reviewerID stringlengths 10 21 | asin stringlengths 10 10 | reviewerName stringlengths 0 49 ⌀ | helpful list | reviewText stringlengths 0 32.8k | overall float64 1 5 | summary stringlengths 0 452 | unixReviewTime int64 861M 1.41B ⌀ | reviewTime stringlengths 9 11 |
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A1DLVU4MJZ5EHO | B000JQJS6M | Jason | [
0,
0
] | I really like this watch. The only thing is that I can't seem to get the date on the proper cycle. Seems I'm always 12 hours off | 5 | great watch! | 1,382,659,200 | 10 25, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0002710188 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Writers of espionage novels are inevitably compared to John Le Carré, particularly if the writer is British. Gerald Seymour's writing style isn't as polished, and the characters in Home Run lack the multi-layered depth of Le Carré's best characters, but the plot and pace of Home Run are worthy of the mas... | 5 | Difficult choices in a fascinating novel | 1,290,729,600 | 11 26, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0006161294 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | The Bureau sends Quiller to Bangkok to protect an important British official who will be visiting Thailand. Quiller approaches the job in his usual efficient (albeit grouchy) style, but finds himself outsmarted ... at least for awhile.Quiller is a well-defined character: independent, even anti-social, perhaps sufferi... | 4 | Strong plot, intelligent story | 1,281,916,800 | 08 16, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0007344260 | TChris | [
4,
4
] | The connection between a body that has been wedged into a tire and set ablaze and a movie called Witchfire being filmed in Aberdeen isn't immediately apparent to Acting Detective Inpector Logan McRae, although the reader knows that the connection must exist or Stuart MacBride wouldn't have included both events in the n... | 4 | The eighth Logan McRae novel | 1,358,985,600 | 01 24, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0007419449 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Cold Granite takes place in the cold, wet, Granite City of Aberdeen. Logan McRae is returning to duty as a detective sergeant with the Grampian Police after spending a year recovering from knife wounds. His first day back greets him with the corpse of a three-year-old child who has been missing for months, a punch in... | 4 | The first Logan McRae novel | 1,360,368,000 | 02 9, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0007487223 | TChris | [
7,
8
] | As of this writing, there are thirty customer reviews of Charles Cumming's first novel,A Spy by Nature, but only one of his second novel, The Hidden Man. This is unfortunate because The Hidden Man is the better of the two books. Readers who enjoy well written, character-driven espionage fiction should seek it out.Whe... | 5 | Multiple layers of intrigue | 1,288,828,800 | 11 4, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0020311605 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | The Gift of Stones is a story that works on both a micro and a macro level. It is the story of civilization making the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age as seen from the perspective of a few individuals living in a small village of stoneworkers. The villagers are skilled craftsmen; they live comparative... | 5 | A Stone Age voice of conscience | 1,285,113,600 | 09 22, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060126566 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | Stone heads a secret intelligence organization operated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Its function is to infiltrate Russia if the need to do so ever arises. So far, it hasn't. But when Stone debriefs a Russian defector who has offered information about Russia's position at upcoming arms reduction negotiations, he quest... | 4 | Is the defector telling the truth? | 1,285,372,800 | 09 25, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060391189 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Spy Sinker retells the Samson saga (as developed in theGame, Set, and Match trilogyand in the first two books of theHook,Line, and Sinker trilogy) from the points of view of players other than Samson: notably his wife Fiona, the bombastic fellow agent Bret Rensselaer, the Director General Henry Clevemore, and the powe... | 4 | Wrapping up the last five Samson books | 1,286,928,000 | 10 13, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060555513 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | I picked this up at an airport, knowing nothing about the author, on the basis of cover blurbs that promised an absorbing plot. I wasn't expecting much, but the novel kept me engrossed during a four hour flight.Jack Hammond is fired from his job at a law firm for having sex with a client, then hangs out a shingle and s... | 4 | An absorbing thriller | 1,285,113,600 | 09 22, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060555521 | null | [
1,
1
] | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (also published under the title Catch a Falling Spy) is a well crafted spy thriller that incorporates elements of dark comedy with gritty action, suspense, and a noir atmosphere. The characters lack the depth of Bernard Sampson, the star of many of Deighton's later novels, but they are none... | 4 | A well crafted spy thriller | 1,285,113,600 | 09 22, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060931906 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Red Sky at Morning is a coming of age novel, albeit a relatively quiet one. Unlike some of the book's fans, I don't think it has the power or emotional depth of Catcher in the Rye, but then, few novels do. There is some intensity in the conflict between the narrator, 17-year-old Joshua Arnold, and the neighborhood toug... | 4 | A solid 4 stars, but I can't give it 5 | 1,285,200,000 | 09 23, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060938218 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | As music critic Agustin Caban retires, he writes his sexual memoirs, sharing them with a gay editor who is particularly intrigued by Caban's affair with a male pianist. Caban's other encounters are with women, including passionate sex with a celeste player and oral gratification with a French horn player from Menomine... | 4 | Exploring the link between music and sex | 1,284,076,800 | 09 10, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0060971460 | TChris | [
