Letter to My Daughter is a very short novel at only 160 pages. The length and the conversational tone of the letter make it a very fast read despite the very emotional content. Laura's letter to her daughter, Liz, is filled with the powerful emotion of a mother worrying for her daughter as well as the emotions she felt as a teenager. The book was less about the relationship between mother and daughter as it was the experience of being a daughter and being a mother. We never actually meet Liz, only seeing her through her mother's eyes, and we never meet Laura's mother but see her through the eyes of her daughter. Laura is both the author and the central character as this is her story.

Letter to My Daughter is honest, straightforward, and filled with the pain and confusion of being a teenager. Laura fully reveals herself to her daughter in this letter yet, for this book, whether Liz actually reads the letter and gains a deeper understanding of her mother is irrelevant. It is enough that Laura finally told her story. ( )

When do mothers share with their daughters the seminal events of young adulthood that shaped their lives? That made them reconsider the world and those around them? For Laura, it was writing a letter while waiting for word about runaway daughter, Liz.

This is a poignant story of love, hurt, and hope. How easily those feelings and fears of high school can come back! Yes, dear daughter, I remember. And, I survived.

If you want to talk with your daughter, or want to talk with your mom, this might be the book to leave out on the lamp table. Hopefully no one person's story is quite so chock-full, but it might help open the space to begin the conversation. ( )

When fifteen year old Liz runs away from home, her mother, Laura, sits down and writes a letter to her. This is Laura’s way of coping with the worry and explaining some things to Liz. In the letter, Laura tells Liz how much she loves her, how she’d hoped to have a better relationship with her daughter, and about her own life as a teenager.

George Bishop does a remarkable job writing Letter to My Daughter from a female point of view. He does such a remarkable job evoking emotion that I felt that I was sitting at the table with Laura while she was struggling with pain and doubt and pouring her heart out.

Liz’s mother was few years older than me, but I can still remember what it was like when she writes of her youth - a time when our country was struggling with prejudices and the Vietnam War divided us.

I love the unique way this story is told and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a fast, but emotional, read and I found myself engrossed in it. I shed quite a few tears while reading Letter to My Daughter, so be prepared with tissues when you read it. This book made me think too, because I found myself relating to Laura both as a mother and as a daughter. ( )

Thank you to Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read and review the Advance Reader's Edition of Letter to My Daughter by George Bishop. I read this book in just one reading and found myself transported to my own teen years. The scenarios painted by Mr. Bishop were amazingly on target and interestingly intuitive as this was a female story from start to finish.

The book is one very long letter from a distraught mother to her fifteen year old daughter. The two had a fight which ended with the mother slapping the daughter and the daughter leaving the house without telling her parents where she was going or when she was coming back. Haven't we all been there on one level or another? The mother then waits for her daughter to come home and writes her a letter telling her about her own adolescence.

The letter takes the reader back to the late 1960s and the VietNam war. And the angst of being in love for the first time. Beyond the basic story, the author leads the reader to think about the war and the effects on young men who were there. In addition, I thought about the legacy we leave our children, in spite of our best efforts not to repeat mistakes of our parents.

This was a very short book, but I tore through it - needing to hear the entire history of the mother as well as the fate of the daughter. This is a fascinating debut novel and I look forward to more from Mr. Bishop. ( )

I won an advanced copy on Firstsreads, and I wasn't expecting much. The book was awfully thin, and the cover, title, and premise seemed a little frilly at first. I, however, was pleasantly surprised.
This was a quick read I completed in a couple of hours. The story, once I started, drew me in. I am still shocked that such a touching little novel was written by a man. It was pretty accurate in its depictions of a mother-daughter relationship, and it made me wonder about my own mother's mysterious tattoo.....anyway, my only wish was that it was longer. The writing was good and the story was realistic, but I'm still wanting more. That perhaps is a good thing.
Nothing earth-shattering but if you are looking for a quick, feel-good read, I recommmend Letter to My Daughter. ( )