We Are All Welcome Here

We Are All Welcome Here
By: Elizabeth Berg
Read by: Elizabeth Berg
5 discs (approx 6 hours of listening)

It is the summer of 1964.  In Tupelo, Mississippi, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently.  But in Paige Dunn's small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns.  Challenged by the effect of polio, Paige is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in the way she sees fit-with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie.

As a fourteen-year-old, Diana wants to make money for clothes and magazines, to slough of the authority of her mother and Peacie, to figure out the puzzle tha tis boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her small town.  What she can never escape, however, is the her life is markedly different from others.  Nor can she escape her ongoing responsibility to assist in caring for her mother.  Paige Dunn is attractive, charming, intelligent, and lively, but her needs are great-and relentless.

As the summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home.  Each of the women will find her own path to independence, understanding, and peace. And Diana's mother, so mightily compromised, will end up giving her daughter an extraordinary gift few parents could match. 

Personal Notes:  I absolutely loved this book!!  This book was inspired by a fan letter to the author who wanted her story written althought this book has been fictionalized.  This book is an emotional rollercoaster that deals with the hardships of the racial issues that were going on during the 60's,  raising a teenage daughter, finding love, good friendships, poverty, and living with a huge handicap.  I couldnt put this book down...good short read.  Also love it when authors read their own books as is done with this book.

The Art of Mending

The Art of Mending
Author: Elizabeth Berg
read by: Joyce Bean
6 discs (6 hours of listening)

It begins with the sudden revelation of astonishing secrets-secrets that have shaped the personalities and fates of three siblings, and now threaten to tear them apart.  In renowned authoer Elizabeth Berg's moving new novel, unearthed truths force one seemingly ordinary family to reexamine their disparate lives and to ask themselves: Is it too late to mend the hurts of the past?

Laura Bartone anticipates her annual family reunion in Minnesota with a mixture of excitement and wariness.  Yet this year's gathering will prove to be much more trying than either she or her siblings imagined.  As soon as she arrives, Laura realizes that something is not right with her sister.  Forever wrapped up in events of long ago, Caroline is the family's restless black sheep.  When aroline confronts Laura and thier brother, Steve, with devatating allegations about their mother, the three have a difficult time reconciling their varying experiences in the same house.  But a sudden misfortune will lead them all to face the past, their own culpability, and their common need for love and forgiveness.

Personal Notes:
This is a good book that deals with a girl who's mother abused her-with that being said it is said to see the affects it had on her years later.  Its a good story to see how someone can confront their issues to get past them.  I enjoy Elizabeth Berg's novels but this book had a sad feel to it the whole book whereas In Elizabeth Berg's book "Open House" it was a divorce situation but it was more calming and uplifting as the woman got thru the turmoil of the divorce.

Open House

Open House
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Read by: Becky Baker
6 disc (approx 7 hours)

In this superb novel by the New York Times bestselling author of "Talk Before Sleep", a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart. 

Samantha Morrow's husband has left her, and now she must strive to reconstruct a life for herself and her 11-year-old son.  Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixher her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money.  To meet her mortgage paments, Sam decides to take in boarders.  A new friend suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work.  But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness.  And in order to know who she is, she has to remember -and reclaim-the person she used to be, long before  she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage.  Open House is the unforgettable story of how a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening her house to strangers and her heart to the simple miracle of possibility.

Personal notes:  I absolutely loved this book! I was not real familiar with the author but saw on the jacket that it is in Oprah's Book Club so gave it a try and so glad I did! While the plot sounds sort of depressing it is truly inspirational as this woman who feels the rug has been pulled out beneath her manages to keep suprising herself with what she is able to do on her own; she had never tried because she had never had to.  Its funny at times, sad at times,  but when listening you keep wanting to root her on.  The narrator of this book is great as well.