The Pull of the Moon

If you enjoy plotless meandering books, this one is for you. I’m not keen on them. This story is about a woman in a mid-life crisis, running away on a road trip to malls, diners, motels, trailer parks, main street front porches, K-Mart and coupon shoppers, etc., etc., and the people she encounters there in order to escape her family and her husband. Okay, she’s searching for herself at 50 years old (a little late for coming of age) but the self-indulgent, me, me, me became quite redundant and weary by middle of the book. I will say that Berg wrote with some sensitive insights along the way and Nan made some jazzy remarks about life and the meaningful/meaningless variety of everyday trials. At the end I said, okay, so what. I don’t know, this book was like a stroll in the park, pretty language and descriptions, some views that strike a note, but way too tedious with the small things over and over again. Not for me. As a writer, editor, reader, I need really good storytelling. This one didn’t do it. I will try Berg’s other books though.

I have purchased and recommended this book countless times and I must say The Pull of the Moon: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle)it resonated to the point I was reading and weeping. Of course, Nan's situation is that she is blessed financially, and she doesn't always "Get it." One clarifying scene which illuminates this is when she suggests a woman in a trailer park continue the journey with her. But what some reviewers don't pick up on is that Nan is trying to get it. She is taking a journey which will determine where she will go and who she will be, once she returns home. The further she goes, the closer she gets to discovering what she needs.
Nan's letter and diary are about learning her present topography. I found this book to be both deeply personal and universal. Perhaps because I am the same age, I get Nan. Several people have told me they could see me doing the things Nan does. I do some of the things Nan does.
The most wonderful thing about it was my husband read it. He has rarely seen me cry. He read the book and we stayed up all night, holding hands and talking. The strange thing is, although I never made a threat, we never had even the briefest discussion about a marriage counselor and we love and understand each other, when this book came along he confessed he had been worried sick for months that I would pull a Nan. If I had her money, and I did once, its very possible.
There are people who take time to look at a stranger's photos of their dogs, there are people who have long and deep conversations with people they will never see again, who are constantly approaching or being approached by people who can tell from your face you will help them, give them a ride, hold them, trust. My mother was such a person as am I. My daughter recently cried because she is not.
Get it on your Kindle, buy it as a traditional book but if you've ever lost your way, felt resentment at your husband because he doesn't turn to look at what you find beautiful, jingles the change in his pockets impatiently when you are trying to connect with him, this might just be better than a marriage counselor.

Epistolary/journal novel about a 50-year-old woman in the midst of a change-of-life crisis, her one daughter away at college and her husband, whom she really does love, having rather gone to sleep too. Nan impulsively buys a purple tooled-leather journal and runs away from home for a couple of weeks, sending daily letters back home to her husband and writing in the journal. Nan, like most of us, sees herself as the beleaguered heroine in her life drama, but as a reader, I could still ruefully identify with the self-indulgence and privilege. As in real life, the protagonist Nan doesn't get off all the good lines, and when she tells off a haircutter, he ends up getting the best of her -- but everyone wins. This is a fine novel for journal writers, people who need a little solitude, for someone on a road trip, and for women who want to find and appreciate the good they have in life.

An the store.com reader directed me to Berg's short story "Martin's Letter to Nan" from her story collection "Ordinary Life." While Nan is away, Martin does a little soul searching on his own, and Nan may be surprised to find out that what Martin wants is a room where he can smoke his cigars in the house. His "voice" is not that differentiated from Nan's, but it's fun to find out how the author imagined the long-suffering husband might react.

with her ability to write about characters from all walks of life with truth and compassion. In The Pull of the Moon, she has written of Nan, a woman of 50 who is having a mid-life crisis. Her body is changing in the way that makes all women realize that they are no longer young and many choices are behind them. It is a time when regrets and realizations take over. Nan, with no one to talk to, takes to the road. She encounters many people she would never have encountered at home. There is the waiter who collects angels, the young housewife being abused by her husband, and the woman in her 80's who knows exactly what Nan is going through and impresses upon Nan that all women are different and face it differently. It is this compassion for other people that makes The Pull of the Moon worthy of being read.

Fans of Berg's will delight in the appearance of Ethan from Until the Real Thing Comes Along. Nan is observant and kind enough to understand his dilemma.

