http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/193297 en-US Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:40:54 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 29231487 Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:40:54 -0700
author: Tana French
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/17/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:
Very well done. Tana French is an author to watch. This psychological mystery is much more than a mystery. The characters are believable and interesting and original. The psychological part rings true. I think the ending could have been wrapped up a little sooner, but that is a small quibble. Overall I found myself trying to find things to do to listen to this. I finished scrubbing the pots, my laundry was all folded, I didn't want to go for a walk, so I just sat in my reading chair and listened. That's very unusual for me, and a testament to how much I wanted to find out what happened next.
]]> 21154200 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:04:40 -0700
author: Joshua Ferris
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/15/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 21346675 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:27:12 -0700
The whole thing felt like I was sitting down with the narrator and being told a long and complex story. The narrator had one too many rums and so did I (in my imagination). He jumped back and forth, from the past to the present, then back to some other part of the past. It felt very real in that regard. This is exactly what "The Long Night of White Chickens" is--a long night where two of the characters get to know each other, but we are told this in bits and pieces throughout the book.

However, I think it should have been shorter. Sometimes I felt Goldman repeated himself (or let his characters repeat themselves). Often this repetition served to refresh our memory about some plot point. If the plot had been more linear this wouldn't have been necessary. I don't mind non-linear books, but if this book suffered from too much back and forth. ]]>
author: Francisco Goldman
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/07/08
shelves: key-west-literary-seminar
review:
I probably would have given this four stars if I had have read it in a less distracted fashion. This is a book to read all at once, or in long sittings. I really loved some of the writing and the characters. It won the Sue Kaufman prize for first fiction, and I think it deserves it.

The whole thing felt like I was sitting down with the narrator and being told a long and complex story. The narrator had one too many rums and so did I (in my imagination). He jumped back and forth, from the past to the present, then back to some other part of the past. It felt very real in that regard. This is exactly what "The Long Night of White Chickens" is--a long night where two of the characters get to know each other, but we are told this in bits and pieces throughout the book.

However, I think it should have been shorter. Sometimes I felt Goldman repeated himself (or let his characters repeat themselves). Often this repetition served to refresh our memory about some plot point. If the plot had been more linear this wouldn't have been necessary. I don't mind non-linear books, but if this book suffered from too much back and forth.
]]> 27953486 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:39:44 -0700
author: M. C. Beaton
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/30/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 21154205 Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:34:12 -0700
author: Siri Hustvedt
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/27/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 28361835 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:59:34 -0700
author: Lawrence Durrell
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/26/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 13154703 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:38:22 -0700
author: Patrick Süskind
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 10/96
date added: 07/21/08
shelves: multiple-reads, reading-list
review:

]]> 9710744 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:48:29 -0700
author: George Orwell
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/16/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 27240573 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:31:57 -0700
author: Samuel Pepys
name: Sherry
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/14/08
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 7716377 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:38:47 -0700
author: Ron Hansen
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/06/08
shelves: short-stories
review:

]]> 12061864 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:35:53 -0700
And the murderer-the Devil in the title. I had never heard of this man who seemed to have trumped Jack the Ripper in terms of number of vile deeds. Why have I never heard of him?

All in all a very informative book and slice of history.]]>
author: Erik Larson
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/05/08
shelves:
review:
Although I thought the writing was somewhat pedestrian, and I was often bored in the beginning, I really ended up liking this book. So many things that we, as Americans and citizens of the world, take for granted were thought up or implemented at this Fair. AC electricity, the Ferris wheel, Shredded Wheat, Cracker Jacks. Even Walt Disney's father worked there and supposedly talked about the "magic" city so much, that who knows where the idea of The Magic Kingdom came from.

And the murderer-the Devil in the title. I had never heard of this man who seemed to have trumped Jack the Ripper in terms of number of vile deeds. Why have I never heard of him?

All in all a very informative book and slice of history.
]]> 23844218 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:38:15 -0700
author: Samantha Hunt
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/27/08
shelves: key-west-literary-seminar
review:
This book really whetted my appetite to learn more about Tesla. What a fascinating man. I wish he were here with us today to help solve the energy crises. Hunt's book is fanciful, entertaining, well-researched and well-written.
]]> 21233407 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:44:43 -0700
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/27/08
shelves: classicscorner
review:
This should probably be called a "fantasy/romance" but it is so well-written, so charming, so funny and so sweet, that I can't help but give it five stars. It makes me want to read all her work, if her other books are half as good as this one.
]]> 10360914 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:04:02 -0700
author: Don DeLillo
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 23434723 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:01:55 -0700
author: Steve Martin
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves: audiobook
review:
My four stars for this are partly sentimental. My husband and I and a couple of friends were in the front row seats at one of his San Francisco performances at The Boarding House (a turning point in his career, it turns out). I was ten weeks pregnant with my first child and thought I was going to cough him up, I laughed so hard.
]]> 23632172 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:45:49 -0700
author: Isabel Allende
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 10360936 Sat, 31 May 2008 08:06:36 -0700
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/31/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 19781679 Fri, 30 May 2008 11:05:49 -0700
author: David Liss
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/30/08
shelves: audiobook
review:
I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this book. I'll still never really what a "put" is or what a "call" is, but it is fun to know that this practice was done so long ago. People are really the same, it seems. For some reason, though, I was always wanting a cup of that hot bitter liquid when I listened to this--even though I had already drunk my daily allotment.
]]> 10360900 Tue, 27 May 2008 10:13:58 -0700
author: Junot Díaz
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/27/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 21381664 Thu, 01 May 2008 04:53:46 -0700
author: Edgar Lawrence Doctorow
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/01/08
shelves: key-west-literary-seminar
review:

