Vicki
Children having children is never good, and some parents will never grow up. This is a book about that and more, well written and engaging, but I didn't learn much. The depiction of claustrophobia in a company town and a racist, inflexible family structure was interesting. All that was missing was religiosity and we'd have us a slice of modern Americana.
This book was hard to enjoy because it stretched so far to check all of the boxes. The Epilogue about did me in. It's not often I grow so disgusted that I spit my coffee!
That being said, and it MUST be said, when there was a believeable storyline, the details were well fleshed out and the writing was tight. It was just sad that it had to reach so far to cover the evils of slavery, woman= good (some exceptions) man=bad (some exceptions), white= bad black=good (no exceptions), non-binary (finally) and sci-fi. Too much!
While it was hard to get going with this book, I am glad that I stuck with it. Slightly fantastical, it settled down into a good story.
Ugh, I can hardly believe that I am finally done with this excruciating tome! It was exactly a long and medievally convoluted as the other two in the series. Thank God that is over!
This was my second go at this book and I'm glad I stuck with it, because it was damn good. I really enjoyed it, though I can't say that I entirely understood the meaning the author was trying to convey. Kind of the same as with “The Remains of the Day,” TBH.
I try not to meet anyone on vacation. I lugged around a boring lunk on vacations for far too long. Now I can go and actually SEE the place. This was a fluff piece and an easy read. I really dislike romance novels dressed up by sales sites as something else. I learned exactly nothing from this book.
Prolly too many stars, but I will speculate on my first foray into “speculative fiction “ for a while to come. It was actually more like “Mexican Gothic” style horror for the entire book. I read it in a day.
This book was very different to the God of the Woods, but it kept me engaged. The relationships and the crime/criminal seemed to be on equal footing as far as their importance to the storyline goes. Poverty and addiction rule the day....
Oh, I effing give up on trying to read nonsensical medieval stream of consciousness writing in favor of watching the much easier to follow PBS miniseries.UPDATE: It's about 10 days later and I have finally finished this ridiculous tome. The PBS series made more sense, but was not good enough for me to pay for, which is what they wanted. I chose confusion (who is this character? Who is talking?) There is a great deal of dialogue. Hard to believe that after 600 pages, we are just planning to breach Wolf Hall. Sigh.
Not sure what to say. I felt parts of this book, but can't say that I understand the whole. Is the real world life and the other place death?
A colleague told of this story during a team building event and, though I didn't know this book treated the same subject when I put it on hold, I guessed soon enough after beginning to read. The book itself isn't stellar, though it's good enough to read in a couple sittings. Men are truly awful, as are humans- got that message!
The writing wanted to be lyrical, and the story was pretty good. The ending was somewhat improbable.
Meta to read a book about writing. It won't stay with me, though. There didn't seem to be a story, or a theme beyond confusion. Aurora in Colorado is also not a wooded area, but there is a lot of confusion there, too.
Four starts only b/c this is not serious literature. Though the story is good, it was easy to guess ahead of time and the prose wasn't much. Reims is a beautiful town and widows and spiders shouldn't be associated with good champagne, though I will stick with cave or prosecco, thanks.
Was quite a good story, though as hard to get into as an affair with a 22 yr. old with braces. The writing when it came to the older brother was so fractured as to be off-putting.
After reading the Foreward, I very nearly didn't read the book, though I like history. I am glad I did, as this was both entertaining and edifying. For example, I had no idea that Sicily and Sardinia were seen together as one region of the newly minted Modern Italy. I must admit, I don't understand the importance of the Great Dane, though he is a presence, in one form or another, throughout the book, and the author says he is important, so I guess he must be....