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    Rise and Shine
    Rise and Shine
    Rise and Shine
    Audiobook10 hours

    Rise and Shine

    Written by Anna Quindlen

    Narrated by Carol Monda

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    It's Monday morning when Meghan Fitzmaurice blows her perfect life to bits. The host of "Rise and Shine," the country's highest rated morning talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial break, but not before she mutters two forbidden words into her open mike. It's the end of an era, not only for Meghan, a household face who is not equipped to deal with disgrace, but for her younger sister Bridget, a social worker in the Bronx who has lived always in Meghan's long shadow. The effect of Meghan's on-air profanity-and truth telling-is felt by her son, her husband, her friends, her fans and even the city of New York, the capitol of appearance over reality. But above all it transforms the sister with whom she's shared everything, even the mixed blessings of fame. What follows is a story about a city big enough to hold prep school rappers, rich poseurs, familiar strangers, and autograph seekers in the ladies room at black tie balls. But ultimately it's about how, in very different ways, the Fitzmaurice girls whip the place into shape. Meghan and Bridget, Bridget and Meghan. They share smart mouths, a fractured childhood, and a powerful connection that even the worst tragedy can't rupture.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 11, 2008
    ISBN9781436101349
    Rise and Shine
    Author

    Anna Quindlen

    Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of nine novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Miller’s Valley, and Alternate Side. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear.

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    Reviews for Rise and Shine

