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Review Date: 10/27/2013
Very well written especially when you consider the author has written only 1 other book. Her characters were real in that I missed them when I had finished the book. It is a very good mystery whose ending was a surprise to me. I never saw it coming. It is indeed a very small world.
Review Date: 4/18/2016
I just finished this book - very intense. I could barely keep up. It really moves along and I can't say I relate with any of the characters. I found them very credible but they move in a world that is completely foreign to me. Now that I'm done I don't feel that I know or understand the characters and what made them act/react in a certain way. I am left with the feeling that I missed something and I'm unsure if that is just me or if perhaps that is the way Lisa Gardner meant it to be. At any rate, while I enjoyed the book, I wish I could have formed a connection with at least one of the characters.
Review Date: 8/18/2016
I bought this book several months, maybe a year, before I read it and it was nothing like I thought it would be. I thought Big Ray would be a likeable man and he was anything but. The book was written by his son who was able to almost like him after a lifetime of trying. And I have to admire him for that. The author's sister also reached a measure of acceptance during her life. Big Ray was a man who should never have had children; probably should never have married. He insulted, humiliated and hurt his wife and children as well as physically and emotionally abusing them. He was grossly, disgustingly overweight and did nothing to change it which ruined his health as well as his appearance. I did not like him at all.
Review Date: 10/8/2017
Helpful Score: 1
Even though this book was written before Orphan Train, I did not read it until after and maybe I was so positively influenced by Orphan Train that I was unable to give this book a higher review. It did not even come close to Orphan Train; but it is a completely different kind of book. The author did build good believable characters, but I did not like them very much. It was hard for me to care what happened to them. I did finish the book, though several times I almost stopped and probably should have since even reading to the end I did not feel compelled to give it a higher review. They made their choices and each found a way to live with those choices and Ms Kline was very adept at tying her story all up nicely.
Review Date: 1/26/2014
Both authors were/are(?) employed as reporters by the Washington Post, so the book is well written. It is about one person donating a kidney to a friend and co-worker. I've never read a book like it and I enjoyed the way it was told - from the perspective of both the giver and the recipient. I don't want to give away any of the story, but you can tell from the cover of the book that one of them is black and the other is white. It is definitely not an un-put-downable thriller, but the story moves along and I always looked forward to getting back to reading it the next day. I liked both of the people involved as well as the story they chose to share with readers everywhere.
Review Date: 4/22/2015
I love John Grisham and Bleachers is well written just as all his books. I read it just now (2015) and I feel sure that Friday Night Lights and Bleachers will merge in my mind as one and the same book and that with time I will hopelessly mix up the characters.
Review Date: 10/6/2014
Very good book - easy to get into right away. I haven't read a book quite like this one. The characters came alive. Most of them I liked, some of them I loved and a few I hated. And I cared very much what happened to them, so the pages flew by fast. The author, Amy Greene, must have spent a great deal of time sorting her characters and putting them in order so that the book flowed seamlessly from start to finish and all the loose ends were tied up nicely at the end. I turned back only once to check on a character and there were many of them. The setting was vivid and so well described I could imagine it as if I had once been there and now it lived in my memory. If my review seems vague, it is because I do not want to give away any of the story. I am so glad I was lucky enough to find and read this book. It will not be easily forgotten.
Review Date: 11/2/2016
I read the Sign of the Book before I realized it was 4th in a series, so I set out to read the others and just finished Booked to Die. I see that Cliff Janeway has not yet found the girl friend he has in Book 4, although he did fall hard in Booked to Die and then let her get away. Can't say I blamed her. But I do like Cliff Janeway and look forward to the next book in the series. These are easy reads and very interesting. John Dunning writes well and knows his subject - books. Obviously, I am a book lover as are all Paperback Book Swap members I'm sure.
Review Date: 7/20/2019
I wish I had never read this book. The facts in this book burst my bubble about Elvis. For the last 64 years I have been living in a fantasy world about the life of this extraordinary singer. Of course I knew there were bound to be drugs involved in the life of a super star of his magnitude, but I never realized to what extent in the latter years of his life. I have never believed any of the hype surrounding his death, but I do believe the facts in Peter Guralnick's book.
