Book Description
Kim Edwards's stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love. BACKCOVER: “Edwards is a born novelist. . . . Rich with psychological detail and the nuances of human connection.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Unfolds from an absolutely gripping premise, drawing you deeply and irrevocably into the entangled lives of two families and the devastating secret that shaped them both. I loved this riveting story.”
—Sue Monk Kidd
“Anyone would be struck by the extraordinary power and sympathy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter.”
—The Washington Post
“Kim Edwards has written a novel so mesmerizing that I devoured it. . . . The Memory Keeper's Daughter has it all.”
—Sena Jeter Naslund
“Kim Edwards has created a tale of regret and redemption, of honest emotion, of characters haunted by their past. This is simply a beautiful book.”
—Jodi Picoult
Customer Reviews:
Starts out like Dickens.......2007-10-18
It was a dark and snowy night. Two twins are born--one hale and healthy--the other--damaged. One is secreted away by the trusty nurse at the doctor's side. Is this the beginning of a Charles Dickens tale full of twists and turns and unsavory characters? Is this the plot of a funny movie starring Arnold S. and Danny DeVito?
Actually neither. After a strong beginning the plot meanders around with the characters turning into stereotypes for one scene and then becoming real people in the next. The author has a great eye for detail and the descriptions of places were beautiful. The one scene I remember was when the wife meets that photographer on the beach. My kind of man. Thought we were going to get into a real passionate detour there but it just fizzled. He was just a nogoodnik like most the men in this book. Is that why it is so popular with women's book clubs?
The secondary characters--Caroline and that chunky truck driver who turns up just at the right moment--okay I have already picked out the actors who will play them in the movie. And the award for best supporting actress goes to...
Dickens novels may be over sentimental and their endings contrived, but with his endings you always feel that justice is done, or there is a smile or a tear. The ending of this novel is just wishy-washy. A pity too, because the author writes well and this book obviously has struck a deep chord with people who have encountered the central problem in real life.
As Close To Perfect As You Are Likely to Find.......2007-10-17
This is the best book I've read in a long time. For a first-time novelist, Edwards really has a firm grasp on effecive writing techniques. Some book club discussion items:
1. Who is the "Memory Keeper?" There are two obvious choices -- Caroline and David. Both are defensible. I have my preference.
2. Who was David really trying to protect in giving Phoebe to Caroline?
3. When did the tragedy at the heart of the story really occur?
My only quibble with the book -- and I hesitate to mention this, the book is so good -- is that I think Edwards dropped Rosemary from the story too early. Rosemary had a potentially vital role to play at the end. While she was clearly correct in her view that it was not her place to tell Norah the truth regarding Phoebe, she could have helped Norah deal with her anger once the secret is revealed by telling Norah what she knew. This could have helped Norah better understand David and his demons.
I especially like that Edwards did not tie everything up in a bow. While I can't reveal exactly what I mean, suffice it to say that Edwards has created very real people, and a very true ending.
And I feel so very sorry for David.
Loved the first 3/4 of this book!.......2007-10-17
(slight spoiler) The first 3/4 of this book is so amazing. If I had stopped reading then I would've given it a 5 star review. But I didn't stop there. I finished it, and I'm so frustrated at the reveal that I want to cry. I waited 370 pages to see how this was going to resolve itself, and it was so blase, not motivated at all...why now? what made Caroline go to Norah when she did instead of any other time? what motivated this?
grrr...
Anyway, I would still read it because her writing it beautiful and so emotionally gripping.
Ending doesn't measure up to the beginning..........2007-10-17
The concept of this book fascinated me, so during a long layover at Chicago's Midway airport I picked up a copy and started reading. The beginning sucked me in and kept my interest the whole way home. Kim Edward's depiction of the towns involved were so vivid, and so close to my heart (I've lived in both Kentucky and Pittsburgh, PA). The opening is so emotionally charged, that the reader really feels everything happening the charachters. Then, a little more than halfway through, the charachters lose their depth and become the "cardboard cutouts" that another reviewer described. After the climax of the novel, I was really left shaking my head. How is it that these characters that were so full of color and detail have lost it all by the time the great revelation is made?
Still a good read, but the end just seems a little rushed.
Some like it, some hate it... I'm one of the likers.......2007-10-16
I finished 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter last night' - I am emotionally drained! Such a good read! Many here have commented they found it repetitive and trite. I found that what some claim to be repetitive-ness was actually necessary, to help you realize how constant this 'loss' and 'gain' of a single life impacted so many other people's lives, whether the characters themselves realize it at the time or not.
Also I enjoyed the fact that the ending wasn't a typical 'all loose ends are tied' sort. A major character dies, new and old relationships are changed. While it's not a "happily ever after" ending, it does end on a note of hope and what the future can hold in store for the characters.
This story isn't simply about what happens when you skip a stone across the glass-like surface of a lake. It's about how each individual skip shatters the surface and alters it, blurrs it again and changes it again as the stone moves away from its original introduction to the water.
The story was so quietly poignant and touching - the changing societal and cultural mores of the times is addressed in an almost shockingly flippant matter-of-fact tone - which I think works to slap the reader even more awake as to how just one decision made in one moment begins a series of impacts in numerous lives, for better AND for worse.
While most readers are probably already aware of several of the societal changes in the novel because the changes came before or during our own coming of age, but it was almost painful to me at times to read about what was considered "acceptable" at that time. I stopped counting how many times I got teary-eyed during the passages involving a parent and their well-intentioned deceits to protect their family. I almost dropped the book when a nurse asked Caroline if she was "sure" that she wanted a doctor to address Phoebe's near-fatal bee-sting!
And David's actions are so wrong and yet so right, due to his own past - I love it when it's not 100% simple to empathize with the main character of a book.