    3.5/5

    35 ratings22 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      This novel had a good premise. It's basically the story of two adult sisters, one of whom lives in the spotlight as a morning talk show host, the other who lives a quieter life in her sister's shadow. The core of the book centers around the superstar sister's "fall from grace", when two profanities slip out of her mouth while the cameras are still rolling. It's a unique idea for a storyline. But the book is more about the relationship between the sisters & how it evolves & changes. And that's where it fell flat. It was unremarkable, really, and I found the sisters' relationship tiring and annoying most of the time. I don't have a sister, so maybe I just couldn't relate, but the story never did succeed in drawing me in. The last portion of the book was especially disappointing. It was as if Quindlen decided to push the fast forward button after writing the majority of the novel in slow motion. Not a very smooth transition, in my opinion. I've not read any of Anna Quindlen's other novels, although I had the impression she was a decent writer. This is just obviously not one of her best.
    • 2/5
      I have read 2 good books from this author. This one lacks adequate editing. It is long and tedious with no real storyline. Worst of all it is riddled with offensive racial steretypes.
    • 1/5
      very disappointed in this book. loved "black and blue." i so did not care about the characters in "rise and shine." i continued reading hoping it would get better, but it didn't.
    • 2/5
      Great premise: one sister observed through the others' viewpoint. I delayed reading this book after purchasing it because when skimming through it I found it dialog-heavy. After I started reading it, I found much to enjoy in the insider's views of upper-class New York Society. Unfortunately, although the contemporary, clever dialog did not grate on me as much as I'd thought it would, the lack of emotional connection with the characters did. Relationships that could have been intense seemed tepid. I had trouble caring, although I wanted to. Could the deliberately glib prose style have caused the emotional distance from the characters? Or did the author attempt to achieve that type of connection between character and reader and simply fall short? Deliberate or not, the emotional disengagement (after all, we are talking about intense events, such as shootings, pregnancies, divorce, career meltdown, sister dynamics) caused a failure to launch for me. I skimmed through the last third. As for Irving, his is a well-drawn portrait. I dated a Latino Irving; same age difference, same appreciation for women as a treat. I wish that the other characters had come alive for me. When you are writing about characters who are stuffing their emotions, you need to show more interior struggle. Perhaps seeing Meghan once-removed through Bridget's eyes was a poor choice? Fitzgerald did it in Gatsby, sure, but here it doesn't seem to catch fire. Her nonfiction is good, however.
    • 3/5
      Rise and Shine was a pleasant, fast-paced story of two sisters. Bridget and Meghan Fitzmaurice lead very different lives, but things change in the blink of an eye and their lives dovetail unexpectedly. I enjoyed reading about the family relationships, which we all know can be wonderful and complicated and messy all at the same time! Neither sister really understands very much about the other but they do learn and grow as the story progresses. The more interesting characters to me were Bridget's boyfriend Irving Lefkowitz and Meghan's son Leo. Everything ends nicely and leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling, but this book wasn't anything to get TOO excited about. It was my first Anna Quindlen book, and I would certainly try another one.
    • 3/5
      Often in Anna Quindlen's books, there is so much there that renders the actual plotline secondary. She is so cohesive with her descriptions that characterizations and story can take a back seat. Sometimes this works well - for instance in her recent Every Last One, we slowly learned the dynamics of the central family, all the better to experience their tragedy with them. Other times, it can simply feel indulgent. Such is the case with Rise and Shine.Two sisters, orphaned at a young age, and raised by an aunt and uncle. Now grown up, Bridget is a social worker, running a non-profit to help indigent mothers and their children. Older sister Meghan is the host of the morning show Rise and Shine, and the most recognized woman in the country. Bridget seems to fit well in the dichotomy of her life; the teeming poverty of of her world, and the glittering excesses of her sister's. Quindlen does an excellent job of showing that underneath it all, it's not what it seems. Meghan is essentially miserable in her position; her husband, Evan, is even more unhappy in Meghan's world, and though no one can deny that they both are excellent parents, Bridget herself has spent more hands-on time with their college - aged son Leo than they have.After a slow buildup, everything collapses practically in 24 hours. Meghan lets loose with an expletive-laden open-mike perjorative aimed at a guest which blows up the tabloids as only that type of incident can. In her frantic attempts to contact her sister in its aftermath, Bridget discovers that her brother-in-law had asked for a divorce and left his wife only the night before. Faced with the bad publicity of the ended marriage and the on -air gaffe, Meghan simply disappears, hiding away at a friend's Jamaican villa. This leaves Bridget to pick up the pieces, with Leo, with the press, and with the few true friends that Meghan has. And continue her own life without her sister's guidance; the long term relationship, her job, her relationship with Leo.What follows is another long detour, describing the city, the different boroughs and attitudes of their inhabitants, the people, places and things of New York City. Informative? Yes. Necessary? Not really, no. Then the defining event occurs, bringing out the worst and best of everyone, and finally allowing the story to be completed.This is not a bad book; not by any means. It is populated with memorable and alive characters and a compelling story, it's just buried so far underneath the descriptions and recollections that it gets a little lost. Well done, though possibly too well done.This was an audiobook for me; the reader was superb, inserting humor, sarcasm and distress when needed. Superbly done.
    • 3/5
      Meghan is an anchor woman on a morning news program, Rise and Shine. She has everything - a great lawyer husband, a college son who is actually a nice kid, national and international recognition. She has it all and yet she has nothing. She can’t tell anyone how unhappy she is, especially not her sister, Bridget - the opposite. As Meghan’s career climbs to new heights, Bridget’s flounders from one thing to the next - always searching. She finally becomes a social worker and the head of a woman’s center in a nasty part of NYC - The Tubman Projects. She also falls in love with a crusty 20-year-older police commissioner.Then Meghan self-destructs - she breaks the cardinal rule of TV and utters what she really believes about a guest on air. She flees to Jamaica and turns into a recluse evading all she knew - running from her crumbling marriage and the strain of playing nice . Bridget eventually tracks her down and instead of bringing her home she has her eyes opened to the real Meghan.Back in NYC tragedy strikes the projects and Meghan is forced to return. In a moment of clarity, she reenters the world of TV news in a way no one could have predicted.This book give lots of insight into the glitter of upscale NY and the reality of the poor in the dark corners of the city. Meghan and Bridget are played out as sisters united by the tragic death of their parents at an early age, yet they are filled with their own secrets. I liked the book - but had a hard time really staying with it.01/07
