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List Price: $22.95 | | Publisher: William Morrow
Salesrank: 990889
Released: August 1, 2006 |
| Our Price: $1.80 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
When a Hollywood location scout comes to Applewood, Long Island, and announces that the local elementary school might make the perfect backdrop for an upcoming George Clooney movie, the PTA's decorum crumbles like a cookie from last week's bake sale.
Enter Maddie, Ruth, and Lisa, three women who become the glue that holds the project together, forging a bond of friendship stronger than anyone could imagine. And not a moment too soon, as marriage woes, old flames, and scandalously embarrassing family members threaten to tear each of them apart. Is their powerful alliance strong enough to overcome the obstacles to getting the movie made in their town? And will their friendship be enough to mend their hearts and homes? Join them as they reach for the stars . . . and try to pull off a Hollywood ending of their own.
At once tender and hilarious, Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA is a captivating story that turns suburbia upside down . . . with more humor, heartache, and heat than one PTA can hold.
Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA: A Novel Reviews:
Secrets of the applewood PTA disappointing 
2008-09-07 - Shallow plot lines and vulgar language abound in what had to potential to be a delightful read. The premise is the Applewood PTA's need to build a sports stadium for their school and the fact that a movie producer wants to use their school as a setting for a new George Clooney movie. Intrigue abounds as the towns founders memorial is stolen and three unlikely friends pull together to find it...or risk losing the movie deal that will allow them to have the needed stadium. If the story had focused on this, it would have been a smashingly funny read. Unfortunately, the personal lives of the women are described in such shallow terms and the language used to describe the sexual needs and activities of the women is vulgar enough that the plot line becomes unfocused and lost in the sexual references and vocabulary. Overall a very disappointing read.
The audio book is wonderful! 
2008-08-27 - I listened to the audio version of this narrated by Lisa Kudrow. I thought it started out a little slow, but once I was about 1/3 of the way through, I was hooked. One minor annoyance is that there are flashbacks weaved into the story, but once you get used to Meister's style of storytelling, you fall in love with each character. Kudrow does a great job of using different voices for each character, adding to their personalities. After I finished this one, I immediately went to search for other titles from Meister, so I'm excited to start the Smart One.
Great Characters, Odd Plot. 
2008-05-23 - Ellen Meister knows how to create lovable and interesting female characters! Maddie, Ruth, and Lisa were all wonderfully developed stay-at-home moms rather than than usual dull cliches used to describe housewives. I loved the plots and worries of these three women and couldn't put the book down--and that's saying something! Meister has a terrific writing style that flows easily.
However, I absolutely hated the movie production/George Clooney plot running through the book. I wish Meister had thought of a more realistic problem for the PTA, and I was happy when it wasn't mentioned and I could pretend it didn't exist. The PTA moms were also consulted about every tiny detail of the movie deal and held an enormous amount of power for ladies who only have control over which flavor of Juicy Juice is at the kids' Halloween party! It's too much of a stretch of the imagination for me. I also felt the ending needed work--in typical romance fashion, everyone comes to a happy resolution, but Meister's ending is rushed and sloppily thrown together in a brief 4 page epilogue. I also didn't appreciate pornographically described sex scenes such as, "Maddie looked...to Cora Ann, face slick from cunnilingus, and wondered if this was the kind of 'scene' she had in mind." (It's a scene I know I don't want in my mind, thanks.) Yuck. It is possible to write with some taste, even in a mindless beach read.
All in all, I would recommend reading the book just for the great characters, despite the other flaws. I think Ellen Meister has great potential and did a good job on her first novel!
Are These Women My Neighbors? Yikes! 
2008-03-19 - This is a perfect example of a work of fiction where I didn't like the characters but I loved the book. Good writing, a funny plot bordering on the absurd, and colorful, fully fleshed out character development, make the farcical and morally ambiguous ladies of the Applewood PTA surprisingly believable. The time spent reading these pages was for me, pure, self-indulgent entertainment. It was like watching Bravo television shows about The Real Housewives--or like watching the catfights between the Carrington wives back in the old days of Dynasty. Aside from juicy, gossipy `grown-up' sorority spats, this romp has a little of everything: Medical dramas, tennis matches, infidelities, ménage a trios, alcoholism, learning disabilities, fires . . . just about every kind of suburban drama known to a generation raised on a soap opera diet.
Meanwhile, if the actor George Clooney has ever entered your fantasies, or if you've ever spent time on a PTA committee and recognize the circle of self-important hags running the show like it's work as important as the UN, and if you don't mind a few predictable and contrived plot twists, pick up this book and give yourself a dose of literary masturbation. I don't ever want to meet these women, or serve on any committees with them, but reading about them was a hoot. Well done.
Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club
Clooney as Christ
2007-12-25 - Ellen Meister's Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA reveals that there is much more happening at PTA meetings than discussions of bake sales. Meister has excellent comic timing and revels in the exploits of her three compelling heroines, Maddie, Ruth, and Lisa, bringing a fresh look to seemingly familiar situations: the appearance of an old flame, caretaking of aging parents, and coping with alcoholic parents. Set in our culture of celebrity, George Clooney appears as a Christ-like figure, seemingly able to deliver redemption, forgiveness, and salvation to our heroines with simply his proposed presence in Applewood, Long Island.
