As a recent birthmother participating in an open adoption I ordered this story to read to my birthdaughter. Although parts of the story explain the adoption process quite well, I didn't like the allusion to the fact that the Mulberry Bird gave her baby up because of her own incompetence in caring for it. The only reference given to the birthfather was that "he had flown off before the baby was born". I don't like the idea of teaching adopted children that their birthfathers take off and their birthmothers are incompetent.

This book was also extemely wordy and appropriate for older children only.

This book is intended for older children who have begun asking why their birthmothers could not care for them. It provides a nice jumping off point for an important talk.

There are deficiencies, true enough. But no single adoption book can explain every situation to every child. Expecting that is expecting too much. After all, every adopted child came to his family differently. Other titles that one might consider to help an adopted child include Fred Rogers' Let's Talk About Adoption, Roslyn Banish's A Forever Family and Did My First Mommy Love Me. The last was written by an actual birthmother for her child.

Older children might also enjoy parts of Touched by Adoption, which includes 75 poets and writers who were themselves either birthparents, adopted or adoptive parents.

Whatever titles one uses, it is important to let an adopted child know that the family nest in which he landed was built to last forever. This book gets that message across. Alyssa A. Lappen

We just recently adopted a sibling group of three boys ages 5,4,2. They are so young and had a hard time understanding why they were put up for adoption. This book has helped them to understand that their birth mom did this out of love. What a wonderful story to share with any adopted child!!!!! My oldest son wants me to read this book to him EVERYDAY!

This is a sumptous book showing Roger Saul's fabrics and designs. The designs are grouped into themes such as seaside home and country estate and demonstrate beautiful fabrics and designs suitable to the setting. A great coffee table book and a must for the Anglophile and anyone who loves fabric and design.

I picked this book up with very high expectations. I ordered the Harcover edition of this book because I thought for sure it was going to be a prized gem in my library. WRONG!!! This has to be the most BORING book I've read in my entire life and I am not one to criticize, but it was just poorly written. She said the same things over and over again such as "You know children don't take after strangers", which was cute at first but quickly turned into a nuisance.I was so bored I almost put this book on the shelf without finishing it and I always finish books. I finished the book to see if it was going to get any better. WRONG AGAIN! If I had known it was this bad I would have saved my money and used it towards something better. If you just have to read it, please borrow it from someone or check it out from the libary!!

This is the first novel by Tina McElroy Ansa that I've read and, I suspect--judging from the reviews in the press--that it's not by any means her best. It's hard to compare "You Know Better" to anything else I've read: its technique and style are original (and occasionally brilliant), but the substance of the novel is a bit shallow and, in the end, excessively preachy. The book was good enough, however, to make me want to read another of Ansa's novels.

"You Know Better" relates a day in the life of Lily Paine Pines, her daughter Sandra, and her granddaughter LaShawndra--three women in the Georgia town of Mulberry whose lives are thrown into disarray after LaShawndra commits an unspecified crime. (Ansa tries to lend an aura of mystery and suspense as to the nature of the crime, but the secret, when it is revealed, is a bit of a let-down.) Each woman is visited by a different "ghost of Mulberry past"--three recently departed denizens who resemble the women who are still living and who want to help this troubled family experience the successes and avoid the mistakes they made during their own lives. None of the Pines women realize, however, that their traveling companions are dead.

I nearly gave up on this book after the first 80 pages (although I'm glad I didn't). The author divides the novel into three nearly equal parts, with each woman narrating one section. Although Ansa is extraordinarily adept at distinguishing between the three voices (from the patient schoolmarmish tone of the elder Pines woman to the hip-hop banter of the granddaughter), the grandmother tends to speak in annoying cliches ("third time's the charm," "bless her little heart," "pretty as a picture," "not a pretty picture") and groan-worthy truisms that never deserved to see the light of print ... Yes, it's the way my Texan grandmother speaks as well, but reading 100 pages of it is a bit painful.

The novel gets much better, though. One of the book's accomplishments is the author's ability to keep things interesting even though everything takes place in cars, as the three women are driving around Georgia talking to their ghost companions and reflecting on their family problems. Naturally, the three still-living women make much of the differences between them, but Ansa delights in making obvious how similar they are. And it's that similarity that, in the end, brings them to their salvation.

I decided to purchase this book one day after I went to a booksigning to hear Tina McElroy Ansa and to decide if
I wanted to read this book. I was so impressed with her speaking and
her description of the book and the point she was trying to make
with this book, I could not help but buy it. I am glad I did.
This is this author's fouth novel, and my first time reading any of
her works.

In the town of Mulberry, GA, Lily Paines Pines is up in the wee
hours in the morning searching for her wayward granddaugter,
LaShawndra. Along for the ride is Miss Moses. Miss Moses does not
say much, but she is there to help Lily think through her thoughts
on her ex-husband, daughter and granddaughter. Lily Pines also
ponders on how she was able to balance a teen pregancy, marriage and
career and why her daughter could not do the same and where did they
go wrong with LaShawndra.

