Rating: 
Summary: valuable insights for families of alcoholics
Review: Her memory is impressive. The physical stamina and spiritual strength she posesses are awesome. One of the most valuable parts of this book is the documentation of life with an alcoholic and the toll it takes on the individual family members. This book , especially the middle chapters, could become a tool in the recovery process. Her straightforward, unpretentious, guileless style legitimizes the credibility.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book, because on one hand you can learn some neat stuff about the way things were in the early part of the XX century. On the other hand, this book would have greatly improved if an editor had removed the extra weight included in the story. I can see this being a very fascinating memoir for her family members, but once you take this to the general public, the array of names and places and the personal messages to all grandchildren at the end of the book become too much. Nonetheless, it was interesting to read about the trials and tribulations of this woman, married at 20 to an alcoholic. Why she continued having children (eight in total) after she discovered her husband was a drunk i'd never be able to comprehend. She tries to explain how she felt during those years, and at times she is successful and at times she cuts her thoughts short and does not go any further with her analyses. It's a pity because she does have some engaging, albeit sometimes bland, perspective on issues like alcohol, politics, the military, war, family, sex, etc. Don't expect big depths on this book, which by the way is a very easy and fast read.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book, because on one hand you can learn some neat stuff about the way things were in the early part of the XX century. On the other hand, this book would have greatly improved if an editor had removed the extra weight included in the story. I can see this being a very fascinating memoir for her family members, but once you take this to the general public, the array of names and places and the personal messages to all grandchildren at the end of the book become too much. Nonetheless, it was interesting to read about the trials and tribulations of this woman, married at 20 to an alcoholic. Why she continued having children (eight in total) after she discovered her husband was a drunk i'd never be able to comprehend. She tries to explain how she felt during those years, and at times she is successful and at times she cuts her thoughts short and does not go any further with her analyses. It's a pity because she does have some engaging, albeit sometimes bland, perspective on issues like alcohol, politics, the military, war, family, sex, etc. Don't expect big depths on this book, which by the way is a very easy and fast read.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful account of Jessie's life in Kansas. I loved it!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I'm from Kansas and she talked about areas that I'm familiar with. I felt she did a very good job telling her story about the hell she went through with her alcoholic husband while raising her many children virtually by herself. I would like the opportunity to meet this wonderful woman.
Rating:
Summary: A very warm friendly book, like listening to my grandmother.
Review: I was very touched by this book. The open, honest way it is written makes it a personal favorite. Reading Ms. Foveaux's memories was like listening to my own grandmother and her friends talking, as they did so many years ago. This book brings you closer to your family and reminds you what wisdom there is in our older generation.
Rating:
Summary: A very warm friendly book, like listening to my grandmother.
Review: I was very touched by this book. The open, honest way it is written makes it a personal favorite. Reading Ms. Foveaux's memories was like listening to my own grandmother and her friends talking, as they did so many years ago. This book brings you closer to your family and reminds you what wisdom there is in our older generation.
Rating:
Summary: An easy to read memoir of life as the century turned.
Review: Jessie Foveaux's spritely style makes for easy reading in this memoir of a little girl's life in the small town midwest just after the turn of the century. This courageous, articulate woman stitched together words in a literary quilt of family, friends and vistas. Any Given Day covers an era from country isolation to computer connections. With skill like she possesses with her tatting shuttle, Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux weaves an intricate, unforgettable lace stretching from times past through WWII. She dreams of becoming a teacher, a missionary. The man she loves dies a victim of the First World War. She "settles" for the handsome, persistent suitor who becomes the domineering father of her eight children. When life with him becomes unbearable, she does the unthinkable and divorces him. She rears her children and perseveres to win not only the community's respect, but her own self esteem. Some of the final chapters were so personal, addressed to her descendants, that I first thought th
Rating:
Summary: This book depicts the strength of a 20th century woman.
Review: Jessie Lee has, in the simplest of prose, given us a glimpse into the life of an "average" woman. Her life is not filled with exotic trips or dinners with Presidents, but with the struggles of everyday life. Her rocky marriage to an alcoholic will give inspiration to many young women of today. Her memory is incredible and details abound of a life that began at the beginning of this century...this is an interesting book to read as this century comes to an end.
Rating:
Summary: This book depicts the strength of a 20th century woman.
Review: Jessie Lee has, in the simplest of prose, given us a glimpse into the life of an "average" woman. Her life is not filled with exotic trips or dinners with Presidents, but with the struggles of everyday life. Her rocky marriage to an alcoholic will give inspiration to many young women of today. Her memory is incredible and details abound of a life that began at the beginning of this century...this is an interesting book to read as this century comes to an end.
Rating:
Summary: A rare treasure of memories that span all of this century-
Review: Jessie Lee's incredible memory and stoically poingnant style take us all back in time, beginning with her childhood which was poor in material possessions but rich in love. Through her eyes, we see not only her family history but the history of a burgeoning nation unfold. She meets life's difficulties head on, from the untimely death of her mother to a difficult marriage and single parenthood. Her words do not plead for sympathy, just straightforwardly relate her amazing life and times. This is a must read for scholars of the 20th century and for those with a bent for human interest stories. Jessie Lee's voice is one of the precious few left from her generation.
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