Review:As a historical novel, "Arthur & George" does an excellent job of immersing the reader in turn-of-the-century Victorian England. The period details are convincing, and all the characters and the omniscient narrator exhibit Victorian worldviews that are free from the obvious contamination of distinctly 21st century values and concerns. This novel therefore does what the best critical historical fiction does: it critiques the prejudices and assumptions of a particular time period not through t... Read more

Review:I've loved Elizabeth Strout's books. And I know everyone is raving about this one. But first of all, it is NOT a novel. Not even a novel in stories. It is a collection of stuff about Cs she thought of while writing other books. Each one has some dark dreary unsolvable anguish to think about. I felt cheated. i wasn't touched or entertained or moved or intrigued. I was bored. Read more

Review:A sequel, this was an equally good book, a very fast and easy read. Good character development, well-written, entertaining, and very interesting immersion in the world of horses and equine performance events. Read more

Review:Ferris explores the workplace in the context of an economic downturn. Petty office politics, ingenious ways to waste time, quirky characters, and incestuous relationships are the order of the day. To great effect, Ferris tells this story in the rarely-used first-person plural voice. Parts of this book are funny and other parts are touching, and I was thoroughly entertained for about 100 pages. Eventually, the first-person plural becomes somewhat tedious, the workplace setting runs out of interes... Read more

Review:"I was the girl on layaway. And it wasn't Ronnie who'd put me on layaway. It was something I had done to myself."

That quote, in a nutshell, is why I didn't like this book.
I don't at all believe characters need to be likable for me to enjoy a story. Often the more unsavory the character, the more exciting the book. And really the issue isn't even whether I "like" a character or not, but whether they fascinate me, even a little bit. It feels stupid putting it in this vague way but--a c... Read more

Review:I read the first book, had NO IDEA it was suppose to be in Atlanta. I'm reading the second book and there's just so many awkward sentences in both. So many times I have to go back and reread it a few times to figure out exactly what's going on and more than once I thought I had accidentally skipped a page, it was so disjointed. Not to give anything away but an example is the horse drawn carriage ride to the werehyenas. So we've got the male in the cart, I guess, with them, some others perhap... Read more

Review:This book was so satisfying. I practically ate it up! Very true to the characters that we've grown to love so much. And the plot was excellent. Loved it! Highly recommended! (Caution: Read the books in order. Not stand alone.). 5 stars! Read more

Review:Anthony Bourdain nailed the atmosphere with spot on details! I lived on Sullivan Street in the 1980s and knew the real life mobsters and wanna-bees he cleverly transformed into characters for his food-infused mystery. The details of the red sauce Italian/tourist restaurants and the SoHo chic were particularly great. I'm recommending this to friends who love mysteries AND food. Read more

Review:I don't usually like sci-fi type reading but this series caught me by surprise. I like it a lot. What I don't like is that it is a series, all by the same author, and some of the events are totally out of sync. Max is part bird and in one book it states that she can't reproduce like a human. She and Fang become a couple and then Fang dies in two of books. She is left pregnant in one (Fang later is resurrected) and has a baby girl by what seems to be human reproduction. In the other book Fang d... Read more

Review:Where have I been to miss such a great Author that keeps you glued to the pages until that last word is read! This story will break your heart for what London is dealing with, losing her parents and her career all in one night. Then you bring in her crazy brother who thinks everything is owed to him and a hot lawyer named Finn, you know that is just a combination for something bad to happen down the road! I don't want to spoil too much past this but that ending was totally perfect after everythi... Read more