Book Reviews

[modelista]

Has anyone else read the new JK Rowling book A Casual Vacancy??

I'm curious to know what you guys think about it cuz i'm kinda.. um.. conflicted

 

[mint condish]

I'd love to hear what people thought too! Unfortunately I haven't read it. The more reviews the better, people!

What about The Marriage Plot? Anyone? I'm always looking for books to try. My favourite is modern-day based fiction. And always looking for funny books.

Does anyone think I should bother trying 50 Shades of Grey? The passages I've tried sound trite and unintelligent... but there's just so much hype I'm curious. (I've read the reviews in this thread already )

 

[Niusity]

I'd love to hear what people thought too! Unfortunately I haven't read it. The more reviews the better, people!

What about The Marriage Plot? Anyone? I'm always looking for books to try. My favourite is modern-day based fiction. And always looking for funny books.

Does anyone think I should bother trying 50 Shades of Grey? The passages I've tried sound trite and unintelligent... but there's just so much hype I'm curious. (I've read the reviews in this thread already )

My cousin gave me The Marriage Plot last Easter. I've read like 50 pages but I guess it was hmmm... let's say I expected something more. Let's say it wasn't close to being a nice read. I just felt unconfortable reading it. It felt like the author tries too hard. But who knows maybe one day I'll get my nerves together and I'll be able to read it.

About 50 shades of grey I know it's a piece of **** , I know it's a dirty fan fiction, i know it was written for wives in their 40's who need something new, I've read 100 reviews (including opinions of some guys here on tfs), but EVERYONE, literally, everyone arround me is reading it. All my friends are reading it, all my colegues, even my teachers and random people in a law office. I even was stuck in a traffic jam once and a girl in car near mine was reading it. I was like WTF?
The curiosity killed the cat. The curiosity is slowly eating me inside. If it's that bad why everyone keeps reading it??? I just don't understand. So who knows I've told everyone I'm not even reading that because well, because I have my reasons but as the series gets more popular I just don't know if I'm able to keep my word.

 

[mint condish]

I'm in the exact same place EVERYONE is reading it! All the women in my office, the women on the subway, GEEZ!!!!!! It's like as a woman I don't exist if I'm not part of this sick book club too!

Thank you for your review of The Marriage Plot!

 

[Alma Kemp]

Yeps 50 shades of grey is everywhere...i just do not wanna read it because everyone is reading it. And i just hate poorly written books. One woman named 50 shades of grey trilogy the best books That she did read on 2012.what the f**k?!?

I love to talk about books and i love to read reviews but i suck writing them. Need to shape on That a little bit since i have read like 10 in last two months. Hahha.

 

[Niusity]

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I gave it 4 points of 5.
It was far from being as great as I expected it to be, though it was very captivating and way too fast moving. Overall I think I liked it, except for the end. There was a sentence when Nick said there would be two teams, team Nick and team Amy. I was team Andi. She was the only adequate character through the whole book.
It was amazingly written (rare thing these days) and desearves 5 points for that. I discoverd a new really amazing author and looking forward to read other two books.

 

[heelscatchfire]

^ hmm thanks for the review, I've seen a lot of people reading that book, I might check it out.

I love your 50 Shades of Gray rant, I do see it everywhere too but not nearly as much as you. I don't think I'm ever going to read that book, it may not even live up to the hype.

 

[ChristyLeReveur]

Does anyone think I should bother trying 50 Shades of Grey? The passages I've tried sound trite and unintelligent... but there's just so much hype I'm curious. (I've read the reviews in this thread already )

Well in my opinion, I think the first book of the series is quite good... The second and third ones are kinda plain and I don't know--too pretenious and unnecessary. The first book is mainly about the immense attraction between Anna and Christian... and how he chased her around. It's kinda fun actually. Wouldn't recommend you to read the second and third ones unless you like the first book
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[ALAUU]

^ I agree. The first one isn't so bad. It's entertaining, but definitely not a book that makes you 'think.' The other two are just total pieces of sh*t.

Gone Girl was really well-written. It kept me on my toes the whole time, but the ending was a total letdown in that it just felt so rushed. Big things happened without adequate explanations and not enough detail. It's like the author felt her book was too long, so she had to rush the ending without giving it as much thought and detail as she did the rest of the book. Otherwise it was pretty good. I finished it thinking all the characters were batsh*t crazy and f*cked up, but that's a good thing. I was getting tired of reading all these books with all these perfect characters. The characters in Gone Girl had many layers and were very interesting. You have to keep reading to really figure out who these characters really are deep down.

 

[mint condish]

Thank you and karma for your thoughts, both of you ^ ^

 

[StoneSkipper]

Has anyone else read the new JK Rowling book A Casual Vacancy??

I'm curious to know what you guys think about it cuz i'm kinda.. um.. conflicted

I came in here just to write about this book, to be honest.
It seemed oddly gratuitous at times, like she's trying to prove that she can write an adult book. The story doesn't really pull you in until right around the middle. There's a lack of focus in the character's issues - they don't resolve themselves so much as they are dissipated, abruptly concluded, giving way to their thoughts about other point plots. It detracts from the character's developments.
On the other hand, the scenes are pretty well written. The characters are overall likeable, and most importantly, relatable, understandable. They deepen with every plot point they experience. Everything was wrapped up reasonably well by the end - although there was a focus on certain primary characters, almost all the loose ends were resolved.
I'd give this book 3.5 of 5. I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to read it - except if you have any faith in humanity at all. The ending is too sad.

