Customer Reviews
Oaky but........... - By: Carol Cunningham, 20 Aug 2008 
The idea of basing a book round a monthly reading group was certainly a good one, & I looked forward to the characters' comments on the various booked reviewed. I wasn't prepared for the spoilers however, so be warned if you are intending reading any of the books on their list. On saying that, the actual book discussions were very short & the lives & loves of the female characters took precedence. I found the ladies to be extremely irritating most of the time, spoilt, men-haters. The two principals, Polly & Harriet, I found I could scream at, with their attitude to the partners in their lives, & the endings to their stories were very glib & predictable.
In the main though, the book was very readable, chic lit, switch off your brain stuff.
A really good read - By: Anon, 17 May 2008 
Unlike many other reviewers here, I reallly enjoyed this book....I didnt for one moment expect them to have heavy in depth discussions about the book choice each month....the whole point of the book was that the story was based around the reading club females themselves....NOT the book choices. The books simply gave them a few paralllels to relate to what was happening in their individual lives.
As for the reviewer who thought the care home comments were inaccurate....they obviously havent been to many homes if they thought that.
As for the men being marginalised in the storyline....I had no problem with that at alll, I thought they fitted where they needed to, but the whole point of the novel, to me, was the story of the women...
the only character I didnt enjoy was the spoilt daughter .....so many other lives were messed up just to accommodate her....not a good solution.
A nice read - By: Suze, 26 Mar 2008 
I'm one of the ones who liked this book. I couldn't put it down & read well into the early hours of the morning to finish it. I laughed & cried with the characters. It was a nice, easy read & I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Good idea but overlong and uninspiring - By: R. Dyson, 01 Oct 2007 
I toyed with giving this book 3 stars as in some ways it's a good, light, girlie read. However, at the end I was left disappointed that I'd read nearly 500 pages & was none the wiser about anything.
The premise of the story which is built around a book club is interesting but was never reallly much more than a means of unifying some fairly one-dimensional, stereotypical characters. Like other reviewers, I felt this was a missed opportunity as the books the group reads are never fully explored & only serve as a trite backdrop to the characters' lives. This is a shame as some of these novels look interesting - I'll definitely be reading some of them before I rush out for the next Elizabeth Noble.
reviewzbks bookclub review....The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble - By: reviewzbks bookclub, 27 Jun 2007 With the title in mind, I would have expected this book to be more about books & reading, but instead it was about the lives of middle class, moaning women. The book discussions put this book up to 3 stars, but apart from the interesting book group meetings, & some glittering sarcasm, this book fails to hold much interest.
