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Review Date: 2/25/2009
Helpful Score: 13
Another book I chose to not finish. (Can count on one hand how many times that has happened to me in my lifetime.) I thought this was going to be right up my alley, and dove into it with gusto. It started off well enough, though by the time I got about mid-way through I started to find it dragging. I put it down and then just never picked it back up again. Every time I looked at it on my nightstand I decided to go and look at my bookshelf to find something else.
I just posted this book on my account and it was picked up almost immediately. When I saw that, I thought, "I should try to finish this book" so I pulled the bookmark out and started in. Didn't make it a page and found myself flipping forward to the last couple pages to just read the end. Didn't even do that as from what I can tell it "ended" over the last several chapters. In the end (for me) I just decided to give up and send it along to someone who hopefully will enjoy it a whole lot more than I did.
This should have been a book for me - period piece, hints of time travel or time warping, smart female at the center of the book along with a well-known figure from history...but just couldn't hang with it through the middle when I found it getting repetitive and circular and when I felt almost as hallucinogenic reading it as the main character seemed to be "living" it.
Hope you enjoy it, though! Everyone has different tastes, and it's always worth a try to dig into any book!
I just posted this book on my account and it was picked up almost immediately. When I saw that, I thought, "I should try to finish this book" so I pulled the bookmark out and started in. Didn't make it a page and found myself flipping forward to the last couple pages to just read the end. Didn't even do that as from what I can tell it "ended" over the last several chapters. In the end (for me) I just decided to give up and send it along to someone who hopefully will enjoy it a whole lot more than I did.
This should have been a book for me - period piece, hints of time travel or time warping, smart female at the center of the book along with a well-known figure from history...but just couldn't hang with it through the middle when I found it getting repetitive and circular and when I felt almost as hallucinogenic reading it as the main character seemed to be "living" it.
Hope you enjoy it, though! Everyone has different tastes, and it's always worth a try to dig into any book!
Review Date: 2/25/2009
Helpful Score: 1
Maybe it's just that I have too many books in my "to read" pile, but I didn't finish this one and decided to post it without trying to finish it.
I picked it up in an airport bookstore recently and had some high expectations for it. Maybe too high. I read the first person's story and then started in on the second and lost steam. The beginning of the book was so bizarre I was turned off and intrigued at the same time. But then when I discovered that the second chapter was another (seemingly unconnected) person's story, I found I didn't have the patience to keep reading or the interest to find out how the various pieces may tie together.
Maybe it's my mood or my current stack of books, but I didn't feel like bothering to struggle any further with this one. It is very unusual for me to not finish a book (I think I can count on one hand how many I have chosen to not finish in my entire life) but it seems to be a trend with me lately. This is the third book I have picked up and grown bored with too quickly.
Sorry! Hope someone else enjoys it more than I did!
I picked it up in an airport bookstore recently and had some high expectations for it. Maybe too high. I read the first person's story and then started in on the second and lost steam. The beginning of the book was so bizarre I was turned off and intrigued at the same time. But then when I discovered that the second chapter was another (seemingly unconnected) person's story, I found I didn't have the patience to keep reading or the interest to find out how the various pieces may tie together.
Maybe it's my mood or my current stack of books, but I didn't feel like bothering to struggle any further with this one. It is very unusual for me to not finish a book (I think I can count on one hand how many I have chosen to not finish in my entire life) but it seems to be a trend with me lately. This is the third book I have picked up and grown bored with too quickly.
Sorry! Hope someone else enjoys it more than I did!
Review Date: 11/8/2009
I could almost write the same review here that I just wrote for "Interred With Their Bones". If you feel like you want to read this, you may as well grab the other, too, and read them together.
Unfortunately, both have been compared to Da Vinci Code and I would *strongly* disagree with that comparison. I loved the Da Vinci Code and found both of these books wanting.
The problem with this book is it had a great concept (and we hear far too little about Marlowe, especially in comparison with Shakespeare!) but was so busy trying to be the great mystery history novella, that it ran around chasing its tail far more than it needed to.
Maybe I would have done better reading it cover to cover, but I found that by the time I got back in the swing of whichever timeline I was reading, it was time to jump to the other timeline. I'd spend long enough in each time that when I was switched over to the other, it would take me a bit to remember where I was with that storyline last I left it.
If you really want to read this book, I would recommend reading it cover to cover (or as close as possible) AND suspending any knowledge you may have of the travel world (as in reality of traveling from one time zone, country, etc. to the next). The book would have probably gotten another star out of me if it hadn't tried to convince me that all of this hustle was supposed to happen in a few short days.
Good concept, but it took too much to get into it and I had to set aside too much reality to even try to swallow this fiction. (I can buy a lot, but unbelievable timing is not one of them!)
Unfortunately, both have been compared to Da Vinci Code and I would *strongly* disagree with that comparison. I loved the Da Vinci Code and found both of these books wanting.
The problem with this book is it had a great concept (and we hear far too little about Marlowe, especially in comparison with Shakespeare!) but was so busy trying to be the great mystery history novella, that it ran around chasing its tail far more than it needed to.
