Things I Want My Daughters to Know

Early Reviewers--I found this book a bit too light and breathless for my taste. I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it and it is an easy read so should appeal to a wide audience. It is mostly a story about women but don't look for any startling or interesting challenges. These women are defined solely by their relationship with their mother and the man in their life. They are neither intelligent nor ambitious nor hard working, unlike most women I know. Events occur, secrets are revealed, some very interesting, but the resolution is always tied up with a bow when the reader (at least me) is looking for something more. The letter to Amanda telling her about her real father simply didn't ring true. Only a cruel mother would have left such a show more letter and the obvious explanation an effort to hurt the child who neglected her mother when dying. It creates a genuine mystery but these young women are not up to any challenges. Amanda finds a man and falls into his arms. There are good stories here but like her characters the author needs to work a little harder. show less

I absolutely loved this book. Having lost my own mother, I relate to the pain, to the regrets, the longing. The book also opened up different perspectives for me (I understood better how my father must've felt when my mother passed on), and I loved the relationship between the four sisters. Being an only child, I'm envious of that.

The book made me think of my mom again, but in a better way, with memories of happier times. Though the story centers around death, it is far from depressing and I had some good laughs through the tears.

This is one of those novels where there are no sweeping plot lines, but there is so much emotion and character that you feel like you know these people in real life. I loved the way that this family was so real but also there was so much love and genuineness. And that the growth that occurs as this family mourns the loss of their mother is so suffused with love. And I loved the British phrases and ways of saying things - fun for me though I'm sure totally normal for those living in Britain.

Not a book I would have read on my own - or one I would have finished, were it not an Early Reviewers book (from long ago...). There's a heavy focus on marriage being the path to happiness, for both men and women - and children in marriage, for most of them. There's also a heck of a lot of angst, some of which seemed overdone to me. Still, it's a rich story, with a lot of people pushing through places where they were stuck and moving on to new (or back to old, but improved) stability. It was complicated to follow - multiple POVs, not (as far as I recall) including Barbara's (the mother), aside from the letters. The timeline was rather twisted up, too - something would happen, there would be reactions, then the next scene would be show more something after the event but before the reactions (in one case, it was how one daughter happened to be at the family home at the time to react). Overall, I'm glad I read it but I don't expect to reread, or to seek out more by this author. show less

I felt that the book was, at least to some extent, wrapped up a little too easily into a nice, happy ending. I did, however, enjoy it very much.

Elizabeth Noble really expresses the idea that we as children have about our mothers: they are our mothers, and that is it. Then she shatters that illusion (as most of us have experienced) by making the mother into a "real person" who has a life beyond what we imagine.

I'm not sure that I'm expressing myself very clearly, but that's about the best I can do. I did really enjoy the book, although I would have liked a slightly less "easy" ending.

I read this a while back and did a reread last year, when I got this in greek for my mother to read.
Four sisters lose their mother (this is not a spoiler the novel starts with that). Every girl is different and their relationship with their mother was unique. It got emotional when with the opening of the will, the girls get letters from their deceased mother. They contain things she never got the chance to tell them. Through the letters we get the required exposition about the family.

Grab this one for a light reading with a touch of drama but expect a predicted plot.

P.S: After I finished this I went to hug my mom and told her how much I love her...

I like Elizabeth Noble's books, and "Things I Want My Daughters to Know " did not disappoint. The four daughtes, whose own lives have taken very different directions, are captured through the events unfoding at their dying mother's bedside, and through letters their mother has written to each daughter.

Noble intertwines the characters' individual story lines seamlessly, as each struggles with their mother's death.