In this touching and atmospheric novel set among the fishermen of Newfoundland, Proulx tells the story of Quoyle. From all outward appearances, Quoyle has gone through his first 36 years on earth as a big schlump of a loser. He's not attractive, he's not brilliant or witty or talented, and he's not the kind of person who typically assumes the central position in a novel. But Proulx creates a simple and compelling tale of Quoyle's psychological and spiritual growth. Along the way, we get to look in on the maritime beauty of what is probably a disappearing way of life. ... Read more

Isbn: 0671510053
Subjects:  1. Domestic fiction    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Literary    5. Newfoundland and Labrador    6. Fiction / General   

Wells continues the saga of Sidda and Vivi Walker in her follow-up, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and this time the mood is considerably lightened as she takes her characters back in time via a collection of letters, clippings, and scrapbooks--the "divine secrets" of the title. Here a younger, more sympathetic Vivi shares the limelight with her Ya-Ya pals, Teensy, Caro, and Necie. From skinny-dipping in the town water tower to boozing it up at the spring cotillion, these Southern-fried hell-raisers prove what everyone has always suspected--that "it's so much fun being a bad girl!"But you don't have to be bad to enjoy Rebecca Wells's take on family, friendship, and the ties that bind for a lifetime. --Margaret Prior ... Read more

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• Box set

Isbn: 0060932058
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Literary    5. Fiction / General    6. Reading Group Guide   

In this warm, almost sepia-toned narrative, Carter describes his relationshipswith his parents and with the five people--only two of whom were white--who mostaffected his early life. Best of all, however, Carter presents his sweetlynostalgic recollections of a lost America. --Sunny Delaney ... Read more

Isbn: 0743211995
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Childhood Memoir    7. Country life    8. Farmers    9. Georgia    10. Historical - General    11. History    12. Plains    13. Presidents    14. Presidents & Heads of State    15. Regional Subjects - South    16. United States    17. Biography & Autobiography / General   

With home-cooked, Southern literary flair, Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes) returns with Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! "Baby Girl," as she is lovingly referred to by her sweet, country cousins, is Dena Nordstrom, a tall, blonde, corn-fed girl who makes it big in Manhattan. Ms. Nordstrom is now the top TV anchorwoman in the city, beating out veteran journalists and making ungodly amounts of money.Although her life seems charmed, Dena is frazzled and miserable. She drinks uncontrollably, is a borderline compulsive liar, and is forced to undergo therapy because of her stress-induced ulcer. Her psychiatrist, Dr. O'Malley, falls madly in love with her, of course, and sends the blonde bombshell to a close colleague, Dr. Diggers. Living up to her name, Diggers shovels up a mountain of dysfunction and forces Dena to face her mysterious past; all the while the good doctor reports back to brokenhearted O'Malley about her patient's progress. Meanwhile, back at the station, Ms. Nordstrom has made friends and enemies in very high places. Her greatest ally is Howard Kingsley, the Cronkitesque reporter who wields power with more ease than most seasoned politicos: "He closed the door and handed the driver a ten-dollar bill. 'Take this young lady where she wants to go for me, will you? And be careful, she's valuable property.'" It's a good thing she has friends like that, because her boss, Ira Wallace, makes George Costanza from Seinfeld look like a scrupulous saint. When Wallace hires a nasty but effective mole by the name of Sidney Capello to dig up garbage on celebrities, Nordstrom has a head-on collision with his sense of ethics (or lack thereof) and gets Capello canned. Or so she thinks. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is very much like its star, Dena Nordstrom: pretty, scattered, confused, and sometimes interesting. It's a long ride from the Whistle Stop Cafe, and readers who enjoy Jan Karon's Mitford Fall series will most likely be the biggest fans of Flagg's third novel. ... Read more

Isbn: 044900578X
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Fiction / General   

Who knows how historians will judge this book, but it sure does a great job of making history into a Jackie Collins novel. --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Isbn: 0446609129
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. First Ladies    6. Legislators' spouses    7. Presidents' spouses    8. Rich & Famous    9. United States    10. Women    11. Biography & Autobiography / Rich & Famous   

Young wizard-in-training Harry Potter has had his hands full during hisfirst four years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As if excellingon and off the Quidditch field isn't enough, Harry has heard evil voices in thewalls, saved lives, and fended off convicts. Only time will tell how Harry willmanage the certain dangers in store for him over the next few years. The firstfour titles of J.K. Rowling's magical, witty, exciting adventures are nowavailable in a gift set, perfect for the legions of children whose big brothersand sisters (and parents) have made off with their copies. These grippingfantasy novels are on the road to becoming classics--don't wait to collect theselovely hardcover editions, illustrated by the talented Mary GrandPré.Each boxed set includes Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, HarryPotter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner ofAzkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (Ages 8 and older)--Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Features

• Box set

Isbn: 0439249546
Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure    2. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - Fantasy    3. Children: Grades 2-3    4. Humorous Stories    5. Juvenile Fiction    6. School & Education    7. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic   

