Adoption Books

After reading The Secret Garden by F.H. Burnett for the the first time as an adult I viewed all English versions of the movie. By far the Hallmark 1987 version of The Secret Garden is my favorite. What a charming cast of character actors, enchanting cinematography, and splendid music. I give this version of The Secret Garden two thumbs up. More thumbs if I had them. CMM 12-08

I guess I didn't miss much by not reading this book as a child. I don't really understand why it became a classic. It starts out interestingly enough with a very gothic setting. A little British girl named Mary survives a cholera epidemic in India and is sent to Yorkshire to live with her distant relatives. The author gives a vivid description of the beauty of the moors and the mysterious mansion that the girl goes to live in. The only other interesting part is really when Mary discovers the boy...more I guess I didn't miss much by not reading this book as a child. I don't really understand why it became a classic. It starts out interestingly enough with a very gothic setting. A little British girl named Mary survives a cholera epidemic in India and is sent to Yorkshire to live with her distant relatives. The author gives a vivid description of the beauty of the moors and the mysterious mansion that the girl goes to live in. The only other interesting part is really when Mary discovers the boy who she hears crying in the mansion and when she discovers the secret garden. Everything else beyond that (which is most of the book) isn't all that interesting. The author spends many pages explaining how miraculous and magic fresh air is for healing and fattening up the crying boy and the girl who escaped the cholera epidemic in India.

The bits that get old after a while: Oh, look, it's a garden! Look, I can run and play! I'm not a cripple after all! Look at the pretty birds! The garden is alive! Now I have an appetite! Isn't it a magical miracle that I'm having fun playing outside?

I just wasn't really impressed. If you're going to write a novel in a gothic setting, you at least need a small ghost or a mysterious disappearance or something.

I love this movie! I grew up watching this version and plan on showing it to my own children. The newer version didn't have the same "magic". This is definitely a classic and worth purchasing. Also, notice a VERY young Colin Firth at the end!

The acting was terrible. The girl began with an English accent, then lost it halfway through the movie. The original Secret Garden is MUCH better.

Unfortunately, my copy of this title is a VHS Tape print, therefore, my opinion may not carry much influence (?). That being said, I found this to be a very good story produced by one of America's best corporate sponsors of family entertainment!

For those who have enjoyed the work of Irina Brook and Colin Firth for many years look for her and his brief appearance!

The beginning may be a little dark and frightening to very small children, those below the age of 6-8, the film does become much more bright and more up-lifting as the story unfolds.

I recommend this title to all families that worry and are concerned about what their children are learning from todays movie titles and the adult content they are introducing to our young.

As an adoptee who searched for and renunited with my birth family, with resulting wonderful relationships, in my teens some 17 years ago, I found Ithaka, although interesting hard to relate to. Although I can understand her ambivalent feelings at times and can sympathize with feeling discombobulated at being found, her underlying current of hostility and extreme negativity towards her birthparents I find a bit disturbing. Personally I have found that a large helping of compassion, understanding, maturity and grace go a long way in dealing with one's family members either birth or adopted. Additionally, I found the cultural contrasts between Ithaka with other Adoptee Memoirs such as "A Wealth of Family" by Thomas Brooks and "A Daughter of the Ganges" by Asha Miro who come from cultures where Family whether Birth or Adopted the cultural norm is it is not a question if one shall accept one's blood relatives, people just do as it is culturally expected, to be quite fascinating and enlightening.

While I imagine this book might be extremely useful to a member of the adoption triad who is looking for insight or validation, it's not for the general reader unless used as a sleep aid. As a general reader, I wouldn't recommend it.

Other reviewers have criticized the author's seemingly selfish reaction to her birthparents reaching out to her; I have to give her credit for honesty about reactions that don't show her in the best light. But to be frank, her personal journey just isn't interesting enough to sustain the average reader for more than a few chapters. While she plumbs her feelings endlessly and repetitiously, going so far as to enter therapy, she seems to be lacking the self-awareness to make it a worthwhile read. There's a lot of drama-queen there, but not much personality.

A far better book by adoptees is "Identical Strangers" by Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein published this year. Perhaps I'd be more sympathetic to Sarah Saffian if I weren't comparing her voice to those of Bernstein and Shein, two eloquent writers who went through far more, and yet write about their experiences beautifully and without a drop of self-pity.

