Big Stone Gap: A Novel

This is a wonderful series concerning the lives of very believable characters. This first book introduces the location--a very authentic small town in the coal-mining belt. Ave Maria, the heroine, battles the shadows of her past and her role as the town's spinster pharmacist. The other characters are just so real--we have all met people like them, and the hero, Jack Mac's declaration of love and proposal of marriage is one of the most poignant scenes I have ever read. There is some humor here,too, and you are left with some questions. I will probably read this book over again many times. Loved it!!

This is a book that has been on my TBR list forever, but I pushed it up the queue when I found out the movie version (written and directed by Trigiani herself) would be out soon. Considering that I now have the following 3 books in the series waiting for me, you can guess that I liked this one!Big Stone Gap is the sort of book that is a bit meatier than a "beach read" but definitely not as taxing as literary fiction. In other words, my ideal summer read.There is a definite down-home, folksy feel to this book which appealed to me, but might not to everyone. The town of Big Stone Gap is chock full of characters, enough that I worried that I would start to get them mixed up. Luckily, Trigiani does an excellent job of developing even the secondary characters so that none of them are forgettable. I especially enjoyed the main character of Ave Maria. I could completely understand why she felt stuck in her life and her plans of leaving town made complete sense to me.While one or two of the plot twists seemed to be a little too out of the blue for me, overall I found this a completely engrossing novel. And now I'm ready to start on Big Cherry Holler!

I loved this story and Adriana's expressive writing. Great book!

Entertaining. I was raised in Pennington Gap, I now live in California. It was fun to go back to a simpler time.

I honestly can't remember when this book came into my life--easily a couple of decades ago. I read A LOT--a few novels a week at least--and most of them fade from my memory pretty quickly but Big Stone Gap never faded. I very rarely reread books but I read this one every couple of years. I love this book so much--the characters, the setting, it's a very real world that Trigiani has created here. I have read several of Trigiani's books (including the sequels to this one) and I have enjoyed them but none of them capture the magic of this one. This one is special. I can't recommend it enough. Perhaps you won't feel compelled to revisit as often as I do but I'm pretty sure you'll be charmed.

I chose this book because I love Adriana Trigiani's writing. This book is set in part of the country I love too in the mountains with the native people who live there.The story was very good and I understand they are making a movie of this one. Anxious to see whom they choose for the parts.I liked how she always gets the Italian part of her inserted in the stories she writes. Being Italian is very important to her. And like they say.....write what you know....and she knows Italy and Italians.The characters were excellent in this book as usual. I recommend anything this lady writes. She's a master with words and she likes to describe things by saying "I shone like......" Or it smelled....." Or it hurt me like....." And usually her answers are associated with food, or beauty, or smells, tastes, or nature. You can associate with this ladies thinking. At least I sure can.

Book arrived quickly and was in good condition. I will be added to a senior living home library.

I've been looking for this book at my public library but they did not have it. I am reading all the books by Adriana Trigiani and wanted this one. So glad to be able to buy this at a reasonable price.

A beautiful story, beautifully written.The reading experience is spoiled by the large number of typos, presumably caused by the software that creates the digital copy. Some serious proof reading is needed.

Came on time and exactly as described.

Interesting

C'est une histoire sympathique et divertissante mais qui manque de "rebondissements". J'ai d'abord lu "The shoemaker's wife" traduit en français par "l'italienne", comme j'ai beaucoup aimé ce livre, j'ai voulu en lire d'autres du même auteur mais je crois que je vais m'arrêter ici. Big Stone Gap est plutôt décevant.

Like the book, its a tranquil read equivalent to Sunday night TV, cliches and ho,ilies abound but in a very pleasant readable way.