But as we all know, Eden can't last forever. And in the hands of Joyce Carol Oates, who's chronicled just about every variety of familial dysfunction, you know the fall from grace is going to be a doozy. By the time all is said and done, a rape occurs, a daughter is exiled, much alcohol is consumed, and the farm is lost. Even to recount these events in retrospect is a trial for the Mulvaney offspring, one of whom declares: "When I say this is a hard reckoning I mean it's been like squeezing thick drops of blood from my veins." In the hands of a lesser writer, this could be the stuff of a bad television movie. But this is Oates's 26th novel, and by now she knows her material and her craft to perfection. We Were the Mulvaneys is populated with such richly observed and complex characters that we can't help but care about them, even as we wait for disaster to strike them down. --Anita Urquhart ... Read more

Isbn: 0452282829
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Literary    5. Sagas   

Fall On Your Knees (Oprah #45)
by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (24 January, 2002)
list price: $15.00 -- our price: $10.20
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Editorial Review

A sprawling saga about five generations of a family from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is the impressive first fiction from Canadian playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald. This epic tale of family history, family secrets, and music centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and with their father.Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the story also shifts to the battlefields of World War I and the jazz scene of New York City in the 1920s. ... Read more

Reviews (527)

Beautiful, Brutal and Honest
MacDonald's novel is forcefully lyric and (sometimes morbidly) compelling, yet perhaps its chief virtue is the graceful brutality and humanity of her characters. From the haunting and poetic opening paragraph, the novel drew me into the circle of the strangely entrancing Piper family. I've heard the novel compared to a traffic accident, but such a description implies distancing oneself from the novel. I found myself enmeshed far more deeply in the lives of the characters. MacDonald paints unflinchingly honest, yet touching portraits of James, Materia, Kathleen, Mercedes, Francis, Lily and the rest of the population of the novel. Each character is fascinating as an individual and, despite considerable character flaws, sympathetically portrayed. I've rarely encountered a novel in which the characters are so fully rendered that they are at once understood and embraced by the reader. "Fall On Your Knees" cannot fail to remind the reader that there is no human perfection in this world, only the beauty and savagery of the human spirit.

Fall On Your Knees was FIVE books in one. Too much to endure
The overwhelming tragic themes of rape, incest suicide and murder are far too overdone and exhausting at times. On the other hand it is a hard book to put down with so much happening at once. This story was spilling over with so many secrets, unexpected twists and turns that I was always caught by surprise.

Fall on Your Knees deals with 3 generations of family living in the Cape Breton Island and focuses on the trials and tribulations of the very dysfunctional Piper family.
I won't go into the synopsis of the story like I usually do, but will tell you Fall on Your Knees feeds you continuous "graphic" scenes of child molestation, homosexuality, rape, incest, and murder that are startling and in some ways tactless. It was hard at times to believe this family is considered "normal" after enduring a series of such tragic events over and over and over.

Overall, Ann-Marie MacDonald does a wonder job of writing Fall On Your Knees and draws you right behind the closed doors of the Piper family's resident. I will also mention there are some bright points about this dark story, but are overshadowed with horror EVERY character in the book had to endure.

Rolanda,
Nothing BUT Page Turners Book Club

A MUST READ
I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK AS A GIFT AND WAS HESITANT TO START READING IT. KNOWING I WOULD NEVER HAVE PICKED THIS BOOK UP MYSELF. BUT I STARTED AND IT TOOK SOME TIME TO GET INTO IT, A LONG TIME, BUT THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. IT BECAME AN INSTANT PAGE TURNER AND I FOUND MYSELF FINISHED FINALLY!!EXCELLENT ... Read more

Isbn: 0743237188
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Historical - General    4. Literary    5. Sagas    6. Fiction / General    7. Historical    8. Family    9. Nova Scotia    10. Cape Breton Island (N.S.)    11. Canada    12. Reading Group Guide   

The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy
by Vicki Iovine
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 October, 1995)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

Beginning with the "10 Greatest Lies About Pregnancy" (number 10: Lamaze works), and ending with postpartum dementia, Vicki Iovine's Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy has fast become the laywoman's mouthpiece for the American pregnancy experience. Iovine is irreverent, sassy, and incredibly reassuring as she exposes the "truths" of pregnancy and childbirth, from sex to cellulite to cesareans. Iovine birthed four kids in six years, none of them twins, which certainly qualifies her as an expert. The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy does reveal Iovine's particular cultural biases (pregnant or not, most of us don't have record-producer husbands, hang out with supermodels, or wear size-four pants) and philosophical beliefs (she's not a particularly strong proponent of natural childbirth or nursing), but, taken with a grain or two of salt, she provides many hilarious moments, acres of advice, and honest reassurance readers will find nowhere else. --Ericka Lutz ... Read more

Reviews (777)

waste of money and time
I read the whole book and HATED it.I actually ended up personally disliking the author.It started out well enough, about how a community of supportive women is vital during pregnancy and motherhood.I agreed with that.But it quickly went downhill from there.
First of all, it seemed to me that her "encouragement" to exercise was an afterthought that her editors made her throw in - I got the distinct impression that her real opinion was that you're best off not exercising at all.She actually goes so far as to say that labor is easier if you're out of shape (!?)
Not to mention how incredibly dated some of the advice is - for example, the section on maternity clothes?Decent, relatively inexpensive maternity clothes ARE available nowadays, and the outfits she suggests sound positively hideous.I understand that a blazer over a unitard was considered fashionable in the early 90's, but honestly, who today would even consider wearing that?
And then she heartily reccommends CVS - an invasive, totally unnecessary in most cases prenatal test that carries fairly high risk and is not usually done unless there is a real risk of something being wrong with the baby.She advocates having it done just because.No real reason, just because.Huh?
The general message that I got from the book was, "you're taking unnecessary risks if you exercise, but unnecessary invasive testing procedures are awesome; you're a fashion victim if you don't wear unitards; you're a selfish masochist if you try for a natural birth."
And yes, I have a sense of humor, but no, I did not find her funny.Just really, really irritating.

