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There are currently 27 member reviews
for Three Weeks in December
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Mary L. (Madison, MS)
Beautiful and captivating book
Since many other reviews discuss the plot, I will not rehash it. I must say the the writing is beautiful. Many passages brought tears to my eyes and I had to read them to my husband. The book highlights "mankind' arrogance to our earth and cultures that are foreign to us. I can say it was difficult to read only because of my shame as to what is done in the name of progress. The research is on point and the plot captivating. This is not I book, I would have selected for me, however I have been greatly enriched by reading it. I urge all to step outside their usual genre and READ THIS BOOK!
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Nancy O. (Hobe Sound, FL)
A good compelling read
Audrey Schulman is very good at storytelling -- with Three Weeks in December she offers a very realistic and complete sense of place, two very intriguing narratives that compel continued reading and good character development, especially with her main characters. Side characters have their moments, but they're not as fleshed out as maybe they should be. It's very obvious she's done a lot of research in putting this book together, and it pays off. My issue with this book is that sometimes she goes a bit over the top -- there's a bit about Max's attempts at sex that lead her to organic cucumbers with condoms to avoid pesticides that is really kind of unnecessary here (she even talks to it about her day). Jeremy's angst just never lets up, either -- okay, I get it, the guy wrestles with his inner demons, but it's unrelenting at times, leading me to skim those parts after a while because there's just way too much and it becomes distracting after a while. One more thing ... I had the "aha" moment figured out very early on, so the surprise just wasn't as powerful as it could have been.
Three Weeks in December is a powerful read that breaks away from the mainstream zone and has some very interesting things to say beneath the main stories. It's a very approachable novel, and I'd recommend it to readers looking for something a bit different. This book would be a good book-club read because of the underlying issues on progress and its effects on indigenous populations and the environment as well as the challenges that sooner or later everyone must face in their lives.
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Carrie W. (Arcanum, OH)
Three weeks in December
I enjoyed this book very much, the writing flowed it was easily read and followed, and I love how you didn't know how the two main characters were related until the very end. I would not recommended to all due to the homosexuality.
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Joy N. (Gilbert, AZ)
Three Weeks in December by Audrey Schulman
This is a story about a young engineer from a small town in Maine and an ethnobotonist from the same small town in Maine that travel to East Africa to work in their particular field. What makes it really interesting is their experiences in East Africa occurred 100 years apart from each other. This was a pretty quick read. I was fascinated by the detailed descriptions of plant life in Rwanda and what the culture was like in East Africa in1899. It brought to life the conflict of preservation of the land and animals and the need for progress.
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Elaine G. (West Lafayette, IN)
Three Weeks in December
Much of the writing in each story was quite good, held your interest and could only happen in Africa. Not consistently so. The sexual content seemed an agenda of the author's. One questioned what was presented and why have it at all. The endings were weak.
This book could be quite fine. The author has great talent and hasn't achieved what it likely eventually will.
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Kate G. (City Island, NY)
Africa in 2 Centuries
The author wrote an ambitious novel about The Congo during the month of December in 1899 and 2000, utilizing two diffferent protagonists from the same family. The stories involving Africa were interesting on their own, but the addition of the main characters personal issues decreased my enjoyment of this story. Sometimes, less is more and I think the author tried to do too much. It would make a good book group book because of the variuos issues presented and that seems to be the author's audience.
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