While some may consider Nan's passage as selfish, I think the book proves that it is the opposite. Only when a person comes to terms with herself can she be the spouse, the mother, or friend to others.

Again with my love/hate relationship for Berg's books. I've read every book of her and hate half, and love the other half. There are maybe two that fall in between.

Pull of the moon I loved. It's not for everyone. There is no super deep story going anywhere in this one, but is just the letters from a woman who's temporarily checked out on her husband. It's all the random thoughts and wishes and dreams she has that she can't and does not say out loud to him.
I love it. I love this kind of stuff though. I love the random thoughts of this woman that I can completely relate to, and her desires to dig deeper into herself and into the person she has been with forever. Her entire journey is her coming back to him, as he waits for her patiently as she remembers why she loves him and decides she's not looking for a life away from him, but one that is more completely about him and her.
I think this book is better than Range of Motion which is it's closest counterpart in all of Berg's novels.

This book was recommended by a couple of ladies in my online reading group. I am not 50, but I am at the age (41) where I am questioning what am I going to do now? They praised this book so I bought it and immediately started reading it.
I now know why they loved this book. Elizabeth Berg simply takes your feelings and puts them into the words you simply couldn't express. No, not all of us have the same fears as the main character in this book, Nan, but we have our fears about growing old as women in this society. Older women in this society are not revered or cherished.
Nan, embarks on a journey basically to find out just who the heck she is after being wife and mother for over 25 years. She wants to drive, travel and take in the beauty of the countryside. Talk to plain, normal folk. Shell peas, meet strangers, sleep in the woods alone, deal her past, enjoy her present and make plans for her future. The book is in the form of letters to her husband and entries in her journal. Great reading for any woman of any age.

There have been several times while reading a book that I identified with a character but none quite so much as Nan from Elizabeth Berg's insightful novel The Pull of the the Moon. As I read this book I couldn't help but marvel at how well the author knew me, my thoughts and feelings eventhough we've never even met. And I imagine that I'm not alone what I say that there were many other readers who felt the same way I did.
Nan is turning 50 and her life hasn't turned out quite the way she expected. Now her only child, a daughter, is about to leave for college and she wonders where her life is headed. Unexpectedly Nan decides to take a trip which turns out to be a journey of discovery and self-renewal. Leaving a note for her husband and daughter, some clothes and a leather bound journal to record her thoughts, Nan takes to the road in her car not completely sure where shes headed to. And what she finds out about herself will have readers thinking, "I feel this way, " or "This is me," or "What will my life be like in the future."
As for last lines, this book provides some of the most memorable ones I can remember in some time. But I won't give the lines away here, instead read the book and let me know if you agree.

I finished reading "The Pull of the Moon" in only a few hours. It's not a very long book, nothing much happens, but I couldn't put it down. The story is about 50-year-old Nan, who begins to question her life and simply drives off one day. She has no destination in mind, drives where she pleases and stops whenever it suits her. She is not really "running away" or looking for a new life -- she knows she'll go back home, but she needs time away. The novel is a series of letters that Nan writes to her husband and of journal entries that she makes in her brand-new diary.
One of Berg's strong points as a writer is that she seems to know exactly what women are thinking, feeling, and how they talk. Whenever I read an Elizabeth Berg novel I always get the feeling that it's autobiographical -- that she's letting me share her innermost thoughts and experiences. This is silly, of course, but it always gives her books a truthful feeling that is rare to run across.

Just about every female author of a certain age (it's ok to say that--I'm a female reader of a certain age) have felt compelled to write the "oh my goodness I've been a trapped wife all my life" tale of self-pity and woe. This has been going on since the Seventies. Some of the books, like Anne Tyler's "Ladder of Years," are better than others. "The Pull of the Moon" belongs at the very bottom of the heap.
Nan is 50. She's having a mid-life crisis. So she runs away to "find herself" (ACK!), which means taking her very healthy credit cards and leaving her cushy suburban life. Along the way, as she "discovers life" on the road, she narrates her self-discoveries to her husband, Martin, in a series of increasingly cloying letters. About halfway through the book, the mere words "Dear Martin" had me in a frenzy of anticipated boredom. My sympathies were with Martin through and through.
So, you are wondering, what's so terrible? Maybe it's a cliched plot, but so what? Well Nan's little "adventures" are so unbelievable as to be beyond laughable. She storms into a strange beauty parlor and demands to have her long, beautiful hair stripped of color back to its original grey. She strikes up truly bizarre (in my opinion) conversations with every weirdo she can find. She knocks on strangers' doors and gets invited in to tea (yeah, right). She meets a young man who has lost his young wife, and, although they are complete strangers, he sobs in her arms and asks to brush her hair (I won't even mention what happens in between). She takes her sleeping bag into the woods, strips naked, and then decides to lie spread-eagled in the dirt to "experience the earth." Luckily for Nan, the stalkers, rapists and other nice people of the evening weren't interested that night.
Along the way, rarely, there are some pithy comments about motherhood, wifehood, and growing older. But they were buried in this ridiculous plot. By the end, I was talking back to the book. Nan, we knew ye all too well. Yuck!