This novel also brought some things I discussed at a recent dinner with my girlfriends into focus as well as making me realize why our parents and the older generations do what they do and why - so much of it goes back to what was acceptable and "proper" back in the "old days" when they were our age or younger - it's very hard to change or go against decades of particular thinking that was reinforced by everyone around you.
It's no wonder that divorce, drug/alcohol/physical abuse, therapy/counseling and birth defects *were* treated as such "scandalous" stigmas - thank God that's mostly past-tense this days!
Average customer rating:
- Outstanding!
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- Significant and Memorable
- bought to kill a mockingbird
- Loved Loved Loved!
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To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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ASIN: 0446310786 |
Amazon.com
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."
Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.
Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding!.......2007-10-17
This is at least the third time I have read this book, and I loved it even more than the other two times. Whole passages are burned into my brain. This time when I read it I could see Gregory Peck as Atticus in my head...an added plus.
To Kill A Mockingbird.......2007-10-08
I read this book in my English class before I saw the movie, and I must say I was amazed enough to actually continually read this novel as opposed to going to the cliff notes. It is rather engaging, and Gregory Peck, although giving one of the greatest performances of all time, did not give Atticus Finch the justice he well deserved.
Highly recommended.
Significant and Memorable.......2007-09-30
This ever-popular, Pulitzer prize-winning novel is written from the first-person perspective of "Scout," a young girl growing up in a small, segregated Alabama town during the Great Depression. I did not read any descriptions of the book before I began it, so it was fascinating as I began to realize what it was about. Its gentle, childlike, Tom Sawyer, heart-of-America cadence drew me in, but provided a counterpoint to the hypocrisy, racism, and bigotry that was revealed in the town little by little.
The writing itself, of course, is excellent, telling the story subtly but powerfully - or perhaps the power is in its very subtlety. In my opinion, this is not the most compelling book I've ever read on this issue, but it is significant and memorable.
bought to kill a mockingbird.......2007-09-27
i bought the book to kill a mockingbird. it was in excellent condition. the price was also very low.
Loved Loved Loved!.......2007-09-23
Anyone who gives this book a chance will absolutely love it! It starts out with childhood memories of Scout Finch that seem to be completely unrelated, but Harper Lee cleverly weaves them together to make a great novel. The novel's point of view is unique and is probably what makes this book a classic. The story is seen through the innocent eyes of a six year old, but is being retold by an older, more mature woman. This allows the novel to have more mature language and ideas, but everything is seen through an innocent child's eyes. It's the best of both worlds, and I promise you, you'll be in tears by the end. It's a heart wrenching novel, and though it may sound repetitive, you'll love this book if you read it!
Book Description
An acclaimed novelist's riveting memoir about what it means to be adopted and how all of us construct our sense of self and family
Before A.M. Homes was born, she was put up for adoption. Her birth mother was a twenty-two- year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with children of his own. The Mistress's Daughter is the story of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her.
Homes, renowned for the psychological accuracy and emotional intensity of her storytelling, tells how her birth parents initially made contact with her and what happened afterward (her mother stalked her and appeared unannounced at a reading) and what she was able to reconstruct about the story of their lives and their families. Her birth mother, a complex and lonely woman, never married or had another child, and died of kidney failure in 1998; her birth father, who initially made overtures about inviting her into his family, never did.
Then the story jumps forward several years to when Homes opens the boxes of her mother's memorabilia. She had hoped to find her mother in those boxes, to know her secrets, but no relief came. She became increasingly obsessed with finding out as much as she could about all four parents and their families, hiring researchers and spending hours poring through newspaper morgues, municipal archives and genealogical Web sites. This brave, daring, and funny book is a story about what it means to be adopted, but it is also about identity and how all of us define our sense of self and family.
Customer Reviews:
an interesting read.......2007-10-06
This book is the interesting story of one woman's adoptee search, told as engagingly as any good novel. I have no doubt that it would make a great movie. This is not a fairy tale reunion story, but it is reality, and many lessons are learned along the way.
A Loss to Know.......2007-09-16
I'm an avid A.M. Homes' reader. People who really know me, know this. I've read nearly every book she's written, (my favorites are "Music for Torching" and "The Safety of Objects"), and love her style. It's what I'd call, "Suburban Surrealism." Truly the non-logical, wacky mysteries of everyday life.
As always, this book has A.M. Homes' very detailed and visual style (something I truly appreciate in writers), and it unveils an often hidden aspect of life: adoption. Not much is written on adoption, and it's about time. It reveals a lot of the longings that adoption can bring out in people. And, she's very honest -- about all her feelings -- which is brave and intense and interesting.
I was totally wrapped up in the book until the middle when the book moves from very real relationships with her mothers and fathers to an almost imaginary but true emotional probing of their ancestors' origins -- not lives, per se, but origins. Where they were from. Who they married. And, yet, the plot itself is about wanting. Emotional life, not facts. I guess I wanted more external plot and dialogue rather than musing and searching without real connection between people. I felt lonely reading this book.
Granted, we readers understand from the story why it's hard for A.M. Homes to relate to her bio parents because they are caught up in their own narcissistic fantasies of who she is in relation to them. And, A.M. Homes does a wonderful job in illustrating this, and of also describing their idiosyncrasies and her hit and run, hit and run, hit and run experiences with them.
I also know what it's like to have overly-inquisitive parents, so I can sympathize with her wish to shut down and close off. But, we never know how much time we have with people.
A.M. Homes holds her bio parents so much at bay that they are pulled to plead with her for information about herself, to want from her. I felt the same way with her.
