she's made of her life and drinking cheap wine. I just had a hard time believing that a character with so much self-awareness would act as she did. All of the other characters are so heightened, it seems very odd that the main character is the only one who thinks and speaks like a regular person. There are so many late 90's/early aughts cultural cliches in the book that it already seems utterly dated seven years after its publication date. If it had only aimed to be a vacation read and had displayed more whimsy, I would have enjoyed it, but the author's attempts to inject it with substance and depth felt forced and clumsy. Disappointing.
I couldn't put it down. Both Funny, sad, and heartwarming. A realistic story of a woman who leaves nyc to go to a small town only to realize that the grass always "seems" greener on the other side of the street.
Lucinda Trout is a New York television reporter in search of greener pastures. Moving to the slower-placed, friendly, and vastly more affordable Midwestern town of Prairie City, she zealously creates a series of televised reports for her New York audience about her newfound quality of life. But when Lucinda falls for eccentric local Mason Clay, her naivete about the real world leads her down an unexpected path where she encounters, among other things, a drafty farmhouse filled with children, an ever-growing menagerie of farm animals, and the harshest winter the region has seen in twenty years. In other words, simplicity just isn't as simple as it is cracked up to be, and the "quality of life", Lucinda learns, is much more complicated than she ever imagined.
Lucinda Trout is a new york television reporter in search of greener pastures. Moving to the slower-paced, friendly and vastly more affordable midwestern town of Prarie City, she zealously creates a series of televised reports for her New York audience about her newfound quality of life. But when Lucinda falls for eccentric local Mason Clay her naivete about the real world leads her down an unexpected path with children, an ever-growing menagerie of farm animals and the harshest winter the region has seen in twenty years. In other words, simplicity just isnt as simple as it is cracked up to be and "qality of life" Lucinda learns, is much more complicated than she ever imagined.
