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    Things I Want My Daughters to Know
    Things I Want My Daughters to Know
    Things I Want My Daughters to Know
    Audiobook13 hours

    Things I Want My Daughters to Know

    Written by Elizabeth Noble

    Narrated by Patience Tomlinson

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When Barbara realizes time is running out, she writes letters to her four daughters, aware they'll be facing the trials and triumphs of life without her at their side. But how can she leave them when they still have so much growing up to do? Lisa, in her mid-thirties but incapable of making a commitment; or Jennifer, trapped in a stale marriage. Twenty something Amanda, a traveller and always distanced from the rest of the family. And Hannah, a teenage girl on the verge of womanhood, about to be parted from the mother she adores. But by drawing on the wisdom in Barbara's letters, the girls might just find a way to cope with her loss. And in coming to terms with their bereavement, can they also set themselves free to enjoy life with all the passion and love each deserves?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateOct 1, 2008
    ISBN9781407430904
    Things I Want My Daughters to Know
    Author

    Elizabeth Noble

    Mystery, action, chills, and thrills spiced with romance and desire. ELIZABETH NOBLE lives by the adage "I can't not write." She doesn't remember a time when she didn't make up stories and eventually she learned how to put words on a page. Those words turned into books and fan fiction that turned into a genuine love of M/M fiction. A part of every day is spent living in worlds she created that are filled with intrigue and espionage. She has a real love for a good mystery complete with murder and twisty plots as well as all things sci-fi, futuristic, and supernatural. When she's not chronicling the adventures of her many characters, Elizabeth is a veterinary nurse living in her native Cleveland, Ohio. She has three grown children and now happily shares her little, brick house with two spunky Cardigan Welsh Corgis and their feline sidekicks. Elizabeth is a fan of baseball, basketball (go Cavs and Guardians) and gardening. She can often be found working in her 'outside office' listening to classic rock and plotter her next novel waiting for it to be dark enough to gaze at the stars. Elizabeth has received a number of amateur writing awards. Since being published, several of her novels have received Honorable Mentions in the Rainbow Awards. Jewel Cave was a runner-up in the Gay Mystery/Thriller category in the 2015 Rainbow Awards. Ringed Love was a winner in the Gay Fantasy Romance category of the 2016 Rainbow Awards. Code Name Jack Rabbit and The Vampire Guard series placed third in The Paranormal Romance Guild 2022 Reviewer Awards in the LGBT/ROMANCE/ACTION ADVENTURE/MILITARY individual book and series categories.

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    Reviews for Things I Want My Daughters to Know

