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    The Season of Second Chances: A Novel
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    The Season of Second Chances: A Novel
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    The Season of Second Chances: A Novel
    Ebook377 pages6 hours

    The Season of Second Chances: A Novel

    By Diane Meier

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A world of possibilities opens up for Joy Harkness when she sets out on a journey that's going to show her the importance of friendship, love, and what makes a house a home

    Coming-of-age can happen at any age. Joy Harkness had built a university career and a safe life in New York, protected and insulated from the intrusions and involvements of other people. When offered a position at Amherst College, she impulsively leaves the city, and along with generations of material belongings, she packs her equally heavy emotional baggage. A tumbledown Victorian house proves an unlikely choice for a woman whose family heirlooms have been boxed away for years. Nevertheless, this white elephant becomes the home that changes Joy forever. As the restoration begins to take shape, so does her outlook on life, and the choices she makes over paint chips, wallpaper samples, and floorboards are reflected in her connection to the co-workers who become friends and friendships that deepen. A brilliant, quirky, town fixture of a handyman guides the renovation of the house and sparks Joy's interest to encourage his personal and professional growth. Amid the half-wanted attention of the campus's single, middle-aged men, known as "the Coyotes,"and the legitimate dramas of her close-knit community, Joy learns that the key to the affection of family and friends is being worthy of it, and most important, that second chances are waiting to be discovered within us all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 30, 2010
    ISBN9781429922432
    Unavailable
    The Season of Second Chances: A Novel
    Author

    Diane Meier

    Diane Meier is the author of The New American Wedding and the novel The Season of Second Chances. She is president of Meier, a New York City–based marketing firm. Her career spans from writing and design to public speaking. Meier lives in New York City and Litchfield, Connecticut.

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    Reviews for The Season of Second Chances

    3.5/5

    37 ratings31 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.When 48-year-old Columbia English professor Joy Harkness receives the offer of a lifetime to teach at Amherst College, she jumps at the chance to escape her unsatisfying New York life and start over. Emotionally shut-down and socially awkward, Joy begins a journey of self-discovery in the most unlikely of places. Her journey begins with an ill-advised purchase of a crumbling Victorian home in need of a great deal of repair and renovation. Joy hires 35-year-old Teddy Hennessy to help her bring the Victorian back to life. Teddy helps Joy connect to the house and hidden parts of herself through the renovation process. Her new job also forces her to connect with other people in a way she never has before. As Joy builds a life for herself in Amherst, she finds that she can't disconnect from others the way she used to and must learn about romance and friendship while discovering herself. While this book is fairly predictable in terms of its plot, I found it utterly engrossing and entertaining. Sex and the City was groundbreaking in that it revealed the full social and romantic lives of women after 30. It is nice to see a new trend in books that show life after 40. Joy is proof that you are never too old to change and grow. While on the surface, Joy seems completely unlikeable and unpleasant, you can't help but root for her to succeed. I also found myself longing to own my own crumbling Victorian as you read about the wonderful transformation that it goes through. I also enjoyed how the book demonstrated nontraditional ideas about community and family. Sometimes, family constitutes those individuals that you choose rather than those you are born with.BOTTOM LINE: Recommended. I really enjoyed this book. It was a light but entertaining read. I appreciated following Joy's evolution. While not everyone in the book gets a happy ending, it is still a "feel-good" read.
    • 5/5
      This was a beautiful read. I loved how at 40 plus they found family and love again.
