Disappointing. Like The Firm, but nowhere near as good, as suspenseful, or as well written. Grisham is officially mailing it in.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, most of it. However, there were a lot of times I was annoyed by how long and drawn out everything was. The first section, though it had a lot of interesting stories and interesting background, was far too long for me. And the last section seemed kind of rushed and full of too much info and tried too hard to bring everything to a close. Some pretty heavy handed symbolism throughout. Not much characterization, because they all seemed two-dimensional to me. I didn't understand Shiva, I didn't understand why Marion loved Genet so much. You hardly got to know most of the other characters. So, basically, I had a lot of quibbles with it, but I enjoyed it and think Verghese is very talented as a writer.

I love these little OUP VSI's (just like kateburn!). It's a very easy way to get some serious information on difficult subjects without investing a lot of time or energy. I wish there were more of them! (There's a LOT, though, on everything from Marx to Art History to the French Revolution. Good stuff!)

My current audiobook read. Basically, so far, it's The Firm all over again. Except not as well written, not as mysterious. And not as realistic. I can't just accept that this guy would react to his life being decided for him/blackmailed by just being flippant and resigned. He didn't even try to argue! I just feel like Grisham has gotten too lazy. Luckily, he's better than a lot of other lazy writers, but his earliest books are still his best books, by far!

Read this for a RL book group. We all found it very interesting. A lot of the details were both fascinating and sickening (at least to me). However, there was a bit of disappointment that you never really knew much about exactly when or where this story was told. Also, was it historically accurate? Were there research materials? Etc. Still, it was entertaining. But if you're looking for medieval history, try Tuchman or some other historian!

Just have to give up on ol' Tristram Shandy. I've watched the mockumentary about making the movie, and I've even read a bit of real literary scholarship on it! (You don't say!) So, I get it, I get it. But when actually reading it, I wasn't getting anything from it, so I just don't think this kind of book works for me. I like what it's trying to say, just can't abide actually reading the thing. Oh well! I tried.

I really liked this book, just like everyone else! I loved the way it wasn't sentimental or judge-y. Also how it told many stories from many different vantage points that were all like a piece of the pie. Beautifully written, great characters. Just adored it.

I really liked it! I can certainly see why people would not, though. The conceits, the precociousness (precocity?) of Blue, the many, many literary and other references....sure, I can see why some would get tired of it. I really didn't, though. I enjoyed it the whole way through. I would probably have to disagree with the critics who raved over Pessl's prose, because some of it was confusing, some of it was ridiculously heavy-handed, and some of it was just silly. But, if you look past some of the silliness and frippery, it was a novel I couldn't put down. And maybe I fell prey to Pessl's flattery that I could catch most of her literary allusions. What a fun read!

Terrible ending. The mystery is solved about 3/4 of the way through, but then you have to go through a bunch more stuff so the protagonist can have his revenge on someone else. So, that part was a waste, and then very end was silly. I would have liked this more if I'd read it, but I listened to the audiobook, and kept having to go back and re-listen to things when I fell asleep. So it's probably better than I give it credit for.

Fun addition to the series. I could think of a lot of things to complain about in the book, but I just tried to ignore them and have fun with it.

I read this about 10(?) years ago, and thought it was ok, if a bit bleak. Seeing the movie last week, I realized I had no idea what the book had been about. The movie made me think, so I wanted to see how the book worked for me now. I thought it was much better, and much deeper, this go 'round. A super quick read, but definitely has some ideas to ponder. I really enjoyed it. Of course, now I'm thinking I need to go back and reread everything. I just didn't "get" anything back in my teens and 20s, did I?

Interesting, but too much stuff. ("Too many notes.")

I'm really enjoying this book. A few minor quibbles so far. The first 100 pages were a bit long. I kept waiting for the actual plot to kick in; there was just too much lead-in. Now, over halfway through at around page 410, I'm slightly overwhelmed. There's just too much going on! It took Lamb nine years to write this, and I can't help feeling he's like the author in Wonder Boys who can't stop writing, and puts everything and the kitchen sink in there. Columbine, PTSD, drug addiction, adultery, assault, prison, family history, alcoholism, racism....you name it and there's something going on there. Just a few hundred pages too much. But I'm still really enjoying this book!

Lahiri is an amazing author. So much of what she writes is just perfect, language-wise. And each story is interesting. However, reading all these stories in a row (and having recently read The Namesake), sometimes it felt like she was just rehashing the same things over and over. I had to put the book down for a few weeks, because it just got boring to retread the same people again and again. However, the last trilogy of stories that were linked were really fantastic. I had read one of the stories before, but it worked so much better as those linked stories, and I really enjoyed that part. And despite my quibbles, anything by Lahiri is usually better than the best of many other authors.

I'm still listening to this one, and one thing I really noticed is that Sallander (I don't know the spelling, since I'm listening to the audiobook), aka the girl with the dragon tattoo, is shown in some very conflicting scenes. She is supposed to be so smart and "with it" and confident, but then the scenes with her guardian are so out of character. I guess we're supposed to believe that she was scared and intimidated, but I just didn't buy it. She got him back eventually, but I still don't believe she would have acted the way she did with him, and allowed those things to happen.

I enjoyed this book so much more the second time around. I think I bought into the hype too much the first time, and I was also expecting some romantic love story, tear jerker, and this book is not that. This time I was fascinated by the logistics of everything. Who knew what, what came first, how things were affected by the travels through time. I thought all of that was really interesting and well done. This is definitely a book with somewhat unlikeable characters, but it doesn't bother me. Some of it's understandable and some of it's not. Overall, a good read.

I've already read this (thanks to Readerville, right when it came out!), but my book club has selected it for next week. Since I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would the first time, and since everyone else seemed to like it better than me, I want to read it again to see if I was missing something. So far, I'm liking it!

Ripped from the headlines, the story is very interesting. I thought it would have been better if it had been told in a traditional narrative form, but instead it's told in short chapters, each one from a different person involved in the story (however tangentially). I also didn't like that all kinds of POVs were used. 1st person, 2nd person, etc. That was kind of silly, and seemed like a writing experiment (I hate being experimented on by writers!!). However, with such a lurid story line and my tendency toward voyeurism, I read it quickly! I thought it was pretty entertaining, even with the flaws.

I listened to the audio, and it kept me wanting to listen. Not because of the person reading, though, because she often got inflections wrong, especially when something was supposed to be sarcastic or flippant. She'd just read things totally wrong. However, the story kept me interested, even when I wanted everyone in it to just die already. Very graphic, in violence/gore and in sex. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but just more than I'm used to seeing in most books. The ending was frustrating (must have another one in the series!), but it was a fun read.