Books I Want To Talk About discussion

No spoilers in this thread, please!!

I didnt care for the book.
The story idea was great, but I got so tired of reading paragraphs and paragraphs about how the wind was blowing, or the light was shining, etc etc.
Take out all the unecessary descriptions, and I probably would have enjoyed it.

Rose Ann - I have to agree with you. This was not my favorite book to read.

But the premise was interesting. In my live book club, I was probably the only woman who actually had any sympathy for David.

It did require me to force myself to get through it.

I don't know about you guys, but I found myself frustrated a lot of the time. I still loved it, because I thought it was a great story, but I definitely found it frustrating.

What, specifically, were you frustrated by, Allison?

Well this is a no spoilers thread, but I was frustrated because the reader knew something that (at least, I felt) would have made everything better in the family if everyone knew. Obviously, it takes the whole plotline away, but I still just wanted to yell out the secret anyway, because it made some lives miserable.

Allison - I had the same problem. Well, maybe not problem, but I couldn't help thinking "if ONLY they would just talk to each other!" But I think that's the "reality" of relationships, espcially those from the 50s/60s. People don't share what they're thinking and so they let their misunderstandings and misinterpretations grow and grow until it's too late to really fix things.

I totally agree. I see that in real life all the time, and I know that especially then, what happened is not totally out of the realm of possibility, but at the times I wasn't frustrated, I was sad.

That's how I used to feel when I would watch All My Children (don't mock me, it was always on in the break room when I would go to lunch and after a while you get sucked in). If people would just communicate with each other, life would be a lot easier for them! Heh.

Come to think of it, parts of this book definitely seemed like a soap opera.

I don't watch soap operas for this reason exactly!

You know what's funny? I use that exact same reason as a constant reminder to help me in my real life relationships. I know this sound stupid, but I think about that scene where the guy is on the outside and the girl is on the inside and all it takes is one of them to open the door and tell the other their true feelings. And if they had, they could have avoided all that terrible drama (which makes soaps so successful and makes divorce rates so high in this country). So I try to tell myself, "you can avoid the drama, if you just open your mouth."

I don't think that's stupid, I think it's really mature and strong of you to say and do! Obviously there are plenty of people who don't do just that, whether they're afraid or whatever the reason may be, and then that lives with them and some end up regretting it or living miserably because of it. That's probably why characters like these and soaps and stuff are so popular, people can identify with them.

I enjoyed the book and the more I think about it the more I realise that the premise was not well laid out, but I did find that I was able to understand each participant in the "drama" as an idividual and that the author was really able to portray each person infividually.

I do agree with Rose Ann there was too much discription, and this is a struggle for me (also why I never read Stepen King unless he is on the menu for a monthly group read).... I don't CARE how the condensation is sliding down the side of the can of coke or how hot the weather is, get me to the next part of the plot! PLEASE! -sigh-

I did find myself torn with this book though, I loathe Sue Monk Kidd as an author and yet love Jodi Picoult and I found both their reveiws starkly miss leading.

I thought it was an okay book, and was surprised to see that it ranked so high. It does make one think about with all the technology we have today and you were to find out you were to have a child with Down's Syndrome would you go ahead and have the child?

I do think the book has a good way of showing how secrets can destroy a family. David was a decent person but he was never honest about his past.