Customer Reviews

Thank You for All Things (Bantam Discovery)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sandra Kring is gifted with an ability to create characters that remain in your psyche long after the story is read. Through them you are able to grasp concepts and understand behaviors of those damaged by a harmful past. Lucy, Milo and Tess are no exception to these rules.

Tess, mother of the genius children, Lucy and Milo, was deeply damaged by a father who refused to show affection, concern or consideration of his intelligent, independent daughter. Thus, Tess, discontinues contact with him until he is dying and she is forced to return with her the children and her mother to the small home town she detests. Her intuitive, people smart daughter, Lucy, hopes to uncover secrets and aid in the healing of this dysfunctional family.

Many avenues lead to the road of redemption and Lucy walks them with spunk and determination. She is witty, winsome, wise, and worldly beyond her years. Working like a detective she unearths clues, dissecting the past so that the present can be salved with the help of a new-aged grandmother, a Native American friend, and a cast of unruly characters. The pages seemingly turn themselves as the reader is so engrossed in the discoveries and solutions Lucy renders.

If this is your first time with Sandra Kring you are in for a treat. May I also recommend "The Book of Bright Ideas" and "Carry Me Home." Soon you will be like me.....eagerly anticipating the next novel from this witty and wise writer.

For some reason, when I began reading Thank You for All Things, I thought it was about the grown up Lucy returning home to care for a dying grandfather and uncovering secrets from the past (I think because of the way the summary starts - at eleven, she already knows she wants to be a psychologist. So when she grows and becomes a psychologist, she has this other stuff to face.). I didn't realize that the story was told from the point of view of an eleven year old. Would that have prevented me from picking up the book originally? Maybe. But I'm very glad I stuck with it anyways.

Lucy is not a typical eleven year old. She is incredibly precocious and very intelligent. She is intuitive and is perceptive enough to be able to read body language. This means that she is a gifted narrator; there is little frustration associated with the fact that she is young.

It's also incredibly interesting to witness the story through Lucy's eyes. If we were seeing it through Tess's eyes (the mother), her irritation with Lucy's obsession over the identity of her father would be palpable. The reader would become irritated with Lucy - whatever the story, why can't Lucy just understand that Tess is trying to protect her daughter?

Instead, the reader feels Lucy's need to learn who her father is. We see the unfolding of the history of dark secrets and family tragedies through the eyes of a curious eleven-year-old. Though Lucy can seem much older than her years, she works wonderfully as a narrator. Seeing the story through another's eyes would make it entirely different, which is why it works so well. It is an extremely interesting point of view, and Kring deserves credit for writing it convincingly.

Thank You for All Things is a story of forgiveness and understanding. It also explores the friction between a mother's need to protect her children and a child's need to know and understand. It's a great read, and I definitely recommend it.

I was thrilled to come across this book because I had really enjoyed reading Kring's "The Book of Bright Ideas." So when I started this book I was already hooked into the story. However, less than halfway through I was waiting for the good part only to find that while the story remained interesting, there wasnt anything in particular that held my attention and I kept reading simply because I wanted the story to end. Lucy, the main character, is into psychology and able to read people pretty well. Now, this would have been fine if she had mentioned it only once or twice but every chance we get the main character needs to assert that she is a people person. Lucy's mother is annoying and although we know why she is unable to love freely, I didnt exactly feel much sympathy for her because she was holding on to so much anger. I felt that it was way too easy for us to find out what was going on in the family (Lucy reads her mother's journals) and it wasnt very creative the ways in which we found out. Maybe now just wasnt the time to reas this novel. It was boring, there were too many characters and I just didnt feel very much sympathy for the characters except for Lucy, but that alone wasnt enough.

Book Review: Thank You For All Things by Sandra Kring
Thank You For All Things

by Sandra Kring
Bantam Discovery, October 2008

Reviewed by Kathryn Magendie

Sandra Kring's third novel, "Thank You For All Things," holds within its pages themes and voices I love to read about: family, sacrifice, love, surprise, forgiveness, home, belonging, and relationships--particularly between mothers and daughters and fathers and daughters. Kring's newest novel also has themes that are painful: family violence, human death and death of a dream, and betrayal. Kring doesn't whitewash the secret dark side of family; however, she doesn't grab readers by the throat with it, screaming at them to Listen! I have a point to make here. The focus of Kring's novel more heavily relies on the characters and their quirks, their hopes, fears, and ideals, and the power of Family to shape who and what we become--whether it is to embrace, deny, or accept our pasts. With humor and love, even in the dark places, Kring doesn't exhaust the reader, but instead delights.

A "character-driven" novel must deliver and indeed Kring does a beautiful job of bringing her characters to life, especially Lucy McGowan, the eleven-year-old narrator of "Thank You For All Things." Although, despite Lucy's intellect, at times I questioned the sophistication of her language and her views of the world around her, things that life and time usually bring instead of intelligence. That said, I went along for the ride, and as good writers will do, and Kring did, I mostly accepted Lucy's voice and musings as Truth, and I owe this to Kring also allowing Lucy her child-side, that innocence that only a young girl who hasn't fully lived her life, or born all life's surprises (both good and bad), will possess.

More than anything, Lucy wants to find her father (since Lucy's mother will not give up her secret, Lucy must create fathers from her imagination--maybe skater Scott Hamilton is her father, maybe her father donated sperm to a sperm bank, maybe...); alternatively, she longs for her mother to find happiness with family friend Peter, whom Lucy hopes will become her Father Figure--but only if she can find her real father's identity first and ask his permission to love Peter. It doesn't help matters that Lucy's mother is not only silent about Lucy's father, but she will not speak of her own father.

