This is a book about life and relationships. A mother dies, and through the letters she wrote to her four daughters we learn about her and their lives. Honestly, I found this a difficult book to read. My mother died unexpectedly four years ago. It was hard to read the book without thinking about my mom and how much I miss her. ( )

Unlike some of Noble's other books, I had trouble getting through Things I Want My Daughters to Know. Still the heart of the book, the relationships between the mother and daughters made the book worth reading. If you've been through a similar situation - a parent coping with illness, then the story is easy to relate to and understand. ( )

Although the place names and some of the words used in dialogue (”mobile,” “cashpoint,” “pushchair,” and “lift” come to mind) set this novel in the UK, the story could take place in any modern nation.

This is a story about the relationships among Barbara’s four daughters; between each of them and their step-father, Mark; and between each of them and another man (husband, lover, boyfriend).

Aside from personal letters that she addressed to each of her daughters, Barbara has kept a journal since she was diagnosed with cancer. The journal entries are interspersed among the contemporary storyline, which takes place after Barbara’s death. Through the epistolary devices of the letters and journal, we also learn about the relationships between Barbara and each of her daughters.

Although the main storyline is well-written, and has its share of character and plot development, I felt it almost predictable: each daughter had one central conflict and resolution.

I found the journal entries to be the parts of the book that most captured my attention. In one entry Barbara describes her most important role, plain and simple. In another, she shows wisdom and a wonderful sentiment from a mother to her daughters.

Full review at www.sheIsTooFondOfBooks.com
She is Too Fond of Books ( )

After a couple of power outages (insert snicker here) I finally managed to finish Things I Want My Daughters To Know by Elizabeth Noble. Barbara, who is dying of cancer decides to write letters to each of her daughters. These letters are shared with them after her death along with one of her journals. As you can imagine, these letters tell of her love for them, what she hopes they achieve in life and also a secret that she had been carrying with her for quite some time.

First off, there are many daughters to speak of. I was a bit distracted by the number of daughters. There are four of them. Jennifer is married to Stephen and it not happy with her marriage. She is uptight and prissy. Lisa is a bit more fluid. She is dating Andy, a really nice guy and she's not sure where the relationship is going or if she even wants one with him. Amanda is the "wild child". Always moving, always off to another country. I really liked Amanda. She meets Ed and we get to see a softer side to her. Hannah is the baby of the family at sixteen years of age and she is the product of Barbara's second marriage to Mark. I don't feel that Hannah's character really came through for me. She seemed very one dimensional and flat. However, I adored Mark, Barbara's second husband. He seemed almost too good to be true but a great guy to have in the family.

My main problem with this book is that I really did not like Barbara. I didn't hate her, but I didn't like her. Her letters were a bit on the shallow side and her decision to share her secret in that way... I did not approve of it. I "get" that parents can be flawed. I'm a parent and I am in no way perfect. Not even close, but the letters were not affectionate to me. Not really. They sort of made me feel as if Barbara was a bit of a coward. Writing letters about stuff that probably should have been shared in person.

At the end, I was left wondering whose story this was. I felt that Noble tried to give the characters equal time but in doing so, I never got to hear any one character's voice to its fullest. I also felt the end was a bit rushed. As if tying up all the loose ends was an issue. I really would have liked to have heard this story through Mark's voice. He was truly the anchor in all of this.

As for a book club pick, I could see this being discussed by a book club. There are lots of issues to debate and question and the development of some of the sisters was quite good and I wanted to know more about them. ( )

I had trouble getting into this story. It had so many different "main" characters that I didn't feel a real connection with any of them. The book switches point of view among the 4 daughters and the husband. (Unless you count all the letters and diary entries from the mom—that would make 6 points of view.) Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if you had a little more time to spend with each character before being switched to the next one, but the switches were too frequent for me to settle into a character.

The story itself is fine, but what's a story without a character you can settle into?

I also had a hard time reading some of the dialogue. Sometimes there wouldn't be a paragraph break between text describing the actions of one character and the speech of another character. So I'd misunderstand and think the first character was the one saying it until I got further in the conversation and realized that I was off by a character. Also, when more than two people were talking, the dialogue wasn't always attributed so I had absolutely no idea who was saying what.

All in all, not a horrible book but also nothing to write home about. ( )