Book Description
This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into a man and starts a family of his own. But one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to secretly be with his father - and she dies while he is gone. This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness. One night, he decides to take his life. But somewhere between this world and the next, he encounters his mother again, in their hometown, and gets to spend one last day with her - the day he missed and always wished he'd had. He asks the questions many of us yearn to ask, the questions we never ask while our parents are alive. By the end of this magical day, Charley discovers how little he really knew about his mother, the secret of how her love saved their family, and how deeply he wants the second chance to save his own.
Customer Reviews:
A book for everyone who has a mom.......2007-10-11
This is a TRUE story about a man who has made such a drunken fool of himself on so many occasions that his daughter sends him a wedding announcement - after her wedding. He falls into deep despair, loses all hope and goes on a deliberate journey to end his life. He almost succeeds and when he meets his mother who has died years earlier. She takes him through a sort of time warp where the past and present combine. He learns the truth about his father whom he admired as a boy but he sees that his father was really a polygamist who forced his son to choose between mother/father and then father abandoned them. He finally sees all the struggles his mother went through to raise him and his sister, she cleaned houses to put him through college after getting fired from her job as a nurse because the married women did not want a divorcee around their men. After all him mother did for him, he dropped out at the instigation of his father to go play pro baseball yet he failed at that too. For One More Day is really about the man who gets to meet his mother again for one more day, in the afterlife she shows him how she lived her life. In the epilogue we find that this story is a TRUE story as told to the author by the man who lived it. It made me so grateful to be able to pick up the phone and call my mother now and also realize how deeply I will miss her one day. The author Mitch Albom is better known as a sports writer but don't let that stop you from reading this book, I sent copies to my mother and sister the very next day.
Great Story.......2007-09-19
This was a nice short story. If you've lost a loved one or have struggled with a past you've tried to overcome, you can relate to the main character.
A good read on many levels.......2007-09-14
For One More Day is a fast read, but it engages the mind and emotions on many levels. It touches the nerve of regrets in a family relationship, and it leaves the reader with an assurance that it's not too late to make amends even after death has staked its claim between you.
Mitch Albom has done an excellent job of moving the story along while leaving room for a last moment surprise. I'll go back and read this one again.
Great Book!.......2007-09-09
This is a great book! I was very pleased with the entire book. This story is especially meaningful if you have lost someone special in your life. It makes you think twice about your own life and how you live it. I would definitley recommend it!
A must read for all ages.......2007-08-23
Among my top 50 lists of books to read. The character is easy to relate to, and the story flows greatly, even through its little flashback excerpts
Amazon.com
For most writers, the greatest challenge of spiritual writing is to keep it grounded in concrete language. The temptation is to wander off into the clouds of ethereal epiphanies, only to lose readers with woo-woo thinking and sacred-laced clichés. Thankfully, Anne Lamott (Operating Instructions, Crooked Little Heart) knows better. In this collection of essays, Lamott offers her trademark wit and irreverence in describing her reluctant journey into faith. Every epiphany is framed in plainspoken (and, yes, occasionally crassly spoken) real-life, honest-to-God experiences. For example, after having an abortion, Lamott felt the presence of Christ sitting in her bedroom:
This experience spooked me badly, but I thought it was just an apparition born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then everywhere I went I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk and then it stays forever.
Whether she's writing about airplane turbulence, bulimia, her "feta cheese thighs," or consulting God over how to parent her son, Lamott keeps her spirituality firmly planted in solid scenes and believable metaphors. As a result, this is a richly satisfying armchair-travel experience, highlighting the tender mercies of Lamott's life that nudged her into Christian faith. --Gail Hudson
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Anne Lamott admits that she's "ever so slightly more anxious than the average hypochondriac." When faced with a small, irregular mole and a family history of skin cancer, however, she remembers her faith in God and enjoys some peace--despite behaving "a little more like Nathan Lane in The Birdcage than I would have hoped." Author Lamott reads these wonderfully detailed postcards from her meandering journey to faith. With sharp and bittersweet humor, she recounts a past full of bad relationships with men, with food, with drugs, with alcohol, and worst of all, with herself. She battles her demons thanks to the love of her friends and family and her "lurch of faith" to embrace religion, that "puzzling thing inside me that had begun to tug on my sleeve from time to time, trying to get my attention." Inspiring but not dogmatic, Traveling Mercies is a treasure. (Running time: 4 hours, 3 cassettes) --C.B. Delaney
Book Description
Anne Lamott claims the two best prayers she knows are: "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She has a friend whose morning prayer each day is "Whatever," and whose evening prayer is "Oh, well." Anne thinks of Jesus as "Casper the friendly savior" and describes God as "one crafty mother."
Despite--or because of--her irreverence, faith is a natural subject for Anne Lamott. Since
Operating Instructions and
Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers--her friend Pammy, her son, Sam, and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. And
Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness.
Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. Against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself. As she puts it, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers." At once tough, personal, affectionate, wise, and very funny,
Traveling Mercies tells in exuberant detail how Anne Lamott learned to shine the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life, exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope.
Download Description
Traveling Mercies takes us on a journey through Anne Lamott's troubled past to illuminate her devout but quirky walk of faith: how, against all odds, she came to believe in God, and the myriad ways in which that faith sustains and guides her in everyday life. With an exuberant mix of passion and self-deprecating humor, Lamott explores whether certain behaviors will get her "a better seat in heaven, " perhaps "near the dessert table, " or whether her mistakes "make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat disk" She writes about her family, about helping a friend through the devastating illness of her baby, about wanting but not having all the answers for her eight-year-old son.
Through the hard-won wisdom that forms the core of her beliefs, and with wit, insight, and lots of heart, she shows us how she creates a life balance of connectedness and liberation.
Customer Reviews:
Mercy on Us.......2007-09-19
This is one of my favorite books, and I've read it many times. The essay on Forgiveness is a classic. I'm not sure how Annie Lamott makes fundamentalist Christianity palatable, but she manages to convey a deep sense of faith and gratitude along with a quirky charming wit about it all -- especially about herself.
