Adoption Books

Let me preface this by saying that this is the first work of Toni Morrison's that I have read. Now I know that it will not be my last. It's nearing 3 AM where I am now, and I have just finished this overwhelming novel. I will make every effort to convey my thoughts coherently enough to do justice to this wonderful book.

I of course knew that Ms. Morrison's legacy as a giant of American literature included a history of notoriously difficult prose, and so I approached this novel with an admitted degree of apprehension. Yet, reading other reviewers who complain her style is unreadable, or negative reviews that admit the book was never even read, I'm convinced many readers are simply lazy. There are lines of this novel that demand to be reread and may seem foggy on first (or second) recitation, but their intention quickly becomes clear, and it really is not that difficult at all. You simply must pay attention to the often tricky usages of the English language. Ms. Morrison is not abusing syntax or words, she's playing with them. Another reviewer mentions a line that also stalled my attention on the first page, spoken by frequent narrator Florens: "...can you read? If a pea hen refuses to brood, I read it quickly and, sure enough, that night I see a minha mae standing hand in hand with her little boy, my shoes jamming the pockets of her apron."

That line perplexed me at first, but soon it became obvious. Ah, we're not using 'to read' in the sense of reading a book, but rather to read signs, to read omens. This opens the novel, and by the conclusion, we've come full circle and the symbolism of the hen that doesn't brood materializes in the spirit of Florens' mother ('minha mae' = 'my mother,' in Portuguese). This comes at the novel's heartbreaking climax, when you feel this young girl is just as much a part of you as she is of the pages. Read these opening pages closely. Everything returns.

While Florens is the only speaker of first person narration, there are many other stories and histories relayed throughout the course of this novel, made all the more impressive by its brevity.

In the video of Ms. Morrison speaking about her novel on this same page, she spoke of constructing it in the manner of an engine, and that while we receive respite from Florens' narrative to trace the roots of the novel's other characters, the train is still in motion. Her craftsmanship is impeccable. While reading Sorrow's story I felt a culminating angst while still wondering where Florens' unlawful travels would land her. That is the magic of this novel. All of the characters are so beautifully drawn, you feel genuine concern and emotion for all of them.

This novel is a marvelous achievement and I will be recommending it to many. It reminded me of why I first fell in love with reading. I have nothing left but Thank you, Toni Morrison. And Bravo.

I am astounded by this woman's genius but I have to say the last few years she's slacked off (Love, Paradise). I like A MERCY but not with the passionate urgency I usually rip through a Morrison masterpiece.

So far on my Kindle, I've not been riveted.

That is until this afteroon.

This afternoon I started reading the very poetic memoir by Osama Bin laden's ex mistress Kola Boof (Diary of a Lost Girl) and it's so good I had to make myself take a break so I wouldn't read it all too quick. I'm like over half way done with it, darn it! But at least I finally have something on my Kindle that's heart-pulsing and gets the brain juices going. I didn't even know there was a Bin laden mistress let alone an African woman! Intriguing woman and a fascinating read.

I do wish Toni Morrison would do an autobiography or something different
for a change from the slave novels.

A friend and I were talking a few months back about Madame Nobel Laureate, Toni, and why we both shake our heads at the dismissal of a truly brave artist such as Alice Walker. So what am I doing on this page other than I couldn't help but give this new, slender novel a read?(--which is exactly what I did over the holidays). My complaint with Toni is her almost obsessive exploration of the slave wound. That's the first thing. Not that I think this subject isn't worthy, it clearly is. But Morrison here is stretching things a bit in this attempt to give us verisimilitude a la late 17th century. The inner spectrum on these characters or at least, these attempts to give us such does not work here. It really seems to me that Ms. Morrison feels a sense of obligation, post-Nobel, to continue to explore this mighty subject and the story reads as if she were, indeed, under a set of self-imposed obligations to do so.

That's the problem in a nutshell.

Glad I read this, but cannot really recommend. And as far as Alice Walker goes, I commend that author for truly being an original artist and exploring edgy subjects--which is what a real artist is supposed to do! (ie: POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY) I also admire her artistic integrity in not sentimentalizing Africa. So wish we would get more from that author, and yes, I recommend Walker's work any day over Toni's tired, over-touted oeuvre.

The story was excellent as the author style came shining through. However the book itself has uneven edges as though it was cut uneven, I have never had a book in this condition. Disappointed with the quality of pages.

