Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - Romance    3. Immortalism    4. Occult    5. Romance - Fantasy    6. Romance - Historical    7. Romance: Historical    8. Time travel    9. Fiction / Romance / Historical   

Reviews (113)

Great reads ruined by horrible characters
The other reviewers will tell you about the book.I've read most of Preston and Child's works, including the other two books in this trilogy, and they are a good read.What gets very old and nauseating is the continual saps to modern feminism.I guess it's a necessity to get published today, but you'd think that at least SOME male authors would get tired of grovelling just to get published.I guess most people will sell their souls for money.Just about all the men in P and L's books are either wimps, effiminate, weak, bumbling, stupid (or liars or murderers), cry-babies, scared of their own shadows, and thoroughly unlikable (even Pendergast has his moments).The women, of course, are, without exception, tough, brilliant, shrewd, fearless, always right, on the rise to the top, always outsmarting the men, able to knock out a 7 foot, 300 pound man with a single karate chop to the neck (forgive the slight hyperbole), totally unfeminine, and just as unlikeable as the men.The stories are very good; it's unfortunate Preston and Child couldn't have come up with better, more realisticly human, less insulting characters.This slop may play in New York and California, but in Texas we still want our men to be men and our women to be women.
Great trilogy
Preston and Childs have ended this trilogy with a great high adventure read. Agent Pendergast is a most intriguing central character as are the supporting cast members.The ending leaves one to believe that there could be yet another novel.....????
A fitting conclusion to the trilogy...but is it really the end?
This book was billed as the capper to the Pendergast series, when all of the plot threads left by "Dance of Death" would be neatly sewed up. Much to my delight, the authors were apparently seduced into keeping things going. Not to give the plot away, but I doubt that we've seen the last of Diogenes, and the last sentence in the book just screams "continuation."
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Subjects:  1. Brothers    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Espionage / Thriller    4. Government investigators    5. Horror - General    6. Horror Fiction    7. Mystery And Suspense Fiction    8. Occult    9. Sibling rivalry    10. Suspense    11. Thrillers    12. Crime & mystery    13. Fiction / Thrillers   

Editorial Review

It's a killer title: Read more

Reviews (915)

Enjoyable but a bit too long
We all know the plot.I thought the book was well written (better than I could have done) but it was about 100 pages too long.And the ending dragged out.An interesting story, though.A good rainy day read!

The Devil Wears Prada
I kept waiting for something to happen. It didn't. There were no twists and turns; it was entirely predictable with an uninteresting ending.I can't believed I waded through this - maybe could've been more interesting if the book was cut in 1/2 and Ahn-dreah didn't last a whole year at Runway - it was too long for her and it was definitely too long for me.

no conflict, utterly predictable ending, and way too long
We chose this book for our book-club (the back cover had a picture of Merrill Streep who allegedly chose to act in a movie version of the book -- and I remembered her as an actress having taste -- sigh!). I kept asking my wife, "Does anything happen or is it more of the same?" as I paged through the book. I quite possibly would have abandoned it midway, but I read through to the end and was disappointed. The story is told by Andre-ah Sachs, the protagonist, who works for Miranda Priestly, chief-editor-bitch at a fashion magazine called Runway in Manhattan. The story is entirely about her trials and tribulations caused by her boss, and after about the third time the description of events really ceased to be funny for me. There are several sources of conflict (between Alex her boyfriend and Christian -- a writer she runs across, between her commitment to her job and her friend Lily, between her professional goals and her actual life, between herself and a more senior assistant) but the plot is choppy, and none of the conflicts are truly explored, or decided upon. The main and only point of the book seems to be her boss's outrageous demands, and the end is entirely trite and oh-so predictable. The description of the fashion world is pretty much non-existent so if you are looking for branding thoughts or what makes Gucci a Gucci -- you wont find that here. And gee -- my summary took all of a paragraph -- instead of ~400 pages that felt like eight hundred. Enough said. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American First Novelists    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Humorous    6. Fiction / General   