Put me in the pro-Vicki camp
- Great to read before you start telling others you're pregnant.Reading it felt like chatting with my own dear girlfriends.

-The only pregnancy book my husband found interesting- helped open up some good discussions.

-As well as being hysterically funny, it was a better source of helpful information than I had anticipated, especially on topics like what to bring to the hospital (and why!) and what you need for baby.

- Includes a page you are instructed to leave out for your husband, informing him that he should bring a gift for you to the hospital.Resulted in a lovely new bracelet for me=)

- Certainly not a substitute for a more technical guide to pregnancy, but its lighthearted tone helped me keep things in perspective.

-Unlike some reviewers, I didn't find it at all offensive tonatural childbirth or breastfeeding.It was, however, equally supportive of those who make other choices, which is something of a rarity.

A slightly different take
Going through the other reviews here, I was first amazed at how polarizing this book is. But after a few minutes' thought, I could see what the problem is. Ms. Iovine and her "girlfriends" and their husbands are all a part of the California entertainment industry. This explains her occasionally cynical and often shallow attitude towards appearances, relationships and sexuality. She assumes that the concerns of her actress/model friends are the same as every other woman in the world, when in fact they are not. We do not all live in a bubble where appearances are the most important thing in life, and where our fabulously wealthy menfolk will dump us for some other Playmate the moment we let our perfect bodies get less than perfect. Let me clarify here: I think Ms. Iovine's overall point is to try to reassure us that looks aren't as important in pregnancy as in regular life. But she seems to forget that the majority of her audience isn't made up of starlets and rock-star wives and that our concerns and priorities are going to be different.

That said, there is a lot of helpful information in this book to be gleaned if you are willing to set aside the fact that Ms. Iovine's connection to how "real women" actually live is filtered through a gauzy Hollywood lens. I found the chapter on the actual birth process to be especially good as it was least filled with ranting about how awful you're going to look. The chapter on baby clothes and equipment was also informative for a first-time mother such as myself, since she takes the trouble to explain what certain things are for and how they should be used rather than just plopping down a dry list of 'stuff.'

If you are a strong proponent of natural childbirth and breastfeeding no-matter-what, this book will be outright offensive to you, so I suggest you stay far away from it. If you're open to differing views on these matters, then it should be easy to accept Ms. Iovine's opinions as what they are: opinions, something everyone has plenty of. There are dozens of books out there offering opposing viewpoints and they're not hard to find. ... Read more

Isbn: 0671524313
Subjects:  1. Child Care/Parenting    2. Family / Parenting / Childbirth    3. General    4. Pregnancy    5. Pregnancy & Childbirth    6. Topic - Family    7. Family & Relationships / General   

A Map of the World (Oprah's Book Club)
by JANE HAMILTON
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (03 December, 1999)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Editorial Review

Oprah Book Club® Selection, December 1999: In A Map of the World, appearance overwhelms reality and communal hysteria threatens common sense. Howard and Alice Goodheart, the couple at the center of Jane Hamilton's 1994 novel, have labored mightily to create a pastoral paradise in a Wisconsin subdivision. Their 400-acre dairy farm is the last in Prairie Center, and they're working flat out to raise their two young girls in a traditionally bucolic manner. Yet paradoxically, they strike their neighbors as unacceptably modern, and have been treated as interlopers since the day of their arrival. Howard, in love with his vocation, chooses not to believe that they've been frozen out. But Alice, flinty and quick to judge, finds things harder. And her job as school nurse doesn't work wonders for her reputation either. Happily, there's one exception to this epidemic of unfriendliness: their closest neighbors. Theresa and Dan, who also have two young daughters, function as a virtual lifeline for the embattled family.

But in June 1990, whatever idyll the Goodhearts have worked for comes to a permanent end. On a beautiful morning--marred by her 5-year-old's tantrum but still recuperable--Alice looks forward to taking her children and Theresa's youngest for a swim. Distracted for several minutes, she has no idea that the 2-year-old is no longer in the house:

Lizzy had run to the pond and splashed in. It had felt good on her hot feet andshe kept running and then she was pedaling and pedaling. She tried to grab hold of the water, pawing for the metal bar, a ladder rung, her mother, but there was nothing. She clutched and flailed.... She sank. The trout that Howard had stocked in the pond swam along through the dark water. They noticed Lizzy out of the corner of their eyes. They had inherited the knowledge of that look, and they knew it by heart.

This is only the first of Alice's body blows. Next, she's questioned about one of her students, a memorably bad seed. On the verge of collapse, she cries out, "I hurt everybody!"--which will later be construed as a confession. Charged with sexual abuse and unable to come up with $100,000 in bail, she is forced to await trial in jail.