The story of Sarah Saffian (born Sarah Morgan but given up for adoption) is a story of promise but one that quickly drizzles down into one long whine. Imagine the luck of finding that the parents who had to give you up stuck together against all odds (parents' wishes, lack of money), eventually married, and produced three siblings for you! How often does such a thing even happen???? Is our didactic, deliberating, depressed daughter delighted by her parents' phone call at age 23? No, indeed, and the reader must, it seems, be dragged through all her misery, too. Her parents are alive, healthy,in their mid-40's, married, employed, financially stabled, and educated. They adore their children and are totally welcoming to the daughter that they had to give up in 1969, dark pre-legal-abortion days. Does she accept, jump on the bus and go? Oh, no!

Assuming that a reader can stomach a full-novel-length's whining, one has to say, that if it were written in a more engaging style, for example, with more information about her real life, her adopted parents, her schooling, her half-siblings, and general world view, then we could have a better sense of her. WE might even sympathize with her great ambivalence about meeting the real parents, Hannah and Adam. But this reader, for one, cannot get a grip on who Sarah really is. She's a Brown University kid, grew up in a brownstone in NYC, has plenty of money, works in publishing and writes for a living, has had one abortion at age 21, likes to look out at the snow from her apartment window. That's all I could gather. Does she have any real interests, hobbies, all-consuming passions? Does she have problems or conflicts at work? Does she like to cook, or what does she eat, just bagels and coffee? Does she like movies? What kind of books is she reading? Does she hang out somewhere, like bookstores, libraries, cafes, parties? Her birthparents, especially her father Adam, tries to get her to open up and tell about her life, her problems, her views. She is unresponsive to him as she is to the reader.

The abortion, did you say? Oh yes, there's a fellow...her boyfriend Chris seems completely peripheral, likes to go to junkshops with her. Gee whiz! Perhaps he's too poor for her to marry him - just like her mother Hannah's problem back at age 21 when Adam, a non-Jew, a dropout, and unemployed fellow, didn't suit her future plans. Otherwise, what's wrong with him, why she is just drifting along with him, well, readers must guess.

This poor woman wrote a novel of herself, her disaffected, detached, and depressed view of reality. What she really wants or will ever achieve in her life is hard to say. I'll admit it's possible that the knowledge of being adopted sapped her of any life force from a very young age, from having no mother-love, as she says.

This woman needs desperately to open up to others, to see their pain and problems. She's even been to see a psychiatrist already, but it didn't help. The reader feels like bashing the book on the woman's head and shouting, "For God's sakes,woman, wake up! You are alive, young, healthy, rich, and you have two sets of parents! GEt a MOVE on!"

I am not adopted but was well acquainted with a fellow my age (now mid-40's) who tried to find his birth parents in his 30's. He went through heck and high water, only to find that the father was long dead, a disreputable man who'd been married at the time of conceiving my friend, therefore could not marry his mother. The mother was dead only six months, and had died a miserable woman - alcoholic, diabetic and sickly. She'd married later in life, had a couple of kids, and these half-siblings took one look at my friend and essentially said, "Scram, man". She came from Irish immigrants in Oakland, California, and was forced through the Irish Catholic adoption service nuns to give up the baby, although her father had tried to see about keeping the child somehow and even raising it himself. AMongst Catholics in the late 1950's, that was inconceivable, and "it would ruin her chance to marry". Sure enough, she found someone,but was sad her whole life, or so he was told.

He is STILL Raging about her, against her, with no conception what the Catholic Chuch was like in those years, especially in regard to women. I caught the tale end of it myself, having Irish immigrant parents, and tried to tell how his mother must have felt. He could look in the mirror and see how Irish he looked. He did not know his heritage or faith, adopted by agnostics/Anglicans in Walnut Creek, given a priviledged suburban life, but in the end, drank and smoked himself into poverty, ill health and unemployment. I have cut the friendship because of his terrible attitude towards his dead birthmother and towards almost all women as a result. YOu can't talk to him.

I only bring up this side issue of a similar case to show that this woman has nothing to weep about, and indeed, has the insight to realize that the abortion she had at 21 was exactly the same choice,given the circumstances, that her own birthparents made when they were 21: not able to be parents yet.