I met A.M. Homes briefly when she came for a book reading and signing for The Mistress' Daughter. And, the one thing I took away from the reading was how private she was. I felt compelled to tease out facts from her and asked about the truth of her last name, (considering she often writes about homes and families). When she revealed, hesitantly, "Yes, that really is my last name," I felt I'd won. Wow! I got her to reveal something. And, I was really struck at the time by the fact that I'd felt this pull to know more about her even though I'd attended a book reading about her autobiography.
This book is a fascinating entry into the world of adoption and a reminder that the fantasy of who we wanted our parents to be does not exist, and we have to give it up in order to move on and to grow up.
That said, I wanted to experience a plot in which A.M. Homes makes it through to the other side of acceptance, that who she wanted was not who she had, and that who she had was better than imagined. I wanted to experience the real relationships more than the fantasied ones.
Driven To Understand.......2007-09-06
A strong memoir progresses from "I thought this" to "Then I thought this," and eventually to "Now I think this." A strong writer will invite the reader to challenge her conclusions. A.M. Homes' THE MISTRESS'S DAUGHTER is a strong memoir.
Early on, Homes imagines her birth mother the way I've heard adoptees imagine their birth mothers, or, at least, the better life they know they would have had if they lived with them: "In my dreams, my birth mother is a goddess, the queen of queens, the CEO, the CFO, and the COO. Movie-star beautiful, incredibly competent, she can take care of anyone and anything. She has made a fabulous life for herself, as ruler of the world, except for one missing link... me."
But she learns her birth mother is far from a goddess; she's mentally ill. This is part of a phone conversation in which Homes is scolded for not sending her birth mother a Valentine's Day card:
"I'm not really sure why you're so angry with me." [Homes says to her birth mother]
"You don't take good care of me. You should adopt me and take good care of me," she says.
"I can't adopt you," I say.
"Why not?"
Then, through her interactions with her birth father and what she finds out during her genealogical research, she begins to understand why her birth mother was the way she was: "My mother had no life after she gave me up--she never married, never had another family. She invested in him [Home's birth father] from a very early age, he used her and then said good-bye. She never recovered."
Homes convincingly shows her parents' and birth parents' character (as she sees it) through dialogue, meanings often open to interpretation, depending on the information available to the listener.
I'll admit sometimes Homes bogs the book down with her play-by-play accounts of researching her parents' backgrounds, yet I take the stance that this reflects how possessed--and bogged down--she was by her need to decipher fact from fantasy, to put to rest the mother she had imagined. This drive to understand is not limited to her--an adopted child looking for answers. It grabs hold of most strong authors and their readers.
Dies halfway........2007-09-04
This book starts out moderately well. It was drawing me in and Homes did start to drop from time to time the crazy assertions which can enliven her fiction such as her assumptions about her fathers intentions towards her.
I really thought it was picking up and turning into a very good read. Then she wades into a swamp of genealogical research which is dull (even to her I suspect). Research into the history of the people who raised her , the people who adopted her, will not brighten her day and it certainly set me yawning.,
The book finishes on a very poor note indeed. She criticises her real father for his reticence and lack of cooperation . At the same time she tells hardly anything about her adoptive father, her partner (is there one?) and the child she felt she had to have.She wants her privacy but wants to invade the privacy of others.
An Adoptee's Perspective.......2007-08-31
I read "The Mistress's Daughter" as a part of a law school course on adoption. Much to my delight, the book was not merely a dry summary of adoptee reunion statistics and current case law, but rather an intriguing personal story of one woman's reaction to unexpectedly meeting her birthparents at the age of 30. The book details her thoughts and feelings as she experienced the emotionally charged experience of meeting biological relatives for the first time, and follows her experiences as the relationships develop and eventually terminate. One caveat, however: the book is one woman's individual experience and cannot be assumed to be the "normal" adoptee/birthparent reunion story. I, too, met my birthfather in 1999. My experience has been vastly different than the author's. Each reunion story is different.
Book Description
Using the best medical research, experience from her own practice, and numerous interviews, Dr. Meeker shows why Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters is not a slogan-it's a necessity.
Customer Reviews:
Strong Reading.......2007-10-11
I am a pastor and father of four daughters. Meekers' work delivers blow after blow of important instructions.
Our society desperately needs dads that are connected. So much of what she uncovers, we see reularly in adult counseling. Dad's can have such an great impact.
I stocked our church bookstore with this book, and have been telling other dad's who have girls,... get this book and read it.
ATTENTION: If you have a daughter you must read!!!!!!!.......2007-10-11
I cannot believe how this book affected my relationship with my daughters. I thought I new what was going on with them! This book tells you what your daughter is thinkig and how to react and what to do in certain situations. It will make you a better father instantly! Very well written and easy to read. A Total Eye Opener!!!
Fathers & Daughters.......2007-09-30
This is an excellent book written by a medical doctor, who shows the supreme importance of a Dad in the life of a daughter. He is vital to her development as a girl and a woman. It took me back to my own relationship with my daughter, who now has her Ph.D. and is a psychologist. After I read the book, and I found myself hungry for each chapter, I am sending the book to my son, who has a young daughter himself.
Fathers need to read this book.......NOW!.......2007-09-28
Don't waste time , read this book as soon as you recieve it! Buy it now!
Very inisightful book.......2007-09-26
This book has been wonderful. I only wish i had read it years ago when all three of my daughters were young (2 r college age now). I now see how many of my defects/wrong assumptions in parenting set the stage for a lot of the heart ache that we went through with my older two daughters. It now makes sense to me and i know how to address the problem going forward. I can not recommmend this book highly enough for every father who wants his daughter to thrive and not struggle to survive. It opened my eyes to how different my daughter's world is from what i knew as a kid. And to how if i do not father her, there is a culture that is desperately trying to teach her that what is important is looking like Paris Hilton, partying, being promiscuous, etc .... The issue is whether i surrender her to that or protect and nurture her. Thanks to Dr. Meeker.