Sandra is also riding around Mulberry, kind of looking for her
coochie daughter, as she is taking Nurse Bloom around town to look
at property. Sandra is telling Nurse Bloom about how she can not
control that coochie, about her feelings of abandonment by her
baby's daddy, her love and relationship with her father, her
accomplishments, possession and her relationship with the minister.
Sandra, of the ME generation gets several reality checks from Nurse
Bloom during their journey.

LaShawndra, is a self proclaimed "ho" and is proud of the title.
She is self-centered and knows she is a disappointment to her

grandmother and mother. She has one goal in life and that is to
dance in a music video. LaShawndra is hitching a ride out of
Mulberry as she has messed up again and is not going to stick around
to face the consequences. She is picked up by Ms Liza Jane Dyer.
During their slow moving ride out of Mulberry to the Freaknik in
Atlanta, LaShawndra tells Ms Liza Jane of her ambitions, and her
relationships with the women in the family. One things that she
does that just gets on Ms Liza Jane nerves is the constant degatory
remarks LaShawndra makes about herself. Ms Liza Jane tries to
reinforce to LaShawndra she can be all she wants to be and that she
needs to face the music back in Mulberry instead of running away all
the time. What LaShawndra did not realize was that in their own
subtle, non-confrontational way, her mother and grandmother were
saying the same things to her that Ms Liza did, except it was not

sugar-coated but direct, so LaShawndra could hear it better.

I liked how in this novel, it shows three generations of women and
how they dealt with life, children and responsibility. I also liked
how each ghost represented the consciousness of each woman and help
them to see their strengths and weaknesses.

This is a good, highly recommended novel. For me, I am going to
check out the rest of Ms Ansa's work, especially The Hand I Fan
With, as I have heard so many good things about this one.

Jeanette Wallington
APOOO bookclub

I've read almost all of Jude Deveraux's books, but this is one book not worth putting up in the shelf.
It started out as a promising book. Bailey, the widow of a billionare, was willed a runned down farm house and a mere 50 grand. Their lawyer satrted to help her. Then a guy named Matt was introduced in the plot. Less than a year of her beloved husband James' death, she's falling in love again. And in the midst of it all she has to solve a mystery about her fromer husband's life. Something to do about the golden six. She also has to avoid getting killed, when Ms. Deveraux killed characters from left to right. The ending was also not as good, it was kinda abrupt and rushed.
I'm really very disappointed. I believe she should just stick to writing romance novaels. What's up with authors now a days? Most romance authors are trying to write romance-mystery books. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE HER BOOKS and will definetly recommend, except this isn't one of the good ones. Hope her other books would be more promising someday.

This was very untypical of Jude Devereaux work. I have been a major fan of hers for years and always anxiously await the new books..which are always fun, romantic and interesting in several different ways. However, while interesting and a bit mind boggling as it kept changing directions was almost totally different from her usual work.

Her main character was her type of different female, but no one else in the book really fit her previous profiles, and neither did the plot. It was almost as if she had outlined the story and someone, or several someones filled in the missing pieces. Lots of things made absolutely no sense and happened completely out of context. It was difficult to follow without a scorecard and the resolution came too fast and without a "saving grace".

I do hope that she has not sunk to phoning in her stories, she is too good for that. I did read the preview of the next book and it has a man as the storyteller....also a different avenue for her. Maybe she is just trying some new and different ideas.

If you have never read Jude Devereaux, do not count this one as typical.....go back to her older works and enjoy!!

I think Jude Deveraux should add a supliment to this book---all the little tidbit recipes she threw in; even if she does scorn the idea of one more cookbook on the market! I enjoyed this book--it was a departure from her old romancey stuff---I have been reading her books since I was a teen---I thought she was so old! :)
And I hadn't picked up anything of hers for a long time--unlike the rest of the world, I didn't care for "A Knight in Shining Armor." Anyways, the story is about a fat and ugly rich woman, who, like in previous novels of hers, is made beautiful by her circumstances. In this one, a diet and a nose job. Ahem. She gets left a "charming" farmhouse and a perfect ten acres by her billionaire husband, who dies under mysterious circumstances. This book reads like somebodies dream come true. Like a fantasy played out in printed pages. So fat lady billionaire is welcomed to the small town and on and on (in VA) and gets to solve a mystery of her husbands past. Its pretty interesting. Everything held together well, even if it is....well, its good to me. The ending seemed a little rushed, and some parts aren't pieced together well, but all in all, a good story. Don't expect any romantic stuff to be the focus of the story---its all about the Golden Six and starting your own jelly business. Oh yeah and I thought it was very...interesting how our main character grabbed her "canning" past when she grew up in suburbia but then later Kentucky----all in the middle of the book. Nice editing job.
But truly, an entertaining weekend read. C'mon, don't expect anything more!