Five years after he last novel Love, Morrison returns to spin her magic in the novel A Mercy which only proves to be worth the wait. If you can keep up, that is.

The story opens up with a "confession" from the protagonist, a 16-year-old slave girl named Florens, with hands of a slave and feet of a Portuguese lady. She warns of a bloody story to be told as the reader muddles through what is admittedly a difficult narrator to follow. But Florens's present-tense stream of consciousness is easily overcome by the end of the story, as Morrison weaves in between voices and narratives: from Jacob, the hesitant master, to his religiously apathetic wife, as well as the servants, including Lina, rescued by the Puritans and then given to Jacob, and Sorrow, a arguably delusional character whose name matches how others perceive her. Each character is fully developed with their own heart-breaking story to tell on top of Florens's own story of abandonment, which is a highly resonant theme for discussion throughout the novel.

The most amazing part of Morrison's 167-page endeavor is perhaps its length--under 200 pages, a quick read compared to her previous books. Yet despite this, Morrison manages to create yet another masterpiece of epic proportions: her characters are richly drawn, her story is skillfully sewn together a la Faulkner, and most importantly, Morrison infuses the novel with a type of emotion rarely seen in books, past or present. One can't help but quote passages, think, and cry, at not only its depth, but simply because it is beautiful and poetic.

Morrison lives up to her expectations as a Nobel Prize winner, even though some might be lost in the multiples narratives as well as the constant change in voices. Yet in the hands of Toni Morrison, these traits become the treasure of her work. A Mercy is simply amazing, simply epic--just as we know Morrison to be--and simply must be read; it is one of the best novels, if not the best novel, of 2008.

This item is a definite must for coursework dealing with scanning and parsing. I thought that I would be fine if I just relied on web sources to assist me in Lex assignments, but as a deadline approached and I still had no results I turned to this book. The content is clear, concise, and absolutely fantastic. If you want to know how to work with Lex and Yacc, this is the book you need.

This book is a little out-dated. That is fine, though - this book goes over all the essential proponents of Lex and Yacc and Bison and FLEX and all the other variations ... which you will certainly know a lot more about by the end of this book. This books enabled me to read FLEX input from a c-string, which has played a role in a few of my projects. It is great when you just need a quick reminder of the syntax is the tools. This book does not go over how the programs work, which is a good thing, because that would make the book more oriented towards Finite Autonoma and Context Sensive Languages - leave that sort of thing to autonoma theory and compiler design. This is an excellent reference, so buy it if you really need it.

To me a great book flows into your mind, magically providing the information in the order you need it. Of course it depends on whose reading it, but this book, though well worth the 96 cents bargain bin price I paid for it, does not build the constructs in my head the way I'd like.

Authors should always proofread their books with novices, not the experts. Experts fill in the gaps as they read and don't notice if the logic is missing a link. In chap 2, "Using Lex", there is the sentence: "Lex itself doesn't produce an executable program; instead it translates the lex specification into a file containing a C routine called yylex(). Your program calls yylex() to run the lexer."

I waited with baited breath for what it means to "run the lexer". Does it return a token each time you call it? Does it analyze all the input then return? The text ignores this detail and merrily goes on into other details. The chapter is called "Using Lex", but the authors omit how you use it! Of course you can scrounge around in the examples and finally root it out, but a book should paint a crystal clear picture, get you oriented, then drop in the details to build your understanding.

The book looks so promising, sort of like the beauty of the original "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie, but disappoints in it's fragmented exposition.

I did take a compiler course with the "dragon book" years ago and write a parser, so I'm not totally in the dark, but I expected this book to lay the subject out in a much clearer way. But it is still a good book to have and read "offline".

I hope the authors take a crack at another edition and explain it all better.

I like this book because it is a good compromise between lex & yacc man pages and the theory found in books such as the Dragon book. You will get valuable information about the how and why of the tools that will help you to produce a quality grammar without being overwhelmed by details.

Yacc (yet another compiler compiler) and its companion lex (lexical analyzer) are primarily intended to allow quick and easy development of small special-purpose languages. The common mistake is assuming that they are only useful for creating compilers for massively complex eccentric languages. This is not the case, though you could no doubt use them for such a purpose.

Lex and Yacc are commonly used together. Yacc uses a formal grammar to parse an input stream, something which lex cannot do using simple regular expressions since lex is limited to simple finite state automata. However, yacc cannot read from a simple input stream - it requires a series of tokens. Lex is often used to provide yacc with these tokens. As a result, building an application in lex and yacc is often used as an exercise in classes on programming languages and the theory of computation to demonstrate key concepts.