Book Description
A charming and moving novel about female friendship and the experiences that knit us together-even when we least expect it.
Walker and Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia's regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat-and occasionally clash-over their stories of love, life, and everything in between.
Georgia has her hands full, juggling the demands of running the store and raising her spunky teen daughter, Dakota, by herself. Thank goodness for Anita, her mentor and dear friend, and the rest of the members of the knitting club-who are just as varied as the skeins of yarn in the shop's bins. There's Peri, a prelaw student turned handbag designer; Darwin, a somewhat aloof feminist grad student; and Lucie, a petite, quiet woman who's harboring some secrets of her own.
However, unexpected changes soon throw these women's lives into disarray, and the shop's comfortable world gets shaken up like a snow globe. James, Georgia's ex, decides that he wants to play a larger role in Dakota's life-and possibly Georgia's as well. Cat, a former friend from high school, returns to New York as a rich Park Avenue wife and uneasily renews her old bond with Georgia. Meanwhile, Anita must confront her growing (and reciprocated) feelings for Marty, the kind neighborhood deli owner. And when the unthinkable happens, they realize what they've created: not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood
Customer Reviews:
Let me pick up my jaw.......2007-10-15
Wow. That this got published was something of a shocker. But a movie? Oh my. Oh my... When I read that, my jaw hit the floor.
I suspected this book had the potential to be somewhat predictable, might even be suffocatingly cozy. But I was willing to risk it hoping it'd have some grit to it, a touch of originality. Alas, no. It's just what I feared.
Love it! Why Am I Not Surprised!!! :o).......2007-09-20
I bought this unabridged audio because I could relate to the topic. I belong to many beading classes... mainly because I love the days I can bond with other women via the beading. It's a wonderful experience, so I had a feeling I would love this book. However, I had no idea that this read would capture my heart and soul the way it did. Each character was so rich in their identity and I loved the way that they were given voice by Carrington McDuffie. The author Kate Jacobs must be so excited to know that her book is soon to be a movie starring Julia Roberts!!! How exciting is that! She will be perfect for the lead role of Georgia Walker, a strong single mother and owner of the knit store "Walker & Daughter" ...... I wonder who will play the other incredible cast of characters. I just loved them all and was so sad when the story ended. Truly this is one of my favorite books this year. I highly recommend it. I'd also like to recommend "The Knitting Circle" ... another truly fabulous book! 5 starz JMHO //(*_*)\\
Big disappointment.......2007-09-14
I was so excited about this book I bought 3 copies - one for myself, one for my friend who's preparing to open a yarn shop and start a knitting club, and the other for our knitting mentor. I read the book as soon as it arrived, and now I'm almost embarrased to give it to my friends. I was really disappointed in the quality of the writing and felt even I could do a much better job. The characters were shallow, the wording was awkward in many places, and lots of things didn't make much sense. For example, it was not believable that Georgia would keep James' letters for all those years and not read them. She would have thrown them away! The chapter about the crazy film student who was looking for Julia Roberts (what a coincedence, since she just happens to star in the upcoming movie) was strange and added nothing to the story. And what was the purpose of the use of the f-word? It didn't fit the characters. I also figured out the ending way too soon. Plus, knitting had very little to do with the book. When in Scotland, around all those sheep, for instance, there wasn't even a mention of the great yarns that were available!!! You'd think a yarn shop owner would spend time checking out the yarn and how it was produced. Tragic missed opportunity to add something authentic to a book about knitting. This novel was too predictable throughout. Save your money and wait for the movie. Hopefully it will be better.
Inviting, Cozy Book .......2007-08-07
I enjoyed this book so much that I'm rather taken aback at how divided the reviews are. I found the book to be like a blanket, warm and cozy and something you want to curl up in. I don't knit, but the references to the wool and the process made it seem very inviting.
The characters were diverse - of varying ages, walks of life and economic circumstances - and written so vividly that I began to cast them as if for a TV show. Overall, the book is about love and friendship and finding ourselves, with the store and knitting being the central theme that brings most of the characters together.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was sad to see it come to a conclusion, ending my connection with the colorful and enjoyable characters. Like some of the other reviewers, I would have liked a different ending because I'd grown attached to everyone, but I did see it coming and the author did tie it all together well.
My biggest disappointment in the book was discovering it's Kate Jacob's first and now I'll have to wait for the next one.
A one-of-a-kind tale of true camaraderie.......2007-08-07
Featuring tracks every three minutes for easy bookmarking, The Friday Night Knitting Club is the audiobook version of professional editor Kate Jacobs' debut novel, tantalizingly narrated by recording artist Carrington MacDuffie. Once a week, the regulars of Georgia Walker's little yarn shop gather for tips of knitting - and end up learning much more as they swap stories about themselves, their loves, their lives, and virtually everything else. When sudden change shake the women to their cores, they discover they've created not just a knitting club, but a tightly bonded sisterhood. Soon to be turned into a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts, The Friday Night Knitting Club is a one-of-a-kind tale of true camaraderie, highly recommended. 10 CDs, 12 1/2 hours, unabridged.
Amazon.com
Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle is a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno, told through the eyes of a small Maine family whose hidden demons haunt every aspect of their seemingly peaceful existence. Woven throughout the novel are a series of dramatic illustrations that pay homage to the family's patriarch (comic book artist Daniel Stone), and add a unique twist to this gripping, yet somewhat rhetorical tale.
