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Summary: This book is work
Review: While I appreciate the author's ability to convey this interesting character study, I find it to be more toil than entertainment. However, I'll probably be a better person for having read it. . .if I live that long.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh! Just not worth it.
Review: This book was to say the least, a big challenge to read. I read it, and reread it. I have read most of Oprah's picks, but this one I would have opted not to buy, had I known the confusion it would cause in my mind. (A lot of back tracking was done and that didn't seem to help! Anyone out there understand the pig?) This book is one that will retire at a used book store somewhere. I would not recommend it unless you have a lot of time to study and attempt to figure the sorted mess out. Even watching the Oprah show on the book club discussion did not help me to understand. Get past the flood, Oprah said, and then it is smooth sailing and things will come into place. Not for this reader! I just am amazed that it was published.
Rating: 
Summary: took a while to warm up - then couldnt put it down
Review: Thank God I perservered with this book. Yes, it is a bit confusing at first and you have to read it carefully and in 'character', but it all comes together in the end and is difficult to leave alone. My husband caught me reading it while he filled the car at the petrol station ! I loved the characters like I knew them, bawled like a baby at the end and have thought about it many times since. First- rate for a first-time !ps. I didnt even know about the 'Oprah' connection.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting picture of the South with enjoyable characters
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. If you want something easy to read, pick up Danielle Steele. This book took a lot of thought and concentration at first, but it was well worth the effort. Think for yourself. I would recommend it to my friends who don't have the tendency to go into a work with their own preconceptions. This author had a message. Sorry if you can't find it.
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Summary: This is a wonderful read.
Review: I'm not sure what is going on with the bad reviews for this book. It is not confusing to me and I can't put the book down. The author has a wonderful way of making you like each character despite their flaws. The relationships with the characters all intertwine nicely. I think this book is a must read.
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Summary: LOVED IT, CARRIED IT AROUND FOR TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!
Review: This is a book that you really have to meditate on and put a lot of thought into. I live near Petal and this book so vividly discribes this town that I could drive around and still find the grave yard where Valuable used to visit. It had wonderful themes and was a vivid portrail of this region during that time. Since I have read two more of the book club recommendations!!
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Summary: beautiful, moving, a triumph!
Review: Mother of Pearl is a novel that speaks for the nobility in unsung common man, the part of humanity which strives for decency and excellence. Ms. Haynes' characters are heartbreakingly flawed, as we all are, and this makes it possible for us to both believe in them and cheer for them. Any human being, and hence any human being's story, is necessarily complex, and to whitewash such a story in order to make it easy for simple minds to comprehend is to betray the truth of the human condition so skillfully portrayed in this novel. So to those of you who wish for endings neatly tied up with bows, and names which slide through your thoughts and lips with nary a bump, and situations resolved with the neatness of a paper towel commercial, revert now, please, to your television sets and fantasy worlds. Melinda Haynes has accomplished a near impossibility: presented the world with the truth of a complex place peopled with complex people who fail the test of perfection or polish, but who, after all, emerge triumphant for the truth which creates their existence. Melinda Haynes could have given you shiny characters in a shiny world, with a simple plot and standard names. But that would not have been truth, and therefore that would not have been any sort of triumph at all, and let alone a justification for its creation. So thank you, Melinda, for giving us flawed common man (a mirror to ourselves) and showing the possibility of his redemption in his humanity after all.
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Summary: The book was cumbersome, unrealistic, and full of loose ends
Review: I love to read but this one is going to make me take a break for a while. The characters names were very confusing...Even and Valuable...even Joleb. (how do you like that me using even as a proper noun and adjective in the same sentence) Not until the end of the book did I know whether to pronounce the "e" long or short in Joleb name. At any rate, please give us something where we don't have to work so hard for our entertainment next time.
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Summary: Literature in the best sense of the word
Review: I've just finished reading this book and it is with sorrow that I've come to the end. I think about the people of Petal and their lives. I wonder about the future of Pearl, and I think that he would have grown up in times that would be more accepting of his cultural mixture and perceptions. I am so impressed by Melinda Haynes' writing. She has created people(characters being too shallow a word)who were multi-dimensional, who were whole. I was just amazed that she could get into the head of men,women,adolescents,black and white and speak from their minds and their hearts.This book is one of the best examples of fine literature.Just excellent!
Rating:
Summary: IS THERE A "NO STAR" OPTION
Review: I began reading, and got to about page 70 or so and was totally confused. So ... I began AGAIN ... and was still TOTALLY CONFUSED. I just didn't get it. Oprah was totally off the mark on this one ... I would not recommend to anyone unless confusion is there "thing".
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