54 posts tagged “reading”
About 100 people died. Reading about the experiences of some of the survivors, and the speculation about what it was like for the people who didn't die instantly, I felt pretty guilty for my morbid curiosity.
However, it was interesting to read about, and it made me think about how we take modern conveniences like car and air travel for granted.
There's a surprise ending and for a page or so I thought that it was going to ruin the book for me, but it didn't go where an anticipated and ended up being okay.
I was excited to read this because I couldn't put The Other Boleyn Girl down. Although I enjoyed it, I didn't like it nearly as well. The story was just not quite as compelling, and it seemed like the stakes weren't as high.
I did enjoy the multiple perspectives, but got a little tired of Katherine and Jane's chapters since I had to reinterpret everything they said because they are such unreliable narrators. I do see why Gregory thinks Anne of Cleves is an interesting figure, though, and I enjoyed her chapters.
I was really excited about this quasi-sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, which I loved. (Just to clarify, I loved it a long time before Oprah did, okay?) Since this book is set 200 later, none of the same characters appear, although there are some family connections.
I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it the way I loved Pillars of the Earth. World Without End follows a handful of citizens from Kingsbridge through about 35 years, encompassing economic upheaval, war with France, and two plague outbreaks. There's also a lot of church politics involved.
Although one of the primary characters is an architect and there are some major buiding projects scattered throughout the narrative, I think it lacks the cohesiveness that Pillars of the Earth had, with the construction of the cathedral going on throughout the whole book. That was the story of a town and some people set against this grand, epic backdrop of the cathedral construction. This one is the story of some people set against many other more minor events. (I should qualify that by saying that although I know that I loved The Pillars of the Earth and remember basically what it was about and some selected incidents from the book, I read it over 10 years ago and don't remember specifics. I think I'm due for a reread.)
Follett clearly researches all of his books very thoroughly, and this one is no exception. However, I did find some of the modern language kind of jarring. I know it would be ridiculous to write all the dialog in a 1000+ page book in the authentic dialect of the fourteenth century (nobody would understand anything), but I think he could have found better words to use that didn't sound so modern for terms like "girlfriend" and "boyfriend," etc.
I do like the idea that some articles of clothes can be tied to a relationship or a time in your life. I do have a few things I hang onto for sentimental reasons, like a college sweatshirt that is full of holes and covered in bleach and paint stains, or my prom dress, which I do still have and I think it is still reasonably in style (it was not a typical prom dress to begin with). But I've never really understood the need to shop and shop until I found the perfect outfit for any given occasion, which Halpern seems to think is the be all end all.
This book was written as a benefit for CARE International and chronicles Bryson's week long trip to Kenya to visit some of CARE's facilities. All of the profits (including Bryson's royalties) from the sale of the book go to CARE, so if you like Bryson's writing you should definitely feel good about picking up a copy.
I liked the book, but since it was about such a short trip it lacked the quality that usually makes Bill Bryson's books so good and interesting--the well-researched interesting bits of history and anecdotes that he usually includes.
I really enjoyed the Italy section; I would love to be able to move to an entirely different country and be able to quickly build a network of friends like that. The "pray" section in Italy dragged a little bit for me. I'm not a particularly spiritual person, and I am not sure I buy the "meditating and seeing god" bit. But she seemed to get what she was looking for out of the experience.
I liked the Bali section a lot, too. It made me want to go there. I hope she writes a follow up; I would like to know what happens to Ketut and Wayan, and whether she tries to maintain the global relationship with Felipe that they were planning at the end.
This book was a little bit different from the other Maguire books I have read; it was more of a straight novel without any magic or anything else unusual, except for a passing resemblance to the Cinderella story. It actually reminded me much more of Girl with a Pearl Earring with all the art talk.
I did really like the twist at the end involving the narrator--which I don't want to spoil for anyone who hasn't read the book.
Oh my god, this book totally gave me estrogen poisoning. I'm down with the Ya Ya books and their imitators, but there is only so much "embrace your womanhood" that I can take, and this book totally crossed the line.
It's about a diverse group of women in a "study" club (they ostensibly meet to discuss books, politics, etc, but mostly they drink wine and gossip), who get a lot of media attention for taking a 7 day walk. So, I actually thought that sounded pretty good, and it was fine for the first part of the book, but then it started to test my tolerance for Oprah-type things. I can pinpoint the exact moment it crossed the line, too; the dancing nun. If you've read it, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Up until that point, which I think was only 40 pages or so before the end of the book, I was willing to go along with it, and then once I was that far, I figured I might as well finish.
If you don't read all the articles O magazine, keep a gratitude journal or belong to a menses discussion group, I would recommend Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons as a far superior alternative.
Although the book was good, it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. When I got to the part where the cousins "reenact a childhood trauma" I thought it was finally going to get exciting, but that part was over within a few pages.
It turned out that the prison story was the more important part of the book. There are some big secrets that come out, but they're not as exciting as I was expecting or hoping. If you're looking for some modern gothic fiction, I'd try The Thirteenth Tale before this one.
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