Rating: Summary: A coming of age story Review: "A man loves a woman. Her body is part of her expirience - whatever that is. If he does not love that too, he is a pig, he is not a man."
This book reflects strong women everywhere. The trials we overcome: pregnancy, abandonment, adoption, cancer, heartache, death, birth, marriage, addiction, chaos, but most importantly, survival.
"Time is not promised and regret is a waste of it."
The story of 3 very different black women joining hands and hearts and helping each other out along the way.
"Childbirth: it's the hardest pain to bear and the easiest to forget."
Grant and DeBerry did an outstanding job at helping you to relate, sympathize and love these characters.
"The ultimate control is deciding you don't always have to have it."
Rating: Summary: For better or worse.... Review: A poignant story of 3 women who meet in college--takes them through about 20 years--their friendships will be tested many times. I couldn't put it down.
Rating: Summary: They have done it again! Review: Authors Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant introduce us to the characters, Carmen Webb, Jewell Prescott and Regina Foster in their latest novel, Better Than I Know Myself. These three women come from very diverse backgrounds. After meeting in college their freshmen year at Columbia University a very unlikely friendship awaits the trio.
Jewel, a child star, know for her role on the sitcom "Daddy's Girl," desperately wants a `normal' life and to accomplish two things. One is to get a college degree without all the hoopla surrounding her stardom, and the other is to get from under the thumb of her controlling stage mother. Regina is the upper-middle-class girl. Believing her parents to be the Black Ward and June Cleaver, Regina feels they expect her to be as perfect as her brothers. College is the escape to normalcy that she desperately craves. Finally, Carmen is just trying to survive. A child of the projects whose father was murdered and mother vanishes without a trace, Carmen is left to with her abusive brother. Columbia is her ticket to what she prays is a better life, if she can hold down two jobs and keep her GPA up.
Throughout college and beyond, the trio is faced with the challenges of drug addiction, alcohol, fame, closely guarded secrets, illness, love, betrayal, and other things women face that will truly test the limitations of their friendships. Will their friendship be able to survive? How far will Regina's rebellious side take her? Will Carmen be able to let go of the past? What lies ahead for Jewell? Better Than I Know Myself is a novel of heartache, triumph, tears, and the impenetrable bonds of three sisterfriends. DeBerry and Grant reminds us that life is fragile, that tomorrow is not promised to anyone so we should live each day to the fullest.
Rating: Summary: Tell me Your Secrets Review: Better Than I Know Myself introduces readers to Jewell, Regina and Carmen. They meet after matriculating into Barnard College (affiliated with Columbia University ) in New York . Carmen is a native of New York and Jewell and Regina are both transplants from California and New Jersey , respectively. They have their initial encounter to becoming friends while being stuck in an elevator. Each is from a different world. Jewell is an ex-child star seeking a "normal" life; Regina is a spoiled upper middle-class brat; and Carmen is just trying to survive.
Their friendship blossoms in 5D, the apartment they share as roommates. Regina decides being in the limelight is more important than a college education. She walks on the wild side and puts her ideas into full swing by creating Good Tyme Productions, a company that hosts the best parties around. Jewell is tired of her mother's tight hold on her life and career. As a result, she fires her as her manager, branches off and explores what else life has to offer. Carmen is rigid and her only focus is to succeed. She doesn't have time for anyone or anything but her studies and her desire to become a doctor. That is, until the advice of a good friend, Milton, makes her see things differently.
The friends grow from young adults to women and learn the value of true friendship and the bond created by it. They have their secrets and are hesitant in sharing them. All three women expose themselves once they feel revealing their secret will help the other friend through her personal storm.
Better Than I Know Myself drives the lesson home of how a person will only tell you what they want you to know. Just when you think you know a person, you are told something you would have never fathomed to be true. That's not a bad thing unless you give the information to the wrong person. Jewell, Carmen and Regina have a friendship that stands the test of time, drug abuse, sickness and health.