    • 5/5
      Joy Harkness is a college professor working at Columbia in New York City. She lives in her own little bubble of academia and builds walls around herself so as not to be put out by friendships and personal obligations. And she is miserable. So when she gets the chance to “run from New York and Columbia, like a hound at the drop of a hare,” she takes it. She travels to the small town of Amherst, Massachusetts and goes to work for Bernadette Lowell, dean of graduate studies at Amherst College. Handpicked to be part of a team to develop a new curriculum, Joy at first sees the move as quick and easy. But, soon she finds the job of packing up her life and finding a new home to be a daunting affair.Joy ends up buying a monstrous Victorian home that needs work at every turn. When the ceiling collapses from a water leak on the day she moves in, Joy realizes that she could use a little help. Enter Teddy Hennnessy, a self-made contractor and handyman with an eye for design. Teddy’s laid back attitude and brilliant understanding of exactly what Joy’s house needs to become a home, draw Joy in – and she soon discovers that beneath his gentle exterior is a man who is captive to his overbearing mother.There are other wonderful characters in Diane Meier’s funny and sensitive novel The Season of Second Chances. Joy is befriended, in spite of herself, by a group of women who I adored. Josie, smart and in charge, is probably my favorite character. Married and with two children, she is a nonstop ball of energy with a heart of gold.The Season of Second Chances is a novel about women’s friendships, the ups and downs of life, and the idea that one is never too old to change. Joy begins as a forty-eight year old hardline feminist, fiercely guarded, and negative…and evolves into a character I grew to love. She makes a lot of mistakes. She lacks insight into her own flaws. But, all these things make her very human, and someone who the reader wants to see succeed in her personal growth. When Joy discovers that friendship, although hard work at times, can be the balm to her sadness, the reader wants to congratulate her. And perhaps this is the heart of the story – that we do not go through this life alone. Despite our fears, despite the protective urge to keep ourselves from hurt, what really opens our worlds is allowing other people in. In The Season of Second Chances, it is the women’s friendships that sparkle.Meier writes with humor, something I always appreciate in a novel. By the end of the second chapter, I found myself laughing and sharing passages with my husband. Sardonic and insightful, Meier’s prose resonates as real life. The characters in Meier’s novel are lovingly wrought – flaws and all. If you can’t tell by now, I loved this book. I blew through it in just a couple of days, and was sad to say good-bye to the characters I had grown to adore.Readers who love women’s fiction and terrific characterization (not to mention humor), will enjoy The Season of Second Chances.Highly recommended.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book was not what I expected, and yet it was. Many of this type of book are adult fairy tales/wish fulfillment; we vicariously experience supportive groups of friends, beauty, relaxation, etc. This book is about a woman who doesn't know how to reach out to people, or how to accept real friendship when it is offered. This is a vicarious lesson in character growth, and just as fulfilling as the book you might have originally thought you picked up.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book was more than I expected. From reading a synopsis, I expected it to be about one person's life changes. In the story, there are at least four characters who have second chances and each responds differently. The core story is about a college professor who moves from NY to MA to work on a cutting-edge project. Not only does that put her in a different environment, but that one change leads to many others. As the story unfolds, so does the main character's life. She builds relationships and creates a community. Some of the persons she knows (new friends and old) have second chances as well. While the story is told from Joy's POV, she is not the only one with a chance to change. The backdrop of the story is the dilapidated house she buys and its gradual rehab and emergence at the hands and vision of a brilliantly talented artist. This is a beautifully written and well-told story
    • 3/5
      I don't know how to describe this novel: entertaining but unsatisfactory?? The main character, Joy Harkness (not terribly likable but that makes her more interesting,) is a university prof who is out of touch with everything but her own little corner in academe. As the title reveals, a season of second chances arrives for her and several of her friends when she reolocates to a college in New England and to a house realtors coyly describe as needing TLC. The necessary renovations are undertaken by Teddy, the town handyman who is, of course, single..... Architecturally weak with anachronistic pop culture references that confused me: why would someone in their late 40s refer to scenes from the films Bringing Up Baby and Philadelphia Story? No one in their age group would understand the allusions (except for Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator/writer of Gilmore Girls). Likewise with the TV references from the late 60s and early 70s.... Ms Meier was well on her way to pulling off an intelligent and charming drama/comedy; if Joy Harkness had been 37 instead of 47, she would have achieved it.
    • 4/5
      Although Joy Harkness has lived her dream of moving to New York and teaching English at Columbia, somehow she never seems to have truly "lived" during this time in her life. When she has the opportunity to teach at Amherst College and move to Massachusetts, she decides to go for it. She surprises herself by purchasing a rundown Victorian home and proceeding to be drawn into friendships/relationships that are equally surprising and foreign to her normal lifestyle. The process of renovating the house juxtaposes with Joy's personal growth, the story told in a pleasing style that keeps the reader involved. Characters are interesting, decorating details abundant, and the ending feels right.
    • 5/5
      I just plain liked this woman! I found Teddy a rather confusing character but he was described and put together so well that he just plain fit where he turned out to "be" in this delightful novel. Now I want to read about her own late wedding in her "other" book.
    • 1/5
      I could not bring myself to care about the main character, no matter how hard the author tried. I gave up on this book. Life is too short to slog through such drivel.