4,
4
] | It took some time, but the characters in The Old Devils--elderly friends in South Wales who spend most of their time discussing the condition of being Welsh--grew on me as I worked my way through the chapters. Amis is a master of dry wit. I'm sure I would have a deeper appreciation of the humor in The Old Devils if I... | 4 | Patience required | 1,285,459,200 | 09 26, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061001430 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Writers of espionage novels are inevitably compared to John Le Carré, particularly if the writer is British. Gerald Seymour's writing style isn't as polished, and the characters in The Running Target lack the multi-layered depth of Le Carré's best characters, but the plot and pace of The Running Target ar... | 5 | Difficult choices in a fascinating novel | 1,301,529,600 | 03 31, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061002070 | null | [
0,
0
] | Catch a Falling Spy (also published under the title Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy) is a well crafted spy thriller that incorporates elements of dark comedy with gritty action, suspense, and a noir atmosphere. The characters lack the depth of Bernard Sampson, the star of many of Deighton's later novels, but they are none... | 4 | A well crafted thriller | 1,285,113,600 | 09 22, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061005304 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | A recon flight returns pictures of something in the Algerian desert that might be an airplane. Because its suspected cargo would be dangerous in the wrong hands, Quiller is dispatched to "take a close look at the bloody thing." And bloody is just what he gets, as one would expect from a Quiller novel. He also battle... | 4 | The fifth Quiller novel | 1,340,841,600 | 06 28, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061015725 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | People are taken over by nanobots. Then it's up to the hero to outwit the nanobots (which shouldn't be difficult since they blow away in a stiff breeze). And that's about it, folks. The plot of Prey is recycled from the endless "people are taken over by aliens" stories that have been around forever. The characters ... | 2 | Ordinary | 1,286,928,000 | 10 13, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061054275 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | In the year 306 of the post-apocalyptic world as Silas Glote knows it, few things are as valuable as the only surviving copy of a Mark Twain novel. How Karik Endine acquiredA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and why he kept its acquisition a secret, is a mystery. An even greater mystery is why Karik bequeat... | 4 | Entertaining, but not McDevitt's best work | 1,328,400,000 | 02 5, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061239496 | TChris | [
7,
8
] | When so many modern novels are about dysfunctional families, why read another one? There are several reasons. Lionel Shriver brings a unique wit to her storytelling. Her tale is fresh and funny. She gives her characters depth but isn't oppressive about it.The "perfectly good family" in question consists of Corlis, ... | 4 | A perfectly good (albeit imperfect) novel | 1,297,814,400 | 02 16, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 006123950X | TChris | [
7,
8
] | Living in "a state of near-permanent shame" and ever fearful of being a burden, Eleanor Merritt tries to please everyone, which of course pleases no one. Wracked with guilt at the poverty she sees in Kenya, Eleanor is a soft touch for anyone who wants to take advantage of her -- and nearly everyone does. Eleanor live... | 4 | Worth reading for the characters | 1,294,790,400 | 01 12, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061458570 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | "More concept than substance, food is the idea of satisfaction, far more powerful than satisfaction itself, which is why diet can exert the sway of religion or political zealotry." But as Pandora Halfdanarson learns, weight loss is a shabby religion: "you could only continue to worship at the altar of comestible restra... | 5 | The national sport (or religion) of dieting (4.5 stars) | 1,370,476,800 | 06 6, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061478768 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | The Good Muslim is the second novel of a trilogy -- something I probably should have known before I began reading this one. Although the novel stands on its own, it makes frequent references to characters and events that would have been more familiar to me had I read A Golden Age first.The novel takes place in Banglade... | 4 | Shining moments | 1,309,046,400 | 06 26, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061535680 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | There are more than 250 reviews ahead of mine so I will dispense with a plot summary. A large number of reviewers are more critical of the novel than I am, perhaps because they took it more seriously than I did. The plot isn't wholly plausible but it's entertaining. The characters don't always behave sensibly but th... | 3 | Fast pace doesn't speed past plot holes | 1,294,617,600 | 01 10, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061572942 | TChris | [
8,
9
] | After Lara, the mother of his child, unexpectedly dies while Pietro is at the beach saving the life of a drowning stranger, Pietro spends his days in his car outside his daughter's school, contemplating the quiet chaos of children spilling out of the building, experiencing an almost euphoric relaxation that has taken t... | 5 | Learning to grieve, learning to live | 1,302,566,400 | 04 12, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061718475 | TChris | [
