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by Anna Maxted
ISBN: 0452288517
Binding/Media: Paperback - 368 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. This is a previously unread copy pulled from our store shelves. It is rated as like new because it may have light shelf wear.
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Customer Reviews
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Highly Derivative
Rating  (2)
Date: 2010-04-21
After reading "Getting Over It," I was deeply impressed with Anna Maxted, and thought that her super-stardom in the literary world was assured. Here was a writer who could tackle emotional troubles (in the case of "Getting Over It," a woman who cannot cope with her relationship with her father, and thus with her lover) with poignancy and humor; Ms. Maxted wrote so fluently as to seem effortlessly. After this sparkling debut, Anna Maxted has suffered from best-selling author syndrome: nothing to write about so write again that first best-selling novel. To say that "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a carbon copy of "Getting Over It" is to flatter it; it is a back carbon copy. The plot is trivial, and the writing, while fluent and polished, is sprawling and shallow. If readers have not done so already they must read "Getting Over It," and be astonished at how such a talented and perceptive writer could become so careless and apathetic.
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An Ok Reflection of Sisters
Rating  (3)
Date: 2009-07-08
I agree that A Tale of Two Sisters is not the normal Maxted style. It lacks the flair and outwardly hilarious moments that her others did. However, this is not an entirely bad thing.
Maxted creates characters that I love. Cassie is younger, prettier, more career-oriented, and "harder" in that she doesn't show her emotions. Lizbet is older, average looking, but really happy no matter what her situation is, care-free and very emotional. They are almost nearly completely opposites- which is normal in many sister relationships.
While reading, you watch Cassie soften and discover herself through relationship turmoil, and learning to be supportive of her family members regardless of her opionion on their decisions. We also watch Lizbet lose herself after an awful event that tears her apart. We watch both girls totally change their personalitlies in order to help the other sister through her life- which is very similar to what real sisters do. We alter and change ourselves to help when we can, without completely losing the "gut" of our being.
The reason this is a three instead of a four or five star book is because the book was a bit... slow. There were a lot of events that happened, yes, but there was also a lot of self-inflection that came off as whiny sometimes. Maybe that was Maxted's intent? To make the reader see what Lizbet and/or Cassie was doing wrong so that we don't do it ourselves? Regardless, it was a bit annoying to read those parts.
I also had a hard time switching back and forth between Lizbet and Cassie's stories. The chapters weren't evenly broken up and at times it was hard to re-register my brain to follow that it was "Cassie" speaking now, or "Lizbet" speaking now. I almost wished it was told in third person all together, so that the separation of the two stories wouldn't be necessary.
A Tale of Two Sistes was a very good read. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. It wasn't as funny as Maxted's other books, but there was a certain seriousness that carried through the book that actually gave it more depth. I enjoyed it.
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A Tale of Two Sisters
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-12-19
Although i found this book to be slow in the beging, it got better and was realist, i have a sister and we both think of eachother the way the Charaters Cassie and Lizbit do.
it is both a sad and funny book and my favortie part is when Lizbit gets her job at her magizine. (VERY FUNNY!) i love all of Anna Maxted's books and this one brings you in, although you have to keep reading it to really like it.
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I had never read Maxted,
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-05-02
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
and this book really took me by surprise. In the first chapter, I was already laughing out loud. I will definitely read it again, and now I'm reading her others--but this one is still, by far, my favorite.
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A Tale of Two Sisters
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-02-07
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I had picked up "Running in Heels" first but to be honest, I did not finish that novel. It was such a whiny self-absorbed novel that I couldn't finish that one simply because I have way too many other books to read. I picked up this one and while it is better than "Running in Heels," it is still just an ok book. I love reading chick lit and I love reading about the complicated relationships between sisters and their mother. This one fits the bill but it was not as funny as I had hoped for. In fact, it was downright depressing. But it did the trick of keeping me entertained.
This is a tale of two sisters, Cassie and Lizabet. Cassie is in a marriage to a man she secretly loathed. Lizabet is in a relationship with a man whom the world revolved around. Things came to a head when Lizabet had a miscarriage and all the resentments, secrets and everything else spills out on the pages. Together or apart, these two sisters must rebuild their lives again, even when Cassie gets pregnant unexpectedly and that threatened their relationship with each other. This is a tale of two sisters that decided that family comes first.
It is an entertaining novel, but not all that funny nor delightful. It felt like it was a put down on motherhood in general and on sisterhood as well. It could depend on my mood too. I am not saying that it's bad writing, it's just not what I expected.
2/7/08
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by Anna Maxted
ISBN: 0452288517
Binding/Media: Paperback - 368 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. This is a previously unread copy pulled from our store shelves. It is rated as like new because it may have light shelf wear.