I (heart) Anne Lamott.......2007-08-25
I pretty much love any essay Anne Lamott writes, and I appreciate her foray into the spiritual side of life. She makes faith very real and very every day/accesible ... something we all need. Her humor and witty prose make the reading enjoyable as well.
A Great and Pleasant Read.......2007-08-09
From the start to the end, Anne Lamott's writing is greatly captivating and keeps her readers guessing as to what she's getting at, then leaves us with great philosophical insight, all the while keeping her humorous input she's so famous for.
Although she writes with freedom and confidence, some of her ideas about "faith" may not be what most people expect, but then again, these are her own thoughts about faith, what she's gone through and how she has come to be the person she is today.
She carries along a great novel, somewhat of an autobiography with her son Sam, and warmly welcomes any readers willing to read to the very end. Lots of great quotations to write down; a definite read for anyone.
Put me out of my misery.......2007-08-07
Having read previously published books by Anne LaMott, I admit I was unenthusiastic about reading this book group selection. Much of the material is rehashed from previous works but now autobiographically instead of as "fiction."
I found her self-depricating tone to be disingenuous and much of her self pity to stem from personal problems that were self-inflicted. (Did that last sentence mention "self?") The book is centered on her self involvement which often attempts to depict herself as being gritty, worldly, and street-experienced.
While she has had experience as an alcoholic and sex addict, she never seems to rise above it in any inspirational way. Authors such as Frank McCort of Angela's Ashes and Jeannette Walls of the Glass Castle were confronted with horrible childhoods but managed to survive with a spunk and spirit I admired. I couldn't figure out what was so bad in Anne LaMott's life that she had to complain about and/or turn to self abuse to cope. I grew up with my own share of dysfunction but chose to take a more optimistic outlook on life.
Although I agree with many of her political points of view, it did not sit well with me how she launched personal attacks on those who held opposing views. "The New Adventures of Old Christine" is able to satirize those annoying holier-than-thou mothers at the PTO in a much more humorous way and that's saying a lot for a TV situation comedy compared to this literary selection.
I forced myself to finish the last third of the book after our book group discussion because those chapters seemed to be the most poignant. Yes, that was the best part of the book. The chapters about being kind to her aging body and dealing with aging parents were the most honest and touching sections.
Even so, this is not a book I would recommend to someone looking for emotional uplift or spiritual insight.
TOP FIVE ON MY "BEST-LOVED BOOKS" LIST.......2007-07-03
I keep a list of best-loved books, which is coming in handy lately as I hit my forties and tend to rebuy books I've already read (sometimes getting through several chapters before I figure this out). If I put the list in order, Traveling Mercies would immediately make my top five. Lamott's autobiographical essays are hilarious and heartbreaking and wonderful, and make me wish she lived next door. I've read Traveling Mercies all the way through at least six times, and picked it up countless other times to enjoy one of the stand-alone chapters. I love the poetic compassion of some of the passages so much that I read them outloud. If you're a mom, you've got to read the chapter on forgiveness - Lamott's attempt to deal with her resentment of a perfect, day-planner writing, cupcake baking, field trip-chaperoning mom. We've all been there on some level. I keep going back to this book when I need to teach adult Sunday school, because it's such a beautiful exploration of Christian faith in a life that's messy and funny and difficult and real.
Average customer rating:
- I agree - this book is for warped minds
- Didn't like the message
- This is a Top Ten Creepy Children's Book
- A comfort
- I love my mom
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Love You Forever
Robert N. Munsch , and
Sheila McGraw
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The Giving Tree
ASIN: 0920668372 |
Amazon.com
The mother sings to her sleeping baby: "I'll love you forever / I'll love you for always / As long as I'm living / My baby you'll be." She still sings the same song when her baby has turned into a fractious 2-year-old, a slovenly 9-year-old, and then a raucous teen. So far so ordinary--but this is one persistent lady. When her son grows up and leaves home, she takes to driving across town with a ladder on the car roof, climbing through her grown son's window, and rocking the sleeping man in the same way. Then, inevitably, the day comes when she's too old and sick to hold him, and the roles are at last reversed. Each stage is illustrated by one of Sheila McGraw's comic and yet poignant pastels. (Ages 4 to 8) --Richard Farr
Book Description
A young woman holds her newborn son
And looks at him lovingly.
Softly she sings to him:
"I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be."
So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide. Since publication in l986, Love You Forever has sold more than 15 million copies in paperback and the regular hardcover edition (as well as hundreds of thousands of copies in Spanish and French).
Firefly Books is proud to offer this sentimental favorite in a variety of editions and sizes:
We offer a trade paper and laminated hardcover edition in a 8" x 8" size.
In gift editions we carry:
a slipcased edition (8 1/2" x 8 1/4"), with a laminated box and a cloth binding on the book
and a 10" x 10" laminated hardcover with jacket.
And a Big Book Edition, 16" x 16" with a trade paper binding.
Customer Reviews:
I agree - this book is for warped minds.......2007-10-16
I was given this book and only recently got around to reading it to my children (we have lots of books to get through!). It starts out cute, and very quickly declines in to "strange behaviour". I'm a mother of 4 children whom I love dearly, and I do NOT want them to think that I'll be sneaking in to their homes later in life whilst they sleep. How creepy is that. And I really hope my son does not grow as a man who sleeps with his teddy and sucks his thumb. I'm shocked this book was published. Hollywood could make a really creepy movie out of this one.
Didn't like the message.......2007-10-12
This book is very popular with my husbands family so I got it at my baby shower - I didn't like it a bit. Infact I got rid of it. I think any mom that is driving across down to climb up a ladder and into a window to rock her son to sleep is just strange!! I was fine with the book until I saw the picture of her in the car with the ladder on top. I just find that creepy. I won't be reading this to my son and I dread the day I have to tell my inlaws not to read it to him either. Its just creepy!
