All Book Reviews

Palahniuk, Chuck
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

This is one of Chuck Palahniuk's best novels. It's everything you love about any of his other books, but it's nothing you'd expect. It's written in an interview-esque style, detailing the life of Buster "Rant" Casey, one of the most notorious and mysterious serial killers. It's funny, it's shocking, it's utterly mind-blowing. One of those novels you'd hate to ever put down.

Reviewer's Name: Cassie
Sakurakōji, Kanoko
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

the black bird series has fifteen books so far and they are really good i have read them over and over again. the sixteenth one is coming out on may 7th. i would suggets reading them if you like romance.

Reviewer's Name: Cecilia
Burpo, Todd
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Good.

Reviewer's Name: Kim
Durbin, Frederic S.
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

I first read The Star Shard in my sister's Cricket magazines. It was a ten part issue with fantastic drawings and a writing style so unlike what I had read in the other short stories in Cricket. We couldn't wait till the next issues came out. Then a year or so later when we heard it was being made into a book, we bought it right away. It was even better than what we saw in the magazine.

The story is about a young girl named Cymbril who lives on a massive moving city-like wagon, called the Thunder Rake, where she is enslaved to a rich man named Rombil. As the Rake moves from town to town, she must sing at the markets to attract customers and gain money for her master. Since she is Rombil's slave and even her clothes are owned by him, her only true possessions are beautiful hair clip from her mother and a smooth turquoise stone from her father. When Rombil one day buys another slave named Loric, her life is changed. She finds that Loric is one of the Fae, a race of elvish magical people. Loric tells her that she is half-Fae and even her hair clip and stone have magical properties. Her stone is a fragment of a star that fell in Fae lands. Now, with this knowledge in her mind and her parent's gifts close, Cymbril promises herself that she will sacrifice everything to grant she and Loric freedom.

Although not too well known, I ask that you give this book a try. You will be surprised. It is a very charming and beautiful book.

Reviewer's Name: Margaret
Genres:
Hainey, Michael
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

I heard about this book from my cousin who read it in her book club. It is one of the best books I read all year. I wish I was a faster reader but I managed to finish it all the way to the end. You know exactly what the author is thinking. Its a great book!

Reviewer's Name: Karen
Lancaster, Jen
2 stars = Meh
Review:

It was okay. The author kind of annoyed me with all the cutsie footnotes. But I did read it fast and it did remind me of a friend of mine, so there's that.

Reviewer's Name: vfranklyn
Sedaris, David
3 stars = Pretty Good
Review:

This was a good way to be distracted on my runs. I didn't find it to be laugh-out-loud funny, but it was somewhat engaging, which is good enough for my needs.

Reviewer's Name: vfranklyn
Genres:
Semple, Maria
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Not bad. I liked Bernadette and Bee's voices. I also liked that while Bernadette seemed unhinged, she really just needed something spectacular to create in order to function. I liked how the author resolved that need. I'm not familiar with Seattle or Microsoft, but the book made me feel like I was there. I liked that Audrey was not a two dimensional character. Overall, I enjoyed the book

Reviewer's Name: vfranklyn
Genres:
Dikkers, Scott
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Very funny, especially on eAudio. I liked the Luxembourg section the best but they were all good.

Reviewer's Name: vfranklyn
Handler, Chelsea
3 stars = Pretty Good
Review:

Let me just say that I cannot understand why anyone would want to work for Chelsea Handler. My God, I'd be in hell. It was entertaining but not hilarious until the chapter about Standards and Practices and the chapter written by her dog. This makes me want to read another book by Chelsea herself. This one was written by her cronies.

Reviewer's Name: vfranklyn
Genres:
Hiaasen, Carl
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

I really enjoyed this book. It was textbook Hiaasen, which is a good thing. It's aimed toward younger readers and I plan to give it to my nephew for his birthday.