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Customer Reviews
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Highly Derivative
Rating (2)
Date: 2010-04-21
After reading "Getting Over It," I was deeply impressed with Anna Maxted, and thought that her super-stardom in the literary world was assured. Here was a writer who could tackle emotional troubles (in the case of "Getting Over It," a woman who cannot cope with her relationship with her father, and thus with her lover) with poignancy and humor; Ms. Maxted wrote so fluently as to seem effortlessly. After this sparkling debut, Anna Maxted has suffered from best-selling author syndrome: nothing to write about so write again that first best-selling novel. To say that "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a carbon copy of "Getting Over It" is to flatter it; it is a back carbon copy. The plot is trivial, and the writing, while fluent and polished, is sprawling and shallow. If readers have not done so already they must read "Getting Over It," and be astonished at how such a talented and perceptive writer could become so careless and apathetic.
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An Ok Reflection of Sisters
Rating (3)
Date: 2009-07-08
I agree that A Tale of Two Sisters is not the normal Maxted style. It lacks the flair and outwardly hilarious moments that her others did. However, this is not an entirely bad thing.
Maxted creates characters that I love. Cassie is younger, prettier, more career-oriented, and "harder" in that she doesn't show her emotions. Lizbet is older, average looking, but really happy no matter what her situation is, care-free and very emotional. They are almost nearly completely opposites- which is normal in many sister relationships.
While reading, you watch Cassie soften and discover herself through relationship turmoil, and learning to be supportive of her family members regardless of her opionion on their decisions. We also watch Lizbet lose herself after an awful event that tears her apart. We watch both girls totally change their personalitlies in order to help the other sister through her life- which is very similar to what real sisters do. We alter and change ourselves to help when we can, without completely losing the "gut" of our being.
The reason this is a three instead of a four or five star book is because the book was a bit... slow. There were a lot of events that happened, yes, but there was also a lot of self-inflection that came off as whiny sometimes. Maybe that was Maxted's intent? To make the reader see what Lizbet and/or Cassie was doing wrong so that we don't do it ourselves? Regardless, it was a bit annoying to read those parts.
I also had a hard time switching back and forth between Lizbet and Cassie's stories. The chapters weren't evenly broken up and at times it was hard to re-register my brain to follow that it was "Cassie" speaking now, or "Lizbet" speaking now. I almost wished it was told in third person all together, so that the separation of the two stories wouldn't be necessary.
A Tale of Two Sistes was a very good read. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. It wasn't as funny as Maxted's other books, but there was a certain seriousness that carried through the book that actually gave it more depth. I enjoyed it.
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A Tale of Two Sisters
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-12-19
Although i found this book to be slow in the beging, it got better and was realist, i have a sister and we both think of eachother the way the Charaters Cassie and Lizbit do.
it is both a sad and funny book and my favortie part is when Lizbit gets her job at her magizine. (VERY FUNNY!) i love all of Anna Maxted's books and this one brings you in, although you have to keep reading it to really like it.
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I had never read Maxted,
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-05-02
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
and this book really took me by surprise. In the first chapter, I was already laughing out loud. I will definitely read it again, and now I'm reading her others--but this one is still, by far, my favorite.
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A Tale of Two Sisters
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-02-07
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I had picked up "Running in Heels" first but to be honest, I did not finish that novel. It was such a whiny self-absorbed novel that I couldn't finish that one simply because I have way too many other books to read. I picked up this one and while it is better than "Running in Heels," it is still just an ok book. I love reading chick lit and I love reading about the complicated relationships between sisters and their mother. This one fits the bill but it was not as funny as I had hoped for. In fact, it was downright depressing. But it did the trick of keeping me entertained.
This is a tale of two sisters, Cassie and Lizabet. Cassie is in a marriage to a man she secretly loathed. Lizabet is in a relationship with a man whom the world revolved around. Things came to a head when Lizabet had a miscarriage and all the resentments, secrets and everything else spills out on the pages. Together or apart, these two sisters must rebuild their lives again, even when Cassie gets pregnant unexpectedly and that threatened their relationship with each other. This is a tale of two sisters that decided that family comes first.
It is an entertaining novel, but not all that funny nor delightful. It felt like it was a put down on motherhood in general and on sisterhood as well. It could depend on my mood too. I am not saying that it's bad writing, it's just not what I expected.
2/7/08
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by Jane Smiley
ISBN: 0449907481
Binding/Media: Paperback - 400 pages
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Sold with pride. No writing, no highlighting. Copy in very good condition with minimal reading wear.
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Customer Reviews
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Not my cup of tea
Rating (3)
Date: 2010-07-16
I couldn't get into this book. I'm not sure if it was just timing on my part or the subject matter. Didn't keep my interest at all.
