An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans ...
read full description
reviews
Jul 03, 2009
Elaine
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Nov 30, 2008
Kerry
rated it: 
Do you like stories about love, music, and time travel? Do you enjoy a dash of celebrity and a sprinkling of intertwining history? Are you inspired by creative teachers and talented storytellers? If the answer is yes, you should read this book!
I began this book somewhat apprehensively (not always sure about the time travel aspect), but soon embraced it wholeheartedly. It was a lovely story to be swept away with and I really liked the settings of Boston and Vienna. As I proceede More...
I began this book somewhat apprehensively (not always sure about the time travel aspect), but soon embraced it wholeheartedly. It was a lovely story to be swept away with and I really liked the settings of Boston and Vienna. As I proceede More...
0 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Oct 02, 2008
Lisa
rated it:
First of all, BEWARE of reviews that give away too much of this plot (that's you, amazon!) because it will ruin your reading to know too many of the intricate details of this novel. I'm intentionally vague below because key plot elements were given away in some reviews I read.
The time-travel aspect makes you think it's sci-fi, but it's really more of historical fiction in the exhaustive detailing of 1867 Vienna. It also touches on psychology, romance, and philosophy (those who love More...
The time-travel aspect makes you think it's sci-fi, but it's really more of historical fiction in the exhaustive detailing of 1867 Vienna. It also touches on psychology, romance, and philosophy (those who love More...
Jun 15, 2008
Carin
rated it:
This ambitious novel felt to me very much like Time and Again. It had a few moments of repetition, a dash of pretention, and occasional predictability, but overall was an enchanting and fun escape from everyday life. The story of Wheeler, former talented pitcher, former famous musician, and former bestselling author, who has suddenly appeared in the Austria of the 1890s. There he runs into some people from his own personal history and discovers a vast amount of true history of his family and
More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jan 25, 2009
Sally
rated it:
My family started listening to this audio book on our car ride to and from Bear Valley in late December. We only got to the 4th disc, but it was enough to hook me. (My partner went out and bought a copy of the book, to continue the story.)
Very entertaining -- I've continued with the audio book for my work commute. I heard the author on a panel at the Book Group Expo in San Jose, in October, which got me interested in the book. He worked on this book for 30 years, writing and revisin More...
Very entertaining -- I've continued with the audio book for my work commute. I heard the author on a panel at the Book Group Expo in San Jose, in October, which got me interested in the book. He worked on this book for 30 years, writing and revisin More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 11, 2008
Darrin
rated it: 
Time-travel tales, as intricate as they are, require a special touch, a unique understanding of cause and effect. As such they are incredibly easy to write poorly and at the same time quite difficult to write well.
There is a long tradition to the cyclical nature of these tales, beginning, arguably with Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Flying Trunk and continued a century later with Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time in the 1970s and most recently with Audrey Niffenegger's More...
There is a long tradition to the cyclical nature of these tales, beginning, arguably with Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Flying Trunk and continued a century later with Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time in the 1970s and most recently with Audrey Niffenegger's More...
0 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Mar 03, 2009
Margaret
rated it: 
I really wanted to give this book three stars but I just can't. To me it
seemed like a case of a wonderful idea, sort of Jack Finney Meets John
Irving, coming unfortunately to someone who just doesn't have the skill or
the ease to realize it effectively. The writing itself is perfectly sound
and literate, but for me the author didn't have the command to carry off his
ridiculously complicated structure - featuring multiple narrative lines,
multiple time periods, More...
seemed like a case of a wonderful idea, sort of Jack Finney Meets John
Irving, coming unfortunately to someone who just doesn't have the skill or
the ease to realize it effectively. The writing itself is perfectly sound
and literate, but for me the author didn't have the command to carry off his
ridiculously complicated structure - featuring multiple narrative lines,
multiple time periods, More...
5 comments
like
(7 people liked it)
Sep 04, 2008
Carey
rated it:
Dilly Burden was a legend and a hero. He excelled at his Boston boys' school and at Harvard, was a star baseball player and gave his life in World War II when he was tortured and killed by the Gestapo in France. His only son, Wheeler, has no memory of his Dad but has spent his life living up to the legend.
Where Dilly was an icon, Wheeler is more eccentric. He followed in his father's footsteps to the Boston boys' school and despite guidance from a much beloved teacher, the Haze, (who More...