DeBerry and Grant have written the best tearjerker of the decade. I thought Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made was the best book I'd ever read until they wowed me with yet another bestseller. These women have a knack for writing novels and when I grow up I want to be just like them - bestselling author(s).
Reviewed by Esther "Ess" Mays of Loose Leaves Book Review
Rating: Summary: True friendship is something you build together Review: Better than I know myself is a novel where we meet 3 totally opposite sisters in search of something that leads them to college.
Regina, the rebellious Carmen, the thrown away Jewel, the famous"None of us are in this alone." It took meeting the other one for the others to realize. From opposites end of the world to the same campus, a class here and there, to being roommates these three young women transcend in time and eventually grow as sisters. The relationship that the 5D roomies share is even deeper than that of birth sisters. For all the good, graduations, careers, tear jerking sad, shocking secrets, alcohol & cocaine addiction, cancer HIV & AIDS, child birth, adoptions, mental, sexual abuse, love present past & future, and ultimately the end.
This dynamic duo DeBerry & Grant do it again in this novel with the time line, and the growth of the characters. I found myself laughing, and crying throughout the years with these women and I hated to get to the end. My eyes are still dripping wet.
Only real friends can use this title cause it's only them who know you as well. This is a great read.
Rating: Summary: Outstanding! Review: Better than I Know Myself Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant 5 stars A Deeply moving story about the bond of friendship, sacrifice and having dreams. Jewel was a child star, America's favorite little girl when she played on the weekly show Daddy's Girl. Now older Jewel wants to be loved for herself and not her fame. She wants to make her own choices away from her controlling mother. Jewel holds a deep hurt and a secret from a past love. Regina is a party girl who never thinks she is good enough in her parent's eyes. Her brothers are very successful and Regina feels the burden. With failing grades and longing to prove herself worthy she starts her own business as an event planner but her lifestyle soon takes a toll on her and she spirals out of control. Carmen was left abandoned and homeless. Her father died, her mother walked away. Left with no one but her brother until he too walks away. Carmen struggles to work and go to school to become a doctor so she Will never have to depend on people. Jewel, Regina and Carmen meet at Columbia and become roommates and life long friends. Better than I Know Myself is the story of these three women During and after college. This was a moving and at times a tear jerking story of friendship and Sacrifices as these women struggle through the issues of family, drug abuse, A.I.D.S and breast cancer. Their bond runs deep. But one of these sisters doesn't make it. This story will touch your heart and you won't soon forget it. This is an excellent book for book clubs. The issues are real, the bond is deep. This was an outstanding story of friendship and survival. (...)
Rating: Summary: Memories,Friendship and Family. Review: Carmen,Jewell and Regina became friends after meeting in college. What a beautiful friendship that grew into the three women ending up like sisters. Real friends get mad at each other but grow from it like these women did. I think that I am all three of these women rolled up in one being the most like Carmen.
I totally understood why when every thing in Carmen's life was going good she was waiting for lighting to strike. I have always been like that until recently when I realized that Life is just Life very complex. This was a nice enlightening read.
WARNING: There are some spoilers in the other reviews that will take away from the book.
Rating: Summary: "Embrace the day" Review: Embrace this book!!!!
DeBerry & Grant have done it again. Once I picked up this book it was hard to put down. A definite page-turner!!
Rating: Summary: A testiment to true longstanding friendships Review: I could not put this book down. I was able to experience the pain of Carmen, the hurt of Jewell and the helplessness of Regina. It reminded me what a great asset a true friend is. My best friend and I are now sisters. We've known each other for over eleven years, are raising our children together and waiting for the next experience of life. Everyone should have someone to "have your back!" Great job!
Rating: Summary: The best book I've ever read! Review: If you're a woman and have a friend...you need to read this book. I happened upon it at work, and began reading it. I was so entraced I bought a copy for myself, and then once I finished it I bought a copy for each of my closest friends. This book is above race, social, and economic issues and gets to root of what every woman needs...friendship and having a purpose. You feel you are there with these three women as they live their lives. I can't wait to read the other books by these authors!
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