Trixie Stone is an imaginative, perceptive 14 year old whose life begins to unravel when Jason Underhill, Bethel High's star hockey player, breaks up with her, leaving a void that can only be filled by the blood spilled during shameful self-mutilations in the girls' bathroom. While Trixie's dad Daniel notices his daughter's recent change in demeanor, he turns a blind eye, just as he does to the obvious affair his wife Laura, a college professor, is barely trying to conceal. When Trixie gets raped at a friend's party, Daniel and Laura are forced to deal not only with the consequences of their daughter's physical and emotional trauma, but with their own transgressions as well. For Daniel, that means reflecting on a childhood spent as the only white kid in a native Alaskan village, where isolation and loneliness turned him into a recluse, only to be born again after falling in love with his wife. Laura, who blames her family's unraveling on her selfish affair, must decide how to reconcile her personal desires with her loved ones' needs.
The Tenth Circle is chock full of symbolism and allegory that at times can seem oppresive. Still, Picoult's fans will welcome this skillfully told story of betrayal and its many negative, and positive consequences. --Gisele Toueg
Book Description
Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.
With The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult offers her most powerful chronicle yet as she explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child, and questions whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime -- or if your mistakes are carried forever.
Download Description
Jodi Picoult, the New York Times bestselling author of Vanishing Acts, offers her most powerful chronicle yet of an American family with a story that probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child -- and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play the hero. Trixie Stone is fourteen years old and in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father's life -- a straight-A student; a freshman in high school who is pretty and popular; a girl who's always looked up to Daniel Stone as a hero. Until, that is, her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. . . and suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. The Tenth Circle looks at that delicate moment when a child learns that her parents don't know all of the answers and when being a good parent means letting go of your child. It asks whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime or if your mistakes are carried forever -- if life is, as in any good comic book, a struggle to control good and evil, or if good and evil control you.
Customer Reviews:
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult.......2007-10-13
I am now on a mission to read all of Jodi's books. They touch you and your not the same.
I'm Glad I Discovered Jodi Picoult.......2007-10-04
So, Jodi has written a ton of books, and I finally got around to reading one... I picked up The Tenth Circle when Amazon recommended it because I liked "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates. Plus the Dante reference really piqued my curiosity. While it dealt with a violent crime and the enduring repercussions (topics Oates often tackles), it was a completely different story and occurred a generation later than Mulvaneys. It was a rollercoaster of emotions that never stalled. The additional graphic novel illustrations were a great supplement. I look forward to reading more of Jodi's books and enjoying her great narrative style.
Unrealistic Characters.......2007-08-30
I have read two books by Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle and Nineteen Minutes, and I don't plan to read any more of them. In both books, the characters seem exaggerated to the point of being caricatures. They're just not believable as real people. Also, in both books, there is a plot twist at the end which I found completely out-of-character and unrealistic, with very little explanation given by the author.
Bit Too Melodramatic For My Tastes.......2007-08-29
This is hard for me because as much as I loathed certain aspects of this book, I couldn't put it down. Despite my best efforts, I got sucked in and had to know what happened next. That says something, doesn't it?
Okay, the premise ... turn on Lifetime or an after school special and you'll get the same kind of story. I won't spoil anything about the book, but Picoult managed to throw in every possible trauma a family could go through in an amazingly short span and then make sure we learned our lessons by practically beating us over the head. But, perhaps such escalation of eccentric plot devices was the point. The mother of her main character is a specialist in Dante's Inferno, and so part of me wonders if this story is supposed to mirror the nine levels of hell, but if so, I think it was done rather melodramatically.
One interesting tool used in this book, however, is actual comic book pages "drawn" by the main character's father who is a renowned comic book artist. Shocker, the comic book is called The Tenth Circle as well. At the end of each chapter are components that make up a larger comic book, which parallel the actual story and play off of Dante's Inferno. I'll admit, Picoult had some impressive concepts going in this book; I simply didn't care for her style of execution.
Listen, I know a lot of people really like this book and love Jodi Picoult, and I can't deny the fact that I could not stop reading. I slapped my forehead the whole way through as the plot got more and more outlandish, but I couldn't stop reading. If an author can keep you going even when you don't want to, they're obviously doing something right.
If you're into Picoult, you'll probably dig this. As for me, as good as she was at hooking me, this'll probably be the last book of hers I read. Just a tad too heavy on the family drama and forced "life lessons" for my tastes.
-visit [...]
Not great.......2007-08-27
This novel sounds promising, but there were too many things going on with not enough explanation or reasoning - it was hard to be sympathetic to the 14 year old daughter - or to the mother, both of whom made terrible choices - and neither really faced up to the consequences personally (the mother, clearly, had to pay some dues for her crime) - but I didn't feel the characters grew over the course of the book, with the exception of Daniel, and frankly, I didn't believe in his angst. Overall, disappointing.
Book Description
Despite the fact that Juarez is a Mexican border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, most Americans are unaware that for more than twelve years this city has been the center of an epidemic of horrific crimes against women and girls, consisting of kidnappings, rape, mutilation, and murder, with most of the victims conforming to a specific profile: young, slender, and poor, fueling the premise that the murders are not random.
Indeed, there has been much speculation that the killer or killers are American citizens. While some leading members of the American media have reported on the situation, prompting the U.S. government to send in top criminal profilers from the FBI, little real information about this international atrocity has emerged. According to Amnesty International, as of 2006 more than 400 bodies have been recovered, with hundreds still missing.
As for who is behind the murders themselves, the answer remains unknown, although many have argued that the killings have become a sort of blood sport, due to the lawlessness of the city itself. Among the theories being considered are illegal trafficking in human organs, ritualistic satanic sacrifices, copycat killers, and a conspiracy between members of the powerful Juárez drug cartel and some corrupt Mexican officials who have turned a blind eye to the felonies, all the while lining their pockets with money drenched in blood.
