Book Description
Now available in paperback, the entrancing story of how one woman's journey of self-discovery gave her the courage to persevere in re-creating her life.
Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future. As her husband received a wonderful job opportunity out-of-state, it seemed that the best part of her own life was finished. Shocking both of them, she refused to follow him to his new job and decided to retreat to a family cottage on Cape Cod.
At first casting about for direction, Joan soon began to take plea-sure in her surroundings and call on resources she didn't realize she had. Over the course of a year, she gradually discovered that her life as an "unfinished woman" was full of possibilities. Out of that magical, difficult, transformative year came
A Year by the Sea, a record of her experiences and a treasury of wisdom for readers.
This year of self-discovery brought about extraordinary changes in the author's life. The steps that Joan took to revitalize herself and rediscover her potential have helped thousands of woman reveal and release untapped resources within themselves.
Customer Reviews:
A complete waste of time.......2007-08-26
I had to read this book for my book-club. Thank goodness I was able to get it from the library and didn't have to buy it.
The book was tiresome, tedious, narcisisstic and at times, frankly unbelievable. The first conversation with Joan Erikson reads as if scripted for a made-for-TV movie. Joan, "It's about action and touch" she says , as if she knows. "That's where the wisdom is - in the senses - stepping out on a gray day, daring to be different. There's no-one as foolish as us right now. Thank goodness! We can be in a fog all by ourselves! I love the grayness of it. The mist sort of wraps itself around our thoughts, so they can take hold".
Give me a break.
As another reviewer wrote, Anderson insists on dragging in metaphors and hitting us over the head with them. The seals, the fox, the trickling sand - enough already.
As to the reason she went on her sabbatical - it appears she married someone so radically opposite her in many respects, she maybe would have been happier with another man. The fact that she raised two sons who are happliy married themselves is maybe a testament to her husband more than her - she mentions that they are always happy in his company. "Their affection for him is more readily apparent than their feelings for me".
Hmm - I wonder why?
Reflections for Women Over 50.......2007-06-12
This is one woman's story of her own year-long time-out. It is easily readable in a day or two (or a few hours, if you have that much time to yourself). The thoughts the author shares, however, will stay with you; they require much more reflection time. It is thoughtful, humorous in places, and uplifting. A good start for beginning your own journey into the last half of life. I ordered several copies for friends. I recommend following this book with Anderson's "A Weekend to Change Your Life" which guides you into your own retreat and reflection on the path(s) you have taken and will continue to take. But read this one first.
Amazing book!.......2007-05-11
This book was fantastic! I couldn't put it down and although I am only in my 20s I could relate to so much of what she was writting. Once I finished the book I promptly lent it to my mother and she also loves it! A great read for anyone wanting to learn more about women's stories and their experiences.
Taking Time to Open Your Mind.......2007-03-17
Joan Anderson details her experience of separating from her husband and retreating to Cape Cod for a year. She is so out-of-touch with herself and her needs that even in this year of self-discovery, she flounders and at times seems wimpy and lost. It's inspiring, as it shows that you don't have to be super-woman to make changes in your life.
Ideas that seep into my mind as I read include:
*It's never too late to tune into your real self
*Solitude and interaction with nature help free you to think
*Getting your hands dirty releases inhibitions
*We are all unfinished women (and men) but often don't let ourselves grow
Although some passages seemed banal as you read them, the overall revitalization and insight that the author experiences strike a spark. I I imagine we all need some time to recharge and reconnect with ourselves, but rarely have that luxury. We also fill our lives too much with the daily demands and aren't willing to listen to our minds and bodies rebelling or quietly suffocating.
Interesting...........2007-01-20
I found this book to be quite an interesting read. I like Joan's writing style and her bravery in facing situations that came her way. She tells of the creative solutions she came up with to patch up her cabin, her relationships and, ultimately, her own psyche. She stepped out in faith and is an adventurous inspiration to me. I especially loved her interactions with the seals. A quick and enjoyable read!
Book Description
“One of the truest and most original new voices in American letters,” as Kent Haruf has written, Mark Spragg now tells the story of a complex, prodigal homecoming.