Wow - what can I say? This novel resonated very strongly within me. Nan is living out the midlife journey I fantasize about, as I am at a similar place where I feel I've lost the essence of who I am over years of routine living. So many of the thoughts she so eloquently expresses in her letters and journal entries reflect my feelings. It was uncanny.

I love the way Elizabeth Berg writes, with such vivid descriptions of nuances that we often overlook as we pass through our everyday lives. Her appealing and lyrical style is one I aspire to write in.

I read Elizabeth Berg's A Year of Pleasures a few weeks ago, and found the theme to be remarkably similar to this story, yet told in unique ways through different characters.

I normally like Elizabeth Berg's novels, but this one really aggravated me. With millions of people struggling to make ends meet, we get to read all about a woman who is wealthy but unhappy, so she takes a road trip to find herself. She spends money without a thought and she leaves her family behind. I don't like this character. She's a whiny, spoiled woman and who wants to read about someone like this?

Nan is going through "The Change of Life" and being 33, I didn't have the schema for what that was like. So, I felt a little dumb in how Nan felt in that area. However, sometimes I have wanted to "pick up, leave for awhile, and get my thoughts straight" just like Nan did. So I really connected with the main character there.
I liked this story because I could connect with it in a truly personal way. Both Elizabeth Berg and her character made me think about my life and how wonderful it is. When a book makes me reflect, it is a keeper. And the ending is happy, because it celebrates how strong and remarkable women really are.

(Apologies up front; my scattershot review will stand in stark contrast to Ms Berg's casual cogency.)

-I'm always more fascinated by the background of a situation than the actual event itself. So; why someone commits the crime rather than the dastardly deed. Or, the Comments section rather than the article the posters are responding to...or the product being discussed. I was not disappointed when I took a look around here, for 'The Pull of the Moon'. Good Lord! There are some incredibly bitchy, dissatisfied, ornery, mean-spirited people out there. (Enough for a novel in itself, especially one dealing with the notion that it's virtually impossible to have a strong reaction evoked within us by someone or something without there being something we're identifying in ourselves (on a subconscious level) that brings on this stridency.)

-Recently, I wrote an essay entitled 'The Laws of Film Attraction'. In a nutshell, it addresses why 'genre' flicks can garner accolades from lovers of that genre that seem to be unwarranted to the casual observer...or conversely, why some reviewers simply shouldn't review some products: they're inordinately biased against particular genres. Though I went into a lot more detail, the essay suggested this: that if you're inclined towards a genre, your review might be as much as 2.5/10 higher than if you weren't. And of course, if you can't stand a genre, then the same might apply...to the negative. The gamut the review scores run here is proof of my theory...especially if you take a look at the comments. Those who loved 'Moon' were already on-board. Those who hated it...weren't. (But you know, the same can be said for just about any element of Life. From entertainment to politics to sports to health...to the kind of transportation you prefer. Sometimes our biases are so profound that it's actually quite silly proffering an opinion at all.)

-Ms Berg's book isn't really a 'novel'. It's a hybrid 'memoir/letters to a spouse' affair. It's a meditation on aging...on identity...on regret...on Love.

-I've offered up 'Moon' to a friend who's endeavouring to become a more adept writer. Not because the book is some shining example of superb literature. It's not. (Because it's not a 'novel', and hardly even a 'story'; beyond what I suggested above, it's a series of snapshots lovingly taken.) What it *is*, is a simply-crafted, unpretentious effort that is marvellously illuminating...dispensing 'wisdom', if you will...while somehow managing to retain its humility as it unfolds. There's a wonderful mix of hard-earned knowledge and stuff she's straining to grasp and stuff she admits is beyond her for the moment...but she holds out hope she'll be able to embrace eventually.

