Puss Reboots: Blog: February 2010: The Woman Who Wouldn't

Recent posts

Reviews:
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Blocked by Geoff Ryman
A Busy Day at the Farm by Doreen Cronin
Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss
The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog by Marian Babson
Coolies by Yin
D.A. by Connie Willis
Detective Small and the Amazing Banana Caper by Wong Herbert Yee
Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng Chiang by Terrance Dicks
The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright
The Far Shore by Elizabeth Hand
Ghost Ship by Dietlof Reiche
Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex
Henry the Sailor Cat by Mary Calhoun
Henry's Show and Tell by Nancy Carlson
Her by Laura Zigman
I Love You, Mama, Any Time of the Year by Nancy Whilte Carlstrom
I Spy a School Bus by Jean Marzollo
The Knight at Dawn (Magic Tree House #2) by Mary Pope Osborne
Little Bo by Julie Andrews Edwards
Lost and Found by Jane Sigaloff
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Monsters vs Aliens: Team Monster by Gale Herman
My First Time Board Book by Elizabeth Hester
Nana Volume 3 by Ai Yazawa
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Olivia Acts Out by Jodie Shepherd
Rules of the Net by Jennifer Guess McKerley
Shadowland (Mediator #1) by Meg Cabot
Shooting an Albatross by Steven R. Lundin
Sugar Time by Jane Adams
Time and Time Again by James Hilton
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 13: Hobgoblin by Brian Michael Bendis
Viking Ships Before Sunrise (Magic Tree House #15) by Mary Pope Osborne
Wally the Walking Fish Meets Madinson and Cooper by Gary Lamit
The Woman Who Wouldn't by Gene Wilder
Why I Will Never Ever Ever Ever Have Enough Time to Read This Book by Remy Charlip
Zak: The One-of-a-Kind Dog by Jane Lidz
Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby

Previous month

Months in review

March
February
January
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April

Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

Reading Challenges

Beat the Backlist 2023

Canadian Book Challenge: 2022-2023

Artwork
Chicken Art

Download a full scale version (PDF)

Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.

The Woman Who Wouldn't: 02/21/10

I like the walk the stacks at my library just to see what jumps out at me. On one of my recent walks I spotted The Woman Who Wouldn't by Gene Wilder. I stopped mid step, thinking, Gene Wilder writes books? I opened the cover to read the back flap and sure enough there was Gene Wilder, actor and author.

The Woman Who Wouldn't is a novella about an unlikely romance at a sanitarium at the turn of the last century. A concert violinist goes to Germany to recover from a nervous breakdown. While there he meets the woman who wouldn't and eventually befriends her.

When I started the book I was skeptical but by the end of the first chapter I was hooked. There's a subtle humor to the book that brings a human face to the patients instead of putting the focus on their conditions.

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Tuesday, February, 23, 2010 at 10:13:22

Nicola

Thanks for this! Never heard of it and didn't know Gene Wilder wrote books either! I have a special interest for books set in early 1900s sanitariums, so will definitely be looking for this one!

Comment #2: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 21:41:01

Pussreboots

I think you will really like The Woman Who Wouldn't. It's a lovely, touching and sometimes humerous romance.

1997-2023 Sarah Sammis