I cannot recommend this enough. History tends to be very dry and sanitized by the people who write it. Generally the only good, juicy, HUMAN parts that survive are personal stories (journals, private letters).

The entire book is filled with first person accounts of life in the US during WWII. Sure, everyone has seen the Rosie the Riveter poster, but the stories in this book talk about _real life during that time period. People live in tents, they travel for the first time, they have sex, they divorce—My parents were pariahs in the Catholic church for being divorced in the 70s – I had had no clue that there was such a rash of divorces after WWII.

The book is chock full of the kind of information that never makes it to the textbooks, y’know, the parts that actually make it interesting.

I just enjoyed the heck out of this. It was not what I was expecting at all.

I really, really liked that I didn’t see the ending (pre-epilogue, the epilogue was kind of predictable) coming until it was on top of me.

I’m not a musician, but from the outside it looked as though the musical aspects of the story were written well and intelligently/plausibly.

Did someone mix up the manuscripts and put James Patterson’s name on a Nicholas Sparks book?

Are you sure?

You’re right, it was too direct for NS. But almost sentimental and predictable enough to be him anyway…

I gave up on this. I’ve decided, in light of my recent birthday,to abandon my never-give-up-on-a-book policy; life is too short to read a book you don’t want to unless you really have to (work/school).

The title sounds like a cheesy paranormal romance, but it’s not. The back cover touts it as ‘chick lit for the thinking woman’ or some such–I’ve already returned it to the library and am too lazy to shoot over to Amazon and look it up so the quote is more like a vague remembrance.

This was supposed to be a brit/chick lit mystery, vaguely like Bridget Jones but with dead people… I’ve never read BJ, just saw the flicks, but I doubt it read like this or the movies woulda been yawners.

I have no problem with self-absorbed, selfish, inconsiderate heroines–I’m one in my own life after all–I do have a problem with heroines of the above type who are like this and know it and just don’t care! This character is so unrelenting self-absorbed she just makes me wish I could grab her like this was a Jasper Fforde book and bitchslap some sense into her.

So, ummm, yea, I didn’t finish this one…

Enjoyed the depth of this, but am afraid, based on the author’s comments in the Afterword that the characters I’ve come to love will not feature in the other two books in the trilogy.

Here’s to hoping I’m wrong!

sigh I really wanted to get some practice in doing reviews, but if the story catches my attention, I don’t notice the writing. I know, from an author’s perspective, that’s a _good thing, but I’m trying to teach myself to be a more critical reader.

I failed, completely. I stayed up waaay past my bedtime finishing this one, but I just HAD to know how it all worked out.

That said, the build-up to the big event was pretty slow. It’s also patently obvious that it is a series book and designed that way from start to finish. There were so many issues and plot points left hanging when this one ended I just wanted to scream, but it was 2am and the 5yo was asleep so I refrained.

All in all, a good, enjoyable read. Like most supe series I’ve read the violence quotient is slowly creeping up, not major, but definitely more than the first one. Sex, too. I may be the only supernatural series fiction fan out there who DOESN’T think more people need to die in a more gruesome manner or get laid more often and more creatively each book, but I doubt it. I’d love to interview a bunch of these authors and ask about this, since it seems to be a trap that they all fall into.

This was far better than I expected it to be when my dad recommended it.

The cover art and jacket blurb led me to expect some sort of bizarre redneck fantasy, but this was a really good book. It delves deep into the politics of the age they fall into, far more comprehensively than I expected. My only issue with it was the native’s ready acceptance of modern dress and moral/social mores.

I enjoyed this movie, particularly the ending, which was well worth sitting through the whole movie for, at least once.

Building up to the ending was a bit of a drag, and it seemed as though a few things here and there along the way were designed solely to add length to the film, rather than meaning. I was very glad I was working on a project while watching. Had I been in a situation where I had to give it my full attention I probably would have given up on it, despite my new…interest…in Jeremy Irons (aka the REAL reason I rented the movie).

I liked this one, but I’m a Nessie afficionado.

The theory behind the possible identity of Nessie was nicely plausible and covered all the major bases like why no one can find it on sonar, reminding people that most of the famous photos are either admitted hoaxes or heavily manipulated, scientifically bombasting some of the less plausible theories (can we say “plesiosaur”?)

The writing was…wishy-washy, decent in some spots, rather lazy in others, but, let’s face it, no one reads a book with a title and cover art like this one for the writing.

The protag was dimensional, sadly, most of the other characters weren’t, and after a while the Scots accent got a bit thick (spoiler warning) – A number of the chapters are prefaced by entries from a “translated” 14th century knight’s journal… If it was translated anytime in the last 100 years why the heck was it translated into Scot-flavoured Olde English?

I admit it, I liked it, though for the life of me, upon reading my review, I can’t imagine why.

yawn

Without having the rest of the series at hand, the characters’ ages just don’t add up & it is, like all his books, slower than molasses flowing uphill in winter—which I’m willing to put up with for new info, but this backstory business just isn’t interesting enough to spend the time slogging through when I could be reading something I want to read. Guess I’m not a big enough WoT fan.