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Jan 24, 2012

Tara rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

8 comments like (48 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Danielle rated it:

I thought that Ann Patchett had made her great contribution to literature with "Bel Canto," which seemed to me to be the perfect novel, and stays high on the list of my very favorites. It is the book that I sold by hand as a bookseller and the book that I still pass along to friends. I should keep a stack of them since I have handed mine off so many times that I never know if I have a copy or not. A jewel box of structure, character, and language that left me overwhelmed with admiratio More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Uomo di Speranza rated it:

WARNING: SPOILERS PRESENT!
When everyone was in about second grade, their teacher taught them about how each butterfly was once an entirely alternative being called a caterpillar. She also must have thrown in the term "cocoon" while you were thinking about how mean the cockney in front of you was for stealing your colorful eraser. Nevertheless, most everyone conceived the concept that there were two inseparable stages to a butterfly's life, two states completely indistinguishable More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

Nancy rated it:

I've read two previous Ann Patchett novels (Bel Canto and Run) and was disappointed by both. I wondered if I was being sucked in one more time by erroneous good reviews. No. I raced through this book, finishing it on Thanksgiving even though I had house-guests.

State of Wonder weaves together a number of threads that build a good novel where nearly everyone can find a personal "hook"-- personality conflicts, infidelity, secrets, wilderness exploration, science, medicine, pa More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Joy H. rated it:

Added 7/24/11. (Book first published in 2010)
I love Ann Patchett's writing.
I hope this book will be as good as her others.

Jan. 2012 - Finished reading this wonderful book. Loved it! Below is a post I made at my group concerning this book on 12/28/11:
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I'm in the middle of reading State of Wonder (2011) by Ann Patchett. I picked it up from the library's new book section on the spur of the moment. Glad I did. It's just More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Will rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

13 comments like (29 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2011

Maggie rated it:

This novel was just what I've been looking for this summer: a dazzling story, a meaty pile of ethical questions, characters that endure long after the book is over, and prose that gets more beautiful the more you notice it. I didn't love the novel's end; it was a bit too rushed for me, and the sudden pile-on of action left me wanting more of the slow build-up that carried us to the climax. It occurs to me, though, that wanting more of a book is as good a sign as any that it won me over completel More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2012

Clare rated it:

A scientific jungle experiment/investigation involving an elderly and rather secretive matriarchal doctor who leads the experiment, a missing/deceased company representative who was sent to investigate what the experiment is up to, and a female company representative (who happens to also be a former medical student of the matriarch) who is sent to investigate what happened to the previous company representative.

In spite of lengthy descriptions of the experiment and professorial solil More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

JoAnne rated it:

STATE OF WONDER
Anne Patchett
This marvelous atmospheric and multi layered novel takes place in the Amazon jungle where an emissary from a pharmaceutical company dies under mysterious circumstances at a research facility.
Dr. Marina Singh is sent to find the remains and effects, but must first locate the famous and reclusive gynecologist, Dr. Swenson who is in charge of the research. Dr. Swenson is researching the women of a local tribe who can conceive well past middle age, and More...

0 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2011

Julie (julie37619) rated it:

My all-encompassing love for Ann Patchett is not a secret. She is my absolute favorite living author and I own every single one of her books. (Side note: remember that time she came to Chattanooga and I couldn't afford to go to the signing - still bitter about that). I've been anxiously waiting on the release State of Wonder for a while now, so when TLC gave me the opportunity to review, you know I was all over it. The day it came in the mail I called Luke at work because I was so excited. More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Kerry rated it:

I really wanted to like this book. After all, there are all the raving reviews, and it's the kind of story that usually grabs and holds my interest (jungle adventure + medical drama), but I couldn't finish it. In fact, I gave up after the 4th disc (the audio book has 11 discs). The story plods on like the stifling heat of the jungle, so slow, that it was all padding and no plot for almost half of the book! The author wrote painstaking all the tedious details of Marina's past (she has father issu More...

6 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Paddy rated it:

After all the rave reviews, my expectations were high. But this is no Bel Canto. The infuriatingly hapless heroine does not look ahead to scout out minor(everyone knows to pack some necessities in carry-on luggage, including cell phone)or major consequences of her actions and is locked in past failures and losses (one grows tired of her lost father nightmares and all her screaming). One could also hope for subtler symbolism and metaphors, less stilted dialogue, more skillful writing. For example More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Amy rated it:

I knew from Bel Canto that Patchett was likely to succeed in capturing a character's descent into the heart of darkness with all the melodrama of the jungle - the exotic tropical flora, piercing insect bites, sweaty, sleepless nights, and mysterious tropical diseases. And she delivers, with overtones of Joseph Conrad and Fitzcarraldo. I appreciate Bel Canto a little more, mainly because the seduction felt more subtle, the sources not so obvious; and the characters feel integral to the novel's te More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Linda rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

Debra rated it:

This was my first Patchett book and I wasn't disappointed. I've read the thoughtfully-written positive and negative reviews, and can see the points some people have made about the main character's (Marina) unbelievable naivety, stupid choices, and deep feelings about a seemingly shallow relationship with her boss. Thoughts of marriage to him, come on! One reviewer said she should have run off with Milton and I absolutely agree. I wanted to shake her silly sometimes. And, yes, the science does More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2011

Karima rated it:

Torn between giving this book three or four stars. Was leaning toward four but I realize that would have been giving the author four stars, not the book.
I admire Ann Patchett because she makes her characters BETTER PEOPLE. She can take an unlikely group of people, bring them together in extraordinary circumstances,and create something grand. Remember the classic line form the movie STAR MAN? Something like "People are at their best when things are at their worst." Patchett brings More...

