Customer Comments

This book was so interesting that I recommended to several friends. A supremely unreliable narrator who admits to a faulty memory tells stories from his past that clash terribly with new events happening going forward in time. The novel is full of strange hints and tell tale signs that the narrator successfully ignores but we readers must pick-up if we are to understand the finished and unfinished endings that conclude the novel. Most of the characters are really well developed, particularly the women in his life.

Roth delivers an alternate history novel beginning after the end of Roosevelt's 2nd term of president, as told from the point of view of a young Jewish boy living in a close knit Jewish neighborhood and a omnipresent narrator. With great detail Roth builds up the possibility that Nazi-leaning Lindbergh --the famous aviator-- would have taken the Presidency away from Roosevelt by campaigning on an isolationist platform and slowly started measures to separate Jewish families from their children and from their neighborhood. Roth even include biographies and speech extracts in the appendix to make the case for his "plot". Main criticism is that the ending felt rushed.

If you enjoy thrillers--and murder mysteries-- this might be a great pick for you. Tom Smith's debut novel doesn't have the smooth writing style or psychological finesse of a Tana French but the setting is Stalinist Soviet Union, a place where most people fear from any type of work joke or complaint lest they be accused of being an anti- Soviet spy. Violence and torture are common to local government methods and citizens have been cowed into penury and minimal standards of living while State Security employees and their families enjoy comparative freedom and more luxuries. Since crime is a symptom of what's wrong with capitalism the book sets out a spate of murders that are wrongly adjudicated. Readers follow the Leo D, an MDG State Security agent as he opens his eyes to the reality of his world. A fast read and primer on Soviet Union of 1950's.

My twin -- 22 year-old -- sons are both crazy about these socks. One of them even wears them with shorts! They wash beautifully and retain their color and fit perfectly! The squid is particularly vivid.

This was a fun read; I think it has much to do with Gaiman's breezy writing style and the fact that he didn't take his subject matter too seriously. This is not traditional fantasy or sci-fi....The title is the story: America being fertile soil for supporting every remembered deity from every country. But time has not been kind to these gods and the reader travels to parts unknown with Shadow--the narrator-- as the main guide [another clever naming device]. A key principle in this book is that death is not death as mere mortals might understand it...but I leave that for prospective readers to explore.

An introduction into the lives of one famous writer and his "co-dependent" wife long before fame/fortune... It is a shame that Hadley, Ernest Hemingway's first wife from a very small town, came across as so weak-willed and fawning in this story. I found both of them to be dislikable for different reasons, according the the book's descriptions, though it seemed plausible that Hemingway needed someone to come home to who would be 100% devoted to his needs. Best sections described the vignettes leading up to the writing of "The Sun Also Rises" and how Hadley's presence during all the festivities were erased so that her husband could flirt/then include Brett as the female lead in that story. Writing quality overall is fair but not outstanding in any way.

Well- paced Sci-fi thrillers don't come by too often and sci-fi aficionados and other thriller fans will definitely enjoy the creative problem solving and determinism exhibited by the ever-so-pragmatic astronaut, who becomes-by way of accidental residence -- the Martian. Don't go looking for character development, romance, mature relationships, moments of despair; in fact the astronaut appears to be a shoot from the hip type, steady as cement guy, likely to annoy technocrats and bumbling fools who get in his way. You will enjoy his igenuity and the responding home front activities when they realize that they have left a live body behind.

Fine read with three overlapping stories that focus on two generations of one family over a stretch of time, always in June. I found some of the scenes set in the early stories to be highly cinematic and there is much drama revealed in the marriage of the parents of the son and daughter who figure in the later stories. The latter stories also include the impact of a friend's AIDS illness on a member of the family.

This is "big story" novel that builds slowly and pulls the reader into the lives of slaves who have emulated their masters, masters who have done everything possible to break-down the family unit and and one slave in particular who has became a new kind of plantation master. Positively all- encompassing and breakthrough scenes of life and strife which I remember now years after reading.

Engrossing story about the first 30 years of the woman who married Ahab [of Moby Dick fame]. Note, it is not necessary to have read Moby Dick to enjoy the sweep or narrative of this novel which weaves together first-person observations about/experiences with whaling, class differences, attitudes towards slavery, madness, and religious fervour, as well as serendipitous encounters with a few well-known people. I cared deeply about this woman's life and thought much about the novel even when I finished it.