4,
4
] | Some of the blurbs for Slash and Burn compare Joe Hunter to Jack Reacher. Hunter is like a copy made on a Xerox machine that's out of toner. Lee Childs' Reacher is an action hero who is capable of subtle thought. Matt Hilton's Hunter is about as subtle as a hand grenade.The plot can be summarized in a few words because... | 2 | A remarkably boring killing machine | 1,314,921,600 | 09 2, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061728276 | TChris | [
5,
6
] | Not being a fan of many ghost stories not written by Edgar Allen Poe, I wasn't sure what to expect from The White Devil. Made curious by a description that painted the novel as something more than a horror story, I began reading it with some fear that I might find it too dull to finish. Exactly the opposite occurred. W... | 4 | Appeals to the cerebral more than the primal mind | 1,302,048,000 | 04 6, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 006176910X | TChris | [
8,
8
] | Law Professor Kenji Yoshino majored in English at Harvard before attending Yale Law School. Unsurprisingly, he never lost his love of Shakespeare. In A Thousand Times More Fair, Yoshino explores the oft-considered relationship between beauty and justice -- specifically, what Shakespeare's beautifully written plays can ... | 5 | Beauty and justice | 1,305,244,800 | 05 13, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061780103 | TChris | [
18,
19
] | It may be inevitable that The Sweetness of Tears will be compared toThe Kite Runner(indeed, the advertising on the back cover of my review copy invites that comparison) but the two novels have little in common. While The Kite Runner is a plot-driven novel that has strong characters, The Sweetness of Tears is a charact... | 4 | A flawed novel with something to say | 1,303,171,200 | 04 19, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061782181 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Graham Gage is a PI whose agency does high end work. When his best buddy, international transactions lawyer Jack Burch, is shot, Gage is drawn into a US Attorney's attempt to indict Burch for conspiring with SatTek Industries to launder money. The real conspiracy is something quite different. Some of the other revie... | 3 | Good but convoluted story marred by weak characters | 1,291,161,600 | 12 1, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061782203 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | FBI Agent Michael Hennessey enhanced his career by participating in the arrest of financial mathematician Hani Ibrahim for funneling money to foreign terrorist groups. After leaving the FBI, Hennessey pursued his suspicions that Ibrahim was framed. As the novel begins, Hennessey has arranged a meeting with Fed chair ... | 4 | A better novel than Final Target | 1,292,198,400 | 12 13, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061859362 | TChris | [
14,
15
] | Fire Season chronicles one of the many summers Philip Connors spent as a lookout in the Gila National Forest, sitting alone in a tower, scanning the treetops for smoke. Connors makes the arduous hike to his lookout post every year because "here, amid these mountains, I restore myself and lose myself, knit together my ... | 4 | A tribute to wilderness and isolation | 1,303,257,600 | 04 20, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061926620 | TChris | [
14,
15
] | Jess Walter's stories make me think ofDonald Ray Pollockmixed with a dash ofGeorge Saunders. Many of Walter's Spokane-based characters are on the fringes of society. Walter writes about a homeless philosopher-beggar who, on good days, spends his money on a book instead of booze and asks his group counselor why he can... | 5 | 'Who isn't crazy sometimes?" | 1,360,627,200 | 02 12, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061990515 | TChris | [
7,
8
] | In its penetrating exploration of a suburban couple in an aging marriage, The Slippage seems like a book Jim Harrison would write if Harrison used commas. Like Harrison, Ben Greenman laces his novel with wry humor and editorial observations. For instance: "Mystery was for people whose desire to make life better outw... | 5 | "It all adds up to life" | 1,366,675,200 | 04 23, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0061992321 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | At some point in You Don't Love This Man, Paul asks himself why he even tries to interact with other people. It's a good question because Paul isn't very good at it. Throughout the day that the novel chronicles, Paul antagonizes nearly everyone he meets (and the pattern continues in his memories of past encounters). Th... | 4 | A good book about a difficult man | 1,299,024,000 | 03 2, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062000365 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | This lengthy novel spans the life of a woman named Ei, a woman who eventually thinks of herself as She Who Paints But Does Not Sew (or cook, for that matter). In early nineteenth century Japan, writers and artists are being censored, sometimes arrested. Ei's father, Hokusai, is an artist who barely earns enough to surv... | 3 | She Who Paints But Does Not Sew | 1,321,920,000 | 11 22, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062025074 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Having read two of Steven Gore's Graham Gage novels (one wasentertaining, the otherjust okay), I decided to try his latest Harlan Donnally novel. It convinced me that Gore should stick with Graham Gage.The discovery of Mark Hamlin's naked body hanging from a rope in San Francisco's Fort Point leads retired homicide de... | 2 | The second Harlan Donnally novel | 1,375,315,200 | 08 1, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062049763 | TChris | [
12,
12
