So, this book isn't going to win any awards for breaking new ground. However, if you are a mother or a daughter, this book will speak to you. It's touching and thought provoking. It made me think about the things I would want my daughter to know - about life and about who I am - if I wasn't going to be around anymore. Quick and easy, but still a great read.

I liked this book more than I thought I would even though it was pretty predictable really liked Mark, the stepdad.I would try another Noble book.

Muitas emoções, tudo que fica por dizer a quem parte e por quem partiu...Li ainda nem tinham passado 2 meses da minha mãe ter partido. Mas eu tive a oportunidade de dizer tudo à minha mãe, não sei até que ponto ela as compreendia...

Enjoyed this work of fiction. I thought it was going to be more about the mother's writings and it turned out to be more about the self discovery of each of her four daughters. It is easy to relate to characteristics of each of the four daughters as they walk through their grief.

"Things I Want my Daughters to Know" is a middle-of-the-road "nice" book. It doesn't blow you away nor does it bore you. It's careful not to be too sacchrine or sentimental and just interesting enough to keep you turning the pages.

This took me a little longer than expected, but it was worth it in the end. Good insight into what it like to deal with the death of a mother.

I found the book in an op-shop and gave it a go, thinking it would make a change from the Nikki Gemmell book I had been reading (I like to change gears!), and I didn't find the first few chapters as engaging as I would have liked, almost putting the book down to start another.
About a third of the way into the book it changed pace and got more meaty, and I was glad I persevered. The characters, except one, were really well-explored and very, very human.
I got teary in places, which I tend not to do whilst reading, and that's go to mean something!

Great story, a little bit of a tear jerker (but in a good way).

After learning she has cancer, Barbara starts writing letters to each of her four girls. Letters to be opened following her death. She also begins a journal that she fills with her favorite stories, confessions, and important things she wants her daughters to know. Things that she couldn't seem to articulate or voice while alive...for some reason or another.

Told from five different points-of-view: each of the four daughters and her second husband, the book is hard to follow and slightly choppy at times. Each daughter deals with her mother's death differently. You get heartbreaking insight into their anger, sadness, and eventual moving on. They come to find that their mother was a lot more complicated than they suspected and a little bit cooler than they ever thought. Barbara left behind a tangible reminder of the mother she was. Something the girls could turn too when they thought they no longer had anyone.

Ultimately, it was the lessons she taught them while alive that made them who they are, good and bad, and carried them through the darkest moments.

Maybe I am just sentimental since I have two daughters and am so close to my Mom and sisters, but this book appealed to me. It was a summer beach read, meaning, light, but engaging. Focused on a British family whose matriarch dies at 60 of cancer and leaves behind a journal or series of letters for her four daughters who range in age from 38-16 (and with 3 different fathers.) Her loving widow struggles to keep it all together. The characters seemed real to me and not so out to lunch. I also had fun with the Britishisms it isn't Brilliant, but it is jolly fun!