This is a Top Ten Creepy Children's Book.......2007-10-03
This starts off kind of cute. The mother has a child in her arms and she tells him, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." As an expression of a parent's unconditional love it's a great little saying from a mother to her son. And then you turn the pages, the kid gets older, and the you see the mom sneaking into the teenage son's bedroom and repeating the mantra. It seems a little Oedipus, as I'd not really like to think about my mom sneaking into my room when I was a teenager but ok, still kind of cute.
Then the son gets married and moves away. Happy ending? Not exactly. Now the mother straps a ladder to her car, drives across town, and breaks into the son's house, sneaks into his bedroom and while he's sleeping with his wife next to him tells him "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." Ok, having seen Psycho, I have to say I'm a bit disturbed. This continues through the son's life, until the mother is dying, and the son repeats her mantra back to her.
The last page in the book shows the son, cradling his newborn, repeating his mother's mantra to the baby, and the cycle repeats. If this were a movie, I would have expected the creepy horror music to well up, have the son look into the camera and start an evil cackle as the picture faded to black.
A comfort.......2007-10-03
It was my Kindergarten teacher who introduced me to this book when I was about five years old. It was a hard time for me at that age because my mom was gone a lot but this book made it a little easier. The song "I'll love you forever" still rings true today and occasionally I even get a little misty eyed. Looking back I remember singing it to my grandmother who couldn't help the tears that filled her eyes and a slight smile on her face when she hugged me "Your right little one and it will never change". It's a comforting book about love between parents and yes even grandparents that passes on generation to generation.
This is one of my favorite children's books and will remain so. However I believe that sadly now we are becoming more and more politically correct and thats unfortunately effecting our children's books. Judge for yourself but remember that sometimes if you look to closely you lose the magic completely :)
I love my mom.......2007-09-28
This book is has impacted me in such a way, and from such an early age, that it will resonate forever.
It is only a sad book if you don't know how to celebrate the life of a loved one. I think it's good for children to question the lessons of this book.
Amazon.com
"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."
Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces. This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job.
Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
The best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning classic hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "a masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue." A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).
Customer Reviews:
A Colossal Waste of Time.......2007-10-16
I heard that the book was a comic masterpiece so I gave it a try. After reading the Preface I was prepared to withstand a slow start that was supposed to grow slowly towards a climatic ending (or at least an interesting ending). A friend of mine was given the book and she tried to get through it 2 or 3 times but she kept getting to a point that she couldn't push through. I was able to push through because I expected a payoff later on that never came.
None of the characters are completely likable. They are all idiots at one point or another and they repeatedly act in a way that I have trouble believing a normal person would. If this was a play, television show or a movie I would say that all of the characters were overacting. They would constantly repeat the same stupid sayings over and over and over again throughout the book. The whole time I am thinking how unbelievable this dialog is because normal people don't act this way. This was just stupidity. It might even be bearable if it was only a couple of screwballs characters but instead everyone is inept. There was no one to root for or to identify with and it simply was not entertaining to read.
The only good thing that I can say about the book is that the title is appropriate.
Cajun-Style Don Quixote .......2007-10-15
There are two ways of perceiving Cervantes's "Don Quixote." In the modern interpretation Don Quixote is an idealistic dreamer, a hopeless romantic battling the windmills of a bitter, cynical world. The more traditional (and I'd say correct) interpretation is that Don Quixote is a dangerous madman adhering to an outdated ideology and sowing havoc wherever he goes. Based on which interpretation you believe in, the novel can be seen as charmingly comic or darkly comic.
The same can be said for "A Confederacy of Dunces." Ignatius Reilly is Don Quixote of the bayou, a grossly overweight, strangely dressed believer in Medieval philosophy. He espouses these beliefs in notebooks, to his mother, at the movie theater (to the annoyance of patrons, ushers, and managers), and to any perspective employer. The only one close to understanding him might have been his dead collie, whom he loves in a not-entirely healthy way. The second closest is his former girlfriend--using the term loosely--Myrna Minkoff, an heiress turned political activist from New York.
Reilly's mother caters to his every need--such as supporting him through the better part of a decade of college, though it never leads him to a stable job--until she runs her car into a building while drunk. This leads her to forcing Reilly out into the world. His interactions with employees at a pants factory, a hot dog vendor, a gay man in the French Quarter, and a bar's employees create mayhem for Reilly and those he comes into contact with.
I think the prevailing view is to think of Ignatius Reilly as a madcap fish out of water, the idealistic dreamer interpretation. But it's not hard to also see him as a fat, selfish lout deserving of the scorn and ridicule he receives. Clearly Ignatius Reilly--like Don Quixote--is someone who takes himself and his ridiculously out-of-step views far too seriously, so you're never laughing WITH him so much as laughing AT him. It's up to you to decide just how mean-spirited the laughing at part is.
At any rate, it's unfortunate that John Kennedy Toole did not live long enough to hone his craft a bit more. Had he received some support and guidance he could have been one of the great American authors of his generation with the likes of Vonnegut, Updike, and of course Walker Percy, who at least made sure we could all read this novel. As it is, there are still some kinks in this, like how people are always screaming relatively ordinary lines of dialog or how the gay characters are stereotyped queens and butches.
Still, there's no question this is a good novel, and a funny novel as well, which is why it managed to endure even after the death of its author. NO matter how you should interpret it, you should read it.
On a side note, I think if Ignatius Reilly were around in modern times he would be writing his missives on the Internet instead of in notebooks. Mostly likely he'd be writing reviews on Amazon...
That is all.
imho....overated due to the book's backstory.......2007-10-08
I only got two-thirds of the way through this book because, basically, it just kept spinning its wheels. Also, the title character is 99% unsympathetic. He's such a friggin' ego-centric dolt that I simply stopped caring about anything to do with him. Yes, there are very funny parts...but not that many. I really feel this book has been hyped due to the fact that the book didn't get published until twenty years after the author's death (he committed suicide at least partly due to the novel not being published in his lifetime) and that the persistence of his mother in getting it printed really added to the book's mystique...which, obviously, has NOTHING to do with the actual book itself. I feel that the book would have never even been considered for a Pulitzer (which it won in the early '80s) had it been published in the author's lifetime. I actually would give this book two and a half stars, but that option isn't available.
