Book Description
At forty-two, Shelley Marino desperately wants a child. Though she and her older husband, Martin, have tried during the course of their marriage, their only hope now is adoption. Martin, who has seen his share of heartbreak, can't reconcile what Shelley wants with what he knows about the world, and as the father of two grown children from a previous marriage, he is not sure he can bear the emotional challenge of fatherhood again. To love is to risk loss and Martin suddenly decides that is a gamble he can't afford to take.
The pain of great loss is something that Mai, a woman who emigrated from Vietnam more than twenty years ago, knows all too well. Though Mai has attained all of the accoutrements of the American dream—a healthy business, an SUV, a house of her own—she has not allowed herself to forget the family tragedy that forced her to leave Vietnam. She has distanced herself from her life and from everyone around her—until she meets Shelley. Their budding friendship forces Mai to make a decision that will put her face-to-face with the world she left behind so long ago. And in the course of the journey the two women must make together, Shelley, too, confronts choices that will reverberate for the rest of her life.
Lyrical and moving, If You Lived Here takes the reader on a journey as well, from loss to love, and shows how new beginnings can heal old wounds.
Customer Reviews:
a novel on friendship and love.......2007-06-27
Adoption is a special way of understanding feelings of other people. When you start this process you need support and help. The reactions of people around you make it clear who really cares for you who loves you
This is what happened to the two women in the novel
Captivating!.......2007-05-19
A wonderful, luminous novel, beautifully written, deals with a multiplicity of topics and settings. Goes right to the heart of each and delivers truth - what more can one ask for?
I loved this book.......2007-04-18
This story swept me up in the first few pages, and took me all the way to the end. The characters are enganging and the prose is beautiful. Two women are on a trek - a Vietnamese woman toward a past that shames her, and an American woman toward a child she hopes to adopt. I don't want to spoil the end for you.
Delightful.......2007-04-06
The first third of this novel takes place in North Carolina and is a pleasure to read. It introduces some interesting people, starts engaging plots, and is occasionally quite funny. The rest of the novel takes place in Vietnam and is simply and absolutely wonderful. Partly, I got more invested in the characters and the delightful turns of their intertwined stories. But equally important are the off-hand descriptions of Vietnamese culture that make everything so vivid. I actually hoped for traffic on my bus-ride home so I could read a little more.
A Story Well Worth the Read.......2007-04-02
Dana Sachs' first novel "If You Lived Here" tells a wonderful and gripping story of two very diverse women, one from Wilmington, N.C. and the other a Vietnamese/American living in Wilmington, who come together for their own separate reasons. Sachs's descriptions of life in Hanoi, as the two women journey together, makes the reader feel as if he or she is there also. The sights, the smells and the people are all brought to life. This is truly a warm, heartfelt story and I hope Sachs will be coming forth with many more.
Book Description
Risky in conception, hip and yet soulful, this is a prose poem of a novel -- intense, lyrical, and highly evocative -- with a mystery at its center, which keeps the reader in suspense until the final page. In a tour de force that could be described as Altmanesque, we are invited into the private lives of the residents of a quiet urban street in England over the course of a single day. In delicate, intricately observed closeup, we witness the hopes, fears, and unspoken despairs of a diverse community: the man with painfully scarred hands who tried in vain to save his wife from a burning house and who must now care for his young daughter alone; a group of young clubgoers just home from an all-night rave, sweetly high and mulling over vague dreams; the nervous young man at number 18 who collects weird urban junk and is haunted by the specter of unrequited love. The tranquillity of the street is shattered at day's end when a terrible accident occurs. This tragedy and an utterly surprising twist provide the momentum for the book. But it is the author's exquisite rendering of the ordinary, the everyday, that gives this novel its freshness, its sense of beauty, wonder, and hope. Rarely does a writer appear with so much music and poetry -- so much vision -- that he can make the world seem new.
Customer Reviews:
Remarkable Debut.......2007-05-21
It moves slowly, it's melancholic yet beautiful. Life and absurdity of circumstances mapped out for us, and the vibration starts from a point in your heart and extend to your whole body, filling you with awe and sadness.
A dream, a tone poem, a love letter, a prayer........2007-04-26
This is one of the most remarkale books I have ever read. I've never encountered this writing style anywhere else - if anyone knows of another author who writes in a similar vein, please share.