Narrated first by Alice, then Howard, and then Alice again, A Map of the World moves from intimate domesticity to courtroom drama with grace and subtlety. Hamilton wrote her book when accusations of abuse in schools and day care were peaking, yet this is not a modish work or an "issue novel" but a lasting creation of several complex lives. At one point, fed up with civil mechanisms, Alice tells her lawyer: "'Let Oprah be the judge.... Let Robbie and me, Mrs. Mackessy, Howard, Theresa, Dan, Mrs. Glevitch--let all of us come before Oprah. Let the studio audience decide. They're nice suburban woman, many of them, dressed for a lark. They have common sense and speak their minds.'" Apparently La Winfrey was listening, since she chose this beautifully observed novel for her book club. --Kerry Fried ... Read more

Reviews (349)

Bland rubbish
I found it extremely hard to finish this book. It was very drawn out and monotonous. I really don't understand how so many people found it to be such a good read. This is the first book from Oprah's book club that I've picked up, and let me tell you, if the rest of the books in her club are this bad, count me out. The characters were non-relatable and I think that is the books major flaw. The main character, Alice, is thrown for a loop when her neighbor's daughter drowns in her pond when she was supposed to be baby sitting her; thusly everything snowballs after that. The plot of the book has potential, however, it was executed poorly through characters that are so annoying and despiteful you find yourself trudging through the book. Books are supposed to take you away into the story, evoke an emotion...I got nothing from this book. It was just bland rubbish and a waist of my time.

Rounding Up to Five Stars
Despite its selection as an Oprah's Book Club selection (which always makes me hesitant), and its national bookseller status (again, sometimes cause for concern), I reluctantly picked up "Map of the World", expecting to put it right back down within two chapters.

But I was sold in just one.

There were times that this book ran me a few minutes late for work or kept me up later than I wished because I just couldn't put it down. Admittedly, this was not the case for the entire book, but overall "A Map of the World" tells a tragically human and compelling story that immediately draws the reader in and holds him/her (almost) to the bitter end.

The characters are perfectly flawed and very well-developed. Hamilton's writing style is refreshingly superior without being pretentious or condescending in the slightest. The plot(s) are believable and unfold in a natural and intriguing manner. There are times when the narrative tends to ramble, but just when I became aware of that, the chapter or section would close.

It's not a life-changer, and probably not even one that I'll go back through ever again, but the singular experience with "A Map of the World" was stellar.

Ordinary Life turned upside down
This book showed me how an average person can fall quickly, by making one or two bad decisions in their life.It had a snowball effect, and was written beautifully.I love Jane Hamilton's writing.Do not see the movie based on this book it is dull and the characters are very one dimensional in the movie.The book however is superb and has many gotcha moments when you least expect them.Jane Hamilton seduces you into beliving all is well with the world until she pounces on you and tears your heart right out of your chest.Thought provoking book on the human condition. ... Read more

Isbn: 0385720106
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Literary    4. Fiction / General    5. Reading Group Guide   

The Bonesetter's Daughter
by Amy Tan
Average Customer Review:
Mass Market Paperback (29 January, 2002)
list price: $7.99 -- our price: $7.19
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Editorial Review

At the beginning of Amy Tan's fourth novel, two packets of papers written in Chinese calligraphy fall into the hands of Ruth Young. One bundle is titled Things I Know Are True and the other, Things I Must Not Forget. The author? That would be the protagonist's mother, LuLing, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In these documents the elderly matriarch, born in China in 1916, has set down a record of her birth and family history, determined to keep the facts from vanishing as her mind deteriorates.

A San Francisco career woman who makes her living by ghostwriting self-help books, Ruth has little idea of her mother's past or true identity. What's more, their relationship has tended to be an angry one. Still, Ruth recognizes the onset of LuLing's decline--along with her own remorse over past rancor--and hires a translator to decipher the packets. She also resolves to "ask her mother to tell her about her life. For once, she would ask. She would listen. She would sit down and not be in a hurry or have anything else to do."

Framed at either end by Ruth's chapters, the central portion of The Bonesetter's Daughter takes place in China in the remote, mountainous region where anthropologists discovered Peking Man in the 1920s. Here superstition and tradition rule over a succession of tiny villages. And here LuLing grows up under the watchful eye of her hideously scarred nursemaid, Precious Auntie. As she makes clear, it's not an enviable setting:

I noticed the ripe stench of a pig pasture, the pockmarked land dug up by dragon-bone dream-seekers, the holes in the walls, the mud by the wells, the dustiness of the unpaved roads. I saw how all the women we passed, young and old, had the same bland face, sleepy eyes that were mirrors of their sleepy minds.

Nor is rural isolation the worst of it. LuLing's family, a clan of ink makers, believes itself cursed by its connection to a local doctor, who cooks up his potions and remedies from human bones. And indeed, a great deal of bad luck befalls the narrator and her sister GaoLing before they can finally engineer their escape from China. Along the way, familial squabbles erupt around every corner, particularly among mothers, daughters, and sisters. And as she did in her earlier The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan uses these conflicts to explore the intricate dynamic that exists between first-generation Americans and their immigrant elders. --Victoria Jenkins ... Read more

Reviews (275)

My First Amy Tan and Very Impressive
I hadn't read any Amy Tan novels before, but my history teacher highly recommended them. I didn't end up reading The Bonesetter's Daughter until later in the year (a week ago, actually) when my english teacher told me to pick out a book on China to read in place of The Good Earth, which I had already read two years ago. Since some of my other classmates had gotten to the school library first, The Bonesetter's Daughter was the last book by Amy Tan that they had, so I quickly grabbed that one and skimmed over the first chapter.

