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Donna K. (tomeworm) - Reviews

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The All of It
The All of It
Author: Jeannette Haien
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 49
Review Date: 3/18/2008


This book is a very quick read. It takes place in Ireland and deals with a priest and his knowledge of a secret about a town couple that makes things hard for him to accept. This is his struggle with that secret and the people it involves and the story of the people who have the secret and their relationship and how they came to be where and who they are. Nice story.


Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman
Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman
Author: Nuala O'Faolain
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 25
Review Date: 3/18/2008
Helpful Score: 1


"In 1996, a small Irish press approached Nuala O'Faolan, then a writer for The Irish Times, to publish a collection of her opinion columns. She offered to write an introduction to give the opinions a context...to explain the life experience that had shaped this Irish woman's views--and, convinced that none but a few diehard fans of the columns would ever see the book, she took the opportunity to interrogate herself, as fully and candidly as she could, as to what she had made of her life. But the introduction, the 'accidental memoir of a Dublin woman,' was discovered, and her book, 'Are You Somebody?' became an international bestseller. It launched a new life for its author at a time when she had long let go of expectations that anything could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude well fixed and too familiar.

"Suddenly, in midlife, there was the possi9blity of radical change. Whereas the memoir ended with its author reconciled to a peaceful if lonely future, now opportunities opened up, and there were thrilling choices to be made." This is her story of life after that point. It's a really great read, I thought and I would recommend it to anyone. You step right into her life and I think any of us who have lived a few years can recognize ourselves in parts of her life. Not to mention being in Ireland, which is a refreshing sidebar.


Blindsighted  (Grant County, Bk 1)
Blindsighted (Grant County, Bk 1)
Author: Karin Slaughter
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 365
Review Date: 9/16/2009


A quick read, and one that keeps you thinking about it when you're not reading. What more can you say, a pretty good book


Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
Author: Fannie Flagg
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 206
Review Date: 2/26/2012


I haven't laughed out loud while reading a book for some time. Of course, I usually read more serious things, so.... But, I have to say I really enjoyed this book and I did laugh out loud several times. It was Fannie Flagg, who could resist her? And, I loved Fried Green Tomatoes From the Whistle-Stop Cafe, so it was an easy choice to make. Totally different from Fried Green Tomatoes, but so entertaining. An easy read. Try this one, you'll love it and if you don't, it won't take you that long to read it anyway!


The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Author: H P Lovecraft
Book Type: Paperback
  ?
Review Date: 9/16/2009


Certainly something different. I have eclectic taste in books, I think, and I found this really different, which I like. Try it, you just might like it.


Cat Talk: What Your Cat Is Trying to Tell You
Cat Talk: What Your Cat Is Trying to Tell You
Author: Carole Wilbourn
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 12/26/2009


this book is written by a Cat Therapist. It's an easy read. Has helpful stories and hints. If you can't remember what you've read, it's a handy book to have on hand to refer to!! :o) I would say I've read a lot more books like this that were much better as far as cat care and trying to gather information about "cat language."

From a "cat whisperer."


Cell
Cell
Author: Stephen King
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 711
Review Date: 3/15/2008


reading this book now....or rather, TRYING to read it. I know Mr. King can be verbose, but the beginning of this book seems to go on and on and on, ad infinitum. I haven't decided to quit on it yet...but I don't find myself looking forward to going back to read it. I will, however, give it 20 more pages before I decide I can't read this one....???


Criminals
Criminals
Author: Margot Livesey
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 7
Review Date: 10/13/2009
Helpful Score: 1


I read one book by this lady and I liked it, so I requested this one. I liked this one as well. She has an ambience to her books that keep you coming back to get to the story, and when the book is over you are perplexed as to how much has happened and yet how little has changed. A certainly different atmosphere. Her books leave you with an eerie sense that something more needs to be explained, but then you realize that all her books are a little off-center.


Deja Dead (Temperance Brennan, Bk 1)
Deja Dead (Temperance Brennan, Bk 1)
Author: Kathy Reichs
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 569
Review Date: 9/21/2009


The back of the book reads "Kathy Reichs blasts into Patricia Cornwell te4rritory_and into the New York Times bestseller list - with this critically acclaimed debut novel inspired by Reichs' own career. Dr. Temperance Breannan, the wry, impassioned director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec, is driven to unravel shocking acts of violence by reading the bones of the dead.

"In teh eyar since Tempe left behind a shaky marriage in Nroth Caroolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. But when an unidentified female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in garbage bags, Tempe detects an alarming pattern within the frisly handwork...."

Okay, that's enough...the rest is up to you...you read it and see what YOU think of it.


Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Author: Anne Tyler
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 43
Review Date: 9/16/2009


Much like Anne Tyler's other writings. Full of family happenings and some mystery...Really don't know what to say except, what else have you got to do? Go ahead, read it, you'll get something out of it.


The Dress Lodger
The Dress Lodger
Author: Sheri Holman
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 221
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 1


I liked it. An easy read. You'll be thinking of the characters when you're not reading.


Driven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood
Review Date: 9/16/2009
Helpful Score: 1


So much information about ADD in adults (and also all ages). If you have any wonder about how ADD affects an adult...you need this book. AND, if you live with any that have you infuriated, this might help you to realize that it really is the way they are 'wired.' Very helpful book.