A Confederacy of Dunces.......2007-10-04
This is a wonderful read. You take a fantastic and funny journey with a cast of characters that jump off the pages into the room where you are reading. I recommend this book as a gift, for a book club, for anytime. It is one you will read again and again.
Not as funny as they make it out to be.......2007-10-03
This book, i think, is generally over rated. Don't get me wrong, it is funny and memorable. However it was awarded the Pulitzer posthumously and I feel that it does not rank up there with the best work produced in the last century. It is likely that Toole might have produced such a book had he continued writing though. Perhaps his suicide has granted the book an aura of pathos that has helped it along the path to greatness.
The book tends to make caricatures out of the characters, including Ignatius (who is the only real character in the book). Because the book focuses on the personal scale of things, this defect in itself hurts it the most.
Would I read it again, probably yes, but I would have enjoyed it more had i not expected so much of it.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful Story
- great first day of school book
- Love Love Love it
- sweet story
- What a gift this author provides
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The Kissing Hand
Audrey Penn
Manufacturer: Tanglewood Press
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ASIN: 1933718005 |
Amazon.com
Chester Raccoon doesn't want to go to school--he wants to stay home with his mother. She assures him that he'll love school--with its promise of new friends, new toys, and new books. Even better, she has a special secret that's been in the family for years--the Kissing Hand. This secret, she tells him, will make school seem as cozy as home. She takes her son's hand, spreads his tiny fingers into a fan and kisses his palm--smack dab in the middle: "Chester felt his mother's kiss rush from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart." Whenever he feels lonely at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek to feel the warmth of his mother's kiss. Chester is so pleased with his Kissing Hand that he--in a genuinely touching moment--gives his mom a Kissing Hand, too, to comfort her when he is away. Audrey Penn's The Kissing Hand, published by the Child Welfare League of America, is just the right book for any child taking that fledgling plunge into preschool--or for any youngster who is temporarily separated from home or loved ones. The rough but endearing raccoon illustrations are as satisfying and soothing for anxious children as the simple story. (Ages 5 and older) --Karin Snelson
Book Description
In this contemporary classic Chester Raccoon seeks love and reassurance from his mother as he ventures out into the world to attend his very first day of school.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Story.......2007-10-17
I was looking for a book to help prepare my daughter (and me) for the first day of preschool; The Kissing Hand was recommended by friends and family. I tried to find it at the library, but it was always checked out, so I decided to purchase it from Amazon and I am so happy I did, this is a wonderful addition to any home library. The story is so touching; both of my girls (ages three and two, just love it and so do I.) The book includes sticker, which I have used when dropping off my daughter at school. Highly recommend it to anyone getting ready for school.
great first day of school book.......2007-10-10
Sweet story about a little one that doesn't want to leave mom to go to school. Very loving story. My daughter (4) really liked this book. They actually read it on the first day in her pre-school class. Great gift idea.
Love Love Love it.......2007-09-22
I think everyone should own this book. What a great message: Mom's love will always be there.
sweet story.......2007-09-21
I bought this for my five year old to give to him before going to Kindergarten. He wasn't afraid to go, but he really enjoyed the story and the sweet sentiment. He made me a little Kissing Hand picture with the stickers in the back, and I made him a little Kissing Hand note with one of the stickers that he stuck in his pocket for the first few days of school. He even gives his little brothers kissing hands from time to time - very sweet book.
What a gift this author provides.......2007-09-19
For young Chester Raccoon, the first day of school is scary indeed, and young children will be able to relate to the young raccoon who cries at the thought of being separated from his mother. But his wise mother sends him off with a wonderful secret to see him through and carry the memory and strength of her love with him always. The book's foreword says The Kissing Hand is "for the child within each of us who sometimes needs reassurance." Love is truly the bedrock that sustains and reassures us on our path through life, and this book reinforces the importance of loving relationship for us all. Beautifully told, the tale may give youngsters the confidence they need to cope with whatever comes their way. In an unusual move, the author has teamed up two acclaimed artists (one a descendant of Sir Christopher Wren) with distinctive styles that nonetheless blend beautifully. These are endearing, luminous illustrations - Chester Raccoon has got to be the cutest raccoon in all of children's literature.
Book Description
Imaginative, gripping stories and a funny, poignant novella set in Maine after the 2000 presidential election make up this exciting literary debut.
Owen King is a writer interested in the choices we make when we're most conflicted. A young husband must decide whether or not to commit a ghoulish crime; a baseball player in a fantastic 1930s Coney Island is assailed by the guilt of an illicit romance; a nineteenth-century itinerant dentist finds himself snowed in with a group of trappers for a long evening of primitive surgery and laughing gas reveries. Whether they're set in the past or the present, tinged with the macabre, the solemn, or the absurd, all of the stories in this collection carry the weight of real emotion and revelation and showcase King's impressive versatility.
In his novella, King tells the story of George, the teenage son of a single mother, and the only grandson of a family of union organizers in Maine. George's grandfather Henry, obsessed with the outcome of the 2000 election, has planted a giant billboard of homage to Al Gore in his front yard that he suspects has been defaced by the paperboy, now a sworn enemy. Meanwhile, George's mother is about to marry Dr. Vic, who, besides being possessed of an almost royal obliviousness, may even have voted for George W. Bush. George is a nervous accomplice to his grandfather's increasingly unhinged behavior, and a righteous adversary at war with his mother over her marriage. George's struggle is a funny and moving parallel for our times: How will we fight? All together, or all alone? Funny, insightful, and always entertaining, We're All in This Together launches the career of an extraordinarily talented writer.
