Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
Iris Stern considers herself to be a thoroughly modern woman, although she still holds steadfast to her old-fashioned sensibilities. She has a successful career in academia and a happy marriage. But as the mother of four adult children, each with their own lives to live and burdens to bear, Iris often finds her sensibilities called into question when confronted with the choices her children have made.For Iris' daughter, Laura, the choice is a fresh start in New York City - and a last chance to s...
Although I am not quite done with this book, I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would. I have been a fan of Belva Plain for over 30 years, starting with her first book Evergreen; there are not too many Jewish family sagas written these days, unlike years ago when She along with Gloria Goldreich and Maisie Mosco wrote several novels in this genre. Although not all of Belva's books were family sagas, I enjoyed these the most. Knowing that Belva Plain was quite elderly, and after hearing t...
Pretty typical multi relationship saga of families along with some romance and a family mystery. A little twist at the end I didn’t expect. Overall a book to read when one doesn’t need extra challenges in life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this final and posthumous novel written by my beloved Belva Plain. I read "Evergreen" as a young woman, commuting to work in a busy city. Those hours on buses in Atlanta were my favorite time to read and relax. Evergreen was a book that stayed in my memory for more than 30 years. And now, as a last gift, Ms. Plain (who died recently at age 90) has finished the story of ANNA's children and grandchildren in this lovely, heartbreaking tale of Iris Stern (Anna's daughter), Theo,...
Boring ........... not horrible but boring ......
This was my soap opera/beach book for the summer. It kept me entertained while I sewed and washed windows but was pretty shallow.
Three and a half stars. It is years since I have read a Belva Plain book but this was probably just what I needed after the last book, Through the Cracks, which was oddly compelling but hard to read. This book is the opposite. It is like snuggling into a warm bed on a cold night. It just sort of wraps around you. The people and the themes are familiar. That’s not to say that I didn’t get angry with the way Iris, and Laura at times dealt with the issues that arose, but this was an average sort of...
Heartwood: The older harder nonliving central wood of trees that is usually darker, denser, less permeable, and more durable than the surrounding sapwood. -Merriam Webster DictionaryUpon closing the novel, swells of warmth and melancholia flooded my heart. I smiled and thought, “What a wonderful way to end the story, she started in the 1978 paperback edition of EVERGREEN.” But the tear tracking down my right cheek mourned the fact that I’ll never know the story of Anna Friedman’s great grand-da...
Robbie sure got the short end of the stick. The author took the easy way out with the solution to Laura's problem. It would have been much better to make Laura deal with the issue directly so that she would mature in the process. I'd have rather seen a divorce between the two and a hea for Robbie. He wasn't any worse the Laura. Laura was immature as well. She really should have acted like a grown up wife and talked to him about her needs and made the marriage better. Instead she decides the gras...
This book captivated me from the first page. In its telling, the story unfolds beautifully, piece by small piece, section by section. The flow and the sentences are structured with such precision it is truly a delight to turn to each new page. The author’s astute understanding of human relationships and of the bonds between family members radiates throughout. Caught up in the lives of characters I cared for, I had little thought for the passage of time and read late, late into the night. There i...
"Heartwood" is Belva Plain’s last novel, a sequel to Harvest actually. Belva Plain is one of my favorite authors and did not disappoint me with this contemporary fiction novel about love, marriage, life’s challenges, family relationships, forgiveness, infidelity and secrets. I enjoyed reading this book very much because it delves into the inner workings of marriage and family. It continues the saga of a Jewish family that Belva Plain first writes about in Evergreen. This is about Laura, who trie...
I have read just about all of Belva Plain's books and this was very good. It is just sad that this author has passed away, as she is a wonderful story teller.Though Iris Stern considers herself a modern woman, with a successful academic career and a happy marriage, she still holds steadfast to her old-fashioned sensibilities. But as the mother of three adult children, each with their own lives and burdens to bear, she often finds those sensibilities called into question when confronted with the
Heartwood • by Belva PlainTrying too hard to be a tearjerker, as the story presents the family, Iris Stern and her adult children, dealing with challenges of life and secrets. After some anti Vietnam War propaganda the story becomes a morality tale; commitment verses feelings and infatuation. Should you stay married to your perfectly okay spouse or dump the relationship in pursuit of someone you feel is a soulmate? Laura struggles with dumping her marriage vows in pursuit of pleasure with someon...
I had read a couple of this author’s books in my twenties/thirties, ie my distant past, and remembered them with a vague fondness, but had no recall of what they were about. When I came upon this book in my library I thought I’d give it a go as the first paragraph appeared to be written from the POV of a woman with grown children, such as myself. However that changed quickly, and the novel was more about the only perfect daughter and her life than about the mom, Iris. I didn’t love this book eve...
