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Summary: Leave it alone
Review: These Oprah books are getting worse with each successive selection. This one is offensively sub-par.
Rating: 
Summary: Very-Good. However....
Review: Hayes' work is like a carnival ride. You get may ups and downs and then you vomit. Don't get me wrong, it was perhaps the best book I have read all year. Much better than "The Chocolate War" and at least as good "Caves of Passion". My suggestion, skip chapters 3 and 4 and pay close attention to page 89 and page 127.
Rating:
Summary: Very well written
Review: Melinda Haynes has produced a very good novel, rich in characterization and flavor. I have to say, however, that Oprah needs to widen her horizons a little and refrain at least once in awhile from touting the same kind of fiction. Earth to Oprah! There are many, many fine books out there that deserve some attention, even though they don't fit into your narrow tastes in literature. "The Triumph and the Glory" comes to mind, as does "After Dunkirk", and "The Last Day". I was intrigued by "Mother of Pearl" despite my frustration with Oprah, INC. Keep up the great writing, Melinda!
Rating: 
Summary: take it slow---don't miss a word.
Review: "Mother of Pearl" by Melinda B. Haynes is written in a time before I was born. The events focus around the year 1956. PLEASE Do Not rush through these chapters. Melinda can say more in one sentence than many authors say in a lifetime. I was pulled back in time. I am a white female. After reading this book, I can say that I have been inside the mind and heart of Grace, Even, Cannan and Joody-all black. I found myself pulling for them and wanting to spit in the eyes of the local white folks. During the flood sceen in the truck , I laughed out loud so hard it hurt. Father Russ was so refreshing--when Joleb loses all hope and peace--Father Russ reaches inside and loves Joleb, showing the true love of Christ . I wish I had this Father Russ to talk to sometimes. I miss Even. He was the strong one--I see his face today. I long to hear from him again. Hint...Hint..... I have seen the paintings of Melinda Haynes and she is a wonderful talented artist--this time she is painting the canvas with stokes of words that touch the center of your soul. READERS...... Take it slow.
Rating:
Summary: Faulkner has a rival!
Review: Have you ever dreaded the impending moment of a novels end? You want it to continue on and on like cherished company of a loved one. Melinda Haynes has brought forth a cast of human beings that challenge us, sorrow us, befriend us and intrigue us to the point of our never wanting to leave their world, or them to leave ours. Her words flow like a river, yet are powerfully insightful. This one author has the tremendous gift of breathing life into "real people" who are black and white, young and old, loved and unloved. She knows from personal experience about life's everyday drama, housing so many emotions within her that she serves them to us in the form of human courage on a silver platter. Mother of Pearl will astound you.
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Summary: Prepare to meet some really interesting folks!
Review: I had the wonderful good fortune to receive from an associate, an advance copy of Mother of Pearl by Southern writer, Melinda Haynes.Ms. Haynes tells the most intriguing story about life in Petal, Mississippi, as lived by characters so full of color, courage and conflict that you will come to love them as much as the author obviously does. Even Grade - an intense black man whose Mama named him right. Takes you confidently through the whole story, while you admire his strength, smile at his innermost thoughts, and envy his generosity. Valuable Korner - innocent and vulnerable, but at fifteen already knows more about how life should not be lived than her mother. Joleb - his first visit with the priest is worth the price of the book! A talented voice from the Deep South has produced the most enjoyable story I have read in years. I hope to hear more from Melinda Haynes.
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Summary: A Slice of Delicious Southern Literary Pie!
Review: This is now one of my top five favorite books. The book reads like a screenplay, you can picture each chapter as clearly as a scene from a movie. The characters are so rich in southern culture and euphemisms, for me it brought back childhood memories of people and places long since forgotten. An amazing aspect of the book was the richness of the minor characters. They are deeply rounded and just as complete as the characters from the main storyline.
After the first 3 or 4 chapters, a reader will realize how enticing this book is. It draws you in slowly and soon you are aware that you want to race back to read even a couple of pages, much like I imagine a soap opera hypnotizes a viewer.
