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Review Date: 9/14/2007
Helpful Score: 2
Very well-written novel, based partly on Marie Antoinette's letters to her mother.
Review Date: 11/9/2007
Starts a bit slow, but turns out to be an engaging historical novel about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries) and George Edalji, the son of a Vicar, whose life and career are threatened by a criminal justice system steeped in tradition but lacking in common sense. Doyle takes on Edalji's case, turning him momentarily into the cause du jour.
Great study of the differences in English society.
Great study of the differences in English society.
Review Date: 2/21/2009
Helpful Score: 1
This is a stunning book, written with passionate, tight efficiency. Bloom, a short story writer, offers the story of Lillian Leyb's trip from Russia to America, in this, her first novel. The book has a host of unforgettable characters. I read this book over a cold, snowy February Saturday...what a treat to read such a book, especially in one sitting.
Review Date: 9/7/2010
Helpful Score: 1
This book is listed as juvenile fiction, but it's tone, message, and subject are anything but juvenile. A truly amazing book...powerful and poignant at the same time.
Review Date: 9/11/2009
I was surprised and deeply touched by this story of a young woman, product of the nuclear age, as she tries to get her bearings as an adult. Her situation was particularly meaningful to me, as a child of the 50s and on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. This isn't a book about politics...it is a book about family and love and survival in a cruel and often hopeless world.
Review Date: 9/17/2009
A very powerful story of redemption and faith, charmingly told. This is a book with wonderful characters, leading lives that look so simple on the surface, but are spiritually complex.
First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood (P.S.)
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
9
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
9
Review Date: 5/17/2011
Helpful Score: 2
I was expecting a different kind of book....more details of life on the streets of Bombay for example. But I was surprised and enthralled by Umrigar's memoirs. This book is filled with the delightful, but humanly real, characters and situations that inhabit her books. I'm hoping she writes a sequel; I'm dying to know about the start of her life in America.
Review Date: 5/23/2007
Helpful Score: 2
This is a powerfully told story. It is the fictionalized account of four young people living in Birmingham, ALA, in September, 1963, when four children were killed in the bombing of a Baptist Church.
Review Date: 8/3/2010
Helpful Score: 2
This is a gem of a book...with an unusual cast of characters, an underlying spirituality, and a heart-warming tale of family. Other reviewers call the book Dickensian. The cast of characters, including a one-handed orphan, grave robbers, nuns, a giant, a dwarf..is wonderful. Try this if you are in the mood for a dark yet uplifting tale.
Review Date: 2/22/2013
Helpful Score: 1
I was not as engaged in this book as others in my book club were. Interesting survey of a period of history, but the book draws no conclusions about the significance of all the American scientists, artists, and doctors who lived and worked in Paris. I loved McCullough's books on Teddy Roosevelt and John Adams and was expecting more depth on individuals.
Review Date: 12/31/2010
Helpful Score: 2
This is a very powerful book, with a story that is both difficult and beautiful to read. The writer's language can be both poetic and rough. This tale of a family torn apart by war and the circumstances of birth is one that will stay with you.
Review Date: 9/12/2007
Helpful Score: 2
This is a fascinating look at an Old World Japanese family at the brink of World War II. Critics have called it "the greatest Japanese novel of the 20th Century." I can't agree or disagree because I've never read any other Japanese novel. If you enjoy traveling to other cultures in your reading, try this book.
Review Date: 11/9/2012
Helpful Score: 6
Read this for my book club and it sparked a lot of discussion. While some (like me) really liked it, others did not, but that didn't diminish the discussion. Isn't that what good literature does....evoke a variety of responses and opinions. This book while short in length and compact in story is full of ideas that deserve discussing.
Review Date: 12/15/2011
Helpful Score: 3
This book filled me with a sense of wonder. A story of a woman's adjustment to a long and debilitating illness, a homage to the humble yet very complex snail, a spiritual journey into accepting and admiring the world as it is...this book is beautiful.
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