Sam

I'm a Packer fan (shh, don't tell my dad) and I had to read this for school. My English teacher had fangirled over Jerry Kramer, sent him letters, and even got to speak with him on the phone, and she was all too proud to tell us about it. This book was an interesting recollection into the Lambeau locker room, into the Ice Bowl, and offered a very good snapshot of Lombardi himself. I really enjoyed it and I think I got rebuked for reading it too quickly because unlike the other students who read to the prescribed point, I read the whole thing in a weekend and then had to censor myself for a month to resist giving spoilers.

Interesting, sad, and captivating. I had to read this for class in my senior year of high school. I have always been interested in books like these, of pure survival at all costs and the souls desperate scrabble to live. These men did what it took, and while it wrenched my stomach, as did many others, I understand why.

Once upon a time, a high school senior stumbled upon a scholarship offer on a scholarship website.

Read The Fountainhead and write a paper on it, and you'll win $10,000!

Silly you... you didn't actually think that was a link, did you?

Anyway, back to the story. This senior thought: “Hey, why not? Reading this will make me seem smarter. Such deep. Wow.



And then, upon reading it, she wanted to be an architect. Completely missed the point of the novel, and now she's writing a review four years later saying she needs to read it again.

The end.

This was the first Dean Koonst novel I have ever picked up. And it wasn't necessarily by choice. I forgot my nook at home and had to go to school right after work, and this was the only novel out of the dozen granny candy novels on the shelf that looked mildly interesting. So I bought it. And I will never do that again.

It seemed to me that for all the commercial hype of this author, this book is slow and doesn't make it interesting enough to be suspenseful. Just starts out with a tired old apartment complex in a cool building, and all of a sudden, people start getting picked off. Ooohh... Spooky. And then, soon enough we learn that every cycle of years this happens just because the original proprietor of the building is some kind of psycho.

My opinion, leave this on the dollar store shelves. Maybe I'll read another of his books and hope it isn't so tired sounding.

This one was one of my favorites. It read like a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, but the relationship between boy and deer were absolutely adorable. I remember as a middle schooler curling up with this one during the summer, and I would skip summer school to read it. (I'm so bad.) It brings back memories and if I could find my copy, it would go on my shelf again. Sadly I lost it somewhere in the space of 8 years so I'll have to get it again.

It wasn't the stories that got me, it was the illustrations. Those are the stuff of kids nightmares.

As long as you keep in mind that this is fiction, only vaguely keeping along with events in history, you will enjoy this book. I enjoy reading about the Tudors, so I picked it up hoping for a little insight, but it's just straight up period fiction of the lives of the two sisters. I think Gregory was just trying to flesh them out and make them less of a legend and more human, and I give her that. But don't come into the book with false expectations.

I picked this book up when I was in 6th grade. That's honestly who it's aimed at. And I can also say that even though it was laughably shaved off of Harry Potter (look at the cover!) in not just appearance, the stories line up in more ways than one.

But I really liked it.

Meet Charlie. He's a tall and gangly kid who can get into photographs and manipulate them. Not like Photoshop, but actually get sucked into a picture and alter events. He's magical.
His family sucks though. He has a terrible grandma named Griselda and her sisters, (Now their names escape me but they were evil names) and he has to go to this school for talented youngsters like him. Except it's a totally evil school out to get him.

That's as much as I'll say but I think if you like magic and Harry Potter, and you're willing to look past the fact that it's geared for teenagers, you'll like it. I didn't read the whole series (I think they're still going?) but someday I'll finish them.

As a reader who enjoys fantasy and know what I like in a book, I came into reading this thinking it would be mildly engrossing and, to say the least, well put together. That turns out to not be the case. Not only is there plot holes and convenient loopholes galore, the characters are shallow archetypes that are present in nearly every fantasy book. I admit, there's something about the naive characters fumblings that make you want to read on to see what happens, but it's always written in a very cliche way. I'm a bit picky when it comes to picking up new fantasy series; I guess Game of Thrones spoiled me,and I admit I was looking to compare, but this is pale and smoky when compared to most books.

Don't even get me started on the title of the book, it has absolutely no relevance to the plot in the first book. My suspicion is it's simply an eye-grab to make someone want to pick up the book because it sounds cool.

Do you like filthy dirty Victorian London, where prostitutes run aplenty and the rich businessmen use them shamefully? If so, this book is for you!

Honestly, it was a so-so read, and I limped through it. Reading about the MC and his trials and suffering as a perfume developer, how he takes the most unique prostitute evar as his mistress, and ignoring his wife and child. Hm, sounds like every guy in the period. (Okay, that was a generalization. I know, I shouldn't do it.) There were some parts where y'know, she does prostituty things, and those parts stand out because everything else is so boring. Gotta have some lemons to look forward to, I suppose.

All time favorite Dr. Seuss book.

I've seen this book on a coffee table in a small mom-and-pop coffee shop somewhere in Madison. There's not a lot of them in Madison and there's like 2 that are featured. But it still made for some interesting grazing and thumbing through.

There are some places in this book that I can identify with, especially back in high school and below. We read this book as a class in 5th grade, and I was like whoa, this kid was like me. (Naive and a bit stupid. Hey, I can say it now) I love Jerry Spinelli, and his books have always been timeless for me.

I live in Wisconsin, nearly 10 miles from where Sterling North grew up. When I was in grade school, we even toured his house and places he mentioned in the book. It's a unique boy-growing-up novel, about a lonely boy who found the perfect friend, and the way North writes was perfect for children to get into. I would read this book again in a heartbeat.

You say dragons and I perk up and am instantly interested. However, while the main character made brief mention of her love for dragons, it was more about her life and story and less about the dragons. Her life story was interesting, don't get me wrong, but I'd have liked a bit more dragon story, so the title is a bit misleading. Otherwise, well written.

I'm a little skeptical of books written from an animals perspective, but London must be part dog, as he did it amazingly. I read this at a young age and only read it again recently, and my opinion hasn't changed. I highly recommend it.