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Well-written but not satisfying
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-06-27
I really wanted to try something by Jane Smiley. I chose A Thousand Acres not because of it's setting or plot summary -- an Iowa farm in 1979 didn't appeal to me at all -- but because so many reviewers commented that this was her best book and because it won a Pullitzer Prize. Has to be good, right?
I finished the book with mixed feelings. That Smiley is a skilled writer is without doubt. Hers is a literary style that probes the complexities of human feelings and relationships with deftness. She made the many mundane details of life on a farm engrossing, which is no small feat.
This is a book loosely based on Shakespeare's King Lear, so it is no spoiler to say that it is about a dysfunctional family and how they self-destruct. There are no happy endings here, although Smiley ends her book in a less tragic way that Shakespeare did. Shakespeare's tragedies always end with all or nearly all the characters lying dead on the stage; in A Thousand Acres, all but two of the main characters survive to the end.
The book opens with patriarch Larry Cook announcing that he wants to retire and turn his 1,000-acre farm over to his three daughters and their husbands. This seemingly harmless announcement serves as a catalyst that sets this damaged family on the path to self-destruction. From the beginning there are undercurrents running all around the characters, and through their dialog and actions. Smiley deftly peels away the layers of the relationships, bringing these undercurrents to the surface as they sweep over the cast of characters in a flood.
This book delves into topics that I normally avoid reading about; it is only due to Smiley's subtle treatment of them, never descending into sordidness, that I stuck with the book. That, and the fact that I knew it was a re-telling of a Shakespearean tale. Had I thought this was a plot she made up herself and wrote just because I would not have finished the book. But knowing that she was re-telling Shakespeare's plot in a modern setting made it more palatable to me. That being said, the language and depiction of sex in the book was at the very limit of what I will tolerate. To many if not most people it would probably be mild. However, I mention it for others who are highly-sensitive to those issues as I am.
What was most dissatisfying to me about this book were the several elements that Smiley worked into the story, made them feel like they were going to be significant to the plot, even, but then never really "answered" or "explained." This made them feel like teasers. I don't want to get specific as to what those elements were, as that would probably be a spoiler for those who haven't read the book. However, I was unhappy that some questions were left unresolved.
In the end, this is a book about senseless evil and tragedy. I was left asking why? Nobody won, nobody lost, so what was the point in it all? I felt the same way after reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle last year (which is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare's Hamlet), so now I wonder if perhaps this is a characteristic of Shakespeare's tragedies. He evokes evil just for evil's sake, and the modern authors don't seek to supply reasons for it, as that could be construed as tramping on the Bard's sacred works. ?? Just a thought....
In spite of the fact that I was left feeling so dissatisfied at the end of this book, I am giving it four stars. Smiley's writing is so skilled, so good, that I can't give it any less.
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Pleasantly Surprised
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-06-12
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. It kept my attention and I liked the twists and turns of the story. A few parts of the book were long-winded and didn't really serve a purpose (do I really need a detailed list of the items stored in the barn? "a hammer, a band saw, some c-clamps, a spare axe handle, some tarps..." yawn!). Nevertheless, I found it hard to put down, which is the true test of a book. I'm going to rent the movie to see how similar it is.
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Lifetime Movie Time
Rating (2)
Date: 2010-05-01
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Started out as a good idea, I supposed, to update "King Lear" to Iowa. But I found the book about as deep as a soap opera, and the language unremarkable. I promised to read it for a friend, and about a third through lost all interest and had to force myself to finish it. I expected more from a Pulitzer awarded novel.
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Longwinded boredom.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2010-01-16
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
By the time the author got all the characters onstage I no longer cared about them. The characters were flat instead of fleshed out with something about them to interest the reader. This overblown retelling of King Lear only manages to recommend reading the original, and that is the only thing that recommends this novel.
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by Jane Smiley
ISBN: 0449907481
Binding/Media: Paperback - 400 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. Gently read copy in like new condition.
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Customer Reviews
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Not my cup of tea
Rating (3)
Date: 2010-07-16
I couldn't get into this book. I'm not sure if it was just timing on my part or the subject matter. Didn't keep my interest at all.
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Well-written but not satisfying
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-06-27
I really wanted to try something by Jane Smiley. I chose A Thousand Acres not because of it's setting or plot summary -- an Iowa farm in 1979 didn't appeal to me at all -- but because so many reviewers commented that this was her best book and because it won a Pullitzer Prize. Has to be good, right?
I finished the book with mixed feelings. That Smiley is a skilled writer is without doubt. Hers is a literary style that probes the complexities of human feelings and relationships with deftness. She made the many mundane details of life on a farm engrossing, which is no small feat.
This is a book loosely based on Shakespeare's King Lear, so it is no spoiler to say that it is about a dysfunctional family and how they self-destruct. There are no happy endings here, although Smiley ends her book in a less tragic way that Shakespeare did. Shakespeare's tragedies always end with all or nearly all the characters lying dead on the stage; in A Thousand Acres, all but two of the main characters survive to the end.