]]> 20144089 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:59:24 -0700
author: Andrea Barrett
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/30/08
shelves: key-west-literary-seminar
review:

]]> 3238828 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:02:23 -0700
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 05/03
date added: 04/29/08
shelves: constantreader
review:
This was my favorite book in 2003, and remains a favorite today. Thoughtful, funny, sad, amazing.
]]> 21081778 Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:44:20 -0700
author: Nathanael West
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1933
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/27/08
shelves: read-long-ago
review:

]]> 20955452 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:17:10 -0700
author: Henry James
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/25/08
shelves: read-long-ago
review:

]]> 20759022 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:25:47 -0700
author: Theodore Dreiser
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 11962774 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:21:39 -0700
author: William "Wilkie" Collins
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1859
rating: 4
read at: 11/95
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: classicscorner
review:

]]> 20236587 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:20:41 -0700
author: Larry Brown
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 10/95
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 20236547 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:20:02 -0700
author: Jane Hamilton
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.36
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 10/99
date added: 04/15/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20236504 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:19:11 -0700
author: Naguib Mahfouz
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 03/01
date added: 04/15/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 10986173 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:18:36 -0700
author: George Eliot
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1872
rating: 5
read at: 07/00
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: classicscorner
review:

]]> 5953825 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:18:01 -0700
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 03/96
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 20236366 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:16:54 -0700
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 12/01
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 20236289 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:15:48 -0700
author: Dick Francis
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 01/02
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 20236211 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:15:01 -0700
author: Michael Connelly
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 12/01
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 20236135 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:13:49 -0700
author: John Sandford
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 01/02
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 10360906 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:23:42 -0700
author: Ivan Doig
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/14/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 19812634 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:32:45 -0700
author: Austin Wright
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 01/97
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: mysteries, reading-list
review:

]]> 19812424 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:31:26 -0700
author: Robertson Davies
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 06/97
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 19812309 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:28:24 -0700
author: Caleb Carr
name: Sherry
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 03/02
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 19812209 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:27:17 -0700
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 03/02
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19812062 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:25:50 -0700
author: Stuart Woods
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 03/02
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19790901 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:31:11 -0700
author: Edna Buchanan
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 0
rating: 3
read at: 06/02
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19790823 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:30:26 -0700
author: John Saul
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 02/03
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19724667 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:29:44 -0700
author: Barbara Vine
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 02/02
date added: 04/08/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19723607 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:19:49 -0700
author: Sue Miller
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 02/02
date added: 04/08/08
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 19722772 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:03:30 -0700
author: Anne Perry
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 03/02
date added: 04/08/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19707491 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:31:39 -0700
author: Jack Finney
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 07/96
date added: 04/08/08
shelves: funstuff, reading-list
review:

]]> 19580070 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:25:31 -0700
author: Elmore Leonard
name: Sherry
average rating: 2.67
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 02/02
date added: 04/06/08
shelves: audiobook, funstuff
review:

]]> 19579816 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:19:32 -0700
author: William J. Caunitz
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/06/08
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 19579073 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:02:48 -0700
author: Michael Connelly
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 08/02
date added: 04/06/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19578311 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:49:11 -0700
author: Lawrence Block
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 06/02
date added: 04/06/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 18290512 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:13:50 -0700
author: Laura Lippman
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/05/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:
I always enjoy Lippman's books, but I thought this was especially good. Not a typical mystery, but an exploration of character as well as of "what happened." Not predictable, but not outlandish as some mysteries try to be to outwit the reader. The reader on this book was especially good. I have never heard of Linda Edmonds before, but she did a great job.
]]> 19377572 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:02:42 -0700
author: Stephen White
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 06/01
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: audiobook, funstuff
review:

]]> 19364940 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:30:32 -0700
author: John Clifford Mortimer
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: audiobook, funstuff
review:

]]> 19364900 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:30:03 -0700
author: Dick Francis
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1931
rating: 3
read at: 11/02
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: funstuff, mysteries
review:

]]> 19364592 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:24:32 -0700
author: John Mortimer
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 08/02
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: audiobook, funstuff
review:

]]> 19364516 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:23:28 -0700
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 09/02
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: audiobook, funstuff
review:

]]> 19364465 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:21:56 -0700
author: Martha Grimes
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 09/02
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: audiobook, mysteries
review:

]]> 19364398 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:21:05 -0700
author: Tracy Chevalier
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 09/02
date added: 04/03/08
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 19279548 Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:27:39 -0700
author: Eudora Welty
name: Sherry
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 08/96
date added: 04/02/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 19279445 Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:24:30 -0700
author: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
name: Sherry
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 11/96
date added: 04/02/08
shelves: reading-list
review:

]]> 19279398 Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:23:16 -0700