Jean Gilkyson is floundering in a trailer house in Iowa with yet another brutal boyfriend when she realizes this kind of life has got to stop, especially for the sake of her daughter, Griff. But the only place they can run to is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean’s loved ones are dead and her father-in-law, the only person who could take them in, wishes that she was too. For a decade, Einar Gilkyson has blamed her for the accident that took his son’s life, and he has chosen to go on living himself largely because his oldest friend couldn’t otherwise survive. They’ve been bound together like brothers since the Korean War and now face old age on a faltering ranch, their intimacy even more acute after Mitch was horribly crippled while Einar helplessly watched.
Of course, ten-year-old Griff knows none of this–only that her father is dead and her mother has bad taste in men. But once she encounters this grandfather she’d never heard about, and the black cowboy confined to the bunkhouse, with irrepressible courage and great spunk she attempts to turn grievous loss, wrath, and recrimination–to which she’s naturally the most vulnerable–toward reconciliation and love.
Immediately compelling and constantly surprising, rich in character, landscape, and compassion, An Unfinished Life shows a novelist of extraordinary talents in the fullness of his powers.
Download Description
Jean Gilkyson is floundering in a trailer house in Iowa with yet another brutal boyfriend when she realizes this kind of life has got to stop, especially for the sake of her daughter, Griff. But the only place they can run to is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean's loved ones are dead and her father-in-law, the only person who could take them in, wishes that she was too. For a decade, Einar Gilkyson has blamed her for the accident that took his son's life, and he has chosen to go on living himself largely because his oldest friend couldn't otherwise survive. They've been bound together like brothers since the Korean War and now face old age on a faltering ranch, their intimacy even more acute after Mitch was horribly crippled while Einar helplessly watched.
Of course, ten-year-old Griff knows none of this—only that her father is dead and her mother has bad taste in men. But once she encounters this grandfather she'd never heard about, and the black cowboy confined to the bunkhouse, with irrepressible courage and great spunk she attempts to turn grievous loss, wrath, and recrimination—to which she's naturally the most vulnerable—toward reconciliation and love.
Immediately compelling and constantly surprising, rich in character, landscape, and compassion, An Unfinished Life shows a novelist of extraordinary talents in the fullness of his powers.
Customer Reviews:
great book.......2006-09-09
i really really loved this book. it was excellent, easy to read and very satisfying. it was the first of his books i read but when i finished it i bought his other books.
This story is sooooo played out........2006-04-13
I'm reading this for our local book club and wondering who the heck thought that this would be a good read. Although the author writes well enough that you can visualize the scene with ease, there are some places where the plot appears to fall down. For example, when we are introduced to Einor one gets a feeling of cold winter approaching. Some chapters later, we find Jean mixing margaritas for a "cry in your drink session" with Nina in the backyard with feet cooling in a wading pool. Other characters such as Starla are downright strange. There is no real charactor development. Noone I could fall in love with. Unfortunately this story line was been played out over and over and this book does not offer any fresh prespective on the "woman done wrong" theme. But then again if you have a hankering for this type of story, it is an easy read.
Some Stereotypes, But It Works.......2005-12-28
Three of the main characters in this book are fairly stereotypical - Einar, the hard, wizened grandfather who lost a son, the precocious adolescent, the hated daughter-in-law. Added to this mix is the grandfather's best friend, a near cripple due to a bear-mauling, and the novel works well although at first blush you think you have seen them all before.
The daughter-in-law is battered by her boyfriend. Her daughter calls her on a promise that they would leave with the next beating and they do. With no where else to go, they end up at the grandfather's ranch. He did not know he had a granddaughter and she did not know she had a grandfather. The mother is hated by her father-in-law because she was driving when her husband, Einar's son, was killed in an accident.
As one might expect, the granddaughter melts the hearts of the two old men. The daughter-in-law begins to win some grudging respect, mostly due to the fact that she has a good daughter (if the child is good the parent can't be all bad).
So much of this book is predictable, you would think it would fall into the "already read that" category. However, Mr. Spragg's writing has a haunting quality to it. This makes the entire novel different and makes the characters almost seem ephemeral at times. They haunt and are the type of characters that will stay with a reader for a good long time - the mark of quality characterization.