-I'm a male. About the same age as the narrator. My emotional, psychic and social sensibilities run to the 'female' end of the scale; I consistently score more as a 'gal' than I do as a 'guy' in psychological tests. This novel reinforced long-held beliefs about my wiring; I haven't had Nan's experiences, I never will, but almost everything she wrote rang true for me. I laughed when she said something funny, I cried when she related something sad...and I got angry at some of the standard 'life in a patriarchy' references. (Because they're *true*, not because she was off on a tangent and needed to get a clue, the way some of the naysaying-reviewers would have you believe. Idjits.)

-There's an 'incomplete' element to the tale. It's not a perfectly-concluded tale of a perfectly-executed Hollywood road-trip-providing-transformation premise. I have no idea why Ms Berg took this tack. Not that I'm complaining. The Virgo-rising in me might have preferred something with more of a resolution...and yet... And yet there's something apropos about how this not-a-350 page novel tastes. Yes, there's so much more that could have been explored. Yes, it might have been nice to have seen Nan's husband's side of things. But as anal-retentive as I can be, I was charmed by the fact that loose ends were not tied up at the conclusion, that this adventure is not thorough, that it's not fashioned as a conventional novel constructed within the same premise might be. That I'm a writer, that this isn't the way I would have written this effort and yet I still came away affected and enriched...speaks volumes.

-People might disagree with Nan's behaviour. They may disagree with how she sees her life, her marriage, the world. But I can't imagine this book not having value to just about any open-minded reader wanting some confirmation of their own experiences, wanting to understand their spouse's, their mother's, their sister's, their aunt's. It might not be 'War and Peace', but in its own way, it deserves to be read. The world needs the kind of insight Ms Berg provides in 'The Pull of the Moon'; as much as it might enrage and dumbfound, it's bound to satisfy, comfort...and embolden.

Personal rating: 8/10

Have you ever had the fleeting notion that you are unique? That there couldn't be another woman with your experience, your emotions, your response to life? Elizabeth Berg lets us in on the life of a recently-turned half-century woman in this warm-hearted, poignant diary, and suddenly we realize what we all share. It's as if finally, someone understands the pining and the losses, and lets us see the road ahead with awe and wonder. A beautiful expression of our coming of age and the journey that precedes the deep, peaceful embrace of the second half of our lives. I loved it!

If you have ever been lost especially lost within yourself, you can't afford not to read this book! Elizabeth Berg gives us a story of a woman who is lost and runs away from home to find herself. The Pull of the Moon is a well-written story that is impossible to put down.
I have never read anything quite like it, and would be insulting this book's integrity if I compared it to any other book I have read. I loved everything about this book from the way it was written to the way it moved me. Words simply cannot express how wonderful this book is.
My suggestion, Buy it! Find a nice quiet place and prepare yourself to experience a range of emotions and inspiration, and fall in love with this book and its values like so many others have.

If you have ever been lost especially lost within yourself, you can't afford not to read this book! Elizabeth Berg gives us a story of a woman who is lost and runs away from home to find herself. The Pull of the Moon is a well-written story that is impossible to put down.
I have never read anything quite like it, and would be insulting this book's integrity if I compared it to any other book I have read. I loved everything about this book from the way it was written to the way it moved me. Words simply cannot express how wonderful this book is.
My suggestion, Buy it! Find a nice quiet place and prepare yourself to experience a range of emotions and inspiration, and fall in love with this book and its values like so many others have.

Meditating upon "the time of losses", the author createsyet another tale of the runaway wife in midlife seekingto keep her dobber up by hitting the road and gunning the gas pedal. Unhappily, she drives in circles with banal talk of angels, perfect cheeseburgers, mosquito bites and her fear of the dark--all set down in a turquoise journal and in sudsy letters home to "Dear Martin", her abandoned husband. One devoutly hopes he thinks to change the locks before her inevitable return. A walk in the woods with HDT might have increased her mileage and saved us all gas.

It was excellent. If your are approaching 50 a very good read. I remember my own approaching 50 I did a similar thing. This book does not have a plot because it is one woman's experience of life and change and done very well. Our society is removed from the spirituality of women. We don't live close to our elders so we are in a boat on the sea without oars. Our bodies go through several changes during our life we do not have ceremony for them. So we struggle to understand what the changes mean for us and how to come to terms with them.
The pull of he moon is an awakening and a guide for us.

oh and this is Mike's wife the account is in his name.

