Rating: 
Summary: Great book - I couldn't put it down
Review: This book is such an interesting picture of a family. Very well written and moving.
Rating: 
Summary: Lackluster
Review: This book wasn't bad; but it wasn't good either. It straddled the fence for me. There were parts of the book that had you wanting to read more, but there were other parts that I had to drudge through. I'm indifferent to this book. I didn't love nor hate it.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read.
Review: This book's best quality is quite simply the story. Many authors are too frightened of seeming theatrical to have anything *happen* in their books, but Shapiro puts in just the right, believable amount of disaster. The characters are not always likeable, but they are consistently interesting.I have only read a few reviews of this book that are negative...and in each case the reviewer doesn't seem to get the plot of the book, which makes me wonder if they read the whole thing. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY RIVETING
Review: This was by far, one of the best books I have read in the past 2 years- it is such a thriller and written in such a great, literary (but never boring), tense, and emotional manner.
Please buy- I loved this book and hope to find many more like it!
Rating:
Summary: A 1 DAY BOOK
Review: This was the first book I read by Dani Shapiro. I normally like Danielle Steele, Nora Roberts, Jude Deveraux, Sandra Brown. This is a book EVERYONE should read. I love the way Dania Shapiro writes, I didn't skip one word. Everyone thinks thier problems are so bad, or they feel they are alone.....Then you read this book and you would gladly take your problems back. I plan on reading another Dani Shapiro book ASAP.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading Experience!
Review: This was truly a book I could not put down! I was rapt with attention on every page. I could have read another 500 pages about this family. Dani Shapiro has a gift for making you feel like you are listening to a friend tell her story to you. I was rooting for all of the characters and really cared about them. This is definitely one of the best books I have read. Do not hesitate to purchase this book, just make sure you have an open schedule when you start reading it, you will not want to stop!
Rating:
Summary: Subtle, Powerful, Real
Review: Too much fiction today consists of overblown prose and literary pyrotechnics that leave me emotionally cold and intellectually unimpressed. Ms. Shapiro is guilty of none of that. She has written a novel that first struck me as simple and unimposing. I finished it in two days. Then it began to live and breathe inside me. The main characters, Rachel & Ned, and daughter Kate became people I knew, characters in my own life. I found myself wondering about them and wanting to talk to my friends about them to see what has happened to them. (And I've begged all my friends to read this book so we could talk about it.) I could expect nothing more from a work of fiction. Read this book. Savor it.
Rating:
Summary: Two great books
Review: Two books that you have to read if you're interested in the family, depression, psychosis, dysfunction, and all the gray areas in between are this book FAMILY HISTORY and another titled THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Both are great reads and deal with what happens when "things fall apart." I agree with another reviewer in that, when I saw the title, I too groaned. But once into FAMILY HISTORY, I couldn't stop reading. The gradual unfolding of the story is brilliant and will keep you riveted. Also recommended: Prince of Tides by Conroy and Sophie's Choice
Rating:
Summary: What has Katie Jensen done?
Review: What has Katie Jensen done? How did this New England teenager all but destroy her Hawthorne,MA family? Why has Katie's mother, Rachel Jensen been thinking lately about "what it takes to unravel a life, not just one life, but the fabric of a family, carefully woven together with love and faith over the years.
Dani Shapiro's "Family History" begins with Rachel Jensen confessing to the reader that she "lies in bed these days and watches home movies" In the first chapter, the reader can see the damage done by the Jensen's teenage daughter. Rachel and Katie's father, Ned Jensen are separated. Ned now lives in a condo complex called "Pine Dunes" but nicknamed "Divorced Dad Dunes" by Rachel and Ned earlier in their marriage when they thought nothing could split them apart. Ned is no longer a teacher at the local academy but is now employed by his affluent parents as a real estate agent for their real estate firm, Jensen Reality. The Jensen's youngest child, two-year old Josh is not developing as fast as his peers at The Little Acorn preschool.
"Family History," told through Rachel's eyes, bounces from the past within Rachel's memory to the cold harshness of the present day. Shapiro expertly takes the reader on an emotional journey of the love, anger, guilt, resentment, forgivness and redemption that exists in every family to some degree. Shapiro's novel reinforces the notion that struggles make families stronger both as individuals and as a whole.
I would recommend this novel to those readers who enjoy a true to life story of the struggles that families face everyday and to those readers who want to understand the extraordinary strength it takes for families to make it through the devastating "storms of life" and how they are still hanging on to one another after the wind and rain dies away.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: What makes FAMILY HISTORY such a winner is that it is realistic. Nobody is evil. Nobody is saintly. These people are real. This story could be real. The realism of the writing is comperable to the brilliant books MY FRACTURED LIFE and DRY, which says a lot.
| 