This is a story of family and character renewal. The individauls renew themselves independently as well as members of the family. The precipatator is the child, yet she is very likeable. She is not the sappy sweet irritating child cast member. She is believable and has no supernatural insights or powers. Perhaps this is why the entire novel seems more believable than most of this type.
A good book that will stay with you.
Good read...family bonds & redemption in the west..........2005-10-16
Though well written, this is not a challenging read, as I tore through the book in nothing flat. The characters are largely well developed and enagaging. I agree with another reviewer, this reads like a film script or could even be a play. Griff, the little girl is the centerpiece of the story and her brave, gutsy, irrespressible spirit is a delight. I felt the author captured that time in a little girls life where there's a fear of nothing-that is definitely the case with Griff. I loved this book for Griff-she's spunky & wise.
You genuinely care about the characters and the two crusty old cowboys who are lifelong friends getting goo-goo over a little girl is sweet-I love Griff's observations of these two old coots. You really sense the patience and calm in these two older men that often in life only comes with age.
There is some predictability to the story however, and I found some trouble with Jean's character. The constant bad taste in men when she'd been married to a good man who was not abusive I find a bit implausible, and what's the deal with her and the sheriff? Their relationship just seemed a bit flimsy for me, was it just for the sex or for protection from the nasty abusive boyfriend Roy, I couldn't really tell- it could have been fleshed out more.
I look forward to the movie, but casting Jennifer Lopez as Jean??? She just doesn't strike me as the earthy ranch girl type from Wyoming...sorry folks. Maybe she'll surprise me.
Great read - reminded me of The Horse Whisperer.......2005-10-02
I read this book in under a week, and I'm a slow reader. Truly enjoyable. Looking forward to seeing the movie. I think they cast it well.
Customer Reviews:
A very informative book!.......2007-09-21
I guess everyone knows or has seen Dolly Parton perform. She knows how to take a lemon and make lemonade out of life's challenges. I highly recommend the reading of this book.
Hoping for a sequel, though.......2007-05-23
The best thing about Dolly Parton's autobio is 'hearing' her VOICE come through the print. Eternally optimistic and carefully eccentric, there's no doubt Parton has one of the most blithesome star qualities in the biz. And why not - it's her business to be so lovable.
While she hedges (considerably) on her 'indentured servitude' with Porter Waggoner and speaks infrequently about her creative process (writing and recording), when she gets a topic that pleases her - such as her childhood exploits - Parton lets go like one of her coolest numbers. Her humanism seems unbounded.
Since the publication of this book, Parton, confounding all reasonable expectations, returned to the studio with a revitalized muse, producing some of her most credible work (Grass Is Blue, and onward). Hopefully, we shall 'hear' Parton speak of her artistic reinvention in a future volume.
A laugh a page.......2007-03-05
I knew Dolly Parton had a good sense of humor but I didn't know it was as far out as it is. Although I've been a fan for a long time, I'm a "lazy" fan and didn't even realize she had an autobiography out there until recently. Just to think I could have been laughing 13 years ago. Duh! If you're feeling down and need a laugh, get this book. Dolly needs her own TV show and if the people who run Hollywood had good sense, she would have had it long ago. Of course, they don't so they would have probably put the wrong writers on it and it would have been cancelled in a week.
Dolly And Friends..........2005-08-05
Dolly had a hard life growing up in the wilds of East Tennessee; she started out poor and indeed did have a 'coat of many colors' as her children's book explained. She wore hand-me-downs in the backwoods of Sevier County where my paternal grandfather's people lived. She's funny. Coming from the country, it took some doing and lots of help to get where she is today. She has re-invented her personality through the years from the young lovesick girl who write 'I Will Always Love You' to Porter Wagoner. After all, she was a young country bumpkin from the Knoxville area, and we inexperienced girls fall hard for the first person we can admire. He gave her the first 'big' break, singing on his show in Nashville.
She had been on local talent shows in Knox County, Cas Walker's for country music. She migrated to Middle Tennessee to sing on the Grand Ole Opry where she met my friend, Hal Durham, who was manager of that fabulous old show on radio, television and live. I once attended at the Ryman and he gave Zachary and me a backstage tour.