Maybe I would have done better reading it cover to cover, but I found that by the time I got back in the swing of whichever timeline I was reading, it was time to jump to the other timeline. I'd spend long enough in each time that when I was switched over to the other, it would take me a bit to remember where I was with that storyline last I left it.
If you really want to read this book, I would recommend reading it cover to cover (or as close as possible) AND suspending any knowledge you may have of the travel world (as in reality of traveling from one time zone, country, etc. to the next). The book would have probably gotten another star out of me if it hadn't tried to convince me that all of this hustle was supposed to happen in a few short days.
Good concept, but it took too much to get into it and I had to set aside too much reality to even try to swallow this fiction. (I can buy a lot, but unbelievable timing is not one of them!)
Review Date: 11/8/2009
Helpful Score: 3
Great concept, but could have been better. Too many twists and turns apparently for the sake of making twists and turns. And if you have any sense of travel timing (dealing with airlines, costs, etc) or find yourself easily bored by the concept of someone magically being able to (in almost all cases instantly) "figure out" codes, clues, and mysteries with very little effort or research, this is probably not the book for you. I liked the idea but felt it could have been a much better book just being kept more a little more plausible in some instances and not trying so hard to be the uber-mystery that continues to twist and turn its way to (what I found to be) a very predictable end. Points for effort, but the rest was rather lost in process.
Review Date: 3/26/2011
Our local book club picked this for its monthly read and I had heard good things from others before I had even started the book. Maybe my expectations were too high.
After reading the back I was excited to get started. I enjoyed the set up and all of the explicit detail of sight, sound, and smell that set the scene for what was essentially a very emotional and psychological plot.
However, after reading about 1/2 the "explicit detail" had turned from something enjoyable and vicarious living to a completely overwrought, overwritten work. It was a struggle to keep going. I ended up skimming the last 1/3 of the book and felt I missed nothing except more time wasted reading about every lilac scent or car sound that existed as the characters were going about their lives. It's a great strategy if you use it sparingly, but when overused, it seems like nothing more than ego and feels like no more than sheer agony.
I would NOT read this book again. It was a great idea but too many unnecessary details that bogged it down. For 450+ pages, it could easily have been half that and still accomplished its purpose - probably in a better fashion. I'd give the author another chance, and hope that she had a better editor next time.
After reading the back I was excited to get started. I enjoyed the set up and all of the explicit detail of sight, sound, and smell that set the scene for what was essentially a very emotional and psychological plot.
However, after reading about 1/2 the "explicit detail" had turned from something enjoyable and vicarious living to a completely overwrought, overwritten work. It was a struggle to keep going. I ended up skimming the last 1/3 of the book and felt I missed nothing except more time wasted reading about every lilac scent or car sound that existed as the characters were going about their lives. It's a great strategy if you use it sparingly, but when overused, it seems like nothing more than ego and feels like no more than sheer agony.
I would NOT read this book again. It was a great idea but too many unnecessary details that bogged it down. For 450+ pages, it could easily have been half that and still accomplished its purpose - probably in a better fashion. I'd give the author another chance, and hope that she had a better editor next time.
Review Date: 10/3/2011
I was so disappointed in this book I'm not sure I can even find the words.
If you're looking for a book to describe how the human mind works or develops and deals with life as we currently know it, don't read this (read The Social Animal by David Brooks instead).
If you think this will be a scientifically-driven, fact-based, well-written book, you may be disappointed.
If you keep up with current events, are moderately watchful of environmental news, and have any modicum of common sense, you may already know as much as what the author presents. She provides "facts", some of which are based on science, some of which are culled from blogs, and several times begin with "In my view,..."
After stating the fact, she circles around herself never really laying a logical or linear argument, rarely substantiating the theory, and usually stating very little more than what her background in advertising and marketing has provided her. (Perfect example of the frustration...quoting an "EPA fact" and then citing four sources, none of which are the EPA.)
Next time I want a book about science or environment, I will check the author bio first and choose one written by someone with any level of background in the topic at hand.
I think this book is getting a lot of press because of the E.O. Wilson forward, but the folks who invest it in for that reason will be disappointed.
I wanted to love it and get something out of it, but I just couldn't. I finally stopped wasting my time. Better luck next time!
If you're looking for a book to describe how the human mind works or develops and deals with life as we currently know it, don't read this (read The Social Animal by David Brooks instead).
If you think this will be a scientifically-driven, fact-based, well-written book, you may be disappointed.
If you keep up with current events, are moderately watchful of environmental news, and have any modicum of common sense, you may already know as much as what the author presents. She provides "facts", some of which are based on science, some of which are culled from blogs, and several times begin with "In my view,..."
After stating the fact, she circles around herself never really laying a logical or linear argument, rarely substantiating the theory, and usually stating very little more than what her background in advertising and marketing has provided her. (Perfect example of the frustration...quoting an "EPA fact" and then citing four sources, none of which are the EPA.)
Next time I want a book about science or environment, I will check the author bio first and choose one written by someone with any level of background in the topic at hand.
I think this book is getting a lot of press because of the E.O. Wilson forward, but the folks who invest it in for that reason will be disappointed.
I wanted to love it and get something out of it, but I just couldn't. I finally stopped wasting my time. Better luck next time!
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