Cover Image: Other People's Houses

Other People's Houses

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Member Reviews

No sophomore slump here! This women's fiction offering - the second novel from Abbi Waxman - might be even better than her first. Who doesn't love a juicy story about people's innermost secrets? And even more so when it's neighbors, people you could imagine might live down the street from you. I laughed out loud in spots and was glued to my seat in others. Loved this journey with Frances as the effects of an affair reverberate through a tight-knit community of people who only thought they really knew each other. Waxman's strong suit is her characters and these fly off the page. Can't wait for her next novel.

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You will be drawn into the lives of the quirky families who live in the same neighborhood. Their lives become intwined through friendships, children and propinquity.

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Oh, my goodness, I am so happy to no longer be a young mother. My life was interesting, but i don't remember living in a neighborhood like this one. However, it was a funny (and also sad) look at everyday life today.

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Anne Porter has cheated on her husband, and, being a worker at the Porters' party, Frances Bloom knows all about it. She decides to stay out of it, but this becomes difficult when Anne's husband throws her out when her extramarital affair comes to light. Full of drama and broken homes, Other People's Houses is a breath of fresh air.

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Reading this book is like being dropped into a neighborhood you recognize. The characters are women you are friends with or want to be friends with and you will laugh and cry along with them. It is a story of every day- love, life, raising kids and being part of a relationship.Plus Lili and her family from Waxman's previous book, Garden of Small Beginnings are friends with the families in this book and make an appearance.

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I loved the author's first book so much that I was a little disappointed in this one. I liked the main character but the profanity was excessive enough to be distracting and I could have used less sex talk. All in all, an entertaining read that I feel a little icky about reading.
*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review

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I really like this author. This story has some dysfunctional people in it! They seemed pretty crazy at first but by the end of the book I warmed up to them. I would recommend this book but I did like your first one a little bit more.

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Abby truly gets into her characters heads, revealing all of the inner thoughts. Even to the point of senseless rambling. (Something we're all guilty of inside our heads). The narration switches quite often, which was a little confusing at first, but then suddenly, everything clicked.


This suddenly became a very fun tale of Frances, Anne, and the rest of the neighborhood clan. We got to read all their deepest secrets, the ones every parent thinks but would never voice out loud, not even to their spouses.
It's very refreshing to read a story that deals a lot more with thoughts than actions, especially since there wasn't actually a lot of action.
At the beginning Anne has her affair, is caught, chaos ensues. However since this story has so many different narrators, it's a different sort of chaos. Everyone in the neighborhood makes their own decisions about Anne's affair, and makes decisions in their own life based on their feelings.
It's hard to talk too much about this one without giving away spoilers, but overall it was a fun read. It's a novel that doesn't take itself too seriously and cleverly shares what we've all thought at some point in time.

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I loved this book! The neighborhood is a community and responds to everything that takes place., The community members are our friends and neighbors, conversations similar to our daily lives. It is happy and sad, serious and irreverent, funny and touching and so down to earth realistic. Truly a "must read".

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