Reviews (11)

excellent characterizations!
This is a quick, riveting read for fans of the "woo-woo" factor. The real strength here is the character of Harper Blaine, a woman with new skills she did not seek out but must now learn to manage.Richardson does a fine job in portraying the tension between Harper's new life and her nostalgia for the simpler more clear cut world she inhabited before her injury.Several subsidiary characters are also nicely portrayed - the young college student who has gone missing, a computer "geek" who matter of factly helps Harper even as he perceives the truth of her situation and an attractive antiques dealer who hopes to be a permanent romantic person in Harper's life.
Intriguing New World

Ouch?
The grey between life and death does feel like an overdone premise lately, but I was hopeful for this new book. I'm still hopeful, and might read the next installment from this author, but I need to get over this one, first.
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Subjects:  1. Fantasy    2. Fantasy - General    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Fantasy    5. Private investigators    6. Science Fiction And Fantasy    7. Vampires    8. Fiction / Fantasy / General   

Reviews (4)

But it is luminous like a full moon
Every novelist has a unique story simmering in her (his) head, a story that she feels she must write; Arundhati Roy had "The God of Small Things", V. S. Naipaul had "A House for Mr. Biswas", and Chimamanda Adichie had "Half of a Yellow Sun". "This is a book I had to write," Ms. Adichie has said. "I have been thinking about this book my whole life."
a beautiful, generous book
I read this book in taxis, walking up the street at night, during my lunch break. It would not let me go. Adichie has resurrected a lost world - postcolonial, pre-civil war Nigeria, shimmering with hope and promise. The story begins with the vibrant intellectual debates and books of a university town, and with the harmony of Igbo village life; it ends with libraries burnt and civilians slaughtered.
Worth its weight in gold!
I have just finished reading Half of a Yellow Sun, the second novel by highly-acclaimed young Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I have to agree with critics that with this novel, Adichie has confirmed, if need be that, that she is one of the best writers of her generation, and that she is indeed "the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,"as the Washington Post enthused in a review of her debut novel Purple Hibiscus.
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Subjects:  1. 1960-    2. African Contemporary Fiction    3. Civil War, 1967-1970    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. Historical fiction    7. History    8. Literary    9. Nigeria    10. Political    11. Fiction / Literary   

Reviews (183)

Fascinating - I can't put it down!
I'm just finishing the book - I picked it up at the airport and can't put it down.It's a powerful book that takes a realistic look at human nature.This is the type of book that lives in your head long after you close the last page. Bravo Tom Perrotta for a fascinating look at human beings and the choices we make.

A lousy book full of generalizations and the author's biases
It's almost laughable. In a book based on stressing the importance of not
Little Children
This book is a must read!Ihave not been so enthralled by a book in years...I recommend it to those who want inside perspective on the dynamics of human behavior,this author sees people...the verdict is up to the reader. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (167)

Choices
This is a fascinating, entertaining, short read about a group of travellers who take a bus excursion from hell into a place where they are given a chance to go into heaven. Surprisingly, they actually seem to prefer hell.This is not a book about what heaven is like or what hell is like.It's about people like us, and our choices, and how they affect our lives as eternal beings.
Bus Ride through Eternity
Admittedly, I have a certain degree of difficulty decoding C.S. Lewis's brand of science fiction/Christian fiction.It is not so much that I can not appreciate his writing as that I have trouble picturing the fantastic concepts that Lewis paints.This being said, I was able to take quite a lot from this book.
A masterpiece
I think this is one of Lewis' very best. He attempts in this work to paint a picture of heaven and hell based on his understanding on Christian theology; and what a picture it turns out to be! I found myself captivated from the beginning with the author's depiction of the confines of hell and its inhabitants, which then become a perfect foil for the soul-lifting glory of heaven that he goes on to describe. What makes the work so powerful is the believability of the picture that is painted, despite its speculative nature and imaginative leaps.
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Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction - Religious    3. General    4. Good and evil    5. Religion    6. Religious - General    7. Christian Interest    8. Fiction / Religious    9. Modern fiction    10. Religion / General   

Editorial Review

With his Read more

Reviews (71)

Hilarious
Funniest book I've read in a long time, had me laughing aloud through a flight from Boston to Dublin.

