brilliant and touching.
931867
Giving many of us back a history lost in an effort to forget the horrors of the Holocaust, Louise Steinman shares her personal search to reconnect the threads of family. In so doing she reveals the challenges and gifts that arise when one is willing to be open and vulnerable to the pain of loss and the wonder of humanity. A must read.
2590767
This is a brilliant tale of what it's like to be in your early teens.  In this story I found myself many times.  The responsibility that Jack faced handling his father and brother is astounding.  Death, hurt, pain and trauma is enough for anyone to bare.  But the style and grace in which those things were dealt with stays with you long after it's over.  "Jack The Bear" is nothing more than the human spirit's determination for family and survival.
1512169
How sweet and touching a story like this can reach out and touch the hearts of people in life situations.
4061571
Well written, touching, humankind at its best and worst.
4226105
This novel is beautifully written, touching and heartbreaking. It was impossible to put down. I hated to see it end.
505122
This is a wonderful, touching and compelling movie. The young actors in it are excellent. I have watched it several times and also read the book. It is one of those films I never get tired of seeing.
550071
The bond between mother and child is not easily broken.  That's one of the major messages in this touching story of a mother, her son, and their fifty year long search for each other.  This is the book on which the wonderful Judi Dench/Steve Coogan movie of the same name is based.  The essential story is the same, but the focuses of the book and movie are quite different.  The movie covers Philomena and Martin Sixsmith's search for her son, while the book is primarily concerned with the son Mike's life story.  Both are compelling experiences.

In the early 1950s Philomena Lee was a young Irish girl who found herself pregnant after a brief encounter with a handsome stranger.  In keeping with the custom of the times she was put into the care of the Roman Catholic Church.  Nuns in a convent delivered Philomena's baby boy, kept him in their communal nurseries for three years while Philomena worked as a laundress to pay her bill, and then forced her to sign him over to them so they could ship him off for adoption in the United States.  Philomena drops out of the story here and doesn't reappear until towards the end.  Her son, named Michael by his new parents, grew up in the US alongside his adoptive sister from the same convent.  Throughout his life Mike felt the absence of and constantly searched for love.  Sixsmith unflinchingly details Mike's life as a gay man moving from lover to lover.  A brilliant student, he became a political operative for the Republican Party despite his disgust with its right wing and homophobic policy objectives.  Eventually, as did so many others like him in the 1980s and 1990s, Mike developed AIDS and died in 1995.  The story then returns to Philomena's point of view and details how she and Sixsmith eventually found that Mike had been buried, by his own request, in the grounds of the same convent where he had been born.

This book, like the movie, really touched me.  I felt deep compassion for  Philomena, Mike, his beloved adoptive sister Mary, and the rest of the adoptees and mothers who passed through that convent. Mike's life story was sad and touching, a tale of outward success that hid an unceasing longing and search for love.  Though the chapters dealing with his illness and death were wrenching to read, I appreciated them because they gave me some insight into the deaths of two college friends of mine, who passed away at about the same time and from the same illness as Mike.  I had lost touch with them and didn't learn of their deaths until much later, so anything which helps me to better understand their last days is welcome.  Finally, since I am about four years younger than Mike I could identify with his journey, though his life experiences were quite different from my own.

Part of the reason Sixsmith wrote this book was to chronicle the Church in Ireland's abuse of  helpless women and children.  It is indeed a strong indictment, but  it brings another and stronger message as well: an affirmation of the power of love.
3663774
A beautiful and heartbreaking life story about a brilliant  human being. What a loving guide for all of us who will eventually confront death. Stunning
153223
Brilliant!  This book is well written and I find myself so fortunate to have read it!  Very Touching.  Deliciously written.
1914055
Beautiful art and very touching and thoughtful story. The visual metaphors and dreamlike qualities mixed in were wonderful. The best graphic novel I've read in quite a while.
4950447
Mr. Wonderful, by Daniel Blake Smith, is the touching tale of Brian Fenton, a college professor in the throes of a crisis like none he has ever faced. Brian and his wife, Corinne, are parents to a thirty-year-old son, Danny. The two adopted Danny as an infant at Brians insistence. From the beginning of Dannys life with the Fentons, Corinne struggles to find her motherly instincts and is, for lack of a better word, relieved when Danny becomes a self-sufficient adult and leaves them as empty nesters. Dannys return to their home turns Corinne and Brians lives upside down as Brian, in turn, deals with his elderly fathers declining health and the increasing pressures of a career he, may or may not, still love.

Smith weaves an intricate story of love lost between parents and children. The first person narrative is highly effective at drawing the reader into Brians sorrow, frustration, and his panic at being the voice of reason both at home between Corinne and Danny and long distance as he goes head-to-head with his brother, Jeff, over his fathers care. It is hard to watch Brian ponder the differences between his memories of his fathers treatment of him and his brother and the way in which his stepmother, Claire, speaks so lovingly of Robert, his father, as she cares for him. His emotions are raw, real, and easily relatable.

Corinne--not my favorite character. Her coldness toward Danny and her disdain at having to see him again in her home is as amazing as it is heartbreaking. Danny, not the best behaved boy on the block, is not welcomed by Corinne, and the blame she throws at Brian is somewhat misplaced and a struggle to witness. I found myself wanting her turnaround to come--and to come soon. Smith has written a memorable, if infuriating, character in Corinne.

Brians relationship and subsequent discoveries about his fathers past are poignant. Robert, ailing and entering the stages of dementia, is also hard to like. The manner in which Brian describes his past with his father left me wanting desperately to not feel sorry for Robert. Here, again, Smith crafts a turn of events that left this reader feeling a sense of compassion she did not see coming--but appreciated in the end.

I have to admit I saw Brian as weak. I didn't want to, but I found myself wanting to shake him and jerk him upright from the downhill slide he was surely taking as the days passed him by. By the storys climax, in Brians hometown of Juniper, Texas, I was more than ready for Brian, and Corinne, to show growth. Smith creates the perfect opportunity for self-awareness and life-changing decisions with his choice to bring his characters together in Juniper.

I have to give Mr. Wonderful an emphatic 5 stars out of 5. Smiths use of the alternating first person points of view creates a deep connection between readers and characters. The Fenton family and their trials are not to be missed.
2953579
Great story, very touching. Very well written too.
1309691
Beautifully touching story. I highly recommend it. Finding a way to carry on and continue living is very difficult. This book has left me very inspired.
3279215
Change of Plans is an incredibly touching, sad, yet inspiring story of a young woman fighting a terminal illness, and in her selflessness trying to do the last good deed for the sake of her husband and family  find them a new wife and a mother. Gennas courage in the story was indeed worth admiration. The spectrum of emotions that all the family members were experiencing was brilliantly grasped by the author, and it certainly causes a very strong emotional response for the reader as well. The story dwells on the subject of life and death, love and sacrifice, and of course hope, that comes together with Emily.
Change of Plans is a brilliantly written, highly emotional read that will move you to the core. Not your usual love story, but one very much worth reading. Highly recommended!
3404045
This book was wonderful and touching in so many ways. A meaningful story that captures you from start to finish and leaves you wishing the story would never end. However, when it does unfortunately end, it ends perfectly.
1945800
What a great story. I was able to read it in one night but it was so beautiful and touching. I will hold on to this one and read it again.
3488386
This book was both touching and sad.  Such a tragic life for someone so brilliant.  He lived through good and terrible times.