I couldn't read this book initially. I was confused about what I was rading. After a second or third attempt, it clicked in to place, and I was off. I couldn't wait to get home from work to read more, and I digested it in a few days, despite only ahveing a few hours of down time each week.
I don't think McGregor even needs a story. There were story elements in this book, and the story was fine. But I think I would be happy just to read his descriptions of events and characters in the street, without end.
My only disappointment was that, at the time of reading, he had written no other books.
I'm currently reading his book 'So Many Ways To Begin', and that too is haunting and dream-like.
I highly recommend Jon McGregor's writing.
Remarkable.......2006-08-29
right from the begining, the text is more poem then prose.
this is a really well written book, and it draws you right in from the begining - a description of the "song of the city" that you can hear if you just listen to the little sounds going on. very entrancing.
in general, there is great attention to detail, which makes one feel as if they are part of the book, the plot, as if on IS the character described.
an extraordinary look at how an ordinary day can cary so many remarkable moments. very beautiful.
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things.......2006-08-06
Written in a very unique style, poetry even, the story revolves around the lives of people living in the same community, alternating between characters and personalities, thoughts and emotions. Although, many of the characters remain nameless and only receive descriptions as their identifying qualities, it only adds to the immense feel and power of the writing. It is so interesting getting to know each individual character, especially the one who collects things, takes pictures.
At times, it is hard to know when events are occuring, and this can become confusing; but it doesn't take anything away. And even though the entire premise is about everyday happenings and feelings, the writing never becomes tired or boring, even up to the end.
There isn't much I can say about the book; I don't have the right words. Just read it.
Extremely beautiful and insightful tale of life. Wonderful writing.
A beautiful work.......2006-07-13
The book is less a novel, (not that it matters, but don't expect one if looking for that sort of read.) It's more a lengthy poem or a novella -- I see it more as a musical tone poem. Declarative sentences of beautiful, sensitive construction build and awaken our eyes to an awakening day in London. The first few pages are stunningly strong and while all the book doesn't maintain this pitch, indeed no living person could, we don't particularily worry because at ever turn of a page is a new discovery.
Reading it in one shot is to be overwhelmed in the way watching the entire ring cycle or mahabarrata (sp?) would overwhelm. I enjoyed it over a series of nights, taking my time, and the language seeped into my dreams. It's a dreamlike work, and one any contemporary writer should check out both for it's strength and structure.
Book Description
Drs. Greek have written 2 books on the invalidity of the animal model in biomedical research. This book answers the question: "What will we do if we don\'t use animals?"
Customer Reviews:
Hope for Humanity.......2004-04-30
The Greeks' newest contribution to the growing debate regarding the most ethical use of limited resources for medical research will be unpopular with the animal-model community. `Unpopular' may be an understatement; they are going to hate it.
Whenever the question of using animals in research comes up you can be certain that the animal researchers and their supporters will accuse you of hating children if you criticize their cruelties or even their science. "What else do you suggest?" is their common challenge, "should we experiment or little children, or just let them die?" Indeed, it is in their financial interests to cast any critic as a callous lout. But now, the answers are much clearer.
In What Will We Do If We Don't Experiment On Animals? the Greeks explain the failures and risks of basing medicines for humans on the results of experiments on other species. Apparently, the animal researchers are content to let children die from a new drug just as long as it was first developed for and tested on animals. But this is well known already.
The new ground in the Greeks newest book is the compilation of modern research techniques that really are providing new insights into human disease and offering potential new cures. Readers are given a tour of truly modern medical research that is grounded in a thorough appreciation of the underlying genetics behind disease and our individual responses to drug therapies.
Unlike much of the traditional antivivisectionist literature, the Greeks write from the perspective that we have learned something about human biology from studying animals even if we could have learned the same things in other ways. More importantly, they point out that we no longer wonder what a heart does, and that today we are seeking to understand the roles of the proteins coded for by each organism's unique genetic code. The subtleties that account for differences between species are the same subtleties that explain why a rat, a dog, and a human will each respond differently at the molecular level to any particular drug.
But, the real value in the book is not its power to point out the failures and ugly profiteering of the animal modelers, but to give the reader hope by pointing out the growing number of research efforts underway based on modern science. The reliance on the most modern of methods accounts for the fact that an ever-growing number of researchers interested in curing and preventing human disease have turned to non-animal methods based on human biology.
For anyone with an interest in leading edge biomedical science, this book will probably become a well-worn reference.
