The Things I Know Best : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Lovely story of kinship and love in the South...
Review: Author Lynne Hinton has an elegant way with words, and she quietly delights us with this follow up to Friendship Cake.

Told from the standpoint of Tessa, a deceptively simple young woman of 18, the story of the Ivy women, their secrets, loves and heartaches, resonates in the beautiful North Carolina setting. The Ivy women have "the Knowing"..that psychic phenomena that seems to drift in and out of families of southern women. It is that gift, so seldom used by Tessa, that ferrets out an old family secret that will change the lives of the family forever.

Hinton's writing is soothing, and she constructs sentences in a poetic way. A passage about Tessa's Grandaddy:

"He was the moon to us when we were small, big and soothing and full. We didn't hear the stories of his drinking or his heavy hand until the ground over his casket was grassy and flat. Grandma saw no need to spoil our ideas of a good man."

A small book, words are used sparingly and precisely to help the reader get to know the characters, and to read this chapter in their lives with them. A quiet talent is Lynne Hinton...
thanks to an Amazon friend for helping me find her!

"

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as she's capable of.
Review: I read another book by this author, Friendship Cake, which I really enjoyed and passed around to several friends. So I picked this one up thinking it would be worth a read. Luckily, it only took me about an hour and a half to read it, since that's about as long as I'll remember it.

I guess I never really cared about the characters too much. It's not a thick enough book that there's a lot of room for exploring and exposing the characters, which is too bad, because they could be interesting. And I know Hinton's capable of it from her last book. I also read that the author thinks race relations is so important to this story ... I never got the whole emphasis on race relations thing. The story happens to characters who happen to be interracial friends/lovers, but I never get that it's important to the plot.

Not to mention that the "big secret" is telegraphed so blatantly it's hard not to know what it is almost immediately.

In spite of its faults, I think it would be OK for a quick beach read or if you just don't care for much depth at the moment.

Rating:
Summary: A special gift sparks changes and tragedy
Review: Lynne Hinton's The Things I Know Best is set in North Carolina, where a home which has housed generations of the Ivy women is affected by a special gift which sparks changes and tragedy. A twin sister's experiences and predictions spark conflict and love.

Rating:
Summary: Lynne Hinton's second novel is worth a peek
Review: Reader reviews on Amazon for Lynne Hinton's second novel, THINGS I KNOW BEST, indicate that most of those readers were disappointed not to receive another FRIENDSHIP CAKE. That was Hinton's first novel, and it was a delicious whip of church women, their life events and their recipes. Small wonder that this new one isn't to the taste of Cake fans; THE THINGS I KNOW BEST is altogether darker, tangier, and heavier.

That isn't to say it's a dark book; rather, it's a quiet book, and perhaps closer to its author's heart. When she wrote it, Hinton was a United Church of Christ pastor. In an interview on her website, she says that she believes the issue of race relations is the most important one we can resolve today. That issue is central to this book, which tells two interracial stories: one about eighteen-year-old Tessa Ivy of Pleasant Cross, North Carolina, who has a relationship with a boy of mixed race, and one about her mother and her mother's relationship with her best friend, an African-American woman, which is soured for reasons no one will discuss.

Tessa comes from three generations of "Ivy women" who believe they "see things" --- Tessa herself reads tea leaves and interprets dreams. Of course, no one's "knowing," as the Ivy family calls it, has led any of the women to great fortune, although Mama Bertie does use her gift to help the local funeral director keep his schedule straight. They live in a trailer park, and Tessa works at the local supercenter. Much of the background of Tessa's family is revealed during the women's dinner preparation (one is best at cooking meat, another vegetables and a third takes pride in side dishes).

Tessa says, "I suppose it would seem to any ordinary person that Knowing would make the women in our family rich or smart or at the very least well respected; but the truth is the Knowing hasn't given us anything extra. It seems, in fact, to have created a curse. All the Ivy women lean towards making bad decisions, especially when it comes to money and men. And just as we have accepted the ways we all Know, we also have accepted each other's poor choices in husbands and fathers for our children."

THINGS I KNOW BEST concerns Tessa's newly adult attempts to figure out how to make different choices for herself. When the enigmatic and devout Reverend Renfrew comes to town in his Airstream trailer, towing his son Sterling, Tessa finds out that there are things she couldn't possibly "know." Some of those are deeply sad and frightening, others are wonderfully joyful --- but above all, they're true and worth knowing, as opposed to "knowing." Or, as Tessa's grandmother says, "A body could know everything there is to know about the future, but that don't guarantee happiness." Neither will reading this book --- but it's worth a peek.

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

Rating:
Summary: Boring and dull
Review: This book didn't take long to read. A couple of hours at work. It started out ok but didn't really have a point and wandered aimlessly. It isn't on my list of top books I didn't like but wouldn't recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment after Friendship Cake.
Review: This book really fell flat. Lynne Hinton's first book Friendship Cake what such a good read. I was sincerely disappointed in her second work. She had a good beginning, but after you read awhile the characters begin to become redundant, and a little dull. There was some hope of a good plot, but something was definitly missing. Try again Lynne, you have talent. Maybe try a sequel to Friendship Cake. The characters that you developed in that book are really good.

Rating:
Summary: I Wasn't Disappointed
Review: This is not the sort of novel I usually read, but I bought it because Malachy McCourt recommended it, and I wasn't disappointed. It is, indeed, a beautifully written, sweet, sad coming-of-age story, with a lot of local color. Thank you, Malachy, for recommending this delightful tale.

Rating:
Summary: Nice story, quick read
Review: This is the first book I have read by Hinton. While I don't consider it a keeper - in fact most likely I shall give it away - it was a nice, quick read. Great for the summertime/beach type story.

The setting is North Carolina and the generational story is the kind that I like. I do believe it bogs down a little and I was able to tell where it was going before it ended. Otherwise I would have added the fifth star.

Hinton writes in a style that I enjoy. Though the voices of each character seemed realistic, I felt she did use some sterotypical descriptions/actions. I would read more of her books in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Nice story, quick read
Review: This is the first book I have read by Hinton. While I don't consider it a keeper - in fact most likely I shall give it away - it was a nice, quick read. Great for the summertime/beach type story.

The setting is North Carolina and the generational story is the kind that I like. I do believe it bogs down a little and I was able to tell where it was going before it ended. Otherwise I would have added the fifth star.

Hinton writes in a style that I enjoy. Though the voices of each character seemed realistic, I felt she did use some sterotypical descriptions/actions. I would read more of her books in the future.