Rate and review the last book you read

[xhanax315]

10/10 The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
This book was brutual, even more so than Rage. One hundred boys volunteer to take the long walk and in the end only one survives.

[HPitty23]

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht-- 5.5/10

I was not a fan of the book in the slightest. While the author is extraordinarily talented, truly, it just didn't pack as powerful as a punch as it could have. There are long, wonderful, detailed descriptions of the surroundings, and complete histories of these minor characters that felt, to me, like old folk tales, but they were also, for the most part, completely unnecessary. More often than not, I found myself wanting to just skip past those sections and get to the plot. I loved the stories about the tiger's wife and the deathless man, and I would have been content with an entire novel just about those two things. I also found myself more attached to the animals in the story rather than the people, but that may just be because I'm an animal lover.

[BublGumPnkHar]

Slide by Jill Hathaway [YA] 9/10

This a better book for young people as they will relate better to our heroine and her situations, but it still is a good read and a not-easily-solved mystery.

[MHPFAN]

About That Night by Julie James 9/10

Super cute romance about an ex-con and Assistant US Attorney who fall in love one night nine years before. As fate would have it, they are reunited and angst ensues. Dialogue is funny, smart, and sweet. Very fun book.

[RikuStark]

Sunshine by Robin McKinley. 9.5/10 One of my favorite books! The details in this story are great.

[yorkiedoodle]

The Small Hand - Susan Hill

Having read The Woman in Black in January I when I spotted this in my local library I thought I'd give it a go!

Like Woman In Black it's short - 204 pages and I duly read it within 24 hours. It's good - the scene is set well and you know that the main character will go back once he's had his first encounter with the child...

I had sort of second guessed the ending, though......

I thought it was well written - I'd give it 8/10.

[xhanax315]

8/10 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin

[yorkiedoodle]

Sebastian Faulkes - A Week in December

A book containing many characters ( a number of them are fairly repulsive) set in London over the course of a week building up to an 'event.'

This is my book group read for April and I was unsure as to whether I would enjoy it. I normally don't like reading books where I don't like a number of the characters, but I kept on till the end with this one - I wanted to see what happened to them.....

I found the end disappointing and a bit of a let down.

One of the main characters is a banker in the City of London - there was an awful lot of detail about this character's deals and actions which I found very confusing...

I give it 7/10

[MmeBergerac]

The Travels of Marco Polo 6.5/10

It's not that I didn't like the book, just that it's no in my style. Anyway, it's very interesting, nowadays that you can travel all around the world in a matter of hours, reading about journeys of years and provinces that took months to get through. It gives you some perspective.

[Yoana]

Catching Fire I gave it 3/5. My review from Goodreads:

This one falls short of the first book, I think. It's unevenly paced, it feels more like a patchwork of separate stories and leaves the impression of dragging the narrative a bit. The characters are two-dimensional, but that's not new, and in a sense it works better because you have more room to fill them out. The style is annoying, but the plot and suspense make up for it.

My biggest gripe was believability. I know it's dystopic, but it still has to have some semblance to how humans operate. They seem pretty normal by real-world standards - they love their family and friends, have a concept of compassion and decency, recognise cruelty and oppression, etc.

Spoiler: show

So it's a little too hard to believe that so many people, and resilient, determined people at that, seeing as they won their respective Games, would actually go in willing to literally die in the name of a rebellion which they will not benefit from (as they'd be dead). I think that runs contrary to human nature. Willing to give your life for a cause is not literally offing yourself altruistically for the future generations - most of the time it's going into battle knowing there's a huge risk to your life, but also having hope that this risk would yield the desired result of making a positive change for yourself, and living to see it. People don't just go into death en masse for the other people. That was a bit more than I'm able to suspend my disbelief.

[HPitty23]

Hamlet, by none other than Shakespeare, of course. 9.5/10

I am a serious Hamlet fan, and re-reading this just made me think and ponder morality and justice and duty all over again. Any book that can make me think deeply about life is a great book, in my opinion.

[yorkiedoodle]

Before the Poison - Peter Robinson.

This is a stand alone novel by the author of the Inspector Banks novels.

Chris, a composer of film scores, moves back to Yorkshire after the death of his wife. He buys a remote house and later discovers that a previous owner died there and there was then a local scandal when the deceased man's wife was tried, convicted and executed for his murder.

Chris decides to find out more.........

Peter Robinson knows Yorkshire very well and it shows in his writing - he captures the beauty and the isolation brilliantly. I think the story works very well and I read it very quickly.

A really good read - I'd give it 8.5/10.

[snugglepot]

Originally Posted by yorkiedoodle

Before the Poison - Peter Robinson.

This is a stand alone novel by the author of the Inspector Banks novels.

Chris, a composer of film scores, moves back to Yorkshire after the death of his wife. He buys a remote house and later discovers that a previous owner died there and there was then a local scandal when the deceased man's wife was tried, convicted and executed for his murder.

Chris decides to find out more.........

Peter Robinson knows Yorkshire very well and it shows in his writing - he captures the beauty and the isolation brilliantly. I think the story works very well and I read it very quickly.


A really good read - I'd give it 8.5/10.

I read this. It was really good. I love all Peter Robinson's books.

[yorkiedoodle]

glad you enjoyed it too snugglepot!

[snugglepot]

Originally Posted by yorkiedoodle

glad you enjoyed it too snugglepot!

I bought it for myself for Christmas.

I love the way Peter Robinson writes, especially when he weaves the narrative between different time periods. The first of his books I read was "In a Dry Season". and I was immediatly hooked and began reading all the others.
He does it again in the book about the rock star who died in the swimming pool. I can't remember the title right now, but it went from the 60s and back to the present.

I can't wait till his next book.

[HPitty23]

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. 7.5/10

I loved all the thematic issues here in this play, but I felt like everything happened far too quickly. There was so much action in such a short amount of time. And personally, I wasn't a fan of the character development of Nora, especially in the end (mainly because it was such a sudden snap change) though I did enjoy reading the work as a whole.

[GrangerHermione]

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
10/10

A brilliantly written novel. The author has a unique style that makes everything about her writing seem illuminating and ingenious. Intriguing characterization and themes of altruism versus egoism, creator versus parasite, individual versus collectivism. Made me feel smart just have have read it. I don't agree with all of its philosophies, but they are interesting to ponder for a little while.

I read it for a scholarship contest, and I just submitted my essay! Hope I do well and that I didn't do all that reading and analyzing and writing for nothing...

[RikuStark]

9.5/10 for A Game of Thrones!

Great characters, great story, and great pace. The POV switch for each chapter is great. It's hard to hate any character for each of those POVs, but if you find one storyline particularly boring you don't have to read about it too long because it goes to a different character in a different place.

[Fawkesfan1]

The Hunger Games -- 8/10

Better than I thought it would be. The characters' aren't the most three dimensional, but the pacing and the story itself make up for it.

Catching Fire -- 8/10

Pretty good sequel. Better than I thought it would be, even though there are some uneven parts in it.

Mockingjay -- 7/10

Good finale. The fighting parts could get somewhat wearing, but otherwise a decent book.

[SopophorousBean]

Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton. I'd been wanting to read this as soon as I realised the author had a second book out. Her last book "Sister" was brilliant and so I was really pleased when I found this one cheap. It's a really gripping story, and great writing, I loved it! Just as gripping and unpredictable as her first book and I just love her style. Great story and really interesting characters. 5/5