Diana
I would give it a 3.5 stars. The first half was slow and would have given it 3 stars for that reason. I almost didn't finish it. I'm glad I did. It picked up and ended up being a sweet story. This part of the book I would have given the 4 stars.
This was a book my small group worked through. It was good for the group and challenged us all to think through what we believe and why. I gave it a rating of three stars only because I personally agreed with most of what was written. Still, a good read and thought provoking.
Good food for thought for a struggling “not wanting to be identified as a” Christian.
I know many people didn't enjoy this book because of something that happens late in the story. I don't understand why Alice Sebold wrote it this way, but she did, and it wasn't enough to ruin the book for me.
In fact, there was so much in this book I did like. Although it was a very sad event that sent Susie to heaven, I enjoyed hearing her voice as she lived in her heaven, watching life go on with her friends and family, and even her killer. Don't we all wish we could do something like that; watching someone else's life as a fly on the wall.
I'm looking forward to seeing how they do the book justice in movie form.
A hard book to read. Horrific story. It did a good job of telling the story but I wanted to know WHY. Why was this boy treated so terribly when his brothers were not. I'm moving onto the second book so I'm hoping for some of those answers.
Layered story that touches on the subjects of addiction and suicide with nice character development.
3.5 stars. I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the first book. Although these short stories are very relatable to real life and I do enjoy that.
... a sad state of affairs... and shame on you GR/Amazon.
I will admit that I'm not on GR all that much. Sadly, I don't read as much as I would like and I'm not articulate enough to write good, helpful, lengthy reviews of the few books that I do read. But I love(d) GR because it was a place where I could read honest reviews and even get to know the people that made up this incredible community on a more personal level through what they wrote - whether it was a straight forward review or an off-topic sharing of their heart and/or head.
I am saddened and angry that GR/Amazon has put censorship in this place. And, yes, that's what I feel it is. Others may not, but I do. GR/Amazon not only started this censorship campaign but did it in a way that says, “we don't really care about you or what you think about us.” I guess that's big business-corporate America for you. And we, the peons - the consumers, are supposed to just accept it. Even if we speak up, or protest, or revolt, it usually doesn't put a dent in the situation. I can only hope and pray that this situation might be different, that GR/Amazon hear the voices shouting and pleading and search their own hearts and ask, “what have we done to this community - to ourselves?” I really don't have much faith, though, that this will happen.
So... I'm off to check out booklikes...
Added consequence to this... I will no longer trust the reviews I read here and I will no longer review the books I read. I may not be here much longer.
I'd give it three and a half if I could. There were things I liked about it and I can appreciate an original idea for a book, but it was a little too far fetched for me and by the time I finished, I was disappointed.
Second time reading this and I loved it as much, if not more, as I did the first time I read it. It's such a great story and wonderful characters. I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could.
I would actually give this book three and a half stars. For me, five stars are my absolute favorites and four would be for good reads. This was just below that only because it was hard to read, at least at times.
The vernacular was hard at times as was the subject matter. I'm a realist and feel like Ms. Rowling did a good job of not sugar coating what true life can look like at times. It was just hard, for me, to not get emotional reading about hurting children or abusive parents.
I would actually give this a 4 1/2 stars because I really enjoyed it.
One of my favorite genres is historical fiction and the period I like most is the late 1800s and reading of the early settlers and their journeys west. This book was exactly that. Not only did it depict the hardships of homesteading on the harsh plains of the Colorado territory, but shared a broken love story as well. I was sorry to have to say good bye to the characters who became so real to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. They say that books take you on a journey. Well, Cheryl took me on a journey - not only on the Pacific Crest Trail, but through the recent trial of losing her mother and her life that then spiraled out of control.
I appreciated the way Ms. Strayed wrote, giving enough details about the PCT to keep me interested (even looking at maps and reading more about the trail) but not going overboard with descriptions of the flora and fauna. She also did a good job of weaving the story of her mom and personal life through her walk on the trail and the people she met along the way.
**note: I read the e-book version that included Oprah Winfrey's comments throughout the book. Although I'm an Oprah fan and I enjoyed her comments, there really weren't that many and in the end, I don't really think it was worth it.
I try not to read too many reviews before picking and reading a new book or if I do, not to put too much stock in what those reviews say because in the end, a book one person loves, the next person hates, and visa-versa.
I write that because I'm glad I didn't read some of the reviews written here about this book, especially those who have complained that the author didn't get the historical facts right. Maybe he didn't but in the end - at least to me - it didn't matter.
This is a sweeping story, with a main character but many delightful and insightful added stories, of what life was like in a leper colony on a lush and beautiful, yet secluded, Hawaiian island. It spans Rachel Kalama's life, from when she was embarrassingly and shamefully taken away from her family at the age of seven to her final days as a released survivor of Hansen's disease.
There were a couple of reasons I really enjoyed this book. One was for the factual information it gave me, through fictional characters based on what was, or could have been, real people, about leprosy/Hansen's disease and the colony on Moloka'i. I had very limited knowledge of this disease and the book really opened my eyes to what it would have been like not only physically to live with it, but socially and emotionally. I thought the author did a great job with the character of Rachel as I found her very believable and never contrived. The secondary characters, whether inflicted with this horrible disease or not, gave real depth to the story.
The other reason I enjoyed it is because I'm a cancer survivor and this story had many parallels to what I felt during diagnosis and treatment. Sometimes a person feels isolated by what ever inflictions they encounter - whether real or perceived, no matter how serious or incidental. This story shows us that it's not what inflicts us, it's what we do with our lives while living with the infliction that matters.
My only complaint would be that I wanted to hear more about some of the events that made up Rachel's life, but I understand that the author couldn't linger on any particular one in order to move on with the story. In the end, I felt like I knew Rachel and her community personally. I laughed and I cried and I was sorry to see the story end.
“Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days.”
I totally agree with this quote, which is stated on the book/author's home page. It makes you think about what we take for granted and makes you look at the world through different eyes. I loved the journey this book took me on.
For me, this one is a hard one to rate. I give it 4 stars because the writing is very good and it's an imaginative story. My problem with the story is that it's not my kind of read. Had it been longer, I probably wouldn't have finished it. But I wanted to give Neil Gaiman a try and figured I start off with something shorter.