I've read other books about Elvis, most recently Last Train to Memphis - also by Peter Guralnick - in which the drug use had not yet escalated. I remember most of the events about the early years of his career including attending one of his concerts at the City Auditorium in Houston when I was 14; and really enjoyed reading about and reliving those times in Mr. Guralnick's book.
My belief in the authenticity of Careless Love caused me to remove my rose colored glasses and accept Elvis as a real live human being just as flawed as the rest of us.
I've read other books about Elvis, most recently Last Train to Memphis - also by Peter Guralnick - in which the drug use had not yet escalated. I remember most of the events about the early years of his career including attending one of his concerts at the City Auditorium in Houston when I was 14; and really enjoyed reading about and reliving those times in Mr. Guralnick's book.
My belief in the authenticity of Careless Love caused me to remove my rose colored glasses and accept Elvis as a real live human being just as flawed as the rest of us.
Review Date: 9/22/2012
One of the best books I have ever read. Not for the faint of heart. Very stark, realistic, haunting - definitely not a happily ever after book. The author makes the characters in her book live. Even weeks after I finished reading this book, I still miss Gertie.
Review Date: 1/9/2016
This was a wonderful book and very uplifting in spite of the really awful things that happened to this little girl through no fault of her own. The strength she exhibited under horrible circumstances would have been admirable in an adult and to be found in a child so young is almost beyond belief. She always made the best of any situation and her tender years were filled with experiences no child should ever have to endure. To say that she prevailed is an understatement. I loved this book. It was hard to put down.
Review Date: 7/20/2015
It is difficult for me to write a review of this book. The feelings it evoked in me are so deep and sensitive I find it difficult to form words for it and yet I highly recommend it. I heard about Mark Doty several years ago and I know that he teaches (or taught) at one of the universities in my town and I was delighted to read about him in this memoir. He has also written several books of poetry that I hope to read when I feel ready to have my insides torn apart again. This man is an artist. His words poured inside me as if they had always been nearby and waiting for me to become ready to receive them. I guess I was ready.
Review Date: 1/23/2016
I'm not usually a fan of short stories, but this book is an exception because all are written by John Grisham and I have yet to read a Grisham book that I did not like. None of these stories left me hanging and each is a stand-alone with no connection to the last. I was drawn instantly into each story.
Review Date: 11/23/2016
While this book was definitely NOT unputdownable, I was sorta glad to get back to it each day especially as I got to know the characters. I can't say that I liked any of the people in the book - all were very flawed which alone is not enough to make me dislike them. Of the 3 main female characters there was just something lacking. Even the 4th female - housemate - was wimpy. Maybe I expected too much from the book after all the hype I read about it and the movie based on it, but I did not find it all that good. Seems difficult to make a movie out of something that seemed very repetitive to me. A friend who saw the movie said it was not very good.
Review Date: 1/21/2017
I almost stopped reading this book part way in because having just read the Girl on the Train and cursed myself for reading the entire book, had promised myself that I would never waste my time in that way again. But I stayed with Gone Girl anyway even tho I did not like any of the characters, except maybe Nick's twin, Go. Even so, I'm not sorry I stayed with it because I've never read another book quite like it. The author did an excellent job of crafting Nick and Amy in such a way that they became very believable people who stayed in their marriage in a very unbelievable and scary way. These were some really messed up people and none of them were happy, even the minor characters. I hope I never read another book like this. One is enough.
Review Date: 1/26/2019
I read about half of this book and stopped. It is exceedingly boring and failed to catch my attention. Not my kind of book at all.
Review Date: 7/26/2011
Parts of this book were really good. Overall characters did not feel real.
Review Date: 10/28/2015
I had heard good things about David Baldacci and decided to read one of his books. There are tons of reviews already about Hour Game so I won't spend time telling what it's about. Baldacci is a decent writer and I enjoyed his book. That said, it's just not my kind of book. I'll go back to John Grisham, Dennis Lehane and Ann Rule.
Review Date: 7/26/2011
Riveting!! One of only a few books that I could not put down.
Review Date: 5/29/2012
I thought preview of this book sounded really good, but the book turned out only so-so. Story is based on a very flimsy premise which was hard to believe or relate to. Very disappointing.
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