Jane_B

I have always enjoyed reading books by the author Evie Woods, but her mastery in writing shines in The Violin Maker's Daughter. She brought all of her characters to vivid life. She explored how one tragic incident can totally unmask our deepest fears and how we will do things naturally foreign to us to cope with the feeling the tragedy produces. All of Evie's characters are flawed and each in their own way try to go on with life, offer in very self destructive ways. The violin was the touch point of each character and how they related to life after touching it. The violin helped so many characters find a way to heal. The story was so engaging that I read the whole book in one day. Evie kept throwing in surprises in the plot and there were plots within plots. But, Evie writes so masterfully that the reader can follow all of the books twists and turns and this reader gasped in all the right places. The only thing I can say about this book is that if you don't read it you will have missed a great story.

This book is a slow simmer for about 3/4 of the book. Then it packs a punch. Initially, I could not understand how the two principles in the book would come together. Their lives were so different, yet they traveled some of the same principled roads. Evelyn had thoughts but did not feel the need to express them. I enjoyed her thought process through her private dialog. She just followed her own path. Tsering mostly followed the path that was set out for him, but became disillusioned by it. Evelyn was tested mightily when her son was 5 years old and she had to make a very big decision. That part of the book really made me think about how we try to lead our children and how the consequences of our decisions reflect on our children.

It took me a long time to wait for the "happenings" in this book, but I was really glad I'll stayed with the book. Had I not been reading the book for book browse, I don't know if i would have stuck with it. I'm thinking perhaps more foreshadowing in the early parts of the book may help readers stick with it until the book all unfolds? I'm so glad I stayed with the book as it provided much food for thought as well as a moment of "Oh my gosh! Never expected that!' Reading this books was a positive experience.

Hello, I love to read and listen to book and can get into almost any book, but The Antidote is just too weird for me. I like the style of writing. The author makes me read sentences twice because of how she puts together her thoughts. It's so evocative. The problem is the plot content. I read the first 100 pages and just can't get into her space. It's too fantastical and the story seems so nonsensical. It's too bad, because I really like her writing style. I can get interested in many book, but this one I just can't complete.

The Story Collector is a book in my favorite genre. The title was the first thing that interested me. I love things that relate to a library or books. The word story in the title and the picture on the front of the book both captured my interest. The second thing that made me perk up was the fact that the story was set in Ireland and had the customs of the Irish and some of their beliefs and the Gaelic language imbedded in the story. I am not Irish, but would have liked to be. I also appreciated the two parallel stories going on in the book. We see and understand the changing of the morals and customs that occur in a hundred year period. Anna is facing young adulthood and all the good and bad that it entails. Sarah is facing the grief process and becoming a women who starts to believe in herself. The story was totally believable to me, as any person's life can upend their intentions. I liked the fairy tales that wondered through the story and how different people needed more coaxing to tell their stories. Even when people were telling their stories, they were showing the culture of Ireland. I totally enjoyed The Last Bookshop, so I knew I'd love Evie Woods previous book. I'm looking forward to her next book.

I could not put this book down once I started reading it. The format of the 12 days in the long life of Issac was brilliant. It made me review my life and try to pick out the most pivotal points I would have included in a book like this. I particularly enjoyed the conversations of Agnus, Issac and Bo. It gave comic relief to the book and reinforced that our personalities do not change that much as we age and mature. It shows the complexities that life throws at us and how we need a core of people to help us through. Mr Yates was able to dial down to the emotions of his different days and show the reader how it affected Issac. I was rightly horrified with the USS Houston chapter and it stayed with me for a long time. I also liked the My Autobiography page at the end of the book so that I could go back to it and see the time line that Issac used and the exact dates. This book was a well written, thought provoking book that stays with the reader.