Rating: 
Summary: A must read!
Review: Many of the reviewers have stated that this book was hard to get through in the beginning. I found the first chapter was a little rough because of all the shifting that is going on, but after that first chapter everything flowed together. This is a timeless story about childhood love and loosing it. When i read this book i had not seen any shows on oprah about it, and i had only read the back of cover. I decided I wanted to give this book a shot considering I like to stray away from Oprah's book club. Oprah did pick an amazing book that i would recommend to anyone. There are so many layers to this book, and the emotions that you feel when reading it. I used to read this book on my smoke breaks at work, and I just did not want to put it down. It was a book that i wanted to read all day, but I just couldn't. The novel is filled with humor, as well as spirituality and love. The novel asks what binds us together as friends, family or lovers? Is it racial ties, blood or the fact that we have never known anything else. During the last few chapters of this book I was really heartbroken. It was like i was part of this novel and I knew the characters. Almost like i lived in the town. At the end I was still a little sad, but it ended the way I had hoped. Don't miss this one. It's a brilliant novel, and the first few chapters do not give it justice. When reading those chapters don't think about how confusing it is. Just keep plugging away, and you will be extremely happy you did!
Rating: 
Summary: You Say That True, Ms Haynes!
Review: In reading the previous 196 reviews of Ms Haynes incredibly poetic work, I was stunned to see so many readers expressing negative opinions. Admittedly, I stumbled on phrases at times, rereading sentences, and even paragraphs, before their meaning would sink in, but I found this to be a fault of my own stilted mind, and not that of the writer's masterful talent. This is a book which requires a patience more typical of poetry than prose, but the writing is closer to poetry than prose, and thus, appropriate, I think. I loved this book for it made me laugh out loud and to cry real tears. For a book to do that is a real gift. For someone to be able to write such a book, a writer of monumental talent. You say that true, Ms Haynes! You say that true!
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the journey
Review: This was the type of story that I wasn't sure of after the first few chapters, I wasn't even sure whether I wanted to continue. I was telling the story to a friend and he asked me "what happened next?" and I couldn't tell him; so I continued...wow I am glad I did. You get drawn into the characters of this book, rather than them hitting you over the head, and you want to know how everything turns out, and what happens next. By the middle of the story, I was hooked and found it to be one of the best books I have read in a while. Hang in there, the writing is a little hard at times, but it is well worth the journey. Debbi
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written
Review: This is a vey well-written book. The words and imagry used by Haynes sets the mood and setting very well, and makes you feel like you were actually there, experiencing the story as the characters are experiencing it. It was very enjoyable to read as it was very realistic and had a very interesting plot. I recommend Mother of Pearl very highly.
Rating:
Summary: Written in such a unique & Inspiring voice!
Review: This author has a very unique way of telling a story. I was hooked after the first few pages and find her writing style remarkably refreshing. She shows the reader how to look at life in new ways by turning her *words* over & allowing us to read them from another direction, breathing new life & perspective into them. The story is a moving tale set in the South in the late '50s with characters you can feel, taste, smell, laugh, cry and be alive with. I highly recommend this book. I'm telling everyone I know that if they're ready for a great read, this is it. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Plenty of soul...
Review: I give this novel my highest raiting, and being an avid reader of many Oprah's Book Club books and other novels of many genres I can honestly appreciate it's quality. Melinda Haynes has an amazing writing style and the content overflows with incredible imagination. The reader follows the very distinct and contrasting lives of a handful of individuals, whose lives cross somewhere in the beginning, middle, and end, producing unions that seem surreal in nature, yet inspire hope for what can be natural if society permitted it. Whether one lives by the sea, in the depths of the deep south, or in the plains of middle america, anyone can appreciate this novel, not because of it's reality, but because of its look at human nature and existance on the soul level.
Rating: 
Summary: Good example of pretentious literature
Review: This book is one of the worst that I've read! It took me weeks to get through this book (compared to 2-3 days for most books). There is no unifying plot, and the writing is atrocious - the similes and metaphors seem contrived to be original, but convey no meaning. The symbolism too obscure for most readers to understand (e.g. the split pig). Many paragraphs seemed thrown in for no reason. In my opinion, the only part of the book that was interesting was the portrait of the shy, budding relationship between Valuable and Jackson. The book should have ended there. Until the end, it was hard to stay interested in the book, because it was hard to see why there was any point in describing these characters. The character descriptions were not bad, but this book had neither moving plot nor enjoyable prose, and a good book has to have at least one of these to be worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Mother of Pearl
Review: I am conviced you have to be southern to get this book. I liked the book because I was born and raised in the South. I gave it to my neighbor who was born and raised in Arkansas. We both liked the book. You have to feel for these people. They are just so ignorant. It goes to show how much we all need education. They are not stupid people, they are just ignorant. There is a large difference. We southerners all know sad people like these. The language is a bit hard to grasp unless you lived there. Some talk about bad writing, how about bad living. Just thank your God you had a better way of life. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Not what it's cracked up to be!
Review: This story centers around two people: Even Grade and Valuable Korner. Even is an orphan. Valuable is the daughter of the town whore and an unknown father trying to find herself. Along this journey, she falls in love with a young man named Jackson who is acually a close relative of hers although neither of them are aware of it. Even is a working man who has made a life for himself in Mississippi with his good friend, Canaan, and flaky girlfriend, Joody, who is a fortune-teller. When Even and Valuable's paths cross about two-thirds into the book, they find something of themselves in the other and the story really begins to pick up and get interesting. Until then, however, it takes a lot of perseverance to keep reading. It took me about two months to read this book which is uncharacteristically long for me. The storyline is powerful, but the writing is atrocious. It's hard to get past bad writing sometimes and this was one of those cases for me.
Rating:
Summary: Searching for Family
Review: Mother of Pearl is a luminous novel of the 1950's South that intermingles race and racism, degeneracy and prejudice, magic and love. With characters whose names came from real estate and road signs such as Even Grade and Valuable Korner, the story races and rambles through a search for meaning, love, and family. As often happens, when someone has no real family, they satisfy their needs in unconventional ways. Here we find a girl, Valuable Korner, who is set adrift by her mother, the town hooker, who takes off for California one night never to return; Valuable goes to the only refuge available, a lesbian aunt and her companion who live in a large Victorian mansion on the river. When her boyfriend moves to Georgia with his family, she is truly cut adrift until she finds comfort and compassion with a Black conjure woman and her lover, Even Grade, an orphan who is also looking for a family. The complexity and variety of the plot moves the novel along at a rapid pace as the author reveals the pettiness and prejudice of 50's Mississippi while at the same time allowing the essential human needs to take precedence as an unusual family of mixed race begins to form. There is also a touch of the outrageous that accompanies many Southern novels and that is certainly a part of Southern culture, as well as the humor that erupts from such situations. Overall, Mother of Pearl is a thoroughly tender and heartrending story of a few individuals in troubled times who overcome their despair in ways that are unexpected and influence their lives forever.
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