Book Description
After doing very poorly on his law school entrance exam and almost dropping out during his first year as a law student, Chris Yianilos went on to graduate in the top 10 percent of his class. The Law School Breakthrough shows exactly how he did it-and how you can, too. Three years in law school convinced Chris that he could write the only book a budding lawyer needs before his LSAT entrance exam. The Law School Breakthrough can show even the most average student how to triumph over all the barriers to law school success-a crushing workload; the single winner-take-all exam system; the arrogance of most law school professors; the fierce, sometimes hysterical, competition from classmates. The Law School Breakthrough provides a comprehensive, holistic approach to surviving law school-both inside and outside the classroom. It contains proven techniques for overcoming every obstacle students are likely to face during the three most challenging years of their lives.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Have For Anyone About to Begin Law School.......2007-07-10
"The Law School Breakthrough" is a must have for anyone getting ready for law school. Using an easy to understand, straightforward style Chris Yianilos shares his invaluable lessons and tips for performing well during the dreaded "1L" first year and beyond. From helping you to overcome the anxieties of law school, to teaching you to craft the perfect case brief and exam outline, this book will get you ready for law school and get you through to the top of your class.
The approach to success in law school outlined in the book is a simple formula that everyone can and should emulate, with emphasis placed on hard work and discipline. Yianilos doesn't sugarcoat the facts: law school is hard and the only way to excel is through focused, rigorous study. Based upon that premise, he offers successfully proven tips and advice on how to customize a program of study for your own law school experience, keeping in mind that there is more to life than just studying. Yianilos' balanced approach is one that if followed is sure to produce great results with a minimal amount of worry (if you work hard and know the material there's no need to stress about exams and grades - pretty simple!).
Yianilos also makes an important point throughout the course of the book: it's not enough anymore to simply graduate from law school...you have to do well. This book is for those people who aren't satisfied with simply showing up. It is for individuals who want to be the best. Law school is competitive and "The Law School Breakthrough" will ensure that you are ready to compete at your best.
This book will get you in the right frame of mind, and keep you there, as you work your way towards the ultimate goal: getting your JD and graduating at the top of your class. It is the best investment for success that I've come across and I highly recommend it.
Very Helpful.......2006-11-28
I read this book the summer before I started law school and found it pretty helpful, especially for someone coming into law school pretty blindly. It was full of helpful ideas and insights into law school life. It was also a pretty quick read, and I was able to read through it in a weekend on the beach.
obviously.......2006-11-10
There was nothing in this book that wasn't obvious. I'm almost halfway through my first year of law school, and I have to say this book doesn't help at all. If you want a good overview of law school, try Law School Confidential instead. Both books have general information, but LSC is at least more realistic in planning how to study and approach classes.
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY.......2006-10-22
This book is a waste of time and money, especially if you have already started law school. I have already read about 120 pages, and the only advice I have gleaned from it is stuff your mother could tell you (even if she never went to law school): get enough sleep, exercise regularly, take time out to do something other than study, and--try not to crap your pants, cause this is the hum-dinger--believe in yourself and do your best. If you need to read a book to tell you these things, consider a career as coffee shop barista instead of spending $100,000 to go to law school. In light of that amount of debt, don't waste ten bucks on this book. Take your money, go down to the local Good Will and look for either an inspirational poster with a kitten cowering on a tree branch that says, "Hang In There!", or a coffee mug enscribed with the declaration, "World's Greatest Dad" and purchase them instead for a quarter. Either would be equally as invaluable as this book and will likely add even more to your law school survival skills. Plus, kittens are really cute, and you will surely need a mug.
Some good points.......2006-08-17
I did pretty terrible my 1st year of law school, I am about to start my 2nd year. I think this book has some good points and offered some good advice. I found that the majority of pointers were pretty obvious stuff that I was already doing, but that may not be the case with others. The only thing I did not like is that the author tries to convince the reader that his or her grades will haunt them for life (if they are not good). Every attorney I have spoken to has disagreed with this opinion. Overall, worth reading..it was a quick read, I did it in one day with the exception of the cases he included.
Book Description
Fifteen-year-old Ben Warner is dizzy with boredom working at his local fish and chips shop. One evening, a young woman saunters in and, between mouthfuls of chips, invites him to visit her in the World of Ideas. Ben is excited, but suspicious. The World of Ideas is the philosopher’s quarter of the afterlife, and adorable Lila has been residing there for thirty years, but being dead is just the start of her problems.