The book opens with patriarch Larry Cook announcing that he wants to retire and turn his 1,000-acre farm over to his three daughters and their husbands. This seemingly harmless announcement serves as a catalyst that sets this damaged family on the path to self-destruction. From the beginning there are undercurrents running all around the characters, and through their dialog and actions. Smiley deftly peels away the layers of the relationships, bringing these undercurrents to the surface as they sweep over the cast of characters in a flood.
This book delves into topics that I normally avoid reading about; it is only due to Smiley's subtle treatment of them, never descending into sordidness, that I stuck with the book. That, and the fact that I knew it was a re-telling of a Shakespearean tale. Had I thought this was a plot she made up herself and wrote just because I would not have finished the book. But knowing that she was re-telling Shakespeare's plot in a modern setting made it more palatable to me. That being said, the language and depiction of sex in the book was at the very limit of what I will tolerate. To many if not most people it would probably be mild. However, I mention it for others who are highly-sensitive to those issues as I am.
What was most dissatisfying to me about this book were the several elements that Smiley worked into the story, made them feel like they were going to be significant to the plot, even, but then never really "answered" or "explained." This made them feel like teasers. I don't want to get specific as to what those elements were, as that would probably be a spoiler for those who haven't read the book. However, I was unhappy that some questions were left unresolved.
In the end, this is a book about senseless evil and tragedy. I was left asking why? Nobody won, nobody lost, so what was the point in it all? I felt the same way after reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle last year (which is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare's Hamlet), so now I wonder if perhaps this is a characteristic of Shakespeare's tragedies. He evokes evil just for evil's sake, and the modern authors don't seek to supply reasons for it, as that could be construed as tramping on the Bard's sacred works. ?? Just a thought....
In spite of the fact that I was left feeling so dissatisfied at the end of this book, I am giving it four stars. Smiley's writing is so skilled, so good, that I can't give it any less.
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Pleasantly Surprised
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-06-12
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. It kept my attention and I liked the twists and turns of the story. A few parts of the book were long-winded and didn't really serve a purpose (do I really need a detailed list of the items stored in the barn? "a hammer, a band saw, some c-clamps, a spare axe handle, some tarps..." yawn!). Nevertheless, I found it hard to put down, which is the true test of a book. I'm going to rent the movie to see how similar it is.
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Lifetime Movie Time
Rating (2)
Date: 2010-05-01
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Started out as a good idea, I supposed, to update "King Lear" to Iowa. But I found the book about as deep as a soap opera, and the language unremarkable. I promised to read it for a friend, and about a third through lost all interest and had to force myself to finish it. I expected more from a Pulitzer awarded novel.
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Longwinded boredom.
Rating (1)
Date: 2010-01-16
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
By the time the author got all the characters onstage I no longer cared about them. The characters were flat instead of fleshed out with something about them to interest the reader. This overblown retelling of King Lear only manages to recommend reading the original, and that is the only thing that recommends this novel.
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by Kaye Gibbons
ISBN: 0375703063
Binding/Media: Paperback - 176 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. Gently read copy in like new condition.
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Customer Reviews
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Example of really loving someone
Rating (3)
Date: 2010-01-25
When I began reading this I really didnt know where the author was going with the story. But it didnt take me long to figure it out. The story is a great story of a woman that found two different kinds of love with men. Its a story of strength and was a very detailed read. I think the books answers the question, " Is it better to love hard or to be loved hard".
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So what?
Rating (2)
Date: 2009-10-16
This is a very slight novel providing a glimpse into the lives of a few people, but no real insight into any of them. I guess the main feature is the unlikely love story between two of the protagonists. None of the characters came to life for me and ultimately the novel is totally forgettable. I was left thinking so what?
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Wonderful Read
Rating (5)
Date: 2009-10-08
I liked the style of writing; it was an involving story. I follow all the pharagraphs. Once you start to read it You just can't stop. This was a quick and fabulous read! I felt as if I knew each of the characters.
Looking other great story, I`d recomend you these:
A Strange Disappearance
The Circular Study: By the woman who inspired Agatha Christie!
The Chief Legatee
The Filigree Ball: By the woman who inspired Agatha Christie!
The Woman in the Alcove
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Sad, but Sweet
Rating (4)
Date: 2009-09-06
A Virtuous Woman is a quick read about the love between Ruby and Jack, with each telling his/her story through alternating chapters. Often, I feel like a book is longer than necessary, but with this one, I found myself wanting more details about Ruby and Jack's relationship and what it was like for them to face Ruby's terminal diagnosis together. It was a sweet book about two individuals who fit together and met one another's needs while not sacrificing who they were as individuals. It is not a love story infiltrated with passion, but one that left me feeling appreciative of those unspoken quieter moments that define a comfortable, yet special and timeless romance.
