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Audio CD Description Six years after her amazingly successful debut, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Bank rewards her fans for their patience with The Wonder Spot, a refreshingly honest interpretation of one young woman's journey into adulthood. As we follow heroine Sophie Applebaum through a comfortable, yet awkward childhood in suburban Pennsylvania to the challenges of finding love and a career in midtown Manhattan, The Wonder Spot is never guilty of the self-indulgent traps set by other members of the Chick Lit genre Bank helped launch. We first meet the Applebaum clan on their way to cousin Rebecca's bat mitzvah in Chappaqua, New York, where Sophie ends up sneaking cigarettes in the woods with a handsome eighth grader one year her senior. Yet even this minor rebellion is more charming than anything else; as with most of her future transgressions, Sophie is less the instigator than the innocent witness. Defining moments in Sophie's life are revealed through her relationships: an almost mythical college roommate named Venice; her charismatic yet capricious older brother; her brilliant younger brother; her unpenetrable father; and her hilarious grandmother, who takes it upon herself to save her "Sophila" from "impending spinsterhood." Of course no real journey into young womanhood is complete without a series of committment phobic, potentially deliquent, overly nice men whose appearances seem less about love than about demonstrating our heroine's inability to ever truly be comfortable with herself. As Sophie observes during a seventh grade skating party, "I felt sure that everyone was looking at me and then realized that no one was, and i experienced the distinct shame of each." Undeniably clever, occasionally hilarious, and often poignant, The Wonder Spot is captivating enough for readers to forgive Sophie's indecisive, self-destructive tendancies and simply bask in her sincerity. --Gisele Toueg

Customer Reviews Life, painful as it is This group of pieces could be read in a series, or each piece alone as one short story published in a magazine or anthology. Having previously read at least one of the pieces, in addition to having read several reviews of the book, lead to a wierd deja vu while reading the first 200 pages of The Wonder Spot. I kept trying to determine exactly where I had read each piece. The New Yorker? In a review? Was I just confused?I finally realized that more precise editing would have helped with this feeling. The explanations that helped each piece to stand on its on were not necessary in the book as a whole; rather, they were annoying and distracting. I believe that they led to the lack of polish that other reviewers complain about. The main character, Sophie, was drawn with poignant, empathetic love. The contrast between her tortured idling and her brothers' fast-paced lives (different as they are) is stark, especially considered against the choices given the sexes at the time. The last piece is perplexing and appears rushed--publisher's deadline, perhaps? Altogher a great read with some laugh out loud parts, such as her interview at Shalom. Another distinctively Bank read There's no doubt that Melissa Bank has a distinctive voice. I loved her first book, the interconnected short stories were so unique and stark and personal to the character - which is why I thought it was odd that she'd choose to use the same form for her second book. And I have to admit, I didn't love Sophie as much as I loved Jane, even though at times they actually sounded like the same character (I even went back to Girls Guide and compared the young Jane to the young Sophie, they were that similar). But there's something about Bank's writing style that I love. It's sparse without lacking emotion or description. So even though I still enjoyed her first book better, I still enjoyed The Wonder Spot. I couldn't make it past chapter 3 Like some of the other reviewers, I had eagerly awaited Melissa Bank's new book. "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing" is one of my favorite books, and I've recommended it to friends and enjoyed discussing it. "The Wonder Spot" failed to keep my attention and interest in the first three chapters. I can't fault the writing style, but the character development of Sophie is flat. The first chapter involves the family's attendance at a bat mitzvah, and it slightly ties in with the second chapter, involving Sophie's stint at Hebrew school. By the third chapter, Sophie is in college but as written, the story could be about a completely different character. There is no thread of continuity from the first two chapters to the third, and I found Sophie neither a sympathetic nor a compelling subject. I am hopeful that Melissa Bank recaptures the magic of "Girl's Guide" in her next work.