Grab My Blog Button
#196 ~ Admission
Admission
Portia is a still young woman who works in the Admissions office for Princeton. After spending the first part of her career working with students on the West Coast, this is her first admissions season at home in the Northeast. Portia has a long term live-in boyfriend and an extremely distant relationship with her “crunchy-granola” feminist mother. It quickly becomes clear that her life has no direction. She isn’t moving forward in her relationship or in her career, and this may all be related to unresolved issues she has from her college years and her childhood. It isn’t until she is forced to look at her life through a chance encounter and an unnerving revelation from her boyfriend, Portia would have stayed exactly where she was. Now that she’s forced to come to terms with the past and the present, she needs to decide what is most important to her.
I was very excited to read this book after listening to the author’s Blog Talk Radio interview and because I was reading it along with Laura from I’m Booking It. We used Twitter to hold a mini book club meeting. I wish it had been a better novel. I stopped really caring if things worked out alright for Portia at just over half way mark. It was a long novel and Portia’s continual analysis of the minutia of her life drove me crazy. I skimmed the rest of the book. I would have stopped reading it if it weren’t for the discussion with Laura. It was a “meh” read for her as well, but for different reasons. Laura wanted more about the admissions process while I wanted out of Portia’s head and into her life. Laura was much quicker on the draw than I was to write her review. It says it better than I can. The first sentence of Laura’s review says it all:
My biggest problem with this novel is that I kept wishing it was a different book.
+++++
Thank you to Miriam at Hatchette Book Group for sending me a copy for review and to Laura and everyone else who entered my contest.
*****
If you would like to buy this novel, click here
September 5, 2009 | Filed Under book review, female author, fiction
Comments
6 Responses to “#196 ~ Admission”
-
Kathy
Posted: Sep 5th, 2009 at 10:12 pm1Reply to this comment.I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this book. I thought the beginning was slow, but then I ended up getting into it.
-
Sandy
Posted: Sep 5th, 2009 at 10:15 pm2Reply to this comment.Oooh, that’s not good. I’ve a few of those lately…I just want them finished. Sounds like Portia just needs to pull up her skirts and kick off her shoes and get on with it! Too much life analysis will drive anyone nuts!
-
Amy Reads Good Books
Posted: Sep 6th, 2009 at 9:46 am3Reply to this comment.Good review! I remember mostly liking the book when I read it, but I couldn’t tell you much about it now. . .
-
Dawn - She is Too Fond of Books
Posted: Sep 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm4Reply to this comment.I haven’t yet read this, but it looked interesting to me. I thought it might take a fun look at (perhaps exaggerated or dramatized) the admission process at the Ivies. Was there any of that in there?
-
Melody
Posted: Sep 6th, 2009 at 8:39 pm5Reply to this comment.I’ve seen this book around and I was intrigued by it. Now it seems like it will take me some time before picking up this book.
-
Florinda
Posted: Sep 6th, 2009 at 11:43 pm6Reply to this comment.I read this a few weeks ago (it was the first book I read on my Kindle), and I really enjoyed it. However, I get both your and Laura’s issues with it; the novel does have a bit of a split personality.
Got something to say?
Book Blogger Con
Have you heard about the 1st Annual Book Blogger Convention that will be held in NYC during the BEA? You should check it out. I know it will be a fantastic experience. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend due to family obligations, but I'll be trolling blogs for up to the minute news.
WE Magazine’s A Woman Blogger to Watch
Literate Challenges
What's in a Name? 3
Random Reading Challenge
