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."
Read more

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

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.
Read more

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

Stephanie Plum, the trash-talking New Jersey bail bondswoman ofthis popular series, is tracking Maxine Nowicki, who's wanted for skippingout on a car-theft charge lodged by her ex-boyfriend. Now the ex-boyfriend's very interested in getting back the love letters he supposedly wrote toMaxine. But what he's really looking for is the secret on which Evanovich hangsher screwball cast of colorful minor characters, including Sally Sweet, a cross-dressing drag queen; Lula, the 250-pound ex-hooker whoworks for Steph's boss; Cousin Vinnie, the bail bondsman; Grandma Mazur, who packs a Glock and is always looking for a little action; and Joyce, a wannabe bounty hunter who's been cramping Steph's style since sheplayed pass the salami with Steph's ex-husband. The action doesn't get much farther from Trenton than the Jersey Shore, but when Steph's apartmentand car are blown up by the others on Maxine's trail and she moves in withJoe Morelli, the handsome, arrogant cop she's been hung up on sincehigh school, it gets hotter than the craps table in Atlantic City. Plum's fans won'tbe disappointed in this fourth outing in the series, and they're likely tobe even more interested in the snappy patter and sexy shenanigans than inthe mystery that holds it all together. Read more

Reviews (231)

Just Plain Fun!
I've read four or five of the Stephanie Plum novels now, and each one is just as entertaining as the last one.They're fun to read, and you really feel a connection with the main characters.As long as Janet is writing them, I'll be reading them.

Another Winner
Another good Plum mystery by Evanovich.Probably not as good as Three to Get Deadly, but still great none the less.Lots of sex with Morelli in this one.

What a cast of characters
In the fourth Stephanie Plum novel, the cast of characters get even crazier. To just read a review about the eclectic friends and family members does not do them justice and frankly, most people would be turned off by the cross dressing musician Sally Sweet who is a key player to solving the criptic messages Stephanie is trying to solve in order to track down the missing FTA or failure to appear client from the bail bonds office Stephanie works in as a bounty hunter. Stephanie's bad luck with both her cars and her apartment are nothing new in this zany pseudo mystery novel.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - Mystery/ Detective    3. Mystery & Detective - Series    4. Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths    5. Mystery fiction    6. Mystery/Suspense   

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.
Read more

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.
Read more

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 (54)

One of the #1's Best!
I was really glad to find that the author had found his
Loved "Cheerful Ladies"
This was another in an excellent series. The characters and setting, and even the English usage, are very engaging. I can't wait to read the next one.

different..
In this book, the author shares more details about the lives of the other characters in Mma Ramotswe's life revealing more about her own. We also learn more about the changes in Botswana and the simple traditions and beliefs of its people and the impact of materialism.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Botswana    2. English Mystery & Suspense Fiction    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Mystery/ Detective    5. Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths    6. Mystery/Suspense    7. No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency    8. No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Imaginary organization)    9. Ramotswe, Precious (Fictitious    10. Ramotswe, Precious (Fictitious character)    11. Women private investigators    12. Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths   

Reviews (119)

An outstanding and engrossing leisure choice.
Perhaps it's political intrigue which interests; if so, Vince Flynn's CONSENT TO KILL is now in paperback and provides a thriller based on modern headlines and terrorist concerns. Mitch becomes the target of an international conspiracy for his struggles to preserve freedom: CONSENT TO KILL shows his evolution from hunter to prey as he's stalked by dangerous, unseen forces for his past 'crimes'. An outstanding and engrossing leisure choice.

WARNING!You may not be able to put it down.
Vince Flynn changes up the chase and instead of Mitch Rapp being the hunter he is now the hunted.
One of Flynn's best books
Although he's been publishing books for a little while, I still tend to think of Vince Flynn as one of the new faces in spy fiction.Compared to folks like LeCarre, Clancy, Higgins or Deighton, Flynn is a youngster, but that doesn't mean he can't hold his own against the veterans.In fact, compared to Tom Clancy (who in certain stylistic ways, is probably who Flynn is most similar to), Flynn is actually the better writer.In Consent to Kill, he again delivers a high-caliber, fast reading thriller.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure    2. Espionage/Intrigue    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Espionage / Thriller    5. Political    6. Thrillers    7. Fiction / Thrillers   

Editorial Review

Read more

Reviews (353)

Charming and witty
I have to admit that I didn't really expect to like this book (or the others in the series).This is the type of book that reviewers describe as `delightful' and `charming' and `wonderfully witty'.I usually prefer crime fiction that is `gritty,' and `violent,' and brimming with `dark twisted humor'.But I have come to appreciate the simple pleasure of the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Disappointed
After reading a lot of good reviews -- and having a friend recommend the book as well -- I was expecting much more than the book delivered.First, the book isn't a "detective" book; second, the cover blurb says the main character is "put in danger" and that never truly happens; third, I guess I was looking for a little more insight into the culture of Botswana in the vein of Tony Hillerman and that was not supplied either.The writing is good but the hype leading up to my getting the book certainly led me to expect something totally different.Hence, I have to rate this book as "Average."

