the neighbor dies and the girl finds the only way she can express her grief is by writing about the good man she knew
581164
Whew...this one...actually hurts, a bit. A young girl finds that she can't get her stickler of a teacher to approve of her schoolwork. Especially her writing. Keller is known for never giving A's, and has cultivated an almost witch-like reputation. But the girl gets support from her kindly neighbor, who tells her stories of Keller's younger days. Then, a few days before a major assignment is due, the neighbor dies and the girl finds the only way she can express her grief is by writing about the good man she knew.

She gets an !. And thus, the girl learns the value of depressing literature. Or of daring your teacher to mark down a paper about a dead person. Either or.

This book is not so likely to be bought for a household. For one, it's about death, which is more of a "borrow it when needed" subject. For another, the entire thing, death ignored, is a downer. A young girl struggling in school, with no reason to expect her teacher to lighten up, even as the girl's work improves? This sounds like the kind of situation where parents would actually sue the school. If you think death or bad grades need to be covered for your kids, feel free to check it out from your library, but don't feel pressured to purchase. No sense buying something that will only be used once.
1350390
When Emma is killed by a drunken driver on the night of her school ball, her spirit fails to pass on. Emma is trapped in an in-between world where she must learn to cope with being invisible and find a role for herself. Emma, The Girl Who Was Buried in her Ball Gown, faces a number of challenges as she struggles and comes to terms with her sadness and frustration at being a ghost. At the same time, she engages in a battle of wits with an evil temptress  a real devils advocate  in the in-between world. While The Girl Who Was Buried in her Ball Gown is very much a good-girl-bad-girl story with a Christian thread running through it, author Ian King has skilfully kept the Christian bias unobtrusively low-key. There are many aspects of the story which are inevitably sad, but King has cleverly balanced these with amusing incidences and a message of hope after grief.
2165072
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Girl-with-the-Strawberry-Birthmark/dp/B008HYWQBM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Girl with the Strawberry Birthmark</a>&nbsp;The author did a very good job of writing about our red neck and white trash kinfolk without making critical judgments or disparaging remarks. Its obvious she likes them, which is a good thing. I once saw a lady lose her upper plate while bawling and sniffing over the prostate form of her mother in the casket. It landed on the poor woman's' forehead for all the mourners to see.
A funny read, I look forward to her next book red lipstick and clean underwear. Marshall Dell
As an addition the characters in this little book are the garden variety rednecks and white trash. They are mostly harmless cousins to the characters of Harry Crews Larry Brown and Janice Daugharty. And there is a difference a violent difference.
1303088
Along the path of life, we all endure several hardships, but the worst by far is having to live on after the person we loved most dearly is gone.  It happened to me at the age of seven.  I could not believe that my mother would go away and leave me to fend for myself at such a young age.  She, too, died of cancer -- a long, lingering ordeal.  We'd visit every evening at the hospital and go outside to cry.  When the funeral was conducted, I kept asking "Why does she look like a man?"  They had simply pulled her long hair back and, that long ago, the funeral attendants did not use hair stylists or care how one looked to the survivors.  When my dad died, I inquired, "Why does he have a crooked nose?  He always had a straight nose."  Little things like this affect the daughter at any age.

Mrs. Rossi's death experience was heartbreaking.  When we have our first child, we are always so in love with life and so proud to be able to produce someone who looks like the one we love the most in this world.  Nowadays, with thousands of U.S. military men so far away fighting to this country, many young women will be left to raise the children alone.  A child is a blessing and sometimes, in later life, make all the difference for their mother from destitution and isolation to loving care.  A daughter, I think, is the most devoted.  It just wasn't my fate to have a daughter.  There couldn't possibly be another female like me.  It is harder on the girl when a mother dies, as there is no one around to lead her through the changes of youth into womanhood.  She has to literally face the world alone and learn to cope, be it as a meek little old woman, or a person with fierce determination to make things better in her hometown for posterity.

