A well written retelling of a Russian fairy tale set in the 1920's. The ending leaves room for interpretation as to what really happened. That makes for good discussion for the book club.

This book made you laugh out loud, yet was also very poignant . You could visualize scenes that created very funny pictures in your head. I think it would make a wonderful comedy for the movies, despite the fact that it also deals with someone going through chemo, someone whose husband was cheating on her, and someone who had lost her only child and husband.

I did not think this book presented much new material to me. I did learn from the study on babies and how deeplyis in some people.

I very much enjoyed this book, but many in my book club did not. Paulette Jiles wrote the book without using quotation marks, which made it challenging for some to read . Also she includes excerpts for Civil War diaries and papers at the beginning of each chapter. Some liked this bit of history, but others did not. I thought the lyrical language and the characterization were exceptionally well done. Ms Jiles came to our meeting which was a real plus. I loved getting to ask questions directly to the author.