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Moving
Rating (4)
Date: 2009-05-09
Gibbons's novel, a novella, really, is the story of a southern woman's relationships and the profound effect she has on those close to her. Born to a privileged family, Ruby Pitt enters first a disastrous, then a profoundly loving marriage. Though these relationships move her squarely into the working class, we see that love triumphs over class, status, and lineage. Told in alternating chapters by Ruby and her husband, Jack, at the time surrounding her early death from cancer, the book relates the history of Ruby and Jack's relationship. This is not a plot-driven, so much as an emotion-driven book. A beautiful, quick read, I couldn't help but feel deeply for Ruby, and especially for Jack.
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by Marcia Muller
ISBN: 0892966882
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 293 pages
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Sold with pride. No writing, no highlighting. Copy in very good condition with minimal reading wear.
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Customer Reviews
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Great locale by convoluted plot...
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-07-01
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I have read quite a few Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone books lately, and have enjoyed them all. But overall, A Walk Through the Fire is not as good as some of the previous books that I've read. While it gets off to a good start, I think Muller has just way too much going on in terms of plot in the second half the book.
Private investigator, Sharon McCone, gets a call from a professional neighbor who is working in Hawaii. Glenna Stanleigh is a documentary filmmaker and calls McCone in a panic when it appears that someone is trying to sabotage her present project. She convinces McCone and McCone's boyfriend, Hy Ripinsky, to leave San Francisco to provide her with some security and to discover who and why someone wants the film halted. McCone finds herself embroiled in a family feud with the rich and spoiled Wellbright family--Hawaiian natives for many years.
In the course of A Walk Through the Fire, McCone must deal with missing Wellbright family members, a suicide, drug dealers, kidnappings, a romantic love interest, massive cover-ups and of course, Hawaiian spirits. The plot is unwieldy and terribly convoluted. I wonder where her editor was on this one.
Overall, I did enjoy the change of locations from San Francisco to Hawaii. Muller has an obvious love of these islands and it shows in her writing. I just wish the plot was a little more believable.
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Maybe A Bit Under-Rated
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-07-28
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This installment in Muller's Sharon McCone series takes our heroine to Hawaii. Office neighbor Glenna Stanleigh is attempting to film a documentary on Kauai, but filming has been plagued by a series of "accidents" that may not have been very accidental. Overall, the plot of this story is pretty good. There are some pretty transparent aspects to it, and not too many big surprises, but it kept me turning pages right up to the end.
As I write this, the average rating among reviewers here for A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE is below average for the books in the series. While I agree that this isn't one of the best McCone mysteries I've read, I also don't think it's as much of a letdown as others have indicated. I have just two criticisms. First, the attempt to inject additional melodrama into the story through the invocation of the mystical "spell" of the islands and through the romantic entanglement with the helicopter pilot really didn't work for me. Second, Ms. Muller took up flying some years back and since flying has become a significant element in every McCone mystery. Ms. Muller apparently likes flying. Great, but give it a rest in the stories. Sometimes is OK, but it's gotten overworked. Once in a while it would be nice to get a story that stays on the ground. I always thought that her use of San Francisco as her setting was part of the charm of the McCone mysteries. A return to that sometimes would be welcome.
A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE isn't the best McCone mystery I've encountered, but it kept me turning the pages to the end. My routine rating for books in the series is four stars and that's what this one is getting, as well.
Casual readers may not be greatly impressed, but most fans will find this another enjoyable episode in the on-going saga.
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Muller's plotting is getting tired, but still like her books
Rating (3)
Date: 2004-08-23
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Most of the other reviewers have said what needs to be said concerning this book. It's a good read for the beach, yet that in itself is a bit of criticism because most fine authors want to be better than that (I would think). This genre is supposed to be entertaining, and this book is exactly that. No less worthy of spending your time then sitting in front of the boob-tube for hours at a time!
It's hard, I'm sure, to continue writing about a single protagonist all the time. And it's difficult to ask readers to suspend belief over certain things happening constantly to one person (though I can testify that bad things do happen constantly to good persons). Not enough effort put into the plot, and newcomers to Muller's books usually get a better introduction into the characters, and so the characters seem rather cardboardish at this point.
