Simone

AWFUL!!! has to be on the list of worst books I have read. I don't mean to put the book down, let's just say it was not for me!!! AT. ALL. I listened in double speed to get it over with.

I remember where I was when I heard The Wall was coming down. Do you? It was unbelievable - I still get goose-bumps when I see the footage; David Hasselhoff in the light-bulb jacket excluded.

Even more unbelievable then The Wall coming down, was it going up at all in the first place!!! I was born about 10 years later, and as a child I never really gave it any thought. I knew there was “a wall in Germany” but that was about it. When I was a teenager and learned it was built in 1961 I was astounded! That’s “modern times” I thought to myself, and how do you split up a major city with roads, and telephone lines, and trains, and a connected infrastructure!!! It’s so preposterous, yet it happened!!

And of course, who can forget Reagan’s famous commanding speech: TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL. Almost 25 years later it’s still powerful!

I am a bit disappointed with this book because I found it rather complicated to follow. I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but it goes into so much “political chess” that I lost track of who was who, who worked in what government department, what agency was in charge of what... and the alphabet soup of titles!!!!... forget it! I am more interested in things like the escapes attempts and how they were orchestrated, the culture and the climate of the city when The Wall was up and what daily life was like in the GDR from the perspective of the citizens, not the politicians.

The first third of the book was all about the history of Germany - interesting, but I could have skipped all of that. Overall I think I would have preferred something a little more concise; the book was too heavy on names and dates for me. If you want detail, you’ll love this book but I don’t need to know that this happened on the morning of July 3 1942 and that happened on June 8 1959 and this happened on January 6 1960 etc etc etc I am not going to remember ANY of those dates! I want a rundown of what happened, not the nitty-gritty of the exact moment in time a document was signed. Sure it’s all important information, but for me it’s too much detail.

I’m roughly 80% done with this book, and then I am going to read “Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall” by Anna Funder when I am done. I think it will give me a little more of what I am looking for... I hope!

A more appropriate title would have been: The Claire and Jamie Show.

There was SO MUCH pointless filler in this book that I think only bona fide C&J fans could truly love and appreciate it. I thought it was just OK.

I like Gabaldon's writing, I enjoy the sly humour, and she certainly has a gift for weaving tales… but there was WAY WAY WAY too much “stuffing” and not enough “meat” in this book. The countless frivolous tangents didn’t move the book along no matter how interesting they may have been. It was like reading a billion short stories.

In my opinion, it was about half way through book before the story really started moving: Brianna going back to find her parents, followed by Roger trying to find Brianna. That was interesting; although I have to say that I didn’t buy the angst Roger felt over the baby; that part of the plot was tedious.

I feel like I have spent enough time with Claire and Jamie this year, however I do want to finish the series; it’s a mission at this point! but book 5 is so amazingly long that I am turned off – it’ll be a while before I dig back in.

Not much to say. I enjoyed it; an original take on a possible future.

I’m not sure if the existence of clones feels as threatening now-a-days as it might have felt back when the book was written in the 70s, so perhaps it was more of a pager-turner then... nevertheless, I thought it was interesting.

Great story! It was an intriguing mystery but most of all I liked the way it was told – in 3 perspectives. Very original.

Beatrice’s sister Tess is missing, and we later find out she is dead. As a way to come to terms with Tess’ death, Beatrice decides to write a letter to Tess explaining what happened to her.

So there is the perspective of the research into Tess’ disappearance and death investigation as it unfolds.

At the same time, there is the perspective of Beatrice’s retelling of the events to the police, giving her statement to the investigator in the past tense, interwoven with and looking back on the real-time narrative of the ongoing investigation.

Then, the perspective of where she is as she is recalling all of this, looking back on the “statement giving” that’s looking back on the “death investigation”.

I thought it was all very clever; however I can see that if you are not paying attention it could get a little confusing!

‘The House I Loved’ by Tatiana de Rosnay is another book written as a letter to someone, but I found that one slow moving and a little boring. I was leery when I realized this book was in the same format, but even though it was similar in the way that there was a lot of personal reflections and recalling memories and looking back, this book was far more interesting because a mystery was slowly unravelling, bit by bit new information was emerging about the investigation and that made it more compelling. This being said, after a while it was just one cliff-hanger too many!

