OK. This book is an OK read. The story is fine but what I liked about the book is that it gives an idea of what the social structure could have been l...moreOK. This book is an OK read. The story is fine but what I liked about the book is that it gives an idea of what the social structure could have been like in Germany in 1624: casteism, belief in witches, orthodox and incorrect medical practices, etc(less)
BORING. The book was not what I expected from so many 4-star ratings given to it.
The lead character in the book is Jennifer Parker, a youn...moreBORING. The book was not what I expected from so many 4-star ratings given to it.
The lead character in the book is Jennifer Parker, a young lawyer. The author makes you think in the beginning of the book that she has integrity in her personal life and work. Jennifer's mom had left her dad for some young guy and she hates people who cheat to the very core. Then she herself starts having affair with a married man, twice!
Sheldon purposes makes Jennifer win cases which logically could not be possible. An example: She makes a promiscuous woman win a paternity case against a rich socialite with very good character. Jennifer makes the jury believe that the kid is that guy's son just because the 'dad' kept licking his lower lip when nervous and the kid was also licking his lips ( Jennifer's trick: Fed the kid corn syrup before the court hearing ). Would you believe that?! Another example: A man is acquitted of a murder even though he has a reputation of being violent, even when there were no witnesses to say that he killed in self defense, even when there were countless witnesses who saw him kill!
Worst of all is the lack of integrity in Jennifer's character, she hates people who cheat and then she only starts sleeping with married men. She first seems to fight for good, but then she just becomes the Italian mafia king Michael Moretti's pawn to defend rapists and murderers.
SMOOTH. It was a smooth, fairly quick read. I liked Sara way of using the metaphors that exactly give us the idea of the emotions the character is go...moreSMOOTH. It was a smooth, fairly quick read. I liked Sara way of using the metaphors that exactly give us the idea of the emotions the character is going through. I also liked the way she kept on switching the narration, at right times, between the life of 93-yr old Jacob in a geriatric home and his life in Benzini Brothers circus when he was young.
This book is a wonderful historical fiction that describes how circuses used to be always in motion from one town to another on trains in 1930's. She talks about the social barrier between the working class people and the performers, the process of setting up and dismantling a circus when moving on to the next town, jake paralysis, detail description of few circus acts. An interesting touch to the story is that Sara has weaved in real life circus incidents into this fiction.
The character development of Jacob, Walter and Camel were very good, but I kept expecting more on the development of Marlena's character. Her character turns out to be a bit boring, flat and lacking in detail. Without adding spoilers, I would like to add that after reading you might also realize that the climax was not totally justified for the villain.
In one part of the book where Jacob keeps on saying the same ",but he hit her" to different characters, it seemed very ridiculous and funny to me even though that was not meant to be funny. Things like this, lack of character building and predictability of the plot makes me give it a 3/5.
But I would give the historical fiction portion of this book a 4/5.
INSPIRING. This book is the result of wonderful journalism by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a biography of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic athelete, B-2...moreINSPIRING. This book is the result of wonderful journalism by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a biography of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic athelete, B-24 bombardier, plane crash survivor (survived on inflatable raft for 47 days) and POW survivor on Japanese camps. Born in 1917, this guy is about 94 years today.
The book walks from the childhood days of Zamperini to what he did in 2010. It includes scans and pictures of important milestones in history. The author has done a lot of research studying the psychology of people stranded on raft, under starvation, under physical abuse on POW camps. Great detail is also put in explaining what the B-24 bombers were like, what the living conditions of the Japanese POW camps were like, the descriptions make you live those times vicariously. The author has given justified importance to the role of family and friends that helped him survive rough times.
At the end of the book, when you read the acknowledgement section, you will realize the true genius of the author's journalism. She went to the lengths of understanding the aeronautics of the plane herself, studied how the Nordic bombsight worked, interviewed almost everyone alive who knew Zamperini, in person, over telephone, studied the scrapbooks on Louis' life weighing about a hundred pounds, interviewed Louis about 75 times, even interviewed Japanese contacts to verify the truthfulness of American side of the WWII story.
I learned a lot about the WWII Pacific theater from this book... a masterpiece developed as a result of 7 years of Laura's research.
This is the second book of the trilogy and I would say that it was equally good or even better than the first book.
The author does an ama...moreThis is the second book of the trilogy and I would say that it was equally good or even better than the first book.
The author does an amazingly good job in transforming the scenes, their colors and energy, people, their character and facial expressions from words on papers to a virtual video in the reader's mind.
The author's successful in making me keep on turning the pages, because almost every chapter's climax makes the reader feel "Wow!" or "What could be next?!?!". So much so that I had continued reading the book when it was at 55% yesterday night and I couldn't put it down till I finished it at 4am.
On the negative side, I felt that the love triangle was a bit too cheesy, but that is weighed down by the overall enjoyment I got in reading this book. (less)
This book was a smooth read. It's an adventure book for young adults. I could say that if you like Harry Potter series, then you will like this seri...moreThis book was a smooth read. It's an adventure book for young adults. I could say that if you like Harry Potter series, then you will like this series too.
The book is based in dystopian era.. the environment is kind you you would see in movies like "Book of Eli" or "Children of Men"... what I mean is that the book is set in way ahead in future. And then there a "game".. where children from 12 different states of a country in future are forced to fight to death so that one of them is the winner.
Overall a smooth, quick read. I'm onto the second part of the trilogy now.(less)
This book is very great for people who love running and even for people who don't *yet* run for fun. The stress of yet is because I believe that peop...moreThis book is very great for people who love running and even for people who don't *yet* run for fun. The stress of yet is because I believe that people would be inspired to run once they finish this book. :)
This book talks about the science of running, how we should run and why we should run that way. The book does deeper into the reason why we humans walk upright and points out the changes that were made in us through evolution to make us a running being.
The author nicely mixes humor and amazing storytelling with digressions to science and facts. He tells in-between true stories about ultra runners in the past. I loved going into more detail by myself on wikipedia. I would highly recommend listening to this episode of This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-ar... The book refers to this piece towards the end.
All and all, it was a very interesting read.(less)
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