Karen Sadler
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Amateurish
Rating (2)
Date: 2003-07-28
5 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
Amateurish, stiff, thin, contrived--these are the adjectives I can think of to describe the novel best. Although I might add one more: disappointing. This is my first Marcia Muller mystery, and I expected more from a seasoned writer--too much, as it turned out. After reading Steve Hamilton, Bill Pronzini, Andrew Greeley, Tony Hillerman, Stuart Kaminsky, Les Roberts, and others of that level, this seems stale as yesterday's gruel.There's no point in reviewing the plot details. Other reviewers have commented adequately on those. So I'll proceed to the other two major points of any mystery--atmosphere and characters. Set in Hawaii, for the most part, I just never quite got there, despite all the green vegetation, flowers and fiery volcanoes. Beautiful, beautiful, so what? The characters are pretty much standard fare for mysteries--too rich, too spoiled, too much alcohol and drugs. As for love affairs, mystery writers might do well to heed S.S. Van Dine's rule from decades ago and leave sex out of the work. If the mystery is thin, the romance won't thicken it. The murder and the detection are, after all, why we read crime fiction. If I want romance, I'll go with Bertrice Small. In short, I doubt that I'll try another Marcia Muller book, at least, not for a long, long time. Sorry.
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Sharon McCone goes to Kauai
Rating (4)
Date: 2002-09-25
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Private Investigator Sharon McCone gets tough duty in this 20th. book of the series when she is asked to go to Kauai. Glenna Stanleigh, a friend from San Francisco, has asked Sharon to investigate the strange happenings on the set of the documentary she is filming in Hawaii. Sharon takes the job and flies over with her significant other, Hy Ripinsky. When she arrives, she begins investigating the family whose patriarch is at the center of the film. Glenna has used his notes and research about some of the folk tales of the native Hawaiins as a starting point for her documentary. As Sharon's investigation proceeds, several skeletons begin to come out of the closet and family secrets are revealed. At the same time, Sharon is being romanced by a local helicoptor pilot and Hy leaves the island in order to give Sharon some time and room to consider her relationships with the two men. The plot has some intriguing twists and turns and at last all of the secrets are revealed. Marcia Muller and her heroine have matured over the 20-plus years that this series has been written, and this book does not disappoint.
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by Anita Shreve
ISBN: 0316154512
Binding/Media: Paperback - 352 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. Gently read copy in like new condition.
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Customer Reviews
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Dry, dull read
Rating (2)
Date: 2010-04-12
I've enjoyed a few of Shreve's works but this one lacks imagination and emotional intensity. It also contains the most preposterous literary device I've ever seen. The idea of a man, in the age of internet and cell phones, sitting down in a hotel room to hand write a seven page letter to his wife (which conveniently sets up the plot and fills in all the background) is just absurd. I was embarrassed for the author.
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Why must they all go to adultery?
Rating (2)
Date: 2009-10-25
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The premise of this book is quite good. Former classmates gather at the wedding of high school sweethearts re-united 27 years later to begin their life together.
Sounds good, right?
Well I found the characters to be shallow and underdeveloped. Almost everyone in the book has committed adultery. The book asks the question of it's readers something along the lines of - do you go for what makes you happy or do you stay where things are good but not great?
This is the second book in a row I have read where the main characters cheat on their spouses. Is this really how most married people are feeling? Because I am extremely happily married and cannot even fathom cheating on my husband. Why is it that the characters had to go and marry someone who doesn't make them happy and then complain about it? Maybe I'm in the minority here?
There is a book within a book in this story. One of the main characters, Agnes, who we barely get to know (aside from everyone secretly thinking she is gay but really she's been seeing a married man for 26 years) is writing a book about an incident that occurred during WW1. I found that story to be so much more interesting and wished that could have been the main book.
But then toward the end of that story within a story, THAT main character ends up marrying someone he doesn't love and cheats on her. Great. Right back where I started. Blah.
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A Great "Evening" Read
Rating (5)
Date: 2009-10-07
This book was thoroughly enjoyable, and the characters nicely drawn. Shreve creates wonderful word pictures, and has provided the elements of love, mystery, and reunion within a beautiful setting. She also leaves the reader to decide what happens next, at the conclusion. It reads quickly and holds your attention from beginning to end, with the added twist of containing a story within the story. I highly recommend it.
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Sooooo disappointed
Rating (1)
Date: 2009-08-31
I'm an Anita Shreve fan, and this book was so disappointing. The characters were so unbelievable and totally undeveloped. I kept struggling through it in the hopes that it would redeem itself, but no, it was one huge disappointment. Not up to the standards of her other works.
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I actually reshelved this one less than 1/2 way through!
Rating (2)
Date: 2009-08-19
This book was hard to get into, right from the beginning. I forced myself to read about 1/4 of the way through just in case it got better, but it did not. Finally I admitted that I did not care about any of the characters, and some I just plain didn't like. Not sure what Innes was all about; there were enough characters in the REGULAR story without adding a completely different story inside of this one. I did want to see what happened, so I skipped to the end, realized it was as bad as the beginning, and put the book in the "sell to Half Price Books" pile.
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by Anita Shreve
ISBN: 0316154512
Binding/Media: Paperback - 352 pages
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Sold with pride. No writing, no highlighting. Copy in very good condition with minimal reading wear.