] | Phoenix Rising is the first in a series of steampunk novels featuring The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. I'm not a big follower of the steampunk "movement," nor do I go out of my way to read this science fiction subgenre, but this novel sounded even quirkier than most steampunk so I decided to give it a try. It tu... | 3 | Fun but unoriginal | 1,304,121,600 | 04 30, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062065114 | TChris | [
20,
21
] | Tom's father (Curtis Violet) is an aging womanizer who just won the Pulitzer for a short story collection. Tom's mother (Maryanne) ended her own writing career years earlier, despite publishing an acclaimed book of stories that didn't sell, because she believed there couldn't be two writers in a family. Maryanne is t... | 4 | Soapy humor | 1,312,848,000 | 08 9, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062094599 | TChris | [
7,
7
] | Half-angel James Stark (sometimes known as Sandman Slim) is no longer Lucifer, although he still occupies Lucifer's penthouse at Chateau Marmont. Something not quite human wants to buy the Qomrama Om Ya (a weapon that kills gods) from Stark, but Stark doesn't have it. Since the Qomrama can be used to release the Angra ... | 4 | The fifth Sandman Slim novel | 1,375,142,400 | 07 30, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062096974 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | Former cop Seamus "Mac" MacLeary and his wife, former cop Karin Schaeffer, are private detectives in Brooklyn. They need money and, unexpectedly, two cases come along that give them a lift. The wife of a wealthy man in Greenwich, Connecticut hires Mac to find evidence of her husband's affair. Shortly after he takes the... | 4 | The fourth Karin Schaeffer novel | 1,364,256,000 | 03 26, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062112244 | TChris | [
21,
21
] | The theme of The Illusion of Separateness -- the connections among people living in different times and places, and their witting and unwitting dependence upon each other -- is telegraphed by the title. Even when we are apart from the people we know (and from people we don't know), we are not truly separated.Martin is... | 4 | Connections (4.5 stars) | 1,372,118,400 | 06 25, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062125958 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | So in 2051 there's a robot revolution, with all the military robots turning against the humans who once controlled them. A robot apocalypse ensues, the surviving humans who are not held captive take refuge in the woods, and the story follows from that unoriginal premise. Fourteen years later, Kevin and Nick and Cass,... | 3 | Plucky kids take on renegade robots | 1,357,603,200 | 01 8, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 006218363X | TChris | [
60,
69
] | In December 2010, the remains of four young women were found buried in Oak Beach, a community in one of New York's barrier islands. The women all worked as escorts, as did a fifth woman whose body was discovered later. They all disappeared between 2007 and 2010. Arguing that these lost girls do not deserve to be ste... | 4 | The unsolved murders of five marginalized victims | 1,373,328,000 | 07 9, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 006218380X | TChris | [
2,
2
] | Deep Space, the fourth entry in the Star Carrier series, is a solid example of military science fiction. Despite weak characterization, an excess of expository writing, and needless redundancy, Ian Douglas does enough things well to make this novel worth reading. He excels at writing vivid battle scenes. By adding poli... | 4 | The fourth Star Carrier novel | 1,367,280,000 | 04 30, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062197339 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Having quit her jobs in software sales and pole dancing, Genevieve Shipley lives on a barge in a marina on the River Medway, a lifestyle that is more sedate than the one she left behind in London. She throws a party on her barge to show off the current stage of its renovation and wonders why her friend Caddy doesn't ma... | 3 | More chick lit than thriller (3.5 stars) | 1,363,219,200 | 03 14, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062199552 | TChris | [
3,
3
] | The Wonder Bread Summer is a light, amusing coming-of-age story set in the 1980s. Jessica Anya Blau's lean, breezy writing style makes the novel a quick and pleasant read, one that produces smiles and occasional outright laughter.The child of a black-skinned, mixed race father and a half-Chinese mother, Allie is an unl... | 4 | Good girl makes bad decisions | 1,369,699,200 | 05 28, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062208551 | TChris | [
3,
3
] | Yael Azoulay, special envoy to crisis zones for the Secretary General of the United Nations, is in hot water after a memo she wrote, describing a sweetheart deal she negotiated with a genocidal African warlord, is leaked to the press. Because Yael is disgusted with a deal that provided a mass murderer with a suite in a... | 3 | Entertaining plot marred by detached storytelling and dull characters (3.5 stars) | 1,369,785,600 | 05 29, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 006221019X | TChris | [
28,
30
] | The Wasteland Saga is a post-apocalyptic trilogy. The first and best of the novels,The Old Man and the Wasteland, follows a scavenger known as the Old Man as he takes a journey of redemption. Carrying a Hemingway novel and engaging in an internal monologue with the character Santiago from that novel, the Old Man is tes... | 4 | A strong, emotionally resonant post-apocalyptic trilogy | 1,381,968,000 | 10 17, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062213784 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | Is it ever possible to be the person who, as a child, you dreamed of becoming? That's the question that animates The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.Greta experiences "true sadness" when, within a period of months in 1985, her twin brother Felix dies and Nathan, her live-in lover, leaves her for another woman. After ... | 4 | Changing times, changing people | 1,372,464,000 | 06 29, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062219650 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | Scorpion is an all-too-typical thriller hero. Trained in the Rangers and Delta Force (aren't they all?), an operative with the CIA before resigning (don't they all?), now "a freelance agent known only to certain top echelons within the intelligence community," Scorpion has the ability to fire his weapon unerringly whil... | 3 | The fourth Scorpion novel | 1,369,872,000 | 05 30, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062264338 | TChris | [