The book starts out building a simple character-driven calculator, and then moves on to build a menu generation language that produces C code that uses the standard "curses" library to draw menus on the screen. The final application is a SQL parser which includes a quick overview of both relational databases and SQL. Some readers will dislike the fact that Lex and Yacc are only capable of generating C code. Thus, the logical conclusion is that you must be able to write C code in order to use these tools. While it would be nice if the sections about the menu generation language and the SQL parser had some information about how to do typechecking and other such things, this book is not about writing a compiler/interpreter using Lex & Yacc. Rather it is just a beginner's guide.

The sections about shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts are especially helpful, as are the sections going over the differences and caveats relating to the major versions of lex and yacc such as AT&T's Lex & YACC, GNU's Flex & Bison, and Berkeley's Yacc. In summary, if you've never used lex or yacc before and think they might be useful tools for you, and you already know the C programming language, this is a handy book to have.

Nathaniel Peale's life is turned upside down when his leg is crushed in an accident; he feels useless now that he is unable to help out on the family's Nebraska farm. When his father takes in an orphan named Worth from the famous "Orphan train" to help out with the farm work, neither Nathaniel nor his mother is happy about the situation. However, over time, the two boys learn to respect and even like each other and work together to help solve a local battle between farmers and ranchers.
Although this book is short, it is succinct and the characterizations are well-rounded. There are so many stories about orphans out there; this one is really different by telling the tale from the point of view of a child in the family where the orphan comes to live. It is a very moving story about both boys coming to terms with a great deal of loss in their own ways.

John Worth is an Orphan Train child, the sole survivor of the fire which killed his family. Nate Peale is a child of the prairie; his family struggles to homestead on the Nebraska plains. Neither boy has the ideal life; the question the book obviously asks is how will each find worth, value in the difficulties each has been handed. It is a deep study, this developing sense of worth, and the book handles it from the viewpoint of Nate, in a straightforward, no-nonsense, abrupt manner reflective of the rather harsh plains setting. I have met these people, having grown up in the High Plains myself, and the harsh view of life during the period is as real as the colorful country figures of speech. LaFaye creates country diction wonderfully and creates a great heroine in Mary Eve, Nate's mother, who at first refuses to love the orphan, John Worth out of a sense of loyalty to her own son and is, herself, an enterprising tinker. Gabriel, Nate's pa, struggles with his guilt over Nate's injury and faces down overwhelming odds to produce enough to keep his farm. One wishes that the issues of love, loyalty, women's roles were all explored more deeply rather than leaning on the fence-cutting dilemma and the long-lasting feud between ranchers and farmers to carry the story. But this is a children's book, and a good one. It is reminiscent of Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust which also reveals the endurance which High Plains life demands. For an outdoor drama featuring the rancher-farmer feud, see Texas, a play in Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas. The Peale's could be featured as strong farmers in that musical.

A compilation of various students:



I really liked the book. It is kind of sad in the beginning. I loved this book...it got sadder and sadder but it had a very good ending. The book is `actiony', funny and it makes you want to read it over and over. Worth is the most dramatic action filled, dark gory story I ever read. It lost my 5th star because it has blood and pain, there is a lot of drama. If you don't like blood don't read this. I like the Greek myth stuff. The only thing I didn't like was it didn't have enough Greek myth stuff. My favorite character was Anemone.

The main character of the book Worth is named Nathaniel.
First, Nathaniel is a hard working boy especially when he brings the hay in to the barn. Second, he is boy that can take pain. A storm hit their farm and he was on a tractor thing and fell off and hurt his leg. Third, Nathaniel is one of those boys that are nice on the outside but sometimes mean on the inside. He doesn't like people that take away his dad. Fourth, Nathaniel is always helping his mom. He puts things that were broken back together that broke. Does that character relate to you?

The book Worth is about a poor farming family trying to survive in Nebraska. After Nate crushed his leg in a farming accident, he was unable to help out around the farm. His father went to the orphan train, which was a train that brought homeless children from the East to find new homes, to get a boy to help with the farm work that Nate could no longer do. The boy's name was John Worth. Nate's father's actions hurt his feelings because he felt like he was being replaced by John. He became very jealous of John. John grew up in New York City, so he was not used to farm work. His entire family died in a fire, so like Nate, he had his own problems to deal with. The story follows the relationship between the two boys. The ongoing battle between the ranchers and the farmers connect the two boys as they try to save the farms in the area.

