Rated of 5
by Maggie R. (Canoga Park, CA) Finally child I can care about
just a small rant about the run of hyperintellegent children/teens who populate current fiction. Sorry, but they annoy me. (Won't name names.) This is not one of them! Judith is a likeable thoughtful child who constructs an alternate world and falls into a moral quandary when her emerging ego confronts a situation her strictly religious upbringing has not prepared her for. The outcome is always in doubt and the reader's attachment to Judith makes it hard to stop reading.
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 Lisa B. (Denton, TX) Creating your own World
I had a hard time reading this book at first because, as a ten year old, I was bullied like Judith McPherson in the Land of Decoration (but in a much less severe way, thank goodness). I was also exposed to some frightening stories about the book of Revelations and the end times that gave me horrible nightmares. Once I got past that I thought the writing and story were wonderful and perfectly captured the life of a lonely 10 year old girl. I also could have imagined when I was ten building my own world out of junk in my bedroom, just like she did. I am not sure the ending was totally believable, but I liked the rest so much that I am willing to overlook that.
Rated of 5
by Barbara C. (Riverside, CA) Not a book to read on Sunday!
Although I rated this book as good, because it was riveting and kept me reading non-stop until I finished it, I found the premise depressing and sad. No one really saw Judith’s distress. God was portrayed as capricious and more than strange. I guess the redeeming feature was this young lady’s “pluckiness” and faith. The story was well-written and captivating but I struggled with the truths of our young protagonist's life.
Rated of 5
by Lori L. (La Porte, IN) Faith and Imagination
Debut author Grace McCleen has written a beautiful, thought-provoking book that will appeal to many book clubs, particularly those who enjoy discussions of the nature of faith. Judith is a young girl whose strong faith in God makes her and her father outsiders in their community, but is also the source of her ability to do miracles. Or is it? Discussions regarding faith, imagination, coincidence, and the power of love will surely ensue.
Rated of 5
by Angela J. (highlands ranch, co) The Land of Decoration
This is a well written novel told from the perspective of a 10 year old girl who believes she can perform miracles when she is tormented by her classmates. It has great descriptive detail, and will appeal to readers who enjoy inner monologues.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing(May 16 2013) In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth...
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by Maggie R. (Canoga Park, CA) 
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by Aprile G. (Florence, MA) 
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by Lisa B. (Denton, TX) 