This book, a tear jerker like 'A Walk To Remember' and the movie, will stick around in the reader's psyche long after it is read.  I remember when Charles and Mary Alice had their first child, a little girl, and he played "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" on the radio when she was exactly nine days old; no greater love from a clever father.  I have often wondered what did happen to him and the dancing daughter.  Zach had to face the unexpected death of his son five-hundred days ago.  He still suffers great angony as nothing was left behind, as the little son of Nancy and John Ross.  The saying goes, "It is better to have loved and lost, than not to love at all."  The major thing is to look forward to the future and do the best you can for the wonderful child, a part of the one you lost.
219631
It is so  impressive the way it shows the human feelings in the time after her husband died , it happened to me too and she described just what my feelings are.
I did cry many times while reading the book .
She is an excellent writer congratulations
I do recommend d the book to every one because at some point in our lives we will have a close person that will die and she explained the different stage that happened after loosing the person we love .
2955039
The writer is extremely good at knowing the inside feelings of her characters and letting the reader discover them on his/her own.
141505
It starts off with a sad event that turns a young girls life upside down again.  But then her world opens up to exciting possibilities.
4728160
A beautiful story of a young girl growing up in a small town. She learns so much about life and the love of neighbors. A great read.  Sharon Cart
2638044
What does a twelve year-old girl do when all her immediate family is gone?

There is nothing left in the town where Kat has grown up now that her mother has died. After the funeral, Paulina, her mother's sister, comes to whisk her away to the town where both girls grew up. Kat takes an immediate disliking to her aunt, who insists that she be called Mother and that Kat will be her daughter now, and does everything she can think of to stay away from the house and her aunt as much as possible.

The aunt's housekeeper befriends Kat, which is a blessing since she feels so out of place in her Aunt Paulina's presence. After telling her aunt that she will never call her "Mother," the war is on. Which will give in first?

When Kat starts school she makes an immediate connection with the girl who sort of just tries to be inconspicuous, but in doing so, really stands out. They are almost inseparable through thick and thin.

Kat has made a promise to herself, and will not break her promise. As we follow Kat through this tragic coming-of-age story, we find out all kinds of secrets about her mother, her aunt and the neighbors as well as the families involved.

This was an overall well-written story. I liked how we see this young, almost adult, girl comes full circle within the life-altering moments. From the tragedy of losing her mother to the first love, we see Kat grow up pretty much as normal as possible.

Armchair Interviews says: A well-written coming-of-age story that includes love and loss.
1587227
The grinding of life, a girls struggles trying to find a life better than the one she knows. A sad story written in poetry form. Unfortunately there are souls who can resonate with this read. The author knows the harsh reality in life. I will be reading more from this author.
3846157
This is the extremely sad and powerfully written story of Eugenie Grandet, a true heroine of modern literature (yes, modern). In the town of Saumur, M. Grandet is a wine merchant, a miser in full. This is a despicable man, but like good characters in literature, he has an understandable, if unjustifiable, reason for his behavior. He wants to give his family a perennial financial security. The problem is, that is all he wants for his family. Nothing else matters. So the family leads a monastical life, luxury is forbidden, joy is expensive. Eugenie is a likable but shy young lady, without any knowledge of the world whatsoever. Balzac is just great at creating the environment and mood. You can see the big, old house, the leaves fallen from the trees and rustling in the silent evenings of this town. You can feel the boredom of lifeless life, the long, long afternoons. The avaricious man lecturing everybody for spending like crazy, anguished at every penny spent, regardless of what was bought or consumed.
So, two families are looking forward to having one of their sons married to Eugenie, but Daddy is looking for more wealth, and refuses to share his with these provincial people. Then his brother committs suicide in account of financial trouble, and Grandet's nephew, Charles, comes to town. He and Eugenie fall in love, but there is no chance M. Grandet will accept a marriage with the son of a ruined man. Charles, thus, leaves for the Indies to look for fortune. Someday he'll come back, but things will never be the same. As the years pass, we see Eugenie go on with her dull life, her heart saddened and cold.
Balzac's novel paints an accurate and believable portrait of French society at the time, but it would not have survived if that had been all. As the title of this review states, this work has transcended because it is literature of the higher sort, that which goes directly to the human heart and mind, to situations that do not pass with age, but remain embedded in any society. And because the writer is a master craftsman: Balzac is one of the best. Think of novel and think of Balzac, "competitor with the Civil Records": a rigorous analyst of human, and not only French, society.
2347197
The Good Father is as much the story of what one man would do for his daughter as what two mothers would do for theirs. It is also the story of how one little girl can heal three broken people.

