eBook Minding Frankie (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic) download

At some point, I will accept that there were Maeve Binchy books that I loved and stop trying to find more Maeve Binchy books to love, because this is a goal I am never going to achieve.

MINDING FRANKIE is one of Binchy's later books, and I truly believe after the success of books like Circle of Friends and the Oprah selection Tara Road (which I was also not a fan of), she got stuck in the rut of "how do I keep writing the same thing over again so people will keep buying my books?"

If you had told me MINDING FRANKIE was a Binchy parody, I'd have believed you.

For starters, there is a huge cast of characters. Huge. There had to be at least 11,000 characters and I don't even think I'm exaggerating. I lost track of them all. There's Noel, who's apparently an alcoholic. And he gets a call from this girl he shagged while drunk who claims he got her pregnant. And then she, in some bizarro fashion, is going to die when she has the baby.

I can't even make this up. Binchy surely had access to Wikipedia to look up things like "dramatic cancer-related death of woman during c-section" and then... didn't.

So Noel has to dry out and take care of this baby and he does so with this pathetic bunch of people who are all inexplicably saved by this American cousin of his who was fired from her teaching position in the States (because Binchy also doesn't understand things like "tenure") and comes to Ireland to learn more about her family.

And there are other factors like Noel's parents having this huge fund drive to build a statue for some rando saint and his roommate, who left her job to do things for this guy who does everything but hand her a copy of He's Just Not That Into You to convey his feelings, and his social worker has so much time on her hands she drops in on EVERYONE in this village in her Wicked Witch of the West routine to Separate Noel From His Child.

Not to mention that everyone both dresses and acts like it's still the 1950s (when many of Binchy's earlier books took place) and this book is confusing as all hell.

I watched soap operas for years, and there was less drama when Reba Shane was cloned on Guiding Light than there is in this 400-page book.

The thing is, Binchy always makes you care at least about ONE character, and I kept going because a) I paid for the book and b) I needed to make sure Noel ended up okay with his kid. But the rest? I need to remind myself to NOT BUY ANY MORE OF HER BOOKS and satisfy myself with the two I loved.

This review appeared previously on Goodreads.

I have typically read a Maeve Binchy novel every spring since Light A Penny Candle was first released in the United States in April 1983. For some reason, I missed this one this last spring, but finally found it in my TBR stack and read it last week. It is, as all Binchy's books are, a poignant, stylistic portrait of a community of families and friends at their best--all pitching in to help struggling, recovering alcoholic Noel Lynch to take care of baby Frankie, whose mother dies of cancer-related complications during childbirth.

This one, like all of her books, was touchingly sweet, true-to-live, and quite beautifully written. It literally brought me to flowing tears, especially when, as I was doing research for my Literary Blog, learned that Maeve passed away in July of this year.

She will be missed in the largery literary community, but her voice will live on in the legacy of her finely written novels. This one is no exception and is a prime example of how she can create characters so true to life that you think you are reading the intimate daily-life details of your own neighbors, family, and friends.

This review was written by June J. McInerney, the author of "The Basset Chronicles" who blogs about books--how they affect us, how they shape our lives

Minding Frankie is the sort of book that reminds me of why I fell in love with reading to begin with. This book is just so alive with feeling, drama, humor, community, romance and even food and a real villian who's not a vampire or serial killer. So refreshing! There is no formula writing in this novel. All the people in the book feel real and their feelings for each other and their personalities are sheer delight (even though I wanted to shake Lisa and tell her to snap out of it). Minding Frankie is just full of great characters and this brings a lot of energy to the book.

I found myself cheering Noel and Frankie on, while hoping a building would fall on Moira and squash her. I loved hating Moira and even feeling a little sorry for her too. I loved Emily and how she rallied everyone to become their better selves. This I feel is so true to life--that it sometimes takes an outsider to bring people together and open them to new ways of thinking and being. I was happy she found a love interest of her own. It's wonderful to have characters bring out these feelings in a reader.

I will definitely be buying copies of this book to give as gifts for friends and family members. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially those who are a bit weary of all the formula women's novels being written these days. This book is old-fashioned fiction written at its best. It's the perfect book to pack for a vacation or for anytime you're in the mood for a great read that will make you teary, make you smile and make you glad you choose this book.

There's a very good chance that Minding Frankie will be my favorite read of 2011!