I thought I saw the ending coming a mile away… Ok, here comes a little spoiler so stop reading if you don’t want to know.
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When he said his bike was stolen and all that was left was the chain! And then he suggested a walk in the park… pul-leeeeeeze! So obvious! “you’ll die where your sister died” ugh! gimme a break! But then there was the revelation that it was in this state (drugged and fading) that she “wrote the letter to her sister” and that this is what she meant when she said her body was deteriorating. Great Twist!

Elizabeth Street reminded me a lot of The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani however I enjoyed Elizabeth Street so much more!

Both stories follow Italian immigrants as they settle down in New York in the early 1900s, and if you’ve read them both then perhaps you’ll agree with me:

The Shoemaker's Wife just floated along, nothing really happened and no particular events or story lines really stood out. Overall to me, the story was not that memorable.

In comparison Elizabeth Street was really absorbing. Things happened in this book! The plot was intriguing, the people were interesting, the story was suspenseful, there was action, drama, intrigue … really, no contest between the two books. Elizabeth Street wins hands down. I liked it very much, it was a great read!

I thought the mystery was great fun! It had me hooked early on and I was just as curious as the main characters – they really brought me along on their preposterous adventure; I didn’t want to put it down.

The story was little Scooby-doo-ish: a home grown team of sleuths investigating a multitude of strange happenings around them, a suspicious “The Creepy Caretaker”, the discovery of something HUGE... is it paranormal? Or an elaborate trick? you know how it goes.

I think the author’s references to Scooby Doo throughout the story was a little wink to the reader but I saw it as irreverent fun, it wasn’t irritating.

Stop reading now if you don’t want a spoiler.

I didn’t care for the last part: falling into an apocalyptic world of scary beings. Running away from the strange creatures. Trying to avoid becoming lunch for aliens... I could have done without all of that – it was too long and frankly not that interesting. Not sure what kind of action-climax I would have preferred, but this one missed the mark for me.

This was a lot of information to absorb all at once.

I am interested in the subject, and have a “high level” understanding of the main points, but I wanted to learn about the Reformation in more detail. With a zillion book options to choose from, I picked this one because it was short.

I learned a lot – like just how much Switzerland was involved – but a lot of it went “in one ear and out the other” because I felt saturated with facts.

I want to read it again, but in short batches. A few paragraphs at a time so that the information sinks in properly!

What a huge disappointment! I really missed out. It’s not the book – it’s 100% me.

This is the 3rd Edward Rutherford novel I’ve read and it certainly won’t be the last. He’s a great story teller and I love the concept of his books however PARIS tapped into my biggest book problem: I can’t keep track of that many characters! And unlike the other 2 novels I read: Sarum and New York, because the story is not told in chronological order it just made it impossible for me.

When the time line stayed put I was captivated but after jumping around to different eras, I had already forgotten who was who and what was going on by the time it would come back to the first one. What era was Mary in again? And Max? No clue. Which Monsieur Blanchard was 1600s and which one was 1900s? Search me! I was completely lost and the fact that families keep the same names over the generations was the final nail in coffin.

Reading about The City Of Paris however was terrific. Who doesn’t love Paris? Not only did it bring back lovely vacation memories, but also of other books I’ve read set in Paris:

The story line set in the 1880s regarding the building of the Eiffel Tower and 1889 World Fair reminded me of this book that I highly recommend: Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count by Jill Jonnes.

The story line of a young girl working for the Dauphine in Versailles recalled parts of: Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran and The Sun King: Louis Fourteenth at Versailles by Nancy Mitford

The Paris of Hemmingway in the 20s reminded me of: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

All very interesting.

I hope his future publications go back to epics told in chronological order!!! If I had known how much this would have ruined it for me, I would have chopped it up myself and reorganized it chronologically!!

The next Rutherford book I plan to read is London – looking forward to it whenever it becomes available in Audible.

Overall I loved it: The entire Trilogy. I just couldn’t get enough of Mary trying to explain (justify) our society to Ponter, I thought that it brought up so many different and interesting issues: Religion, Crime and Punishment, The Right to Choose, Environment, Relationships, Science and Technology etc … I found it endlessly interesting!

Having said that, I didn’t like the Jock storyline and I won’t say more about it because I don’t want to spoil it for those who have not read it yet. The book seemed to morph (degenerate) from a really thought-provoking story to Bruce-Willis-Action; I was more annoyed than on the edge of my seat.

Still, it didn’t ruin it for me at all. If ever there is a Book 4 someday – I am in!

Great book, LOVE the story, but I disagree that it can stand alone – I think the 3 books should be read together.

I'm currently reading book 3 and I’ll post my review there after finishing it.