Amy

Some of the reviews I read gave this book a single star and many of those said they never finished. Others gave this book five stars. I fall in the middle on this one. Jane Eyre is my favorite novel, so I was excited to see how she/the novel would be incorporated into this mystery. I do think the plot line of JE was used well, but I did want to see a bit more of it. I also wanted the main character to interact more with Jane, have more conversations; I wanted the writer to really capture Jane's spirit, but I don't think she did. The story is very creative, and being the first in a series, I feel a lot of sub plot lines and characters had to be introduced and explained, so it felt like it jumped around quite a bit. There were some really clever moments throughout - one being the Wordsworth poem (but I won't say more to avoid spoiling anything). I am inclined to read more of these books.

Very McEwanesque in style. The narrator/main character's neuroticism and insecurities make the book difficult to engage with at times, but that's the whole point. It's like a book about self-discovery with almost no self-discovery. The acknowledgments and admissions are often lost in he narrator, but again, that's the point! And the ending . . . Oh my goodness, totally worth the read.

I was really disappointed by the ending. I was hoping there was a twist, but I pretty much had it figured out by 1/4 of the way through.

I thought the writing style was effective - the present to past tense, intrusive memories. I felt it fit the situation of the main character well, her depression with her past/present and her anxiety and hopelessness about her future. There were some great moments of characterization, but there were some subplots that weren't complete enough for me. Also, I thought the ending was abrupt. I needed more “closure,” maybe? I just thought it ended too quickly.

I wasn't crazy about the characters themselves, but the stories within the story were better than the “story.” Knowing McEwan, that was done purposefully, which would give it a higher rating for me.

I read this book while exploring for a summer read for my students. I needed to find something non-fiction. The book is about two men with the same name and very different endings to lives that started out very similarly. Moore does a nice job telling the story of the “other” Wes Moore, staying objective enough to allow the reader to form his/her own opinion about the decisions of each character. The details, however, do evoke empathy in the reader for each man's plight, and the reader is given an ample amount of background to show how sometimes our choices are driven by our environments, even if those choices are wrong. There is no escape of responsibility from the perspective of Moore, nor is there an arrogance to his own “fortune” when he could very likely have ended up in the same place as the “other” Wes Moore. It is absolutely worth the read.

I assigned this to two groups of students while covering a memoir unit. Both groups and I all agree that this book is not really worth the read. First of all, the synopsis on the back cover is misleading. It leads you to believe that the book will be full of mystery and excitement, when it is in fact just the opposite. The “mystery” of the writer's mother's secretive life is revealed at the beginning of the book. The remainder consists of the writer traveling to meet her mothers' siblings and cousins, and she recounts basically the same event: the writer's paternal grandfather's severe physical and sexual abuse of the siblings. While the book evokes sympathy from the reader, there is a lot of overkill with the details of the sexual abuse. There are only so many of those details that are necessary to get the point across.

The story is inspiring and amazing. The writing style was a bit basic, written like a children's book at times, which was a little irritating. It is well worth the read, though.

This non-fiction story about the author's 15 month captivity is written with beautiful descriptions of the places she travelled and a matter-of-fact tone that makes her horrific experiences in captivity that much more horrifying. One of my favorite quotes from the book comes after the two captives, Amanda and Nigel, celebrate Christmas by creating gifts for one another with whatever was available and trading them through a bathroom they shared: “I loved him in that moment, on that day, more than I'd ever loved anyone, in a way that reached past the standard boy-girl love and hit some sort of deeper bedrock. I loved him as a human, with no complication.”

I really appreciated getting the perspective of a child with autism. Seeing that perspective and learning the emotional, psychological, and physical motivations of behavior was definitely eye-opening. It is in Q & A format with small stories written by the boy. The only issue I had was that some of the questions were repetitive in content. Otherwise, well worth the read and it takes almost no time to get through.

It got better from the middle to the end. It is a great summer read - light and funny.

Great historical fiction. I really liked how Alvarez created the narrative voices from her research, especially using Dede, the only surviving sister. She certainly allows an attachment to each character and, I believe, purposely reinforces the unreliable narrator. I think this adds to the realism of the book. I would recommend for sure, and I may teach it one day.

It was an easy read with a good message. Some nice aphorisms to take away with you.

I found myself analyzing him as he responded to different interviewers. I used some of the Q & A's with my students after they read Enduring Love, and they enjoyed hearing his perspective and insight.

I've read almost all of her books, and this was the best one so far. It's reminiscent of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, but it has it's own fun twist. I like the setting too - the French Alps - and skiiers will love the references throughout, I think. Creepy, suspenseful, and fun!

This is one of my favorite books. It is a collection of short stories that are written chronologically over a 30-40 year period. The main character, Olive, is either a main character, a minor character, or simply mentioned in the stories. She is lovable but unlovable at the same time, very much human. The writing is beautiful. Elizabeth Strout is able to capture every emotion with perfection. I have read the book three times through, and sometimes I just pick a story to read individually. I use it in my teaching, too.

Cute and clever.

I have really enjoyed this series before this latest novel. There are two reasons for the low rating. Sloan McPherson is a police diver. There was one dive at the beginning of the book, and the remainder was like a normal detective story. I also found the plot very implausible.

Her craft is mainly with her character development, but the entire collection seemed redundant. The stories all ended differently but in the same style - cut short and open-ended with some sort of ironic twist. One of my favorite things about the book was the opening passage from “The Custom House,” the first chapter in The Scarlet Letter, that has the phrase “unaccustomed earth” in it. The quote gave the stories, as a collection, a thematic unity that was nice.