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Review Date: 7/23/2007
Helpful Score: 2
The jacket blurb was interesting enough to make me pick up this book, but I was completely shocked at how ineffective it was in actually portraying the tone and power of this book. The characters were amazingly well developed and the story wandered away from the initial "hook" on the jacket (the broken leg) rather quickly and in an unexpected and fascinating way.
I loved the way Haley talked - I found myself laughing out loud often. The book was in turns deep and fluffy - it read quickly but it said a lot. This was one of the best books I've read this year.
I loved the way Haley talked - I found myself laughing out loud often. The book was in turns deep and fluffy - it read quickly but it said a lot. This was one of the best books I've read this year.
Review Date: 5/3/2007
Helpful Score: 7
I have a well-worn and well-loved copy of this book that I won't part with...I read it over and over again. I've read it at least once every two years for over a decade. I've loaned it out as well - everyone who has read my copy has loved it. A wonderful story full of intertwining characters and plots. I highly recommend it!
Review Date: 9/17/2013
Helpful Score: 6
Wow. Just...wow. It is truly possible to like a book - the way it is written, the lovely language, the flow...and absolutely HATE the main characters. I know, because I enjoyed the way that Melanie Benjamin told the tale of the fairy-tale Lindberghs, but I had real difficulties with both of them.
I knew what most people know about Charles Lindbergh before I started this book. He was the first to fly a plane alone across the Atlantic. His baby son was kidnapped and was killed.
However, if what Melanie Benjamin tells us is true, he was a horrid, loathsome person. He was cold, manipulating, unemotional, bigoted and selfish. I've rarely met a character in a novel I've disliked more, whether based on a real person or totally imaginary. And as much as I wanted to pity Anne, his wife, I ended up angry with her much of the time. I so wanted to shake her! She knew exactly what kind of person her husband was, and yet she did not have the self-respect and faith in herself to leave him. Her family was wealthy - supporting herself and her children was not the problem. Her problem was her obsession with this horrible man.
I ended up really disliking both of them in many ways. If these people truly were like the people portrayed in Ms. Benjamin's novel, I'm very glad I didn't know them.
The book itself was wonderfully written, and I continued through with it even though I hated the couple in question. That says volumes about the author's ability to tell an absorbing story.
I knew what most people know about Charles Lindbergh before I started this book. He was the first to fly a plane alone across the Atlantic. His baby son was kidnapped and was killed.
However, if what Melanie Benjamin tells us is true, he was a horrid, loathsome person. He was cold, manipulating, unemotional, bigoted and selfish. I've rarely met a character in a novel I've disliked more, whether based on a real person or totally imaginary. And as much as I wanted to pity Anne, his wife, I ended up angry with her much of the time. I so wanted to shake her! She knew exactly what kind of person her husband was, and yet she did not have the self-respect and faith in herself to leave him. Her family was wealthy - supporting herself and her children was not the problem. Her problem was her obsession with this horrible man.
I ended up really disliking both of them in many ways. If these people truly were like the people portrayed in Ms. Benjamin's novel, I'm very glad I didn't know them.
The book itself was wonderfully written, and I continued through with it even though I hated the couple in question. That says volumes about the author's ability to tell an absorbing story.
Review Date: 6/15/2007
Helpful Score: 4
Excellent book - it made me kind of sad. You hear about these little coal towns dying...it's the end of a way of life. Nostalgic and full of great characters.
Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
6
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
6
Review Date: 8/22/2013
This was a quick, interesting read about a subject that interests most people about the sports world. Even if you aren't a sports "fan", for most folks, there's always at least a passing interest in the various steroid scandals. This book gives you a nice glimpse into not only the steroid world in particular, but the transition of baseball from a "fat man's sport" in the 70's and 80's to the buff, sculpted and powerful game it has become. The author talks about the vital differences in how the owner's, manager's and player's viewpoints of the game morphed over the decades and how this change influenced the tide of steroid use that began in earnest in the 1990's. It also shares some fun and interesting tidbits about what a "clubbie" (a team clubhouse employee) does and how they are perceived by the players.
One of the things that intrigued me the most about Kirk Radomski's story when I read the flap description is how he said he truly didn't see how procuring steroids and human growth hormones for players could be perceived as a bad thing in the beginning. My eyebrows went up and I said..."Yeah, right, whatever...:
However, while reading the book and learning about his background, it started to make more and more sense how he could perceive it that way. Enlightening, really.
If you have any interest in this subject matter at all, invest a little time in this quick read.
One of the things that intrigued me the most about Kirk Radomski's story when I read the flap description is how he said he truly didn't see how procuring steroids and human growth hormones for players could be perceived as a bad thing in the beginning. My eyebrows went up and I said..."Yeah, right, whatever...:
However, while reading the book and learning about his background, it started to make more and more sense how he could perceive it that way. Enlightening, really.
If you have any interest in this subject matter at all, invest a little time in this quick read.
Review Date: 6/18/2007
This is a fun one...great read!
Review Date: 5/14/2007
This was a creepy/fun book - great character in Pendergast...he's awesome!
Review Date: 7/9/2007
From the author's website:
Lee Lindsay doesn't believe in witchcraft. Publisher
of a successful magazine in Santa Fe, a wife and mother, she has no time for superstitious nonsense.
When a routine interview leads her to an isolated mountain village, she has a fateful encounter with Juan
Mascarenasâa man rumored to be a brujo, or sorcererâwho leads her through an ancient awakening ceremony.
