One hell of a survival story, with elements of Native American spiritualism thrown in. Dan Simmons will make you feel cold like you have never felt it before. I'm giving this 4 stars because the ending just didn't quite sit well with me. Crozier was my favorite character and I am very happy that the author allowed him to survive to find love and a new life with the Inuit people, but I found the super natural element on the bizarre side, "would a normal person really be willing to have their tongue bitten off by a mythical monster?"
Over all a great read.
I chose this book for a couple of group challenges and since I'm a scifi junkie and Dystopia is one of my favorite genres, I thought I would give this one a try. I expected it to be to childish to get any kind of enjoyment out of it, but I was wrong. This is a book for middle grade children, but its story line and plot can hold an adult's attention. I liked the characters and the interesting ideas that the author creates for the story.
I also like the fact that it wasn't full of the usual teen drama, hand holding, kissing and annoying romantic crap that so many of the ya dystopian novels are packed with.
I think it's worth continuing on with the rest of the series.
A wonderful read! Author Ondaatje's style of writing is beautiful. What a lovely adventure about a boy traveling from Colombo to England alone. I absolutely enjoyed the story that was told aboard the ship during its journey, but not so much the flashes into the future where the death of his friend occurred, and he talks about the end of his marriage. For me it became to melancholy and philosophical, and seem to distract from the children's adventure. There is a note from the author at the end of the book declaring the entire story is fiction but a part of me secretly feels that not all of this story is made up.
Lately I've been shying away from World War II books that deal with the holocaust and Nazism, because usually these stories are always so horrific, that it really saddens and depresses me to read them. After reading the premises of Heidegger's Glasses, I thought this might be an interesting and different view of the war. The book is based loosely on the Reich's obsession with the occult, they decide that all the letters from the dead must be answered to guarantee their war victory.
The book starts each chapter with notes, that I wasn't able to decide was written by the victims or by the Scribes (prisoners) who were ordered to answer them. In any case the notes didn't do much for me, they just seemed like made up nonsense.
I was very disappointed with the cast of characters they were so flat and unbelievable. I'm not sure what Thaisa Frank was aiming for horror, romance, comic relief? This book did not evoke any kind of a normal emotional response out of me, that someone should feel when reading about the holocaust. I actually felt nothing but annoyance and just wanted it to be over with.
Just another ya novel aimed at teen girls. The story wasn't bad, the writing could have been better. The characters were rather flat and not all that interesting. The protagonist, 'Wren' kept asking questions over and over again, plus I just don't get into the whole teen drama, romance thing.
Great read! Wonderfully written, I can't say which character was my favorite, since I saw apart of myself in each one. The story is violent, bloody and doomed and yet there is love, friendship and a will to survive. My only complaint is that it did seem to drag on a bit and for that reason I'm giving it 4 stars.
I was a little put off when I first started reading this book, first of all the mixed reviews and two I really do not care to read about violence towards children. I was happily surprised that I was able to adjust to the narrative of a 5 year old, even though there was a few times when it was rather obvious that the author did get off track a bit with the actual comprehension of a 5 year old, such as when Jack made a comment about people "outside" being under stress.The very beginning made me feel claustrophobic and the thought of being locked up in a room the size of my bedroom for 7 years with only a small child for companionship made me want to go stand outside for a while and breath in some fresh air. Later when Jack escapes and "Old Nick" grabs him up, my heart was actually racing lol.
I think Emma Donoghue did a pretty good job telling what was an absolute horror story into something bearable. 4 stars.
Inside is a two novels in one book 'Inside Out' and 'Outside In', They both are very fast paced and I found myself turning pages because I wanted to know more about "inside", the people, where they came from and why they were all inside? In the first novel we meet Trella a lowly scrub who leads a rebellion to free her people from the uppers and the pop cops. We also learn that inside is a spaceship traveling to some planet.
In the second novel the uppers and the scrubs are finally united but trying to rebuild their society back together again has its problems also inside gets taken over by the "outsiders." It is a very inventive story but it leaves you with so many unanswered questions and I just hate when authors do that also this is supposed to be a dystopian world, the kids run around saying the word "bogus" yet nobody remembers what a video camera is. Oh well I guess that's why it's referred to as YA. I'm giving it 3 stars.
I picked this up for $5.00 out of the bargain books bin. I have a feeling I should have saved my money for something else. oh well.
My first sheep book and a murder mystery to boot. George the shepherd has been found dead and his flock of sheep are out to solve his murder. The narrators of course are the sheep and they all have unique personalities and traits that help them solve the case.Although it was a bit draggy and I was hoping it would be slightly funnier it does have a great conclusion.
This book is about the fictional "Great Porter Circus" which was based on the real Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus that had their winter quarters in Peru, Indiana. Its a series of short stories that intertwine with each other across three generations of people who were associated with Porter's Circus.
I found the author's style of writing smooth and flowing and her characters very believable. The mood of the book is on the melancholy side if you have ever experienced an Indiana winter you will understand why the stories have such a bleak tone to them. I thought it to be extremely well written about life in a small town and the daily struggles and desires of the people who lived there. I easily connected with many of Day's characters and was able to truly feel what the characters were feeling.
If your looking for a happy, upbeat read this book is probably not for you but if you have lived long enough to have experienced many of life's winters you will definitely appreciate this writing.
This is one of those books that left me feeling lukewarm. Nice descriptions of Venice, the food and the culture of the people who lived during the Renaissance but the writing and the plot left much to be desired. The writing was just to juvenile for my taste it read to much like a children's book.Page turner I don't think so.
Anyone with religious views may actually find this book blasphemous as we all know the Bible including the Gnostic writings are all open to interpretation.
Probably one of the better ghost stories I've read in a while. Its a nice, creepy, modern day story about witches who prefer to be known as "herbalists," and an airline pilot haunted by the dead. Even though the story line is an old one," drinking blood to stay young or to stop aging" I still very much enjoyed the idea of the witches working in their green houses, cultivating exotic plants and herbs, and making their secret tinctures. I guess that's just the gardener in me.
I have to say I was a little disappointed with The Prisoner of Heaven I was really looking forward to more witty dialogue from "Fermin Romero De Torres" and it just didn't deliver. Part 3 ties together The Shadow of the Wind and The Angels game and focuses on Fermin's sort of mysterious past as a prisoner of The Montjuic Castle. We learn a little more about Daniel Sempere's mother's death but we still don't know Fermin's real name. Zafon also introduces to us 2 more sinister villains Selgado and Mauricio Valls.
The tone of Prisoner of heaven I felt in some ways was the darkest of all 3 there just wasn't as much humor or entertaining conversation between the characters as in the Shadow of the Wind, it was all to serious.
I thought the ending to The Prisoner of Heaven was so much better then the Angels game and it does hint to a part 4 which I very much hope there is.
I really enjoyed "The Observations" the narrator Bessy a young Irish girl forced into prostitution by her mother runs away and is taken in by the "Missus" Arabella Reid and becomes her maid. The two form a rather bizarre friendship with Bessy obsessively attached to the Missus, understandably considering she was starved for love and affection, something she never received from her own mother and her life of living on the streets. Arabella on the other hand you never really quite understand what is mentally wrong with her.
Bessy while snooping through the Missus's desk discovers a book that Arabella is writing. She learns that Arabella is doing experiments on her servants and recording her findings in her book, "The Observations" and that her last maid Nora has died by mysterious circumstances.
Author Jane Harris leads you on a very intriguing tale of Who-dun-it and why? The story was a real pleasure to read and I adored the Scottish and Irish accents of the character's.