David
Aside from Harry Potter, this is my first real fantasy series I've undertaken and it's amazing! A newlywed couple travels to the Tower, a place where each ring of the Tower is its own fantastical world. A Tower that has many rings, but how many exactly, no one knows. Upon arrival at the bustling Market that surrounds the Tower, our hero, Senlin, gets separated from his bride and from there his search begins. Now on to book #2 in the series!
Being a huge Elton fan, this review may be slightly biased so I'll try to contain my enthusiasm and fan boy hyperbolism... A thoroughly enjoyable read into the life of one of the most famous pop/rock megastars that has ever walked the face of the Earth!!! (Well, I tried).
From the highs (lots of those involving a certain white powder) to devastating lows (Ryan White, Gianni Versace, Princess Diana) to behind the scenes gossip (Tina Turner, George Michael) to becoming sober and raising a family, this book has it all! Although, he left out the part where I came to his house for a meeting about a sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet. He may not remember, but I always will!
4.5 stars.
Once I started, I could not put this book down. While I'm a sucker for a haunted house book, this is a different kind of haunted house book, one that came highly recommended by Stephen King. So naturally, I was sold!
The edition I read said 1995 and I couldn't figure out why no one was using their cell phones...it was only after I read the book that I saw it was first published in 1978...ahhh, now it all makes sense!
Because it was written in the 70's some of the attitudes and social norms are a bit dated and out of touch for our woke times, but that did nothing to damper the experience in reading this story about Colquitt (seriously, is that a real name or a collection of Scrabble tiles), her husband Walter and the various families that move into THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR! (see what I did there?)
You know when you have a crazy dream where the people and the settings are constantly changing and its hard to make sense of anything and when you wake up you say “what in the hell was that?”....this book was like that for me.
This may have been a case of my expectations being too high (as I LOVE The Night Circus) combined with long stretches of not reading due to life things...so perhaps this warrants another read to fully appreciate it?
I saw the trailer for the movie and thought I should read the book first (especially since the movie has been panned). Glad I did! At times the prose was a bit too flowery for my taste, but not enough to make me throw the book aside and give up. Enjoyable read, amazing characters & vibrant settings (the sequence in Vegas alone leaps off the page...you can just feel that dry heat!).
I didn't enjoy this one as much as his previous books only because this was my first audiobook.
And while the audiobook is the way to go (you hear historical recordings, interviews with the actual people, reenactments of court proceedings), I found myself too easily distracted (I'm driving!) and would lose the thread of the narrative...so that's on me!
While the title is slightly deceptive this book is more about how we misread strangers and what happens as a result.
Either way, another fascinating insight into human behavior from Malcolm Gladwell.
I don't know how Taylor Jenkins Reid does it, but once again she has created these totally believable characters that make you forget you are reading fiction. This story of movie star Evelyn Hugo (reminded me of Elizabeth Taylor in some aspects...especially when it came to multiple husbands!) reflecting back on her life and career was unputdownable (is that a word? If not it should be!). I laughed, I cried...I just loved it and didn't want it to end!
While reading this book, I kept having a desire to hear the songs by Daisy Jones andThe Six. At the same time I had to remind myself that this fictional Fleetwood Mac-type band didn't really exist...that's how natural and believable the writing is in this page turner by Taylor Jenkins Reid. And that email at the end...that really hit me right in the feels.
“Mr. Ambiguous Horror” is at it again with these 19 unsettling stories, that even despite my distaste for ambiguous endings, managed to get me in his grasp and just wouldn't let me go! From the gruesome “The Getaway”, to the choose-your-own-adventure of “A Haunted House...”, to the uber-meta and LOL funny, yet dark “Notes from the Dog Walkers” or the apocalyptic “Its Against The Law to Feed the Ducks” & “Where We All Will Be” or revisiting old “friends” Merry and Marjorie (from “A Head Full of Ghosts” fame) in “Growing Things” & “The 13th Temple”... Tremblay skillfully weaves these suspenseful and unnerving tales into a collection that will keep you up late into the night!
My favorite Mary Roach book thus far! Amongst other things, she explores mediums, reincarnation, near-death experiences, ghostly visits and ectoplasm, oh my! With an open mind, she visits people with first hand encounters along with university professors and scientists which tends to balance everything out with no one side proclaiming victory. An entertaining and insightful read!
Imagine a world where people suddenly go blind and there is no rhyme nor reason for this bizarre epidemic. While at times difficult to read due to the structure and that its a translated book, that should not prevent you from picking up this dystopian masterwork by this Pulitzer Prize winning author.
Another mind-bending book from Blake Crouch that was hard to put down! Just when you think things can't get any crazier, you turn the page and reconsider that thought. There were moments where the quantum physics left me scratching my head in confusion, but it didn't matter, as the story is so compelling that you just keep going! Wonderful characters and emotionally charged with some truly moving moments!
This book opened my eyes to the dangers of over-parenting that we are so guilty of doing. Through case examples, studies and by the author herself (former dean of freshman and undergraduate advising at Stanford), this book teaches us that we need to raise our children not from a position of fear (which is the root of over-parenting), but from a position of love and understanding. That we need to let them be who they are and not who we want them to be. That our job is to raise them not to be our best friends, but to be functioning, confident adults. A must read for all parents no matter the age of your kids!
Loved this book! Fantastic premise about a group of strangers who may or may not have committed horrific crimes who then have their memories of the crimes erased and now live in a special type of witness protection in an isolated Texas town. What could possibly go wrong, you ask? Everything! Could not put this one down!
I thought this would be a much funnier rom-com than it actually turned out to be. In fact, it was a lot darker, than I expected. While I'm clearly not the target audience, for me, this was a quiet little story with no huge moments and characters that weren't all entirely likable. The writing and characterization though were quite good.
The thing I learned most about my experience with this book is to never choose a book based on a Goodreads synopsis. So many times I wanted to stop reading, but kept remembering how enticing the synopsis was...so I shouldered on only to wish I had given up 7 days ago. Rambling and repetitive prose, scant use of punctuation, no chapters (that's right, no chapters) and a lack of any sort of emotional attachment to the characters (and I was a high school theater kid in the 80s!). So to sum up my feelings for the book, I shall express them much in the same way as is described in the book itself during one of the trust exercises between two of the main characters:
“You did not like this book.”
“I did not like this book.”
“You did not like this book.”
“I did not like this book.”
“You did not like this book.”
“I did not like this book.”
If you watched the show Bloodline on Netflix this book is like that...but with Aussies.
I was excited to read my first Jane Harper, but I found it a bit of a struggle when it came to the regional references and vernacular. Interesting & fully developed characters but the story was a bit slow moving for my taste. Unpopular opinion, I know.