How many different ways can you say wonderful!!! 10 ++++ Wanna trade for it?? Let me know!!

Spoken for by a fellow book crosser.

Release planned for Monday, April 7, 2003 at Given to a fellow bookcrosser in Portland, Oregon USA.

Released to savannahblue as part of a bookray. The order is as follows:
1. savannahblue (to be mailed 4/7/03)
2. AnitaNovel
3. spark
4. Katharine
5. ellymae58
6. SCOUT-FINCH
7. junegoon6
8. curtis721
9. InAPerfectBind
10. jkate
11. tho (Portgual)
12. Ladybug01
13. Flashgirl
14. amymehta
15. digitaltempest
Please PM the next person on the list when you are finished to get mailing instructions.

Just rec'd by post from busybusybee - thank you! I've been wanting to read this one - I'll get started very soon so it can continue on its way!

Will be traveling next to AnitaNovel.

I didn't want this book to end - it's a wonderful book that transports you to a different time and place. And a nice surprise to be reading about the Black Madonna during Easter week!

Sending on to AnitaNovel, next in the book ray.

Released on Thursday, April 24, 2003 at US mail, to fellow bookcrosser in Lake Oswego, Oregon USA.

Aaaah. . .I don't want to let this one go, but go it must! On to AnitaNovel, next in line in the bookray! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Received on 5/5/03 from BCer savannahblue! From the posts this looks like the sort of book that you plan a weekend around! Can't wait.

I thought I would plan a weekend around the book, but instead stayed up all night to finish it in one sitting. This book is just charming--how the author managed to center the story on aching racial inequalities and child abuse and still have this book leave a reader with an uplifted feeling and a smile is a marvel. This book will be placed in the mail to the next person on the book ray list as soon as I get the address (sharing the joy as fast as I can!).

On May 19, 2003 this book was mailed to spark.

I realize I am striking a dissonant chord here as the previous readers of this book liked it a great deal. I liked it not at all. I felt the whole way through that Sue Monk Kidd was actually not writing a novel, but a story line for a movie, and a one dimensional overblown movie at that. The main character annoyed me from the very beginning...I did not hear the voice of a 14 year old in this character. I felt she was being written from afar, the way someone fantasizes a "feisty" 14 year old to be. I didn't believe her as a real person for a minute. The melodrama was totaly predictable (and not a little lifted in spirit from Member of the Wedding!) I knew what the end was going to be a mile away. I could almost see the film script. I didn't believe a word of this story and it left me cranky! It was a contrivance from beginning to end and full of cliche characters, from noble saintly black women who seem to rise above every personal tragedy to assist our white heroine, to the stock racist bitter white father who is totaly a one note character and unredeemable. The character whose life had far more pathos and tragedy is given a subservient role in the book to our 14 year old, not only in her "job", but in the sketchiness of her potrayal by the author. Compared to what is put on the plate of these black characters, Lily's problems seem sad, but far from tragic. She is a smart, white girl after all in a society that rewards white people. Without giving the plot line away, I will just say I found the whole story to be absurd -- a whole pandora's box of melodrama happens in the space of a month and a half in a place where "time moves slowly", as our heroine says in the beginning of the book. I felt it was even too much for the author who seems rushed in the end to tie all these crazy ends together somehow -- and, of course, does so in a very pat unbelievable way. I am sending it on to Katharine now who I hope will enjoy it more than I did. I am grateful to have been included in the bookring and thank Savanahblue for sending the book my way.

Ah! Now I understand the importance of making a journal entry! I got this book today, and I had no idea it was coming! Everytime I looked at the list, the last entry was still by spark.
And of course, this arrived along with one other bookray title! (The madness begins.) Well, there goes all my planned weekend reading. :) I'll try to get this finished over the weekend and get it mailed on ASAP.

Okay, I've finished the other two bookray titles that arrived...and now I can start on this one. Will journal again once I'm done!

Hmmm...I'm kinda on the fence with this one. It was better than I expected, but less than what I hoped for. The book didn't really 'start' for me until Lily and Rosaleen arrived at the house of the calendar sisters, but even after that some parts dragged for me. To me, Lily came across a lot younger than 14 years, and as spark said, the ending was really predictable.
I'm glad I read this, though. Overall, the story was enjoyable, for the most part. Thank you for sharing, busybusybee. :)

Mailed to SCOUT-FINCH on 8/2.

I can't WAIT to read this..am just finishing up Eva Moves the Furniture for a bookray, but dipped into this and am already in love by the 2nd page.."a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent" is a fabulous description and my interest is definitely piqued!
9/1 I have hogged this book for way too long..I apologize but family emergencies have just held me up and distracted me..I have not even finished it but I cannot in good conscience hang on to it..will PM the next BCer and get it off after the holiday weekend..
I really loved it at first, but I'm just not in the mood for anything heavier than a cereal box..hopefully will be able to pick it up at a less stressful time in my life..

Hey Ho! This book just arrived in the mail. This is my first catch from a bookring. I'm so jazzed.

I've already read this book and really loved it. I asked to be put on the bookring so that my daughter can read it. I hope that's not cheating or anything, but I'm not ready to let her totally loose on the internet yet. She's reading the Hiding Place (ten Boom) right now, but this will go next on her TBR list. I'll make sure it goes on to JuneGoon6 asap.

Just finished 'The Hiding Place' and starting 'The Secret Life of Bees.' So far so good!

I loved it! I couldn't believe how awesome that book was. I probably could have finished it in a day if it were for all this homework. I'll send it off to the next person asap!

Just arrived in today's mail! Looking forward to reading it, but I have two other rays/rings in line in front of it, so I'll finish those as quickly as I can and move on to this one!

Thanks so much for sharing, busybusybee! :-)

I really enjoyed this book. It has some interesting perspectives on race and bigotry. At one point, Lily says something about acknowledging that she has a little bit of bigotry in her because she thinks August can be smart but not as smart as she is. When I was in my early 20s, I went to a five-week seminar at Howard University (in Washington, D.C.). I grew up in western Pennsylvania, where people of color were definitely in the minority, and I wondered if I would feel uncomfortable surrounded by blacks. I was grateful to discover that I did not, but because of that experience, I admired Lily for admitting what she did. It seemed like once she discovered it, she was able to change it.

Also has some interesting perspectives on family. I'm in the minority here, it seems -- it didn’t end the way I expected it to. I really expected

SPOILER her to go back to her father, who missed her desperately when she ran away and wanted her back. But she stayed with August, which was a better ending, and more realistic considering his character, I thought.
END SPOILER

Thanks to the readers who had the courage to say they didn't like the book! I had heard so many good things about it, so when I read your negative reviews -- yes, I "cheated" and read what you said before I read the book -- it gave me "permission" to make up my own mind about it. You were respectful of others' opinions but still honest about your own, which is how it should be, and it was interesting to read dissenting opinions after I'd finished it myself. Thank you!

Please allow me to apologize to everyone participating in this ring/ray, especially to busybusybee and all those who follow me on the list. It was never my intention to hold on to the book for this long. There was no malice in the delay; I just got very, very busy. I won’t bore you with the details, but for the last nine months or so, it’s been hard enough to find time to read, much less create thoughtful journal entries and get books in the mail. So, again, I apologize.

Thanks, busybusybee, for offering this book! I really enjoyed having the chance to read it. It is now on its way to jkate via USPS routing number 0302 1790 0003 0118 7026.

Got it today-thanks!

I finally read this one. I liked it-not in love with it. But I'll send it to Tho ASAP.