What? Is this supposed to be funny?
Another east coast know it all making fun of the things Americans hold dear, even 9-11.
First book I could not listen past the first CD and even that was difficult
I have listened to 15-20 audio books during the past year and this was definitely the worst and perhaps the only bad buy I have had.There is no humor here.I was looking for ideas and styles of telling jokes since I do many keynote talks at conferences but I found nothing here except a style to avoid.What a bunch of totally worthless crap this is.Unless, you are teaching a course on how to generate creative names for things, I would pretty much say pass on this one.The people who like this book must sure be patient or have nothing better to do with their lives, since I had difficultly listening past the introduction.I got through the first CD and could not stand anymore.I tried to put the next CD in to have a go, but by mind kept telling me not to.I am spending more time writing this review than this book deserves.If I was the publisher of this book, I would be embarrassed.If I was Jonathan (John Hodgman's friend), I would be embarrassed too.Stop yourself from buying this book. Please!
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Subjects:  1. American wit and humor    2. Form - Essays    3. Form - Parodies    4. Humor    5. Fiction / General    6. Humour   

Editorial Review

In most thrillers, "hardware" consists of big guns, airplanes, military vehicles, and weapons that make things explode. Dan Brown has written a thriller for those of us who like our hardware with disc drives and who rate our heroes by big brainpower rather than big firepower. It's an Internet user's spy novel where the good guys and bad guys struggle over secrets somewhat more intellectual than just where the secret formula is hidden--they have to gain understanding of what the secret formula actually is.Read more

Reviews (824)

Enjoyable but flawed techo-thriller
The National Security Agency's new and mighty code-cracking computer, TRANSLTR, has been working on a single puzzle for so long that the top cryptographer at "No Such Agency" (as it's nicknamed) can't believe her eyes when she sees its time elapsed counter. Her boss, Deputy Director Strathmore, has called her in on a Saturday because he trusts his protege to help him obtain the algorithm's pass-key without letting anyone else know what's going on. This algorithm, called Digital Fortress, is billed by its creator - a disgruntled and idealistic former NSA employee - as the only uncrackable encryption code ever written. Strathmore has fed it into TRANSLTR to test that claim. He must have the pass-key to carry out his plan for Digital Fortress, assuming it really can't be broken.
Abridged CD was interesting, but...
Digital Fortress, the CD, was narrated by Bruce Sabath.Since I haven't read the unabridged version (and haven't read any other reviews of the abridged version), I can't comment whether the editors make a so-so story better or worse by cutting it down.In the abridged version, perhaps the unbelievable occurrences were tempered by the interest I had in the workings (real or imagined) of the ultra-secret NSA and the code-breakers.
a little too far fetched
Maybe it's just the geek in me crying out for mercy, but I find a lot of the details of this book pretty far-fetched.Plus, after we figured out whodunit and such, it just seemed to drag on forever.I ended up skimming the last 30 pages or so just to get it over with.
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Subjects:  1. Computer security    2. Cryptographers    3. Espionage/Intrigue    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Intelligence officers    8. Technological    9. Thrillers    10. Science fiction   

Editorial Review

Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's Read more

Reviews (1435)

If this book changed your life, you really didn't have a life in the first place.
This was a nice book for casual reading and I found it somewhat entertaining. But, I was disappointed because I guess I was expecting something a little more profound. I can't say that the book was thought-provoking or inspirational, but it was a nice read. [...] After all, this is a story about a man (Eddie, who was the maintenance man at a local amusement park) who was plagued by misfortune up until his dying day. This man lived a very miserable life. And except for two of the five people he meets in heaven, I don't see how they played a vital role in his life since he didn't even know them. They merely crossed each other's path once or twice during his 83-year existence, and now that he's in "heaven", these strangers are supposed to explain to him the "meaning of HIS life"? I know this story is fiction, but c'mon, it could have been a little more profound and credible than this stuff. So, read it if you like, but don't expect to get anything of substance out of it. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!