Drood
Drood
Author: Dan Simmons
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 17
Review Date: 4/29/2013


I can't rate it! I have to be honest and tell you that I never read it. It appealed to me greatly. But, I tried once and could not get through it. So, I put it away. Later, going through my 'to be read' stack of books I came across it again and read the jacket. Intrigues me! I tried a second time and just could not get through it, so I put it aside and this last time, I was cleaning out my books I decided it's time to give up on it since I have so many more books to read. Give someone else a chance because I know I'm not going to finish it. So, some other reader will have to give it a rating as I can't since I didn't finish it.


Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Author: Alfred Lansing
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 82
Review Date: 10/20/2007


I'll give you the description on the back of the book, but first let me say, this is not my usual "type" of reading and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!!!


"Bound for Antarctica, where polar explorer Ernest Shackleton planned to cross on foot the last uncharted continent, the Endurance set sail from England, in August 1914. In January 1915, after battling its way for six weeks through a thousand miles of pack ice and now only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked inside an island of ice. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted northwest before it was finally crushed. But for Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men the ordeal had barely begun. It would end only after a near-miraculous journey by Shackleton and a skeleton crew through over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

"This astonishing tale of survival by Shackleton and all twenty-seven of his men for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as Time magazine put it, 'defined heroism.' Alfred Lansing's brilliantly narrated books has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the Endurance's fateful trip. This new edition of the all-time bestseller has been augmented with maps and illustrations."

You will find yourself "living" this adventure right along with these men and being so sure at many points that it will not succeed that it's successful ending is truly a miracle.

Book is in great shape...possibly edges of pages have yellowed some...I keep looking at them, but I can't be sure.


The Fifth Child (Fifth Child, Bk 1)
The Fifth Child (Fifth Child, Bk 1)
Author: Doris Lessing
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
 62
Review Date: 12/9/2010


I really looked forward to this book from what I had heard about it. It's been a couple of weeks since I read it and I'm not sure I can yet say if I liked it. It was and wasn't what I expected. The feelings it aroused in me were that I wanted to yell at the characters and tell them what it was they needed to do and do it NOW. I'm still thinking about the book, that's a good sign, right? The whole idea intrigues me. It was a quick read, easy read and I'm still thinking about it. You read it and see for yourself???....


The Five People You Meet In Heaven
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Author: Mitch Albom
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 30
Review Date: 3/22/2009


I reviewed this book, but I'm not sure it went through...I read it because my friends were reading it and no matter what questions I asked about it, they confusingly could not answer them. For me, after the first two chapters, I think I would have quit if I hadn't been wondering what my friends were talking about. Hang in there, it gets better. It is a very quick read, kind of a feel good story with some nightmares inserted (for me!!) Spiritual, meaning of life kinds of things that you will already have been thinking about as you age. Not my favorite book by all means, but not a waste of time either. Read it and you decide....


The Great Mortality : An Intimate History of the Black Death, The Most Devastating Plague of All Time
Review Date: 4/5/2008


"In October 1347, at about the start of the month, twelve Genoese galleys put in to the port of Messina [Sicily]."

"So begins, in almost fairy-tale fashion, a contemporary account of the worst natural disaster in European history-what we call the Black Death, and what the generation who lived through it called 'la moria grandissima': 'the great mortality.' The medieval plague, however, was more than just a European catastrophe. From the bustling ports along the China Sea to the fishing villages of coastal Greenland, almost no area of Eurasia escaped the wrath of the medieval pestilence. And along with people died dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, cattle, and camels. For a brief moment in the middle of the fourteenth century, the words of Genesis 7:21 seemed about to be realized: 'All flesh died that moved upon the earth.'"


Hope's Boy: A Memoir
Hope's Boy: A Memoir
Author: Andrew Bridge
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 45
Review Date: 1/31/2015


A really heartfelt story about foster children and how they are treated. Also of the hopes and memories of a little boy who believes his mother is going to come get him. A true story and very thought-provoking.


Hottentot Venus
Hottentot Venus
Author: Barbara Chase-Riboud
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 2.8/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 3/23/2007


True story based on the life of an African bushwoman who ends up
exhibited in a show as a "scientific curiousity" because of the way her tribe decorates their bodies. She was born in S. Africa in 1790, widowed very young, and lost a child at a very young age...takes off from Capetown to find a life for herself and ends up being shown naked to crowds across Europe. Barbara Chase-Riboud also wrote Sally Hemings and other books about Amistad mutiny, etc.


Hour Game (Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, Bk 2)
Hour Game (Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, Bk 2)
Author: David Baldacci
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 300
Review Date: 4/5/2008
Helpful Score: 1


The book sleeve says: "When is a serial killer not a serial killer? When are the hands on a clock not the hands on a clock? When you play the ... Hour Game."

"A woman is found murdered in the woods with a special watch on her wrist-and what seemed a simple case soon escalates into a nightmare. The criminal methods of some of th emost infamous killers of all time are being replicated by a new predator who stalks and strikes victims with a cunning brilliance. No one can understand the murderer's motives or who the next victim will be."

For those of you who enjoy a complicated serial murder mystery...enjoy!


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