I found no comparison to Family Ties and The Bean Trees, even though we were not supposed to, I tried to find some sort of alikeness.
 The Bean Trees is a very interesting book so far. Compared to the books that I read in High school. From the first sentence I was hooked. I loe the name Turtle for the little girl. The story really hit close to home being based first in Kentucky. I can relate to Missy (Taylor) in the story and her need to get out of her small town, to experience life. Also to avoid the usual idea that all the girls will get pregnant and drop out of high school. IT sonds all too much like my high school sadly.