In my opinion the book was not great because it was not a happy story. I didn't like the fact that there was a lot of talk of death in it. John was always talking about how his family died in a fire, and Nate was always talking about how his little sister, Missy, choked on some bread. I also didn't like the fact that the book didn't use proper English. It was written in an uneducated, rural Nebraska manner, so it was hard to read and understand at times. In one sentence Nate says "Didn't do me no good" when he was describing how he was trying to keep up with the pain he was feeling.

At the end, the book started getting better. Nate and John were stopping the fence cutters, who were people who cut fences to let the cattle out. They went to help Widow Kerensky, a customer of John's parents', by chasing away the fence cutters. Widow Kerensky pulled a gun on John thinking he was a fence cutter, but then took the gun away when she saw Nate because she knew him. I liked this part because it was filled with action and I felt like I was hiding in the grass there, watching them.


The book Worth was not one of my favorite books. I would not want to read the book again, but I would recommend it to anyone looking for a historical fiction book. Although I learned a lot about the hardships of living on a farm, it did not have enough action to hold my attention. All in all I didn't really like the book.

This is a story that fans of gritty, realistic teen fiction will respond to. As I read, I was reminded of Hopkins' "Impulse", as both books allow the reader to get inside the head of damaged characters; the character of Dr. B. recalls Robin William's therapist in the movie "Good Will Hunting." America is at once familiar and unique, a boy so damaged he is dangerous to himself and others.

With clearly marked flashbacks and realistic language, the book is perfect for readers who struggle with more sophisticated novels. As other reviewers have mentioned, the language and subject matter of the book would earn it an 'R' rating in the film world. Still, for mature readers, this is a rewarding window into the way children are broken and - if they are fortunate - heal.

America is explicate. America is raw. America is not a book for young children. But America is a book you should read.
America is in therapy and is suicidal. He is part white, part black, part who-knows-what. Through his therapy sessions we learn that he and his brother are children of a crack addicted mother who left them alone at the ages of 3 or 4 for days on end and with abusive, evil, drug addicted men when she did come home.
When America is thrust into the foster system he endures further abuse of the physical and sexual nature. He wonders if he is gay. He wonders if he is worthy to live. He wonders why he is alone.
This book WILL make you cry. But you should read it anyway.

The children in the world like America deserve for us to bear witness to their pain and do whatever we can to help end it.

i came across this book when my 10yr old son brought it home from the elementary library. there's extreme cussing on almost every page. explicit sex talk every now and again. i do think the story was good or i wouldn't of started reading it. but in my opinion, there is NO WAY this book is appropriate reading for children, or teens for that matter. and i think the only reason a lot of the good reviews from the kids like it because of all the cussin and sex talk. duh of course a kid is going to sit there and read something like that. a lot of kids hear this kind of stuff at home, school, or where ever. why let them sit down and read this kind of crap in a book. i can't even write down all the stuff i want to say about this book because i am too outraged to think that someone would actually write a book like this for young adults. there isn't that much sex and cussing in a lot of adult books. and for anyone to let their child read something like this book is just as upsetting. so unless you don't care about what your child is reading then i don't think this is a book you would ever want around.

What does it take to get to the point were life is better than death. This is the life of America, the son of a crake head mother and an unknown father. After year of treatment that no child should ever,suffer he ends up in a mental institute for teens. Now suicidal, his new therapist Dr. B. tries to unlock the life and memories in the abyss of America's mind. This is a great story for young adults, but isn't for the faint of heart.

I have read literally TONS of young adult fiction novels and I would have to say that this is my favorite along with When Kambia Elaine Flew In From Neptune by Lori Aurelia Williams and Ms. Frank's other book, Life Is Funny. I am fourteen years old currently but at the time I read this I was twelve almost thirteen and it has still resonated with me. I stayed up an entire night to read the book which was over two hundred pages but I couldn't stop. I felt a great desire to know what was happening next and I couldn't stop.
It is an incredibly well written book and has one of the most powerful plots I have EVER come across. It shows the crippling horror of abuse to an innocent child and his experiences growing old from a broken home. I would reccomend it to anyone age twelve and over who are tired of fluffy marshmallow plots of some of the books for teens today.