Travis Brown is twenty-two, an age when most people are fresh out of college, bursting with the promise of what they will do next and believing that the world is their oyster. But for Travis, the world seems more like a dark, gaping wound. His high school love, Robin, had a life-threatening heart ailment, worsened by an unexpected pregnancy. Her father took advantage of her ill health to force a breakup between her and Travis, but when Travis found out about the baby, he refused to cede custody. He and the baby, a little girl named Bella, lived with his mother in Wilmington, NC, where Travis, who once dreamt of being a marine biologist, struggled to find construction jobs. But then his mother's house burns down, and Travis and Bella find themselves homeless.

Meanwhile, Robin, who believes Travis is married, tries to forget about Bella. She is engaged to Dale, a mayoral candidate in Beaufort, working at his family's bed and breakfast. Dale's sister also finds herself unexpectedly with child while as a teenager, and experiencing her future niece's birth forces Robin to remember Bella ... and wonder about Travis.

Then there is Erin, a thirty-something pharmacist from Raleigh. Erin recently moved into a small apartment, away from her husband, Michael, and their fractured marriage. Erin and Michael lost their daughter ten months earlier in a freak accident, and each mourns in a different way. Erin cannot understand Michael's grief, and he cannot understand hers.

Erin and Travis meet at a coffee shop when Travis comes to Raleigh for a potential job. Erin finds herself drawn to Bella, who is close to the age of Erin's daughter.

An excerpt:
I breathed in the musty smell of her hair again. I couldn't pull the scent of her deeply enough into my lungs. Beneath my hands, I felt her ribs and the little knobs of her spine. She was tiny for four. Tiny and way too thin. Carolyn at three had been bigger than Bella at four. I rested my chin on the top of her head and opened the only book she seemed to own, and while I read to her, I thought of all the books and toys in Carolyn's room. I could go to the house and get some of them for her. If I could make myself go into Carolyn's room.

Unfortunately, Travis's job prospect turns out to be both less and more than he expected, and he needs Erin's help. As Robin discovers that her in-laws have secrets of their own, Travis desperately tries to take care of his daughter, and Erin struggles to not succumb to her grief.

This is a gripping story, told from the points of view of Travis, Robin and Erin. We feel Travis's hopelessness and despair. We sympathize with Erin's disconsolate loss. We cheer for Robin, who has survived so much in her life and yet has so many more challenges to come. And Bella. Oh, Bella. We understand Erin's need to clutch her tight and protect her. We need the three grown-ups to persevere because we need Bella to be safe, loved, cherished.

The only problem with this otherwise very well written book is its predictability. We know Travis's job is not what he expects. We know that Dale and his family are not as perfect as they appear. At no point, will you be surprised by any of the events of this book.

Fortunately, though, the characters will keep you turning the page. And the characters are the reason why this book is as good as it is.

I would give this 3.5 stars if I could.

Published on cupcake's book cupboard. @VivaAmaRisata
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview.
3094692
This book pays tribute to the authors great-grandmother, Ethel Van Wagnen, who wrote three journals in the 1920s that documented her life and life-long friendship with Graff  Gawne. Ethel was a good writer with an excellent grasp of language and grammar, so Lewis could have simply published that writing and had an interesting family memoir. But her writing instincts obviously told her that she needed to do more than that to have a book with wide appeal.

