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Review Date: 6/11/2007
Helpful Score: 2
Some people love her books, and I thought "Fingersmith" was excellent. On the other hand I read "Affinity" a few years ago and can't recall a thing about it. It made no impression on me at all.
All I Did Was Ask : Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
14
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
14
Review Date: 11/21/2006
Helpful Score: 6
Great book for fans of Fresh Air or anyone interested in "celebrity" interviews. Loved the one she did with Jodie Foster (2002). Gross has such a way of questioning her guests that I read all the interviews regardless of my previous interest in the person.
Review Date: 1/8/2007
Helpful Score: 4
A simple story written in a decievingly simple manner. An Irish priest struggles with the confession made upon the death of a man by his wife of a secret they have kept for 50 years. When Edna Dennehy tells "the all of it" to Father Declan he finds himself shocked yet, intrigued and must resolve his own feelings in order to grant forgiveness.
Review Date: 12/2/2006
Helpful Score: 1
Second book in this excellent series featuring Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James.
Review Date: 12/9/2006
Another excellent book in the continuing series with Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James.
Review Date: 6/16/2007
Helpful Score: 1
Fans of "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation" will also enjoy this novel set in the late 1890's but, with a much stronger main character. Emily Ashton bristles at the social mores she feels constrain her and marries mainly to escape her overbearing, socially conscious mother. Her husband's death early in their marriage leaves her wealthy and able to make her own decisions about the course of her life. Her interest in Greek antiquities is sparked by her husband's vast collection. But, the mystery involved is how he acquired them and if he was involved in defrauding the British Museum.
A decent mix of historical fiction and with chick-lit features
A decent mix of historical fiction and with chick-lit features
Review Date: 6/30/2007
Helpful Score: 4
This would have made a great short story or novella. At over 400 pages it just became tedious. Sections alternate between the two main characters - Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji - to set up their eventual combined story but, by the time Barnes gets there I was bored with them both and not finding anything exceptionally likable about either one, a fault I am sure lay in Barnes's writing style.. Drawn from a real life criminal case in which Doyle became involved, there should have been the potential for a much more exciting tale spun.
Review Date: 11/28/2006
Quick cozy
Review Date: 1/4/2007
London 1609 is the setting for this interesting novel about love, murder and alchemy - the secret to making gold.
Review Date: 12/5/2006
Helpful Score: 3
At age 26, Chris Thayer fell in love with a widower with three children. After 22 years together his partner abruptly leaves him and Chris must start life anew. Having been the only "mom" the three kids ever knew, this is a story about love and family and how the children, now adults, and Chris maintain and build on their relationships, while Chris eneters the singles world once more.
Review Date: 6/3/2011
Author's debut novel and it is a winner. Plenty of plot twists and interesting characters to keep your attention. One murder leads to another and another...how are they tied together and who the suspects are will keep you guessing. There is a sequel coming out that I hope lives up to the strengths of this book.
Review Date: 5/8/2011
Helpful Score: 7
I read an ARC of this debut novel and was totally drawn in to the story. Told through a journal, the novel details Christine Lucas's attempts to recapture her memories lost each night when she goes to sleep. For twenty years after an event puts her into a coma she loses her memories each day, awakening to an almost blank slate. Daily she has to be told who she is, how much times has passed and what has taken place in all the missing years. A harrowing tale because the reader doesn't know (along with Christine) what is real and what isn't. Is she having a break-through?
Is her husband always telling her the truth? Is the doctor she secretly sees helping her or does he have his own agenda?
The tension builds to a surprise ending that makes it so you can't turn the pages fast enough.
Hope this author has more great stories to get on paper.
Is her husband always telling her the truth? Is the doctor she secretly sees helping her or does he have his own agenda?
The tension builds to a surprise ending that makes it so you can't turn the pages fast enough.
Hope this author has more great stories to get on paper.
Review Date: 12/16/2006
Helpful Score: 2
I wasn't crazy about this book although it was highly acclaimed. Her writing style is good but, the story was a bit bland for me.
Review Date: 11/30/2006
Interesting mystery taking place in the Renaissance Era.
Review Date: 11/17/2009
Helpful Score: 3
A really good beginning to a series. Alexander mixes both fictional characters and real people to create a mystery series set in London during the later part of the 1700's. John Fielding was a Magistrate, brother to Henry Fielding (Tom Jones), co-founded the Bow Street Runners - the first organized police force and blind since age 19. An orphaned boy is taken under his wing and narrates the story as an adult, remembering his adventures with Fielding. The writing style is wonderfully picturesque without being overpowering or flowery and the characters three dimensional.
You might figure out the ending but it doesn't detract from the overall pleasure of reading.
You might figure out the ending but it doesn't detract from the overall pleasure of reading.
Review Date: 5/27/2007
Helpful Score: 4
Covering the decade from 1920 - 1930, Meade concentrates on Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber, exploring their lives at the height of their careers (although some would question Fitzgerald's inclusion, she was instrumental in assisting her husband with his books and wrote stories on her own often credited to both). My complaint about the book is that the style makes you feel like you are attending a lecture given in a monotone voice. There is little cadence to her writing. My biggest issue, however, is that Meade wrote a biography of Dorothy Parker (What Fresh Hell is This) and the sections in this book dealing with Parker are basically lifted verbatim from that biography. It is laziness on the author's part and if you have read both it sticks out dramatically.
Review Date: 10/1/2024
As first in a series I see potential but this one was just ok.
Both Phee (I'll get back to that) and her mother are mildly annoying. Her mother listens with half an ear and barks out orders. Phee, a 45 year old woman just folds under her mother's domineering personality. As to the ending, yes, it's all wrapped up but too much of the solution is about things that happened off screen as they say.
Quibble: The series is called "A Sophie Kimball Mystery" but she's called Phee throughout the book. I think it was a good number of pages in that she actually mentions her name is Sophie. I'm probably just being picky...haha
Both Phee (I'll get back to that) and her mother are mildly annoying. Her mother listens with half an ear and barks out orders. Phee, a 45 year old woman just folds under her mother's domineering personality. As to the ending, yes, it's all wrapped up but too much of the solution is about things that happened off screen as they say.
Quibble: The series is called "A Sophie Kimball Mystery" but she's called Phee throughout the book. I think it was a good number of pages in that she actually mentions her name is Sophie. I'm probably just being picky...haha
Review Date: 11/30/2006
Helpful Score: 1
Cozy mystery set in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. Part of the Lighthouse Inn Series.
Review Date: 11/25/2006
Helpful Score: 1
First book in the series featuring bookseller, Cliff Janeway. Filled with insider info on the book world and an engaging mystery plot, too.
Review Date: 12/16/2006
Helpful Score: 2
I love this series. Mixed in with the mysteries is a good deal of inside info on book trading but, it isn't presented in a dry text book kind of way.
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