I really enjoyed her journey and reflections. I think her desire to run away to find herself was so authentic and healthy - even if some consider it to be selflish. She wandered - but not aimlessly - as she came to terms with her marriage, her sexuality and her identity. It took courage and determination to face the dark places in her soul and she emerged as a whole and vibrant woman who I'd like to meet and share with.

There is no question that Elizabeth Berg is one of the finest talents in mainstream fiction today. Her writing is unfailingly easy to read, graceful, flowing, and forthright. In those terms, this book is no exception. The main character, however, is disappointing at best. Being a woman in my late forties, I understand and experience some of the issues that this character experiences at the change of life, and Berg's descriptions of those thoughts and emotions are flawless. But the character herself is selfish and rather sanctimonious in my view.

First, she leaves home to "find herself" without even having the decency to tell her husband to his face. She leaves him a note. This is somehow portrayed as being brave, yet, what would we say about a man who does the very same thing?

Second, she is obviously a woman of means (having been very comfortably supported all her adult life by the man she left behind) and has absolutely no financial concerns as she takes this trek of "self discovery." I could never get over the fact that she just seemed like a spoiled brat high school girl tooling around after curfew in her new BMW convertible from Daddy. Most women who might like to escape and find themselves would not have this tremendous, seemingly unlimited financial ability to do so (at least, not without having to find a job at some point in the journey. She has obviously lived a pampered life and if she were to really discover that maybe others have not been so fortunate, that might have been a redeeming grace, but she never does quite connect with the stark reality of others.

Third, she behaves as though she has been put upon by her insensitive husband for all these years, when all I got from the reading was that he was an ordinary man living his life and supporting his family. She does finally come home, but I wonder why her husband should be happy about it. She says she has learned something from her journeys, but I don't see this character maturing at all. She plays at growing up. She plays at exploring herself, never really getting at the meat of who she is or what SHE might need to change.

I have always gotten so much from Elizabeth Berg's other novels, from her characters who have been so real and gritty. But this character is a poser, a dabbler in self-discovery, womens' rights, and growing up. She succeeds at none of these things.

This was well written and had a few nice moments, but overall was a little silly. I would have loved to see the scene in which Nan finally returns home - to an empty house, the door locks changed, and Martin, elsewhere, breathing a big sigh of relief that his whacky wife has finally left him.

Always trying to grab a decent book before jumping on an airplane to the next trip, I was graced to grab this book from the shelves. Elizabeth Berg's book made my hectic world stop for 3 hours and I entered into her and Nan's world without looking back.
Although only 33 myself, I identified with Nan's desire to leave behind her life and find out who she is. This book spoke to me softly and in a way a book hasn't in a long time. I heard Nan and I understood her need to find herself among the routine of her life. Sometimes you have to walk away from your routine to find yourself. I enjoyed Nan's journey and I'm glad she took me with her.
Although sometimes a little too simplistic, I never felt while I was reading that I was being "suckered" into feeling for Nan. My emotions and responses that came forth as I read the book were genuine and didn't feel forced or coerced by manipulative writing. Nan's journey seemed genuine and therefore I felt genuine in relating to her magical journey.
Would this same story happen if I took off from home right now? I don't know, but in many ways, I feel like a part of me went on that journey of self discovery with her.

A married woman at 50 leaves her husband and travels with no particular agenda across the country. As she travels, she writes letters home to her husband revealing her thoughts and assuring him she is exploring herself not leaving him.

I have not met a woman from a traditional background (married homemaker) that would think and act so independently without some incredible tragic impetus. But I liked the idea and hope it will encourage women to do it.

Required accessories for reading this book: a box of kleenex and an entire day to yourself. I laughed - I cried - I couldn't put it down.What Nan went through was so similar to my own experiences that it is as if Elizabeth has looked into my life and written about me. Unfortunately I'm not rich like Nan, but I've always wanted to take a journey of discovery.Many women will recognize themselves in this book - a universal experience

The negative reviews by the critics must be by women who have not reached the age of 50 yet. Berg put in words so many of the feelings and thoughts I have been having since I left my 40's.
Each new chapter bought with it tears and joy of recognition and aha moments.
She has now become my favorite author beating out She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb which has been my standing favorite for years.
I would like to thank the author for making me feel less alone on my journey.
I will re-read the book each year I'm sure and buy copies for the all the women in my life.