    • 1/5
      Joy Harkness is sick of her life in New York as a professor at Columbia University. She wants a change, and serendipitously the opportunity opens up when a well-known feminist author invites her to Amherst to join a new educational group to discover a new philosophy of learning. She moves there, finds a new home, and begins to recreate her life: her ‘second chance’. She falls into a wonderful new community of interesting individuals, all living fulfilled lives, and not only gets to enjoy her new teaching position but also remodel a unique Victorian home. In the end, she discovers that her previous life was narrow and unfulfilled, and her new life allows her to expand and enjoy the world to the full.It’s a love letter to academia. The novel is easily readable and fast paced, and there’s no lack of descriptions for the details of her transformation. It might appeal to many readers as an imaginary escape from their own lives, to be read with a Restoration Hardware catalog and a fan of paint swatches at hand. It is a very pretty book…I loved the font and the block printing styles.That said, I hated the book on so many levels. First, it would appear that the ‘second chance’ she needed was meant to be: her NY house sold in four days, far over the asking price, and she found her new home instantly. Her new job paid far more than she imagined. The first contractor to come along was not only a savant-like expert on all things Victorian, but his price was under her budget, and the remodel was a quick and smooth production. Do you see where I am going with this? Realism is not to be found. Joy’s new friends are all wealthy academics who pride themselves on their tolerant love of others, community, and family. They accept her unhesitatingly, and it appears the entire community wants to assist in her transformation. Evenings of gourmet suppers with perfect food and wines, stimulating conversation, and constant supportive murmurings fill Joy’s new days. Her new job is also perfect: coworkers who gladly share duties without complaining, well-behaved students, and gourmet lunches made by a professor (in her spare time) and brought in for the staff. The only nod to their academic work is rearranging book shelves and deciding where the fresh flowers should be placed, with some occasional paper-grading over wine.I kept waiting for one of the enlightened community to be an ax murderer, just to liven up the cloying sweetness of it all. The biggest problem, of so many, was the treatment of the academic community towards the talented craftsman who remodels her home back to its original splendor. They recognize his talent, but are quick to suggest a course of study that will allow him to teach and join their ranks. He’s simply not living up to his potential in their eyes and they are troubled by his lack of ambition. He’s just not good enough. In fact, every character in the novel that leads a productive life is an academic; the only ones who aren’t are the craftsman (who lives with his mom and is emotionally stunted), a wife-beater, and a vindictive old woman. In other words, the flawed people are uneducated. It’s as if Lassie saves the family from the fire, saves Timmy from the well, and yet is put to sleep because she’s not purebred. The elitist agenda is obvious and awkward.The house Joy remodels, with Teddy’s assistance, is an obvious metaphor for Joy’s life. It starts out decrepit and run down, but eventually is restored to beauty and luxury. It’s no coincidence that towards the end, when she discovers Armani couture and is counseled to live life to the full, the clothing she purchases reflect the colors used in the home. Even her new lipsticks (oh yeah, we get to hear about lipstick colors, wallpaper samples, and the benefits of skillful makeup) seem to coordinate. It all falls into place, with never a concern about money issues, family problems, misunderstandings with friends, or illness. The lack of any credible conflict dilutes it into more of a fashion article than an interesting novel. Sure, some bad things happen, to other people, on the periphery. These serve only to emphasize the wonderful nature of the academic village. Amid this she sprinkles Feminist anecdotes, Henry James references, and treatises on private education that leave you snoring. As I said, though, the font is lovely.