And will she ever be? I wonder? She would now be in late 30's. Poor little rich girl, I hope she turns out okay and doesn't fall into drink, smoking and drugs....

Recently, I was reunited with my daughter whom I gave up to adoption 34 years ago. I was unprepared for what this reunion would do to my life and the roller-coaster emotions that came to the forefront of our "relationship". After our "honeymoon" phase ended after much emotional and verbal conflict (and all contact between us ceased), I began to reach out for help. Many of the "other" Mom's suggested this book.
Though my daughter and I have not renewed our relationship, this book, more than any other (so far) has helped me understand somewhat of what she was/is going through emotionally. Factors I had not considered that Saffian points out have helped me cope with this "silence".
It is not a perfect book. There are questions that remain: why did it take Saffian so long to have a face-face meeting; did the reunion last (are they still reunited); etc.
Though I am unlike Sarah's "other" parents, the book is helpful in that it also shows what they are going through (via personal letters and phone calls) and glimpses into her parents' feelings as well.
All in all, a good read that will help all in the adoption triad struggling the initial phases of contact. I wish I had known of the book sooner.

What I don't understand about this book is how it and the Amazon reviewers of it can be so brainwashed by the adoption industry that they do not respect Sarah Saffian's natural parents as being such. The demeaning word "birth mother" is used not only throughout Sarah's book but also in reviews of it. In addition, Sarah seems to refuse to acknowledge her parents as what they really are: her parents. Sarah's lack of thinking for herself and her inability to understand and respect natural family relationships is sad indeed. May she one day take a few steps away from denial and from the adoption industry, which she obviously supports, and realize how terrible mother and child separation is. I'd like to read the book that she writes after she wakes up from her adoption fantasy.

A friend lent me this book, and I loved it so much that I purchased three copies to give as gifts to friends and family. Extremely well written.

Although this book started with quite a jump and kept me interested, by the middle I was getting too much redundancy. I'm glad this author told her story and shared it as a tool for relationships and to learn from.

While Meredith Hall in "Without a Map" tells a sad, interesting story, I found myself struggling to get through the book. Undoubtedly, she was treated abysmally by her parents and friends when she became pregnant at 16 years old. This family and community "shunning," along with giving up her baby for adoption, stays with her through the course of her life. Very sad, poignant stuff. But, she reminds us, practically every paragraph, over and over, that she is in pain, sad, alone, detached, etc.

There are very interesting, meaty parts of the story. She buys a fishing boat with a boyfriend and fishes through a storm, she walks through Europe to the Middle East with no money, she cares for her mother through a terrible terminal disease. But these moments are dragged down by the over emphasis of her feelings. Meredith also chooses to ignore chronology again and again, and also leaves huge holes in her story - just when we are rivited by her story, she jumps to a whole new part of her life. For instance, one chapter ends with her in the Middle East, broke, practically naked...then, she decides to go home. The next chapter starts and she has two children. How did she get home? How did she meet and fall in love with the father? What changes in this empty person's life to open up to another human and decide to create a new life? It is a mystery.

While there is some good stuff here, and Hall is a talented writer, I found this to be a tedious attempt. I needed more meat, less gravy.

This is the harrowing tale of a child who was betrayed by her mother and father, and a child who became a mother and then betrayed her own child. The story begins with the sudden loss of everything that Meredith Hall held dear--her parents' love, her home, her place in the community, her school friends--when she was deserted for the sin of becoming pregnant at 16. The memoir is a sustained reflection on how this betrayal played itself out through the rest of her life.

Throughout the book, Hall tries to understand the terrible betrayal of her parents' love, a love bordered by conditions, the most important one being "Thou shalt not bring shame upon us." With startling honesty, she consistently refuses to gloss over, deny, or ignore the consequences of her actions or those of her parents, most notably in her account of the abuses her abandoned son, Paul, suffered at the hands of his adoptive father. Hall never hides from the scars she inflicted on her beloved son, and insists on forcing herself to note the terrible differences between the upbringings her 3 sons experienced--the first child a life of deprivation and fear, the others, lives of love and comfort. There is no possibility of reconciling these facts, nor does she attempt to.

