Helpful Score: 7
OMG, what happened? Cathy Lamb's two previous novels were warm, wonderful, funny and poignant. They were well written and felt so real. Henry's Sisters, however, is nothing like her previous efforts. The story of three sisters (cartoons), a learning disabled brother and the mother from hell. The opening scenes of Isabelle burning underwear on her balcony, sitting outside naked and drinking from a bottle of Kahlua while screaming at the occupants of an office building across from her apartment, and draping herself on her black granite countertops naked while still drinking, were ridiculous. I was rolling my eyes throughout the first 75 pages pages until I'd had enough. Unlike my reaction, the book has generated lots of praise from most reviewers, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
Helpful Score: 4
If it wasn't on cover, I'd never guess this book was by Cathy Lamb. I fell in love with The Last Time I Was Me and Julia's Chocolates - unfortunately, this book was NOTHING like the previous two. Another reviewer said the "over-the-top dysfunctionality gets redundant pretty quickly" and that is a perfect way to describe it. This was one of the worst books I've read. A HUGE disappointment. Fans of Cathy Lamb shouldn't waste their time with this stinker.
Helpful Score: 4
Three sisters are messed up psychologically because of bad things that happened, but they still love each other, but even more bad things happen, and it's hard to love each other but they do and then more bad things happen....ugh. Over-the-top dysfunctionality gets redundant pretty quickly.
This was an enjoyable book, nothing terribly deep and it's not the best writing in the world. But it was entertaining. The story moved forward. It's about three sisters and their mother and they all have issues with eachother. They come home to take care of their mother while she is having Open Heart Surgery. They have a mentally retarded brother, a grandmother who thinks she's Amelia Earheart, and they run a dying bakery together. All in all, great for a summer type read.
Helpful Score: 3
Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb is funny, heatwarming, sad, and written with an ease that makes this book a fast read with very interesting characters involved in complicated family relationships and personal difficulties. The trials and tribulations of the Bommarita sisters would be overwhelming to most people. This book has all the emotions, humor, sadness, anger. It is heartbreaking in some places and makes you very angry in other places. Sometimes you laugh, but you will always feel something. What a great story of love, enduring perseverance, extreme patience, and a sense of family even when family was falling apart. This book is about forgivness, healing, love and learning to be yourself and loving who you are in the craziness this world has to offer. If you're looking for a book that reaches down into your soul then this is the book for you.
Helpful Score: 2
Got about 50 pgs into it and decided it was too depressing, vulgar and crude. I read another book of hers and felt the same way at the end, so decided it was too over the top for me.
Helpful Score: 1
The book was an average easy read. Not bad but nothing really exciting. I enjoyed reading it but would certainly not read it again.
Helpful Score: 1
Can't remember when I've cried through a book this much. It is a great story of endurance against all odds...of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary stress...and overcoming. I loved this book...although portions are very upsetting. Real life is like that. A great read. Like every Cathy Lamb book I've read so far.
Helpful Score: 1
I was reading this book while I ate my lunch in a restaurant and found myself crying huge tears and feeling my heart well up in my chest. This is a fantastic story about family dynamics and the eccentricities we develop through the tribulations of our lives and the cost of redemption. A very, very moving story...
Helpful Score: 1
I have to admit I was a little put off by the first several pages, but I'm so glad I stuck with it! It was a wonderful book that tapped into many different emotions. I loved the quirky, diverse characters, the bond they felt to one another, and their undying devotion to Henry which forces them all on a journey they never wanted to take. Watching the characters grow and evolve through good and bad was touching. Grandma was a hoot, and Henry will steal your heart! I enjoyed many laughs, a few tears, but overall a heartwarming and touching novel. This one will definitely go down as a favorite on my list!
Julia's Chocolates is one of the best books that I have read. It was the first chick lit that didn't feel like chick lit. After reading it I put every Cathy Lamb book on my reading list. The Last Time I Was Me wasn't as good a read but it was still pretty engrossing. Henry's Sisters is not as good as either of these books. I don't know if Cathy Lamb has had a horrible life but it sure reads that way. These books are here therapy and she uses them to work out years of anger. The formula is essentially the same with each book, with the characters and drama becoming more extreme with each book. A disappointing turn from such a promising author.
0 stars. I haven't gotten to page 30 and I am so annoyed and can't stand a single character that I cannot go on. When you start with a woman shaking her naked boobs out a window at the workers in the highrise across the street, then sitting naked on her balcony, waving a bottle of Kaluha at them, followed by 2 of the adult sisters rolling around in a fight on an outside deck, ya gotta say enough! There is more of this drivel, and there are more fools. I realize I am being quite harsh, but these are not merely flawed people, they are all rich morons who are written doing these things for shock effect. This is the 3rd book I've read by this author and I see over-exaggeration of characteristics and events is her style. No more Cathy Lamb for me.
I thought this book was a good one when I had read the first few chapters. By the time I got to the last 5-6 chapters, this was a great book. I think this will be a book I will remember for a long, long time.
I loved this book! Yes the family is messed up and has baggage but who doesn't? The beginning is a little strange but once you get past that point and understand why things happen as they do I loved the book and grandma! Great humor and great story. Life and family are not perfect!
What a terrific book! I loved Cathy Lamb's "Julia's Chocolates" so was sure I'd enjoy her story-telling style again. This compelling story of the Bommarito family really reached into my soul. An emotionally abusive mother of three daughters and a son sounded too familiar too many times throughout the book (similar family situation). And the sadness I felt when the daughters expressed their yearning for just a hug from their mother.
A very moving story, sometimes funny, sometimes a little twisted, but always showing the LOVE each sister felt for each other, and especially for their brother, Henry.
Memorable line that really sums up this story: "And yet we were searching, endlessly searching, for the most innocent of all emotions, the purest of feelings, and what the heart longs for above all else: LOVE."
A very moving story, sometimes funny, sometimes a little twisted, but always showing the LOVE each sister felt for each other, and especially for their brother, Henry.
Memorable line that really sums up this story: "And yet we were searching, endlessly searching, for the most innocent of all emotions, the purest of feelings, and what the heart longs for above all else: LOVE."
I am a HUGE Cathy Lamb fan. Unlike some of her other fans, I thought this book was amazing. The story of this family's dysfunctionality and the result just made it real. Not every family is perfect, or even close, there are some very harsh realities in this world and this book just puts them out there and works them into something magical. Keep the kleenex handy - there are parts that are tough. I give this big a definite four stars.
This was my favorite of Cathy Lamb's books thus far. It was excellent and compelling.
I really liked this book. It was sad and triumphant. Characters like Henry are hard to forget.
Great story and characters. Cathy Lamb creates stories that linger with you.