While the complexities of family life are explored in this book from the standpoint of a young girl, this book contains and conveys many misconceptions regarding adoption and families. Today, families that are created by adoption, convey this information to children early in life, and the validity of family is challenged by the pseudo-angst conveyed in this book. Reading the reviews, particularly, those written by youngsters, indicates that this misconception is indeed conveyed by this book; that adoptive families are not "true" or "real" families. Over 5 million adoptive families in the US currently exist, and unfortunately this book feeds into the oft-repeated stereotype that adoption is a secret often hidden, and that a family that includes adopted children are "less real". The book of today that would better mirror such families would be one where the teenager responds: "Yes, I'm adopted, and this family is MY family"
Regrettably publishers and authors alike still latch on to the "orphan" and "the shock of adoption" themes as prime targets for pulp preteen and teenage fiction themes.

My "reading"/book club class read this little novel by Angela Johnson and initially had a warm-cold kinda feeling for the book, but in continuing to read the letters back and forth between Marley and her Uncle Jack - questions begin to arise. Why was he so intent on writing to someone who didn't really know him? Why were Marley's parents taking care of him? When Marley begins babysitting, the students and I began to think that (predicting) something romantic might develop between her and Bobby, but no such thing occurs. The part of the story I wish they would develop was that of Marley's friend, but I suspect another novel for that as I was pleased to see that there's a new novel telling Bobby's story and how he ended up in Heaven.

I am member of SOUTHWOOD BOOK CLUB.
This book was discuss in Nov. 2004
This book was good and I will tell all of my friends to read this book.
DENNIS A 'WILDCAT '!

Heaven is a not good book don't read it unless u r forced to, like for school or something

Have you ever read a fiction book that made you wonder if it was really fiction? Have they ever seemed so real that it could be non-fiction? Well if you read Heaven by Angela Johnson than you will probably find out what I am talking about. This is a wonderful story of a young girl who discovers the truth after knowing so many lies. She had to learn that she can love her "family" even though she was not born into it and she can love her true father even though he left her with his brother when her real mother died. This book takes you on a journey of the pain some people go through and their triumphs.

My mother read this book when it was newly released. Some time after her death, 15 years later, I found it in her library, filled with notes in the margins. "How I wish I'd had this book when I was a young woman, trying to understand why I felt there was an empty spot in my heart. I had dear, loving adoptive parents, a wonderful husband and four great kids. What's wrong with me?" I now recommend this book, not only to adoptees, but most emphatically, to adoptive parents. It can help them help their adoptive children grow up to have a more solid understanding of their connection to their biological past, their history, their connection to the human contiuum, which has a beginning. It can also help them understand why their child yearns for this connection; it is not an indication of any parenting deficiency. It is as normal as the sun and the stars. My mother used to tell adoptive parents, "If your child is sharing with you that she wants to know her history, that is a tribute to you, for that says she trusts you enough to tell you what is in her heart." Simply magnificent book.

When I opened this book and began to read, I knew immediately this would reach me at my soul level. For anyone adopted, and especially for those growing up with no knowledge of his or her birth parents (as I was), this is an incredibly profound, moving, and healing book. It taps into thoughts and feelings that were never brought fully into consciousness. I keep this book on my shelf of "books that have deeply effected my life". I first read this when I was in my 50s. I give it away to others when I can and then buy another copy for my shelf. You won't want to put this down, and you'll want it to never end. Thank you Betty Jean Lifton!

As a recently reunited adoptee experiencing a broad range of emotions, I looked to this book to help aid in the healing process. I just did not like the writing style. In this book, Lifton describes the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a few as being universal. I was looking for validation of my feelings rather than more reasons to become angry and resentful - which is what happened with this book. The final straw for me was reading Lifton's words, "...adoption is abortion after birth." I quickly discovered this book was going to do nothing for me except make me angry and resentful toward others for my "place in life" rather than helping me work through my feelings about MYSELF.

If you are looking to get a grip on, and understand, your feelings, you should check out the book "Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self." This book doesn't put ideas in your head, but instead helps you work through the ones you already have, in an easy to read, comforting manner.

This book explains a broad range of feelings experienced by some adults and children who were adopted, and like the one other Betty Jean Lifton volume I've read on this subject, Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter this one has proved quite useful for me, as an adoptive mother.

One particularly useful chapter, which covers some of the negative behavioral manifestations of an adopted child who has not successfully processed his or her circumstances, coincides with some of the information in the Child Welfare League of America's excellent 1986 book, When Love Is Not Enough: How Mental Health Professionals Can Help Special Needs Adoptive Families.

