Rating: 
Summary: As good as the first - Too bad this is the last!!!
Review: I loved this book just as much as I loved Blackbird. I'm only sorry that Jennifer's story stops here and the only way we can read more of her memoirs is if she writes them 30-40 years from now after she's lived an even fuller life!!!! Perhaps Jennifer can write a novel now based on her life or the people she has met along her travels. One of the things I liked about both books was that they read like novels. Several times while reading, you could easily get lost in characters and story lines and think that this story was a fascinating novel - but then you remind yourself that it's not fiction - just a story of a fascinating life!!!! Congratulations Jennifer - you are a brave, young soul who has lived enough to last three liftimes - Perhaps that what you did - you are living life not just for yourself, but for your mother, father & brother too. I deeply admire you and hope you continue to write - I'm sure it has been healing just as much reading it has made me realize how little we need today to feel fulfilled and loved. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a fascinating read - whether it be fiction or nonfiction. As I said before, it's not a typical memoir, if you don't normally read biographies or memoirs, you can easily pretend this is a novel and you will enjoy it that much more!!
Rating:
Summary: a survivor's story
Review: I picked up this book because I have read Jennifer Lauck's first book, Blackbird--a book made me cry. I started reading this book three days ago and I finished this morning. I found myself that once I started reading it, I cannot put it down. It is such a great book! After I read this book, I feel very sorry for the author, Jennifer Lauck. I am sorry for her uneasy childhood and the experience she had when she grown up. For me, it is an "American modern version" of Cinderalla's story. Unfortunately it is not just a story, it is a true life story. I also admire Jennifer's courage--the courage to make her life to public. I just wonder if her adopted family read this book what will they think and feel about it? Will they feel shame or guilty to put a young girl in such a terrible situation? Or they feel it is a "makeup" storybook? Or they simply denied as they did when Jennifer asked them why they mistreated her when she first came to live with them. I guess they probably just keep silent. There is one thing I do want to point out about this book. As a reader, I would like to have this book be published with Jennifer's first book, Blackbird rather than it is published as a separated publication, even though the book might be turned out a very "thick" book. And I like the title Blackbird better still Water.
Rating:
Summary: Best Wishes to Jennifer!!
Review: I read "Blackbird" last year and have been anxiously awaiting this sequel. Just like "Blackbird", it is possible to read this entire book in one sitting (well almost) because I started it less than twelve hours ago and just finished it. What a great read!! ...
Rating: 
Summary: No Closure
Review: I read Blackbird, the first book by Jennifer Lauck, and I loved it. It was such a powerful story, written through the eyes of Jennifer as a child. It was heartbreaking, and I couldn't wait to read the sequel, which I bought as soon as I could. I almost didn't want to continue after the first chapter, I didn't think I could take anymore of what this child had to endure, but I perservered, and I'm glad I did, it was a wonderful book. Jennifer Lauck found love and peace, and I'm happy that she did. The only problem I had with the book is that I am left with so much anger towards the other people in Jennifer's family, and she doesn't seem to be. I think it is very normal for children who have lost parents to feel anger or a sense of abandonment, and after all that Jennifer went through, I think she must have. Perhaps she didn't, and that was what helped her cope, having the image of her loving parents somewhere inside her. But where is the rage against Deb, who's lie caused the separation of Jenny and Bryan which wreaked so much havoc in their lives? I think a large part of the book was about family secrets and the lack of honesty from the aunts, uncles, grandparents and parents and how it affected the lives of Jenny and Bryan. Did Jennifer feel this rage or anger toward these people? She doesn't tell us. What were their reactions to the first book? I feel like I know much of the story, but not enough for my own sense of closure.
Rating:
Summary: Gives real meaning to the word hope...
Review: I usually never read sequels, even in biographies. They never seem to measure up to the first book. But this is definitely not the case in "Still Waters". Jennifer Lauck picks up right where she left off in "Blackbird". From there, she and her brother are kept apart and sent from family member to family member. Mostly following her heart, Jennifer grows up and slowly gets passed her childhood. With a life story left unfinished in "Blackbird", Lauck once again has opened her heart and her history to share her story. What once left us in heartbreak now teaches us that following your heart and working through life, anyone can survive. If you read "Blackbird", you will not want to miss "Still Waters".
Rating:
Summary: What an Improvement!
Review: I was just reminded that I should write this review to be fair. I had written a critical review of Jennifer Lauck's _Blackbird_ because many incidents she wrote about seemed unbelievable to me. But _Still Waters_ was a pleasure. I'm happy now that she ended _Blackbird_ the way she did, like the beginning of a story rather than the end. It made me pick up _Still Waters_.