    • 4/5
      Everything about the blurb for this book screamed "read me" to me. And who am I to ignore such strident and impassioned hollering? I would have missed out on a delightful and fantastic book if I had turned a deaf ear. Sadly, I think I am not as persuasive though since I highly recommended this one to my WNBA group (the book association, not the basketball organization) last month at our annual summer reads meeting. When I tried to describe a novel about a college professor who has been closed off to people and life moving from the anonymity of New York City to a small New England town, getting involved in the lives of the people there, and buying an old Victorian to bring back to life, one of the other members asked if there was a hunky handyman involved. I had to say yes. Then I fumbled around to try and explain that this book was not as cliched as her laughing question implied. As a matter of fact, this novel is not that book at all. Yes, there is an attractive handyman who plays a major role in the story but this is about so much more than a relationship between a man and a woman, with all its attendant ups and downs. It is a novel about one woman's relationship to life, overcoming her fear of attachment, and embracing that second chance.Joy Harkness is a college English professor who jumps at the chance to move from New York City to the smallish town in Massachusetts that is home to Amherst. She is taking advantage of an offer to work with a renowned educator who has ideas on ways to shake up and improve 100-fold the way in which we teach, an all-encompassing and inter-departmental plan. As the project starts rolling, Joy herself learns to engage and integrate, losing her aloofness, grudgingly at first but more and more openly and appreciatively as time goes on. She is taken under the wing of one of her colleagues, develops a friendship with her realtor, and really comes out of her shell.When she moved to Amherst, Joy impulsively bought an old Victorian that most people would have considered a tear-down. But something about the bones and lines of the old house enchanted her, giving her a sense of possibility and so mindful of all the renovation needed, Joy couldn't walk away from the house. Everyone in town told her that Teddy was the person she wanted to work on the house and despite the fact that he strikes her as rather eccentric and child-like, she hires him. Soon they slide into a relationship, with Teddy painstakingly re-awakening the house to its former glory just as Joy herself is undergoing a remarkable transformation.The house serves as a metaphor throughout the book for the changes and improvements in Joy's life. The bones and important bits were always there waiting to be uncovered and highlighted. But this is not a book where a good man comes along and the female main character is suddenly happy and fulfilled. Joy's burgeoning relationships with Josie and Donna and her inclusion and involvement with the close-knit community are a major reason for her blooming as well. And that's really what the book is about: relationships of all kinds, the nurturing and care that goes into maintaining them, and the importance of having connections in your life. Teddy, as a character, in many ways highlights Joy's character flaws. Ironically, while having great insight into what makes her tick and the protective measures she's erected to stay aloof from life, Teddy has no clarity about his own life and situation.Joy did start off as rather cold and dismissive. She snipes at the homey atmosphere in Josie's office. She is snarky about the single men who each in turn take her out. She rebuffs students and colleagues when they come to her home. But Meier, in drawing such a character, has managed to keep a kernel of likability in her so that when Joy starts her slow metamorphosis, it is completely believable and the reader applauds, coming to have more and more sympathy with Joy as the pages turn. The secondary characters of Josie and Donna are well drawn and individual. Teddy is by turns adult and childish and his willful blindness can be incredibly aggravating but this doesn't detract from the "realness" of his character. The writing here is smooth and the story is engaging and I will continue to recommend it to friends, even if there is a cute handyman who renovates the house because it is so much more than that.
    • 4/5
      This was such a nice, feel-good book. Ms. Meier penned some very interesting characters that I found to be very honest, realistic, relateable and likeable. When Joy is given the choice of landing her dream job, leaving NYC and her average life behind, she grabs that bull by the horns and runs with it. This is her chance to start anew (a second chance at life) - she buys herself a fixer-upper and settles in to small-town life. She wasn't expecting all the new experiences she would have. While living in New York she was somewhat of a recluse. She was dedicated to her job but had little time for friends or socializing. Here at Amherst, her coworkers/colleagues basically force her to make friends. And then there's Teddy, the contractor who helps make her dilapidated house into a home. I loved reading the descriptions of Amherst, MA., and all the details on the home repairs, interior design, etc. My only complaint would be that I found that Joy behaved like a woman older than someone in her 40's. She could easily pass for a woman ten years older if you judged her on the way she acted. All in all, this was a sweet little story. It is not a must-read, but it is definitely an enjoyable read nonetheless. Recommended to those looking for a light, summer read that will leave you feeling satisfied and hopeful.
    • 3/5
      The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier was a different book than I was expecting. I've read enough books about middle aged women getting divorced and moving to a new town and fixing up a house/shop/inn for the concept to feel stale. This book was a fresh take on the genre.Joy Harkness seems your typical New Yorker, snark and all. After taking a job that moves her out of the city, she starts living the life she should have been living all along. Most of the people she meets force her out of her comfort zone of aloofness, and help mold her into a person that is engaging and caring. This story has a plethora of female characters and a few supporting male characters. Once again the one major failing of "chick lit" comes through. The female characters seem real and fleshed out, where the male characters tend not to have the same depth. They have distinct personalities, separate from each other, but it just seems that you wind up learning far more about the women than the men.Also one of the major story plots seems rather unresolved at the end, and the boy-man character of Teddy comes off so much like a boy at times that he seems distinctly "off". I love how the author developed feminist characters that see all aspects of being a woman, wife and mother as feminist-positive. Also, the fact that Joy is very human shines through. She is not perfect, she has her quirks and makes her mistakes, and because of that she becomes likable and real yet I couldn't quite 'become" Joy as I read, which was a disappointment. There are many books where I was fully immersed in the main character, but this one seemed to fall a little short of the mark for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it is the fact that the story barely acknowledges her past, her backstory was referenced often, but in an obligatory way.
