Allreaders.com

Message Board

Anita Shreve Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Shreve has written!

Author Shreve's Book Reviews

All He Ever Wanted (Romance)
Little Brown, April 203, 25.95, 304 pp. ISBN 0316782262 Professor Nicholas Van Tassel knows he is a stuffy and pedantic professor of Literature and Rhetoric, who is more comfortable at Thrupp University instead of at Cambridge thirty-five miles away. He surprises himself when he acts the hero when the restaurant he is dining in bursts into flames. He escapes and helps other people until he sees Etna Bliss, with a small child in her arms, and fa...
All He Ever Wanted (Literature)
When Nicholas first meets Etna he is a young professor at a small college, and Etna is the niece of one of his colleagues. Nicholas instantly becomes obsessed with the beautiful and mysterious Etna, and he sets out to make her his wife. Etna finally consents to marry Nicholas but first she informs him that she will never love him. Nicholas believes that he can make her love him in time, but the years pass, the couple has two children, and Etna still rem...
Eden Close
"Eden Close" by Anita Shreve is the name of Andrew's neighbor, who lived in the farmhouse just beside his. They were children and young adults together and just before Andrew went off to college a terrible accident occurred. When Andrew's mother died seventeen years later, Andrew returned to the farmhouse and slowly began to unravel the mystery of many years earlier....
Fortune's Rocks
In 1899, Olympia is a 15 year old girl vacationing with her parents at their summer home in Fortune's Rocks, New Hampshire. Her family is well-to-do and her very protective father assumes personal responsibility for her education. Rather than let her go to school with other kids, Olympia's father assigns books for her to read and they discuss them together at home. At their summer home, her parents entertain a number of distinguished guests. Early in...

Shreve booklist

Light on Snow
Nicky Dillon was sad when her family was torn apart. She and her family relocated from New York to New Hampshire to escape the tragic event that happened back in New York. They make an unexpected discovery of an infant abandoned in the snow. The baby changes their lives and brings back painful memories. Nicky and her father see that the baby goes to a proper home where it will be taken care of. As unexpected as the baby was, the 'visitor' who ends...
Resistance
Resistance by Anita Shreve is a novel that takes place during the Second World War in Belgium. An American plane is shot down near a small village and the pilot is rescued by a young boy and brought to a safe house that is part of the underground Resistance. While recovering from his injuries and hiding in an attic, he falls in love with the married woman who is caring for him. The story is one of war, deprivation and sacrifice as well as love and rom...
Sea Glass (Literature)
Little, Brown, Apr 2002, 25.95, 384 pp. ISBN: 0316780812 In 1929, Honora and Sexton Beecher move into their New Hampshire home. Honora loves her new place though it needs plenty of work. She adores her traveling salesman-husband until she learns why he is so successful at selling typewriters as he plays games with the truth. Soon Honora realizes that he stretches veracity with her too. When the economy tanks, Sexton loses his job and accept...
Sea Glass (Romance)
Anita Shreve writes of a love that exists between a married woman and a soul-mate she encounters too late in life. The story builds around the drama that escalates around the union strikes and organizations that began in the 19th century. The protagonist, a woman, is a strong and independent lady who can best be described as someone ahead of her time. Through a series of unfortunate events, the reader learns to sympathize with the protagonist and the ...
Strange Fits of Passion
There are two stories going on in this book at once. One is that of a reporter. How do assuage the guilt of a horrible mistake, a mistake which cost someone else everything? How can you ever make up for that, or look yourself in the mirror again? The other is the story of Maureen and Harrold, her abusive husband. Shreve does a good job of developing the relationship and making us understand how Maureen, an intelligent woman, finds herself in this ...
The Last Time They Met
Woven with threads from past writings the author has tempted us to delve into our deepest thoughts about relationships in general, love, loss, lust, growth, pain and suffering for our youth and leaves us questioning our place. With frequent hints of past book characters, she does an outstanding job of setting the place for confusion which accomplishes exactly what she sets out to do....

Anita Shreve list of books

The Pilot's Wife
A woman has to continue her life after her husband's death. she learns information that leads her to know his secret life....
Where or When
"Where or When" by Anita Shreve is a story about a man and woman who first experienced love at age 14 and became reacquainted after 31 years and rediscovered the love they had as teenagers. Both are now married however with families. This story tells of their love affair, then and now, with many interspersing flashbacks. It has a most surprising and thought provoking ending....