9 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Ed rated it:

I am not sure what's going on between me and Ann Patchett. This is the third time around the block with her. I remember good things about The Magician's Assistant many moons ago, but seemed to be in the minority when it came to Bel Canto. While I thought it was quite good, I struggled with what I just didn't "get" that apparently a whole lot of others did. Such is the case with her latest, State of Wonder, which seems to have critics and a lot of readers swooning. Again, I found i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Lavinia rated it:

What a magnificent story. I loved what another reviewer referred to as the "meaty pile of ethical questions", the richly-painted setting, the transformation that Marina goes through during the book, and the ending - which made me both happy and miserable and yet had what felt to be the requisite balance. I wondered early in the book if I would ever entirely warm up to Marina, and I was glad to find that I did; on the one hand, I wish it had been earlier, but I'm not sure the overall st More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 20, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

This intriguing chimera of a book starts out as a quest, twists into a scientific mystery, then becomes an intimate human drama about family and what it means to be the "other." The reader doesn't just go on a journey with the main character Marina to find her research partner Anders in the depths of the Brazilian rain forest, the reader becomes the seeker through Marina's character and experiences first hand what it is like to be a stranger in a completely strange land. I felt transpo More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Steven rated it:

Patchett captures the claustrophobia of the rainforest even before the protagonist leaves Minnesota for the Amazon jungle. Well done.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 28, 2011

Colleen rated it:

I really liked the first half of the book. It had the right amount of science mixed in for me and seemed plausible. The second half of the book lost me.

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Jessamyn rated it:

As impressed by this book as I was at the beginning, the ending felt rushed to me. Many questions left unanswered that undid the integrity of the story's heart.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Karen rated it:

I need an extra half star. I read Heart of Darkness earlier this year & can't help but compare. Patchett's writing drew me into this world & these characters so much that I said "No!" aloud at one point. Love my Kindle.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Larry added it

Ann Patchett strikes again. The author of several sensational novels, including Bel Canto, as well as Truth and Beauty, a moving and inspiring memoir recounting her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy, has written another thought-provoking and beautifully told novel, State of Wonder.

Dr. Marina Singh is a pharmaceutical researcher working for a major pharmaceutical company. After her close friend and colleague dies under mysterious circumstances in the Amazonian jungle while on company business, More...

0 comments like

Feb 14, 2012

G rated it:

While she’s in no way a “romance writer,” novelist Ann Patchett seems to love a little romance in her novels, and she seems to like that romance to flower between the unlikeliest of characters. In Bel Canto, for example, possibly Patchett’s best known and most loved book, opera soprano, Roxanne Koss has an unlikely romantic adventure with an older Japanese gentleman, only to marry an even more unlikely younger one. In her latest book, State of Wonder, the protagonist, Dr. Marina Singh, is involv More...

0 comments like

Feb 12, 2012

Susy rated it:

I absolutely loved this book which surprises me since I began it with some trepidation. I am not a fan of either jungle settings, large snakes, or tribes of cannibals - all of which are listed as part of the plot on the book jacket. It's Patchett's skill as an author that makes this such a compelling read. Dr. Marina Singh, the center of the piece, works as a research scientist for a pharmaceutical company and is essentially ordered by its director to travel to Brazil to determine what happene More...

0 comments like

Feb 11, 2012

Alesa rated it:

Ah, may Ann Patchett live forever, and keep writing books as fascinating as this one. Each one seems better than the last. In State of Wonder, we follow researchers into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fertility drug that allows women to keep having children as long as they live. (Now that's a scary thought in itself!) Along the way, the author discussed the dividing line between love and friendship, the ethics of pharmacology, the game of academic / for-profit research, and much more -- s More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2012

Gayle rated it:

Loved bel canto ----and i totally felt her voice again in this book - and I love the way Ms. Patchett writes ---there is something gentle, and flowing about her writing and her stories. I liked this a lot because it is about science, and doctors, and lately I love anything on these two topics because my daughter is studying to be a doctor.....I gave it 4 stars rather than 5, only because I wished it had been a bit longer, and had a bit more development of some of the characters - but I enjoyed More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2012

Bryna rated it:

It is, perhaps, a testament to Francis Ford Coppola’s "Apocalypse, Now," and its inspiration, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that I find it impossible to imagine any recluse deep in the Amazon jungle as sane. This diminishes some of the potential tension in Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, in which pharmaceutical researcher Marina Sigh must confront uncommunicative scientist, Dr. Annik Swenson, about the progress of her research being funded by Marina’s employer, Vogel Pharmaceutica More...

0 comments like

Feb 04, 2012

Heather rated it:

I feel like everyone on earth was busting a nut over “State of Wonder” in 2011. Every time I turned around, someone was going, “Ann Patchett has written two of her most powerful, engaging female characters ever!” So of course I bought it when I cashed in a whole year’s worth of B&N gift cards at the end of December. Look, there’s no question that Patchett is a gifted storyteller. And she’s brilliant at being the anti-William Golding (throwing together an unlikely group of people who end up embra More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)