Discussion date: January 9, 2006

What we thought:
This was a perfect choice for the holiday season, when everyone is so busy and is grateful for a quick, fairly light read. Everyone enjoyed the book, although some people rated it lower because it had no pretensions of literature. But if you took the book strictly on its own terms, it was a lot of fun, and the mother was such a wonderful person that you had to admire her. Her story could have been a depressing one, but because of her irrepressible optimism and perserverance, she was a living dramatization of the statement "God helps those who help themselves." Of the 9 people present, 5 rated the book 4 stars, and the others mostly 3.

Web site for the book