Reviewer's Name: vfranklyn
Landy, Derek
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

Skulduggery Pleasant throws you into a magical universe where the classic fight between good verses evil is exercised. Thrown into a new world, Stephanie learns to adapt and explore magic with the help of her mentor Skulduggery Pleasant, a dry humor irish detective skeleton.
It's simplistic enough that a 12 yr old can understand but advanced enough for a teenager to enjoy as well. Kept me laughing all the way.

Reviewer's Name: Kyoya
Genres:
Yep, Laurence
2 stars = Meh
Review:

It was alright- especially in the beginning. I thought that is was interesting with all the fantasy with San Francisco a few decades ago. The main characters have to go and leave San Francisco after they are attacked and travel across the sea to avenge the deaths of certain people who were very important in their lives. They are attacked even more and come up against a lot of roadblocks. Laurence Yep incorporated a Hawaiian goddess who was crazy and nice. Yet, I thought the story was just a little undeveloped, maybe because it was the first book in a trilogy. I felt like it was trying to wrap up everything while introducing new ideas and plot twists at the same time. I didn't connect with the book, but that it just my opinion. It is good for the ages eleven to twelve or thirteen.

Reviewer's Name: Carli
Lewis, C. S.
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

Favorite book EVER! Great characters! Good, good, good! Great story, characters, and moral. Great fantasy mixed with our world and putting the Bible retold into it. Amazing story, good for all ages.

Reviewer's Name: Carli
Haddix, Margaret Peterson
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

One of my favorite books of all time! Great characters with good development. A very interesting story line with lots of bumps and twists and turns. Good for all ages, from ten to adults in my opinion. But it is in a series of books and is near the end of the series, so reading it without the other books would definitely put a damper on how good it is. But really amazing book!

Reviewer's Name: Carli
Genres:
Collins, Suzanne
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Great book! I made me cry. Exciting and interesting, it really was good. The catch is that it is in a series of books, so it wouldn't be good unless you have read the first two books. But overall, it was good and the characters were very well written.

Reviewer's Name: Carli
Torday, Paul
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

After having seen the movie, I really appreciated the format of the book. It is written in interview, press release style. So you're only seeing what each character is thinking at a time. The premise is so far-fetched but you begin to really believe it can happen after hearing the thoughts of the main character Dr. Jones and the Sheikh who wants to do the project. There is also the human interest of the relationships between Dr.Jones and his wife Mary and Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, who represents the Sheikh, and her boyfriend who has gone to Afghanistan.

Reviewer's Name: Patricia
Genres:
Ackerman, Diane
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

The Zookeeper's Wife: A war story by Diane Ackerman tells the story
of Polish zookeepers, Jan and Antonina Zabinski and how they saved 300 Jews in the middle of occupied Warsaw in WWII. It is a remarkable story of imagination and fierce resistance, as the Zabinskis harbored Jews in their home and on their zoo grounds, with Nazis all around them. Antonina was especially concerned that the Jews not merely survive but survive with their humanity in tact--at night the house was full of art and music for the hidden Jews. Because Diane Ackerman is the writer of this tale, she draws upon her work as a naturalist to explore the relationship between animals and humans and to explore the odd fascination that the Nazis had with questions of "pure" and "aryan" animals, which the Zabinskis exploited to gain access to
the Jewish ghettos, where they took out Jews and brought in food. A fascinating, bizarre tale. This is a perfect book for book clubs: the questions raised are many and heady.

Reviewer's Name: Roger
Lansing, Alfred
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

An incredible true story that details the leadership, skills and experience of Ernest Shackleton and his crew as they survive daunting odds and extreme misery while attempting to cross Antarctica. While the book starts a bit slowly, a few chapters in it is near impossible to set down. It reminds us of the endless capability of man to survive in situations where death seems to be the only option available.

Reviewer's Name: Greg
Kurland, Lynn
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

If you enjoy historical romance that's more about the relationship and the time period than the bedroom scenes, this is a fabulous book! Part of Lynn Kurland's paranormal romance series with the MacLeods and the DePiagets, this is a fun, light-hearted time travel experience. Jennifer is a 21st century girl who ends up in 1229 England, and lives to tell about it!

Reviewer's Name: Deb