Rose
Not mind-blowing, not terrible. A little bit hard to believe at times, and hard to relate to unless you are among the wealthy inhabitants of Barcelona. It touched [extremely] lightly on being undocumented in the city, women's safety, and alcoholism but it in a way that did not seem to be drawn from personal experience or connection.
I sit here struggling to write a review of this book. It's hard to say you love a book full of such violence, suffering, and tragedy. However, it is beautifully written, allowing the reader to connect so well with Cora, to the point that there were moments I couldn't stop reading until I knew she was safe from her many terrifying situations. It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming to read the stories of human sacrifice made to help others amidst the impossible situations inflicted upon people.
This was a beautifully written book. It was a powerful contrast between the harrowing slavery experiences of the characters and the freedom that the Conduction provided the lucky few. For my personal taste I found the Conduction part hard to swallow, but nevertheless it made for some wonderful images in my imagination.
I loved this book from half way through to the end. Unfortunately, I felt like the first half was not essential to the story and enjoyment of the second half. I liked the writing style, and I enjoyed the descriptions of the island, and the way New York was compared to Barbados. I've never read anything set in Barbados before, so that was also a plus for me. The relationships between the grandmother and her granddaughters was beautiful, and seeing Hyacinths journey to accepting her role as permanent primary caregiver was heartwarming.
I feel bad to give such a low rating. I really feel that I was just the wrong audience and so couldn't appreciate what it had to offer. I picked it up randomly in the library and thought that as a lover of cats, it would be a good read. But it seems you also might need to have a deep understanding and appreciation of Japanese culture, especially during the Meiji era. I found every part of it too long. The conversations of the people the cat observed as well as the thoughts and opinions of the cat himself. I kept going because I read that each book is better than the last, but sadly that was only the case for me because it meant I was closer to finishing it. Im very sure for the right reader this book is wonderful in many ways. I'm just not one of those readers. And as for the ending.....
Hmmmm. A strange book. Philosophy is not something of interest for me, and the subject can be complex for me to grasp so I attribute some of my lack of enjoyment of the book to my own lack of interest and knowledge on the subject. Those sections of the book were 3 stars for me. I absolutely loved the story of the motorcycle maintenance and the trip, the relationship between father and son. This was 5 stars for me.
The specifics of his treatment were not totally clear to me, until at one point during the book I decided to read some reviews to see if anyone else was as confused as I was. That discovery made it more time interesting and things began to make more sense for me. The afterword was a beautiful yet tragic ending to the book, but also provided a bit more clarity that I was lacking.
This book was beautiful. I really resonated with a lot of it and took a lot of lessons from it. My reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is my aversion to relating love to God and religion and spirituality in general. It is not a criticism of the author, nor of her beliefs, it's simply something I don't relate to so it made parts of the book a bit hard to digest.
This book absolutely blew my mind. I loved everything about it and it was the topic of many interesting discussions with people during and after reading it! After reading it I feel that the synopsis doesn't really give any indication of the way the story is going to go or what type of book it is. I loved the way it was written and the perspective that it used. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I loved every minute of it. I could see this being a film one day.....
I really liked this book until I was half way through and I found it wasn't really going anywhere. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, it was a memoir as you expect, but I just found it a little dull when not much had really happened by the time I had read half of it. I hate giving up on books but so I compromised and watched the film and I didn't find the film that riveting either. Perhaps it just wasn't the book for me, I prefer a bit more drama and I didn't find much drama in the storyline. Having said that, it is absolutely a memoir of a Geisha which I had little to no knowledge of before and I did learn a lot about their traditions and way of life which I found interesting.
I was listening to the audiobook of this after watching the film but after cancelling my Audible account I could no longer listen to it and couldn't get a copy of the book. At the point I reached it seemed fairly close to the film which I loved and left me feeling totally sick and horrified so I was really looking forward to reading the book. I've heard lots of amazing reviews of the book and it had the longest queue of people waiting to read it in the library I worked in than any other book except Game of Thrones! The story line is twisted and runs very deep. You literally have no idea who you can trust and along the way you form your own opinions on who's lying and who's not. It's a psychological thriller that really stayed with me for a long time.
Wow what a book. I devoured the second half of this today, I ignored hunger, thirst and a full bladder for a very long time so I could keep reading uninterrupted. I adored the way it was written and the repetition of certain phrases or words contributed to how attached you get to the characters. It's so endearing. You cannot keep your emotions hidden when you're reading it, but you're so engrossed you don't even care.
There are not enough stars for this book. I am an emotional wreck after that...you definitely need some tissues near by! I can't remember the last time a book got me so emotional. I get what people are saying about the ‘pity party' with Natalie, but with depression, when you feel like you're walking round with an emotional ball and chain, it's very hard to look at the positives. You're completely consumed by your own grief, the turmoil of your life, the constant struggle to get through each day. I've never before loved fictional characters like I did with Natalie and Ryker, and Bill and Marion and George. I had to force myself to put it down at night so I could get some sleep, and I thought about the story and the characters when I wasn't reading it. I think the author did such a brilliant job of tackling so many issues at once, and I often wondered if the author herself had been through some of what happens because of how on point she was with it. This book could tug at the heart strings of lots of people, because of all the things that happen in it that different people could relate to. This was why I picked it up, I could relate to parts of it, and it was the first time it felt like I was hearing about someone else's story who'd been through similar. For that reason I wanted it to be a good book, I wanted it to be on point and stripped back and raw. And it really was. It was everything I wanted it to be and so much more. As I empty the bin full of tissues from my 4 hour reading stint, I know I'll never forget this book. I don't buy new books often, and I rarely keep them afterwards, believing that they should be released back out into the world for someone else to experience. I bought the digital copy of this book after reading the free preview, but already knowing I was going to get the full version anyway. But this holds such a special place in my heart that I might get my hands on hard copy and keep it and treasure it forever!!
I really enjoyed this book. But I have to admit I was wondering when the big ‘thing' was going to happen. Perhaps that's because it took me a while to figure it out. Maybe people who got it sooner found it a little more riveting. But I don't think the book was meant to be riveting. It certainly opens your eyes to Alzheimer's and the difficulty for all those involved that they experience every day. It was brilliantly thought out, and it felt very real. I became so attached to the family, how they were dealing with it all. How everyone has their part to play. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would when I started reading it. the crime/mystery aspect of it gave it the ‘oomph' I'm used to when reading a good book, but then like I said, it's not meant to be that kind of book. It certainly was the kind of book it set out to be. Sad, funny, informative, enlightening. I would definitely recommend it.
I really loved the film. I think the film is better than the book, but that's because the book spends a lot of time focusing on things that aren't touched on too much in the film. And the main plot of the film is what I loved. I could read pages and pages about Oskar and his life. I actually found myself skipping some of the pages that were about his grandparents. It was a great book and it was very emotional. A well written story, but a better scripted film.
Well, I wanted to read this because I quite like the dystopia type theme. It's not really that it was a bad book, but more that I couldn't help but laugh at some parts of it. It reminded me a lot of when you were a child and you wrote a story about the future. The images I had in my head were exactly how I might have illustrated that story written by a child. Saying that, as unbelievable as I found it, it's a frightening reminder of the contrast between certain ‘worlds' that are present in our world today and the ignorance of millions about how different life is for many from our technologically saturated world. This was the first book I've ever read that I predicted the ending, which I purposely try to avoid doing when reading if it seems predictable but this one was unavoidable. But at least I can tick it off as read now!