Once you find yourself into the middle fo book, you can't seem to put it down. I read it in about an hour, which is pretty good for me. I'm currently in ninth grade, so when teachers assign a book I always stupidly read ahead, which normally just curses me when it gets to test time, because I always confuse things we haven't read yet to things I read a long time ago. But with the Bonesetter's Daughter, I had finished the book int he same reading that I picked it up. It was engrossing and itneresting, and I found myself caught up in the mysteries of LuLing's Precious Auntie, the trials of LuLing's life, and Ruth's current struggles.

I am strangely obsessed with books about bastards. Its really odd, I know, but I am. So I loved this book. Read it and you'll see why.

I probably just gave the whole thng away...ehehehe.

Another good one...
Amy Tan is always able to weave and interesting story that encapsulates both past and present day. The mother and daughter stories are something most women can probably relate to on some level. An interesting read and once I got past the first little bit, the story flowed very well. It gives the reader such an insight into historic China.

What Can You Say About Amy Tan?
Amy Tan is in a league of her own. I wish that she produced more adult novels, but the ones that she does write are certainly worth the wait. "The Bonesetter's Daughter" is a touching and engrossing tale. It even made me weep at certain parts. Amy Tan is a master wordsmith and crafts the most amazing novels. I highly recommend all of her works. ... Read more

Isbn: 0804114986
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Literary    5. Fiction / General   

The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (30 April, 1990)
list price: $7.99 -- our price: $7.19
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Editorial Review

Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery. ... Read more

Reviews (390)

Culture and More..
This book is a yarn spun by four women , Chinese Americans and their mothers who have seen dificult times. It isa good mix of else where and now.

The book of is an easy read. The flow of the book will not let you put it down.

I liked reading about the various practices in China. Their belief in fortune, trying to beget favorable conditions, even when everything is not so right, is fascinating.

Different voices in the book form a bridge between short story and novel forms. Although the distinctness of the voices is not preserved, the matter of the stories are still conveyed in a very interesting manner.

The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a novel that every mother and daughter should read together.It is all about the sacred mother daughter bond and discovering who we are and how much we have of our mother in us.This book perfectly describes the relationship and doesn't try to sugar coat it or add false drama.This is a real book.It was enjoyable to read because there was no point in the story where i felt as if I had to keep reading against my will.This was a thoroughly enjoyable book to read.

Bring On the Emotion
This book was very emotional. It played on mostly somber emotions though, which I found to be quite depressing. A lot of the book was centered around the pain and suffering these women (the mothers) had to endure, and the trials and hardships the younger women (the daughters) had to put up with. Despite the fact that it had a feeling of sadness, the book was exceptionally written. I found myself flipping through the pages not wanting to stop. Just to see what these women went through, fiction or not, showed me how strong someone can be in any situation. This book told me how to be strong and independent and think quickly, but still using common sense. I would recommend it to anyone that is in need for a good read. ... Read more

Isbn: 0804106304
Subjects:  1. Fiction - General    2. Literary    3. Movie/Tv Tie-Ins    4. Sagas    5. Fiction / Literary   

Midwives: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (08 November, 1998)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1998: On a violent, stormy winter night, a home birth goes disastrously wrong. The phone lines are down, the roads slick with ice. The midwife, unable to get her patient to a hospital, works frantically to save both mother and child while her inexperienced assistant and the woman's terrified husband look on. The mother dies but the baby is saved thanks to an emergency C-section.And then the nightmare begins: the assistant suggests that maybe the woman wasn't really dead when the midwife operated:

Did she perform at least eight or nine cycles as my mother said, or four or five as Asa recalled?That is the sort of detail that was disputable. But at some point within minutes of what my mother believed had been a stroke, after my mother concluded the cardiopulmonary resuscitation had failed to generate a pulse or a breath, she screamed for Asa and Anne to find her the sharpest knife in the house.

In Midwives, Chris Bohjalian chronicles the events leading up to the trial of Sibyl Danforth, a respected midwife in the small Vermont town of Reddington, on charges of manslaughter. It quickly becomes evident, however, that Sibyl is not the only one on trial--the prosecuting attorney and the state's medical community are all anxious to use this tragedy as ammunition against midwifery in general; this particular midwife, after all, an ex-hippie who still evokes the best of the flower-power generation, is something of an anachronism in 1981. Through it all, Sibyl, her husband, Rand, and their teenage daughter, Connie, attempt to keep their family intact, but the stress of the trial--and Sibyl's growing closeness to her lawyer--puts pressure on both marriage and family. Bohjalian takes readers through the intricacies of childbirth and the law, and by the end of Sibyl Danforth's trial, it's difficult to decide which was more harrowing--the tragic delivery or its legal aftermath.

Narrated by a now adult Connie, Midwives moves back and forth in time, fitting vital pieces of information about what happened that night like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into its complicated plot. As Connie looks back on her mother's trial, she is still trying to understand what happened--not on the night of the disaster--but in the months and years that followed.--Margaret Prior ... Read more

Reviews (520)

One of the Best Books I've Ever Read
I picked up "Midwives" at a used bookstore and I don't even recall I was compelled to do so. Once I got home and started reading it, however, I simply could not put the book down - it is the epitome of a "page-turner."

A successful midwife struggles for her life, her family, and her freedom as she is put on trial for performing a caesarean section on a woman (in the woman's home) she thought was dead, in order to save the woman's unborn child. The woman's husband and the midwife's assistant both say she killed the woman, as the woman was alive when the midwife split her open.