    • 4/5
      A fine and well-written novel about a woman who moves to a small town and goes through life-changing experiences.
    • 2/5
      I wanted to like this book simply because the main character is refreshingly different from most fictional heroines-- Joy Harkness is 48, lives in a small college town, and she is not strikingly beautiful with a bunch quirky friends. I could relate to Joy's dedication to her work and her independence, but in other aspects of her character were exaggerated and didn't ring true. She seemed to barely remember her first husband and didn't seem to feel any emotions at all about her late mother or father. The other characters and several events in the book also seemed contrived, and overall the book was slow moving and without humor. It wasn't horrible, but it's not a book I would recommend.
    • 1/5
      Joy Harkness is an unhappy, unfulfilled and disconnected college professor who suddenly decides to jump ship at Columbia to work at Amherst College. She's going to join with a well-known professor in a model group of professors beginning a new project at Amherst, using interdisciplinary techniques to teach their students. Upon making the move, she buys a house in need of not just a renovation but some major work. Everyone tells her Teddy Hennessy is the man for the job, but Joy's not so sure when he shows up dressed down and fairly uncommunicative, if not surly. She's even less sure that she wants to build friendships with him, her officemates, or anyone else, for that matter.The premise has a lot of promise in giving details about renovations, living in a college town, or even just coming of age. What I couldn't handle was Joy. Despite her name, she is at best uninteresting and at worst grating and bitter. I just did not connect with her at all, and every page of her first-person internal monologue was painful to read. Because of this disconnect, I started noticing all the things that would have merely niggled had I enjoyed the story, such as Joy's complete disregard for how much work the new house needed before the upstairs bathroom flooded the first time the movers used it (did she not get an inspection? Seriously?). At another point, she complains about a family celebration of sort of-Thanksgiving three weeks before the holiday, yet admits later that she herself only bought takeout for the past ten Thanksgivings. I know other readers don't mind reading about characters they dislike, but I'm not one of them. Sorry.
    • 3/5
      Joy Harkness, is a 48 year old professor, who decides to take a major leap of faith. She leaves a safe life behind by taking a new job outside the city, and she impulsively buys a dilapidated old Victorian home in need of extensive renovations.There were funny, quirky, and very interesting people throughout, like Teddy, her handyman renovator, with whom she develops a friendship and and then a relationship.Her new path in life causes her to open up and start to feel things she never allowed herself to feel in the past. She begins to fully experience the joys of life.Although there were a lot of literary and design references, which weren't appealing to me, I completely enjoyed the the story's engaging characters and experiences.The transformation and blossoming of Joy throughout the book was especially heartening and uplifting, and as it slightly parallels my current life experiences, I found the book to be a very enjoyable read.
    • 2/5
      This book was such a struggle for me to read. The main character has problems forming connections with people, and I found that I couldn't connect to her at all. Not only that, I couldn't really connect to any of the characters as not one of them seemed authentic. Also, if anybody has seen the Seinfeld episode where Elaine edits a book adding in too many exclamation points, then you would understand why I related this book to that episode substituting italics for exclamation points. Stop stressing so many words! They simply aren't that important.
    • 3/5
      Professor Joy Harkness leaves Columbia and what she views as an increasing disconnect with life in NYC for a plum job at Amherst. She's in a great department and will help head a taskforce on changing the way students learn with a world renowned professor. She purchases her first house, an old Victorian in need of a great deal of work and a good contractor. She settles in at Amherst, sharing an office with women she can't quite believe are so friendly. Life in Amherst is messy and real, and Joy's gradual "coming of age" in the story is a bit slow, but somewhat rewarding in the end. The final third to quarter of the book really swayed my opinion of the story. Up until then, I was alternately frustrated then unhappy with Joy's moods and odd "oldness". (she's supposed to be 48, but, acts 58 some of the time).
