Obtained specifically for release. Click on amazon.com for synopsis & reviews.

I'm so excited! Received four books in the mail today from watchcat and they all look great! Thanks, watchcat, you are very generous.

Promised to SpikesMom.

Maybe I've been reading too many mysteries lately, but this book seemed to me to go nowhere. I guess I'm not used to books with so little action any more. In a way I enjoyed it, but it seemed so slow, compared to other books I've read lately.

I think Henkin is a good writer, but I needed a more plot-driven book.

Sent to spikesmom via media mail.

Just got in a trade with solittletime. Love the BC art on the front cover!

Can't wait to read this. Hope it doesn't languish forever on Mt. TBR!

I started off really liking this. This author can write.

This is the story of a man, Ben, who was adopted, along with his brother, Jonathan. There are five months' difference between the two. They were raised as Jews, in an Orthodox Jewish household, but they both moved to San Francisco after college: Jonathan to be with his lover and Ben to follow.

There is a lot of material to mine in here. Deep, rich, fabulous material.

But I was derailed pretty early on by the same problem that most of the characters face: Ben is very very ambivalent about everything. So much so that it's impossible for me to like him, and to want to read about him.

I spent a lot of time wondering why his girlfriend was with him if all she did was nag him about his ambivalence. What sort of relationship they had if she told him to make an appointment with an adoption counselor and he went just to please her, but then lied to the counselor about what he wanted to know.

Same thing with his first meeting with Susan. For so long, the whole adoption spectre had hung over him, had defined him, had made Jonathan crazy with Ben's wonderings and imaginings that you'd think Ben would finally be able to shake off his lethargy and find out what it was that he'd always wanted to know.

But for the most part, he doesn't. And the reader is left as unsatisfied as the rest of the people in Ben's life.

Arrived safe and sound. Thank you!

I agree with solittletime and Spikesmom on this. The book was okay. It could have moved faster. Ben was ambivalent and annoying.

I did gain some understanding on Jewishness.

Sending as a Bookrelay to lovemylife.

Enjoy!

Book arrived today. Thank you, lauraloo29.

Finished reading this book this morning. It tells the story of two adopted boys who are 5 months apart in age. They are almost raised like twins. Ben, the teller of the story, is worried about many things: his religion (Jewish, but he is not a Jew,) his parents, his girlfriend, his birthmothe, but most of all about his brother Jonathan. Sometimes I wanted to jump in there and tell him to cool it.
I am now sending this book to oldreader.

box of books from lovemylife.What varied and interesting reads these look like.thanks

Very well writtenWish I would have read this earlier.The story of two adopted brothers and their discoveries about birth mothers and themselves.

RELEASE NOTES:

my last bookrelay.Gonna miss that site.

This is something that got here about a week ago, but got lost in a pile of mail. It is part of my Book Lust challenge and will be read soon, I hope.