Erica

I miss Adam Dalgliesh and the beautiful, flawless style of the series. I imagine that Death Comes to Pemberly would have been okay if I had read it. The style is Jane Austen, and the story is okay. But the audio version is almost impossible to endure. Affected, drawn out, exaggerated. I listened to the end because I love PD James.....

Well written vintage Louise Erdrich. I loved the book, the story, about the very important issue of violence against Native American women. Written with sensitivity and also with Erdrich's characteristic humor, it's a book you can't put down.
But the reader is awful. He was chosen I suppose because he is or sounds Native American (think Free Willie) which would have been nice. But this reader ends his sentences in the middle of a sentence. You can almost see the period. And then takes up again to finish. Ad he reads very slowly.
I bought the book.

The ending will blow your mind. At least, I didn't expect it and enjoyed the whole book without more expectations than to have a good story. Turns out that it's more than that, unexpected and strong.
I like how this book is written and I get a good sense of place and time. The characters are memorable and believable. It's tough to put down.

This is not Alan Furst's best novel, by any stretch. The plot and the characters are good but not unexceptional and, if it's not wasted money to buy this book, you probably will be able to put it down long enough for convenience breaks.
I enjoyed Daniel Gerroll's reading very much. He doesn't act out the characters and scenes although he gives each character a different voice. What was unexpected and a great delight is to have the impression, very often, of hearing Peter Sellers' Pink Panther in many of the dialogues. Same tone, same inflection, same way to end a sentence by letting it die down.

John Grisham used to be a writer who cared. He wrote well and his stories were surprising and full of unexpected twists. But he's getting lazy and complacent. Not with just his book but with most of the last five or six. Calico Joe is predictable, looooonnnng and booooooriiiiing. Even if you love baseball, you're going to see the old chestnuts piling up at every turn. It's not worth reading and it definitely is my last Grisham book. And that's sad because I used to like him very much.

This is another book that makes me wish that we had a book club for discussion. It's courageous, readable, passionate and it's difficult to put down. And, as always with John Irving, it's easy to read, familiar, intimate even.
If I didn't give it a full 5-star rating, it's because I want the main character to be a straight arrow (pardon the unintended pun), an advocate for those who live non-heterosexual lives, someone who is unimpeachable. But Bill Abbott is a bit self-centered.... Here is a man for whom others have risked and lost a lot to fight for him and he makes no effort to see them again, to seek them out. Even at the bed side of a dying man, he will be the star.
That said, many in his circle of friends and relatives are wonderful. They are the bricks of this powerful story.

This story is not a story. There's nothing there. It's kind of a Victorian bodice ripper that makes fun of a ghothic bodice ripper, set in the very boring life of an insipid Victorian bimbo. I'm sorry I stuck it out until the end. The reader does what she can but her style dragged this ordeal even more.
I don't understand the high reviews at all.

This book is fantastically fun. Stephenson loves technology and the geeks, hackers, and visionaries who bring it to the world. In his world, unlikely connections happen between people from everywhere. The women of his books are strong, smart and funny, and the men are strong, smart and funny too. This story will take you all over the world and you won't ever want to put your ear buds down.
It's well read too, except for the very poor regional accents. But that's not a big deal to me if a book of this size is read in an engaging way.
And best of all, it's over 38 hours long, enough time to get completely immersed in this uniquely written story.

This is a good story with a good plot, lots of humor, a bit predictable, but fun. What bothers me is the reader whose voice belongs to a cartoon version of a fuddy duddy old fart. I know many women in their late sixties and none have this old fashioned tone. I believe that his book would have more weight if we could imagine a smart, older woman and not an Xtreme Ms Marple.

Louise Penny's Inspecteur Gamache stories are wonderful in their civility, humor, and consistency. The stories are always riveting and the characters have become good friends. She writes well and with a heart. The strength of her books are more in the conflicts between people than in graphic and violent scenes so often found in other mystery series. Just like kids who would give anything to go to Hogwart, I would give anything to live in Three Pines. A Trick of the LIght is as good as her previous novels and, as always, it will be difficult to put the earbuds down.