7,
7
] | In the grand tradition of thrillers that depend upon conspiracy theories, The Abomination serves up a Machiavellian plot involving NATO, the death of Aldo Moro, the Bosnian War, the Mafia, a private army, arms manufacturers, human traffickers, a corrupt Italian prosecutor, and two offshoots of the Catholic Church. Thr... | 4 | First novel of the Carnivia Trilogy | 1,371,600,000 | 06 19, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0062268546 | TChris | [
10,
12
] | Luz Maria Castillo is eleven. She's been in a government facility for a few days with only a deck of Loteria cards from home. Her sister Estrella is hospitalized, in critical condition. Luz feels responsible for Estrella's injury but its cause remains a mystery through most of the novel. Luz refuses to speak. Her ... | 4 | A journal of random memories | 1,373,241,600 | 07 8, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0080068472 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Eleven-year-old Matthew Gore appears to have an inquisitive imaginary friend of uncertain gender named Chocky. Matthew's adoptive parents become concerned when Matthew's teacher reports that Matthew has started doing math in base two instead of base ten. Their concern increases when his art teacher notices a sudden i... | 4 | A suprising "first contact" story | 1,294,185,600 | 01 5, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0091937426 | TChris | [
14,
15
] | The Love Commandos are determined to change India's caste system. Believing that the custom of arranged marriages is detrimental to India, the Love Commandos facilitate marriages between members of disparate classes and religions. Although (as Tarquin Hall points out) India's hierarchy of class is slowly being replaced... | 4 | The fourth Vish Puri novel (4.5 stars) | 1,381,363,200 | 10 10, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0099429799 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | In the first and best of Atonement's three parts, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (a precocious, dramatic, attention-seeking kid) sees her older sister flirting with Robbie Turner, the son of their servant, and imagines that something adult is happening, something she fears and doesn't quite understand. Briony later i... | 4 | Stong start followed by disappointment | 1,294,617,600 | 01 10, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0099445123 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | This thriller feels likeLess Than Zeroset in Aukland, except with a plot. Sam Usher works for a firm that restores data on hard drives. When not working (and sometimes while working), he's getting high. He meets up with a man and woman who are bright, mathematician-scientist types, who also spend their time getting ... | 3 | An Aukland thriller. | 1,281,916,800 | 08 16, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0099458322 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | As of this writing, 212 people have written Amazon reviews of Kafka on the Shore. Why am I bothering to add review 213? Only for the chance to give it the 5 star rating it greatly deserves. Murakami has written a beautiful, moving story about mostly empty people (one is so empty, in fact, he is unable to cast a full... | 5 | Five Fat Stars | 1,284,076,800 | 09 10, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0099461692 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | When we last saw Viktor Zolotaryov (at the end ofDeath and the Penguin), he was fleeing the crime syndicate that threatened his life, leaving Misha, his penguin, in an animal hospital in Kiev. Now on an island near Antarctica, Viktor is offered the opportunity to adopt a new identity. Returning to Kiev, the melanchol... | 5 | A man, a penguin, and fate | 1,322,092,800 | 11 24, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 009951169X | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Three Men in a Boat, first published in 1889, tells the story of George, Harris, and J., who, accompanied by Montmorency (a misbehaving dog), take a boating trip up the Thames. Narrated in the first person by J., the novel is hilarious, touching, and occasionally profound. The humor ranges from dry wit to slapstick as ... | 5 | Comedy, history, philosophy, and beautiful prose | 1,303,084,800 | 04 18, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0099526832 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Most of the absurdly negative reviews of Disgrace on this site complain that it is depressing or disturbing. Yes, at times it is both. So is life. Sometimes we need to find a way to cope with disturbing and depressing events. Sometimes we find a way to heal, at least partially. That's one of the lessons of Coetzee's be... | 5 | A wonderful novel about guilt | 1,284,422,400 | 09 14, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0099558068 | TChris | [
25,
26
] | Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who becomes curious about the hit-and-run death of an unidentified teenage girl. Although the case does not require the services of a forensic anthropologist, Brennan is certain that she's more capable of solving it than the assigned homicide detective. Remarkably, the ... | 3 | A condescending protagonist carries an unbelievable story | 1,377,648,000 | 08 28, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140027203 | TChris | [
11,
11