More Product Infomation
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Customer Reviews
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Dry, dull read
Rating (2)
Date: 2010-04-12
I've enjoyed a few of Shreve's works but this one lacks imagination and emotional intensity. It also contains the most preposterous literary device I've ever seen. The idea of a man, in the age of internet and cell phones, sitting down in a hotel room to hand write a seven page letter to his wife (which conveniently sets up the plot and fills in all the background) is just absurd. I was embarrassed for the author.
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|
Why must they all go to adultery?
Rating (2)
Date: 2009-10-25
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The premise of this book is quite good. Former classmates gather at the wedding of high school sweethearts re-united 27 years later to begin their life together.
Sounds good, right?
Well I found the characters to be shallow and underdeveloped. Almost everyone in the book has committed adultery. The book asks the question of it's readers something along the lines of - do you go for what makes you happy or do you stay where things are good but not great?
This is the second book in a row I have read where the main characters cheat on their spouses. Is this really how most married people are feeling? Because I am extremely happily married and cannot even fathom cheating on my husband. Why is it that the characters had to go and marry someone who doesn't make them happy and then complain about it? Maybe I'm in the minority here?
There is a book within a book in this story. One of the main characters, Agnes, who we barely get to know (aside from everyone secretly thinking she is gay but really she's been seeing a married man for 26 years) is writing a book about an incident that occurred during WW1. I found that story to be so much more interesting and wished that could have been the main book.
But then toward the end of that story within a story, THAT main character ends up marrying someone he doesn't love and cheats on her. Great. Right back where I started. Blah.
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|
A Great "Evening" Read
Rating (5)
Date: 2009-10-07
This book was thoroughly enjoyable, and the characters nicely drawn. Shreve creates wonderful word pictures, and has provided the elements of love, mystery, and reunion within a beautiful setting. She also leaves the reader to decide what happens next, at the conclusion. It reads quickly and holds your attention from beginning to end, with the added twist of containing a story within the story. I highly recommend it.
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Sooooo disappointed
Rating (1)
Date: 2009-08-31
I'm an Anita Shreve fan, and this book was so disappointing. The characters were so unbelievable and totally undeveloped. I kept struggling through it in the hopes that it would redeem itself, but no, it was one huge disappointment. Not up to the standards of her other works.
|
|
I actually reshelved this one less than 1/2 way through!
Rating (2)
Date: 2009-08-19
This book was hard to get into, right from the beginning. I forced myself to read about 1/4 of the way through just in case it got better, but it did not. Finally I admitted that I did not care about any of the characters, and some I just plain didn't like. Not sure what Innes was all about; there were enough characters in the REGULAR story without adding a completely different story inside of this one. I did want to see what happened, so I skipped to the end, realized it was as bad as the beginning, and put the book in the "sell to Half Price Books" pile.
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by Anthony Doerr
ISBN: 0143036165
Binding/Media: Paperback - 416 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. This is a previously unread copy pulled from our shelves. It is rated as like new because it may have light shelf wear.
More Product Infomation
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Customer Reviews
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Doerr in the Long Form
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-07-23
Pretty much all of Anthony Doerr's short stories seem like compressed novels anyway, with great spans of years and lives shortened to their most crucial moments, so a novel by him may seem like a questionable enterprise. And that's just the first in a string of caveats approaching this one: the title stinks, the cover is foreboding, and the plot, in attempting to explain it (a clairvoyant hydrologist attempts to save his daughter from drowning in Cleveland), sounds less than appealing.
In truth, About Grace is astoundingly good, a near-perfect novel. It brings the same slow-building, gasp-inducing suspense of his stories, his relentlessly and uniquely gorgeous description, his idiosyncratic but sympathetic characters, and his ability to span tremendous topics and geographies. The novel is also driven by his singular, incredible imagination: he gives himself the freedom to take his story in any direction it needs to go and earns its way there every time. He has a masterful control of a very wayward, variable narrative--he plays its pace like a puppetmaster, lulling you into a false sense of security with beautiful description before accelerating into major events and bending time to his whim. Nobody really writes like Doerr writes, and I don't know if they should or shouldn't, as he clearly has the market cornered on this highly impressive, enviable style. Bless the man, Doerr even makes you care about hydrology.
Like The Washington Post reviewer on the back of the book, I was sad to finish this one, and felt myself slowing down to get the most out of the pages I had left. About Grace is a dense book, the pages packed with magic, the rewards very rich.
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A beautiful sleeper
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-03-29
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book because I had heard Anthony Doerr read at a writers' conference. This is a literary work with all the suspense of a thriller. I was hooked on the first page. The journey taken by the reader is spellbinding, and the writing exquisite. I have been buttonholing people everywhere, telling them "Read this book!" My favorite modern writer (most of the time) is J.M. Coetzee. Coetzee can break your heart one minute, and have you laughing the next, all in wonderful prose. He also is irritating sometimes. Doerr, if anything, writes more beautifully than Coetzee in "About Grace," and his characters are spiky yet sympathetic. Read it, you'll like it.