    • 4/5
      This was a promising book about a female professor who leaves Columbia for Amherst, and the attendant life changes. A major theme is the professor's inability to emotionally connect with others or her own life. Unfortunately, it kind of felt like the author was disconnected with her own story. However, the writing was crisp and witty - reminiscent of Diane Johnson, if not quite as good.
    • 3/5
      The Season of Second Chances, the debut novel by Diane Meier, is the story of Joy Harkness. A bitter and unhappy literature professor in New York, Joy decides to leave it all in order to settle in Amherst Massachusetts at the behest of an academic legend. Life immediately begins to change for her, with it all centered around her decision to buy a falling down Victorian home and the appearance of a handsome handy man who arrives to help her restore it.Truthfully, Meier's novel took a long time to grow on me and even now I'm not sure I ever really loved it. I'm not the target audience, as a 24 year old who has little to be bitter about. Still, I keep thinking about how the main charcter of Joy Harkness appears. Every stereotype of a bitter single woman in her late 40s is encompassed in Joy Harkness. She became such an annoying character to me at times that I probably would have tried to shake some sense into the woman if I ever met her in real life. Ignoring that though, I thought the plot itself was rather interesting. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the restoration process of the house. Beautiful details about the colors and antiques of that end up entering the home, making the house a character unto itself. In summary, I give the book three stars and would recommend it to a few people as a beach read possibly. I'd just mention to skip over any section in which the character of Joy starts whining and feeling sorry for herself.
    • 2/5
      Since plot summaries already abound here, I’ll skip adding another.I got off on the wrong foot from the very first sentence of this novel: “It takes a keen eye to tell a false start from a dead end.” That may sound pithy, but it doesn’t make much sense. A dead end is really nothing at like a false start – few would confuse the two. At any rate, our cold, negative, bitter, self-absorbed narrator (named Joy), is an Ivy-League professor of Comparative Literature and yet, over and over, she inappropriately uses the word “literally” just like a high school freshman: "My apartment was literally on the market for...." “Watching her tell us was, literally, heart wrenching.” “I mean, we carry around these bodies that we think we’re using for protection or warmth, and it turns out they’re just literally dead weight.” “He looked, actually, literally, humanly depressed…..” This valley girl babysitter speech just doesn’t cut it coming from the mouth of an expert in English.Besides the altogether wrong tone of the narrator, Teddy is likewise implausibly drawn. How many (straight) carpenters/handymen do you know who troll thrift stores for framed vintage prints and Marimekko throw pillows? Apparently part Martha Stewart part Bob Vila, Teddy appreciates William Morris wallpaper and Rockingham pottery and recites poetry by heart, but we’re supposed to believe him to be a somewhat simple-minded backwoods stoner with little understanding of history and literature. He just doesn’t add up in a way that would allow a reader to suspend disbelief and forge ahead. And Joy's (and her cronies') desire to "improve" Teddy was so distasteful in its overt classism, that it made the already unlikable character of Joy seem even more shallow and "icky'.This book would have greatly benefited from the fictionalization of the names of Columbia University, Amherst College, The Lord Jeffrey Inn, etc – a la “Runway Magazine” for "Vogue" in The Devil Wears Prada. Joy’s repeated nasty, biting criticisms of Columbia and its faculty were so distracting I was left wondering just what Columbia had ever done to the author. Sprinkled mentions of Henry James, Néstor Almendros, Richard Wilbur, and Pascal don’t “an intelligent novel” make. Basically this is a not-all-that-well-crafted Chick Lit beach book -replete with lots and lots of Cosmo Quiz italicizing- set in a college town. If that’s your thing, give it a shot.
    • 4/5
      My mother would call Joy Harkness a late bloomer, but bloom she finally did. Joy is a tenured literature professor at Columbia University, so emotionally isolated that when the opportunity came to move to New York she left her home town, parents, and husband of four years without a backward glance. Even when the reality of New York failed to meet her expectations, she stayed. The novel begins with an unexpected opportunity to help start a new discipline at Amherst with one of the premier minds of the day. Joy jumps at the chance and then quite unexpectedly finds herself buying a house in much need of repair. Her new life in Massachusetts causes her to renovate her own approach to life. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I never liked the men she dated - not even, Teddy, the handyman who rebuilt her home - but I loved all the women who drew Joy, sometimes against her will, into true friendships. I definitely think I'll add this to my bookclub's list when it's my turn to host.