Lila’s boss, Socrates, President of the World of Ideas for the last 2,109 years, has made a bet with his rival, Wittgenstein, that philosophy can improve your life. If Socrates loses he cedes the presidency to his crabby nemesis. For the wager, they choose Ben as their unwitting guinea pig, and Lila's mission is to prove to him that his life—annoying sisters, adolescent blues, smarmy boss and all—can be changed fundamentally for the better through philosophy. So begins a mind-bending guided tour through the big questions in life. When is orange not orange? Do we have free will? Does time speed up when your heart beats faster? Charming and full of wit and humor, Lucy Eyre’s If Minds Had Toes warmly shows that few other questions—how we live and whether our lives have meaning—are more important.
Customer Reviews:
If Minds Had Toes... They'd Run Away.......2007-08-31
This book reminded me an awful lot of "Sophie's World". It's essentially an intro to philosophical thought textbook masquerading as a novel. While this book might be fun to use in a class, it did not make for a good leisure read at all. There was virtually no plot, and while Eyre is occasionally punny and it's amusing to read her depictions of famous philosophers as petty miscreants, the book is ultimately stagnant. Great for those who have never been exposed to these fundamental topics or forms of discussion (much like the main character), not so much for the rest of us. The structure of the book is repetitive, and there's just not very much story here. Ultimately, there's just not very much here, or at least, not very much that's invigorating.
Book Description
At age nine, Cameron Johnson started an Internet company.
Pete Amico quit his job on his first day because he didn’t feel like taking orders from his boss.
Greg Herro built a successful business selling diamonds made from the carbon extracted from ashes.
If any of these people remind you of yourself, you just might have the kind of personality to take the small business world by storm.
In If at First You Don't Succeed..., Brent Bowers, the small-business editor for the New York Times reveals the eight patterns that highly successful entrepreneurs share – and what we can learn from them.
Brent Bowers, in covering small business for decades at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, has chronicled the rise and fall of hundreds of start-ups. In If at First You Don’t Suceed…, he analyzes the common characteristics shared by dozens of successful small-business owners and their companies. Drawing on extensive interviews and research, as well as on the experiences and expertise of business consultants, venture capitalists, academics, and the entrepreneurs themselves, he describes the key traits that successful entrepreneurs have in common.
Among them:
• The ability to spot and seize opportunities
• An overwhelming urge to be in charge coupled with a gift for leadership
• The flexibility to come up with creative, out-of the-box solutions to problems or obstacles
• Incredible energy and tenacity in the pursuit of their goals
• Unwavering faith in their business
• The ability to take smart risks
• The ability to bounce back from setbacks and see failure as just one step on the path to ultimate success
For anyone thinking about starting a business, or attempting a start-up a second or third time, this book offers invaluable lessons and insights.
Customer Reviews:
Good read.......2006-05-02
A friend told me this was the antidote to boring business books and he has a point.
The book has some pluses: Good warnings about vulture capitalists and the value of the "double P's" passion and pragmatism. I liked his analysis of what makes succesful entrepreneurs tick and examples of how tenacious people turned ideas into fortunes. My favorite was the guy who makes diamonds out of cremated remains as keepsakes for the bereaved. Where did the author find these people?
America should stop whining about the decline of big business jobs and get off its collective butt like these entrepreneurs who showed spunk and made millions.
Product Description
The First book ever written by Gnomes, Elves, Leprechauns, and Faeries! Learn how to improve your home and garden in special ways that are sure to attract and delight the little people and begin a bond of love and joy. Realize how to lead a more positive, meaningful and magical life of wonder and manifestation as the Nature People awaken your inner child and show you how to live in the now and be happy.
Customer Reviews:
Does not read as if it were told by real gnomes.......2007-07-14
I was disappointed. Is the picture supposed to be of a real gnome? It just sounds too modern to be told by the gnomes. The comments that are made just don`t come across as being told real gnomes to me. I`m not convinced. I do believe they are real I have over 70 books on faeries .I was really hoping for a book that had undeniable proof to show they are real to none believers.
I can!!! I can!!!.......2007-06-13
Christopher Valentine and Dr. Christian von Lahr have done something no one else in the New Age world has done. They have proven fairies, elves, gnomes and leprechauns are real. Yes, I said REAL! Now we can stand up tall and be counted. This is truly empowering stuff.