Customer Reviews:
Clever look at a modern American boy.......2007-10-11
The novella is a compelling family story of a modern American teenager sandwiched between his aging, nostalgiac, Al Gore loving grandfather and his young, activist single mother. The novella left me sad at its conclusion only because it had ended. Satisfying ending? It depends upon the reader. Mr. King has a gift for sense of place. His prose is incredibly readable and very often witty, particularly the unique way he has the mother and son communicate with each other. (You have to find that out yourself.) I sometimes wanted to argue with the characters, who all possessed a bit of the curmudgeon - even the fifteen year-old central character George. I could see the novella as a film in the vein of Simon Burch.
Not impressed.......2007-08-15
I had a really hard time getting into this book. It was well written, just not very captivating. If you are interested in reading this book, purchase it used and save yourself some money.
The Legacy of Stephen King Continues in Sons.......2007-08-11
Following the footsteps of father Stephen King and brother Joe Hill, Owen King's "We're All In This Together" pays tribute to the literary genes of the King family, yet marks its own unique path. A collection of short stories and a novella, it's literary, nostalgic, often bitter yet touching, and insightful. Sometimes warm and reminiscent, other times painful and hard to read, it's a complex work that's impossible to put down.
The title novella, "We're All In This Together", tells the first person narrative of a young man who wonders about the contradicting world around him with a dry, sarcastic wit far beyond his years; though in the end he's still an inexperienced kid prone to all the same hurts and hopes kids experience.
George barely knows his reformed dead-beat father, loves his mother fiercely but resents her for leaving behind a string of eligible would-be fathers, and respects his grandfather in a fearful way. He spends the dry, dull summer days at his grandfather's, learning about the long gone days of the Labor Union, when honest, hard working folks were bound together by the Union's clarion call, "we're all in this together".
Owen King's work sees the best and worst of humanity; we want to cry and laugh equal parts of the time. His wit and sarcasm is razor-sharp, thought-provoking, and takes no prisoners among conservative and liberal sensitivities alike. King takes aim at everyone in this collection, and he hits the bull's eye every single time.
A crown for the son of a King.......2007-03-15
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Owen King is definitely NOT resting on his father's laurels. The title story is complex, thought-provoking and humorous. The others are wonderful are well, very eclectic style. Written much more in the style of John Irving than Owen's father, Stephen King. Owen's future looks very bright indeed. Bravo!
one of the best debuts of 2005.......2006-03-09
Owen King's debut work, We're All In This Together, is my favorite book this year, hands down. Smart and touching, the five outstanding tales that make up this collection are at once startlingly original and classically accomplished. King is one of those rare finds: a writer refreshing for both his bold, creative ingenuity and his old-fashioned gift for story.
King is a virtuosic writer, and his range is clearly on display in this collection. In "Frozen Animals," we meet Pinet, a nitrus-addicted dentist, summoned in the middle of the night to make a strange and frightening house-call. "Wonders" follows the exploits of a conflicted baseball player, a second baseman for a Coney Island farm team during in the 1930's. In the hilarious and heart-breaking story, "My Second Wife," a man still reeling from his divorce joins his eccentric brother on one of the strangest road trips in contemporary fiction.
Yet for all their daring and inventiveness, King's stories are, at heart, great examples of classic story-telling. His characters live and breathe. They are fully imagined, lovingly created, and immediately empathetic. Take for example, George, the teenage protagonist of King's terrific title novella. George's life (and story) is rich with complications. His grandfather, an ex-union organizer, wants to use George for paintball practice so that he might get good enough to gun down a rogue paperboy who keeps defacing his home-made Al Gore billboard. Meanwhile, George is engaged in an operation of his own, trying to sabotage his mother's impending marriage to a middle-aged goofball named Dr. Vic. Here is George explaining himself: "I wasn't getting along with my mother, and I didn't care to get along with Dr. Vic. Of late, I suffered not so much from a feeling that my voice wasn't being heard, as from a sense that I was speaking an entirely different language...my voice was soundless, on the wrong frequency, like a dog whistle..."
As strange as their stories might be, King's protagonists are unnervingly familiar. Which is testiment to his considerable skill. He writes his characters so well that we can't help but identify; no matter what happens tothem, we're right there along side, in it together.
"The best contact wasn't like contact at all," King writes in "Wonders." "It was like swinging straight through, the baseball only an echo of the bat's motion. The game was so hard, but that moment was so easy -the ball flew, Eckstein ran, and there was no chance they were going to catch him."
King's characters are always searching for moments like these, moments of assurance, of clarity. Which is funny, given that reading King's fiction leaves one feeling nothing if not assured - certain that one is in the hands of a dazzling new talent.
Overall: In story after story, King takes care of business. An Elvis of a collection
Average customer rating:
- "She looked at herself as though a stranger": Complex Visions of Families
- Mothers & Sons - ok reading...
- Haunting
- The new Dubliners
- A poignant collection of short stories from an accomplished author
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Mothers and Sons: Stories
Colm Toibin
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1416534652 |
Amazon.com
The nine stories in Mothers and Sons examine in depth some of the ways that the bond that is forged--or not--between mothers and their sons is altered, re-formed, or broken forever. In The Master, his fictionalized life of Henry James, Toíbín made the reader see and understand the writer more fully than ever before. Similarly, these new stories look at relationships between fully formed adults and, with a few deft strokes, make clear what their mutual history has brought them to. In most cases, they must deal with loss, while trying to grasp the complexities of that sometimes precarious balance between a mother and her son.