Watch this tale unravel from the midwife's daughter's point of view as this captivating story leaves you breathless.

Captivating story that holds your interest until the end.
This is the first novel I've read by Chris Bohjalian; it was not a disappointment.The involuntary manslaughter criminal trial of a nurturing midwife (Sybil Danforth) is told from the perspective of her now adult daughter (Connie Danforth), who was 13 at the time the trial takes place.The story line was realistic and entirely believable, which drew the reader into the story quickly.Theretrospective point of view of the grown daughter telling the story through her eyes as a 13 year old child was an interesting way for the story to unfold.The ending was bittersweet, and there clearly were no real "winners" at the book's conclusion.It's a quick read that I would be great for a bookclub discussion.

I still had a homebirth after readig this :)
I wasn't so sure that a man could pull off all the right stops when it came to being a midwife, and the midwives daughter. But he did an awesome job.
I was pregnant when I read it for the first time and planning a homebirth with midwives. I was not at all afraid to have my homebirth afterwards. It's a fact that most bad things that happen during childbirth are caused by hospitals and intervention in the first place, so the safest place to have a baby in most cases is at home.

I really don;t think the midwife had any other choice in what she did. ... Read more

Isbn: 0375706771
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Legal    4. Literary    5. Fiction / Legal    6. Reading Group Guide   

Where the Heart Is (Oprah's Book Club (Paperback))
by Billie Letts
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1998)
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Editorial Review

Oprah Book Club® Selection, December 1998: A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to Bakersfield, California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight--and superstitious about sevens.... For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her," Billie Letts writes. "She'd had a bad history with them, starting with her seventh birthday, the day Momma Nell ran away with a baseball umpire named Fred..."

Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. When she goes into labor and delivers her baby there, however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to depend on the kindness of strangers--especially if one of them happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder.

Where the Heart Is oddly mixes heart-warming vignettes and surprising, brutal violence. Novalee's story is juxtaposed with occasional chapters chronicling Willy Jack's downward spiral into prison, disappointment, and degradation. And even in Sequoyah, sudden storms, domestic violence, kidnapping, and deadly fires punctuate Novalee's progress from homeless, unwed teen mom to successful, happy member of the community. This is not a subtle book; there's never any doubt that our heroine will make a home for herself and her baby or that Willy Jack will get what he deserves for abandoning them. Still, Billie Letts has created several memorable characters, and there's always room for another novel that celebrates the life-affirming qualities of reading, the importance of education, and the power of love to change lives. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Reviews (1224)

Hit by the club
I will no longer be reading books on the mere basis of them being from Oprah's book Club. I, for one, am disturbed by graphic images of children being raped or molested which seems to be an ongoing theme in these books. (Why did none of the other reviews mention this)? I did not "love" any of the characters, nor did I find them to be very realistic...except for Novalee's best friend, Lexie, who's lack of discretion and protectiveness where her children are concerned, and promiscuity contributes to what is wrong with the world today.

A Beautiful, Magical, and Heartwarming Book!
This book is excellent, filled with so many things that you never forget. It's a story of a young girl named Novalee, trying to find a life in a town that her boyfriend dumps her out in. She finds wonderful people to love and care for her in this town she winds up in.

She's seventeen and seven months pregnat. Her boyfriend, Willy Jack, lets her go inside of a Walmart store, then leaves her. She lives inside of the store, meeting friends who are unforgettable characters in this novel. She makes friends who will be there for her when times are tough, who will never let her down.

Read this wonderuful journey that Novalee takes, having the most exciting experiences, adn you'll also see the road that Wilyl Jack goes down. This book is a complete pageturner, a wonderful read. It's filled with heartbreaking moments, also with moments that will fill your heart with so much joy!

Couldn't get past the stupid names.
One of Oprah's book club books I read and decided if she recommended it, I would either hate it or just tolerate it.It was really a shame, though, because the book could have been edited and been a good one.I loved the part of the plot where the main character lives in Wal-mart.Haven't we all thought about what it would be like to be left in a store at night after it closed?What would we eat?Where would we sleep?Where would we hide?

PLEASE REWRITE! ... Read more

Isbn: 0446672211
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. General    3. Movie / TV Tie-Ins    4. Movie-TV Tie-In - General    5. Fiction / General    6. Reading Group Guide   

A Lesson Before Dying : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback))
by ERNEST J. GAINES
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (28 September, 1997)
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Editorial Review

Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1997: In a small Cajun community in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A white shopkeeper had died during a robbery gone bad; though the young man on trial had not been armed and had not pulled the trigger, in that time and place, there could be no doubt of the verdict or the penalty.

"I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be..." So begins Grant Wiggins, the narrator of Ernest J. Gaines's powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, A Lesson Before Dying. If young Jefferson, the accused, is confined by the law to an iron-barred cell, Grant Wiggins is no less a prisoner of social convention. University educated, Grant has returned to the tiny plantation town of his youth, where the only job available to him is teaching in the small plantation church school. More than 75 years after the close of the Civil War, antebellum attitudes still prevail: African Americans go to the kitchen door when visiting whites and the two races are rigidly separated by custom and by law. Grant, trapped in a career he doesn't enjoy, eaten up by resentment at his station in life, and angered by the injustice he sees all around him, dreams of taking his girlfriend Vivian and leaving Louisiana forever. But when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man.

