Dinner with Anna Karenina

"Dinner with Anna Karenina" starts a little slow and appears somewhat cheesy at the beginning, but it grows into something more. Its characters are not perfect, and Gloria Goldreich manages to present them with their human faults and imperfect choices. While the collection of characters might not be the most believable (a poor graduate student and a rich, elegant manager as part of the same book club?), it is still a gripping read.

i picked this book out of the library because they had 8 copies of it so i figured it was a real hit. i should have taken the hint, considering all 8 copies were still on the shelf! i was disappointed with the book's predictability. while reading it i got bored, and skipped 300 pages only to discover that nothing had changed and i had no trouble following through to the end of the book. there is no reading between the lines, i found. all the characters' personalities, conflicts, and strengths are spelled out as if in a pattern. i enjoy more in depth reading, and this book did not make me think. i have to say, occasionally there were some great adjectives and Goldreich has the gift of description.

This has become one of my favorite books. Reviewed it at my book club. Only criticism was that the ending was short and anticlimatic - after such a buildup of suspense and conjecture.

Not very well written, bad unrealistic dialogue and unrealistic character development, but fun nonetheless. A decent beach or airplane read.

This book is beyond a simple story with plots and characters. Goldreich is inspiring us, inviting us to reach into ourselves and learn, to cultivate our minds, our hearts, our families and our entire lives by allowing ourselves to connect and find common ground with others.Other reviews here give you summations of this novel. Its impact is more important to me and something I hope to share with you. Finding a common ground with others and allowing yourself to connect and reconnect with those individuals over time is an extremely helpful way to "make it" through life.I have been blessed with friendships of women, many times over my life, in many circumstances. There is a poem that I was given by one such group years ago that is circulating in my mind as I type this for you. I am going to attempt some of it here, for it is exactly what I mean to say...a poem called HeartFriends when it was given to me."How generous is God that he has given me these few and special people who are the true friends of my heart. How he must love me that he has let us find each other upon this crowded earth.We are drawn to each other as if by some mystical force. We recognize each other at once. We are family of spirit, who understand each other instinctively.There is no blood between us, no common family history. Yet there are no barriers of background or even age. Older, younger, richer, poorer...no matter, we speak the same language.We have come together in a special moment of time and the sense of union we feel will last throughout eternity. How generous is God that he has given me these people I can call friends. Dear, good, life-enriching people who add flavor, value, and delight. I would be the poorer without them.Yet surely, God's true concern for us, his/her children, is to lead us to these rare and special few. The ones who call out to us from the crowds, who hold fast to us through trials, triumphs and long separations.The friends with whom the heart feels joyfully at home."(Marjorie Holmes, author)I am reminded of childhood friends, school groups, church groups, co workers, mothers and healers who became my comrades over time. We often began similarly, with some common element but otherwise strangers, drawn together and woven into each other's lives over time. It doesn't matter how you come to know and love your heartfriends, it matters that you do, and that they will in turn find enrichment from you that cannot be created separately.Thank you, Gloria Goldreich, for describing and showing so many others what it is like to find Heartfriends, with flavor, value and delight.Joni Caldwell

Sorry, but this book is junk. Artificial plot mechanisms, predictable resolution, a central conflict so drawn out that its credibility is severely frayed, characters (primary and supporting) so superficially sketched it's maddening, terrible use of adverbs, cliched dialogue, transitions you can see from a mile away, telling rather than showing (hello creative writing 101!); very frustrating dynamic between the characters where they are supposedly such good friends but then they're not at the same time - too much drama. Blech. I only liked the discussions about the authors Shirley Jackson and Louisa May Alcott and a few descriptive sentences.

Gloria Goldreich's "Dinner with Anna Karenina" is a wonderful novel about women's friendships and the power of literature to illuminate and transform lives. Six women members of a Manhattan book club meet regularly to share dinner and literary insights about novels ranging from Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" to Edith Wharton's "The Reef." The novel isn't so much an in depth critical review of the chosen novels, as it is a reminder of how great novels force readers to reflect on their own lives and relationships, and how novels and book clubs have the power to expand personal horizons and nurture and deepen friendships. The members of the book club are all intelligent, interesting, and believable women. Readers will feel a kinship with all of them, and will feel satisfied by the end of the novel at how their various situations are resolved. Frankly, I felt as though I were a seventh member of the group, and having at one time or another read all but one of their picks, I vicariously participated in their discussions. Although the novel ends exactly when it should, on the perfect note, I know I will miss these sympathetic characters who Goldreich so skillfully brings to life. This is a wise, moving, and memorable contemporary novel.

I was disappointed. Had read some good reviews, picked it for a book club. It was unanimously disregarded as shallow writing. I admit, I was taken in by the title much like I was with that garbage "Jane Austen Book Club". That book was a disgrace to Austen's name!

I have read most of Gloria Goldreich's books and enjoyed them all. Dinner with Anna Karenina was really good. I enjoyed it immensely. Ann McRae.