Where Dilly was an icon, Wheeler is more eccentric. He followed in his father's footsteps to the Boston boys' school and despite guidance from a much beloved teacher, the Haze, (who More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 14, 2008
Jackie
rated it:
The Library of Congress cataloging for this book is: 1. Rock musician--fiction. 2. Time travel--fiction. 3.Vienna(Austria)--fiction. 4. Austria--History--1867-1918--Fiction. And it is definitely all of those things. But it's SOOOOOOOOO much more. This book tells a story that keeps looping back upon itself and back upon itself and back upon itself. It introduces us to the likes of Freud and Samuel Clemens, Hitler and the Empress of Vienna. It's a history lesson and a brilliant work of
More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Mar 09, 2009
Debbie
rated it:
I believe our impressions of books are caught by the time and/or order in which we read them. I happen to be a big fan of The Time Traveler's Wife, which in my opinion, nailed the time travel thing with characters I cared about.
It feels like The Little Book flits over way to many subjects. I would have found it more compelling if the story had been more focused on either the Burden family OR the historical aspects. It seems as though the story just 'skims'...the characters, the his More...
It feels like The Little Book flits over way to many subjects. I would have found it more compelling if the story had been more focused on either the Burden family OR the historical aspects. It seems as though the story just 'skims'...the characters, the his More...
Apr 09, 2009
Karen
rated it:
I enjoyed this odd book. It ranges from a New England prep school to 1897 Vienna to 1988 San Francisco. Freud, time travel, baseball and a rocker all take a turn in the book, woven through a story that jumps through time, untangling some very tangled secrets indeed.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 20, 2009
Stacey
rated it:
This "little book" was amazingly clever! The story opens with Wheeler Burden awakening in Vienna Austria with no idea how he got there from San Francisco California. As he walks around the city and he becomes more aware of his surroundings, he starts to notice the way people are dressed, the automobiles and picks up a newspaper from a corner stand to see that the year is 1897 instead of 1988. There begins a story with so many twists and turns that it is truly a fun read! Would have
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 07, 2011
Susan
rated it:
I wanted so much to like it, to get all caught up in it. I kept reading cause I thought there would come a resolution of voices, historical characters intermingled with fictional ones, some reason to have gotten to the end. But when the end came I was so glad to put the book down. I wanted to explore time travel, especially to fin de siecle Vienna, a glorious, vibrant time and place. But I just kept getting bogged down. Stray, competing lines of thought crossed and recrossed constantly. The wri
More...
Aug 12, 2011
Janneke
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Mar 09, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
For all the hype, I expected so much more from this book. It's about time travel, psychoanalysis, and there's a goopy, unrealistic, annoying love story thrown in. None one of these aspects is done well.
The time travel bit isn't detailed enough to be believable and the characters who do travel back to Vienna in 1897 aren't believable either since they don't struggle or ask enough "why" questions of themselves.
The psychoanalysis is tedious, mostly because it is tied up in More...
The time travel bit isn't detailed enough to be believable and the characters who do travel back to Vienna in 1897 aren't believable either since they don't struggle or ask enough "why" questions of themselves.
The psychoanalysis is tedious, mostly because it is tied up in More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 27, 2009
Scottie
rated it:
Someone else said it best on a Barnes an Noble site:
An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer More...
An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer More...
Nov 14, 2009
Nancy
rated it:
My love for books involving time travel goes back to reading "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in high school--and, indeed, Mark Twain makes a showing here, as do many other fascinating historical characters from Gustav Mahler to Sigmund Freud to Klaus Lueger, the mayor of Vienna who set in motion a disastrous anti-Semitic movement near the end of the 19th century. The plot and characters (in and out of their "real" times) move through the upheavals of the first hal
More...
Oct 03, 2009
Judith
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 23, 2009
Brent
rated it:
After polishing off The Time Traveler's Wife, I had The Little Book recommended to me since it was also a story of relationships and time travel.
This time, though, our hero, Wheeler Burden, gets to stay in one place: turn-of-the-century Vienna. I'll leave you to discover the circumstances behind his arrival, but what I can tell you is he gets to meet, along with Sigmund Freud and Mark Twain, a father he never knew and a grandfather he wished he never met. The characters are well-co More...
This time, though, our hero, Wheeler Burden, gets to stay in one place: turn-of-the-century Vienna. I'll leave you to discover the circumstances behind his arrival, but what I can tell you is he gets to meet, along with Sigmund Freud and Mark Twain, a father he never knew and a grandfather he wished he never met. The characters are well-co More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 14, 2009
Jeff
rated it:
Time-traveling seems to be "in" these days, and the main character in Selden Edwards's novel is a rock and roll star who finds himself transported to turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna, and embroiled in a series of events that are both preposterous and oddly inevitable. My main gripe, as someone who has read a great deal about fin de siecle Vienna, is that Edwards is rather coy about how he chooses to mix real history with made up history. For example, composer and conductor Gustav Mahl
More...