There are also circumstances described under which the birth parents of adults who were adopted have refused to meet with them, or had died. These are disappointments that would naturally produce emotions indescribable to the vast majority of people, who were raised by their birth families. But they're important emotions for the adoptive family to understand, whether their children are still children, or whether their children are adults now searching for their biological origins. These examples may help some families deal with such disappointments in a constructive manner.

Searching for one's birth parents, Lifton writes, is "the adoptee's heroic attempt to bring together the split parts of the self. It is an authentic way of being born again...."

She also describes the search process as "the quest for the intrinsic self before it got twisted out of shape by secrecy and disavowal." And that secrecy and disavowal, in this age of international adoptions, may not be imposed so much by the birth parents as the child's nation of origin. But this search is also a "dark forest," and a "razor's edge," which the adoptive family must help their child negotiate, whether an adult or still a child. The potential for a negative outcome requires that they provide every possible support to their child, to blunt the hurts, and help them adjust.

There's also a chapter on adopted children who have been found by their birth parents, not having expected such a possibility.

In total, while the anecdotes here may encompass many negative feelings, they can help adoptive families and the adoptees themselves cope with a social and emotional situation that is still, despite a growing body of literature on the subject, much too poorly understood by the medical and psychology communities.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

I finally opened this book after many years on my shelf to help me in my quest to tell my adopted kids that I have made contact with their birthmother. What I read was a lot of anger, stories of unsuccessful reunions, and a feeling that an adopted child can never reach peace with either family. I refuse to believe that is true, but that is how the book comes across. Some points in the book are excellent, but the negative was just so prevelant.

I've found this book really useful for getting back in touch with my desires and becoming more connected with my husband. Our marriage has had its ups and downs, which they all do. I believe that making your relationship work takes work. This book can help you get there.

Many thanks to Dr. Laura Berman for this book...

Thank you for keeping the tone light on such a heavy subject. Until I began this program, my husband and I hadn't been intimate for nearly a year. Seeing the cover with that face I've seen everywhere is what made me realize that this doesn't have to be the case. And now that we're putting the program into practice and really following the suggestions I see that our love life can be wonderful!

Thank you for engaging my husband with your book, Dr. Berman. Thank you for helping us understand that we were foolish to live without each other's touch when we're right here every day!

Most of all, thank you for putting a time limit on this. So many things in our lives are ongoing and open-ended. Being able to mark a calendar with the end of our program is fantastic. Even more amazing are the results we've already experienced! (though that is a bit misleading, since I hope our renewed relationship connection will live on far beyond our ten weeks!)

Thank you for sharing your expertise with us in a way taht we can learn together - and in the privacy of our own home! We owe you so much Dr. Berman!!!!

So many things are covered in this book. It has something for everyone who is looking for a better sex life. There are literally dozens of new ideas and facts that you will walk away with, no matter what your situation is. I happen to be a single gal and have found the book to be really useful so far in understanding the "female brain." However I have also shared it with my best friends who are married/committed and they enjoy what they've learned too. Here are some highlights we've liked. (And PS-if you are looking for something fun to do with your girlfriends, this book and some vino are all you need for a great night. It's like a saucy book club.)

--Info about the body, specifically which hormones and other chemicals really matter. How your life and aging can screw them up.
--All about vibrators, "self-simulation" and other toys! Fantastic guide!
--Tips for loving your body more as it is, instead of trying to look like a model. Taking your partner's compliments more seriously, too.
--How to get what you want in bed without being critical of your partner. She talks a lot about how men and women are different in their needs and it's nobody's fault, you just have to find a way to work through it. Compromise!

It's a good book and what's more fun than reading about sex?

This book was not what I expected and certainly not what it was cracked up to be. Maybe when you're 25 and have all the ime in the world to be doing homework for your sex life, this kinda thing may help. In my situtation, there's multiple things, medical and other and I don't see this book as providing me with answers, directions, or solutions. I showed it to my doctor and he raised his eyebrows and gave me Susanne Summer's book.

This book surprised me. I got it for Valentine's Day from my boyfriend and we did all the homework. It really worked. He only had to read one page per chapter so he could stick wth. The Doctor knows her stuff!

This storyline reminded me so much of Beaches. I cried so much at the beginning. I love that a book is able to evolve emotions from a reader. It was also a visual of the main character learning from her past in order to have a better future for herself and her best friend's girl.

