Rated of 5
by Missy
Boring, boring, boring. Please don't waste your time. This book had absolutely no tension in it. First graders learn that to write a good story they have to put tension in their story. It was also an unremarkable and unbelievable story. The ending was terrible and had no continuity with the rest of the story. It is also appalling that the author tried to make the TERRORISTS in this story warm, lovable and unfortunate folk instead of barbaric, hatemongers who kidnapped and terrorized people and held them hostage for four months. I'm sure that the real story of the hostage takeover in Peru is much more interesting than this poorly written romance nove.
Rated of 5
by Maureen
I loved this book! I am not at all musical so I don't know how plausible the extreme effect of music on the characters is but the book is a beautifully rich look at a variety of individuals in a unique situation.
Rated of 5
by Paula
Charming, powerful, and lyrically written. I could hear the music, embrace the lovers, share the hopes of the terrorists, both individually and collectively. As I got closer to the end, I tried to devise a positive outcome for all. The brutal ending was inevitable.
Rated of 5
by Jody Chapel
I've only just finished this book and perhaps I should give some time and reflection before commenting on it, but no. I thought the book was beautifully written. Even scenes that held very little artistic importance such as the one when Gen is looking for someone to cook dinner and he says "This is your man" upon Simon's enthusiasm to make dinner. I don't know why, but that scene stopped me as so simple and beautiful after the complicated, uncomfortable and funny conversation about Roxanne helping with dinner.
Even though I know nothing of the Lima incident that inspired this book, I think you have to suspend your disbelief a bit about the whole hostage situation. I think in reality others might have gone off the deep end in the confinement, no matter how changed they were becoming. But this is a story and a rich one at that, and I can easily forget about what might happen or not. Though I have to say that I have read this only a week after the Theatre in Russia was taken over, and so many died, that it gives the story a deeper sadness an yet perhaps takes it even a bit more from reality for me.
I gave this book a 4 only because I never know when I will find a 5.
Rated of 5
by Clch
The book was a page-turner of no significance. It did hold one's attention most of the time, but the same story could have been told in half the number of pages. The outstanding part of the book was the description of the characters. For that alone, it is worth reading.
Rated of 5
by Gloria
This was a wonderful book -- well written by Ann Patchett -- catching the true personalities of the characters. The situation described was unusual and captured your interest from page one! There was no second guessing the ending -- and you almost wished it would never end. A tale of intrigue, passion and humor -- it caught your attention made you want to "participate" yourself. By all means -- READ IT!
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.
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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Can an wiser, older narrator view the past with more wisdom than he might have possessed forty years earlier in the summer he was thirteen? Ordinary...
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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 Missy 
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by Maureen 
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by Jody Chapel 
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