I love me a good thriller but I didn’t love this. I expected to, given the glowing recommendations from several friends, but I only liked it. Rachel is not dealing well with her divorce nor with her ex-husband’s new marriage and new baby. She can’t deal well with anything because she’s a barely functional alcoholic. This proves troublesome as she makes a less-than-totally-reliable witness or reporter of events, given her blackouts and general poor decision-making skills. During her daily surveillance of her old house and […]
The sun, yes, and a whole lot more besides.
Hey! Do you want to read a book with elements of tragedy, passion, explorations of sexuality, passion in several of its forms, betrayal, redemption, beauty, courage, intense relationships, art, science, nature, substance abuse, transformation, and any number of things that have escaped me, and one you’ll keep thinking about for hours or days (or longer — I don’t know yet) after you’ve finished it? Man, this was good. So, it’s a YA novel, incidentally, but if you’re of a mind to avoid it for that […]
Marvelous (I am so funny!)
I had heard of the Mutter Museum and I love watching surgery on the Discovery Channel or whatever, so I thought this book would be right up my alley, but I did not know Thomas Mutter was a fascinating person in his own right. He had “crazy” ideas about treating patients kindly, cleaning instruments (and his hands), post-operative care, and additionally was on the right side of a number of social issues. PLUS surgery* before anesthesia! Cool details about mid-19th century Paris and Philadelphia! And a […]
Not even guilty pleasure-good. Just good.
You guys, this is so good. I’m not even sure why I expected it not to be. Several people recommended it, and while I value their opinions and everything, I really thought it would be gimmicky or god forbid, cute. It’s a little bit of the former but none of the latter. It’s hard to say a lot without being spoilerific and besides, like another ‘baller said, it’s probably better to go in not knowing much. The very basic outline is that Jane, a young […]
Oh, this IS what’s happening.
First, let me just acknowledge something: my intellectual “vocabulary” is somewhat limited. I am what we used to call a Concrete Sequential, a straight shooter. There’s probably a fancier term these days, but in the end, while I don’t make the pretty things, I do appreciate them, and am happy to balance the checkbooks of those who do so they can continue. My favorite books, the ones I can’t wait to get home to and which are truly occupying my thoughts regardless of what it […]
Nope. And too goddamned long.
I wanted to like this. For the first several chapters the two central characters were compelling, but I kept wondering, since some serious, dramatic, and in some cases profound action was taking place or, for one of the two had recently taken place (World War II, for God’s sake), when things were going to get juicy. Passionate. Passion-filled. Something! Heroic deeds, the beginning of what the author seems to think is the greatest fucking love in history, and zero emotion behind the lovely (and largely […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- Next Page »