    • 2/5
      This is the story of a 48 year old Lit. proffessor that gets recruited for a new teaching program . She finds out that by accepting this position , she will radically change her stagnant lonely life . I liked the premise of the story . But the main character keeps herself at an emotional distance from the people she comes into contact with for most of the story . It was hard to sympathize with Joy because this factor . As a result , I found myself reading the book over a couple of weeks and not having that "can't put it down" feeling .
    • 3/5
      Joy Harkness is a professor who teaches at Columbia University, but is unhappy with her life in Manhatten. She gets an offer to teach at a small college (Amherst) in Massachusetts. She takes the job and makes a big move. She buys an old fixer-upper, which needs lots of work. She soons finds herself involved with co-workers, with her handyman, and with her life! I really enjoyed this book. I could really relate to Joy and her reluctance to let people into her life. It was fun to see her get out there and make a life for herself. There were a couple of times I wanted to yell at her for her crazy choices, but there were other times when I thought she made some wise decisions. I liked the ending, but I must admit I was also a bit confused by it.
    • 4/5
      Joy Harkness moved to New York City to teach at Columbia years ago. The life she expected she'd have in New York - the one with a social life and excitement - never really materialized. At age 48, Joy is given an opportunity to teach at a small college in Massachusetts and participate in an exciting new project. Joy makes this huge life change, complete with an old Victorian fixer-upper. She feels a bit like a fish out of water in her new life. She is unused to dating, or even cultivating friendships yet as she is drawn out of herself, into new situations, she slowly finds her place. Diane Meier'sThe Season of Second Chances: A Novelis the sort of fiction I don't find myself reading a lot of. So many books that are geared towards women today and set in the present seem to have the same few story lines that often don't appeal to me. The Season of Second Chances felt different. A smart female protagonist that is an educator and teaches literature can only be a good thing. Diane Meier's career up until now has been one full of style and creating beautiful things. That is apparent in this book as she writes about the makeover of Joy's home and all the bits and pieces that go into it. She writes about personal style and the delicious food being cooked and eaten. I liked the cozy feeling of this book and experiencing Joy's house becoming a home. I really enjoyed reading this book and was drawn into it right away. I found Joy to be a compelling character, though at times I wanted to yell at her! For such an intelligent woman she sometimes made really bad decisions, particularly about men. I thought about this and realized that was probably because she had kept inside of herself for so long. Dealing with adult emotions and motivations was something she needed practice with.
    • 3/5
      I'm giving this book three stars because it was okay. Not a complete waste of time, but not one that I would recommend to a friend. Overall, I thought the plot was boring and the characters hard to connect with.
    • 4/5
      This is a sweet book, though it's not without some drama and darkness.  At just the right time in her life, Joy Harkness gets an unexpected job offer that takes her from a prestigious but unsatisfying job at Columbia University to an equally prestigious job in the small college town of Amherst, Massachusetts.  Leaving behind a life devoid of personal connections, she suddenly finds herself thrust into the social framework of her new home.Joy’s lack of personal past seems at many points in the narrative to be little more than a plot device to set up the “second chance” that she suddenly has in her new home. After all, if we didn’t know that she was a social outsider at Columbia, it wouldn’t make sense for her to behave in such a socially awkward way at Amherst. Except it still doesn’t make sense, because although she initially rebuffs many social efforts from her colleagues, she seems to have no problem forming a relationship with the handyman who fixes up her new house. That inconsistency undercuts much of the tension that might otherwise be present as she is forced to reconsider her life in social terms.Fortunately, for both Joy and the reader, her new colleagues are fairly insistent that she not hold herself apart any longer, and the story that unfolds is quite touching. If many of the secondary characters seem flat, it is because their purpose is really to shine a spotlight on Joy and the changes she is experiencing. Meier generally succeeds in giving us a readable and enjoyable story and avoids the saccharine by achieving an ending that is not happy in the usual sense, but is certainly satisfying and hopeful.
    • 2/5
      Wow, I was not a fan of this book. Admittedly, I'm probably not the intended audience for the novel; however, I should still be able to enjoy a well-written novel about someone who is not my age. This book is predictable and utilizes all the same old stereotypes. The novel's progression is inevitable.
    • 5/5
      Don't read this book if you have things to do or appointments to keep. I wasn't able to put it down. Very good story. Interesting characters with good development.