Rating: 
Summary: From Good to Tedious
Review: I'd rate Blackbird with five stars and was anxious to read this sequel. It was wonderful how she picked up the story exactly where she left off in the last one. The first half of the book was absorbing, storywise. However, Ms. Lauck could trim numerous, endless details from her writing to keep the story tight and moving along. She gets into a car, she closes the door, the car starts, she looks at her hand on the seat, she looks out the window... Hit the accelerator, so to speak! I found myself skimming the last 50 or so pages, just wanting to see the final pieces put in place, bored by the minutely detailed descriptions of each and every place and person she visits. And here's a nitpick: every few pages, she or someone else is "rolling their lips together." Not only do I not know what that means, it seems to be the main expression for people throughout the book.
Rating:
Summary: Too much emphasis on the next man
Review: I, too, noticed MANY typos, though missed the grammatical error of "me". I also wondered about Kimmy, her aunt and uncle's daughter. As an adult child of a mentally and chronically physically ill mother, and a father whom I never knew, I can see where Jennifer became "grasping" for love. When the unconditional love of someone who REALLY wants you as their child, even if adopted, is missing early on, one will continue to look upon people as shelter, refuge, and not as three-D human beings who also matter. This behavior is of course not conscious. There is also the constant desire to run away. Add someone as mean-spirited as Dick(interesting name!) and I wonder how she ever opened her heart to men. As with many books, as much as I love the romance and the possibility of each new relationship, I want so much to find a heroine who does it alone: the self-discovery, the peace-making with the world and her past, so that she can approach others, male and female, as a whole being, out of a need for companionship, sharing and above all, trust. It seemed like the relationships hooked together like one of those toys where the little squares are strung together and click-clack in either direction. She hurt and got hurt intensely while never seeming to allow time to lend insight about what happened. Jennifer did do a lot of exploration via therapy and her meetings with the new-age guy, and I was pleased to see that, but there was always the mention of Steve and his disappearance during that solo year. And why did she have to wait until Steve and the new baby were parked safely at home before she felt free to explore her brother's death? Also, I don't know why she didn't try to find her birth mother? There is a lot more I could say about the Catholic references, about the effects on a child of early abandonment, the sexual approaches of her cousin's boyfriend(remember?), Jennifer's relative promiscuity, sexual independence, her desperate grasping for love yet her projection of stay away, stinging nettle attitude. I also read the book in pretty much one sitting.
Rating: 
Summary: a woeful slant
Review: In this second volume, Jennifer Lauck picks up her sad and unusual life story when at the age of 12 she journeys alone on the bus to Reno where her grandfather meets her. We now find her as a miserably unsure girl on the brink of adolescence. Searching for love yet unable to trust anyone, questioning the motives of others, she soon spells trouble for the adolescent males in her life. A pretty, emotionally needy girl, she uses boys and lets them use her. She embarks upon a disastrous early marriage. Predictably, none of these relationships produce happiness. Lauck slants everything her way, without recognizing the legitimate stories and motives and needs of other people. She also fails to realize that the teen years are not smooth sailing for anyone, as she compares her conflicted relationships with those of her friends, and envies them their intact and strong families. Readers who have raised adolescents will see through much of the bias of her descriptions of the aunt and uncle who adopted her, as well as her slanted descriptions of other family members. "We did the best we could," they try to tell her, but she has no ears to hear, and feels neglected and betrayed.
The suicide at age 23 of her brother, even though he has been distant from her for years, sends her further into a downward spiral. She enters therapy and then sets on a quest to investigate what happened to him, ignoring her grandparents who gently told her, "You are looking for someone to blame." She goes down various paths in her search but seems to ignore the family history as her mother may have been mentally unstable, and there may be some genetic predisposition which affected her brother. She dismisses this as some kind of hatred from her father's family toward her mother, instead of giving it any credence.
Readers will wish Jennifer Lauck well and will be happy for her in her marriage and in her son, but a sophisticated reader will look with dismay at her book, which often verges on the self-preoccupation of the narcissist. Yes, there are reasons for this, but one hopes that all of us grow up at last, and hopes for her that she will stop making ogres of people, and will turn a clear eye on her own behavior, some of which is manipulative. There are some spelling errors in the book which got by the copy readers, and also Lauck has the annoying habit of using "me" as a subject pronoun; "Grandma and me were watching tv". Since this occurs throughout the book, apparently it is a conscious decision. To this reader, it is a telling one. Lauck insists on writing HER way, as she insists on presenting HER story without considering the viewpoints of others.
Rating:
Summary: Wow what a wonderful book
Review: Jennifer is such a wonderful talented writer. I just loved reading both of her books. I too am sad that this is her last book I was hoping she would write more..
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