This was one of the worst books I've read in a long time. Absolutely hated the writing style; a whole LOT of telling and not showing. Then telling after showing just in case you missed it. I felt like saying to the author, "We get it! You don't have to over explain everything!" It really could have used an editor. In fact, it seemed like whoever did edit it just ran a spell check, because at times there were weird sentences that had obviously been rewritten and meant to be cut out. The character...

I bought this for the cover - the baby is so damn cute I couldn't resist. And I knew my mom would like it (for the same reason) so I figured why not.It's a really cute premise - 3 friends raising the baby but it was a bit boring. They're all in school so we pretty much had to read the syllabus for Janey's literature class. Look, I hardly read for my classes, why should I have to "sit through" a pretend class? And there really wasn't much interaction between the girls and the baby, except to say

LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. I got it from the library, but am planning on buying it to read again. I was laughing out loud within just a few pages of starting it. It was lighthearted and fun; while also dealing with serious issues of single parenthood, family, and friendships. The character development was great and I felt like I knew the characters well by the end of the book. Fantastic read.

Love this one! It made me cry! 😊

The people in this book are jerks. The narrator is a push-over, the baby mama is selfish, possibly psychotic (but don't you dare say anything bad because she's family!), and the token conservative friend seems like an afterthought.The main problem is that Frankel took an anecdote - three graduate students band together to raise a baby - and tried to turn it into a novel. There was a lot of unnecessary padding, including long tirades about how haaaaard it is to be a grad student. Lady Author, I k...

This book was quite engrossing in the beginning. I loved the relationship between the 3 main characters. They are all so different, yet they find that they balance one another out. As the story goes on, it starts to get a bit wordy. The narrator is an English Phd student and teacher, so she is CONSTANTLY talking about how what she is teaching in her class and how it relates to the drama in her life...and DRAMA there is...maybe even a little too much. Perhaps that's the point, though. Also, one o...

Laurie Frankel's debut novel, "The Atlas of Love" is a small and wonderful slice of life set in Seattle. Three best friends from graduate school - where they're both teaching and working on their PH.Ds - form a "family" when one of the women becomes pregnant and does not marry the father. Sharing mothering duties, house duties, and teaching duties, the three women - Jill, the baby's mother, and Janie and Katie - make up a house/family unit that also includes parents and grandparents of the women...

I have read three of this author’s books and this is my favorite by far. It is about friends, family and friends who become family (my favorite kind of story)! Frankel must have some amazing grandmother, because the grandmother in all three of her novels has played a major role!

Funny at times, close to home with the baby, the grad school, the teaching while in grad school with a baby, and all that. But also a bit annoying with the constant bestybestybest friend talk, and a tad unrealistic with all the best friending they do and sunday dinners they have while supposedly teaching and writing, much less raising a baby. But fun to read, and a nice pass of the time. I loved that it was set in Seattle. Good. Fine. The crisis, the center of the story, scared me to death becau...

Do graduate students really talk to each other that way? I don't remember having time to formulate intricate conversations or thoughts when I was in grad school, but I guess that's just me. Anyway, I must also be a horrible person because if a friend pulled shit on me like the shit Jill pulled on Janey, I would write them off forever because, frankly, life is too short for that kind of bullshit and assholelike behavior. And isn't that sort of the point of the book? Sometimes you need to take a l...

This was the first published novel of Laurie Frankel, and it was the weakest of the three I have read by her. However, it was still really good. When I was in my twenties, I was part of a collective that was raising two toddlers. We were a bunch of hippies who thought it would enrich the children to have so many adults with which to relate and learn. Of course, we had the unfortunate distinction of being, well, human beings with all the usual foibles, subject to such things as competition and je...

Every once in awhile I read a book compulsively. That means I read as I prepare dinner; I read when I am supposed to be working; I read in every spare moment I can find. The Atlas of Love is my latest compulsive read. I could not put this book down, and it has stayed with me since I finished it. Instead of reading something new, I only want to re-read this book.Laurie Frankel has a gift for writing. The story is wonderfully compelling. I found myself thinking about what defines a family... blood...

What makes us a family? Sharing the same mother and father? Our siblings or grandparents? What about the close family friend who, as long as you can remember, you called Uncle So and So even though he is not your mother’s brother or your father’s. And your best friend. . . is she family? She may not be your sister, but you certainly feel as though she is. In The Atlas of Love, the debut novel by Laurie Frankel, this question is pushed to its limits.No matter how we plan our lives, right down to

I loved the way this novelist interwove the stories of three grad school girlfriends who band together to become (almost) a family when one of them becomes a single mother. Thus, three Moms and a baby named Atlas. This was a quick read while traveling. Usually I leave used books behind when I am traveling (I just gave one to the gal who prepared our breakfasts in Hot Springs, AR), but I held onto this one so I could pass it along to friends. The Atlas of Love is narrated by Janey Duncan, a lit m...

I didn’t love this book, but it was a quick read and I enjoyed it fine. I guess that’s a lame review but it was an escape that didn’t require a big investment on my part.

An enjoyable read, for the most part. Starts promising, then gets a bit annoying, then gets engaging, then frustrating, then somewhat satisfying. Frankel writes chick-lit for chicks with brains. The story of what happens when three grad student friends raise a baby together feels realistic, and there are genuine funny and heartfelt moments, particularly involving the main character Janey and her family. Overall, it's a nice tome about modern families and what family really means, and only became...

I picked this up from a Borders clearance sale that Brandon and I popped into recently (all books 90% off…it was sad and exhilarating at the same time). I thought the cover looked cute and I’m never one to turn down a book that costs about $1. (Again, so sad!)Because I paid such a low price for the book and because it was one of the “leftovers” in the fiction section, I didn’t have high expectations. I just wanted to be entertained and thought it looked like a good, light read…perfect for readin...

This was one of the best books I have read in a very long time. The storyline is that three female graduate students, friends just recently, decided to move in together when one, Jill, discovers she is accidentally pregnant with her long time boyfriend's child. The boyfriend, after much discussion, departs only to return later and stir up the mix. The book raised such questions as What makes a woman a mother? Clearly giving birth is not the deciding factor. What makes a family? My mother's sayin...

3½ starsAfter reading Laurie Frankel's new novel, "This Is How it Always Is," I loved it so much that I sought out another Laurie Frankel book. "The Atlas of Love" is her first. I am not knowledgable enough about literature to analyze why I loved "This..." but struggled at times to get through "Atlas." I will say, it was worth it, this story of baby Atlas and the de facto family of birth mom, girlfriends, guy friends, relatives and others who band together to take care of him in his first year o...