In the first story, "The Use of Reason," a lifelong burglar is nearly brought down by his mother, who talks too much when she drinks in her local pub. In "A Song," Noel, on the town with a group of his musician friends, ends up in the same bar as his estranged mother, who is asked to sing. She sings an Irish ballad about love and treachery and he is convinced that she is singing directly to him. In "A Priest in the Family," Molly's son Frank is accused of abuse, but no one has the courage to tell her until it is almost time for the trial. Her reaction is not entirely predictable. "Three Friends" takes place after a young man attends his mother's funeral. He joins his friends for a night of carousing and drugs ending with a late-night swim, where he is emboldened to make an overt sexual pass at one of his buddies, with interesting results. The final story, "A Long Winter," is set in Spain in a remote village. Miquel's mother drinks. Everyone knows it but Miquel. His father pours out her supply of booze and she leaves the house. So far it's a simple story. It doesn't stay that way. Each of these stories has its own gravitas, its own sadness, and that laser-beam of insight that is Toíbín's trademark. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
Each of the nine stories in this beautifully written, intensely intimate collection centers on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance of power between mother and son, or changes the way they perceive one another. With exquisite grace and eloquence, Tóibín writes of men and women bound by convention, by unspoken emotions, by the stronghold of the past. Many are trapped in lives they would not choose again, if they ever chose at all.
A man buries his mother and converts his grief to desire in one night. A famous singer captivates an audience, yet cannot beguile her own estranged son. And in "A Long Winter," Colm Tóibín's finest piece of cction to date, a young man searches for his mother in the snow-covered mountains where she has sought escape from the husband who controls and confines her.
Winner of numerous awards for his fifth novel, The Master -- including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award -- Tóibín brings to this stunning first collection an acute understanding of human frailty and longing. These are haunting, profoundly moving stories by a writer who is himself a master.
Customer Reviews:
"She looked at herself as though a stranger": Complex Visions of Families.......2007-05-29
Colm Toibin's _Mothers and Sons_ (2007) is a collection of nine short stories that loosely address the permutations of the mother-son relationship, primarily within Irish families, within the larger context of modern lives. All of these stories address strains or misunderstandings, where either the mother or the son is unable to connect with the other. Yet Toibin's stories are about more than this, and the mother-son theme is developed as an understated, almost minor theme, which makes the collection that much more fascinating. Toibin's title _Mothers and Sons_ insists that readers focus on a theme, which while important, could otherwise seem secondary in any given story. The suggestion is that the mother-son relationship is primary, in ways that the characters fail to grasp, and which the stories themselves purposely obscure.
In "The Use of Reason," a story about the haunting textures of memory and repression, Toibin introduces us to an unnamed Dublin thief, who has undertaken his biggest crime of his life, an art heist one with international implications, and must decide how to dispose of the stolen property. As a backdrop to the story, the narrator describes how the thief's mother has developed the dangerous habit of gossiping about her son's exploits when she is drunk at the pub. The thief's final decision regarding the paintings, including a Rembrandt of an old woman that likely symbolizes his own mother, follows a conversation where he demands that his mother stop "yapping," not about himself, ironically, but about his brother Billy.
All of the stories are memorable and original. "The Name of the Game," for example, describes in detail how a widow in her early forties with two children sets up a fish and chips and a beer and wine discount story in her husband's families' generation-old grocery. The name of the fish and chips shop is "The Monument," with ironic associations about her deceased husband and his family. "A Priest in the Family" tells the story of a seventy-year old mother's response to her son, a priest in the family, accused of sexual abuse. In "The Famous Blue Raincoat," a sixteen-year old son and aspiring musician develops an appreciation for his mother's former musical career in the 1970s--insisting that his mother's songs be re-released--while failing to recognize the painful memories that this evokes for her.
The final story in the collection, "A Long Winter," shifts unexpectedly to an isolated family of two sons, a husband, and wife in rural northern Spain. The story chronicles the disappearance a wife who leaves her family by foot in the middle of the winter after her husband pours out all of her drink. She is presumed dead, the victim of a sudden, impenetrable snow storm. Throughout the whole story, the father and son search and then wait hesitantly for the spring thaw to recover the mother's body. This story ends brilliantly.
In my opinion, the first and last stories in the collection are the strongest. In each story, as we struggle to uncover characters' complex motives we are brought back to the mother-son relationship, a bond which like the mother in "A Long Winter" is presumably buried, awaiting discovery or rescue.
Mothers & Sons - ok reading..........2007-05-21
This book came highly recommended. I thought it was an OK read - nothing spectacular.
Haunting.......2007-03-17
I realise that I'll undoubtedly be shot down in flames for daring to criticize this book but I must be true to my own feelings on it, as must any honest reviewer. This is a collection of short stories, set mainly in Ireland and with that overlying sadness that seems inevitable in Irish tales. The relationships between the mothers and sons are all different but all have an unbreakable link between them that survives, even when things are at their worst. Other reviewers have listed the stories in detail...the drug fueled rave, following the mother's funeral, the blind love which excuses the paedophilic priest etc. so I won't rehash them. Admittedly the writing is that of a master craftsman, polished to perfection and as precise as the work of a great artist, but I simply didn't enjoy the book, feeling a great cloud of depression fall over me..perhaps it's just that the Irish melancholy got too much for me!
The new Dubliners.......2007-02-19
These are some of the fullest short stories I have ever read. Reading Toibin, you feel in the hands of a master storyteller. His stories are perfectly shaped, understated yet unforgettable, precise and graceful. You get the sense that Toibin loves his characters, these isolated, fractured, haunted souls and wants to protect them. But he wants you to see and love them too, and so he gives you the slightest peek at what remains hidden. And if he's done his job (and he doesn't fail once in this collection), you see something that perhaps, surprisingly, you have once known.
A poignant collection of short stories from an accomplished author.......2007-01-26
There's little doubt that Irish culture holds in considerable regard the ability to tell an absorbing tale. The country's literature boasts a rich tradition of compelling short story writers --- among them James Joyce, Frank O'Connor and the modern master, William Trevor. Fresh from his acclaimed novel of the life of Henry James, THE MASTER, Colm Tóibín, in his first collection of short fiction, shows that he has the talent to someday join their august company.
MOTHERS AND SONS recognizes that perhaps no other family relationship is more fraught with the tension between intimacy and distance than this one. In the thematically linked stories of this collection, all but one of which are set in modern-day Ireland, Tóibín chooses to emphasize the circumstances that isolate mothers and sons and the failures of communication that often make it impossible to bridge that gap.
