General Literature & Fiction

With his second novel, Khaled Hosseini proves beyond a shadow of doubt that "The Kite Runner" was no flash in the Afghan pan. Once again set in Afghanistan, the story twists and turns its way through the turmoil and chaos that ensued following the...
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It is hard to argue with the central premise of this book, which seems to be that it's tough to be a woman in a patriarchal society, especially one torn by war and chaos. And the history of Afghanistan is a tragic one. Agreed.

But...
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In a backdrop of the Soviet War in Afghanistan, adversaries form an unlikely bond based on a common fate: suffering cruelty at the hands of a man they fear. The story line in Hosseini's second novel is straightforward and contains fewer overly...
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Quite Enjoyable!
Don't miss this book if you like elephants, romace, and want an enjoyable, fun read for summer. In Water for Elephants, the circus big top is highlighted by author Sara Gruen. At the ending, Gruen pulls off a remarkable...
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Having picked up on the positive buzz about this book, I couldn't wait to read it. I'd imagined it would be somehow magical, enchanting - and I could not have been more incorrect in that assumption.

I do give the book two stars, for...
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If you are looking for deep, mind tickling literature, you will not find it here! What you will get, is a bit of entertainment and slight escapism. I'm a little baffled by all the hype. I guess there really is marketing genius in this field and...
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This book is mesmerizing from start to finish. It is the type of book you will not want to put down. This means staying up late or squeezing it in on your lunch hour. Do not miss it.
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while glimpses of a different culture were interesting, the protagonist (at least of the first 100 plus pages - which was all I could read) was such an unpleasant (as well as unhappy) boy, that I just couldn't care what happened to him - and...
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Hassan is slavishly devoted to Amir. The class system is alive and well in Afghanistan and Hassan and his father are members of a detested caste called Hazara. Despite the fact that Hassan and his father are beloved by Amir's father and treated...
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First of all, I own this book on hardcover, becoming a fan of McCarthy shortly after Esquire endorsed another book of his (No Country for Old Men). However, after hearing that Oprah selected it for the book club, I thought about how great it is...
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I thought this book was frustratingly vague. It didn't seem so much a way to force the reader to use his/her imagination as it did more a limited effort on the part of the author to tell a complete, coherent story. The endless descriptions were...
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There have been many reviews on this book, but I'll add my brief thoughts as to what my impression is of this literary work.

The novel takes you on a trip with a man and his son, traveling along a very barren road that goes nowhere...
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Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her long time lover Benton Wesley are called to Rome to work with a team investigating the death of sixteen-year-old tennis star Drew Martin. Her body was left in a prominent location so that her mutilated corpse would be...
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I bought Patricia Cornwell's latest offering with the highest of hopes. Surely she has read the criticisms offered for her last few efforts. Surely she would have worked hard to correct the flaws that so many readers complained of . . .the shift...
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Once again, the forensic detail is what will hook most Scarpetta fans in 'Book of the Dead,' whose title seems descriptive of the inner lives of the characters. Kay Scarpetta's recent relocation to South Carolina, as well as a detour to Rome to...
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In a Chicago ad agency, the era of good feeling that marked most of the second Clinton term seems over. Empty cubicle syndrome frightens much of the staff as employees will be fired. Competition is fierce as symbolism like spots, chairs, and...
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This book quickly became tiresome. I expected the character development to progress through the beginning of the book, but it never did. The writer just didn't make me care too much about the characters. It's too bad, as this is a great concept...
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I dunno. The trivial of peoples' lives is still the trivia of peoples' lives if you dont take them seriously. Which this novel doesnt. It's well-written, of course. Smart, of course. "Ironic" of course. But the distance between the author...
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Not since Borges has a Latin American writer placed literature itself as the central concern of his fiction as Bolano so explicitly and touchingly does in The Savage Detectives. "Life put us all in our place or in the place that suited her, and...
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I really found myself plugging through the early chapters waiting for something to happen and to find the quality that many reviewers seemed to see in this novel. I never did and finally gave up without even finishing the lackluster story.
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But I really could not finish this either. I just wasn't interested enough in the story or the characters to stay with a book of this length. It's like a Mexican beat road trip in the middle -- which is only interesting if you're into that...
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In his latest novel, McEwan once again demonstrates a unique talent for precise examination of the pivotal moments of people's lives, the mostly unmarked, yet critical events that alter the direction of the future. In prose that...
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I fully realize that as I am writing this, I am outnumbered 18-1 in the reviews of this book.

Frankly, I absolutly loathed it.

Florence and Edward don't, for a second, feel like actual human beings. I never saw any...
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Like many of McEwan's books, this one was difficult to hate/difficult to love. Difficult to hate as McEwan is one of the most skillful writers in English right now--he writes sentences that are among the most elegant going. At the same time, it...
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