    • 4/5
      Mom and I listened to this book on the way to and from Arlington, VA. I enjoyed it, although there was one part about the end I really didn't like -- the fight that Megan and Bridget had near the end didn't ring true, and I also didn't like how the author didn't really address it -- there was no resolution to the fight itself.
    • 2/5
      i didn't care for the younger sisters naration of her life and family drama. too new york, upper class, blah blah blah for my midwestern taste.
    • 5/5
      love Anna Quindlen and this is now my most favorite of her novels
    • 3/5
      Okay, it's impossible to read this without picturing Katie Couric. That may be more true for me than others because I used to live in a city where her late sister, Emily Couric, was the representative to the state city. Emily Couric certainly made her mark on the local level, though. Anyway, the book: enjoyable story, but not earth shattering. This book strikes me as sentimental chick lit that is slightly more high toned and not about finding a man.
    • 5/5
      Terrific story of two sisters who live in New York-one is a Katie Couric like figure.
    • 5/5
      I love a book that accurately portrays sister relationships. This one did it for me, almost making me cry towards the end. Slightly predictable in a certain sense, but I loved it nonetheless.
    • 5/5
      I think Quindlen is an amazing writer. I love her short essays for NEWSWEEK, & I've loved all of her novels. And I really shouldn't have liked this one. It's a book about New York City (very consciously so--the first sentence is: "From time to time some stanger will ask me how I can bear to live in New York City"--and that notion is repeated in various forms throughout the book), and it's in some ways a book of manners, like the 19th-century English novels I don't like. Furthermore, it's very much about the contemporary obsessions of academia--race, class, and gender--and about nontraditional families. BUT her characters & their emotions are so richly portrayed & so real that she breaks down the abstractions of the categories and in so doing illuminates them. (That's what makes her essays so good, too.) This one's about two adult sisters, in their 40s. One is America's best-known morning talk show anchor; the other runs a shelter for (mostly African American) women in the Bronx. When the "successful" one faces a career crisis, it affects her relationships with her sister, her husband, her college-age son, & her friends, and we, as readers, are witness to all the fascinating ramifications. Another Quindlen miracle.
    • 3/5
      Literary Fiction. Relationship between two sisters. One works for television news station and the other a homeless shelter. Very wordy.
    • 4/5
      A little slow to start, but very relateable and human.
    • 1/5
      I didn't care about one character, I didn't care about the plot, I was completely not buying what she was selling.
    • 3/5
      I liked, but certainly didn't love, this book about the relationship between two sisters. Meghan is the fabulously wealthy, incredibly famous, much beloved star of a morning television talk show. Her younger sister Bridget is a social worker in the Bronx. Meghan's seemingly perfect life changes when she inadvertantly curses on air while cutting to a commercial. Bridget, used to living in her older sister's shadow, feels the effect of the mistake as well. Their story of how they deal with the fallout, told by Bridget, follows from there. It is certainly an easy read. Most of the characters are interesting, but I didn't really connect to any of them. At one point toward the end Bridget lashes out at her sister. While I assume it was supposed to be a pivotal moment, I found it to be random -- completely out of character and nonsensical for Bridget to come to the conclusion she did. I thought a story about sisters would resonate with me because I have six, but instead it was simply a pleasant read with a contrived ending.Also, perhaps it is just me, but I wish people who live in New York City understood that those of us who don't live there don't spend our every waking moment wondering what it must be like and wishing to understand all its idiosyncrasies. Almost every chapter began with some piece of information about NYC that I am sure I was supposed to treat as the reveal of a great mystery, but most of the time the information was not novel to NYC. My favorite was a long discussion about how people who don't live there don't understand that you can't lose yourself in New York because New Yorkers know each other, recognizing their neighbors even if they don't know their names. Huh? Does Ms. Quindlen really think people in Cleveland or Houston or Chicago or even any small town in the US don't have the same experience? Early on Bridget says New York is the center of the universe; her lengthy comments about the city didn't persuade me.
    • 5/5
      I really liked the Tale of Two Cities aspect of this wonderful story of two sisters -- the ultrawealthy NYC and the impoverished NYC. Characters are very well drawn, and the relationship between Meghan and Bridget Fitzmaurice lives and breathes.
    • 4/5
      It's an otherwise ordinary Monday when Meghan Fitzmaurice's perfect life hits a wall. A household name as the host of Rise and Shine, the countsy' highest-rated morning television talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial breaki-but not before she does something that, in an instant, marks the end of an era, not only for Meghan, who is unacustomed to dealing with adversity, but also for her younger sister, Bridget. A social worker in the Bronx, Bridget has always looked up to Meghan while living in her long shadow.
    • 2/5
      I just have to stop reading her books. The plots seem interesting, draw me in, and then her writing exasperates me in a way that's hard to describe. It's sloppy, filled with details that seem to serve no purpose; it's mostly serviceable, very occasionally quite good, and then a highly irritating cliche will pop up and ruin the sentence. No more Anna Quindlen for me.
    • 3/5
      Meghan is the popular host of America's top-rated morning talk sow - until she shatters her seemingly perfect life b letting two profane words slip freom her lips just before a commercial break. Suddenly, she is shamed - something she's not equipped to handle. Her sister Bridget, a social worker who has long lived in Meghan's shadow, feels the effects of the on-air gaffe, too. They may be different, but the Fitzmaurice sisters share a deep connection that helps them challenge the world when faced with disgrace.