I loved this story. It was very touching and emotional and a great book to read on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

I bought this book as a filler and I couldn't be happier that I did. This book really hits some raw emotions of you have been burned by a friend or a loved one. I have just a few more chapters to go and I can't wait to finish it!

I loved this book. Was so good, I couldn't put it down. Was a little surprised and slightly disappointed by the ending but still overall was really good.

This book was all the books I enjoy reading rolled into one! I knew nothing about the author and only read the little on the back before buying it. I cried and laughed.I like how she put Tiga first, even on how Tiga felt about Luke and Nate. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends.

This book was so good just when you thought you had it figured something else happened. This book was what I call a page turner. It ws sooooooooooooooo hard to put down. YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

I read this book about 3 years ago and LOVED IT. I was trying to think of books I've read in the past, and this book is still in my top 5. I don't remember the details very much, but I remember that I finished the book in three days, and that says a lot about it because I'm not a very good reader. I couldn't put it down!
Ever since, I've been looking for a book like this one; it kept me interested and eager to know what was going to happen next.

I recommend this book for younger and older readers. I'm going to read it again, I'm sure. =)

Ok, maybe it's because I'm 16 and therefore older than the usual readers of this book, but I didn't really like it. The reason I read it is because after doing some digging in my family history, I found out that I'm Melungeon. That's also another reason I didn't like this book. If these people are supposed to be from Virginia or around the area...where are their accents? The only trace of correct dialect was when they called ginseng 'sang'. Maybe she had them speak such perfect English because the book is intended for a younger audience but it still bothered me. And maybe if she had invented another group of people for this story, I wouldn't have been so affected by the idea that Melungeons are these 'magical' people in a completely different world. Which they aren't. They, or I should say 'we', are just normal human beings with an interesting past. So, anyway, if you're 10 years old, not from Virginia, and NOT Melungeon, then I'm sure you'll enjoy this book. As for me, it was a waste of time.

I read the book, Sang Spell by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The book was pretty good and is one of the best books I ever read. Sang Spell is about two-hundred pages long and has seventeen chapters. The book is about a boy named Josh Vardy who is hitchhiking to Dallas, Texas from Boston, Massachusetts. He is hitchhiking because his Mom was killed in a car accident and he is not living with his Dad. He is going to Dallas so he can live with his Aunt. He was supposed to take a hike in the Appalachian Mountains with one of his friends then go to Dallas. Instead, the hike was cancelled and he decided to hitchhike there so he would have something to talk about when he arrived at his new school. Josh was hitchhiking and a man beat him up when he didn't pay him for the ride. After he got beat up, the guy stole his four hundred dollars and his shoes which were worth more than one hundred dollars. Josh still had the plane ticket to go to Dallas and some money he had in his front pocket. Josh had asked to go with a woman in a horse and buggy and she took him to Canara. Later, he found out when he was beaten up that his rib were broken. He has learned the town's customs and traditions. He worked for his food by doing chores and made friends with members of the village. He wanted to go home and tried leaving but he couldn't leave find a way out. Read this excellent book and find out what happens to Josh and see if he makes it to Dallas.

I read the book, Sang Spell by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The book was pretty good and is one of the best books I ever read. I liked the book because it is a book that takes place in a different world, Canara and it is about a boy my age. Sang Spell is about two-hundred pages long and has seventeen chapters. The book is about a boy named Josh Vardy who is hitchhiking to Dallas, Texas from Boston, Massachusetts. He is hitchhiking because his Mom was killed in a car accident and he is not living with his Dad. He is going to Dallas so he can live with his Aunt. He was supposed to take a hike in the Appalachian Mountains with one of his friends then go to Dallas. Instead, the hike was cancelled and he decided to hitchhike there so he would have something to talk about when he arrived at his new school. Josh was hitchhiking and a man beat him up when he didn't pay him for the ride. After he got beat up, the guy stole his four hundred dollars and his shoes, which were worth more than one hundred dollars. Josh still had the plane ticket to go to Dallas and some money he had in his front pocket. Josh had asked to go with a woman in a horse and buggy and she took him to Canara. Later, he found out when he was beaten up that his rib were broken. He has learned the town's customs and traditions. He worked for his food by doing chores and made friends with members of the village. Kaspar is trapped in Canara along with Josh and has many conflicts with Josh and even threatens to kill Josh if he doesn't help Kaspar get out of Canara. Josh wanted to go home and tried leaving but he couldn't find a way out. Read this excellent book and find out what happens to Josh and see if he makes it to Dallas. My favorite character was Josh because he went through lot of trouble and had a lot of action and conflicts with Kaspar.