Rating: 
Summary: Challenging Prose, but interesting nonetheless
Review: This book really took awhile to get used to. I had to start it a few times before I could even get past the first few pages. The prose is so thick and metaphorical it requires more effort than I was expecting for a summer novel. At first, I also found the names rather cheesy - Even Grade, Valuable Korner? I mean, really.
Once I started to get into the actual story I began to enjoy it however. The characters start to really show their personalities and you start to care for them all - Canaan's stubborn grumpiness, Valuable's tenacity, Joody's quirks. The author really creates quite the set of characters, and while they're not wholly believable, there are enough pieces of reality to let you believe.
I kept going back and forth in my feelings about the book. The book seemed to grow in its intensity up until the flood. At that point it was quite exciting and I kept wanting to read more. However, the flood for me seemed like an ending to the book. There was the resolution of the drought being over, and the sense that everyone was just beginning their new lives together. Joleb had been found and rescued, and all seemed well. With Val's pregnancy in the background during that time, I found myself wondering why there was so much left in the book. Here is where it became more difficult to read again. The general flow of the book seemed to halt in its tracks.
I had really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Jackson and Val grow and evolve, and was rather disappointed when Jackson left. When he doesn't show up until the end of book again, I'm almost mad that he did come back. All the other characters were developed so much more fully by that time, Jackson seemed like an afterthought. He'd been gone too long for me to care too much about him as a character.
While I didn't really think so while reading the book, thinking back on it now there are quite a few storylines and characters. While interestingly intertwined, it's difficult to describe even a basic plot for the book, which means that it's probably too complicated. Also, while the author tries to be metaphorical, the book really didn't make me stop and ponder the deeper meanings of her text or of life. I think I just wasn't willing to put that much effort into a novel during the summer. A literature class would probably have a very different time with it and get more out of it.
This is a good book with an interesting story, but it's probably a great book if you are willing to spend the time and effort into unraveling it's vast, deep meanings. I think they must be in there somewhere.
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Summary: Pearl is a boy; his mother is a seer.....
Review: This novel is the story of 28-yr-old Even Grade who grew up as an orphan in Mississippi and Joody, a seer, the mother of Pearl (a grey-eyed male). Opening in 1956 in the magnolia state where the two meet; ending five years later (1961) in Alabama, the cotton state, when Pearl is four and his friend Sophy Marie (named after Sophocles) is three. She's the daughter of Grace and Cannan Mosley. Pearl had said, "Girls don't like to be bossed." She uses the Negro language of the fifties. When I was eleven, I had a half-sister named Mary Ruth Mosley whose mother died and, subsequently, the 3-yr-old child was adopted by someone from her mother's family. The name Mosley brought back memories of the loss of a little girl I loved very much. This is promoted as a tale of the search for identify and the power of renewal. It is based on one of the stories Ray Haynes passed on to his wife. She uses these quotes (which are signifigant): "Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it" by Sophocles. "Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders," by William Faulkner who knew the South and its inhabitants better than almost any other writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Feel like I wasted my time.
Review: This is a book that you will not forget. Mother of Pearl is an amazing novel that shows the differences in society circles in the south (racism and prejudice). The book is set in Petal, Mississippi. 14 year old white Valuable lives with her grandmother and has one true friend, Jackson. Valuable was abandoned as a baby by her town [prostitute] mother. For a while the book seperates the stories of Valuable and a young black man named Even (who was orphaned as a baby) and brings their paths together in the middle of the book through Joody. Joody is considered the town's crazy woman (voodoo witch). Valuable goes to Joody to try and find out about herself. Even falls in love with Joody. When Valuable's grandmother dies her mother comes back and makes her life miserable. Valuable falls in love with Jackson (who we find out is her half-brother, but neither Valuable or Jackson know their father is the same man). Valuable becomes pregnant and Jackson's family moves him far away. Valuable has no contact with him and can't tell him that she's pregnant. Valuable comes to love and depend on her gay aunt, Even, Joody, Grace, and Jackson's best friend. During the birth Valuable has complications and dies. Even takes the baby as his own to raise because he can't make the baby an orphan, because of his own past. Jackson learns that Valuable is dead when he returns to see her with flowers in hand only to be forced to read her tombstone. This book shows that love and friendship really do conquer all. This is an unforgetable read.
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