Hall holds all the violent and conflicting emotions together, never allowing the one to cancel out the other--love and rage, trust and betrayal, need and abandonment, loss and guilt. Her writing carries no contradictions, just the paradoxes of a life lived and declared in lines of lyrical beauty, with passages of exquisite beauty, so finely detailed that it hurts to read. It is a testament to Hall's many years of deep reflection and personal honesty that she could sustain this juxtaposing and balancing of opposites without allowing her work to collapse under the weight of the awful emotional overload she has lived through.

Although this memoir makes for compelling reading, it is not always an easy read. To read it is to become immersed in the terrible suffering of an untethered soul seeking love lost. Hall partially finds what she has spent a lifetime looking for when she is reunited with her 21-year-old son, and when she opens her home and gradually her heart to an old man who is afraid to continue living alone after the death of his wife. But in the end this is a book about life and living. Hall succeeds in gleaning wisdom from a grief begun in a betrayal and carried in a wounded heart through her life. She discovers a joy that "lies like a shimmering pond within our grief, the landscape of our lives."

In the end, Hall asks herself if she would choose a different life, if she would forget all the pain. And the answer she gives is surely the only answer possible. "No. Memory remains. The uneasy remembering transforms pain into sorrow, and sorrow into love. There can be no oblivion."

by Edith O'Nuallain
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I really enjoyed reading this book but have wondered if the author has exaggerated a bit for effect. I lived in a small New Hampshire town close to Hampton at the time the book begins. A girl or two in the town became pregnant and there was definite disapproval, but at the same time kindness. No one was shunned by her friends or anyone else, much less her parents. I find it hard to believe that her parents were so stonily unloving at this critical time of need for support and understanding, not to mention help. Maybe, but I doubt it. Her travels sound suspiciously overdone also. Still, it's an absorbing story and a gripping read.

great book me and my mom both read it and agree that this is a mustread

It's pretty simple to tell whether you'll love this book. Do you love animals and agonize over the shoddy ways that they're often treated by humans? Are you interested in personal stories of how people's lives change because of the animals who come into their lives? Do you have both a heart and a brain? If you answer, "yes," to all three questions, it's impossible for me to see how you couldn't love this book. For me, it was more than just a charming story about rescued dogs. It was a deeply affecting story of how the man who rescued the dogs needed to be rescued by the dogs just as badly as they needed HIS help. Anyone who's felt the joy of having animals need their help -- and who has felt changed in a positive way from helping -- will love this book. I highly recommend it for those who place themselves in the groups I'm describing.

I feel I met a kindred spirit when I read this book! I recommend it to anyone who is involved in rescue work or may be interested in learning more about how they can help!

This book started off ok and quickly turned into a boring list of dogs that he did not help.He judges people for not wanting to help but he seems irritated to help. Don't get me wrong he's done some amazing things for some animals, but he makes a lot of snap judgements about people that he later realizes in the books were wrong, though he never seems to notice or learn from his behavior. He sees stray dogs and assumes abuse in some situations and does not try to return the dog to it's owner or try to find the owner which i can't understand. If the dog has clearly been abused then that is different....He seems to just like that he's a hero, regardless of the fact that he drove a dog into another state to a shelter making it impossible for an owner to find their dog. He makes the judgement on one page that if a person can't afford the impounding fee for their dog then they can't afford the dog, even though he could not afford food for his three dogs at one point. It's just frustrating, all the judgement that goes on. The story is not that good, if you can really call it a story. I put it down so many times. He seems like the "world owed me a living" type and anyone who does not agree with him is wrong. I did like the fact that he shows a different side to pitbulls in the book since they often get a bad wrap, because they are the chosen dog of so many bad people who will fight them, breed them to be cruel, etc. However, alot of his facts/tips about dogs are incorrect, and not thourough therefore he should not have tried to include things like this. For example- the best way to break up a dog fight is to have one person per dog pulling the dog by the hips....it depends on the dogs, and much of what he writes comes from just that- his own exposure to just his own dogs. It's not always a good idea to try and break up a dog fight that way, and it concerns me when people dole out advice that could be harmful for someone else. What is most disturbing is that for all his dog rescuing, can never turn a blind-eye mentality he seems not to have much heart for dogs at times. It's not an engaging or heart warming book.
It does get a little better before an odd ending, and has some interesting stuff about PETA on one page, and some resources in the back. Otherwise....not the best or even close that I have read.
Try Marley and Me, With Love from Baghdad, or Women Writers and their dogs. Those are better books.

