or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
98 used & new from $0.71

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Cee Cee, Want Mr Daughters, New Year's Eve (more...)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

List Price: $22.95
Price: $16.52 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $6.43 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Monday, November 16? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
42 new from $2.89 56 used from $0.71

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover $16.52 $2.89 $0.71
  Paperback, Large Print $20.20 $3.96 $3.96
  Audio, Download Offsite Link $16.18 or less with new Audible membership

Frequently Bought Together

Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel + Belong to Me: A Novel + Love Walked In
Price For All Three: $32.25

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel by Elizabeth Noble

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Belong to Me: A Novel by Marisa De los Santos

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Love Walked In by Marisa De los Santos

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Friendship Test: A Novel

The Friendship Test: A Novel

by Elizabeth Noble
3.3 out of 5 stars (16)  $12.71
The Reading Group: A Novel (P.S.)

The Reading Group: A Novel (P.S.)

by Elizabeth Noble
3.8 out of 5 stars (68)  $10.76
Alphabet Weekends: Love on the Road from A to Z

Alphabet Weekends: Love on the Road from A to Z

by Elizabeth Noble
3.9 out of 5 stars (21)  $10.76
The Tenko Club

The Tenko Club

by Elizabeth Noble
Love Walked In

Love Walked In

by Marisa De los Santos
3.8 out of 5 stars (144)  $10.08
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Noble (The Reading Group) hits her stride in her tearjerker fourth novel. Before Barbara Forbes, a mother of four, succumbs to terminal cancer, she leaves words of wisdom for her four daughters in the form of letters to each of them. In the year following Barbara's death, her daughters draw strength from her words and from each other as they move forward with their lives. Lisa, the eldest, is advised to "let someone look after [her]" for a change. Jennifer, "fragile and hard to reach," struggles with an unraveling marriage. Free-spirited Amanda is thrown for a loop by a family secret, and teenaged Hannah, experiencing her first taste of rebellion, is reminded that she still has a lot of growing up to do. Though Barbara's life-is-short aphorisms are nothing new, her sharp wit and distinctive voice is a nice complement to the four nuanced stories of coping with death. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

The terrible impact of bodies falling from the sky, the shrill thwack of a golf ball hit out-of-bounds, the elusively tender caress upon a faithful dog’s head. Such tactile, sensory imagery infuses Amend’s lustrous collection of short fiction that celebrates the forlorn and isolated, the disgruntled and misunderstood, the least guarded and most apprehensive among us. With sly humor and subtle insight, Amend traces the uncertain trajectory of love from devotion to deception, blossom to breakup, through relationships both casual and deep. An inner-city schoolteacher tries desperately to break down the barriers between insensitivity and empathy in “Dominion over Every Erring Thing,” while a writer of cybererotica is surprised by a callous lack of loyalty in “The People You Know Best.” In a world where husbands begrudgingly support wives and sisters inexplicably betray brothers, where lovers appear and disappear at whim, Amend’s dialogue is crisp and pure, her observations nuanced and keen, her understanding of the human condition buoyant and clear. --Carol Haggas

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (April 8, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006112219X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061122194
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #243,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Noble
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Elizabeth Noble Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel
49% buy the item featured on this page:
Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel 3.5 out of 5 stars (11)
$16.52
Belong to Me: A Novel
14% buy
Belong to Me: A Novel 4.1 out of 5 stars (69)
$5.65
Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel
13% buy
Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel 3.3 out of 5 stars (3)
$10.79
Love Walked In
13% buy
Love Walked In 3.8 out of 5 stars (144)
$10.08

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(6)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Likable but not lovable, April 8, 2008
By Kathy K (Northeast, PA) - See all my reviews
Although I liked "Things I Want My Daughters to Know," I didn't love it. As a daughter who lost my own mother at an early age, some of the story felt too artificial to me and the pat, happy endings for all the main characters were just a tad too unrealistic for me. Where I feel the author went wrong was by commencing this book in medias res (in the middle of things), after the mother has already died. As a result, the reader never gets the opportunity to genuinely experience the bond between mother and daughters. Therefore, an emotional disconnect exists.

What Noble does extremely well, though, is develop believable characters. In each of the daughters I could see shades of myself and how I dealt with the grief of losing my own mom. Lisa, the oldest, is "too strong for her own good" and afraid to let anyone love her. Jennifer, "proud and intent on emotional independence," strangles herself in love relationships that have long run their course. Amanda, the free spirit, uses travel as a means of escaping the real world. And Hannah, the teen who loses her mother far too soon, struggles to become a woman without her maternal role model to guide her.

In summation, "Things I Want My Daughters to Know" is a good book to pass a lazy afternoon, but it's not one I'd put on my list of all-time favorites.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A book about love: between mothers and daughters, sisters, and others, June 10, 2008
As the once full-of-life Barbara Forbes is being treated for terminal cancer, she begins a journal of things that she wishes to share with her four daughters. She also writes each of her daughters an individual letter to be opened only after her death. There is Lisa, the oldest and most like her, full of life yet stubborn, too; Jennifer, married but obviously unhappy although refusing to talk to anyone about it; Amanda, the daughter who Barbara always considered her "own," as no father was around to raise her; and Hannah, Barbara's late-in-life baby, now left alone with her father, Barbara's grieving and lost second husband, Mark.

The book opens on the day of Barbara's funeral, and so the reader gets to know Barbara only through her writings. The story is told from varying perspectives in turn, including that of Mark in addition to each daughter. Initially, everyone seems to be coping as well as can be expected with Barbara's death (which was anticipated, after all) but it doesn't take long for the delicate surface to begin to give way. Each daugther must wrestle with her own demons, negotiating her own way without her beloved mother for advice and support. Eventually--and with the help of Mark, who plays a crucial role--the family is able to survive their various conflicts and emerge on the dawn side of grief. In the end, the message of this book is a simple one, if a somewhat cliched one: that love conquers all, whether it is a mother's love for her daughters, the love between sisters, or the romantic love that binds two people together forever. Overall, a worthwhile read.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars things i want my daughters to know, October 14, 2008
I enjoyed this book. It doesn't take long to get caught up in the characters. It's a book about life and relationships. An easy but heart felt read.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Why would any grown-up read this book?
Four adult sisters are drawn back together by their mother's death, only to discover that Meg Ryan is way too old to play any of them in the film options. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jennifer M

2.0 out of 5 stars Things I
The title led me to believe this would be a collection of well written wisdom, the kind I might like to pass on to one, or all, of my four daughters. Read more
Published 14 months ago by E. Mullens

2.0 out of 5 stars Editing??????
I haven't finished the book yet, but I find it irritating that it is stated that Barbara's lover didn't know she was pregnant, then later the lover moves away with his family... Read more
Published 16 months ago by M. Fuller

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching book!
This is a great book. I could not put it down. As a mother, I was moved by Barbara's need to leave something for her girls. Read more
Published 17 months ago by NCRK

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremedous!
I loved every page. I have daughters of my own and found it very insightful. If only all fiction could be this griping. Recommend it for the summer and beyond.
Published 18 months ago by B. Kelly

3.0 out of 5 stars pulls you in
No matter what you think of the book, by page 30 you want want to call home to your own mother or someone close to you; by the end you will want your husband (partner) to come... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Michael Mcdaniel

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this Book!
This is definetly one of those books that you don't want to put down. Enjoyed reading it very much. This story has inspired me to keep a journal for my children to give them years... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Jodi L. Stewart

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting character study
Barbara Forbes knows she will die soon from cancer. She tells her second husband and her four adult daughters how she wants them to attend her funeral; none are to weep as they... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Harriet Klausner

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:










i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.