] | Ellen Sage (an Irish woman living in London) has been separated from George for two years. Their son shuttles between their homes. George is taking their son on a camping trip. Although Ellen turns down George's invitation to accompany them because there will be "nothing to fill the hours of treachery between them,"... | 4 | A lonely woman cast adrift | 1,333,756,800 | 04 7, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140070257 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | The Washington Square Ensemble starts with a few lyrics of a Tom Waits song but the novel is like an extended version of Tom Waits, a story of downtrodden life on the streets, of mislaid hopes and shattered dreams. The sections narrated by the central character, Johnny B., read like a prose version of beat poetry spok... | 4 | The value of friendship | 1,324,080,000 | 12 17, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140074481 | TChris | [
3,
3
] | Oppression is a recurring theme in Coetzee novels, and it is the theme that drives Life and Times of Michael K. While the novel is set in South Africa, it is not explicitly (perhaps not even impliedly) a novel about racial oppression. Rather, Michael is treated as an outsider, as subservient, because he is disfigured... | 5 | An ode to the free and simple life | 1,286,236,800 | 10 5, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140076093 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Is an employee ever promoted on his or her own merit, or is upward mobility always a function of friendship or politics? Kingsley Amis provides a sly, silly, and perceptive answer to that question in his second novel, That Uncertain Feeling.John Lewis would like to be elevated to the position of sub-Librarian, but it i... | 5 | The hapless life of a Welsh librarian | 1,336,262,400 | 05 6, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 014008388X | TChris | [
9,
9
] | This beautifully written, insightful novel focuses on a woman's struggle to understand herself and her marriage during a two week vacation in Majorca. Dane, a journalist, has been married to John, a psychotherapist, for less than a year. Dane describes their marriage as "difficult" in the sense of "challenging." Ind... | 4 | An insightful analysis of an over-analyzed marriage | 1,289,260,800 | 11 9, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140088911 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | There is amusement aplenty in Money--lots of deft touches that bring a chuckle as the story zips along. Unfortunately, the novel suffers from a lack of substance. The points Amis makes about greed and unbridled lifestyles are fairly obvious, the targets of his venom are too easy, and the superficiality of his character... | 3 | Amusing but lacking substance | 1,285,113,600 | 09 22, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140097058 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | I don't know whether In the Country of Last Things is post-apocalyptic in the strict sense of the word. It describes no apocalyptic event, and what people recall of the past is unreliable, the stuff of legend. The unnamed (presumably American) city that is the novel's focus is in a state of decay, seemingly the resul... | 5 | The most interesting question of all | 1,336,780,800 | 05 12, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140122060 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | Paris Trout runs a general store in Cottonwood Point, GA. He's a racist but, more than that, he's violently paranoid and increasingly obsessed with his own fingernail clippings and urine. When a young black man buys a car from him on credit, supposedly purchasing insurance with it, and gets into an accident, Trout won'... | 5 | Exploring (and exposing) a town's complicity | 1,287,014,400 | 10 14, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140131639 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | This novel follows a 9-year-old boy, Kimo, and his friends Golam, Matt, and Hena, on their various journeys and adventures in war-torn African villages over the course of three years. Told from Kimo's point of view, the story is alternately hilarious and tragic -- similar, in that sense and in its poignancy, toWhat Is... | 5 | A life-affirming story filled with humor and tragedy | 1,290,124,800 | 11 19, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140186301 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | Kingsley Amis' first novel is arguably his best and probably his funniest. While Lucky Jim is an amusing send-up of academia, it is also a wicked examination of sexual dynamics as they were evolving in the post-war world of the early 1950s. Amis generates laughs by dishing out example after example of the perennial ina... | 5 | Misbehaving men | 1,349,222,400 | 10 3, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140285539 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | For a very long time I avoided reading The Day of the Triffids because I thought the notion of flesh-eating plants gobbling up the newly-blind population of England would be the literary equivalent ofThe Little Shop of Horrors("Feeeed Meeeeee") -- so awful that it might be funny, but not to be taken seriously. My bad.... | 5 | A masterpiece of post-apocalyptic fiction | 1,291,507,200 | 12 5, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0140442634 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | You don't have to be a scholar of French literature (I'm not) to appreciate Nana. Set in the late 1860's and early 1870's, Zola's novel (the ninth in his Rougon-Macquart series) follows a talentless but beautiful stage actress whose physical charms (which she generously shares with upscale men) make her the talk of Par... | 4 | Skewering superficial society | 1,290,038,400 | 11 18, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 014101010X | null | [
4,
4