A unique & well thought out book
I still have no idea what made me think this book looked good. I had never heard of the author, I don't believe in God, and my first experiences of the idea of Heaven & Hell were from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and Ghost. One's a comedy. I'll let you work out which one.
great story
I bought the book at the airport and truly it turned out a fun read and simply wonderful story. I couldn't stop reading....because I always wondered "what's nxt' :o) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accident victims    2. Amusement parks    3. Amusement rides    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. Fiction / General    7. Future life    8. General    9. Popular American Fiction    10. Psychological    11. Reading Group Guide   

Editorial Review

Any talk of Read more

Reviews (344)

A must-read
The Namesake has it all: a great story, lyrical writing, beautiful imagery.I couldn't put it down and read it straight through.The book truly enriched my life.
A tale of first and second generation immigrants
I've never heard of Jhumpa Lahiri before a friend recommended this book to me.So I read it with an open mind, not even knowing what the story was about.It is not a bad book.The first few chapters describe the live of a couple (Ashima and Ashoke) that move to the U.S. from India.The plot continues following the live of their son (Gogol).The chapters about the couple (Ashima and Ashoke) are worth reading; the chapters about Gogol arethere to fill pages -- a complete waste of time.There might be hundreds of books about the lives of immigrants.This is not a bad one, but well below Kundera's "Ignorance."
Impatient for Lahiri's next book!
I'm glad I didn't read the reviews before reading the book, because I would have known the outcome of Gogol's relationships with women.Since the book has a strict chronology with few digressions, it moves forward as life does: we don't know where it's headed and don't really want to know.
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Subjects:  1. American First Novelists    2. Asian American Novel And Short Story    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - General    5. Literary    6. Fiction / Literary   

Editorial Review

When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book Read more

Reviews (241)

It Takes Courage To Know One's Motives
For a book as brief as THE PRINCE, its impact on history has been at least as great as almost any other work. Over the centuries, it has gotten a bad reputation as some sort of guidebook for evil.But back when it was first written in the 16th century, Machiavelli indeed intended it as a guidebook, but neither for evil or for good.Rather he wrote it for a specific purpose. It was written expressly for the ruler princes of the Italian city-states who he believed could best benefit. Although its precepts are generalized to fit most country's ruling elite to a certain extent, the advice was tailored to fit the only government with which he was most familiar, his own. His motivation for writing has been construed as a bald grab for power, with Machiavelli as Mephistopheles and the grabber as a power hungry Dr. Faustus.The truth is more prosaic.His sole concern was the security of Italy.Concepts such as good, evil, war, peace, love, and hate were irrelevant only insofar as they productively led to this security.Those who read THE PRINCE today and try to follow his advice will find that such advice simply cannot be applied when the host country can reasonably call itself democratic.Consider an American politician who reads Chapter 17: "Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or Feared." Machiavelli could not have conceived of a leftist judiciary ruled by the edicts of Political Correctness which would not inconvenience even one's enemies to protect one's friends or even oneself.In the 16th century, rulers could and often did take actions that were harmful to a few for the betterment of the many. Similarly such a politician today may read Chapter 18: "In What Ways Princes Must Keep Faith." Here Machiavelli argues that since the world is often run by unscrupulous and faithless dealers, one need not be overly concerned with keeping one's word given to those reprobate leaders.Can you imagine what some politicians would say when they realize that they are dealing with world leaders who may not always be honest but we must act nobly in any case?Despite the resurgence in interest in THE PRINCE, such interest is likely to remain in the academic arena until such time as our governmental system of checks and balances is replaced by one with which Machiavelli is more familiar.