    3.5/5

    209 ratings28 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Not a book I would have read on my own - or one I would have finished, were it not an Early Reviewers book (from long ago...). There's a heavy focus on marriage being the path to happiness, for both men and women - and children in marriage, for most of them. There's also a heck of a lot of angst, some of which seemed overdone to me. Still, it's a rich story, with a lot of people pushing through places where they were stuck and moving on to new (or back to old, but improved) stability. It was complicated to follow - multiple POVs, not (as far as I recall) including Barbara's (the mother), aside from the letters. The timeline was rather twisted up, too - something would happen, there would be reactions, then the next scene would be something after the event but before the reactions (in one case, it was how one daughter happened to be at the family home at the time to react). Overall, I'm glad I read it but I don't expect to reread, or to seek out more by this author.
    • 4/5
      This is one of those novels where there are no sweeping plot lines, but there is so much emotion and character that you feel like you know these people in real life. I loved the way that this family was so real but also there was so much love and genuineness. And that the growth that occurs as this family mourns the loss of their mother is so suffused with love. And I loved the British phrases and ways of saying things - fun for me though I'm sure totally normal for those living in Britain.
    • 4/5
      This was a beautiful book. Barbara has been diagnosed with cancer. Various therapy have not been successful, and she therefore prepares herself and her family. Barbara writes a series of letters to her 4 daughters - Lisa,Jennifer,Amanda and Hannah. Each one has problems that they can not face, yet the letter they each receive from their mother upon her death is pivital in their moving on through the grief to a happy future.
    • 5/5
      Barbara is running out of time & she knows and accepts this. Knowing that her duty as a mother will always be with her regardless of her situation, she reaches out to them, to help guide them with letters she's left behind after her passing. Barbara has four daughters: Lisa, the eldest who doesn't think she can't commit in a relationship & finds herself needing her mother more now that she's gone. Jennifer, the one who's so wound tight she could just burst. With a marriage on the rocks, Jennifer needs to learn to let go & come to terms that she can be happy and carefree. Amanda who's always traveling from continent to continent, who will only stay in one place long enough to send a post card & a call home... maybe. She's always shunned herself from her family & doesn't want to fall in love, little does she know that what she's looking for, just might be closer to home. And then there's Hannah, young, sweet Hannah. Hannah is in her early teens, just crossing that line into womanhood and her mother is abruptly taken from her. She holds it together long enough to help her dad, but soon finds herself straying to a path that is no good for her. When I picked up this book, I picked it up because the title really grabbed my attention. Plus, the cover is beautiful. I absolutely love my mom & wanted to read this book & find out what a mother could want her daughters to know. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end and shed tears, both happy & sad. Even though Barbara passes away early in this book, she's still there, through her letters. Elizabeth Noble did a really good job of bringing Barbara's character through in the letters. It was like she never even left. This book jumps from character to character, each time digging deeper into their lives & what's going on with them. I really enjoyed that, it kept me reading. The trials and tribulations of life can be hard, but to face them and not have your mother there to help you when you need her has got to be much harder. I can honestly say that I loved everything about this book, I had no dislikes. I really liked the whole "letters" thing. Of course, this book would really be nothing without those letters. But, I really did enjoy them, to think that this mom helped her daughters overcome big obstacles in their lives & bring her family closer together from a few letters written before her death, is amazing to me. I really should've written this review for mothers day. I would definitely recommend this book, it was a really good read & I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I have never heard of Elizabeth Noble until now & she can is forever on my TBR list.
    • 2/5
      Barbara's death from cancer is devastating for her four daughters and their grief proves to be a catalyst for change as each struggles to come to terms with their loss. Knowing her time was short, Barbara wrote each much loved daughter a letter and bequeathed them her diary to share her thoughts and offer them encouragement in moving on with their lives. These gifts are both a source of comfort and distress for the girls, revealing loving truths and family secrets.Noble deftly avoids the potential for cloying sentimentality, given the premise, with wry observation and a hint of the famous British 'stiff upper lip'. Yet it also lacks the emotional impact I was expecting, leaving me largely unaffected by the fairly conventional storyline. The story unfolds through a combination of Barbara's letters and journal entries, the voices of her daughters' - Lisa, Jen, Amanda and Hannah, and Barbara's husband, Mark in the year following her death. It's an effective story telling technique, allowing each character to share their personal experiences and illustrate their familial relationships. The girls face fairly predictable problems - Lisa is afraid of committing to her boyfriend, Jen's reluctance to have a child is placing a strain on her marriage, Amanda's wanderlust hides her insecurity and Hannah is navigating her teen years without her mother's guidance. These issues are treated with sensitivity though without any marked depth. I did appreciate that Noble carefully exploited her characters flaws which kept me interested, even if not particularly concerned, in the choices they faced and the decisions they made.Things I Want My Daughter To Know was a rather ordinary read for me despite it's appealing premise. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, it simply failed to capture my imagination.