As we all know working in rescue, no one sets out to do this. This book is full of just those stories, the dogs who found the author when he wasn't ready and how he made do with each situation. He talks about the experience being in New York for 9/11 and evacuating New Orleans for Katrina. I have had this book sitting on a shelf for the last year and finally got to read it while I was recently on vacation and just couldn't put it down. It read just as if I were talking with any of my rescue volunteers about their rescued pets. Ken Foster does a great job of articulating the emotions and struggles involved in animal rescue. I think it is a great read for any of us as a reminder of why we do what we do.

It's not hard to see why readers like Crais' work -- his novels have an engaging readability about them, and this is no exception. The private detective with the funny name, Elvis Cole, saunters into the assignment of discovering an adopted TV star's birth parents and soon finds himself knee-deep in the swamps of Louisiana battling people smugglers of a very violent nature.
As the action turns darker, Cole makes the transition from a wise-cracking sleuth to a hard-nosed crime fighter as he stands between the innocent or unintentionally guilty and a mass of vicious and greedy gangsters.
The whole effect is of James Lee Burke in a sunny mood, a novel which keeps you turning the pages without sinking you completely into the murkiest depths of the human condition. Pacey, fun and very readable indeed.

Remember those Thanksgiving Dinners you had as a kid? After all the turkey, gravy, buttered rolls, mashed potatoes, etc., you could stuff into your happy tummy then would come the dessert buffet. Of course, you had "just a sliver" of pumpkin pie with the whipped cream, a small serving of the banana pudding just to one side of your plate and maybe a couple of chocolates teetering on the very edge. Sounds great but it was over done and you ended up with a tummy ache. That's how this book fits into the Elvis Cole universe. There is simply TOO much going on! The settings of BOTH Hollywood and the backcountry bayou create more texture than necessary . More overdone colorful characters than you could shake a stick at--or take a stick too. Bloody violence and a plot that seemed contrived at the motivation level. Elvis is our tarnished knight and we know he wants justice for the weak, but this case is one he should have simply walked away from.

VOODOO RIVER is the fifth installment in Robert Crais's "Elvis Cole" series about a wisecracking PI in Los Angeles. I am currently reading this series in order, and I thought this was an entertaining read.

As I've mentioned in prior reviews of Crais's work, I really enjoy his writing style, which reminds me heavily of Robert Parker's Spenser novels. Like Parker, Crais writes his prose in a very crisp and witty manner. Half the pleasure of this novel is simply listening to Elvis Cole's descriptions of the setting and his reactions to the often colorful people he encounters.

Crais's plotting is ultimately quite formulaic, and there's very little in VOODOO RIVER that I haven't seen before in other Elvis Cole books like LULLABY TOWN. The only major differences here are (1) the Louisiana setting and (2) a new love interest for Cole, who's been curiously celibate for the past few novels. These are probably the best two elements of the book, although I personally felt the romance was a bit sudden and underdeveloped.

Overall, VOODOO RIVER is another solid entry in the Elvis Cole series. While Crais's work lacks the emotional depth of the work of authors such as Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, or Nelson DeMille, he's definitely one of the better writers in the genre.

Voodoo River is an easy and relatively fast paced novel. Elvis Cole is hired by a television actress (who was adopted) to investigate her biological parents' health histories. (So she says). Elvis does get to the heart of the mystery. All the pieces comes together. Elvis meets his future love Lucy in this novel. Elvis is a kind , compassionate person. I was not bored. (A-).

I love all the Elvis Cole books that Robert Crais has written. He is one great guy. Mystery is always in the mix and he solves them very well. I'd like to have read them in sequence, but didn't get that order until after I'd read about 5 of his books.

Love his books.

The illustrations are bright, beautiful and engaging and the rhyming is cute. The book gives some nice information about adoption/families such as that family are not those who necessarily look like you but those who love you and that life can be hard and dangerous and you need family to help you get through it and they will be there for you during the negative/hard times.

