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    Goodnight Nobody
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    Goodnight Nobody
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    Goodnight Nobody
    Ebook444 pages7 hours

    Goodnight Nobody

    By Jennifer Weiner

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A warm and witty novel from the acclaimed author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoesand the forthcoming Who Do You Love (August 2015)

    For Kate Klein, semi-accidental mother of three, the unsolved murder of a fellow mother is the most interesting thing to happen since the neighbours cracked their septic tank. Up until then life in suburbia has been distinctly underwhelming. Her once-loving husband is hardly ever home. The supermums on the playground routinely snub her and her days are filled with an empty routine. At night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety.

    So, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school, Kate launches a murder investigation of her own. With the help of her best friend, carpet heiress Janie Segal, and former flame, Evan McKenna, she is drawn deep into the dead woman's double life. Suddenly suburbia is not so ordinary after all.

    Engrossing, suspenseful, and laugh-out-loud funny, Goodnight Nobodyis another unputdownable, sparkling tale; a quick-witted mystery with a great heart and a narrator you'll never forget.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateSep 4, 2008
    ISBN9781847395795
    Author

    Jennifer Weiner

    Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one books, including The Summer Place, That Summer, Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, In Her Shoes, Good in Bed, and a memoir in essays, Hungry Heart. She has appeared on many national television programs, including Today and Good Morning America, and her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, among other newspapers and magazines. Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia. Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.

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    Reviews for Goodnight Nobody