The stories in MOTHERS AND SONS don't feature much in the way of dramatic action and tend to be somewhat monochromatic in their tone and pacing. What Tóibín offers that more than compensates for these shortcomings is his gift for sharp and often painful glimpses into the lives of characters struggling to deal with the harsh reality life has handed them. Typical of these insights is the one that appears at the conclusion of "A Journey," the shortest story in the collection. There, Sally contemplates the grim scene that confronts her when she returns home with her 20-year-old son who's been hospitalized for depression, and enters the bedroom where her husband lies crippled from a stroke. Examining herself in the mirror and deciding from that glance to let her hair go gray, Sally is "struck for a moment by a glimpse of a future in which she would need to muster every ounce of selfishness she had."
Among the most poignant stories in the book is "Famous Blue Raincoat." In it, a teenage boy discovers some albums recorded by a Dublin folk-rock band in which his mother and late aunt sang in the early '70s. Hoping to please his mother, he transfers the albums to CDs, but instead evokes for her only the memories of her sister's mysterious death. "Now, as the CD came to an end," Tóibín writes, "she hoped she would never have to listen to it again."
In "A Priest in the Family," Tóibín skillfully undermines the clichéd portrayal of an aging Irish mother doting on her son who has decided to join the priesthood. In its place, he offers the story of Molly, still vigorous in her late 70s, as she drives a car and works to master the Internet, but who's "not sure" she believes in the power of prayer. When Molly learns that her son Frank, a local parish priest, is about to go on trial for sexual abuse of some former students, the tragic circumstances provide them with an opportunity for a kind of reconciliation.
The collection's final story, the novella-length "A Long Winter," is the only one that doesn't take place in Ireland. Set in a village in Spain's Pyrenees Mountains, it chronicles the disappearance of a woman who abandons her unnamed husband and son Miquel, when the husband resorts to harsh measures to halt her problem drinking. She is caught in a blizzard that blows into the region a few hours after she leaves home on foot, and most of the story recounts Miquel's search for her, alternating between the fading hope that she will be found alive and his fear that her body finally will be discovered, devoured by vultures, when the snow melts.
In each of these stories, Tóibín's prose is controlled and burnished. Only a mature, self-assured writer would launch the first story in the collection, "The Use of Reason," with sentences like these --- repetitive, and yet brilliant in their repetition: "The city was a great emptiness. He looked out from the balcony of one of the top flats on Charlemont Street. The wide waste ground below him was empty. He closed his eyes and thought about the other flats on this floor, most of them empty now in the afternoon, just as the little bare bathrooms were empty and the open stairwells were empty."
At the midpoint of his career, Colm Tóibín has demonstrated his ability to master a variety of literary forms. With MOTHERS AND SONS, readers can add the short story to that list and can only look forward to the next offering of this accomplished author.
--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg (mwn52@aol.com)
Customer Reviews:
A Great Read.......2007-08-04
This may be my favorite book. It's a beautiful, engaging story. Several friends and I read the book around the same time and all agreed that we hated to reach the end. If you just want to enjoy a great story, read this book.
A new point of view.......2007-07-28
This was a great book that told a story of a young boy who wanted to know why his mother didn't look like him. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I got an inside look at a bi-racial family.
A beautiful homage.......2007-07-16
I loved this book because it shows, in plain and clear terms, that a mother's love trascends everything. Even though the main focus of the book itself is on the mother's past and the circumstances that, for better or for worse, determined her life, and by extension the life of her children, what stuck with me the most is how very deeply loved this woman was by her children, which can only be a reflection of the devotion, love and sense of pride and purpose that she in turn instilled in them all while growing up, even in the face of bigotry.
Wonderful!.......2007-04-16
I loved this book, I could barely put it down until I finished. The story-telling is excellent and the vignettes are beautifully done. McBride's autobiography is just really good. His stories about his childhood and his mother's experiences crossing between cultures is a total page turner.
Find out what it was like as a mixed-race family growing up in 1960s New York. Find out what it was like living as a Jewish family in the 1930s Deep South. Enjoy!
The Color of Humanity.......2007-03-10
The book is beautifully written and has a lovely "message" which is not message-y or preachy at all. I am Jewish and maybe because I grew up in Washington DC in the 50's (which had a population predominantly African American) The Color of Water really spoke to me. In fact in many ways I felt he could have been describing my own mother for her beauty both physical and spiritual. However, I think this is a great story excellently told for anyone.
Book Description
Raise Him Right
Women are complicated. Men spend years in marriage trying to figure out how to love and understand their wives, only to wind up frustrated and ready to give up. Who better to help a man begin to understand a woman than his mother? While you hope and pray for your son’s future marriage, the time for your powerful influence is now! Don’t wait for the world to change its morality; let Preparing Him for the Other Woman show you how to shape your son’s character and teach him how to interpret the heart of a woman. Find ways to make your home a place of refuge, growth, and peace as you guide him toward becoming the kind of man who looks to God for guidance in loving his wife well.
What Kind of Husband
Will Your Son Grow Up to Be?
His is a generation of boys who have better relationships with their Game Boxes, i-Pods, televisions, and computers than they do with their families. His understanding of marriage is that it has little hope for success, witnessing a fifty percent divorce rate both inside and outside of the church. His world is one where pornography is no longer a hidden shame, but encouraged as entertainment.
Can you raise your son to one day love, lead, and protect
a wife and family in a world like this?
The answer is yes. The heartbeat of this book is to give you the tools to help your son become a tender warrior who will one day fight for his family, a godly husband who will faithfully love his wife, and a leader who will be a man of his word.
The time is now to take your love, tears, prayers, and influence and pour them into his future. Even if our world does not change its moral fiber, you can influence your son and bring hope to the next generation. It’s an opportunity of a lifetimeâyours.