This is their first book, followed by "Seeing and Sensing Gnomes .. Hey Looky Hea'h" I recommend both, I strongly recommend both. They are "must-haves."
It took two committed authors who were true psychic mediums of this caliber to channel and give us current, meaningful and insightful information that WE could use.
I've read all of the historical mythology, got many here from Amazon; me, the husband and the relatives. We have all wanted to know, "is it real?" I am one of the New-New Agers. I want the practical experience. I want to feel them, hear them, see them, and talk back to them. I wanted it all. I can't settle for the fun notions of the old style; we live in a world where we want proof.
Well, ask and you shall receive. "If You Could Only See ... A Gnome's Story" is current, it is absolutely right now. This is a book you keep for a lifetime because it tells you exactly who Nature People are, where they are, why they are here, why they want to communicate with us, how we can communicate with them. Yes, this is the answer we have all been crying for, and why not, Gnome's are Real! You will be saying this over and over again after you fly through this book; when that chord of truth is stuck, there is no such thing as time.
This is the kind of stuff we have all wanted. We just didn't know how to ask. The authors got the jest of that issue right away and showed their true professional acumen by going to the gnomes themselves. Who would of thought? Now it all makes sense. I can do it. My friends can now do it. We can do it. Everyone can do it. Hear them. See them. Talk with them. We have all been trying to do it like we were talking to other people, right? Yes, I know. Been there, done that. The authors are pros of explaining how we need to go about this in a slightly different way, a way that both makes sense, and is easy. If there ever was magic, it will be forever in your mind as that first time you saw a gnome sitting right there in front of you. And waving, I got to laugh. That was what mine was doing. The authors even tell us how the gnomes sit there patiently waiting for us to finally see them.
Get the book. The New Age has caught its stride; and leading the way is a new type of author. Christopher Valentine and Dr. Christian von Lahr say we can all do it, and we can do it right now. You are in for some of the most meaningful, delightful, insightful and inspirational conversations you have ever had in your life. With Nature! With Nature People. If You Cold Only See, you would have written this book first. So, get it and let's all raise the bar on what we can expect from our authors, and ourselves.
An insightful and accessible glimpse into the spirit world.......2007-01-06
Psychic medium Christopher Valentine and claircognizant/clairvoyant medium Christian von Lahr present If You Could Only See... A Gnome's Story, a metaphysical introduction to the world of Gnomes, Faeries, Elves, and Leprechauns. If You Could Only See... is not a fictional fantasy novel, but rather the genuine spiritual story of the Nature People who live in an Aetheric Plane, as told in their own words through von Lahr's mediumship and telepathy. Questions and answers concerning these altruistic beings, as well as means by which the reader can share their love of Nature with these creatures and enhance the richness of personal life, fill the pages of this psychic testimony. An insightful and accessible glimpse into the spirit world, accessible to all readers willing to explore the possibility of realms and creatures who exist beyond the five senses.
I am convinced. .......2006-11-13
WOW!!! I was blown away. I have been waiting to be convinced, and I surely am now. These guys go way beyond the introduction to concept we are used to receiving about esoteric subjects. They prove that Gnomes, Fairies, Leprechauns and Elves are real. You leave not only convinced, but empowered to SEE FOR YOURSELF. You learn just why these people of nature must exist. Then you are given an understanding of how you know they are there, and why. They take us further to show us what we can do to attract whichever nature people we like to are yards, gardens and even or homes. But so very importantly, they demonstrate what we can do to lead empowered lives which include the Gnomes and others, to improve our lives, meet wonderful people, enjoy life and be uplifted, and to coexist with many forms of life.
This is a must read for any New Age student. Only this book have I found to be in a modern context. This is not a collection of historical myths, but the directly channeled results of the Gnomes by Dr. Christian von Lahr who poses hundreds of questions to the nature people. It all makes perfect sense when they do the answering themselves.
You will enjoy the youthful and playful nature of the Gnomes in this book. We need a better word than delightful to describe this most unique of experiences. This is no lightweight pamphlet but a serious and extensive exploration of TODAY's world of Gnomes, Leprechauns, Elves and Fairies (or faeries). Most everyone will have to obtain some meaningful result if they follow the "how to" advice in this exciting book. They could just suggest like everyone else, but not them. They want you to be fully convinced and have your own personal experiences. This is the one book you must have if you want to sense, feel, hear or see Gnomes, Leprechauns, Elves or Fairies. GET IT!
