lindawisniewski

This story of twenty-somethings in New York, affluent yet at a loss as to what to do with their lives, is beautifully written, and definitely thought-provoking. What drives us day after day, what is the moral thread running through our lives, are we even aware of one these days?

For Sophie, Charlie and Max, three close friends trying to make sense of their lives, these are questions as challenging as the questions Job asks of God in the Bible. Charlie's point of view is the most intimate, told in the first person. Other sections, in the third person viewpoints of Sophie and Max, are more distanced from the reader, until we are seeing the denouement through Sophie's eyes. It was challenging to follow the shifts in time. Perhaps a little too much literary artfulness for my taste, distracting from the story itself. I prefer to enter the world of the characters and stay there, empathizing with their struggles.

The prose is polished and some of the sentences are quite beautiful, but after spending hours with a book, I like to feel uplifted. Maybe I missed something, but this one didn't do that for me. I'm disappointed.

This writer really impresses me. She chooses topical, timely and controversial subjects, looks at them from all sides, then reaches a conclusion that is satisfying and complete.
I learned more about wolves than I thought I wanted to, yet she put it in the story within a story of a man who goes to live among them, a technique that kept me spellbound and rooting for the wolves and the man, everyone.
She has written this one from 6 or 7 points of view, although the two young adult children of a man in a coma are the main characters, along with their comatose father, the wolf researcher. Everyone has regrets in this story, and yet she managed to convince this reader it was okay. We're all human, and when we have to, we do go on.

I don't normally read Stephen King, ever since The Shining gave me the willies, but I couldn't resist this one. Writers I know and admire were reading it, so I checked it out of the library. It's a real doorstop at 850 pages, and that is the main objection I have. He could have told this story in fewer pages, in my opinion.
I do like the idea of parallel time strings, harmonizing the past with the present and future, and a reset button for the past. As a writer struggling with a time travel novel of my own, King's craft kept me turning the pages. His trademark creepy stories are a subtle minor key in this overall saga about what happens when we play 'god' and attempt to rewrite the past, for ourselves and the rest of the world.

From start to finish, author PD James remains true to the voice of Jane Austen in her latest novel, Death Comes to Pemberley. It was easy for me as a reader to slip into the rhythm of the more formal language of the early nineteenth century. The settings, customs, dress and mores of the English upper-class in this novel are as fraught with problems as Austen portrayed them over a hundred years ago.

Readers who love Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth will find them equally endearing here. Placing them in the midst of a murder mystery is a welcome twist. There is so much going on and so much for them to attend to, it would be hard to envision any of them also holding a regular job. Austen's humor is accurately transcribed, even in the introduction, when James remarks that could she read this novel, she would declare she would have written a better one.

The plot revolves around a mysterious death in the woods, an illegitimate birth, the ongoing friction among characters met earlier in Austen's Pride in Prejudice, and the hazards and joys of life in the English countryside. It's a good mystery, and a very good story in the grand tradition of both authors.

My husband and I are Sherlock Holmes fans.We have read many of the Conan Doyle books. Anthony Horowitz has done an excellent job of recapturing the author's voice. Beyond that, he took us into the world of Holmes and Watson from a modern sensibility. Like Charles Dickens, he had a particular interest in the lives of the poor and the injustice of British society of the time. Combine that with an engrossing mystery – actually several mysteries – and you have hours of cozy by the fire winter reading.This one was a Christmas gift for my husband I thoroughly enjoyed as well.

An engrossing tale from the point of view of a British high school girl, living in Germany with her family, who encounters the legend of a demon embedded in stained glass. Present day issues like anorexia contribute to the sense of foreboding. Dark forests, an evil priest, a "not normal" older brother of a school friend and suspicious deaths are more than enough for one girl to handle. But handle them she does. The story is a bit melodramatic but I like the way the girl discovers her own strength, and the quiet resolution after everything comes to a violent end. It's not a complex story, but not a bad read either.

Inspired by the story of Nova Scotia’s Goler clan, this novel about poverty and incest in an isolated mountain family shines light on the dark side of the self-described righteous. Author Lauren B. Davis compares and contrasts two families, one shunned and one an integral part of a typical small town.

The socially accepted, God-fearing, righteous people of Gideon have known about ‘the mountain’ and the people who live there for generations, but except for one quiet widow, they do nothing to help. Albert Erskine, one of the mountain clan, longs to free himself from his family’s threats and takes the first step by moving to his own cabin within the family compound. Bobby, a teenage boy set to rebel against the lifestyle of his parents who are obviously unhappy, latches on to Albert as the elder brother he does not have. Bobby’s little sister Ivy confides her troubles to Dorothy Carlisle, a widowed antique shop owner who loves fine literature. Dorothy loves her quiet life but is reluctantly drawn into giving Ivy emotional support and shelter from bullies at school and a motherless home. She is also the one who has brought food and books to ‘the mountain’ for years.

Davis redeems the brutality of her setting with lyrical descriptions of ugly places: “…last night, when the wind whipped the voices around the tree trunks as though lashing them to the bark, when the rain had banged on the doors like tiny fists, when the wet had dripped through the roof like tears and the chill had crept in through the chinks like an orphan.”

Many scenes in the book are brutal, violent and raw, like real life is for many children. Some readers may be put off by this, but the story, though terrifying, grabs hold from the start and will not let go. I had to find out what happened to the characters I liked and cared about, though I grew more afraid for them with every page. All too often, mainstream society turns away from the worst in people, not wanting to look at the ugliness, allowing incest and child abuse to go on for generations.

The friendships between Albert and Bobby, and between Ivy and Dorothy, are parallel threads running straight to the heart-pounding climax. As we suspect, some people do terrible things, some overcome their fears, and love and hope survive. But not before Davis has forced us to look at ourselves and who we call “the others.”

A suburban mom's worst fears come to life: an intruder in her daughter's bedroom! As if you haven't already fantasized this on some level, suburban moms, add panic disorder and a constantly traveling husband, a dark secret in the past...what would you do? Claire Cooper says "Take me instead." and we are off on a page-turning journey to ultimately discover why she offers herself in the place of her child.
This novel brings up questions about motherhood, marriage and self. You will empathize with the regrets, choices and split second decisions Claire makes.
Highly recommended for book clubs, because you will want to talk about this one long into the night!

Lovely essays about writing memoirs and reading them, the writer's life and the worthiness of a life making sense of the ordinary.

This reads like a memoir. Sadly, the author, who I met over several summers at the IWWG women writers conference, died this year of cancer. Her love of life - the good, the bad, the mysterious - shines through in this luminous volume.

Rising above the tide of women's novels, this one is a literary wonder. A pleasure to read each sentence. Characters are realistic, affecting, and moving. You will miss them all when you finish reading this book.

Slow going but very valuable insight into finding life's purpose.

A classic in world literature, if a bit dated.