    3.5/5

    48 ratings41 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This book had so much promise! I read the summary and I thought, "I can't wait to read this!" What a disapointment. The lead character is SO ANNOYING. I could not root for her at all. She was constantly pining after an old flame and she constantly complained about how much she hated her current life in the suburbs. She even went on to wish she could just leave her kids. The plot made no sense and the ending came out of nowhere. This book was crap.
    • 3/5
      Although a huge fan of Jennifer Weiner, not a huge fan of this book. I'm not a big mystery reader, so I was slightly turned off in the first place. But this book is just not up to Weiner's past accomplishments. Some patrons have told me that they don't like her and my response is, if this is the only book you read, you're not getting the full Jennifer experience. Although this was a must read for me, I didn't like it all that much. I'm looking forward to more "true" Jennifer titles.
    • 4/5
      A thrilling twist on her usual storyline, but still pure Weiner and as such terrific writing and a great story!
    • 3/5
      My least favorite of her books
    • 3/5
      Fun read with a bit of a mystery thrown in.
    • 3/5
      Nice! Not a heavy thriller - more Bridget Jones meets V.I. Warshawski but I liked it. I am getting a little used Weiners style, and I always like her heroines, who are usually not thin, or slender, nor are they going to be (even better).
    • 2/5
      not a great book, even with expectations of just being entertained....
    • 4/5
      A pleasant surprise: the book is a murder mystery! It's "reading candy" for me; pure fun. Jennifer Weiner is my favorite former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure I like Jennifer Weiner's cozy mystery as much as I like her other work, but this book is still fantastic. What she does well, she does extremely well - the oversized, outsider narrator, the warts-and-all view of motherhood and marriage, the sympathetic narrator who nevertheless makes regrettable decisions, the subversion of the expected plot points (happily ever after, fat girl loses weight to get happily ever after, happily ever after must include man, smart woman gets into stupid scrapes by using her secretly delicate brain, etc...). The mystery here is pretty well-constructed, and the denouement is surprising but believable. Weiner's picture of over-wealthy Connecticut suburbia is hilarious and cutting but also very real, and her narrator's sense of physical, emotional, and intellectual isolation in a world of play-dates and Stepford housewives and mommy-and-me classes is so compelling. Weiner's writing is very fresh, as is her perspective, and her characters are well-developed and compelling. It's easy to dismiss novels about women characters, moms, motherhood, and kids as chick lit or as "not serious" but I think Weiner's strength really is the way she treats these topics with a discerning, satirical eye and, in so doing, provokes serious thought about the image and role of motherhood while telling a really entertaining story.
    • 3/5
      Entertaining, but the ending left me unsatisfied. The whole Evan-storyline was totally forgotten - I'd have wanted a resolution of some kind to that. *spoilers*Why did she stay with her husband, even though she wasn't happy with him. I don't judge her decision, but I would have liked to hear her explain it to herself at least.
    • 4/5
      Good, light fiction. Well written and interesting. I felt everything tied up a little too quickly at the end though. Will definitely try the author's other books.
    • 4/5
      great, quick read for me! I thought it was a good book - and probably every mother has once felt like the character in this book (being that every one else seems to be so together and yet she is not). And if no one else has, well I have!Great light read!
    • 5/5
      I don't think that this woman can write a bad book.
    • 4/5
      If there is a more relatable character in current fiction than Kate Klein, I haven't found her yet. At times it seemed like the author was peering into my head and writing my thoughts. Okay, so I don't live in Connecticut, and I didn't stumble upon a quasi-friend's corpse, but I liked Kate, I understood her, and I enjoyed the wild ride that was this murder-mystery adventure.
    • 3/5
      A big disappointment! I'm a huge Jennifer Weiner fan, and this book has nothing the other ones had. She tried a different style, to write a mystery, and I don't think she suceeded, it's too weak, it doesn't have enough suspense and most of the time we don't really care about what's happening. I didn't like the main caracter, usually they are strong and very enjoyable females, this time I just wanted to smack Kate! And most of the other 'members of the cast'... The ending was awful. When you finally discover who killed Kitty, it's not really a surprise, even if it wasn't already a suspect. Then, the other mystery that existed in Kittys life is resolved in a stupid, stupid way, IMO. And as for what Kate decides to do with her life, well, who cares, right? As you end the book not knowing!Anyway, it was not a good "reading time" for me either, so maybe I'd enjoyed the book more in another occasion. It took me 10 days to read a 370 pages book... :oS
    • 3/5
      I will have to admit that when I first started listening to this book I didn't think that I would enjoy it. So I can honestly tell you that I think I enjoyed listening to this book more than I would have liked actually reading it. I try not to read too much light fiction, but the mystery aspect of this book held my attention.It seems that Kate lives in the perfect suburb with her husband and three children. Kate finds herself wanting to fit in with the other mothers that she meets at the playground, but with their perfect bodies, children that could do no wrong, and spotless clean homes, she realizes that she could never be like them. When Kitty, who is beautiful on both the outside and inside, invites Kate over to her home, she jumps at the chance of friendship with an adult. Unfortunately, Kate arrives to find Kitty murdered in her home so the friendship was over before it began!After the murder takes place, Kate takes it upon herself to find out why Kitty was murdered and by whom. Kate loves her children but is just not feeling fulfilled with her daily parenting activities. She finds that by focusing on trying to solve this murder case her life once again has more meaning and purpose. She also learns through her investigation that residents in the Upchurch community are not quite as perfect as they appear.Kate calls on the assitance of her best friend Janie, who is a very interesting character. I couldn't help but laugh when Janie drops some Ecstacy into a drink at Kate's home, that happened to be consumed by Kate's mother. She was one of a kind but you got the sense that Janie would be there and do what needed to be done for her friends.We also get a glimpse into Kate's past when she finds herself looking for help from a man that she never imagined that she would have to see again. When she gave him her heart years ago, only to turn his back on her, she really wasn't sure how a professional relationship would work with Evan today. As the attraction between Evan and Kate builds throughout the novel Kate begins scrutinizing her marriage and pondering whether her decision to marry was made in haste.This was an interesting story and although the mystery was solved in a way that seemed reasonable, Kate was still sorting through her personal life at the end of the book and trying to figure out what direction to take. I think I would consider this book a 'cozy mystery', which I don't think I would have enjoyed actually reading, but it was a fun audiobook to listen to.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this mystery by Jennifer Weiner. I whiped the 400 pages - I think it may have been my fastest read of the year. There is nothing like a book that you feel like carrying around everywhere trying to squeeze in a few pages here and there whenever you have a spare minute or two.That is not to say that it is a perfect book. I had some issues with characters - mainly the main character's not so great judgment in many situations - but that is something that happens in almost all mysteries. In any case - I thought it was great fun.