âNot only is this an amazing concept, but it meets an urgent need for every mother of boys.â
Lisa Bevere
Speaker and author of Fight Like a Girl and Kissed the Girls and Made Them Cry
âI have three sons, two stepsons, two son-in-laws, and nine grandsons! Any help I can glean to give me more wisdom is welcome. I would have welcomed more help like this when I was a young mother raising my young men for âthe other woman.’â
LeeAnn Rawlins
Coauthor, To Love Again
Story Behind the Book
When the manager of a large Christian bookstore told Sheri Rose Shepherd that readers of the popular His Princess TM series were futilely looking for material about raising their sons to be godly future husbands, she knew she could help. âThink about how much farther all men would be in their marriages if their moms had trained them how to one day love and understand their wives,â says Sheri Rose . âWe can take all the mistakes we’ve made in our lives and use them to teach our sons the right way to live. And we can use our most powerful weapon of allâour prayersâto fight for them.â
Customer Reviews:
A Mother's Guide.......2007-09-09
I teach parenting classes for a Pregnancy center located in the lowerclass section of a large city. Many of our mom's are single and trying to raise their family without a lot of support from the fathers.They also din't have good role models in their own families while growing up.
I used this book as the topic for our Mother's Day luncheon. It gave them encouragement that they COULD make a difference! I also included the book, The Power of a Praying Parent..because they need God's help and guidance in raising their children.
Our mom's LOVED the class!
Letting him "go" is easier than you think...she'll show you how.......2007-06-12
This is, by far, my very favorite book on this subject matter that I have ever read. It has compelled me to write a review on it; I sent the link to my sister and friends and they all RAVED about it. More than anything, it has helped me to begin treating my "tiny husband" (as I used to think of him as) as a young man with a godly purpose to his life and doing it step-by-step this early on (he's 6)...which will help me to "let go" when God brings his wife to him someday. It will also allow him to "leave and cleave" to his wife in a healthy manner.
It has also helped me to begin truly loving his future wife and anticipating her arrival one day; I now pray more fervently for her.
My husband related to it so well, too. When I read to him that her husband's mother had been praying for her since she was a little girl, he actually choked up, as his mother died when he was a little boy. He's known that my mother always prayed for him - and I read that passage to him on his mother's birthday to let him know that he was never alone. We both now are treating our son in a manner to which he feels inspired to be a godly man, husband and father.
Simple, practical, loving, and Christ-following. This is my guide to loving my son and helping him to be the man that God calls him to be. Thank you, Shari Rose!
timely delivery.......2007-05-29
I received my book order within a week and in very good order.
Thank you Amamzon
Sons are Awesome!!!.......2007-05-09
I am the mother of 4 sons. I wish I had read this book years ago when I was a young mother.
I am also a teacher of young kids and through the years I have seen a decline in respect among children.
This book had some really awesome ideas for how to totally bond with a son, beginning at a very young age.
It teaches how to show young boys how to respect women!!!!!!!
I am lucky that I had my 4th son later in life, so I did do things right with him. And what the book says is true...if you show boys how to behave, they will. My son is now almost 16 and to this day loves to spend time with me, even in front of his peers. He craves personal time and touch with his momma. I know he is going to grow into an awesome husband who will respect and love women.
So if you are a mother of boys, definately get this book. It would also make a wonderful baby gift to a new mom!!
Laurie :-)
Boost I needed.......2007-01-29
I loved this book! This type of book was one that I had been looking for for a long time. I have a 14 year old son and also work for an organization that works with single moms. I am also ordering this book for my staff who have sons. I was feeling helpless since reading other books that put so much stress on dads being a part of their son's lives and leaving out what moms can do. I agree with dads being the important element in their son's lives 100 percent, but what about the son who doesn't have a father figure or whose father is not active in the son's life? This book gives helpful and easy information for any mom to understand and apply. I highlighted many things in my book so I have a quick reference when I slip up and stop encouraging my son like I want to be. It might be common sense to some moms but to some of the moms I know, this book will be great! It's an easy read, even for someone who doesn't care to read much.
Product Description
Based out of Bladensburg, Maryland, 31-year-old Janet Stayley spent her life looking for a hustler. She never knew she would find one in her 15-year-old son, Kelsi. Surrounded by violence, drugs and lies, Kelsi murders in self-defense. Suddenly Kelsi becomes charged with the new-found feeling he associates with becoming a man, and feels he can take on anything, including his mothers cheating lover. The heat of murder ensues and Janet feels its time to make a permanent move out of Maryland. Before doing so, she plans one last murder which, if goes as planned, could ultimately be worth millions. To top it all off, Janet has not revealed to her son the biggest secret yet.
Customer Reviews:
Keep It Up.......2007-09-18
I must say I have to give it up to triple crown book they sure know how to pick them I read this in one day I was on vacation and picked it up at the mall right before boarding the plane and finish the next day. I couldn't even start my vacation until I finished it!!! Go get it page turner!
New York For Real?!!.......2007-09-15
This book was filled with suspense!!! I picked it up at a public library and almost didnt return it. Kelsi is off the chain and things went from chill to bad in a matter of days!!! I was thrown off by the name A Hustler's Son because I thought his father was it!! When I found out it was his mother my mouth dropped!!! Excellent book!!
Started out as a promising novel!!.......2007-09-15
This started out as a great book but as the story goes on I find it pointless to tell. The Mom is not a very great parent and the lessons she teaches her son is just ridiculous.
Could of been better..........2007-08-29
This book had a great story line- but it was too fictional for me... I mean the son was only 14 or 15 yrs old- and the book made him seem like he was about 25-30 and had been in the streets for years.. On top of that the story takes place in about three days and the author seem like he was rushing to finish- and so he did just that... (Rushed the ending)...
A Hustler's Son.......2007-08-14
This book was never received. I had it mailed to a friend in a correctional facility and he said it was returned. No credit has been returned to me.
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- How I Spent My Summer Vacation: (Parents' Choice Award Book for Illustration)
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- Squirrels All Year Long: Mini Books
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