50 year old Nan temporarily leaves her husband to begin to travel around the US in search of herself. Through diary entries and letters back home she exposes herself to her husband, voicing her fears and disappointments in a way that she can't be ignored.
Elizabeth Berg masterly builds Nan into someone that we can understand, can empathise and smile with, looking for answers that we may need to look for in our own life.

This novel is not without merits in its insight into the thoughts of a woman as she confronts her aging, her past and her future. However, Berg alternates between entries into a journal the narrator begins keeping and letters the narrator is writing to her husband and, in so doing, overwhelms the reader with the narrator's internal monologue. The narrator became tiresome, neurotic and whining as the book and her trip wound on.

Finding a book that not only entertains but speaks to you in your own tone is difficult to come by. It's rare to find a book that searches a woman's soul and delivers it with such simplicity. Berg has masterfully written a novel that explores the life of women... the mundane, the joys and the realization of what life really holds. Berg's writing style is personal, intimate and a pleasure to read. Loved it!

Finding a book that not only entertains but speaks to you in your own tone is difficult to come by. It's rare to find a book that searches a woman's soul and delivers it with such simplicity. Berg has masterfully written a novel that explores the life of women... the mundane, the joys and the realization of what life really holds. Berg's writing style is personal, intimate and a pleasure to read. Loved it!

A common sense approach to getting away from marital problems, sifting through what is wrong with one's life, having the courage to change things to make it right for yourself, and at the same time not trashing your partner, still loving him/her...even moreso once you start feeling better about yourself and asking firmly for what you need to be more content. Not happy, perhaps. But content. Time away is smart.

I always enjoy Elizabeth Berg's writing, but Nan is a spoiled, pampered darling. I'm the author of a book that inspires mothers (NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL), so I'm definitely for women asking for and getting what they want. I'm also aware that women tend to "disappear" as we age, so I can fully relate to many of Nan's concerns. It's just that her tale is so unlikely and her resources so unlimited and her "real" life so cushy that it's hard to accept her as a real person with a real problem.

I loved the main character Nan! What a marvelous gift Elizabeth Berg has given by writing this treasure chest filled with womens issues, identities, etc.. She gave a voice to the things you look back on in life that women as a group typically give away....their power. They give it to society, other people, their families, etc.. This was poetically written.

I loved this book. It was very sensitive, perceptive, almost poetic and all about life. This woman sees things that we take for granted every day and is grateful for these little (and not so little) things. Highly recomended and very readable. I will now go on to some of her other books and hope they come as close as this one to being memorable.

I loved this book, and I recommended to several people.

It's funny, easy to read, entertaining, and interesting. I don't think all age groups would enjoy it. I would say someone over 30 yrs old, who has experienced marriage would enjoy it.

I can't wait to read another one of her books.

The Pull of the Moon is so beautiful; so grounded and yet poetic. I love Berg, think she is simply brilliant. Moon was given to me as a gift recently, and after reading it I read all of her other books. The woman is simply amazing. If you've never read her, you should.

A friend recommended I read a book by Elizabeth Berg although she warned me her work is primarily targeted at women. I picked this book out of the pack and I really enjoyed it. Liz Berg's writing seems so effortless; it doesn't feel like your working at reading. Time just evaporates.
In the book I found the letters that Nan wrote to her husband to be revealing and emotionally honest. Most husbands who read this book will wonder, like I did, whether their wives are thinking the same things that Nan did. Even though it's a quick easy read, it really makes you think about aging, what's really important, and who we really are inside. I recommend it!

ELIZABETH BERG IS A FANTASTIC CREATIVE WRITER. MY DAUGHTER INTRODUCED ME TO THIS NOVEL BACK WHEN I WAS EARLY IN MY 50'S AND I LOVED IT. I CAN SAY THE SAME FOR HER OTHER NOVELS WHICH I HAVE READ. HAD TRIED TO SHARE MY COPY WITH THE WOMEN AT CURVES BUT NEVER GOT IT BACK, SO I MADE SURE TO GET ANOTHER SO I CAN REREAD IT AT MY PLEASURE.