] | Some Amazon reviewers don't like a novel unless they admire its characters. Others don't like a novel unless the protagonist is morally pure or at least achieves redemption by the novel's end. As some of the reviews here demonstrate, those readers should bypass Rain Fall. I'm not one of those readers. I recommend R... | 4 | Rainy afternoon reading | 1,293,408,000 | 12 27, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0141183756 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Nabokov displays the full range of his considerable talent in this novel. The story is often quite funny, understated humor occasionally giving way to slapstick as the narrator describes the actions and thoughts of the irascible Panin, whose struggles with the mundane mechanics of existence (travel, employment, noise,... | 4 | Brilliantly ambiguous | 1,282,953,600 | 08 28, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0142004146 | TChris | [
3,
3
] | March Violets is the first in a series of novels featuring Bernhard Gunther, a former member of the Kripo, now a private investigator in Berlin. It is 1936 and Gunther, no fan of the National Socialists, is nostalgic for the carefree Berlin that existed before it began "wearing corsets laced so tight that it could har... | 5 | The first Bernie Gunther novel | 1,368,144,000 | 05 10, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0142422592 | TChris | [
7,
8
] | A Map of Tulsa is both a love story and a coming of age novel. The former is more successful than the latter.Jim Praley is back in Tulsa for the summer, having finished his freshman year of college. He soon finds himself hanging out with Adrienne, the sexually adventurous daughter of a wealthy family. Having dropped ou... | 3 | A coming of age love story | 1,364,342,400 | 03 27, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143026178 | TChris | [
4,
4
] | A black police detective named Ishmael is surprised when a Nairobi taxi driver calls him a white man, but he's as out-of-place in Africa as any other American. Ishmael is chasing clues in the murder of a blonde woman in Madison, Wisconsin's prosperous Maple Bluff neighborhood, where a Kenyan named Joshua Hakizimana cl... | 4 | Serious issues of race blend with an entertaining detective story | 1,316,822,400 | 09 24, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143038214 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | The Sisters is one of the best of Robert Littell's novels, and the best of the four fictional accounts of a certain real world event I've read. The plot is byzantine without being confusing; the complexity is lovely and the pace at which events unfold is perfect. Unlike some of Littell's earlier works, the characters o... | 5 | Great characters in a wonderful story | 1,285,372,800 | 09 25, 2010 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 014311722X | TChris | [
3,
3
] | Puzzling over their differing memories of their lives before arriving in the Village, Lorna (or is her name Liora?) asks: "What is real? Who am I? Do I wake or dream?" Those questions are at the heart of The Prisoner: both the originaltelevision seriesand Thomas Disch's novelization of the cult classic.The televis... | 4 | What is real? A meditation on individuality and free thought | 1,294,876,800 | 01 13, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143119516 | TChris | [
24,
25
] | The White Woman on the Green Bicycle tells a story in four parts. The first takes place in 2006. Written in the third person, it introduces the reader to a married couple, George and Sabine Harwood, both age 75. Originally from the UK, they have lived in Trinidad for fifty years. Their maid's son, Talbot, has been beat... | 3 | Living an expatriate life in Trinidad | 1,303,862,400 | 04 27, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143119826 | TChris | [
44,
50
] | In 2019, the "cure for aging" -- gene therapy -- is legal in only four countries, but immortality can be purchased on the black market. The issue is divisive: gene therapy's opponents use terrorist tactics to attack the black market while protests in favor of legalizing the cure turn ugly. The desire to cheat death ... | 4 | Dystopian humor | 1,314,662,400 | 08 30, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143120700 | TChris | [
5,
5
] | Maggie Hunt was kidnapped at the age of seven by a fellow named Henry Dean. At the age of fourteen she escapes and calls 911. The 911 dispatcher happens to be her father, Ian Hunt, who has recently organized and attended her funeral. Henry recaptures Maggie before she can do more than identify herself to her father,... | 4 | Strong writing barely saves an unoriginal plot | 1,327,017,600 | 01 20, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143120727 | TChris | [
60,
62
] | Field Gray begins in 1954 when Bernie Gunther is persuaded to smuggle a woman out of Cuba. Once they are at sea, Gunther's boat is stopped by an American naval vessel and Gunther is taken into custody. After brief stays (accompanied by beatings) in Gitmo and a military prison in New York, Gunther is rendered to Germa... | 4 | The autobiography of Bernie Gunther | 1,302,739,200 | 04 14, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143120913 | TChris | [
6,
6
] | Leo Curtice -- the solicitor representing Daniel Blake, a twelve-year-old boy accused of brutally murdering Felicity Forbes, an eleven-year-old girl -- has the biggest case of his career. His fifteen-year-old daughter, Ellie, doesn't want her father to take the case, but after spending his career "mopping up the spill... | 4 | Hate trumps humanity | 1,331,078,400 | 03 7, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143121006 | TChris | [
52,
57
] | The mutilated corpse of a foreigner found at the base of Fox Tower on January 8, 1937 posed a special problem for Peking police. The victim was a free-spirited young woman named Pamela Werner. When Pamela wasn't attending school in Tientsin, she lived in Peking with her adoptive father, Edward Werner, a scholar and f... | 5 | A murder that slipped from history | 1,335,312,000 | 04 25, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143121162 | TChris | [
185,
206