I donated my copy to the local library so many others can also read of the real world of gnomes. Consider donating your book when you have fully absorbed its lovely messages and amazing instruction, most from the nature people directly.
Windy
A Gnome's Story.......2006-08-28
A Gnome's Story is incredible. There is an amazing amount of NEW information that I have never seen on the market to date.
I feel lucky to read this amazing insight into the nature realm. The knowledge of the authors on Gnomes, Leprechauns, Elves, and Faeries will far supersede any other material you will find on this subject.
Average customer rating:
- A lively story perfect for a simple read-aloud.
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If You're Happy And You Know It (My First Taggies Book)
Manufacturer: CARTWHEEL BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book
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ASIN: 0439853729 |
Product Description
GENERAL FEATURES: If You're Happy and You Know It by Scholastic is a child's first "Taggies" book. Everyone will love this My First Taggies Book, modeled after the ultra-popular Taggies Fleece Blanket. Snuggly soft, this cloth book features soft Taggies fleece on the cover and lots of colorful tags for children to rub and tug. Suitable for any age.
Customer Reviews:
A lively story perfect for a simple read-aloud. .......2007-07-10
James Warhola's IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT presents a zany 'jungle edition' of a classic song/rhyme. Kids learn to roar, flap wings, laugh out loud and more as they follow the funny jungle animal antics accompanying a lively story perfect for a simple read-aloud.
Customer Reviews:
You won't be able to put this down.......2002-05-28
This is quite possibly the most moving and yet troubling book I have ever read. I wish it were required reading in high school. The book addresses an issue of which everyone in this country should be aware.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful Story
- not great
- How to become the real you before you turn 50
- One Woman's Solitary Struggle
- A fine story of courage against almost overwhelming odds.
|
If Love Were All: A Novel
Judith Henry Wall
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
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| 18th Century
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The Girlfriends Club: A Novel
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Blood Sisters
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Handsome Women
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A Good Man: A Novel
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Family Secrets: A Novel
ASIN: 068483765X |
Book Description
A novel for anyone who remembers first love -- and who wonders what might have been...
There is life after death. Or at least that is what one recently widowed woman discovers in this poignant and contemporary novel about old love lost and new love found.
After twenty-seven years of being a devoted wife and mother, Charlotte Haberman suddenly finds herself alone. With the death of her husband after a long, painful struggle with cancer and all three of her children off to college, Charlotte realizes that she is not only alone -- she is free. And she is young enough at forty-seven to want more than memories.
She had loved and admired her husband, Stan, as did almost everyone else in their small Nebraska town where he ran the local newspaper. He was a truly good man, and an especially good father. Now, as Charlotte grieves, she also forces herself to look ahead to a future as a single woman. But her three children are devastated by his loss; they can't imagine life without him, and they can't imagine their mother's life with anyone else. They resist any suggestion that she might eventually date other men, and are horrified when Charlotte announces she is going to sell the family home.
Nervous about the future, but determined not to be buried with her husband, Charlotte remains firm in her resolve to start over again with or without the approval of her children. First however she must banish a memory that will not die: Cory Lee Jones, the boy she loved before Stan. She had known Cory Lee for only one summer, but she remembers it as the most glorious and most passionate summer of her life, never forgotten and perhaps never gotten over. But Cory Lee went to Vietnam, and when he returned to America, he did not come back to Charlotte. Free now to explore the past, she sets out with renewed purpose, both to find him and to put to rest at last any lingering doubts about what might have been.
In the course of her search, Charlotte encounters many obstacles -- the romantic problems of her children (especially Suzanne, the youngest, who recently suffered a miscarriage, and whose hopes for a career as a doctor are put on indefinite hold when she marries), her sister's disintegrating marriage, and her mother's sour disapproval of virtually everything Charlotte says and does. In between, there are her own entanglements -- a brief, bittersweet romance with a younger man who reminds her more than she'd like to admit of Cory Lee, and a genuine, gradual attraction between her and a retired military officer. And finally there is Cory Lee himself, to whom she makes a final pilgrimage in her search for herself, so that at last she can get on with her life.