As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. Populated by strong, unforgettable characters, Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying offers a lesson for a lifetime. ... Read more

Reviews (439)

One of the greatest reading experiences of my life
Simplicity is beautiful.I think that will always be the phrase that comes to my mind when I think of Gaines's masterpiece, A Lesson before Dying.If you take a close look at it, you will find it is remarkably void of detail and description.Yet it works.It substitutes character and emotion in its place.Don't get me wrong, detail and description play a key role in many, many great novels.However, some of the greatest novels I have ever read (Animal Farm, Of Mice and Men, etc.) do not weigh us down with too many details, but are just simple and wonderful, deep and profound, honest and unflinching.A Lesson before Dying deserves to take its place right next to them.It is one of the greatest reading experiences of my lifetime.

The story begins in a courtroom.It is a sad scene.The story takes place, I believe in the early twenties and thirties where racism and segregation were still prevalent.A young black man is on trial for being involved in the murder of a white man at a connivance store.He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.Two of his acquaintances were gunned down and the white man behind the counter also died.He was the only survivor of the incident.Although completely innocent of any wrong doing he must be punished because he was there.He is sentenced to death.Sadly, his own defense attorney calls him a "hog", an animal that was too stupid to comprehend what he was doing.He uses that defense to try and sway the jury that he is innocent.It doesn't work, and the scar of being labeled a "hog" will stay with this young black man named Jefferson throughout most of the novel.

Next, we are introduced to as educated, prideful, and somewhat mean spirited man named Grant Wiggins.He is a school teacher on a plantation.He hates his job, dislikes his life, and the only joy he has comes from his girlfriend named Vivian.Grant has an aunt, a large and stern woman who is very hard on Grant.I guess you could call it tough love.Grant's aunt is good friends with a woman named Emma. Emma is the caretaker of Jefferson, the black man sentenced to die in the beginning of the novel.Grant's aunt tells him that he must go visit Jefferson in jail and somehow convince him that he is not just some animal.He must convince him to die like a man with dignity.

Grant has a negative attitude from the beginning.He doesn't want to go.His aunt has an effect on him, however, and he reluctantly agrees.The first few visits to Jefferson are a disaster.He says nothing.He stares at the ceiling.Emma cries and cries.Grant is just plain pissed off at everything.
Grant finds much solitude in drinking and his girlfriend.Through the novel he is always telling her he wants to run away from it all.He just wants to escape with her somewhere.This will serve as a symbol between Grant and Jefferson.Neither one of them has any freedom.Jefferson-physically.Grant---mentally.

By and by the visits get a little better, and the relationship between Grant and Jefferson evolves.Grant becomes the teacher, but he learns much about himself through Jefferson.Grant also makes an unlikely friend at the jail.A white guard named Paul.This is important, because I have read by some people that Gaines treats whites unfairly with hostility and bias in his writing.Nothing could be further from the truth.Paul and Grant share the final scene of the book together, and it is one of sublime truth and beauty.

There are other characters, such as a Reverend named Ambrose, who has many debates with Grant over religion.Grant has lost his faith long ago.Some of these religious discussions very honest, deep, and thoughtful.There are, of course, other characters and situations that occur.I do not want to take all the joy from experiencing them however.The ending is inevitable, but Gaines shifts writing prose near the end of his novel which makes the messages that shines through even more grand, even more powerful.You'll know what I am talking about when I get there.

I can honestly say this book moved me to tears.I know that sounds cheesy but I don't care.Only one other book has ever done that, Uncle Tom's Cabin.This is not a sentimental book by any means.Gaines carefully places his words with wisdom and intelligence.In this book we see real characters and how they evolve.The main character, Grant, is not particularly a likeable man.But he is as real as anyone I have ever read about.His struggles are real, his trials are real.The battle that rages on in Grant is one of the most awesome and realistic depictions of the human soul ever put on paper.The same goes with Jefferson. His journal entries near the end of the novel reach a level that most authors could only dream of attaining.They are some of the most moving passages in all of literature.

This is why I love reading, why I love books.It is because there are books out there like this one.It is told with such straightforwardness.It is told with such simplicity. Yet it has such a depth to it that is so hard to find in novels now days.I couldn't believe this was a work of fiction.It seemed too real for that.This will be a book that has a long shelf life ahead of it.There is no way this novel will not become a classic.I used to think that classics weren't written anymore, that they were reserved for another time period long ago.How wrong I was.

Grade:A

A Lesson Before Dying:A moving piece of modern literature
Convicted of a crime he didn't commit, Jeferson is sentenced to death in the electric chair. So begins Grant Wiggins quest to teach him a lesson before dying. This novel takes place on a rural Louisiana town in the 1940's.Though slavery had been outlawed for over 80 years, the effects of its ugly past were still all too prevalent. At his trial he is insulted by his own lawyer called a hog, made out to be subhuman, His Aunt now sets out to try to force him to believe he is a man. He won't ever give them the time of day and refuses to talk to Grant. Grant finally realizes that what he is trying to do is reverse 300 years of racism discrimination and hate in but a few weeks.

