Rating: 
Summary: LOVE THIS BOOK!!
Review: I have recommended this book to several friends. I simply found it enchanting and have re-read it again and again!
Rating: 
Summary: Dark
Review: At the end Ruth describes herself and her mother as "Ugly, mean and down on their luck". Her description of herself in these terms, as she emerges from a cataclysmic series of events, is true to her character, in that it reflects her life-long habit of underestimating her own potential, human beauty, and intrinsic worth. Ruth's story is only uncommon due to how far life has carried her and her family into ruin. Hers is the story of those, who by the circumstances of birth including both poverty and ignorance, are doomed to unfulfilled lives of limited horizons and near hopeless desperation.Ms. Hamilton reveals Ruth's life and quest for truth and hope with a journeyman's skill. If, on occasion, you like a dark story you will probably enjoy this book. A better bet, however, would be Tawni O'Dell's "Back Roads".
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and Haunting story
Review: I have only 2 criteria for what I think to be needs when I rate a book. 1- An interesting or very great plot 2- Written very well. For me this book had both, more of the second, and just enough of the first. Ruth is hard to figure out sometimes, she wants to be wild, seems to be low class, but in her own way has a touch of refinement. While living with her mother, who prefers her brother, feelings of doubt and self hate are present. As we follow her journey we read what is so beautifully written, at times I wanted to underline passages for later reference. I was smitten with Jane Hamilton's writing style, almost poetic at moments. You will watch Ruth grow, fall in love with a strange, perverted man, and eventually become a mother herself. One word of caution, a gruesome and shocking ending will grip you. For me, I literally had to set the book down for a while just to breathe. You will not forget this ending or book. For the next few weeks I looked at my family in a different light of appreciation. As you turn the last page you will find Ruth in a bizzare way living out a childhood dream mentioned earlier in the book. I can't wait to read the latest by JAne Hamilton. If you have enjoyed her writing, or if you like to savor beautifully writtten words and can stomach a tough and bloody ending, this book can not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: "The Book of Ruth" is in one word, Brilliant.
The characters are goereously written and thought out. So layered that Hamilton must have known them personally, even though she didn't want to!.... they are the sort of characters that nobody really wants to meet, much less know... But we get to meet them, live with them, get information on their phychological backgrounds, hate them, love them, even accept them with their monstrous dysfuncton.... Ruth says, "What it begins with, I know finally, is the kernal of meanness in people's hearts." This is the first sentence of the book and reveals plenty about what lurks inside. This book is about surviving inspite of your environment...it's about about being draped in dysfunction and uncovering yourself (slowly)...it's about finding happiness when your home is filled with hatred.....it's about light flowing from the darkness, it's about how one person can change your universe..... to find a way out. "The Book of Ruth" is a pressure cooker....waiting to blow.... I would strongly suggest that you be there when it does. And cover your face, it will get very hot!
Rating: 
Summary: an unforgettable story with unbelieveable graphic violence
Review: There's an awful lot to like in this well-crafted tale of a young woman surviving a life of poverty, abuse, and general dysfunction, but this book should come with a warning across the cover about the sickeningly graphic violence it contains. Though the story is first-rate, the violence is lovingly described and as repellent as any of the action sequences in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and other slasher flick fare.
Rating:
Summary: A kernel, not a boulder
Review: Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I was a little disappointed with the ending. It didn't seem to me that it was ever established that Ruby could be SO crazy/evil. Sure, he obviously had some loose wires, but to be crazy/evil to that extent, I just couldn't buy into it. I know that the Hamilton began Ruth's story discussing the "kernel of meanness" inside people, but it just didn't seem to me that Ruby's kernel could have grown into such a huge boulder.
Rating:
Summary: A book which i can return to
Review: I have read and re-read this book so many times, it is silly. Jane Hamilton allows us into such a world of happiness, grief, torment, fulfillment, simple joy and tragic circumstances that to read this book only once is like to take only a small bite of an exquisite meal. Can you not catch a whiff of the rich earth when Ruth does? Do you not see Ruby's teeth glinting in the moonlight! Can't you hear May barking orders and hacking her cough? I first read Jane Hamilton with Map of The World, which is an excellent book also, but I find this one richer. It reminds me in a strange way, of another book which I have read and re-read, This Much I Know is True by Wally Lamb. Totally different story, but the ability of the author to awaken all your senses is amazing
Rating: 
Summary: My, that was unpleasant
Review: As I read the book I kept seeing hints of the writer's brillance. There were some truly poetic sentances here and there. Unfortuanately, whatever message she was trying to get across was a little too obscure and at the end I was left saying, "my that was unpleasent".
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and difficult to read, but well worth the effort.
Review: "I looked up truth the other day also. The word has a lot to do with seeing clearly, and with things that are honest and beautiful. Perhaps I should change my name to Ruth Truth. The combination of pity and compassion with honesty and beauty would be a real knockout. People might not see me come into a room but they'd feel like there was something unusual in the air -- I have a lot of fantasy dreams, I guess, because I'm by myself so much. I'm not bored too often, though. I have my entire life to think about. I have the ghosts to order away from my room. Ruth Truth. It has a nice ring to it. -Jane Hamilton
Ruth's memories, as she ruminates about her life, looking back and recounting in a sea of awkward words. She begins with May, her mother, who had no bed of roses herself. She then details her own life with her intellectually gifted brother, and then her subsequent marriage and family life in central Illinois. The book jacket describes this as a human comedy -- but those words would certainly not be chosen to describe this chronicle. Written more in the style of a nonfiction memoir, this book details a woman's choices, and the lack of them; a woman's family with its blessings and banes; a woman's existence in a small town environment where she feels at the same time enchained and empowered by choice. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: huh?
Review: this book was really boring untill the shocking unexpected ending that didn't really fit with the story. I think the author was desperately looking for a way to end this book.
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