    • 3/5
      Got it for $1 at Big Lots. It was worth the dollar but it lacked hooks to keep you reading. I only kept reading it because it was for my English class. I'm not a huge fan of this type of genre but if you are then you will probably love it. It is full of human emotions: mourning, anger, confusion, love, and happiness. It literally takes you on an emotional roller coaster. Would only recommend to lovers of this genre.
    • 4/5
      I didn't go into this book with high expectations. It felt kind of predictable... a Mom that passes away and leaves behind posthumous letters for her daughters that help them in their lives. Their lives seem to fall apart after she leaves, but somehow love prevails, which always resonates with me.(Can't help it!) However, what I really liked was the idea of writing letters to your kids so that they would know more about you as their mother. I'm hoping to do that with my own children someday.Even though the writing itself is kind of difficult to follow at first because you follow the story through so many different perspectives, I found that part enjoyable once I got a hang of who each character was. I felt like it made me care a lot more about each one of them instead of just focusing on one character throughout the whole story.Overall, the different things that happen to each of the daughters was somewhat predictable, but in the end I still felt satisfied - feeling like I shared some important events in their lives with them. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this book. I am looking forward to checking out her other books.
    • 3/5
      This book was kind of slow going, and never really drew me in very much. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great. The description made it sound better than it was. But I did finish it, and in the end was somewhat interested in some of what was going on. I'm sure some people will really love it, but for me it was just average.
    • 5/5
      It had me from the start. Even being an only child, I felt I could relate to this book. One doesn't have to have sisters or a mother's death in her family to enjoy this book and connect with the characters. The character's were unique, and blended in with the other character's so skillfully.The story is focused around the death of the mother. In her last days she has written to her daughter's, giving each of them their own letter. After her death it tells how each daughter is coping with the loss, along with the mother's husband. This story is touching and feels so real. There was nothing about it that I didn' love.
    • 3/5
      Unlike some of Noble's other books, I had trouble getting through Things I Want My Daughters to Know. Still the heart of the book, the relationships between the mother and daughters made the book worth reading. If you've been through a similar situation - a parent coping with illness, then the story is easy to relate to and understand.
    • 2/5
      After a couple of power outages (insert snicker here) I finally managed to finish Things I Want My Daughters To Know by Elizabeth Noble. Barbara, who is dying of cancer decides to write letters to each of her daughters. These letters are shared with them after her death along with one of her journals. As you can imagine, these letters tell of her love for them, what she hopes they achieve in life and also a secret that she had been carrying with her for quite some time.First off, there are many daughters to speak of. I was a bit distracted by the number of daughters. There are four of them. Jennifer is married to Stephen and it not happy with her marriage. She is uptight and prissy. Lisa is a bit more fluid. She is dating Andy, a really nice guy and she's not sure where the relationship is going or if she even wants one with him. Amanda is the "wild child". Always moving, always off to another country. I really liked Amanda. She meets Ed and we get to see a softer side to her. Hannah is the baby of the family at sixteen years of age and she is the product of Barbara's second marriage to Mark. I don't feel that Hannah's character really came through for me. She seemed very one dimensional and flat. However, I adored Mark, Barbara's second husband. He seemed almost too good to be true but a great guy to have in the family.My main problem with this book is that I really did not like Barbara. I didn't hate her, but I didn't like her. Her letters were a bit on the shallow side and her decision to share her secret in that way... I did not approve of it. I "get" that parents can be flawed. I'm a parent and I am in no way perfect. Not even close, but the letters were not affectionate to me. Not really. They sort of made me feel as if Barbara was a bit of a coward. Writing letters about stuff that probably should have been shared in person.At the end, I was left wondering whose story this was. I felt that Noble tried to give the characters equal time but in doing so, I never got to hear any one character's voice to its fullest. I also felt the end was a bit rushed. As if tying up all the loose ends was an issue. I really would have liked to have heard this story through Mark's voice. He was truly the anchor in all of this.As for a book club pick, I could see this being discussed by a book club. There are lots of issues to debate and question and the development of some of the sisters was quite good and I wanted to know more about them.
    • 4/5