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Something completely different
Rating (4)
Date: 2009-12-12
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is refreshing to find something a little bit different when so many novels follow the mythic structure format with almost slavish devotion. The hero of this book, David, is a sad, tormented man who loses his one little piece of happiness and spends much of the book simply lost. He cannot remedy what has happened and doesn't really even try. As a child, David dreamed of the death of a stranger and then saw his dream come true. As an adult, David dreams of the death of his infant daughter. Because he is a part of her death, he ends up leaving the country to ensure her survival. For years he doesn't even know whether she still lives. David lives in some very unusual places and under very harsh conditions but I didn't feel like he really made much progress as a person. Even so, an interesting read that I would recommend to patient readers or listeners.
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Beautiful, but forgettable
Rating (3)
Date: 2009-02-23
There's nothing about this book that I am going to take with me, but the characters were very well developed, and the storytelling was beautiful.
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One of the Best
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-12-10
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I loved this luminous book. Doerr's writing is a gift and his story is like a prayer. His characters became welcome players in my dreams. The quiet beauty of this book will haunt me for a long time. I am grateful for the great and small gifts of About Grace. I am eager for more from this brilliant author.
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(Larger Image)
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by Anthony Doerr
ISBN: 0143036165
Binding/Media: Paperback - 416 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. This is a previously unread copy pulled from our store shelves. It is rated as like new because it may have light shelf wear.
More Product Infomation
|
Customer Reviews
|
Doerr in the Long Form
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-07-23
Pretty much all of Anthony Doerr's short stories seem like compressed novels anyway, with great spans of years and lives shortened to their most crucial moments, so a novel by him may seem like a questionable enterprise. And that's just the first in a string of caveats approaching this one: the title stinks, the cover is foreboding, and the plot, in attempting to explain it (a clairvoyant hydrologist attempts to save his daughter from drowning in Cleveland), sounds less than appealing.
In truth, About Grace is astoundingly good, a near-perfect novel. It brings the same slow-building, gasp-inducing suspense of his stories, his relentlessly and uniquely gorgeous description, his idiosyncratic but sympathetic characters, and his ability to span tremendous topics and geographies. The novel is also driven by his singular, incredible imagination: he gives himself the freedom to take his story in any direction it needs to go and earns its way there every time. He has a masterful control of a very wayward, variable narrative--he plays its pace like a puppetmaster, lulling you into a false sense of security with beautiful description before accelerating into major events and bending time to his whim. Nobody really writes like Doerr writes, and I don't know if they should or shouldn't, as he clearly has the market cornered on this highly impressive, enviable style. Bless the man, Doerr even makes you care about hydrology.
Like The Washington Post reviewer on the back of the book, I was sad to finish this one, and felt myself slowing down to get the most out of the pages I had left. About Grace is a dense book, the pages packed with magic, the rewards very rich.
|
|
A beautiful sleeper
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-03-29
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book because I had heard Anthony Doerr read at a writers' conference. This is a literary work with all the suspense of a thriller. I was hooked on the first page. The journey taken by the reader is spellbinding, and the writing exquisite. I have been buttonholing people everywhere, telling them "Read this book!" My favorite modern writer (most of the time) is J.M. Coetzee. Coetzee can break your heart one minute, and have you laughing the next, all in wonderful prose. He also is irritating sometimes. Doerr, if anything, writes more beautifully than Coetzee in "About Grace," and his characters are spiky yet sympathetic. Read it, you'll like it.
|
|
Something completely different
Rating (4)
Date: 2009-12-12
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is refreshing to find something a little bit different when so many novels follow the mythic structure format with almost slavish devotion. The hero of this book, David, is a sad, tormented man who loses his one little piece of happiness and spends much of the book simply lost. He cannot remedy what has happened and doesn't really even try. As a child, David dreamed of the death of a stranger and then saw his dream come true. As an adult, David dreams of the death of his infant daughter. Because he is a part of her death, he ends up leaving the country to ensure her survival. For years he doesn't even know whether she still lives. David lives in some very unusual places and under very harsh conditions but I didn't feel like he really made much progress as a person. Even so, an interesting read that I would recommend to patient readers or listeners.
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Beautiful, but forgettable
Rating (3)
Date: 2009-02-23
There's nothing about this book that I am going to take with me, but the characters were very well developed, and the storytelling was beautiful.
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One of the Best
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-12-10
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I loved this luminous book. Doerr's writing is a gift and his story is like a prayer. His characters became welcome players in my dreams. The quiet beauty of this book will haunt me for a long time. I am grateful for the great and small gifts of About Grace. I am eager for more from this brilliant author.
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