 

[modelista]

I came in here just to write about this book, to be honest.
It seemed oddly gratuitous at times, like she's trying to prove that she can write an adult book. The story doesn't really pull you in until right around the middle. There's a lack of focus in the character's issues - they don't resolve themselves so much as they are dissipated, abruptly concluded, giving way to their thoughts about other point plots. It detracts from the character's developments.
On the other hand, the scenes are pretty well written. The characters are overall likeable, and most importantly, relatable, understandable. They deepen with every plot point they experience. Everything was wrapped up reasonably well by the end - although there was a focus on certain primary characters, almost all the loose ends were resolved.
I'd give this book 3.5 of 5. I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to read it - except if you have any faith in humanity at all. The ending is too sad.

Actually, i had already read the book before posting my comment.. What i was conflicted about was literally EVERY word you written.

It's crazy because i completely agree with you on EVERYTHING. I too felt she was trying too hard to show she could write a so-called "adult novel", which i didn't necessarily find it a "adult book". It pretty much was raw, teen angst & the adults weren't really weren't too interesting enough for me to pay attention or care about so they kinda faded into the background at times.

But i loved how well written & realistic the characters/scenes were.. And the tone of the book was soo familiar it felt like hearing the voice of a good friend you hadn't seen in a while

 

[StoneSkipper]

^Ah, the 'conflicted' led me onto that... I meant 'you' as in everyone who wanted to read the book. That's a mistake I often make

If there's anything truly magic about Rowling's work, it's her ability to ambience. She really knows how to immerse you into a scene, dictate the tone of the ambient, locate the characters into a place, a time, a mood. It's undoubtedly her best asset as a writer.
I very much agree with you about the 'teen angst' thing (which I thought was very exaggerated... never to the point of uncanny valley, but certainly amped up). It wasn't so much of an adult book as it was a young adult one.

I hadn't thought about the familiar tone of it, but you're very right about that... it doesn't feel like you're being introduced to Pagford, but like you're remembering it fondly. I think a good part of that is due to her spectacular work on ambience.
It's not a great book, but it's certainly a very enjoyable read, and one you won't forget so quickly because of how the characters connect to you (at least they did to me).

 

[Niusity]

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell
5 stars out of 5

This was a rough, disturbing and tragic book. It was one of those "dirty" reads people don't do much talk about, with a weird prolugue, odd beginning and extremely emotional content.

I never, ever thought I was going to like this book when so many people were eager to read it. I thought it wasn't more than another thriller picturing kids who were struggling with grown up problems. It turned out being such a deep and unusual book, starting with the prologue and till it's last page its language amazed me (I even had to look up a few words in the dictionary), one of the best writing techniques and style. Giving (almost) every character a voice and making it no similar to other characters' was was a great idea. The chapters were really short which made it difficult to put it down. There was action, there was emotion, there was love and hate in this book but the most important part would be that it showed a facade of a society which most of us try to ignore.
It was a brilliant book and I hope the author publishes something new soon.

 

[kingBobo]

Grace Coddington's new book I would probably give 2.5/5

I was actually offended when I read the part where she says she had only read around 3 books that aren't picture books her entire life.

Also she purposefully leaves the exciting parts out if you read her acknowledgements in the end by saying thanks so and so for telling me when I went too far in my writing. BUT GRACE! I want you to go too far. Too far is cool.

Maybe she should have just waited for her professional life to have ended? So then she could expose her secrets and say what she really feels about the fashion industry. Rather than writing boring dribble that could easily be available on a Wikipedia page. I mean it's not like we live with her, she doesn't need to have any element of surprise to keep the relationship going and eventful.

I just feel getting to the end of the book that it was just light entertainment- I wouldn't even class it as reading to be quite honest.

I feel most factual fashion books are like this. Which is a terrible detriment to the industry.

 

[Belowen]

What I Did by Christoper Wakling (4/10) – This was one of the designated reads for the book club that a group of my friends and I have together. It wasn’t something that I could see myself picking up of my own accord, which is one of the things I love most about being part of a book club. I started out really liking it, but it ended with a terrible anticlimax that made me change my opinion of the book as a whole leading more towards the negative.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (8/10) – I really liked this book, and I won’t say too much about it because it’s one of those books that the less you know about it the better it will be.

1Q84 (Book 1) by Haruki Murakami (6/10) – I enjoyed this but I found it quite obvious that it was part one in a trilogy. I didn’t feel like there was a complete story in the book, which was a bit frustrating but having said that I was captivated by the story enough to look forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.


Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (10/10) – A new favourite book. This was such a beautiful story, so fascinating and incredibly well told. It came highly recommended to me and now I highly recommend this to you.

 

[kokobombon]

After reading 50 Shades of Grey I got interested in erotica novels, I always thought they were cheap romance novels with Fabio on the cover but only recently I found out they´re a different genre. They´re not masterpieces but I find them interesting the more I read. I guess that 50 Shades got excellent marketing cause -even though the sex is hot- the characters are weak and poorly developed/written. So far I´ve read Sylvia Day´s Crossfire novels, her female character is as strong -if not stronger- than the male counterpart. Same as Tiffany Reisz´s The Original Sinners saga, I´ve read a short novella and The Siren.
Both authors deal with BDSM but the sex is secondary to character development, which imo is all that matters cause if I want fetish sex there´s always the web...

Anyone has other recommendations?

 

[EvaH]

Did someone read Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg? I have just started and so far I don't understand why she has been shot left and center Should I brace myself for the upcoming chapters?

 

[Alvedansen]

sorry, this is slightly off topic, but does anyone watch "booktubers"? there are a few i follow, but most seem to mainly read young adult books and i'm more interested in seeing reviews of "adult" books or at least a wider variety of genres. any recommendations?

 

[lucy92]

Anyone has other recommendations?

i would look into Tristan Taormino
check out her page on amazon..her books are sold in a lot of fancy erotica boutiques here.