      A mother dying of cancer, four sisters and a grieving father. Sounds like a book about death, but really, it's a book about life. It's the life of the family surrounding the mother's death told in conjunction with the writings of the mother's letters to her daughters and of the journal she kept as she went through treatment after treatment.Personally, I was afraid that this book would be too much, as I have a parent currently dying of kidney cancer. The story is not so much about the death and dying part itself, it's more about what kinds of things the daughters discovered as a result of their mother's death. It's about love, relationships, knowing oneself, and finding out where you belong.
    • 4/5
      I picked this one up with some trepidation, as it was another of my mother-in-law's airport purchases and the cover looked as frothy as the last one (The Model Wife). But it was a pleasant surprise - a tear-jerky feelgood read about the lives of four sisters in the year after the death of their mother. I thought Hannah's storyline was a bit of a cliché and the girl-ends-up-with-boy inevitabilities could have been varied a bit by one of them turning out to be gay, or something, but otherwise nothing much to complain about.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book. A beautiful story, that while sad at times, ended just as it should. This author never disappoints me.
    • 3/5
      Barbara dies but is still very much alive in the minds of her second husband and four daughters, as they cope with their loss over the next year. The book moves very slowly and one potentially interesting plot point (the paternity of one of the daughters) is not fully explored.
    • 3/5
      Finally, an Early Reviewer book that didn't disappoint. I was beginning to seriously question the taste of all publishing house staff members!With well-developed characters and an engaging storyline, Noble has written a book that will appeal to a wide audience. While it may not be as emotionally compelling as it has the potential to be, it also doesn't delve too deeply or necessitate an evaluation of one's own life - keeping it chick-lit-lite.
    • 4/5
      So much of life is hard to explain. You can tell your children about the sorts of things they'll encounter--the pitfalls, the times of joy, the worries--but, ultimately, they must deal with them themselves. Elizabeth Noble's "Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel" was full of all the joy and sorrows of life. A little predictable, perhaps, but then (as looked at from the age of 52) life is, too. The characters were very well fleshed-out and you care about what happens to them. While 20-something characters are getting harder and harder for me to identify with, I loved the multiple perspectives included in the novel.
    • 5/5
      Anyone who has read Elizabeth Noble before will probably tell you that she creates memorable characters who actually feel real. They mess up, they lie, they don't always do what they should. But they also laugh, they cry, they fall in love. This books centers mostly on the bond between sisters, between mother and daughters, and between blended families. It is also about love and the simplicity, complexity and overall necessity of it in our lives. While the book may start out with a death, it is definitely all about life.
    • 5/5
      It was well written. Loo, telly, etc. Mother's journal and letters to daughters, secret told.
    • 3/5
      Early Reviewers--I found this book a bit too light and breathless for my taste. I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it and it is an easy read so should appeal to a wide audience. It is mostly a story about women but don't look for any startling or interesting challenges. These women are defined solely by their relationship with their mother and the man in their life. They are neither intelligent nor ambitious nor hard working, unlike most women I know. Events occur, secrets are revealed, some very interesting, but the resolution is always tied up with a bow when the reader (at least me) is looking for something more. The letter to Amanda telling her about her real father simply didn't ring true. Only a cruel mother would have left such a letter and the obvious explanation an effort to hurt the child who neglected her mother when dying. It creates a genuine mystery but these young women are not up to any challenges. Amanda finds a man and falls into his arms. There are good stories here but like her characters the author needs to work a little harder.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of four daughters (and a husband) living through the first year after their mother's death. Much of it is stereotype: the fiercely independent eldest daughter; the more judgemental daughter in a marriage-gone-cold; the wanderer; and the teenager. Oh, and the husband.The journal left behind by the mother is not the book of lists you might suspect from the title. It's not even things along the lines of "laugh more, try new things" advice. Rather, it's the story of how her first marriage (where she had the older daughters) began and ended. And how she met her second husband and had the fourth child. And the stories of each of the girls' birth. And a little of this and a little of that.There are a few twists, and it's all very entertaining, but you can see the happy ending - wrapped in a nice package with a little bow - coming from way way away.Things I Want My Daughters To Know will end up on the chick-lit table at the bookstore. But, you ask, did I enjoy it? Absolutely.
    • 4/5
      I felt that the book was, at least to some extent, wrapped up a little too easily into a nice, happy ending. I did, however, enjoy it very much.Elizabeth Noble really expresses the idea that we as children have about our mothers: they are our mothers, and that is it. Then she shatters that illusion (as most of us have experienced) by making the mother into a "real person" who has a life beyond what we imagine.I'm not sure that I'm expressing myself very clearly, but that's about the best I can do. I did really enjoy the book, although I would have liked a slightly less "easy" ending.
    • 4/5
