Tyler
I picked up this book at a yard sale thinking it would be a great, light-hearted read during my summer vacation down in the Outer Banks. Boy was I wrong! I really didn't like the ending and I feel like it could've had so much more potential, but here we are. I felt like the rest of the book kept me entertained enough to enjoy reading it without much regret though, to be fair. Luckily I'm fairly used to stories not ending the way I hoped they would. After all, it's not my story to begin with! I would reccomend Message In a Bottle to anyone who enjoys the genre whilst knowing that not every one will have a fairy tale ending.
Beyond Sleep is certainly well written and kept me engaged with the story throughout, though I feel as though there are some cultural nuances that remain over my head for lack of knowledge about Dutch and Norwegian culture, not to mention this was originally written decades ago. All in all, worth a single read in my opinion, but likely won't be coming back to it any time soon.
I would describe this book as average. As a book of short stories, there are some that are better than others but not good enough to read more than once. In fact, I gave up on a few part way through because of a lack of interest. Though the better stories are worth reading and well written which deserves a few stars at least.
This is one of my first fantasy novels, and I must say that I am not disappointed. Rushdie wrote his story in such a way that I would not doubt it had come from the “Sea of Stories” itself. Writing this as a fully-grown man, the one thing I liked most about this book is that it brought back those feelings of childhood wonderment that one experiences watching a classic Disney cartoon for the first time. I will be seeking out his other works and I recommend you do too!
This is probably one of the most depressing books I've read in quite a while. Boyle certainly doesn't particularly care for happy endings in his short stories. That being said, they were very well written and thoroughly engaging in every one. Many authors have a tendency to have some good and some bad in their collections, but After The Plague is all good. I definitely recommend it!
I feel like this story has potential which deserves an extra star, but as it is currently written it is sorely lacking. The dialogue is poorly constructed in such a way that it ruins the immersion of the plot, and I simply could not look past it. There were some instances where I couldn't even tell what the character was trying to say, and at that point I gave up and decided not to finish the book.
The story at its core is not bad at all. Far from the best book I've ever read but fair in most respects. There were many elements that seemed rather out of place in this rather short book, such as the briefly touched-upon alien spacecraft and left me searching for more. (Did I miss something, or was it simply left to the reader to fill in the blanks that Shepard left out?) Either way, the lack of any chapters whatsoever combined with the long and rambling paragraphs made it seem like a long stream of words with no breath in-between. Thus I subtracted 1 star from this otherwise almost-4-star-worthy novel.
My first Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart kept my attention the whole way through. This particular novel is outside my usual genre, and I'm glad I broadened my horizons by giving it a shot. His descriptions are fantastic without going too overboard as some writers tend to do. I will certainly be reading his other work as well. So long as it's just as good, I'm sure I'll be pleased!
Borges' book is well written, insofar as much as a translated book can be. The stories are varied but often hard to follow. Whether that's due to my comparitively lacking vocabulary or whether it just didn't translate well, I'm not entirely sure. I read most of the stories, but skippied some that didn't really interest me. The one about the Spy in WWI was perhaps my favorite.
Fantastic! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Captain Hall's explorations into the arctic. I must admit I actually had no idea who the man was before reading this book, though I am quite glad I did. Hall was one of those men who was never content to be simply “normal”, and that quality shows itself quite readily throughout his entire life. Luckily for us, that makes for an excellent read.
My second attempt at a Bolano novel. I found this one interesting in concept, but once I actually started reading, it was honestly rather boring. Skipping ahead to later stories and from reading other reviews, it does seem a bit repetitive. Perhaps it would've been better as one or two larger biographies rather than a collection of smaller ones.
The Return kept me entertained throughout. Though, like the other reviews have stated, the ending is not terrible but definitely anticlimactic. 99% of the story was a fantastic read, (other than the weird parts, if you've read it, you know what I mean) but Little definitely dropped the ball for the ending. It's like he didn't know what to write and just gave up. Other than that, my only other criticism would be that there were one too many characters to keep track of that it got a bit confusing at times. That being said, overall it's worth a read.
Not a huge fan. It's a lot of fluff and could've been a lot shorter while still getting the message across. I did learn a couple things seeing as I'm fairly new to investing, but I feel like I could've learned the same on a 5 minute YouTube video. I would pass on this book, especially if you already know the basics.
This book was incredibly hard for me to put down. I feel like it was very well written throughout, except for the ending. With so much tension and intrigue leading up to the “dramatic conclusion”, it felt like a bit of a let down, almost like the author couldn't really decide what to do and ended up writing something shorter than orginally planned to save space. That's not to say it's not worth reading though. It's certainly one worth your time, in my opinion of course!
I didn't think I'd care for this book, but I was pleasantly surprised! Very glad my wife suggested it to me, as it is one of the best I've read in quite a while.
Gave this one a shot due to the many positive reviews. It's fair for what it is, all things considered, but it often reads more like poetry than an actual narrative. This is not to say that's a bad thing, just not my preference.
Started fairly interesting, however McLaughlin seems to have a tendency to be overly verbose. Well-written as it is, he often lost me halfway through his rambling descriptions. I abandoned the book about halfway through as the allure of the other options on my shelf had a better pull than the continung plot of this story. That being said, if you prefer a healthy amount of poetry with your novels then my all means give this one a shot.
Have you ever wanted to read a book that seems like it could've been written by a literate psycho from the video game series Borderlands? Because I'm convinced this is it. Not exactly sure what I expected when the outside cover said “very very weird”, but that's exactly what it is and it's simply not my cup of tea.