Rating: 
Summary: delicate humor
Review: I really enjoyed reading this off beat story of a young woman who finds a place in the hearts of those around her and in turn finds a place for herself. It's a good hearted story full of tasteful humor that will keep you reading on and on. I finished this one in four hours! Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Cute book
Review: This is a heart warming story. I bought it because it was on the OPrah list at the time and the movie was coming out but I really enjoyed it. There are great characters and a lot of humor. Enjoy then go see the movie.
Rating:
Summary: I Needed To Read This Book
Review: I work all day long out on the Web. Result: I can rarely finish a book, so accustomed am I to click, click, clicking my way through reading material. And what I read is news and business. This book was a breath of fresh air.Haven't you ever wondered how you would fare if your life suddenly became that of a homeless person? Where would you live (hide???)? Where would you sleep? How would you hope to get back on your feet? What if you suddenly found yourself in a strange place with strange faces and a child on the way? What would happen if you got caught? Would anybody help you? Would anybody care -- truly care? This book is filled with people who could be people you might have once known yourself but may have forgotten. Forget criticisms of "one-dimensional" characters -- these are simple people but not one-dimensional by a long shot. They are crazy, loving, sometimes violent, often weak, not always rocket scientists. And I can tell you that if you ever find yourself surrounded by a group of people like this, you should be extremely thankful (with some notable exceptions). These people are genuine. It's hard to remember sometimes what genuine sentiment and emotion are like, our culture discourages that. This story is set in the Midwest, a place I love for its wonderful, welcoming people, so these characters ring true for me. Much of it could have been played out in rural areas OR cities all across this country, including my own snobby Boston/New England. But the raw goodness of these characters is something I have never seen so openly shared as I know from personal experience that it is in the Midwest. This book makes me want to move back to Missouri. Is it Shakespeare? No. (Anyway he was a poet, don't forget.) Will this book be included in many college-level English literature courses? Doubtful, though maybe it should. But nevermind that. I am in the closing pages of this book and already I miss it.
Rating: 
Summary: Lifeless
Review: The only reason I finished reading this book was because it was an easy read and I knew it would only cost me another hour or so. It was a lifeless book, with kooky characters thrown in to make it interesting, but one never gets a good sense of who they are and everything stays very much on the surface and extremely predictable. It was a serious disapointment, even for a book that I had expected to be fluffy.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing story
Review: This was a fascinating book to read. A young girl trapped in a WalMart finds a home with the local town people. Story of love, betrayal and family. Plot is easy to follow with minimal amount of characters. It is also an easy book to read. I could not put it down wanting to find out whats going to happen to Novalee after she had the baby in the WalMart department store.
Rating:
Summary: Where the Heart Is Interptretation
Review: Have you ever lived in your neighborhood Wal-Mart? This is the exact scenario that a pregnant seventeen-year-old Novalee Nation is forced to adapt to in Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts. This realistic fiction novel is about the true meaning of family.
Novalee Nation is a superstitious teenager with ambitious hopes and dreams of one day living in California with her boyfriend, the very one who abandons her in a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. She feels that she has never really had a home or a stable family, seeing as she has hopped from one foster home to the next, living in trailer after trailer. However, she eventually learns that home is where your family of friends is.
Sequoyah, Oklahoma is a setting full of wonderful people. By finding herself in such a tightly knit community with a new group of neighbors, she forms a circle of dear friends. Sister Husband, Moses Whitecotton, Lexie and her children, Benny Goodluck, and Forney support Novalee and her child Americus through difficult times.
The plot of this book is set around the conflict that seven months Novalee Nation faces: being stranded, broke, hopeless, pregnant, and alone in Sequoyah Oklahoma's Wal-Mart. Even so, through the kindness of others, she climbs out of this bottomless pit to become successful and confident.
The theme of Where the Heart Is (what family is all about) and the way that Billie Letts expresses this theme to me, the reader, really held me enrapt in this book. The book was filled with the dramatic trials and tribulations that I devoured in the five days it took me to read it. Anyone who is looking for a little drama or enlightenment should read Where the Heart Is. It was a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful True to Life Story
Review: What is so great about this book is it really could happen. We are deeply concerned about our l7 year-old pregnant soon-to-be mom. From the moment of her abandoment in Wal-Mart we are carried along by her meeting with new and wonderfully caring folks, just like the ones we know in our home town. Heartwarming story of courage, perseverance and redemption! Great read for all.
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Three
Rating:
Summary: What a life!
Review: I read this book because it was the only book I found at the school's rummage sale! I really enjoyed it.. it is a very tragic story but with a happy ending! It made me laugh, it made me cry .. and sometimes totally shocked.. The language is direct and sensitive ..the style is poetic .. I could draw a picture in my mind of all the characters, the library, the garden... you feel like you are with them watching as they move around you .. trying their best to beat all the odds.. A beautiful journey of strength .. self-confidence and determination.. what the love and support of friends can do.. miracles!!
Rating:
Summary: A heart-warming page-turner!
Review: A gripping tale of Novalee Nation who makes something out of nothing. She builds a life out of friends and love in a story that is inspiring and entangles your emotions among several lovable characters. A must-read!
Rating:
Summary: Novalee's Journey
Review: Novalee Nation finally thought she was having some good luck. She was leaving her small, trailer-park town in Tennessee and moving to California with the father of her soon-to-be child. Her choices come back to haunt her when she finds herself stranded in a Wal-Mart in Oklahoma virtually penniless but able to survive using all the resources that Wal-Mart has to offer. She finds herself an unwilling celebrity after secretly birthing her child within the walls of the store with the help of the local librarian. Sam Walton himself offers her a job. With the job comes a place in this warm community of people that show her the way to herself.
Novalee Nation is a likable heroine. Even though this is not your typical adventure story I think that the journey that Novalee takes through her own life and the education she receives make her heroic. She learns to raise a child well, even though her mother was not a role model. She educates herself with Forney's help, improving her situation. She finds a vocation that also becomes her passion. As a character Novalee is open to almost all the possibilities that come her way. This is also her downfall. Sometimes the choices that she makes within the novel, the first boyfriend, her first fling, and her disruption of Forney's feelings make the reader wonder if she has any regard for herself at all. The self-esteem issues that she has are eventually conquered, bringing the happy ending that all readers crave.
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