    • 4/5
      After reading a series of intense books I wanted something a little on the lighter side, and having read "Good in Bed" and "In Her Shoes" in the past I knew "Goodnight Nobody" would be perfect. And I was right! Like her previous novels, Weiner is able to mix drama and comedy amazingly. Kate, the main character, is wonderfully well-rounded and a sympathetic/understanding hero. And like Weiner's other books, Kate isn't the skinny, pretty and popular woman on the block. She's human. ...Basically, Weiner didn't dissapoint and I reccomend "Goodnight Nobody" to both people who have and haven't read her previous books!MY FAVORITE QUOTE: Why did I doubt that in all of her adventures Miss Marple had never once obtained an important clue by pretending to have the shits?
    • 3/5
      Chick lit mystery. Sometimes the commentary on surburbia is laugh out loud funny, other times the novel is a frustrating tale of a whiny woman who can't find joy in her life and blames her marriage. With no idea what she is doing, Kate barrels ahead, questions suspects, and puts her kids at risk to investigate a murder. Hard to believe and just so so ......
    • 3/5
      Although I like the idea of the book (the suburban mom turned Nancy Drew), I hated Kate. I believe whodunits should have an inspiring protagonist, which Kate certainly could never be. Could she be more needlessly conflicted? So she doesn't like housework, hire a cleaning lady! So she gets tired of taking care of her 3 kids all under 5, hire a nanny! These are not moral choices, yet she stumbles through her life feeling guilty and unable to satisfy herself. She seems to be waiting for her husband to do that. Her constant complaining is truly annoying when she is living in an expensive house in an expensive neighbourhood with a husband who, although too busy to pay her too much attention, basically is not a bad guy. Her contempt for the other stay-at-home mothers, while somewhat understandable, is hypocritical on her part because most of the time she is laments that she's not more like them. I found too immature to be interesting, and not in the least bit inspiring
    • 3/5
      Chick lit mystery. Who would have thunk it? Take a romance novel, throw in some Stepford Wives, add a good stab at suburbia and plenty of twists and turns and you've got "Goodnight Nobody." Does anyone remember a movie from the 80's with Raul Julia and Susan Sarandon where her dentist is murdered? This book seems to have borrowed from that movie.
    • 4/5
      Brain candy for sure. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and it was the perfect book for a vacation. I don't consider it to be high literature and I'm not sure that I learned anything from the book, but I can't complain. I had some moments of not quite buying the rebel-friend Janie Segal character and her patter seemed a bit canned. The sex scene was a bit nauseating since the narrator had spent much of the book describing her repellent appearance to the reader. I'd have liked more description of Ben, too, since he ultimately gets the girl.
    • 4/5
      My feelings about this book are mixed. On the one hand, I really very much enjoyed the murder mystery storyline. It was thrilling in a way that most of the books that I read aren't, without being greatly frightening. On the other hand, there are a lot of loose ends to the story that are left unresolved at the end of the book. The characters vacillated between being interesting and complex to being irritatingly simple and shallow. Overall, I enjoyed the story but was left somewhat unsatisfied by the way that it lacked resolution in some areas of established subplot.
    • 4/5
      Part-chicklit, part-mystery; the protagonist is a rather inept housewife and mother of three very young children, very much a fish out of water in the posh, rather Stepfordian Connecticut community her husband's chosen for them, who stumbles onto a neighbour's dead body and takes it upon herself to investigate – in between ferrying the children to nursery and playdates. There's scope in the concept to allow for a far better novel than this one; the heroine's sheer level of ineptitude soon grows tiresome, while the author is clearly a tyro at the mystery genre and this thread of the story is clumsy and wildly improbable. In spite of all this, I did quite enjoy it; the writing flows easily, and the occasional funny line manages to sparkle through.
    • 3/5
      When I first discovered Jennifer Weiner, it was the book "Good in Bed" sitting on my friend's dresser in her college dorm room. I asked her about the book and she said she loved it. And I read it and loved it too. Since then, I've tried to read Weiner's follow ups: In her Shoes, and Little Earthquakes, but I could not get into either one. I began reading Goodnight Nobody with mild skepticsm. ANd sadly, she's 1 for 4. This book started out being a fun and interesting read but quickly turned into a chore, where I actually ended up skipping to the end just to find out who did it. Picture Desperate Housewives but with less interesting pronnounced housewives and a sad sack of a protagnist.
    • 3/5
      This book was a minor disappointment, Weiner's other books are just better. I like the idea, however, that she's trying something different here: Desperate Housewives goes miss Marple.
    • 4/5
      (unabridged audiobook read by Johanna Parker): Kate Klein is a bored housewife in a boring suburb full of SuperMommy neighbors who look down their noses at her. When the least despicable of them is murdered and the police have no suspects, Kate starts investigating on her own. However, this isn't really a mystery novel. Like Weiner's other novels, it's more about relationships and motherhood - two subjects she tackles expertly and very humorously. The ending is surprisingly satisfying, though not especially tidy. Parker, who also read Little Earthquakes, was a great choice for this story as well. One of these days I'll stop feeling embarrassed for liking Weiner novels. They really are very enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Weiner moves out of her fluff books again into a sharp mystery set it suburban Connecticut. Unlike her first two books, I enjoyed all the characters and was intrigued by the story line.
    • 5/5
      An unexpected guilty pleasure. A fast read with a twist. Written much like Weiner's other books, and in the style that helped land her the chick lit title, Goodnight Nobody adds an interesting twist as the main character struggles with a mystery while also raising children, questioning her relationship with her husband and overall struggling to find herself. It's a fast-paced read that's a great escape from the everyday.
    • 4/5
      So how could a "who-dun-it" be funny? Especially with a murder involved??? But somehow Jennifer Weiner pulls it off with Kate, the New York transplant to a Connecticut suburbia, stumbling across the murdered body of another woman. Sprinkled throughout are Kate's disparaging remarks about her own clumsiness and disorganization compared to the polished and perfect other mothers in the neighborhood. Funny, interesting and light!!