Despite numerous arrests over the last ten years, the murders continue to occur, with the killers growing bolder, dumping bodies in the city itself rather than on the outskirts of town, as was initially the case, indicating a possible growing and most alarming alliance of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians.
The Daughters of Juárez promises to be the first eye-opening, authoritative nonfiction work of its kind to examine the brutal killings and draw attention to these atrocities on the border. The end result will shock readers and become required reading on the subject for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Daughters of Juarez.......2007-10-03
Daughters of Juarez is a disturbing story, but it is a true account of the unsolved mysteries of these young women's lost lives. It is an insight into the poverty and injustice that occurs daily in this border town and surrounding areas.
Compelling story, purple prose delivery.......2007-09-09
I would have to agree with the previous reviewer who said that the story was compelling and important, but the overlong purple prose descriptions of what the families went through and the overly dramatic descriptions of the situations, with speculations on what everyone was thinking mar an important and compelling book.
Some straight crime reporting, an analysis of the facts and maybe some more social analysis (for instance, how do the drug culture, the male dominated hispanic culture, the pervasive corruption of the border towns, etc. contribute to this holocaust against women) would have helped a lot.
Still, there is not much written about this problem, which if it were happening here or in any first world country, would be page one news everyday, so the book is valuable.
So, good subject and investigative reporting marred by overly dramatic writing.
I would recommend it, you can skip over the long emotional descriptions of background, thoughts and other contrived elements.
Daughters of Juarez.......2007-08-26
I live in El Paso and have followed much of this in the newspaper including the two Bus drivers, The FBI coming to help, etc. Now I know it was all lies.
Mexico has been called the most corrupt nation on earth and I've heard the stories and now I see it in action. I have too many chilling stories direct from American victims of the Juarez Police to share here.
This corruption has spread to El Paso with corruption in the Border Patrol, the government, the police and I'm not just saying this, I've talked to people and have examples both from the Newspaper and people in the know. The FBI has been conducting an investigation into the El Paso government for several months and people are going to jail. Halleluiah!
Personally I've been afraid to go across the Border for years based on these stories and now I'll be spreading the word. Do not go into Mexico!
This book hits hard with details that would make a strong man cry. The horrible end to young lives, the Police laughing at parents asking for help and the intimidating of helpless mothers who might "know too much", the framing of innocents, The corruption of "investigations" run by incompetents.
This book is an indictment, a denunciation of a government and society gone terribly wrong. Bribes are necessary just to get your TV cable hooked up and this pattern of behavior climbs to the very top.
I hope this book helps but in a society that accepts incompetence and corruption as a given I have my doubts. If Mexico is to change it must come from the bottom and it is so instilled in the poverty stricken common people to not make waves how can we expect them to effectively rise up. But enough publicity might send the rats scurrying, we need more books and TV exposes like this.
Compelling read, but with reservations.......2007-08-09
The Daughters of Juarez, by Teresa Rodriguez (with Diana Montané and Lisa Pulitzer), chronicles a series of horrific murders of young women (and teens) in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, over the last fourteen years, the law enforcement/governmental response to them, and the myriad theories as to the perpetrator(s). Over this period, a good part of 400 poor women were raped, tortured and killed, then dumped in desert areas and vacant lots around the city. The book details a rich tapestry of police and governmental brutality, corruption, blatant sexual discrimination, disregard for public safety, and just plain incompetence.
Although many suspects have been charged and held, it is doubtful that any of the murders can ever be considered legitimately solved because of this pervasive and persistent institutional dysfunction. In fact, one can say that this is a glaring example of how not to run a criminal justice system. It's heartbreaking to consider that the families of these slain women will never see justice done. Additionally, it must have been so frustrating for those in law enforcement and government who made efforts to run effective investigations, only to be stymied at every turn by the very system they should have been able to trust, forced out of their jobs because they wouldn't falsify results or analyses, or even physically threatened.
Daughters is definitely a compelling, true tale and Rodriguez does a service to those affected by these horrors by airing them for everyone to examine. The book, however, suffers from a lack of organization: Rodriguez bounces around dates, people and events so much so that it's hard to keep them all straight. Also, she makes a point of maudlin over-description of the women and their families so as to make them more sympathetic. This in my mind is unnecessary; most people will find the thought of someone (not to mention hundreds) being subjected to the extreme violence that these women experienced and the grief (on multiple levels) that their loved ones were forced to endure to be inconceivably horrible - no matter who the reader is. I also think Rodriguez could have used some citations to support what must have been years of research and investigation. In the end, I would recommend this book as a real eye-opener, but with these reservations.
Thrilling Read.......2007-08-05
I stumbled onto The Daughter's of Juarez after having a discussion on the term femicide (the act of killing a woman is a more generic term but this term is often applied to specific mass killings of women). In Juarez, Mexico women from all social classes and with distinctly different family ties have been going missing. Now and then bodies (and the occasional mass grave) of women that have been sexually abused and mutilated show up. The Daughter's of Juarez explores the lives of these missing women, the media blips that have occurred as a result, the political turmoil caused over these cases, as well as the possible answers to what has happened to so many women. After reading about this I was horrified by what had happened and because I had never heard of anything about this prior to the reading. A thrilling and exploratory read of the lives of women in Juarez, Mexico as well as a look at the relations between the U.S. and its border neighbor.
