Babyville

A Novel

By: Jane Green

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

The amusing little inborn device known as the biological clock tolls for three women; two of them heed its compelling tones, while the third tries to ignore them.

Fixated with fertility rituals and medical advice, Julia is determined to conceive with her uninterested boyfriend; she hopes that the arrival of new life will save their relationship. Samantha, happily married and eager for the perfect family, finds that her new baby brings nothing but exhaustion, frustration, and discord; will an affair help? Maeve is a brassy career girl with a no-holds-barred night life; an unexpected pregnancy leads her to equally unexpected conclusions.

In this funny and joyful book, the question of maternity leads each of these three women to enlightenment and her own happy ending.

©2003 Jane Green (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Captivating

A captivating story with very well-developed characters for a book of this genre. Excellent narration. Truly enjoyable.

Slow start, but great read!

This book was hard for me to get into as everything started out negatively for the characters. But the story picked up a few chapters in and what a great story unfolded! Wouldn't recommend this for anyone having difficulty conceiving though - there is a LOT of baby talk!

A great book

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator had a nice accent and the story was very entertaining.

Old School Jane Green

After reading most of Jane Green's books I have noticed a distinct difference between her older book and her newer ones. I can't put my finger on it to describe it. I suppose her writing has simply matured. I enjoyed this book, the story line was good, the performance good too. If you like her other books you will like this one too.

Unvarnished Truth

I want a baby. I don't want a baby. The daisy-chain question rollicks through this book that sets aside the invented perfect worlds of Mommy Clubs and Facebook pages. Julia and Mark, trying for a baby but do they really want one? Belle, satisfied with single forever. Sam, beautiful and gorgeous, already pregnant. Mave, single, career girl. Baby? No, thank you very much.

But life interrupts all their lives. Things change as do attitudes and situations. Those can be reasonably expected in any book building tension. But what the reader may be unprepared for is the unvarnished truth about what happens when baby arrives. Yes, the baby cries. And cries. And cries some more. The baby weight the mother may carry affects confidence and self-esteem. The postpartum depression. Lives turned upside down. Was there life before baby? Will there be life again? Will there at least be sleep? These questions are handled well, and with humor. But not ignored. The primary comment to myself as I listened to this well written novel was, "Thank goodness someone is writing the truth about the adjustments." It was refreshing to listen to the transition from childless to "with kids," that was edgy and honest.

It was not a sad book. No one was near suicide. But personal growth through all the changes was evident in every character, as was compassion and understanding. The characters were likable. Except for maybe Dan and Jill, but those characters served as vehicles to move the plot along and were necessary, although minor.

I did experience some impatience as Green moves the reader from one character's story to the other. The reader goes very long periods of time reading about one character before moving to the next, or getting back to a previous one. A few times I wondered if she simply dropped a story line. In fact, she did drop one completely. The reader must assume the life of the fourth friend simply didn't change at all.

Nevertheless, Green handled the subject matter exceptionally well. It was a good read. And Kate Reading was her usual fabulous narrator-self.

Fun!

This was a fun book but it also had good characters. I liked hearing the points of view from the women on children,men & life. It made me laugh & made me think. It was a good read, with a great ending!!

baby, baby, baby!

Three woman, three stories involving the same subject: motherhood
Julia desperately tries to get pregnant only to find out that her long-time relationship is coming to an end; Mauve's baby is unplanned but brings along the right man and Sam has the perfect baby and husband and is down in the dumps nevertheless.
The three characters are only loosely intertwined, so it's basically three stories in one book, each covering a different aspect of motherhood.
Interesting story - good narrator, easy to follow.

pure chic-lit!

Pure chic-lit! Extremely girly! Just what I needed to make my long drive fly by! It was time well wasted!!!!!!

Excellent book!

Any additional comments?

Although I was a little disappointed in the end due to the predictability, it was overall a great book. I couldn't stop listening.

I hated two of the characters

I don't know if it is just me or just my opinion but I hated the first and third characters and their stupidity. I guess, though, that that is what makes them real. I Love Jane Green and I always relate to the stories but I guess, in this case, I related more to Maeve than Julia or Sam.