Bad
I had to read this book for school, and, first let me say I'm not just some highs chooler who hates to read, my favorite writers are Kafka, Faulkner and Dostoevsky, but this book was all but utter trash.It had a few meaningful moments, but generally it was devoid of characterization, emotion, and plot.I give it two stars for trying, but it just tries too hard to be great.Gaines-Accept average. ... Read more

Isbn: 0375702709
Subjects:  1. African American men    2. Death row inmates    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - General    5. Literary    6. Louisiana    7. Race relations    8. Fiction / General    9. Reading Group Guide   

One Bite Won't Kill You
by Ann Hodgman, Roz Chast
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (07 October, 1999)
list price: $16.00 -- our price: $10.88
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Tired of arguing over every last nibble? Comfortable with loading your cupboards with cream of mushroom soup and boxed muffin mix? This hilarious book could be the answer you've been looking for. Filled with tasty comfort food that's sure to delight folks of all ages, One Bite Won't Kill You reminds parents of the sure-fire tool for dealing with those advanced picky eaters: a sense of humor. Author Ann Hodgman, a former food editor from Spy magazine, is also the mother of two finicky eaters. Most of the recipes are fairly simple, and often rely on canned sauces and soups for key ingredients. Each recipe begins with a short tale of how the recipe came about, and the pages are filled with hilarious moments in the lives of picky eaters of all ages.The recipes have names like Taco Thing and Mud Puddle Cake and many are easy enough for older kids to tackle themselves.While this friendly, funny book is smart enough to make no promises about ending fussy eating permanently, it does a great job providing kid-tested edibles and adult-endorsed reminders that meals don't need to become battlegrounds. --Jill Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Single Dad says: BUY IT!!!
The kids may or may not see fit to eat the meals you prepare from this book, but it's a hoot to leaf through it and read Ms. Hodgman's comments and tales of trying to get the little ones to EAT something other than chocolate! I thought some of the recipes sounded like non-starters as far as my own kids went, but most of them are worth making at least once, and who knows? You might actually find something that appeals toyour own fussy eaters!

Why?
I recently purchased 'One Bite Won't Kill You' by Ann Hodgman, and while her wit has me laughing out loud, and the recipes sound great, why must she use the expression "godd**n" (twice) in the introduction.Personally I find it offensive and in poor taste.Kind of ruins, for me anyway, what otherwise looks like a book I could definitely use with my finicky four year old.

Maybe I'm just the wrong demographic...
Maybe I'm just the wrong demographic for this one...I have absolutely *loved* Hodgman's other 2 cookbooks (Beat This! and Beat That!) for the funny stories, excellent tips, but most of all - recipes that claim to be "the best of x, y, or z", and much of the time they are the best.The other 2 books are really chock full of fantastic recipes, and you read through wishing that you could try to create every one.Not so with this book.Sorry to say Ann, but many of these recipes just made me think "yuck".The ketchup content alone scares me.The recipes really are intended to appease the stereotypical kid that doesn't eat anything other than mac/cheese & chicken nuggets.These same kids might be interested to try something that looks odd, or has a funky name like Dragon Bones Cheese Stiks, or something something.My child is just not that way.(or maybe he is, but never had the opportunity to accept or decline the dragon bones variety of food)As I said, I may just be the wrong demographic for this, because my son's favorite foods are sushi and hummus.He tends to love to eat what we love to eat, and I guess no one told him that kids aren't supposed to like that stuff.Anyway, this book still has the wonderful injections of Ann Hodgman humor, but I just couldn't get over the number of recipes that NO WAY would I ever make.And she doesn't like olive oil??!!What??We live on olive oil around here.My recommendation is that whether or not you have kids, go with her earlier books.There is a certain marinated flank steak recipe in one of them, that I guarantee *anyone* would be thrilled to eat.I'd be willing to say that it would be yummy even for those under the age of 10. ... Read more

Isbn: 0395901464
Subjects:  1. American cooking    2. Cookery, American    3. Cooking    4. Cooking / Wine    5. General    6. Regional & Ethnic - American - General    7. Cooking / General   

White Trash Cooking (Jargon)
by Ernest Matthew Mickler
Average Customer Review:
Spiral-bound (01 June, 1986)
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This is not a joke book or a parody. This is a warmly written, humorous, and quite serious cookbook filled with delightful traditional and unusual recipes. It includes wonderful photographs by the author of people and places and food all connected to his fondness and memory of growing up in rural and small town Mississippi. You may not be tempted to try every single recipe in this book, but you won't be able to resist trying many of them! ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Rick Black's Trailer Trash Cookin' is by far a better book!
Us folks in the court know our vittles and Rick Black and his Trailer Trash Cookbook knows how to "GET ER DONE" Sorry but Earnies book is Jeff Foxworthy's jokes with recipes.

Writin' and eatin'...Mickler's a pro
If you like community cookbooks, you'll love the White Trash Cookbooks. These are not only collections of yummies but also loving tributes to generations of cooks who worked with what they had. Don't bother with these books if "Cheez Whiz" makes you wince. Keep an open mind and an open heart and you'll be richly rewarded.

simply beautiful.
I have spent many many hours reading and re-reading this book. This is a cookbook by it's cover but when you get inside and look at the recipes read the words and the see the wonderful photos you'll see that it's a cultural documentation of some very beautiful and proud people. ... Read more

Isbn: 0898151899
Subjects:  1. Cookery    2. Cookery, American    3. Cooking    4. Cooking / Wine    5. Regional & Ethnic - American - General    6. Regional & Ethnic - American - Southern States    7. Southern States    8. Southern style