But there are too many questions and insecurities that the story can bring up. Where is Little Miss Spider's birthmother? Why isn't she there to meet her new daughter? If Betty is the creature that loves her the best than does/did her birthmother not love her? At another point Betty the beetle said that if she was Miss Spider's mom, SHE would look for her everywhere this leads to the question of why her birthmother is not looking for them. If her birthmother is looking for her will she come and take Miss Spider away from Betty? Why did the "sly" spider want Little Miss to be eaten by birds? It appears that Little Miss Spider forgets all about her birthmother thus leading to the question are adoptees suppose to forget their birthparents or not wonder about them? If adoptive parents "rescue" their adoptive children, does that mean the children have to always be grateful and happy towards their parents? Do adoptees get to acknowledge the loss or express sadness and other negative emotions? Are the adoptive parents "saints" or "saviors" and better than birthparents or other parents?

Maybe I'm reading too much into this book and I'm sure David Kirk never intended it to be an "adoption" book, if that is the case I recommend it just as a story or a book. But I do not recommend it to adoptive families wishing to give good information about adoption, answer questions about adoption, portray all aspects of adoption realistically and positively (especially birthparents) or strengthen positive associations and identity with adoption.

Unless your adopted child came from a home of abuse or neglect, this IS NOT the book for you. I cannot believe the messages about birth parents in this book, or the idea that an adoptive parent is there to save you from abandonment and harm. It's an okay book on its own, but as an adoptive parent I can say this book will NOT be in our library. We have more respect for our daughter's birth mom, and we're not saviors to our daughter. We're just two of the parents who love her.

My daughter who is 2 years old loves the Little Miss Spider television show, and she also loves the books too. The illustrations are superior and engage children.

I received this item very quickly. I was expecting a little larger book. I wish the seller would have listed deminsions. Great condition and quick delivery.

I originally got this book for my son, not knowing it was considered an "adoption" book, but that did become clear during the first read through. I thought the message was so sweet! There are a few families in our neighborhood who have adopted children, and I decided to get copies for them as well. It was when I ordered books for them and read the other reviews here that I realized that some people had been offended by this book.
There was one reviewer who apparently didn't read all the way through, but let me assure you that no one gets eaten by a bird in this book! Miss Spider is rescued from an untimely death by Beetle Betty. Just wanted to set that record straight.
This book is great for adoptive families, step families, and biological families as well. The message to take away is that LOVE makes a family, not necessarily blood. If the child has any questions after reading the book, you just take that great opportunity to talk about your particular situation. Small children aren't going to think that much into it, and older children, if they have questions; well, answer them!
We love this book at our house!

I tore through her book and read many passages out loud to my husband who seemed to also appreciate her perspective. I took it for that - her perspective. An open and shockingly honest portrayal of her emotions and thoughts throughout her adoption experience. I've already loaned it to a friend. What I was most thankful for was that someone had the courage to say what many of us think at different times during the adoption process. Sure, not everything applied to my experience, but I didn't expect it to. Read this book if you need reassurance that those "secret" thoughts you are having are normal and okay.

It's just nice to hear something from adoptive moms. It's like we are not allowed to have any feelings.."after all we got what we wanted..a child". The poor poor birth mom and what she is going through or has been through. There is alot of mixed emotions out their and it was awfully nice of this adoptive mom to put herself on the chopping block with her own story. I am an adoptive mom and I have to say it's hard to get support from agencies and some websites. The more unresolved issues we have the more that gets past down to the child (children). It's all about them or is it??? At least there is someone who wants to help the rest of us and recognize that there is more then just the "poor poor birthmom" involved here.

This book is a must-read for people planning to adopt, and those who have adopted and are still adjusting. There are a lot of feelings and fears that most people won't talk about during the adoption process, but they are there and they are real, and this author explores them.