In Nashville and in the movies, she had a good life but suffered some setbacks and depression. The two photo secitons show how little Dolly the girl was transformed into Dolly the bombshell blonde. She is the richest person in this area as she owns Dollywood, the major attraction for people from all the states who visit the Great Smoky Mountains and from other countries.
In her 'thanks' section, she included her favorite makeup, Revlon staff, and favorite lingerie shop, Frederick's of Hollywood. She includes Terry Morrow, local entertainment columnist for the News Sentinel daily Knoxville newspaper, and Ligiea Saveanu (whoever she is -- I was going to name my daughter Ligeia). From the Grand Ole Opry performers, she includes Archie Campbell from the famous Civil War area in EAst Tennessee, Bull's Gap, Grant Turner, and Bud Wendell, WSM announcer. Game show hosts were Bob Eubanks and Huell Howser; how could she leave out Wink Martindale and Pat Sajacks, both Tennesseans? For some reason, she included the Knoxville Democrat Party chairman, Jim Gray, Al Gore, Jim Sasser, and Sandra Fulton (wife of Dick Fulton of Nashville). Movie stars included Kevin Costner, Jane Fonda, and Delta Burke, while singers were Mac Davis, Billy Ray Syrus, Whitney Houtston and Reba McEntire. She has Johnny Carson, Eddie Hill, and many many others -- too many to mention.
Like most successful people, she has humility when it comes to feeling indebted to others for her success. She showed he CBS anchor a thing or two when he enterviewed her ans commented on her most obvious attraction. She has talent galore, and I wish Dolly could live forever. She will in the figure on Sevier County Courthouse Lawn, as a young country girl. Dolly is everything to everybody.
*****A Country Superstar!*****.......2005-06-08
Put simply, I LOVE this book! I've just finished reading it for the second time and it's even better than it was the first time.
I read it when it first came out in 1994 and was so jazzed to find it a few weeks ago in a used bookstore. I had a few other things to read before I picked up Dolly, but now that I have, I don't want it to end!
I can't say enough good and great and amazing things about this biography. She wrote it herself and it's honest, down to earth and funny as all get out. Because of it, I even added some more Dolly Parton CD's to my music collection and it was a very much needed trip down memory lane.
Thanks, Dolly, for such an amazing, revealing look at what makes you tick. Now, what I want to know is: when is your next book coming out. :)
Amazon.com
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from years of traipsing through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War had caught up with him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter people who reenact the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued, he wound up having some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping to get what they lovingly term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways in which it resonates today. In the course of his work, he made a sobering side trip to cover a murder that was provoked by the display of the Confederate flag, and he spoke to a number of people seeking to honor their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Horwitz has a flair for odd details that spark insights, and Confederates in the Attic is a thoughtful and entertaining book that does much to explain America's continuing obsession with the Civil War.
Book Description
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance.
In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'
Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism,
Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and new ones 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
Confederate in the Attic.......2007-10-15
Just started reading the book thus far it is entertaining and delightful. I look forward to my quiet evening reading time everyday. It amazes me how
we continue to get Civil War info. from these wonderful writers.
"Stonewall" Jackson's arm and other Civil War minutia.......2007-09-21
Simply a fun read. If you are a civil war buff like me you will enjoy reading this John Stosselesque investigative book of Civil War facts, minutia, and why Confederate esprit de corps lives on 142 years after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Mr. Horwitz writes his book as a travelogue through the Civil War South. He recounts his travels as he meets new and interesting people and places, and how they still view the War between the States, as the Civil War is known in the South, as an ongoing struggle. He breaks down the book in chapters pertaining to the Southern states he visited.
The book is full of funny, sad, and informative facts like where and when was the first shot of the Civil War actually fired? And No, it was NOT Fort Sumter. But most important was his analysis of the continuing, living spirit of the Civil War South of 1861-1865. It lives today in a variety of ways that Mr. Horowitz points out and discusses.
