Janine Turner

Sorry folks, but I can't recommend this book to anyone but devout Christians who are accustomed to dry reading material.

I am a big fan of the author. I loved her in many of her acting roles and Northern Exposure was one of my favorite television shows. I also knew that Ms. Turner has spoken out about the importance of her faith. Knowing this I was very enthusiastic to read her book. I am sorry to say I cannot seem to finish reading it.

I was so excited initially when I received a copy to review. But after finishing the first chapter, I had a sinking feeling it wasn't going to get any more interesting. While I find the idea of the book fascinating, the work itself just doesn't hold my attention. The writing seems stilted and I never forget I am reading a book. The mothers she highlights never really come to life for me and I lose interest repeatedly while trying to read.

I find myself counting the pages left to read in the chapter I am reading and that is never a good sign. This book just feels more like homework that I don't want to work on. I am only about halfway through and maybe my opinion will change if I can ever finish the book. If I ever do, I will come back on here and edit my review.… (meer)

I requested this book because I do hold single moms in high regard. My sister is one and does a remarkable job with her son. But this book was just too religious for me to get through. Like many of the other reviewers, I had issue with her profiling some women who were not single moms - Yes, Abigail had to raise the kids alone, but John was involved as much as he could. Very disappointed in this book.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with a strong Christian identity. I do know a woman who did have to be a single mom for many years who will be receiving this book. I hope she loves it.… (meer)

I tried, really tried to finish this book, but I can't do it. When you find you are reading with the purpose of counting the number of cliches per chapter, there really is no point in wasting any more of your time. For the record, in the chapters I read, the phrase -- as if you might not remember the title of the book -- "holding her head high" was used an average of 4 times per chapter. Maximum chapter high head count: 8. If that doesn't give you a sense of the tediousness of this book, I might discourage you with the following: improper use of quotations, misspelled words, poor (or wrong!) word choice, dull sentence structure, sloppy research, an inappropriately casual narrative voice, repetitive paragraphs, and poor organization. In general it reads like a 8th grade term paper -- one that would get an 'C' from a burnedout easy grader.

How anyone could make the lives of some of the women profiled boring is surprising. More surprising still is that this book was published. Some reviewers here have commented that this book should have been marketed differently, suggesting that for a different audience it would fare better. I don't think so; poor writing is poor writing. A sad comment to make about a book that could have been so much more.… (meer)

I've desperately tried to like this book and I was in fact quite excited when I was told I had a chance to review it for LibraryThing. I read quite a bit of Christian inspiration, so this seemed like it would be a good fit for me. However, I was turned off from the get-go. The writing style, especially the one-word-sentence "Setting the Scene" paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter, just set my teeth on edge. Much of the history is specious at best, sort of a "Veggie Tales" slice of life. I half expected to be introduced to Queen Blanche the Beansprout of France by the time I got to her chapter. This is a book for the evangelical crowd for sure, but maybe that's okay. Reading some of the reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com I was touched by how some of the readers were indeed inspired by these stories.

"Holding Her Head High" is not for everyone but it's for someone out there. All single mothers should hold their heads high and should never be made to feel as if they shouldn't (I should mention that the title of this book annoyed me as well). As other reviewers have already noted, some of these women weren't even single parents. Hopefully this book will encourage a single mother out there and if so, then Ms. Turner has done her job.… (meer)