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Summary: A Gracious Story
Review: A Gracious Plenty is a very well written book and easy for all people to read. The main character, Finch Nobles, is a lady who was badly burned in a household accident as a child. She tends a cemetary and has the power to speak to dead people. She uses these dead people to talk about her troubles since they are her only friends.
This book has many twists and some parts will catch you by surprise. That is the biggest reason that I found this book so interesting. Reynolds also uses imagery which makes this book very mesmerizing. This is a very good story and everyone who reads it will definately gain something from.
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Summary: Lessons gently taught
Review: A GRACIOUS PLENTY is the sweetly unfussy story of Finch Nobles, the caretaker of a graveyard in a small town, who was horribly burned and disfigured as a small child. The townsfolk shun Finch, but she finds acceptance and solace with the souls who inhabit the cemetery-she is able to see and speak with the dead.Finch has rich friendships with the lost souls; and, with their encouragement, she learns to reach out to those they left behind. She helps the living loved ones learn the truth about those they lost, so that both they and their dead can move on. In so doing, Finch begins to inch back toward the social world of the living herself. The lessons Reynolds incorporates into her tale may be a bit obvious (be decent to all people, don't be judgmental), but her style is so gently winning that any syrupiness is overcome.
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Summary: Gifted Or Cursed?
Review: Finch Nobles was badly burned as a child. This scared her for life, but at the same time she is gifted. She is able to communicate with the dead and makes it seem like if it is a normal thing that is done. Her burns make her isolate herself and cause her to pretty much be a loner. The cemetery, wild alley cats, and the dead are her only friends even though everyone knows her.
From the start this book was interesting. I liked how it opened up by saying, "Ain't you got no respect for the Dead?" Ain't you got no shame?" These kinds of words make the reader think. Death is something people prefer to ignore, but Sheri Reynolds makes this fictional story keep your attention focused. She touches this issue very carefully and smoothly.
Overall this is an easy and worthwhile book to read that carries out an interesting story.
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Summary: An interesting subject
Review: Gracious Plenty is a great book to read. The narrator Finch Noble did a wonderful job keeping the story exciting. It caught my attention and kept my imagination throughout its entire length. Finch makes it easy to understand the spirits and ghosts. I felt that I was lost in the cementary of voices with her. I wanted to hear more about the stories of the dead. Whenever I go to the cementary I can't help not thinking about all the spirits that are surrounding us in this world. It is an intriguing piece of fiction, and I am a person who does not like to read.
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Summary: A great Autumnal read to warm the heart.
Review: I enjoyed Sheri Reynolds book. Her story about Finch Nobles raises many questions for the reader. For instance, in a culture that honors beauty and elegance, how do we deal with what we find repugnant? Can we deal with the ugly within us? Can we welcome all that is human, despite its appearance? The characters of "A Gracious Plenty" deal with these questions. Reba Baker comes away a better Christian as she scrubs away the vicious words painted on the tombstone of William Blott. Lois Armour comes to grips with the possibility that her "beauty queen" daughter committed suicide. Even the hardened Finch Nobles finds tenderness in developing a relationship with Officer Leonard. Reynolds takes death, a repulsive topic, and forms a tale for our times, a tale that causes us all to welcome all that is human. For me, as a Christian, it is a tale that deals with the cross, embracing the Paschal Mystery of Christ. It is a tale that shows there may be some redemptive value to suffering, especially when one has a group or community to offer one's story, and hear those of others. Maybe from Reynolds' piece we can begin a discussion on the community of the saints. This book is a great work to pass on to a friend. I recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: Loved it
Review: I have read this book at least four times and love it more and more each time. If you are a believer in the afterlife, or just curious about it, it has some interesting points of view. Dead men really do tell tales.
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Summary: The Gracious Plenty
Review: I read this book for an English class. The book was about a girl who was burned as a child. She lived at and took care of a cemetary. After her parents died she was given the gift of the ability to talk to dead people. All of the charactors have stories to tell, and feelings that they must deal with. Although the storyline was written well, I had a hard time getting into the book.
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Summary: Improves
Review: I really didn't like this book at the beginning, but it improved to the ending. I did find it rather predictable throughout. A Gracious Plenty is the story of Finch, a girl who suffered a disfiguring burn as a child. She is a caretaker of the graveyard and talks with the dead throughout the book. Sheri Reynolds' writing style leans a bit too far to the dramatic side for me, which was my complaint with the beginning of the book. To try to illustrate Finch's angst over her burned face, she repeatedly had her doing some rather dramatic and unbelievable things, like sleeping with sliced meat on her face and waking up to the smell of rotting meat. But if you're a fan of Sheri Reynolds and have read other works of hers, you know this is her style. The excessive drama lessens as the author finally reaches a point that she feels satisfied she's painted Finch's trauma adequately for the reader. The symbolism was interesting and what made the book a success to me: The dead in the cemetery cannot pass on to higher realms until they've confronted some of their demons and talked about things, and Finch can't move on with her life until she's confronted her own demons. Narrow views and assumptions she's made are challenged, and she in turn challenges others to reevaluate their judgments. It's interesting to watch the characters and their views soften and change.
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Summary: What a book!
Review: I wouldn't say that this book was that bad. I wouldn't read it again. I feel that it was to grafic and gross. It kind of reminded me of, "A Girl Named Zippy"; it was the cats that I didn't like.
When she talk about how her mother and father would scrape the scabs off her healing burns, made me clinch my teath. Over all it was an okay book, so I rate this one a four.
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Summary: warmly entertaining and thoughtful
Review: The author does a wonderful job of developing her characters, especially her main one, Finch Nobles. When Finch was a little girl she accidently spilled a pot of boiling water on herself and suffers massive scars. The reaction of others to her disfigurement cause her to retreat to caretaking of the graveyard her father is in charge of and then she herself inherits the responsibility. It is her security, because she has developed the ability to talk to the dead and has developed friendships among them that she doesn't have amongst the living. She has learned to erect a barrier when dealing with the people living around her. Because she can speak to both the living and the dead, she is sometimes used by the dead to try and communicate with the living and of course, she is considered rather strange to the living because of her disfigurement and her lifestyle. It is a book that gently reminds us that just because someone has a disfigurement or is a little different doesn't mean that they don't have feelings and such as everyone else and that true kindness and goodness should be practiced by everyone and for everyone regardless of any differences.
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