All in all a must book for Civil War buffs of all kind. A good solid read, well written and factual. Not a tactics or war strategy manual of unit names and engagements, but rather a human interest book of who and what modern day Dixie is and why it lives on today in Southern people, places and things. I recommend it highly.
yet another batch of anti-southern stereotypes rehashed.......2007-07-17
I bought this book on the reccomendation of a fellow civil war buff. I was hoping for some fresh insights on the subject of the lost cause and it's continued effect on our (southern) lives. Instead it is a collection of overblown, trite, highly condescending, negative, hateful fiction. I have lived in the south/southwest my entire life (44 yrs) and I have never encountered anyone remotely resembling the ignorant, racist, borderline psychopaths that the author claims to have found on almost every street corner south of Mason-Dixon. This book is not what I expected. I will avoid further works of fiction by Mr. Horwitz.
New South and Old South.......2007-07-08
Tony Horwitz inadvertently sees Confederate Civil War reenactors near his Virginia home which launches him into an adventure across the South, attending reenactments but also comparing the New South to the Old South. He found out that some things have really changed, and some things have hardly changed at all. He looks into race relations, modern Confederate sympathizers, the Confederate flag controversy, and also gives a great history lesson on many parts of the Civil War, throwing in a lot of trivia that I had not read before. The Civil War continues to be a part of a lot of people's daily lives in the Deep Deep South and Horwitz writes with depth, understanding, and a welcome sense of humor. Recommended.
Well, the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression/War for State's Rights/Whatever Is Still Being Fought!.......2007-03-27
As a Southerner and lifelong American Civil War buff, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tony Horwitz' account of traveling the various Southern states and to get an account of the war from mainly the Southern view. While not an advocate of the South's position, he did seem to be respectful of how some Southerners viewed the war over 140 years later after the war ended.
Horwitz traveled Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas to various Civil War sites and to talk with people on their thoughts of what the war meant to them. While he finds pockets of people who still fight the war, he is appalled that most people do not know or really care to know what happened during 1861-1865.
Among the highlights:
1. How he became interested in the war.
2. His trip to Montgomery, Alabama and the irony of the exhibits on the Civil Rights and the First Capital of the Confederacy.
3. His "Wargasm" trip with Robert Hodge (the character in the absolutely hilarious photo on the book's cover) through several Virginia sites in a matter of a few days.
4. Watching Civil War reenactments at Gettysburg and other battlefields.
5. Touring the Civil War prison in Salisbury NC.
The narrative is smooth, interesting, and flows freely from chapter to chapter. As mentioned earlier, I am a lifelong Civil War buff and was able to visualize several of the battlefields I had visited that Horwitz mentioned in his book. I also enjoyed his insights as a Jew.
A great book to read about how some people still fight and view the war. My only complaint was some of the saucy language. Still, a great read.
Highly recommended. Read and enjoy!
Product Description
Slender comb-bound volume of poems and block prints, about 30 pages in length, gold-toned cardboard front cover. Printed on colored papers with colored ink, a delight for the reader's eye.
Customer Reviews:
Great partner with Cold Sassy Tree.......2007-09-18
(LEAVING COLD SASSY is the unfinished sequel to Cold Sassy Tree with Reminiscence by Katrina Kenison)
After author Olive Ann Burns' first book, Cold Sassy Tree, became an instant hit when it was published in 1984, it received overwhelming accolades from readers and critics across the country. Everyone wanted a sequel, and Burns, who was struggling with cancer and later, congestive heart failure, wanted to write it. But she was the world's most particular writer: she had spent years writing and re-writing her first book, yet she hoped to have the sequel done by 1991. Bedridden for months at a time, finally losing her lifetime love, Andy Sparks, whom she'd met at The Atlanta Constitution and Journal, Burns fought against time to finish the sequel, called Time, Dirt, and Money.
But she had barely finished the first 14 chapters when she died quite suddenly at her and her husband's mountain retreat--The Write House, in Commerce, Georgia. So Mariner Books has put together both books, Cold Sassy Tree and its unfinished sequel in two soft cover editions to be re-issued September 2007. There readers can at least get a glimpse into the lives of Will Tweedy and his bride, Sanna, ten years after the first book ended.
