Customer Comments

"The Imperfectionists" portrays several people who work at an English-language international newspaper based in Rome. Each chapter features a different person. The portraits are intense, some with jaw-dropping denouements. It also chronicles the changes in the fate of printed news over the past 50 years. An excellent book!

Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" is my selection for "the best book I read in the 2000-2009 decade." Why? For starters, it can't help but increase tolerance and understanding, things that seem to be lacking in our currently polarized American culture. "Middlesex" illustrates the truth that all human characteristics, including sexual identity and sexual preference, exist on a continuum. One woman might be more or less female than another, and likewise with men. Eugenides' book educates the reader about the roots of, and the impact of confused gender identity on the main character's life. In the process, he also informs the reader about genetics, some Greco-Turkish history, and changes in the American city during the 20th century. This book is rich, teaming with characters, plot, history, society and settings. It's even better if you can hear Eugenides talk about the amazing coincidences he experienced when writing the book. Both the book, and the writing of it, are wonderful stories.

Heather Lende lives in Haines, Alaska, a small town of 2,500 at the north end of Alaska’s Inside Passage. A short film available on the town’s web site confirms the beauty Lende describes . . . a historic old town on the water, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Lende writes the social column (“Duly Noted”) as well as the obituaries for the local newspaper. The book portrays myriad aspects of the life of this town. In describing the hunting and fishing, and traveling in and out by small plane and ferry, Lende does not shy from the associated danger and seemingly all-too-frequent deaths. She also provides a window on the day-to-day activities of school, church, local theater, parades, local politics, and changes as the town has become a popular tourist stop for cruise ship travelers and others. As the book progresses, it moves from the merely descriptive (albeit excellent and often amusing) to touching the reader’s heart.

Nigeria's was created as a country by European powers after World War I, "uniting" three disparate groups of people: the Muslim Hausa in the North; Yoruba in the Southwest; and Igbo (or Ibo) in the Southeast. Nigeria gained its independence from the British Empire in 1960. Author Chimamandra Ngozi Adichie portrays the conflict that led to the Igbo declaring their independence as Biafra in 1967, and the ensuing war with Nigeria, through the stories of two Igbo sisters, Olanna and Kainene Ozobia, and their families and household members. The author provides richly detailed descrptions of the land and lives of numerous strata of Nigerian and Biafran society, and the devastation wreaked by the war that resulted in the starvaion of so many Biafrans. Adichi manages to enlighten the reader on everything from what the people ate to international policies that fed the disaster . . . an excellent work.

New Zealand in the 1860's is the setting for this very enjoyable historical fiction by Rose Tremain. For reasons gradually revealed, Joseph and Harriet Blackstone, and Joseph's 65-year old mother, move from England to take up farming. Shortly after their arrival, a gold rush begins. In addition to the Blackstones' story, there is also the neighboring homestead, a successful sheep ranch, where a strong connection forms between the child Erwin, and his Maori nursemaid. Tremain's characters are well developed, the plot is compelling, the historical detail and landscape well portrayed. This is a book that is difficult to put down.

To me, the mark of a good book is that the reader continues to think about it for days, or longer, after reading it. This was a good book. Jonathan Raban is a master of character portayal. In this book, Raban allows us listen to diverse perspectives on the post 9/11 world from such voices as a Holocaust survivor, an identity thief, a journalist with a great ability to see all sides of an argument, a gay man, and a 12-year old girl. In spite of a minimal emphasis on plot, "Surveillance" is an absorbing book, demonstrating the author's knowledge and intellegence, and, in the unusual ending, giving the reader much to think about.

Very disappointing. This is exactly the type of history book I do NOT enjoy. The first third of the book was promising, with lots of interesting details on the Puritans while in England, their first relocation to Holland, their arrival at Cape Cod, and their first year struggling to survive in their new settlement at Plymouth. Too much of the remainder of the book, however, consisted of descriptions of battles some 50 years later, between the English settlers and the Indians led by "King Phillip" . . . page after page of the battle sites, how many of each side were involved, how many muskets or flintlocks they had, how many died. I was hoping for more a "social history", in which the author elicited empathy or any kind of feeling in the reader, but instead found the narrative tedious. I'll give Philbrick credit for at least one thing, however. He showed clearly how the white man changed the way the Indians waged war. Before European settlement, Indian wars took few casualties; the Europeans taught them how to massacre and aim for genocide.

As perfect a book as can be found . . . full of historical detail, vivid descriptions, complex and all-too-human characters, with a compelling plot, all told in a style reminiscent of the writing of the times. Geraldine Brooks takes the minor character of the father from Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women", and tells his story -- his life up to and including serving as a Chaplain in the Union Army during the Civil War. Truly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won.

Puerile! I've read lots of young adult fiction that is excellent. This is not among that group. I picked the book up after hearing that it was so good . . . and found myself repeatedly groaning at the formulaic, hackneyed story, and at characters that lacked depth and insight. About half way through, I found out that the author started the book at age 15. This is no wunderkind. Maybe in the years ahead, his work might be worth reading, but I can't believe that "Eragon" was so highly touted! Is it a case of political correctness, or of not wanting to give our young people any constructive criticism? If you want to read young adult fantasy that's worth your time, try Michael Chabon's "Summerland", or stick with Harry Potter!