All Together Now, Gill Hornby
All Together Now, Gill Hornby
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

All Together Now
A Novel

Author: Gill Hornby

Narrator: Lucy Price-Lewis

Unabridged: 9 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/21/2015

Synopsis

The small town of Bridgeford is in crisis. Downtown is deserted, businesses are closing, and the idea of civic pride seems old-fashioned to residents rushing through the streets to get somewhere else. Bridgeford seems to have lost its heart.

But there is one thing that just might unite the community -- music. The local choir, a group generally either ignored or mocked by most of Bridgeford's inhabitants, is preparing for an important contest, and to win it they need new members, and a whole new sound. Enlisting (some may say drafting) singers, who include a mother suffering from empty-nest syndrome, a middle-aged man who has just lost his job and his family, and a nineteen-year-old waitress who dreams of reality-TV stardom, the choir regulars must find -- and make -- harmony with neighbors they've been happy not to know for years. Can they all learn to work together, save the choir, and maybe even save their town in the process?

All Together Now is a poignant and charming novel about community, family, falling in love -- and the big rewards of making a small change.

About Gill Hornby

Gill Hornby is the author of the novels The Hive and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for young readers. She lives in Kintbury, England, with her husband and their four children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede on August 30, 2016

All Together Now was not as easygoing to read as I had hoped for. Not that I didn't enjoy the book. I did like parts of the book. However, I also found the book a bit dry to read. Just not as funny and engrossing as I had hoped it to be. For instance, I had a pretty hard time getting into the book a......more

Goodreads review by Dale on March 27, 2016

Three and a half stars. Anyone who has ever been part of a choir or a community group should be able to relate to this book. I enjoyed reading about the small English town and the Bridgeford Community choir. I liked the different characters that drew in new members and sought to work together to help......more

Goodreads review by booksandcarbs on August 19, 2015

I think most readers will give All Together Now three or maybe four stars. Maybe they'll think it's cheesy or kind of lame or too dang sunshine-y at the end. Maybe they will be right about that. All I know is that this book made me happy. It has so many of the story elements I love: strangers become......more

Goodreads review by Anna on April 27, 2015

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for the ARC of this book. I picked up this book because I am a fan of the author's brother, Nick Hornby, and her husband, Robert Harris, so I had high hopes of the quality of the writing. Unfortunately I was disappointed. The book follows a series of lonely misfi......more

Goodreads review by Bo'ness on August 17, 2015

While this book is not "Great Literature" it is well-written, well structured and by no means Chick Lit. A very enjoyable and absorbing read. Anyone who has ever joined a Club or Society will be familiar with the differences that occur when people with a common interest but different social backgrou......more

Quotes

PRAISE FOR THE HIVE:

"The Hive is Mean Girls for moms. It begins as a tart vivisection of mother culture: the invidious comparisons, the one-upping, the compliments that insult. Yet in the tradition of the best satire, which engenders a fondness for its target even as it skewers, The Hive made me fall in love with these women, each flawed and interesting, trying in her own way to be herself. You won't be able to resist picking a favorite, or casting the book from your own circle of friends (or even your book club). Escape to someone else's social snarls for a few hours, and enjoy this brilliantly witty, wonderfully warm serving of mama drama."—Lydia Netzer, author of New York Times Notable Book of the Year Shine Shine Shine

"With a wicked eye and a giant heart, Gill Hornby weaves a lively and hilarious tale that's pure fun. If you loved Bridget Jones's Diary and you have a child in school, The Hive is the book for you."—Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette

"The familiar notion that a group of women behaves like a hive is developed here into an enjoyable acerbic social commentary on mean girls of all ages, lightened by touches of hen lit."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Gill Hornby's mom-edy, The Hive, is a stinger."—Vanity Fair

"The Hive maintains a healthy dose of humor within the mothers' characters. The novelist's British impersonations of the characters are hilarious ...The Hive is a refreshing read because the Brits have perfectly constructed sentences, so enviably precise...The Hive is a fun and witty read, one that everyone can relate to. As life evolves, we naturally evaluate our relationships and our contributions to them. Hornby gives us yet another fictional experience of how our relationships affect us, and how we can survive them."—The Aspen Times

Proponents of career-centered feminism, such as Leslie Bennetts, often stress the financial and other dangers of leaving the workplace. What happens to your negotiating abilities? Do political antennae grow dull? For that answer, look no further than Gill Hornby (who, for the record, has "absolutely no view" on how other women should live) and yet who has, after "a good 16, 17 years of not going out there," produced a sophisticated commercial novel about what she knows that is deeply plugged in to our zeitgeist.—The Daily Beast

"Hornby's debut novel, it says on the cover, is already a sensation, the book every publisher wanted. It deserves all of it really, for the richness of the concept."—The Guardian

"Hornby's combining of 'the sticky stuff' and the daily ups and downs is marvelously conveyed - altogether delish."—The Spectator

"Clever and witty...Anyone who has ever found themselves picked last for games or not invited for lunch will shudder with recognition."—Sunday Times (London)

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