I bought this book expecting to be offended and angry after reading it. As a birthmother myself, I had been warned that I would be reading some pretty harsh stuff. I was actually quite surprised that I was not offended at all. What I found upon reading this book is how similar birthmothers and adoptive mothers are. I have learned from some very intelligent birthmothers, who are also adoption counselors, to step back and look at how much infertility and unplanned pregnancy are so similar. We face the same issues, the same rude comments, the same ignorant opinions of everyone around us. If you are not involved in the triad, you just have no idea. My sons adoptive mother does not even know if she wants to read this book, but I am going to reccommend it. I enjoyed seeing things from an adoptive mothers perspective. But I also reminded myself that every story is different and everyones feelings are different. Not every adoptive parent is going to feel this way. There are so many people out there, like ourselves, who have honest and very loving open adoptions. I also think Jana has had to tackle the race issue on top of the adoptions stuff...which I think she seemed to have a bigger problem with. Overall, a good read for both birthmothers and adoptive parents. I would not reccommend to an adopted child. Regardless, this book needs to be read with an open mind and an open heart.

This is one of the books I tell any perspective adoptive Mom to read....the entire adoption process is at times frustrating and mind boggling. There are plenty of other great books that explain adoption ethics, respect for birthfamilies, the emotional loss of the adoptee, and how to make sure that you are supportive of the needs of the adopted child.
This book is strictly for women who want to vent and don't feel there is anywhere "safe" enough to let it all hang out, and don't even like that they even had the thought. This is for the darkest and most honest parts of ourselves. It isn't that I felt this way all the time, or even most of the time, but since I am human there were times when this book let me know that I wasn't alone or a horrible person for being fed up....fed up with the process, fed up with the adoption workers, and yes fed up with some of the perspective Birthmothers that we came into contact with. Not because I wanted the baby at all costs but because it is all so surreal. I can imagine that some birthmoms and even adoptees might be offended by some of the book...but it isn't written for them.

Normally I enjoy slow, deep character development, but these characters just did not seem all that interesting. The plot was PAINFULLY drawn out, like watching grass grow, and then all of a sudden it turns into an action movie ending. Very strange. First of his books I have read, and it doesn't make me interested in trying any of his others.

This book had enough action and enough human interest to keep me involved. I thought the author did a fair job telling the story though the lens of the various characters. Character development was enough to create empathy but not quite enough to "get into their shoes". Therefore, it did not touch me as deeply as it could have. It seemed that the women were a little too histrionic and the men were too removed. But then, who knows how a mother feels when her children have died, how a father feels in that same situation, how a young unwed pregnant woman feels, how a husband feels when he is displaced by a child, how a foster kid feels after being abandoned and passed along to different homes? I suppose those thoughts and questions are the benefits given to the reader by the author.

I felt that the weakest part of the book was the Buffalo Soldier tie in. The title really did not seem to fit with the book. I tried to understand how the WPA journal entries and old letters interjected into the chapters connected or even illumined the plot, but I was left dry. If they were absent, the book would not have suffered.

This was a story that seems unlikely, but for that very reason tends to ring true.
We have all heard of tragedies that seem almost overwhelming in other families,
situations so dreadful that no author could imagine them.

Bohjalian does. This is a story of a family tragedy that becomes a life changing, and loving situation for a boy that starts out as a stranger and becomes a son. Twin daughters are swept away in a flood in the first pages. The town rallies to console the family in the early days, but as is true in real situation of this sort, support falls away as people realize that there is nothing that they can do to assuage the grief following such loss.

This family finds its way out of darkness into the light and in doing so, the lives of an elderly neighbor and a young foster child are changed along with theirs. The ending is absolutely heart stopping, and was for me, unexpected. This is a compelling read with all too real characters. It is a can't put it down book, like all of Bohjalian's books.

NEGATIVES
1. no quotation marks for dialogue; forced me to reread things, which irritates me
2. melodramatic, yet I was caught up in the weather happenings
3. the author's favorite word is "moreover"
4. abrupt ending, and wrapped up too neatly

POSITIVES
1. a change from my usual reading
2. from Alfred's perspective, I learned something about prejudice
3. I enjoyed the relationships between Alfred/Mesa and Alfred/Paul

SIDE NOTE
I was expecting pedophilia after Russell's grabbing of Alfred, followed by Terry's outraged reaction. That could've added to the melodrama and given it even more of a Danielle Steel flair.

So, as you can surmise, I'm not glad I read it. If I weren't reading it for my book club, I wouldn't have finished it. (Sometimes I DON'T finish them, but this book wasn't horrible, and I was eager to finish it after I got to the part about flooding and icy roads, which was near the end. However, I felt dissatisfied when I finished it.)