Suddenly, inexplicable things are happening to Lee. She experiences flashbacks to a past life as an Anasazi Indian.
An ominous raven watches her by day and invades her dreams at night. Worst of all, her dangerous passion for Juan is turning Lee's well-ordered life into an uncontrollable nightmare.
Sexual obsession turns to terror as Lee struggles to save her family and her soul. Her only hope lies in the power within herself . . . because the brujo, who claims to have loved her and lost her centuries ago, has found Lee again. This time, he intends to keep her.
Lee Lindsay doesn't believe in witchcraft. Publisher
of a successful magazine in Santa Fe, a wife and mother, she has no time for superstitious nonsense.
When a routine interview leads her to an isolated mountain village, she has a fateful encounter with Juan
Mascarenasâa man rumored to be a brujo, or sorcererâwho leads her through an ancient awakening ceremony.
Suddenly, inexplicable things are happening to Lee. She experiences flashbacks to a past life as an Anasazi Indian.
An ominous raven watches her by day and invades her dreams at night. Worst of all, her dangerous passion for Juan is turning Lee's well-ordered life into an uncontrollable nightmare.
Sexual obsession turns to terror as Lee struggles to save her family and her soul. Her only hope lies in the power within herself . . . because the brujo, who claims to have loved her and lost her centuries ago, has found Lee again. This time, he intends to keep her.
Review Date: 5/13/2007
Helpful Score: 1
Sobering...scary.
Review Date: 9/29/2009
I wasn't sure about this book at first, wasn't sure if I'd be "into" the whole weather thing. But it grabbed me right away! Very taut - and scary for me, seeing that I live on the coastline and hurricanes are a distinct possibility in my area...
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1977
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1977
Review Date: 6/14/2007
Helpful Score: 2
I read this for a book club - one of the best history stories I've read in a long time. I really wish I could have seen the White City in person. And wow...some people are just too dangerous for words!
Review Date: 5/22/2007
Loved this book - and one of the few times that the movie was every bit as enjoyable as the print version!
Review Date: 5/21/2007
Fast read - very interesting story. This was a good one!
Eye Killers (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series, Vol 13)
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
2
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
2
Review Date: 5/21/2007
From the back of the book:
Lurking in the caves of eastern New Mexico, Falke, a thousand year old vampire, chooses his next bride: Melissa Roanhorse, an Albuquerque teenager. To regain his granddaughter's life, Michael Roanhorse, and old Navajo sheepherder wise to the power of myth, must outwit the vampire and his loyal coven. In Eye Killers, A.A. Carr delivers an imaginative clash of cultures - both a suspenseful thriller and a valid rendering of Navajo and Pueblo tribal life in contemporary New Mexico.
This was really interesting - a very different kind of vampire story.
Lurking in the caves of eastern New Mexico, Falke, a thousand year old vampire, chooses his next bride: Melissa Roanhorse, an Albuquerque teenager. To regain his granddaughter's life, Michael Roanhorse, and old Navajo sheepherder wise to the power of myth, must outwit the vampire and his loyal coven. In Eye Killers, A.A. Carr delivers an imaginative clash of cultures - both a suspenseful thriller and a valid rendering of Navajo and Pueblo tribal life in contemporary New Mexico.
This was really interesting - a very different kind of vampire story.
Review Date: 5/9/2007
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this story, but was surprised at how many major historical events were left out of the book. And the end was surprising - the option he chose wasn't one I thought he had. I was a little confused at that.
Review Date: 6/12/2013
I really enjoyed this re-telling of "House of Mirth", the Edith Wharton classic. The story line makes you consider that while things are always changing, so much remains the same. Good narration, held my interest very well. There are times you hate each of the main characters, as well you should. They can be remarkably heinous to each other - sometimes you feel like you're surrounded by a nest of venomous vipers. With friends like these, who needs enemies? While some may find this work a bit "soapy", it is a wonderfully gleeful story of society's evils.
Review Date: 7/15/2007
Helpful Score: 2
It was a quick light read, but the ending wasn't ideal for me. Just a little on the "loose end" side for my liking.
Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick (And the Bible Series)
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
41
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
41
Review Date: 7/23/2007
Helpful Score: 1
Someone gave me this book, which I found quite funny. I've never read the Harry Potter series, and I'm not a religious person. Why the giver thought I would have any interest is beyond me. I read the first chapter and put it down.
Maybe if you're an HP person and have a basis in religion, this would be interesting.
Maybe if you're an HP person and have a basis in religion, this would be interesting.
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
611
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
611
Review Date: 6/5/2012
Helpful Score: 2
This isn't really the type of book I usually read. While I am interested in stories that detail the out of body experiences by people who have "passed to the other side", I am not particularly religious. I found this book to be a quick project, easy to read in one or two sittings. It is a very "Christian" book, being written by a pastor, but the tale itself is interesting for the familial connections that are brought to light that the child would have had absolutely no knowledge of and some of the intriguing facts thrown in here and there regarding bits from the Bible that are commonly known. The brevity of the book helps - much more of the same and it would have become repetitive and dull, but the author has a good sense of when to call it quits. He makes his point and departs, leaving you to form your own opinion. This would be an interesting selection for a book club, just to get the opinions from a diverse group of readers to swirl around the room.
Review Date: 5/4/2007
Helpful Score: 2
I read this for a book club...not one of my favorites. I thought the writing style was a little abrupt and choppy. Some interesting characters, though. It made me remember why I wasn't so crazy about high school!
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