Jul 02, 2009
Kendra
rated it: 
“The Little Book” is, perhaps, anything but. At almost 400-pages, this New York Time best seller is the product of the better part of a decade.
And you can tell.
It is obvious Edwards is very familiar with these characters, and is intent on making the reader just as familiar. Down to the minutiae.
On the plus side, yet another world war 2-centric book to add to my growing menagerie.
Unfortunately, also yet another book club pick that fairly missed the More...
And you can tell.
It is obvious Edwards is very familiar with these characters, and is intent on making the reader just as familiar. Down to the minutiae.
On the plus side, yet another world war 2-centric book to add to my growing menagerie.
Unfortunately, also yet another book club pick that fairly missed the More...
Jul 03, 2009
Andy
rated it:
The reviews compared this to Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court based on similarity of American going back in time to a foreign country and I suppose because Mark Twain himself makes an appearance in the book(during a visit Twain made to 1890's Vienna) But I found it to be more like Jack Finney's Time and Again, though not near as good.
There were parts of the book I really liked and in the beginning I was intrigued by the different characters, but I think he tried More...
There were parts of the book I really liked and in the beginning I was intrigued by the different characters, but I think he tried More...
Feb 14, 2011
Billy
rated it:
Sometimes I’m just not sure if it’s the book or if I’m not in the mood. This one started off slow and I had a hard time staying interested. It got better as it went along and I ended up liking it, for the most part.
It’s a fairly interesting plot, a time travel story told from different character perspectives, as well as times. The author manages to make it very easy to follow. I think that’s part of the problem for me. The style seemed very Blockbuster Summer Reading, like he More...
It’s a fairly interesting plot, a time travel story told from different character perspectives, as well as times. The author manages to make it very easy to follow. I think that’s part of the problem for me. The style seemed very Blockbuster Summer Reading, like he More...
Dec 25, 2010
Joshua
rated it:
It's well written, and the historical elements are definitely fascinating, but the main character is presented in such an odd manner that I never felt anything for him. I'm not sure what I think of this book other than that to be honest, as the characters are well developed and the story certainly takes you places... I'm just not certain that they were places that had any emotional resonance. Perhaps its just me.
If anything, it presents an interesting parallel between a turn of the ce More...
If anything, it presents an interesting parallel between a turn of the ce More...
Jan 26, 2010
Christie
rated it:
I didn't expect to like this book particularly. It came highly recommended, but my immediate reaction was: "Oh, another time travel book. Mundane, probably trite." I'm not a huge fan of time travel books in general (although they've seemed to be super popular). "The Eyre Affair" was fun, but it didn't really revolve around time travel. And I did NOT like "The Time Traveler's Wife" -- predictable and super trite (I barely skimmed the first few hundred pages and then
More...
Jun 06, 2010
Beth Anne
rated it:
honestly, when i bought this book, i didn't know what i was getting into. boy was i happily surprised.
it's a cleverly written time traveling story, set mostly in 1897 Vienna, when Freud was developing his theories, Hitler was a 10 year old boy, and Gustav Mahler's music was innovative and controversial, as he was living in antisemitic times. drop in an aging 1970's rock star, and his war hero father, transported from different places/times in the future, and there's More...
May 08, 2011
Mike
rated it:
Strange book. Part history lesson (large part), part sci-fi (time travel), part romance. The story is preposterous, but that's kind of the point. Like his characters, the author was fascinated with 1897 Vienna, and wanted to be there. Thus the book where a modern character travels in time to 1897 Vienna. I think it's a bit of a thin thread to build a story on. And, if you found "The Time Travelers Wife" to be creepy in a certain way (which I really did), you're going to creep out a lit
More...
Mar 31, 2011
Stephen
rated it:
In "The Little Book," what comes round goes round and round and round...and comes back again.
Shelden Edward's novel is an exquisite time machine that feeds itself events which provide the impulse for later events, and earlier ones, too.
A case for the interrelatedness between persons and epochs alike.
The main trunk to this story, with significant secondary branches, follows '70s hippy rocker Wheeler Burden on a time-travel trip through the fin de s More...
Shelden Edward's novel is an exquisite time machine that feeds itself events which provide the impulse for later events, and earlier ones, too.
A case for the interrelatedness between persons and epochs alike.
The main trunk to this story, with significant secondary branches, follows '70s hippy rocker Wheeler Burden on a time-travel trip through the fin de s More...
Mar 30, 2009
An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. I More...
The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. I More...