David Ball has written some excellent historical page-turners - "Ironfire" and "Empires of Sand" are two undiscovered gems. With "China Run," Ball explores the corruption of a beautiful land and people by the Chinese government.

Ball wisely uses a modern crisis - China's abandonment of children - to make his exploration of China comprehensible to Western eyes. This is a foreign culture, and Ball vividly conveys the discombobulating gaps between East and West by placing some Americans on the run. These Americans are in China to adopt children - a common enough story. What makes their story different is that the callous Chinese government, for reasons unknown, decides to take back the "wrong children" after the Americans have grown attached to them. Four desperate Americans grab their adopted infants and attempt to flee to sanity.

What transpires is a riveting manhunt as the Americans, aided and abetted by a wide assortment of Chinese characters (and I mean characters - these are not stick-figures created merely to serve a plot point), try to save their children. The American embassy is of no help. American contacts have no influence inside China. So the Americans are forced to rely on the kindness and greed of strangers, and in so doing they meet several fascinating Chinese, from saints to sinners, heroes and villains.

Ball writes with his usual skill - he evokes the Chinese landscape with the same skill as he brought to the Sahara in "Empires of Sand." He also does not skimp on the violence - there is a pretty high body count in this novel, so be prepared to lose some favorite characters along the way.

What makes the story most compelling is that Ball condemns the current Chinese government, but he does not take it out on the Chinese people as a whole. Ball, without getting heavy-handed, reminds us that the Chinese people are not a monolithic group single-mindedly following the Cult of Mao, but are a fascinating group of individuals trapped by their government. This is a melancholy story, but with human triumph.

All in all, an enjoyable, solid read. Ball did not set out to write an epic, but he nevertheless created a heck of a tale.

Keep in mind when reading this book that it is a work of fiction. I was lucky enough to secure a copy of this book on tape. I couldn't stop listening! Always being extremely interested in anything Asian, I was thrilled with the descriptions of the villages, the fishermen, the Yangtse, the country doctor, the villages in the mountains shrouded in fog and rain and the temple. I heard so much Chinese spoken, it just rang wonderfully in my ears. The characters are believeable, you care and fall in love with them. When Ruth Pollard lost her "Wee Duck" I had to pull over and stop tape to cry. I love the new relationship that forms between Allison and Tyler, I have one chapter to go and wanted to review the book while it was still fresh in my mind. I only hope the ending is as exciting as the book has been.

I have to say I couldn't stop reading this book till I was done. I know many families with Chinese adopted children have told me it isn't really like this. They say they have a great time in China and I never heard of any complications. This book could scare people from adopting the children in China, I do believe that. I am not convinced that the fleeing scene through China happened but I think there is a lot of truth to the book. I also think it is important to remember it is a NOVEL and don't get too carried away disecting it as a political work. I am a mother who's Asian children came to me through international adoption. I don't want this book to scare anyone out of international adoption. But I do highly reccomend the book. I have it right up with my all time favorites. It often comes up in discussions with people who love to read!!!

This fictional book is suppose to be based upon elements of a true story. I too have a daughter from China which I love dearly and would move the moon and stars to keep her safe and among our family. I would hope to be every bit as strong as the fictional Mom - Allison Turk.

If you are in the midst of adoption, please do not let this book stop you, it is a work of fiction and a suspenseful read at that. Another reader reviewed this book and said that the author makes those of us who adopt from Peoples' Republic of China look desperate... I cannot disagree more.

I have never been to China, or adopted a child. I just enjoy good fiction, written well, with a smooth rythm of story progression, and characters I love and care about. Add a thriller aspect that leaves the reader turning the pages as fast as they can, and you have a great book.

I won't make this a political statement. It is just one man's version of a possibility. If anything, it will make the believers cautious, perhaps ask a few more questions, and that can't hurt.

Allison Turk has come to China to adopt a baby, and because of an unknown glitch the officials have requested she turn the baby over to officials, and a new baby will be forthcoming. Allison who has bonded with the child decides to take matters into her own hands, along with her 9 year old step-son Tyler, she makes a run for it. Her journey is nothing short of remarkarkable.

The story culminates in moments as montrous as the imagination could devise. Just what is going on with the unwanted children in China? Is there any truth in it? I don't know, but the story caught me up in it's momentum from start to finish...Kelsana