I LOVED this book. The story line and character development where very well done. You could truly feel each character's personality and plight. I also enjoyed how history on the buffalo soldier was weaved throughout the book. Great read -- kept my attention from start to finish. In fact, I was sorry to see it end, but did very much enjoy how it ended.

i think this book is wonderful i`m sure that anyone who reads this will really enjoy it

Written by Kurisa Suhr
If you think this book is just for girls - think again! A story that involves overcoming the biggest struggles that life has to throw at you is something that can help everyone. We all face difficult problems in our lives and Pollyanna is a story that will touch your heart. She is a ten year old girl who turns life into a "Glad Game" and finds a positive way of looking at very difficult challenges in her life. The characters are not just girls and women and the stories are about true problems that we all face. Pollyanna is a special book with a special message for everyone.

My nine-year-old girl loves this book and I've enjoyed reading it with her. We all know people like those described in the book that are over-critical, grumpy about everthing, never satisfied or loners. Pollyanna applies her charm and glad-game to each of them and melts even the iciest personality. The vocabulary of older writing appropriately challanges a young reader. Short chapters make for easy stopping places when it's time for lights out.

I think the Pollyanna novel is a book we should all read and learn from. Life is always hard, and we should be grateful for things that we have. Pollyana, a young girl who has just lost her father, does that in a soft way that encourages people to be glad, without completly condeming them for their bitterness. This "glad game" is not just for kids, its for adults as well.
Being thankful for the little things: family, freedom, and others is important, and we always take that for granted in America. I would recommend that you not listen to the nay-sayers about this noval, they seem like embittered happless people. They don't seem to understand that this book is teaching a vaulable lesson. Overlook them and read the book for yourself, you won't be sorry you did.

I grew up with Walt Disney's story of Pollyanna. I still have the LP record album of the movie soundtrack. But I was pleasantly surprised to read the original story and find such depth of character and meaning. I highly recommend this delightful book.

No ONE book can "teach" you everything about "directing". But if you are lucky, you can learn how someone else might approach the task of directing.
Even though I have directed 6 features I learned several new tricks in this book that I applied directly to my next movie.
This is not a "fluff" book. The author creates his vision of the important details of "directing".
From pre-production to edting I found this a GREAT book with lots of visuals.
As a comic book artist ( I think in little pictures and words) I thought the illustrations in the book were great and there are lots of them.
Sydeny Lumets book "Making Movies" is a MUST read. "Bambi vs Godzilla" another superb read on what it REALLY takes to put it ALL together.
Finally "Reel to Deal". A primer on ALL things about film making.
IF you are serious about directing, or making films read this book and the ones above. When you are done, you will know more than 99% of MOST producers, directors and actors about making movies.

The problem with this book is it's WAY too confusing and gets into far too much detail for noobs. AND, anyone with some experience is not going to need to re-learn technique. Also, I don't like the author's terminology and ad infinitum descriptions of (seemingly) EVERY possible blocking scheme in the universe.

I think this book is for frappe latte mocha double half calf drinkers. Lots of flowery exposition. If it's the only book you've ever seen on the subject, it'll teach you something (in a very confusing way). But if you've ever shot anything, or read another book on camera setups, etc., this will not add much to your knowledge.

I even read it a 2nd time to see if I was just "overwhelmed" by info the first time--nope...there are other books that get to the nuts and bolts and practical info much better.

its easy to read, lots of info and hints. especially very helpful for camera moves and shooting angels. pictures are great and makes real easy to understand.

This is a book about all the types os shots, but it has a serious problem. The writer doesn't explain the emotional meaning of all those shots. If you read this book, you will know the positions and angles that a cameraman uses; but you won't know nothing about when, and why, employ this angles. Katz doesn't talk about the art of direction and the connection between the script, the characters, and the camera shots.

If you want to learn the complicated art of the direction you must read other more interesting books, like "Film Directing Fundamentals" by Nicholas Proferes, "Cinematic Storytelling" by Jennifer Van Sijll or "The The Five C's of Cinematography" by Joseph V. Mascelli. Also you can analyze an Hitchcock's movie "shot by shot". Any movie of Hitch is a master class.