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Review Date: 8/7/2010
Helpful Score: 3
A thoroughly readable book about a character whose life truly was stranger than fiction. A great read even if you are not a fan of War-time histories or intelligence/espionage stories. Macintyre describes a complex, talented, and unconventional person with compassion and clarity. He avoids over-analyzing the personality -- no armchair psychoanalysis -- and simply tells the story, letting the reader muse on the motivations and demons. Macintyre has a knack for finding unusual and compelling slices of history, which he offers to us with infectious curiosity and enthusiasm. Reading one Macintyre book will, inevitably, lead the reader to another.
Review Date: 12/14/2008
I have not personally read this book. It was given to me by someone from the west coast who enjoyed it thoroughly, being unfamiliar with all things Appalachian. I loaned it to a friend who grew up in the region, and she did not like the author's tone, which she described as condescending. I split the difference when assigning the rating.
Review Date: 9/11/2009
Helpful Score: 1
Tight, spare, writing that holds your attention. The main character, Liz, is professional, focused, and complex enough to be interesting. Unlike many in this genre, there is not a lot of excess background story, or philosophizing. Great Read.
Review Date: 7/21/2009
Creative and unique stories that appeal to wide age range.
Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Sisterhood, Bk 4)
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
270
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
270
Review Date: 1/2/2010
Helpful Score: 1
I have been reading these books before passing them on to my 13 year old daughter. The first three did, in my opinion, a nice job of depicting all the conflicting emotions and priorities in the lives of young women who were faced with many changes in their lives and priorities. The pacing was good, and the conflicts fell in naturally, and provided good discussion points with my daughter. This book seemed to be cramming too much into one volume, and lacked some of the exploration of emotion that accompanied the other books. I could not figure out how Lena's physical involvement with the art student added to her development as a character, or why she AND Tibby each had to have sex. Tibby's story at least followed a logical progression in her relationship with Brian. The author seemed to have tossed this one together, and while I was disappointed in her approach, it will give me A LOT to discuss!
Review Date: 6/1/2014
Helpful Score: 1
I was disappointed in this book. I found the author's descriptions of day to day life in Afghanistan very interesting, and her depiction of the lives of women a little chilling. However, about halfway through I began to find her self-described hysteria a little grating. These are real people living in a harsh climate and a rigid societal structure. The author professed to love the country and the people, but every time she encountered core differences between east and west, she seemed to come unglued. Surely she did not believe she could change an entrenched belief set one perm at a time? There was a deeper story here, possibly about hope, but I don't think the author ever captured it. By the end of the book, I wasn't sure what she had accomplished, for herself, or her Afghan friends. I gave it three stars for the point in time descriptions of daily life and atmospherics.
Review Date: 9/2/2014
I was disappointed in this book. The stories are well written, but in the final analysis, I thought his themes were repetitive. There were about three basic stories-- got a wife, gained a wife, lost a wife-- without enough variance to engage. I found myself trudging through to the end of the book on principle more than interest. Perhaps if I had read each individually, as standalone offerings in magazines etc, I would have found the stories more appealing. I've read this type of fiction/short story in the past, but this author didn't click for me.
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