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4.0étoiles sur 5
A Heart-Warming Story to Make You Count Your Blessings, Juil 15 2006
Blessings is one of those rare novels which takes a single-word title into seven-dimensions of meaning in a delightful story about family love.
Before introducing the story, let me outline the "blessings" references to help you appreciate the subtleties of this book.
1. Blessings is a place, the country home of the Blessing family.
2. The Blessings are a family that has had its ups and downs and sees its extinction coming.
3. Blessings are those gifts that we receive from God every day that we take for granted . . . like our families, the beauties of nature around us and our health.
4. Blessings occur when a new child is born . . . something we often call a blessed event.
5. Blessings are ours when others show love and appreciation for us.
6. Blessings can move us to live a better life when we are inspired to turn to goodness.
As the story begins, an unwed couple is sneaking up at night on Blessings, the home of 80 year-old Lydia Blessing. Startled by a security light, the father takes their baby to the bottom of the stairs to the garage apartment rather than the main house. There, handyman Skip Cuddy discovers the little girl and takes her in. He finds himself totally charmed and challenged by this baby.
Soon, Lydia Blessing realizes that Skip is parenting a baby alone and agrees to help him tend Faith. From that awkward beginning a strong bond develops among the three of them.
Strengthened by this chance to nurture Faith, Skip and Lydia discover new depths of love, understanding and respect in one another. How well will these bonds endure when the world's expectations and perceptions intervene? The answer to that question is what makes this a grand story.
Many will be disappointed with the story's ending, finding the transcendent focus of the conclusion to be unsatisfyingly spiritual . . . rather than tangible.
For me, the book's main weakness was a tendency to over draw characters and situations which made the story clearer . . . but less convincing. If you read it more like you would a fable, you will undoubtedly rate the book as a five-star effort.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Birth, re-birth, love and redemption, Jui 14 2004
Par Un client
When a tiny baby is found outside of a caretaker's garage at a down at its heels estate, many lives are changed. Anne Quinlan touches the reader's heart on many different levels. A bitter, eccentric old dowager who has no heirs, an ex-con with a heart of gold, and a brilliant Eurasian girl are the main characters. Oh, and yes, there is the baby, named "FAITH". Faith is the cornerstone of this novel. Times change, mores change, and people can grow to become bitter, or more open to others. The only thing which annoyed me was the mother of the child, the teenaged mother, who doesn't deserve the baby. Obviously,the author leaves you believing that her parents will take over the childcare of the baby and all will be well. Secrets of long ago color the present, adn when the dowager dies, the future as well. A great book to be read in a couple of days. A heartwarmer. Even if loose ends tie up a little too easily, and characters redeem themselves too nobly in the end it is a great read. If everything seems a little too perfect, enjoy it for what it is;a book of second chances.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Blessings: an amazing novle, Mai 9 2004
"Well, I'm assuming the place won't be called Blessings anymore."
"No," the woman said. "Leave it where it is. People love the idea of a place with a name." (Pg. 256) After reading Blessings by Anna Quindlen, you will feel as if you have become Skip Cuddy. Everything that Skip does, one can relate to very easily. The main thing that can be learned from this book is to take what you can get from life, and enjoy every minute of it. In the beginning, a boy and a girl drop a box off at the foot of the garage at Blessings. Skip finds this box and discovers that there is a baby wrapped up in a flannel shirt in it. For a few weeks Skip tries to keep the baby a secret from Lydia Blessing, the owner of Blessings. Lydia Blessing is an 80 year old woman who has so many stories from her past to share. Some of them make her happy, and others make her sad, like the death of her brother Sunny. Even though Lydia meets Skip in a Wal-Mart parking lot, she decides to let him live in the apartment above the garage that the Fosters used to live in so that he can help around the house with the yard work. The one thing that Lydia found out about Skip is that he had served jail time for a crime that he didn't commit. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time with his friends, who really committed the crime. Throughout the next few months Lydia learns to be more open to things and learns to trust Skip, or rather, Charles more. Lydia didn't like to call people by a nickname. Skip falls in love with the baby, and names her Faith. Skip enjoys watching her every chance he gets. One can tell that even Lydia begins to love Faith for she would listen for Faith on the baby monitor when Skip was out. One other way that Lydia changes is that she actually tries to talk to her daughter Meredith more, and even invites her to come and visit. One night Skip sees a light on in Lydia's house that isn't normally on. Then he sees a shadow walk by the light, and can tell that it is not Lydia. He makes a comment that he wishes that Lydia had put a phone in his apartment. So, Skip decides to go down and find out who is there. Sure enough, it is Skip's old friends Joe, Chris, and Ed. They are trying to rob the place. Chris being there made Skip so angry that he picked up the teapot that was on the floor and wanted to throw it at him. As moments passed, Lydia came into the room and saw Skip holding the teapot in one hand, and a gun in the other hand. Lydia had never seen Skip like this. Once the police arrived, they took Skip away because having the gun was a violation of his parole. Later on, Lydia felt very bad about what she had caused Skip to go through again. So, what will happen to Skip and Faith? Will Skip be able to keep Faith? What happens to Lydia? If you want to know what happens and the answers to these questions, you must read this book. Once I picked up this book, I could not put it down. I just wanted to continue reading it. You have to give a lot of credit to Anna Quindlen for writing such an amazing book. She makes you feel as if you are in the story by referring back and forth from Skip's past and Lydia's past to the present. This is a must read book.
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