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The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales
Author:
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
5
Author:
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
5
Review Date: 5/25/2012
Helpful Score: 1
I am a special ed. tutor and this book motivated my students to read like no other. For the first time they came into tutorials asking "When can we read?"
Review Date: 10/30/2013
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book. I find her writing rich and moving - and her characters are memorable. This is one of my favorites.
Review Date: 10/30/2013
There is no more moving book. No one should live a life without reading it. I read it for the first time when I was a teenager. I am now in my fifties and just read it with my son. It is just as good and has made a lasting impact on my life.
Review Date: 10/18/2016
Helpful Score: 1
What a strange, strange Mark Helprin book. A farce; a comedy with word play that is unsurpassed! It actually worked and the more you know about British royalty and pop culture the better. Helprin's characterizations of various kinds of Americans were both detailed and uproarious. The transformations experienced by the main characters were surprising and beautiful. This is a complex book and a joyful experience if you can tolerate a good bit of slapstick and LOVE wordplay!
Review Date: 1/28/2012
Helpful Score: 3
A story like no other; strange and beautifully wrought with heart-wrenching twists and innocence. A orphanage filled with boys and religion, until a con man comes for the one-handed boy and weaves a story of their family that
slowly unravels almost all the way. The boy's true identity is more and more elusive and obscured until the surprising ending. The journey there is filled with the most amazing characters from the dwarf in the chimney to the extremely loud, large and loving inn-keeper, the doctor undertaker and the giant - all experienced through the eyes and heart of a thoroughly naive good thief. Laura
slowly unravels almost all the way. The boy's true identity is more and more elusive and obscured until the surprising ending. The journey there is filled with the most amazing characters from the dwarf in the chimney to the extremely loud, large and loving inn-keeper, the doctor undertaker and the giant - all experienced through the eyes and heart of a thoroughly naive good thief. Laura
Review Date: 11/29/2013
This book has made it to my top ten or maybe top fifteen of all time. The story is compelling and the writing is clear and beautiful and uncomplicated. I am a fast reader and sometimes, I admit it, I skim. Reading this book, however, I didn't want to miss a single word. In fact, when I was done I reread the beginning section and went back to two or three other smaller parts. In spite of the fact that the character names are in a language unfamiliar to me, I was able to get to know each as individuals with no confusion. I appreciate that. I have to warn sensitive readers: It was a difficult book to read, emotionally. I had to read Anne of Green Gables first, for balance, knowing it would be harrowing at times. I often avoid books that I know will be especially painful. If you do too, this is the book to make an exception for - the violence is real and heartbreaking. As I was reading I thought - this should be required reading in high school.
Review Date: 10/30/2013
Helpful Score: 2
You'll either love it or hate it. There is no other book like it that I have ever read, but I've only recommended it to men under 30 or very adventurous readers. I am a woman in my 50's, but I would not recommend it to my book club. All that being said, I loved this book. I couldn't put it down, but I also can't describe it. It drags you back and forth over the boundary between the real and the imagined, and you never know where you are and neither does the main character. Is it a psychological fantasy? The ultimate love story? A very high tech nightmare? I dare you to try it!
Review Date: 10/30/2013
I literally could not stop reading this book. It is a quick read because it is written in a form like poetry, but you forget that almost immediately. It's premise - that there are people in our society who can transform themselves into wolves and survive by fighting packs of rival wolves - is probably not terribly unusual in literature (I wouldn't know), but the psychological relationships between and within the humans makes this a fascinatingly deep work with a gratifying ending. I intend to read it again to better understand the web of relationships amongst the characters.
Review Date: 1/28/2012
This is such a lovely and unusual book. I'd have to call it a "western" because of the horses, the gritty lawman and the gunslingers...yet the narrator is a mild-mannered, family-man and a blocked author quietly drawn into an amazing story. The pace and gentle temperament of the entire book leaves you feeling good, even when bad things happen. It is also unusual in the way the good guys are bad and the bad guys are good and no one is who you thought they were or even who they themselves thought they were. I loved it. Laura
Review Date: 5/16/2014
Really excellent book. Quiet and deep. It held my interest and described the main character and other characters with details that felt very authentic and true-to-life. The subject matter was not your usual, which made it that much more engaging. I really loved it.
Review Date: 5/25/2012
Everyone in my book group loved this book. The writing draws you into its pace and tone and you don't want to miss a single word. The characters and story are fascinating and surprising and the settings are marvelous. A beautiful book in every way.
Review Date: 11/14/2015
There is so much to think about when reading this book: questions of faith and what it means to be human, about the extreme challenges of making ourselves understood and of understanding others, and of course about the nature of love, human and spiritual. If you are looking for light reading, this is not it. The characters are alive and so you feel their excruciating pain. The plot and events are so unexpected and highly imagined, and there is humor! I don't want to give anything away, but I am now completely immersed in the sequel, Children of God and my husband is reading The Sparrow, but I keep picking it back up and reading parts. It's just wonderful and deeply affecting. Try it if you are brave and want an adventure like no other.
Review Date: 10/30/2013
What a delightful, gentle story. I would recommend it to all children and everyone else who thinks they would enjoy a break of the dark, intense, complex novels we most often read. This is a story of innocence and of children, but there is certainly some mystery that gives it a bit of tension. The characters are authentic, including the poodle! I rate everything I read on a 1-5 system and this one got a rare five.
Review Date: 5/16/2014
This book was very entertaining and well-written. I would recommend it.
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