Chris
Fun story about a disparate group of folks who attend a social club and ultimately set out to save their local community center. The book is funny, and I really enjoyed the characters.
If you enjoyed Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, you'll like this one, too!
This is a fun, well plotted read. 100 pages into it I really had difficulty putting it down. If you enjoyed the mini series, you'll like the book. If you haven't seen the mini series - read this first.
It took me awhile to get into this one. I loved the Rapunzel story. the French Court portion of the story, however, I didn't get into until almost the end of the book.
Cath adoresHarry Potter Simon Snow and she loves to write fan fiction. Cath and her twin sister Wren head off to University of Nebraska Lincoln for their freshman year of college. (There are lots of UNL landmarks mentioned here!) I listened to this one in the car. The audiobook is well done. really enjoyed the characters and the story.
Listened to this one in the car. It drags at the beginning...until Sonny perks up...then it's very enjoyable. Things get a bit muddy and bloated towards the last quarter...there were several times I thought the story was going to end, but the more bits are tacked on. Not as much fun as the Dept Q books, or Dragon Tattoo, but enjoyable.
I liked all but the ending, which was a bit contrived. I'd like to give it 3 1/2 stars...4 for the majority...2 for the ending. Enjoyed the characters...and was even fine with the stand alone sentences. It was a quick read.
I listened to this one in the car. If you do this - be warned - three women in the book are named Nete (Pronounced Nita), Rita, and Gitta (rhymes with the other two)...so but for the first letter - the names sound identical - which took me a bit to get comfortable with and caused some confusion in the beginning.
Enjoyed it - Assad is fleshed out a teensy bit more, and Rose's character gets more back story. Half of these is - for me, anyway - is the enjoyment of the characters. The other half is the mystery. Enjoyed this one so much that I immediately jumped into the next book in the series when I finished this one.
This one grew on me. Had to get past the cat that didn't act much like a cat...which bugged me enough I considered not finishing the book. Glad I stuck with it.
I enjoyed parts of this book a great deal - and was ok on other parts. I listened to this one in the car. As with “the Disappearing Spoon” - this one is a story about a large topic broken up in vignettes - each chapter focuses on an area of the brain. Like “Disappearing Spoon” - some topics lend themselves better to story telling than others. The strongest chapter in the book was the section on Kuru, which is something I knew nothing about (other than a throw-away diagnosis from the tv series House). The chapter covers the discovery and research history of the disease - and, it was so well told I found I wanted to remain in the car to listen. The Broca and Phineas Gage chapters were also excellent.
Cute short read. 9 quirky goblins end up on the wrong side of some magic. Hilarity ensues. Took a little bit for me to figure out who everybody was, but once it got rolling I really enjoyed it. I'll probably reread this one.
First - as you can gather from the other reviews. The book is not the movie... the characters are the same (more or less) but the movie takes a bit of the gist of the book and spins it in a whole ‘nother direction and one that pleasingly incorporates all those iconic images from each era.
The book plays out as a series of vignettes that are thinly strung together. Forrest bounces from situation to situation (some you'll recognize from the movie). The vignettes are sometimes satirical, sometimes social commentary, and sometimes just plain silly. The language is at times a little difficult to stomach - but Forrest is a character that comes from the pre-civil rights south, and an idiot savant to boot - so, the language is part of the character and the era.
It was a quick read. I enjoyed this, for the most part - I did laugh out loud several times while reading it. It's enjoyable - but won't be shelves among the favorites that I re-read. I gave it 4 stars - because it's not quite a 3. I'd give it a 3 1/2 stars if I could.
Now I'm going to go pop some popcorn and watch the movie (which IS one of my favorites).
Never a good sign when I keep anxiously checking my book on tape to see how much closer I've gotten to the end.
I really wanted to like this one. There are so many many 5 star reviews!
The book drags for the first 7 chapters. Main char suffers from being the best at everything. The women ... a mere handful, mind you - all need to be saved. There's a big ol' chunk of the book I had to just try to ignore because it was so completely implausible (main char is the best at everything he does... yet, in spite of that, THIS happens... it makes the story work better for having happened, but it's so very very hard to buy into.) There are long meandering dialogues between characters that appear to be there as a writer's poetic exercise... these are distracting and don't seem to advance the story in any way.
But all that said - there were moments when the story picked up and I really enjoyed it. I didn't enjoy it enough to even consider picking up book 2, however. I'll just head to the wiki if I'm ever curious how it all works out in the end.
Nice intro to the legend of Okiku. Found myself googling for more info as I read. Not sure I'll continue the series, but my interest has been piqued regarding this area of folklore.
This is not a sequel - this book takes the story from Every Day ... and retells it from the perspective of Rhiannon. I enjoyed it, it's well written, I liked the characters and the pace - but am not sure it adds much to the story.
I read Every Day 4 years ago... I wonder if it would have been better if I'd re-read it before reading this one - so it was fresher in my mind. However, since it was a retelling of Every Day, I might not have been quite as enchanted to read this companion book right on the heels of finishing the first book - I suspect it would have felt a bit cumulative. With the 4-year gap between books - what I enjoyed was revisiting this world for a bit.
This cannot be read as a standalone, btw... it's a companion to the first book and is told with the idea that the reader already knows all the quirks of the world that A lives in.
I remember reading Krakauer's article in Outside magazine years ago while I was living in Alaska. The story is tragic and fascinating. This book provides more detail and perspective on McCandless' life.
Thoroughly enjoyed this: so much so that I downloaded the second in the series before I finished it so I could dive right into book 2 without having to wait. The book builds on one of the side characters in the Grave Secret series. She's world building in this one - and the little community of Midnight is sketched in nicely by the end, and there's a little mystery to tie it all together.
Thought this would be a bit more sci-fi with the opportunity for a little absurd humor...but instead it's a rather maudlin tale of a dying teen who doesn't die and then spends a great deal of time thinking about when he was dying. Definitely a teen read - I probably would have really liked this book in high school.
Really enjoyed this, the world building is well done and fun. The fourth son of the emporer finds himself unexpectedly on the throne. As he's learning the ropes, so are we.
The character names are an absolute bear to learn and get used to. I finally had the Wiki opened on the phone to keep everyone straight. Found at the 3/4 mark I was rarely cross checking. I will probably reread this at some point.
listened to this one in the car. I know I wouldn't have been able to read it in book form and maintain enough interest to finish it. that's not saying it's not good...its just incredibly detailed - being pulled along with an audiobook was a good thing. thought it was a fantastic book and am looking forward to the second book. it's a fascinating and extremely detailed accounting of not just the band, but also the people who helped them along the way.
Loved this. It would have been excellent beach reading - but I instead listened to it in the car. It's probably overlong - but I didn't care - it was perfect and just what I needed for my commute. What a blissful escape.I really enjoyed the characters.
Another enjoyable installment in the series. Didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first (where the world building is the majority of the fun)....but it's a close second.
