Beautiful and Strange
The book is well paced and well-written, full of lovely imagery and clever wording without being pretentious. But the subject matter is hard - poverty, bullying, mental illness. Still I would recommend it.
Rated of 5
by Cynthia C. (Peekskill, NY)
Good book club suggestion
I thought this was an interesting and well-written book. A good choice for book clubs, with many things to discuss: Religion & faith, love & hate, tolerance and intolerance.
Rated of 5
by Julie G. (West Hartford, CT)
Fantasy and Imagination
Grace McCleen has done a very good job of capturing the voice of 10 year old Judith McPherson, a lonely girl raised by a passionately devout widowed father. I was initially entranced by the characters, but, unfortunately, soon found them all to be so stereotypical as to be unbelievable. I was moved at the end of the book [edited for plot spoiler]. Overall, however, I was disappointed in the book, especially because I thought it began so promisingly.
Rated of 5
by Aprile G. (Florence, MA)
Suspending disbelief
I really wanted to like The Land of Decoration, but in the end, I felt that it really required too much faith on the part of the reader for the story to hold together.
Rated of 5
by Susan B. (Rutledge, MO)
not what I expected
I didn’t like this as much as I’d hoped I would, but it’s entirely my own fault. For some reason I thought this was going to be a post-apocalyptic tale, which is one of my favorite kinds of stories. But (by my lights at least) living in a grey, downtrodden factory town in England and looking forward to the Biblical Apocalypse doesn’t count as being in that genre. So I kept waiting for the world to end, but spoiler alert! it didn’t.
Once I realized the book wasn’t what I’d thought it would be, I noted that the writing and characterization were very good, I just didn’t find myself very interested in the character’s dilemmas. If you go in expecting a heartrending portrayal of a young girl from an extreme religious background experiencing loss and trauma, you’ll be fine. If you go in expecting a dystopic slightly-future tale, you might be disappointed.
Rated of 5
by Kathy K. (Lakeland, Florida)
The Land of Decoration
The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen would appeal to readers who like young female main characters. Judith is a third grade student who is neglected by a single father, bullied by classmates and has no strong female role model until a substitute teacher takes over her class. She relies on her faith (an extreme fundamental one) to help her overcome her problems, namely the classroom bully. The author, McCleen, uses a rather run-on style of writing in places which will cause some readers to slow down and reread the sentences a number of times. The character Judith is well developed but that is not the case for the father. He is much more elusive and hard to understand. Perhaps that is what McCleen wanted.
Rated of 5
by Carolyn F. (San Carlos, CA)
I really wanted to like this book
I wanted to like it because of the blurb and I really loved ROOM but I had to slog my way through this one. I could not develop any empathy for the characters because I did not believe them. I honestly would not recommend this book.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story...
read more
From the first page, I was drawn in by the lyrical writing of the author and mesmerized as the narrator, eight year old Raami, remembered the years...
read more
Trite but true, all good things must come to an end. I so wanted to keep reading the wonderful prose, the settings that let one think they are part...
read more
Amazon cuts off 5200 affiliates in Minnesota(Jun 19 2013) With Minnesota's online sales tax law due to take effect July 1, Amazon has played a familiar card by cutting ties with 5,200 members of its Associates...
Full Story
of 5
by Elizabeth L. (Salem, Oregon)
of 5
by Julie G. (West Hartford, CT)
of 5
by Carolyn F. (San Carlos, CA)