This is a more grownup Will talking, his dialect rectified by schooling, but his appetites for resistant women just as powerful as in his childhood. His stubbornness and determination to win Sanna remind us of his Grandpa Blakeslee's stubbornness and determination to marry whomever he wanted, too. This book has no similar strong character like Grandpa to carry it, but Burn was planning to use Will's Aunt Loma to take his place. How it would have turned out, we'll never know.
But even more interesting than the fiction, I found Olive Ann's biography written by her friend, Katrina Kenison, to be a wonderful insight into the author's character, with all her quirks, optimism and determination.
Armchair Interviews says: read both books for a delightful journey into one writer's character and her favorite people.
Should have been left alone.......2007-01-17
A very disappointing "sequel" to the original Cold Sassy Tree. The finished section was ok, but reading the author's notes as to possibilities that should, could or would happen next were very unfulfilling. The marriage difficulties based on Sanna's personality and Will's unrelenting love for his first girlfriend didn't seem to spring from any of what the author wrote in the first half. "Leave" this one alone.
Leaving Cold Sassy.......2007-01-10
Very obvious not written with the content the Author had orginally intended but it does give closer to the Cold Sassy.
Don't buy this!.......2006-01-29
This book is unfinished. The author died before she could complete it. It has none of the humor or warmth of the original book. I believe it was published by the heirs as a way to squeeze some money from their mother's estate. Shame on them!
Excellent.......2005-07-28
I read this book for the first time 10 years ago and am reading it again...This book should be a classic.
Product Description
Edited by his son
Average customer rating:
- A good yarn
- Enjoyable light reading
- Synopsis
- The characters are very believable and written well
|
Unfinished Business
Nora Roberts
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
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ASIN: 1560546344 |
Customer Reviews:
A good yarn.......2007-04-21
This is the story of Vanessa, a brilliant concert pianist, but a completely befuddled human. She's 28 and for the first time in her life, she's making decisions on her own.
It's telling that the woman has an ulcer and doesn't know it - refuses to believe it. Illness is a weakness, and she has no weaknesses.
Vanessa goes through a catharsis in this story, learning to live with what has happened in her life and correct where she went wrong. She goes home to heal a breach with her mother and heals herself in the process.
Oh, and she has a really hot romance.
My only problem with the book is that her father, who is revealed as a selfish SOB from almost page one, is never overtly discussed. Or at least, not enough. He is the epicenter of the damage in her life, and he remains an open thread. This is unusual for a NR book, normally she deals with these situations.
Anyway, a great early Nora R. entry. WORTH reading!!
(*)>
Enjoyable light reading.......2005-08-22
A cute story about a classical pianist who left home as a teenager to pursue her career under the overbearingly high-pressure of her father/tutor/manager. Now, 8 years later, after the death of her father, she decides to return home to Western Maryland to rest and recover from an ulcer and severe burn-out, and to reconcile with her mother and childhood sweetheart. From her new adult prospective, and out from under the misguided influence of her father, she realizes that the misunderstandings that to her estrangement from both of them wasn't what she had been lead to believe. A nicely presented story about repairing mother-daughter bonds that seemed damaged forever, and about reconnecting with one's soulmate.
Synopsis.......2000-03-10
COULD HE HEAL HER BROKEN HEART? What was she doing here? Hyattown had changed very little in the years Vanessa Sexton had been away. In some ways her high school sweetheart, Brady Tucker, hadn't changed much either-he was still lean, athletic, rugged... But the once reckless had become a solid dependable man. He'd stood her up on the most important night of her life; could she ever trust him again. So Vanessa had finaly come home, Brady thought. She could still turn him inside out with on of her sultry looks. He couldn't believe she hadn't forgiven him for that night twelve years ago-but he'd had his reasons for not showing up. He'd let her leave town then-but he wasn't going to let her get away this time...
The characters are very believable and written well.......1998-04-09
I enjoyed reading this book you cared about the characters and felt like you got to know them
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A Walk on the Beach: Tales of Wisdom From an Unconventional Woman
An Unfinished Marriage
A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People
Gift from the Sea: 50th Anniversary Edition
Wisdom and the Senses: The Way of Creativity