Book Description
Reviving Ophelia meets The Mother- Daughter Book Club in a book that offers a proven model for staying connected through adolescence
There is no comment more troubling to the mother of a young girl than “she loves you now, but just wait 'til she's a teenager.” Ten years ago, SuEllen Hamkins and Renee Schultz, psychotherapy professionals with a combined forty years' experience and both mothers of then seven-year-old daughters, created The Mother-Daughter Project with several other women in their community, with the hope of disproving this damaging assumption. With their young daughters, the group met regularly to speak frankly about such issues as girls' friendships (and aggression), puberty, the media's influence on their self-image and esteem, drugs, and sexuality.
As their daughters matured, the mothers marveled at the strength and confidence with which the girls thrived through adolescence. The Project had succeeded in creating a haven from the many perils of teen culture. Equally important, it helped the mothers navigate their own fears and concerns about adolescence with integrity and grace.
At once simple and revolutionary, this book details the success of the Mother-Daughter Project's groundbreaking model, providing the reader with a road map for strengthening her bond with her own daughter, and providing strategies for staying close through adolescence and beyond.
Customer Reviews:
Incredibly Useful and Beautiful.......2007-10-09
The Mother-Daughter Project is a most practical, theoretical, and hopeful guide to dealing with our predator culture -- a culture that expects and even thrives upon mothers and daughters becoming separate during the daughter's adolescence. My mother-daughter group, just begun with help from the book contains 11 & 12 year old girls and their mothers and is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic group who have various economic backgrounds. We did one of the exercises ("our perfect day") from the book and it elevated us to a surprising new level, created an introduction to community within the group and highlighted some marvelous differences and similarities between the generations. My own 11-year-old daughter said, "I noticed that everyone in our group had something going for mangoes AND liked climbing...also that we all wanted to get up really early so that we could really live large during the day!"
This is an incredible book for anyone interested in women, girls, psychology, spirituality and community. The extremely readable information about our culture's approach to girls and women and the valuable stories about the mother-daughter pairs in the authors' M-D Project make "The Mother-Daughter Project: How Mother and Daughters Can Band Together, Beat the Odds, and Thrive Through Adolescence" truly a book to read, re-read and USE.
good for rich white people.......2007-09-13
Three years ago, you could not have convinced me that my mother and I would have a functional adult relationship. In addition to a life crisis that brought us back onto speaking terms and into each other's lives, we learned to set aside most of our differences because life is too short to do otherwise. When I heard about The Mother-Daughter Project, a book that promises "a proven model for staying connected through adolescence and beyond," I felt a glimmer of hope that young women would no longer spend their twenties overcoming the verbal scars of youthful wars with our parents. Maybe my expectations were quite high, but this overly self-referential, self-help book in disguise is written in such a fluffy, insulting way that I found it hard to accept any of its legitimate advice.
It should first be noted that the ten-year group experiment on which this book is based took place in greater Massachusetts, where I currently reside. While that doesn't immediately lend itself to a myriad of privileges, two educated, white women wrote this book from their own experience. They do make a cursory acknowledgement that mothering is more than their version of the status quo, but this recognition simply doesn't show through in their analysis or supposedly practical application, and I just can't get down with that kind of written tokenism.
Most helpful for their references to other similar, more groundbreaking works, this is a good book for mothers who literally have no clue about how to start relating to their teenagers. The overly simplistic solutions and embarrassing language do not make it an effective read for teens, however. If my mother had handed me this when I was in middle school, I'd have laughed in her face despite my strong desire to heal our relationship even then. An overly indulgent attempt to debunk myths like the "perfect girl" or the "supermom," this book is mainly a solution for upper class white folks who have a built-in support system ready to consciousness-raise and spend long hours dissecting how to best grow their relationships.
a wonderful resource for parents.......2007-08-31
I think "The Mother-Daughter Project" is a terrific book. I have recommended it to parents that I see in my practice as a child psychiatrist, to friends who have daughters, and to anyone whom I meet who has daughters! I believe this book is a rich tool, from the perspective of understanding and, most beneficially, from the perspective of practice: on how to foster strong, nurturing, and enjoyable bonds between mothers and daughters and between mothers and mothers. The common experiences and challenges that different generations of females encounter in our society, and life itself, as well as the resources needed to meet those challenges, are richly explored in this book through the discussion of the evolution of the mother-daughter group.
With detail and humor, the authors share with the reader the journey of this group of mothers and daughters over 10 years, as they start meeting monthly when the daughters are seven years old and continue up to the time of college. We learn about the very rich array of activities that these very thoughtful and intentional mothers used to educate their daughters about the tasks they will encounter in each coming stage in their development. Age specific challenges to mothers and daughters, together and separately, are covered in an overview level and in the very rich detailed activities the mothers and daughters used to prepare for, practice, and develop the skills and abilities to deal with all that is involved in moving from protected childhood into adulthood. This book is a wonderful resource to all parents-whether or not they are in such groups.
great message for mothers and daughters!.......2007-05-20
I bought this book earlier today and am over halfway through it. I am the mother of two daughters, age 9 & 12. While I wish I had this book five years ago, it doesn't feel like it's too late. A great resource for years to come, with positive self, daughter and relationship building ideas.
Book Description
In this moving and compelling memoir about parent and child, father and daughter, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lucinda Franks discovers that the remote, nearly impassive man she grew up with had in fact been a daring spy behind enemy lines in World War II. Sworn to secrecy, he began revealing details of his wartime activities only in the last years of his life as he became afflicted with Alzheimer's. His exploits revealed a man of remarkable bravado -- posing as a Nazi guard, slipping behind enemy lines to blow up ammunition dumps, and being flown to one of the first concentration camps liberated by the Allies to report on the atrocities found there.My Father's Secret War is an intimate account of Franks coming to know her own father after years of estrangement. Looking back at letters he had written her mother in the early days of WWII, Franks glimpses a loving man full of warmth. But after the grimmest assignments of the war his tone shifts, settling into an all-too-familiar distance. Franks learns about him -- beyond the alcoholism and adultery -- and comes to know the man he once was.Her story is haunting, and beautifully told, even as the tragedy becomes clear: Franks finally comes to know her father, but only as he is slipping further into his illness. Lucinda Franks understands her father as the disease claims him. My Father's Secret War is a triumph of love over secrets, and a tribute to the power of the connection of family.