So Down to Earth, it's Uplifting
This is Alexander McCall Smith's best work - his story revolves around an independent, intelligent, admirable Botswana lady, Precious Ramotswe. This proud African lady solves life's little (and big) mysteries using nothing more than her brains, senses and the instructions of a mail order detective book. Delightful and moving, the characters that inhabit Precious' eventfully uneventful life not only teach us about ourselves, but also give us an appreciation of a lifestyle more about living and less about scheduling/acquiring/gossiping - while the landscape inspires a feeling of peace and longing for something simple and pure.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Botswana    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Mystery/ Detective    4. General    5. Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths    6. No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency    7. No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Imaginary organization)    8. Ramotswe, Precious (Fictitious    9. Ramotswe, Precious (Fictitious character)    10. Women private investigators    11. Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths    12. Mystery fiction    13. Reading Group Guide   

Editorial Review

In Jennifer Egan's deliciously creepy new novel, two cousins reunite twenty years after a childhood prank gone wrong changed their lives and sent them on their separate ways. "Cousin Howie," the formerly uncool, strange, and pasty ("he looked like a guy the sun wouldn't touch") cousin has become a blond, tan, and married millionaire with a generous spirit. He invites his cousin Danny (who as an insecure teenager left him hurt and helpless in a cave for three days) to help him renovate an old castle in Germany. To reveal too much would ruin the story, just know that Read more

Reviews (44)

Frustrating Read
After reading other reviews, I expected an erudite, flowing novel which would connect multiple worlds.What I discovered was a complicated plot that does not make it easy for the reader to understand.I do believe that if writing is too difficult to comprehend, then is not clear writing, and I wonder if the author really knows if she is presenting a ghost or love story of both.If it is both, it is confusing to me.The action is wrapped around two cousins, one successul and the victim of a childhood prank of the other loser adult cousin.We are transported to a castle near Prague where we imagine the successful cousin will finally have retribution, Egan spins a tale of blood lore based on family pride.From this narrative, she shifts to a maximum security prison where the characters are similar to the castle folk.The creative writing teacher, Holly, becomes a main character, who has her own demons and finds a commonaility with a prisoner who is the same, we are to believe, as the loser cousin.She does prove that escape is impossible, and I wish I could have found some sanctuary if I understood what she really wanted to tell us.

A little flat
This book wasn't one of the best I've read nor one of the worst, so I gave it three stars because it's just ok.I didn't really develop a feeling for any of the characters.I acutally found them kind of annoying in a way, and maybe it's due to them not being fully developed in my opinion.I also got the impression this was more along the lines of a gothic ghost story and it really isn't it.I think this could have been a much better book than it is and I have to admit to being dissapointed as the plot was pretty flat.As I stated it isn't a bad book, it just wasn't what I had expected it to be.

I Thoroughly Enjoyed This Book
Others have covered the subject matter so I don't need to go into that.At the end of the day and to put it quite simply, I was endlessly fascinated and cared about the characters. I think you might be better off if you keep an open mind while reading this and not assume or even try to know where it is going. Enjoy the ride. One more thing, what an eternal joy it is to find an author who can tell a story in a reasonable amount of time. I am soooo tired of bloated literature. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cousins    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Popular American Fiction    6. Prisoners    7. Psychological    8. Fiction / General   

Reviews (2)

"Everything she did was wrong"
In this poetic story of mothers and daughters and grandmothers, memory and remembrance perpetually shroud and encapsulate the present. As the novel begins, Dilly, a woman of advancing age is told that she must go to Dublin for observation.
You can take the author out of Ireland but you can't take Ireland out of the Author
The book is somewhat cryptic and much happens. But you realize three quarters of the way in that the story is not in the actions, but in the unsaid. And there's lots of unsaid.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Literary    4. Mothers and daughters    5. Popular English Fiction    6. Psychological    7. Women novelists    8. Fiction / Literary   

Reviews (336)

Delicious and breath taking read

A study of evil
Beautifully written (considering the German to English translation) study of evil.Quick read if you can handle long german-style sentences. The plot is fairly simple and proceeds chronologically.There are only a few main characters along the way with Grenouille always remaining the primary focus.Subplots are a few (but integral) short tangents from the main plot.Grenouille's life journey is broken up into a series of flowing, connected stages.Each one is a satisfying immersion into the next inevitable evolutionary phase of evil. The book puts you in Grenouille's head and lets you see the world through his eyes.But Grenouille is more than evil. He is Gollum without a soul. He is a living black hole in the universe of humanity. The book lets us feel what it's like to be evil, and it's not what you might expect.

Simply mesmerizing. A masterpiece!
Patrick Süskind excels in his full-bodied portrayal of a man whose story is so tragically entertaining as I have yet to read.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - Historical    3. German (Language) Contemporary Fiction    4. Historical - General    5. Literary    6. Suspense    7. Fiction / Literary    8. Reading Group Guide   

Editorial Review

Reviews (164)

Donohue has a tin ear
The book deserves more stars than I have given it, but the praise others have heaped on this book has hardened my heart. Donohue has a tin ear -- his language strikes the wrong tone, again and again -- and his book has very little internal coherence. He has his unschooled wild children going to the library to read Flannery O'Conner and Wallace Stevens.

Equal parts fiction, fantasy, and fairy tale
The Stolen Child is a story of the perils of youthful indifference and the consequences of therein. The book focuses on a group of fairies, hobgoblins, or changelings--whatever you wish to call them, who live underground in the woods waiting for the time when they can switch lives with a human child and return to their life above ground. Their targets are children chosen for their ennui, isolation, and boredom.When the opportunity presents itself, these children are stolen from their families and replaced with the changeling. Their fate is to live the same life. They are destined to wait for an opportunity, a child who--like they were--is indifferent and foolish, another easy target.
Creative & Original
This story took me by surprise.The story is told from the points of view of the Changeling and the human whose place in the world is taken.
Read more

Subjects:  1. American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +    2. Changelings    3. Doubles    4. Fantasy    5. Fantasy - Contemporary    6. Fantasy - General    7. Fiction    8. Fiction - Fantasy    9. Fiction - General    10. Literary    11. Pianists    12. Psychological    13. Fiction / Literary