      I received Things I Want My Daughters to Know from LibraryThings's Early Reviewer program. This is the fourth novel I have read by Elizabeth Noble and I think it is one of her better works. This novel falls into the category of women's fiction and primarily explores the relationships between the characters in the book, their struggles and frustrations. Things are tied up quite neatly in the end, to give a happy but probably somewhat unrealistic ending. Such is the genre.At the beginning of this book, matriarch Barbara dies, leaving behind four daughters, a husband, letters for each of her daughters and a journal. Barbara's girls are of varying ages, lending to the story the opportunity to explore different times of life, that of marriage, children, dating, and the teen years. Each girl struggles with the loss of her mother, and in turn feels guilt, anger, and acceptance. Barbara's husband Mark, father to one daughter and stepfather to the others, also struggles, yet serves as the moral checkpoint and support person for the women.I think Noble's books are generally very 'readable'. There is some substance here, made clear by the premise, but also humor, romance, and relationship struggles. This sort of book serves its purpose - to entertain, and pleasantly pass the time. I always enjoy a book set in England so that was a positive for me. It is not serious or in-depth enough to necessarily comfort or help someone in a similar position, in my opinion. I couldn't find a picture of the cover to post (though there is one in the Amazon link I've provided) , but I wanted to mention that the cover image looks less like chick-lit than Noble's previous books. I think that may help Noble solidify her audience and find her new fans as well.
    • 2/5
      As an avid reader and someone with varied tastes, I found myself struggling to enjoy and even complete this book. In fact, I made it halfway through, and I had to stop because I couldn't force myself to spend time with it and since I hate starting a new book while I'm in the middle of one, I actually stopped reading completely for about a week and a half. When I realized what I was doing, I decided to put down the book.I don't think Noble is a bad writer, or one that is particularly hard to grasp. However, I found that this storyline is a bit contrived, a bit overdone, a bit like every sappy movie that should star Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. The characters felt two-dimensional to me, and the overall plot concept was too overdone for me to be able to enjoy this.Noble as a writer is fine; this book just failed to connect to me on any level.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as an Advance Reader edition from the publisher as part of the Early Reviewers group! I was so excited to receive a book for free!The story of a family with four daughters, the book begins with the mother's death. You get to read alternating passages about each of the four daughters and their (largely messed up) lives. The mother left letters and a diary with advice and lessons she wanted her daughters to know, also cleverly interspersed into the narrative. The writing was lovely, the characters well-drawn. As a marriage counselor, I particularly liked the depictions of relationships within the novel, and the way that Elizabeth Noble detailed several different styles of relationships within the narrative.I don't know if it was because I was reading this while my cousin was dying or not, but it was all very "Terms of Endearment" to me. If you like that sort of heart-wrenching, life-examining kind of work, it was really good. I'm afraid it was a bit maudlin for me, but an easy read and one that wasn't just entertaining but meaningful too. I'd read Elizabeth Noble again in a New York minute, but maybe I'd wait until I was in a better mood for this one!
    • 4/5
      In most 'coming to grips with parents death' books, it starts right at the end stage of the illness or right before the tragic accident. In this book, you meet the mother after her death through a series of letters she has left for her four daughters. She pours out her heart, soul and secrets in these letters. Her daughters must then wrestle with the demons already present in their lives and the new complications these secrets cause. These four women are so different, can they bind together again and be the family that their mother wanted them to be? Emotional, heart wrenching and filled with realistic dialog, this book is great for mothers and daughters or anyone who has lost someone and wished they had just a few more minutes with them.
    • 4/5
      this was a very enjoyable book. It was more then just a book about unsaid things between mother and daughters, it was also about sisterhood and moving on after sadness.the gist of the book is about a mother who dies leaving behind her four daughters and a younger husband. each of the daughters are having issues in their personal lives... and they are somewhat enlightened by letters left to them by their mother.in the span of a year, we learn that the sisters realize that the mother they thought was perfect in every way had a secret or two of her own, but they are able to still love her despite her big secret.the usual story lines are there, love after the death of a loved one, rebellion, self doubt, fear. ... its all in there... but its well done. to top it all of , its brittish.. and who doesn't love a british novel?
    • 5/5
      "Things I Want My Daughters to Know" was a wonderful read with characters that reach out and carry you into their lives. Barbara in particular comes to life in this novel, warm, funny and genuine. Barbara's journal and the letters she leaves behind after her death bring comfort to three of her four daughters, but Barbara falls from her pedestal of perfection when one daughter's letter reveals a secret no one suspected. This is not a mystery novel however, it is a story of the hole left in a family after losing their beloved mother and wife, and a look into the first year without her. I truly enjoyed this one.