The secrets are slowly revealed when idealistic Lucy, her pessimistic mother, her quirky new-age grandmother, and Lucy's super-gifted twin brother are forced to leave their apartment in the city to temporarily live in Lucy's mother's childhood home in a small town. There, Lucy's grandfather lies dying, and long buried secrets bubble under the surface. As these secrets are discovered, they shatter Lucy's dreams of not only what her Family is and was, but her dreams of what kind of men her father, and the grandfather she begins to love and accept, are. As the story and the secrets build, build, and then finally erupt, Lucy and her family are sucked into the vortex of a violent past; where one generation often follows another--unless the chains are broken and new choices are made.

Kring's solid character development and storytelling all more than made up for any "editor's musings" I had. I was engaged with her characters, in love with Peter, rooted for Lucy's mother to let loose her anxiety, ached with Lucy as she discovered her grandmother's and then her mother's secret pasts, laughed at Lucy's funny little brother and her eccentric Ommmm grandmother, felt all the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and at last, finally, the satisfying ending that I always love comes--one where I sigh with a smile and close the book, glad the author did not cheat me at the end.


(review first on the Roses & THorns)

As a die-hard crime fiction writer/reader, I resisted ingesting Ms. Kring's first books -- previously (and strongly) receommended by a friend. In time, I read them and was impacted at how effortlessly her style and honest characters pulled me into the stories. I believe Ms. Kring's ability to create good, believable and likeable characters (and sometimes necessarily unlikeable foils, too) is one of her strongest points as a writer. Yes, she can turn a phrase, jack the tension and lead us down paths of hope and pain and discovery, but it is our affection for the characters that keeps us turning the pages.

In time, I had the rare and privileged opportunity to interview the author. She is an honorable and sensitive writer, one who cares about people as much as she cares about her art, A QUALITY REFLECTED IN HER BOOKS AND CHARACTERS. She IS also a rare writer who cares more about writing GOOD BOOKS rather than just producing books that will sell well (although she has succeeded there, too). NEVER MORE HAS THIS QUALITY BEEN REFLECTED THAN IN THANK YOU FOR ALL THINGS. It is well worth your time and hard earned money. Enjoy it.

Eleven-year-old Lucy McGowan and her twin brother Milo know they're highly gifted, even geniuses. They take pride in this identity, as it's often the only comfort they have within their lonely, friendless life, homeschooled with their young single mom Tess.

For as long as Lucy can remember, she's begged her mother to tell her about her biological father -- the one mystery that seems to overshadow everything else she thinks about and does. When Tess' estranged father becomes gravely ill and the family decides to return to the homestead for his final days, Lucy thinks it's her lucky break. But, as precocious as she may be, is she really emotionally able to handle the ugly truth once it becomes revealed?

Kring has a gift for creating memorable characters -- women who interact in ways with one another that are both very human, and also such that readers can only wish they, too, had friends just like that.

Lucy McGowan a rather put together [...]. Well, put together because she knows she's going to be a psychologist when she grows up, is leaving her home in Chicago along with her genius brother Milo (short for Myles) her new age loving grandmother Oma and her mother Tessa for the wilds of Timber Falls, Wisconsin in order to care for her dying grandfather. A man that emotionally neglected her mother. Lucy knows that her family holds a lot of dark secrets and she feels compelled to learn all she can. Who is her father, what tragedies does her family hold close? And is it possible to love and forgive when you learn what those secrets are? This journey to Wisconsin has the potential of being healing and good learning experience or it could scar everyone involved. Lucy is going to learn that love and forgiveness go hand in hand and what you do in the now will definitely affect the future.

Ms Kring is one of my favorite authors. She manages to craft quirky and endearing characters and her stories always leave the reader feeling truly good. This story is told from the perspective of an [...] and I dare you as the reader not to fall a little in love with this young lady. This title is a wonderful reminder of the power of love and forgiveness. The cast of characters along with the message within the pages will keep the reader glued to the pages. Ms. Kring is a true talent and I highly recommend any of her titles.

I loved this book. The characters are a bit dysfunctional but truely enjoyable.

Eleven years old twins Lucy and Milo McGowan are both brilliant with IQs off the charts. They live with their single mom in Chicago, but whereas Lucy is curious about people, Milo is indifferent. Her inquisitiveness, some might say nosiness, has led her to declare that she will be a psychologist and a dying need to know about her unknown father, paternal grandfather and anything involving her heritage; Milo couldn't care less about the family tree.

When her mom learns that her father is dying, she and her two kids travel to her hometown of Timber Falls, Wisconsin. Lucy quickly realizes her mom loathes her father and came only to help her mother. Meanwhile Lucy begins to investigate her family; especially the estrangement between her angry grandfather and her relationship phobic mother. She even begins to love the crusty grump although as she learns more about the abuse of the past she finds it hard to care about him.

This superb family drama hooks the audience from the moment mom and the twins go to Wisconsin. Lucy with her conclusions and eye opening revelations makes the tale work. Readers will enjoy this fine intelligent contemporary as Sandra Kring digs deep into the wider impact on others of the estrangement between a daughter and her father mostly through the eyes of the granddaughter.

Harriet Klausner

Oh, it had some things that bothered me - like an over-use and derogatory slang-style use of the word "retarded," digs at the Christian fiction genre as a whole (how is that the "money-making" genre?), but other than that, it was rather enjoyable. Of course, I am a sucker for child narrators and twins (though fraternal twins didn't come off as having a particularly close bond here). It was a bit slow to start, but once the story got rolling, it was hard to put down. I liked the Maude Tuttle character (though she seemed like a total rip-off of _Gone With The Wind_'s Belle Watling... and Nordine seemed a little Melanie-like). Still, it was a fairly charming and brought some humour into this mostly sad story. I thought _The Book of Bright Ideas_ was a stronger book, but this was still a pretty solid novel.