Personally, I liked the book because it was about characters in a specific time frame on a very interesting journey. I felt Pilar could have been better developed but that Mia and Julian were certainly the focus. It is a story about how decisions can affect your future and how/why people make decisions based on outside forces and the lessons we learn from that.

This book stirred emotions in me that I haven't felt in years and had me crying and laughing at various points. The loss of a mother, a divorce, saving pieces of the past...all things that can scar a child and influence their personal lives.

Speaking with Josh on the speakerphone was great for our group. We thoroughly enjoyed his insight into the characters and his 10 year struggle to develop the book into novel form. He is a great person to have speak to a group and I would recommend it to other books clubs interesting in finding out the reasons writers write!

We all agreed, the writing was very consistent through all the different characters letters, a bit too much so. We had to take a leap to even believe different people wrote the different letters. The story was good, entertaining at times and we all had favorite characters. The discussion we had was quite lengthy which made me recommend it but I would caution not to expect a lot of creativity with the lack of difference in the characters writing abilities.

Our group generally was bored with the book and didn't feel there was much to discuss. There was some talk about cults and the definition of a cult. There was also some talk about the historical aspects and what research she did. All felt it was a leap that she was recovering from a collapsed lung and hiking through ruins, caves and places where it would be hard to catch your breath under normal circumstances.

Light read, poorly constructed, too easy to read.

Reading Bill Dedman and Paul Newell's book will at once haunt, mesmerize and perplex you. The main character, Huguette Clark, was rich beyond most rich and yet revered her privacy more than others of her class. The story talks about her life, loves, hobbies, her many homes that lay empty with full time caretakers and the fascinating stories that go along with all of them. A great group discussion book because it provides many thought-provoking ideas about what wealth can do to people, her intentions about where her money should go after she died, and what actually happened to it.

Only one member enjoyed reading this book because of personal identification with some of the issues brought up by the writer such as death of a parent or mid-life crisis. The book is not a classic or a book that would inspire you. She whines a lot about not being loved by her father and why he loves her daughter more than her. She is not a compelling lead character and quite flawed. There were lots of questions left that we couldn\\\'t answer due to unresolved character development.

One of my all time favorite reads. Gave me a new perspective of Frank Lloyd Wright.

A beautifully written and insightful tribute by a dying doctor to his newborn daughter. A life encapsulated into vignettes searching for the meaning of life. Lovely piece, depressing to some, but full of life affirming hope.

This book is so predictable that the "surprises and curves" felt more like foregone conclusions. A light read, easy for airplane rides or on the beach. Not one of the heavy hitters we've read in the past.

Hard to feel sympathy for an author who makes terrible choices, never takes the blame for her bad decisions, blames her misfortune on everyone else and drones on and on about the awful stuff she had to clean rather than being thankful she had a job at all. She seemed to feel that going to school was the answer to all her problems and yet took out massive loans which will be something else she’ll complain about. She needs to keep a gratitude journal!