Wonderful, wonderful! Subtle, funny, insightful. Thank you, Nancy Pearl! ( )

2.8 stars I had a hard time finding anything I liked about Lizzie.
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This book engaged me more than I thought it would once I understood how a flawed childhood led Lizzie to make some incredibly poor decisions due to her lack of self worth. Her engagement in the "Great Game" involved intentionally having sex with the entire first starters of her high school's football team and then falling in love with a fellow college student, Jack, whom she dated for three months before he "ghosted" her. Somehow George came into her life with his unfailing support, kindness and optimism, but even then her self loathing and obsession over Jack never faltered. Their marriage endured despite her attempts to sabotage it. The ending is a satisfying conclusion to the story of George and Lizzie. ( )

3.5 I love Nancy Pearl's collections of book lists: Book Lust, Book Crush, so was excited to read (listen to) her novel. She was the actual narrator on the audio book, which wasn't a great fit....so overall a bit of disappointment over this. It seems a bit like a YA book because the main character, Lizzie is so angst-filled, but with good reason. And the content is a little edgy/mature for YA. Lizzie is a college freshman at University of Michigan, where her parents (Lydia and Mendel) also happen to be psychology professors. She has been like an experiment to them her whole life -- they observe her, but never really love her or engage with her. In her senior year of high school, she and a friend come up with a radical plan: the Great Game -- to sleep with all 23 starters on the football team. The friend backs out, but Lizzie boldly proceeds and hopes to get her parents' attention or burst their bubble about her "perfect" status. Though recounted with humor sporadically throughout the book, this plan backfires spectacularly as it leaves Lizzie feeling very damaged and regretful. When she meets college senior Jack McConaghy early in her freshman year, she begins to heal a bit. Like Lizzie, he loves poetry and books and their relationship, if a little lopsided brings her happiness. When he graduates, it seems to have a natural conclusion, though Lizzie cannot accept this. Jack returns to TX and she never hears from him again -- since it is the early 90s, a letter is her only hope, and cyber-stalking is not yet an option. Lizzie meets George, who is studying to be a dentist, in her sophomore year and he is the epitome of kindness, goodness, stability, family devotion -- all the things Lizzie has lacked -- and he loves her. They eventually marry, but Lizzie continues to pine for Jack and her misconceptions about that relationship. There are some well-done life events involving family and friends that show the normal ups and downs in a marriage, but it ultimately comes down to Lizzie getting her head and heart in the game (and out of the shadows and repercussions of The Great Game) Great supporting characters in Elaine and Alan, George's parents and Myla and James, Lizzie's roommate and her boyfriend. Life is messy and sometimes we make it harder than it needs to be, but healing is possible with solid support. ( )

Nancy Pearl saved my life. Actually, Nancy Pearl’s “Rule of Fifty” saved my reading life - on many occasions. I owe her a lot. Her rule liberated me and allowed me to see that reading is for enjoyment and although sometimes you have to work at something before you find the enjoyment, if you keep on working and enjoyment isn’t coming, then maybe you’re on the wrong track. And what’s more, the older you get, the more important it is that you don’t waste your precious remaining time on earth. That said, when I discovered Nancy Pearl’s first novel on the shelf of my local library, I wanted to read it but was determined that I would apply the “Rule of Fifty” without fear or favour. I read one reviewer who wrote that Pearl’s character Lizzie was just too quirky and the reader had regretfully cut her reading short at around page 50. In the early stages of this book I was wondering whether I’d be following that track myself. I was prepared, however, to cut Nancy a little more slack than her own rule provided, because I wanted to be absolutely sure that I’d given this demi-god of reading a fair run. I needn’t have worried, however, as the book rapidly improved for me and before I knew it I’d covered a hundred pages and was really looking forward to the remainder. I loved the basic idea of the story - the idea that Lizzie commits to something (The Great Game, in which she has sex with all 23 members of a football team) which she initially thinks will be ‘fun’ but later hugely regrets, and then is faced with the question: to whom can or should she reveal her ‘bad’ behaviour? Can she risk loss of a relationship by revealing her true self? Sure, Lizzie is quirky, as indeed are almost all the characters. These characters are interesting and funny because in each character there’s an element that we could recognise in people we know: the work-oriented parent whose child-rearing is arguably negligent; academics whose work is respected but who you wouldn’t want to spend time with; the rude and obnoxious relative; the sport obsessed man; the loving and accepting mother-in-law; nominally Jewish people who observe Christmas etc. So I did like the book, despite recognising that it’s not a book for everyone (I’m thinking of many religious people who might be uncomfortable with some anti-religious sentiment, not to mention Lizzie’s sexual adventures and her whole approach to and language about sex). It’s not, however, the perfect book for me. Even though I enjoyed it, the tone is undeniably light-hearted and I’m more of a serious sort of person. If a book blurb describes it as “hilarious” I place it straight back on the shelf. Blurb writers for ‘George and Lizzie’ use the word “witty” - along with “wise”, and that’s a very different prospect than “hilarious”. The combination of humour and serious issues that Nancy Pearl has put together in this novel worked well for me, even though my first choice would be to not have the witty component. Maybe it could have been a little less 'romantic' too, although this certainly isn't a book I'd put in the 'romance' category. But perhaps the book’s biggest achievement - and one that clearly could only be achieved by someone with Nancy Pearl’s wonderful understanding of people and their relation to literature - is that she made me want to read poetry! Me!! A person who usually hates books written by poet-authors and who tends to regard the discussion of poetry as high-brow, esoteric and elitist. Thank you Nancy. Thanks for everything. ( )