With a warm, appealing heroine who unflinchingly faces every curve life throws her way, If Love Were All will speak to any woman who has ever yearned for a midlife romantic adventure, or daydreamed about her first love.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Story.......2003-07-14
I had never heard of Judith Henry Wall. I came across her book in my local library. I read it in one day! More often than not I find myself flipping to the last few pages of a book to see how it ends because I have become bored with what I am reading, or I can see the outcome in the first two chapters. Not so with this well written novel. Wall has taken the things in life we all must face in time and woven them into a well defined story line. Charlotee Haberman is a woman in change, Her husband has died and she wants to sell the family home and move into a smaller place. This does not set well with her three grown children. Besides them she must deal with a difficult mother and a sister who has her own corss to bear. I expected it to end one way but was not disspointed when it ended quite another. I admit I cried more than once while reading it. I had flash backs to my own life and relationships and home, places and people that are no more. Let the nay sayers have their time at bat.. however I think you will enjoy reading this book, and gain some insight to your life along the way.
not great.......2003-05-26
I wasn't too enthralled with this book. It was kind of hard to keep reading, but I make myself finish any book just in case things get better or there is a poetic phrase or two that I love and want to remember.
So, I kept reading, but really didn't enjoy the story. It was too contrived. And in parts, the writing seemed so juvenile. I did find a couple of good statements to make me think about religion, so I am glad I read the book.
How to become the real you before you turn 50.......2002-06-23
Maybe it's because I recently turned 50 that I found this book to be a real wake-up call and an incentive to examine my own life and the perceptions/expectations I (and my family) have about me. [...] a story of a woman who would "pine for what could have been" because the whole point of her journey--both physical and spiritual--was to put the past aside and live a life that would fulfill her needs rather than continue the pose her family and community expected. I appreciated this book's gentle reminder that we can't please all of the people all of the time and that the bonds of love don't have to be chains that imprison us.
One Woman's Solitary Struggle.......2001-01-09
Charlotte Haberman has spent her adult life being a good wife to Stan and her three children. Now, still in her 40's, Stan dies of cancer and her three grown children seem to want her to stop living and be a memorial to their father's memory.
But, Charlotte has other ideas. A long-ago, pre-Stan lover has haunted her. Why did Cory Lee, the love of her life, not return to her when he came back from VietNam? Charlotte decides to put an end to the fantasy and find Cory Lee. She embarks on a journey in which she discovers a lot about herself. Unfortunately, Charlotte has no one in her life who is sympathetic to her. Her children are furious that she sells the family home, her sister is condescending, her mother is downright hateful. It is only when Charlotte removes herself from the small-town she has lived in all her life that she feels she can truly be herself.
Judith Henry Wall has done an excellent job of defining many of the characters and places Charlotte in interesting situations. However, Charlotte never seems to see herself as anything other than victim. Will she find Cory Lee? Will he change her life? Will her children ever ease up on her? Will her sister and mother ever offer her an ounce of support? Read the book and decide if it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.
A fine story of courage against almost overwhelming odds........1999-02-09
The negative review above, written by the reader from Pennsylvania, finally persuaded me that people as frightened, narrow-minded and selfish as the ones depicted in this book, and towns dominated by such people, must still exist in the modern United States. But even as I read, convinced that Judith Wall's portrait of life in a small Nebraska town was overdrawn, I was fascinated. Ms. Wall can write.
And the "soap" dig in the Kirkus review above, probably written by some over-educated, actually quite unsophisticated, recent graduate of Vassar, is quite undeserved--unless, that is, you consider sad, complex, lifelike dramas of courage in the face of almost overwhleming odds typical soap opera fare.
This very well-written, gripping book has only one flaw that I can see, and I may, again, be refusing to face reality. Charlotte, the appealing, confused, stubborn and very attractive heroine of this story has no friends, no allies, absolutely no one on her side. Could this be? Are there really places and people that bad? I do sincerely hope not.
I told my wife, who is tougher than I am, something about this book as I was reading it and she said, "Why doesn't she tell 'em to shove it and take off?" Well, I can see why she doesn't, and that's one of the things that makes the book so good--Charlotte is herself part of this milieu, and, no matter how she tries, she can't help seeing things from the point of view of her tormentors.
Oh, yes, this is a very good book.
Books:
- In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder,and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898
- In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo
- Innocent in Death
- It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
- Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac®)
- Kiss Theory Good Bye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company
- Knuffle Bunny (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards))
- Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Became an American Icon
- Magic Item Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)
- Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West
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