Political Power and Political Reality vs. False Appearances
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)wrote THE PRINCE as a "how to" book.While this book was written in Renaissance Italy, THE PRINCE is a timely classic of political thought that has been badly distorted by shallow media men and historians too cowardly to carefully examine political reality.
A great little book...
I love this little book. I only wish Mr. Machiavelli had written more - much more. One word says it all: honest. This book tells it like it is. Not for the politically correct, but for those who appreciate an honest take on politics and government. If you love books that say it like it is, no matter the politics, then you'll likely enjoy this small book. Amazingly refreshing for 1530 AD. Like I said above, I only wish Mr. Machiavelli had written more. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Early works to 1800    3. European - Italian    4. History & Theory - General    5. Literary Criticism    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Literature: Classics    8. Political ethics    9. Political science    10. Fiction / Classics   

Reviews (43)

At least I read it all the way through
This author has done better. It seems as if she is trying to have the lead character juggle too much in her life-teaching, detecting, mothering, mistressing, and wifeing. By the end, I just started skimming to see who did it. Half the time the leads turned out to be misleads, and I couldn't understand some of the relevance of them - why it was needed except to make the book a little longer. It started out more promising than it was, at least in my opinion. Oh, and than we had to throw in a dying friend, and a daughter the lead character's boyfriend didn't know about until now!!! How soap opera can we get?

16 Little Indians
While Kathy Reichs' work bears undeniable similarities to Patricia Cornwell's, it is quite clear that Reichs has managed to find a balance between the private life of Tempe Brennan and Brennan's career as a forensic anthropologist serving in Quebec and North Carolina.Which means that the reader spends less time thinking about the heroine's propensity for dysfunctional relationships and more time enjoying a plot in which forensic detection plays a major role.Indeed, Brennan's relationships aren't particularly dysfunctional, just complicated.Which is a relief sometimes.
Personal Life Complications of a Complex Investigation Filled with Inane One-Liners
If you've ever had one of those frustration dreams where you cannot keep up with all the tasks in sight, Break No Bones will remind you of one of those dreams.Temperance Brennan has agreed to teach an archeology field school at the last minute after no other substitute can be found.While there, she excavates Native American burial mounds and has an unpleasant time with the developer who wants to build on the mounds.But the end is in sight when a student rushes up to say that there's a body there that was buried later than the rest.What she finds causes Dr. Brennan to call the local coroner, an old friend, Emma Rousseau.Before she knows what's hit her, Temperance finds herself doing the forensics on the all-too-recent body.Before long, bodies are showing up as fast as she can investigate them . . . and she finds herself in the middle of a complex investigation.
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Subjects:  1. Brennan, Temperance (Fictitious character)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Espionage / Thriller    4. Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths    5. Mystery/Suspense    6. Suspense    7. Thrillers    8. Women forensic anthropologists    9. Fiction / Suspense   

Reviews (1)

fast-paced international thriller
Because he is considered the best at locating the target, U.S. intelligence agent Todd "The Hound" Belknap is granted by his boss a much wider degree of discretion than his field associates to accomplish his mission.Currently the Hound is irate that his superiors refuse to try to retrieves captured agent "Pollux" from a Lebanese militia in Beirut.Refusing to leave a peer in enemy hands, the Hound comes out of the warmth to return to the cold.He heads to Lebanon to liberate Pollux or die trying.
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Subjects:  1. Conspiracies    2. Espionage/Intrigue    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Espionage / Thriller    5. Kidnapping    6. Ludlum, Robert - Prose & Criticism    7. Terrorists    8. Thrillers    9. Fiction / Thrillers   

Reviews (1)

Pricey but incredible
This set includes 19 actual books of Jung's psychology:
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Subjects:  1. Movements - Jungian    2. Movements - Psychoanalysis    3. Psychology    4. Mind, Body, Spirit    5. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory    6. Psychology / Movements / Jungian   

Reviews (1)

Wonderful Book!
A must-have book.Informative and excellently written.Gives all the information you want on Public speaking. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Language    3. Language Arts & Disciplines    4. Performing Arts    5. Public speaking    6. Speech    7. Theater - General    8. Language Arts & Disciplines / Speech    9. Language teaching & learning material & coursework    10. Phonetics, phonology, prosody (speech)