Customer Reviews:
My Father's Secret War.......2007-10-18
The book was received very promptly, and was a very good depiction of her experiences in trying to understand WWII from her father's perspective. So many of us "baby boomers" have a difficult time getting our parents to open up and tell us of their experiences during that time. This is a very good book to read.
A Book You Just Can Put Down.......2007-10-04
After all the hype and with the authors oh-so-impressive cred, one expects a book that you just can't put down. She delivers a nice, warm story, but by all means, you CAN put it down.
Slow start.......2007-09-10
As I read the other reviews, I realized they are all true. In many ways this is a poignant and touching story. But Franks takes so long describing their disfunctional family and getting to the interesting part -- her father's war experiences and the process of finding the information -- that I almost put it down without finishing it. I'm glad I stayed with it, as Lucinda finally gets to the real story and redeems herself. (I didn't like her at all at the beginning of the story but I forgave her for her honesty at the end.)
Disappointment.......2007-06-16
You asked me for comments. Perhaps I was expecting more focus on the father. If one enjoys home videos of other families, this book might be of interest.
Buried secrets.......2007-06-13
I almost wish Lucinda Franks chose not to write this book.It was fairly obvious from the start that her father didn't want to remember his role in war..at one point she even asks him if he was a nazi sympathizer.definitely not.My goodness Ms. Frank,leave the poor old guy alone.The book tells a lot about her father and a lot about his daughter.When one of his old buddies phones her and said her dad needs living expenses, some extra cash, she responds that she and her husband have to maintain 3 houses, she can't send dad a few extra dollars..she visits , sees a pile of rancid leftovers in the refrigerator and proceeds to reheat the freshest one for her dad's meal..Golly Lucinda, buy and roast a chicken, peel a few potatoes, buy some canned vegetables.. how hard can that be? Poor dad wears K-mart clothes, so order something for him from Lands'End, you don't even have to go to a store. Again, this is a book that didn't need to be written.
Book Description
ABRAM's DAUGHTERS introduces readers to an Old Order family, a close-knit community and a devout people whose way of life and faith in God is as timeless as their signature horse and buggy. Set against the backdrop of post-World War II, this compelling saga spans three generations of a Lancaster County Amish family. Abram Ebersol and his devoted wife are raising four courting-age daughters on a firm foundation of Plain tradition, and they expect their girls to carry on that heritage by joining the church and making a covenant with God. But the ''running-around'' years known as rumschpringe are often a time of sowing wild oats. Each of Abram's daughters, choosing her own path, must come to terms with the Old Ways of thinking and living. And sometimes that path has detours and forks in the road with unknown destinations...
Customer Reviews:
couldn't get enough of these characters.......2007-09-04
I hate fiction but picked this book (the covenant) up because I am interested in the Amish and enjoy visiting Lancaster, PA which is only 1 hour away from where I live. Well, I was totally hooked...bought all 5 in the series...passed them on to all my family and friends that like to read...each and everyone of us LOVED these books and are finding it hard to find anything that compares in holding our interest as much.
Do yourself a favor and buy all 5!! Beware: you will stay up late reading these!!
The Covenant/The Betrayal/The Sacrifice/The Prodigal/The Revelation (Abram's Daughters 1-5).......2007-08-26
I really enjoyed these books. I bought them during my school vacation. I read one a day until I was finished. I really hated to finish reading these books. They were so good I hated to see them end.
Abram's Daughter.......2007-08-25
I got so drawn into these characters and couldn't put down these books because I needed to find out if Leah would get her happy ending and live happily ever after. This is a very well written series that you need to finish once you start it. I breezed through these 5 books in 2 weeks. A friend started reading book 1 when I was into book 3 and feels the same way and lucky me! I get to relive the series each day when she comes into work and tells me what she read the previous evening.
If you read only one of Ms. Lewis' series, this is the series to pick. It's some story full of scandal, heartbreak and lots of love. Excellent!
Amish Ways.......2007-08-19
I tried to read a few of these books, but being from a family of formerly Amish folks, it just doesn't quite ring true. It's obvious to me at least, that Beverly does not have first hand experience in capturing the Amish ways.
Abram's Daughters.......2007-07-31
I have not been able to stop reading from book to book anxious to find out what happens in the next step of Leah's life.
Books:
- The Mephisto Club: A Novel
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
- The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
- The Plague
- The RealAge Makeover: Take Years off Your Looks and Add Them to Your Life
- The Rivers of Zadaa (Pendragon)
- THE SOLDIER'S BIBLE: with Special Prayer and Devotional Section for Army Personnel; Green, Bonded Leather with Slide-Tab Closure
- The Terror: A Novel
- Top Secret Restaurant Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains
- Tribes : A New Way of Learning and Being Together
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
- History: Fiction or Science
- Aktive Funktionsbauweisen: Eine Einführung in die Struktronik
- Barnaby Rudge Volume 3 of 3 A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty
- Evil And the Justice of God
- Homes With a View: 175 Home Plans for Golf-Course, Waterfront and Mountain Homes
- Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism
- 30 Essential Typefaces for A Lifetime
- Art 20: The Thames & Hudson Multimedia Dictionary of Modern Art, Second Edition
- Private Hemingway Goes to War: A World War II Diary of a Private
Water for Elephants: A Novel
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
A Thousand Splendid Suns