] | Some books unfold at a leisurely pace and demand to be read in the same way -- nibbled and savored, the better to prolong the pleasure. Rules of Civility is one of those. It's a throwback novel, the kind in which unashamedly bright characters engage in impossibly witty conversations. The novel takes its name from th... | 5 | The masquerade of civility | 1,311,638,400 | 07 26, 2011 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143121464 | TChris | [
9,
9
] | Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone has the flavor of a horror story, complete with the spectral creatures and gruesome events that fuel legends of the supernatural. Yet the most compelling horror is grounded in truth rather than legend. Stefan Kiesbye's novel addresses the horror of spite and malice, of mob ... | 4 | Horror in Hemmersmoor | 1,348,531,200 | 09 25, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143121529 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | "There was nothing but pain in store for her, yet she cried with happiness and couldn't stop." That sentence, from Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's "A Murky Fate," encapsulates the desperately conflicted women who haunt her bittersweet stories. A woman in Moscow dresses up for New Year's Eve but has nowhere to go. A woman tri... | 4 | Love conquers | 1,365,638,400 | 04 11, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143122274 | TChris | [
15,
16
] | Art and Marion have serious financial and marital problems. After thirty years of marriage, they are returning to Niagra Falls, not for a second honeymoon but for a final hurrah before their bankruptcy and a divorce that they hope will shelter their assets. Art and Marion are not a happy couple. Art views a minor bu... | 4 | The stagnation of marriage | 1,326,931,200 | 01 19, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143122541 | TChris | [
2,
2
] | As academics often do, Sarah Weinman's introduction to this anthology takes a narrow theoretical approach to literature. Oddly, while she tells us that she values modern authors who expose the victimization of women by men, few of the stories she selected for this anthology follow that theme. In several stories, women ... | 4 | Stories about badly behaving women (and a few men) | 1,390,003,200 | 01 18, 2014 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143122673 | TChris | [
6,
7
] | A Dutch woman who introduces herself to people as Emilie rents an isolated house near Caernarfon, Wales, where she ponders Emily Dickinson. She looks out the window at night, recalling a former lover. She thinks about the uncle who once wandered off into a pond and just stood there, half submerged. She wonders about th... | 5 | "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" | 1,361,923,200 | 02 27, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143122843 | TChris | [
0,
0
] | Noir is dark by definition, but Bernie Gunther is at his gloomiest in Prague Fatale. He's coping with the ugly events that marked him in earlier novels. It is 1941 and Bernie is back in Berlin. After harrowing experiences in Belorussia, feeling that he is merely "a blur" of the man he once was, Bernie entertains tho... | 4 | A locked room murder mystery surrounded by a spy novel | 1,376,784,000 | 08 18, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143122924 | TChris | [
7,
7
] | Ghosts are common characters in horror stories, but only a few writers (Toni MorrisonandWilliam Kennedycome to mind) have successfully incorporated ghosts (as real or imagined characters) into literary novels. Although she isn't at the level of either of those two fine authors, Jessica Maria Tuccelli deserves credit f... | 4 | Ghosts, slaves, and history | 1,331,769,600 | 03 15, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143123238 | TChris | [
5,
5
] | Throughout most of the novel, The Silent Wife alternates third person point of view between Todd and Jodi, who have lived together as husband and wife for many years. Jodi is a therapist with a string of degrees. Todd is a real estate developer. He suffers from long-term depression, an affliction he's treating by ha... | 4 | A novel of irony, not suspense | 1,376,179,200 | 08 11, 2013 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143123297 | TChris | [
34,
35
] | Sheriff Walt Longmire is on a reservation in Montana scouting a potential location for his daughter's wedding when a woman plummets to her death from a nearby cliff. Rather miraculously, a baby she is holding survives the fall. Unless the woman committed suicide (and nobody believes she would take her baby with her),... | 4 | The eighth Walt Longmire novel | 1,337,040,000 | 05 15, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143123300 | TChris | [
1,
1
] | A family of four, attacked in their Broken Harbor home. The parents stabbed, the children suffocated. The Murder Squad assignment goes to veteran Dublin detective Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, partnered with rookie detective Richie Curran. Oddities at the crime scene include unexplained holes in the walls, a plethora of bab... | 5 | A police procedural turns into a novel of psychological suspense | 1,343,088,000 | 07 24, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143123327 | TChris | [
17,
21
] | Luanne Rice is a capable writer who specializes in telling stories about family dynamics. The bare bones of a good story are buried deep within Little Night. Sadly, a determined reader will need to dig through contrived situations and weakly developed characters to find it.The prologue begins in 1993 with the arrest ... | 3 | Birds and bogs | 1,338,854,400 | 06 5, 2012 |
A1DLVUJFANNU1Q | 0143123858 | TChris | [
4,
4
] | If, like most viewers, you were wondering "what comes next?" after the screen turned black at the end of the lastSopranosepisode, you can imagine Malavita as the Sopranos sequel. Unfortunate events forced the Blake family to leave Newark, and then to leave Paris, and then to leave the Cote d'Azur before making their w... | 4 | Sequel to The Sopranos? | 1,379,462,400 | 09 18, 2013 |
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