In challenging herself to imagine Ethels childhood years from clues in her journals, coupled with her own extensive research as discussed in the Preface, Lewis has created a sweet story of love and friendship that combines both fact and fiction. In a heart-grabbing opening chapter, she tells us how Ethel might have told the story of Graffs horrific loss of his wife in 1920, and then we begin to read Ethels 1921 journal written eight months later. As the books story unfolds, it periodically flashes back to the 1880s to show us how Ethel and the same people she is writing about were living forty years earlier. The interesting and well written dialogue in these chapters help us read between the lines in Ethels journals, and more than a hundred photographs let us see people and places mentioned in her writing.

One of my takeaway quotes from this book is from chapter three: A word spoken, or a simple act of love, may be carried with someone for a lifetime. Clearly Ethels journals, which she called little books, were written not only for herself, but as a gift for Graff so he would have a remembrance of their happy times together as he tried to get through his grieving journey. She knew that if she didn't write this story, no one else would, and she went to great lengths to document many details because she knew how easily they could be forgotten in years to come.

I applaud Ethel for preserving her life story in writing, and congratulate Linda Lewis for publishing this beautiful story of enduring love and friendship. I believe this book will touch the heart of anyone who reads it, while also prompting readers to wonder about the little-known lives of earlier generations of their own family. If they are lucky enough to have the writings of a grandparent or great-grandparent that tells what life was like in those days, that writing should be treasured and handed down in the family so their history is never lost.

Barbara Brabec, author of
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Marcella-s-Secret-Dreams-and-Stories-A-Mother-s-Legacy/dp/0985633328/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Marcella's Secret Dreams and Stories: A Mother's Legacy</a>
1180838
A touching story of a man determined to end his life but circumstances with his neighbors keep delaying his efforts.
4914294
A story of fear, anxiety and triumph. The  author elegantly describes the animosity of one neighbor who brings out the best and worst of the residents in a peaceful small countryside community.
4230406
A teen's unique ability makes her stand out in her New Jersey town: she can see the dates of people's deaths. After her father's death, her mother turns to alcohol and the girl must use her talent to earn money to support her family. When she shares the death date information with a client and the client's son goes missing, the police come to the teen for information

Maddie Fynn doesn't have many friends; in fact she has only one. Everyone else in her school thinks she's a weirdo. That's because Maddie looks at people's foreheads and sees the date they will die. She's never been wrong, and this fact has dug deep into her heart ever since her policeman father died in a shootout with drug dealers.

When she was young she'd drawn a picture of her family with their dates above their heads. After her father's death, Maddie feels tortured by the possibility that she could have done something to prevent it. Her mother goes into full-blown denial about the whole topic, finding solace at the bottom of vodka bottles.

In order to pay the bills, Maddie accepts payment from people who come to her asking about their deaths. Maddie can't tell them how it'll happen or even what time of day they'll die. She just knows the date.

A client comes to Maddie to ask about her daughter. Maddie adds the death date of the woman's son, and he goes missing a week later on the date Maddie quoted. The woman gets suspicious and shares her misgivings about Maddie with the police. When Maddie reads the death date of a cheerleader and she tries to warn the girl, things don't go exactly as planned.

The police become more convinced that Maddie and her best friend, Stubby, know more than they're sharing. Despite her fear at dealing with the cops and the increased ostracization she experiences at school because of her talent and the police involvement, Maddie is determined to prove her innocence and help the missing girl at the same time. She's just afraid it might be too late.

Author Victoria Laurie's book will keep readers enthralled from start to finish. Laurie doesn't give her protagonist any room to breathe. Just when the situation gets bad for Maddie, Laurie makes it even worse. The result is a book where the tension remains taut and readers won't want to blink.

At times Maddie sounds a little younger than her age, but Laurie doesn't let the narration dally too long. Maddie's dealings with her peers sound realistic and may make some readers reconsider how they treat people not on the popular list. Laurie scores on this point as well as all others; her twist ending adds the perfect touch to the story.

I strongly recommend When to all readers.
4049431
It has quite a bit of sadness in this book but there are family and friends who gather around the girl in the story. I was shocked that it was sad right at the beginning of the story. It's nice that she has help moving on but she practically has to restart her entire life!