Nicole's profile

415 ratings (3.87 avg)
56 reviews
11 trivia answers

add as a friend

follow reviews

send message | compare books

Nicole's bookshelves

read ‎(414)

currently-reading ‎(2)

to-read ‎(0)

More…

Nicole is currently reading

	02/01 Nicole is currently reading: The 48 Laws of Power (Paperback) by Robert Greene bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	add a comment
	02/02 Nicole gave to: The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2) by Neal Stephenson bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	add a comment

Nicole's recent updates (rss)

June 19

Nicole gave

to:
Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels (Trade Paperback)
by Sarah Wendell

my rating:

read in May, 2009

Nicole said: "This is exactly as awesome and hilarious as you would expect from the Smart Bitches. This is the book to hand to people who say, "Why on earth do you read that trash?" "

add a comment

May 17

Nicole gave

to:
Again The Magic (Mass Market Paperback)
by Lisa Kleypas

my rating:

read in May, 2009

Nicole said: "I really enjoyed this novel. I found the characters believable. I found the secondary romance as engaging as the primary romance, and I found the obstacles in the way of the primary romance to be completely believable. (There were a few things that s...more "

add a comment

May 12

Nicole made a comment on Sonja's review of The Ultimatum

Nicole wrote: "I got the impression that the reason she was trying to find a cure was that, on her planet, abusive ...more "

reply to this comment

Nicole gave

to:
The Ultimatum (Mass Market Paperback)
by Susan Kearney

my rating:

read in May, 2009

Nicole said: "I've doggedly plowed my way through the first two books in this series, thinking to myself that Kearney was almost there in her efforts to write a sci-fi romance that did both world-building and romance-building not just in equal measure, but in ways...more "

add a comment

Nicole gave

to:
Only With Your Love (Vallerands, #2)
by Lisa Kleypas

my rating:

read in May, 2009

Nicole said: "I liked the heroine, I liked the setting, but something kept me from emotionally connecting to the hero. (I know he's a favorite of a lot of other readers, so I think this is a personal thing rather than a general thing.) I also noticed a couple of c...more "

add a comment

Nicole read and liked Julie's review of The Gnostic Mystery:

"Two stars is being kind. I would honestly give it 1 1/2 stars. The premise as laid out in the book's description is intriguing but the actual story is far from what the description led me to think the story might be. As others have noted, I too ho...more "

add a comment

Nicole read and liked Bethany's review of The Gnostic Mystery:

"Sigh. The Gnostic Mystery read like a research paper on gnosticism converted into a novel form. Davila's source material is good - I've read most of them - but because he failed to research the other side of the issue, the end result is a book that...more Sigh. The Gnostic Mystery read like a research paper on gnosticism converted into a novel form. Davila's source material is good - I've read most of them - but because he failed to research the other side of the issue, the end result is a book that is overly optimistic about its ability to convince the reader. The main character is a lapsed Catholic who knows nothing about Christianity and is therefore swayed by things that wouldn't even phase someone who has studied the history of the early church (i.e. the fact that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre isn't actually where Christ was crucified). Other characters in the book are also very gullible. Here's a distilling of an example conversation.

Main Character: So you mean Jesus wasn't born in a stable?
Professor: No, he was actually born in a cave.
Main Character: What?! All my life I thought he was born in a stable! Jesus must not have ever existed then.
Professor: You are absolutely right.
Main Character's Friend: It's true. The life of Jesus is based on the legends of Dionysus. That's why I haven't gone to mass in several years.
Main Character: Why didn't anyone tell me?! Oh, well. I guess I know now.

The kicker for me occurred in the last couple of pages, wherein the newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll from the Gnostics is translated. The author of the scroll ends with a quote from one of Paul's letters, which is fine. Many of the sacred writings quote from each other. The issue I had with this was that the author then finished the quote by saying "from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians 3:16" (or something like that - I don't have the book in front of me). If he had done any research about early church history that wasn't straight out of gnostic research texts, he would know that verses and chapters were absolutely not around when a Dead Sea Scroll would have been written. It was hundreds of years before the scriptures were divided up in such a way.

I have studied early Christian history a good deal, as well as comparative religions and the philosophy of gnosticism. If Davila had written this book as another nonfiction addition to the canon of gnostic books out there today - key figures being Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels - it might have worked. But in the end, Davila seems extremely naive to think that anyone behaves the way his characters do. I will, however, pick up any further books that he writes in the hopes that they will be better researched, better stories. The Gnostic Mystery shows some promise - Davila is obviously passionate about the subject - but it falls far short of its intended target.(less) "

2 comments

Nicole made a comment on Robert's review of The Gnostic Mystery

Nicole wrote: "a middle-aged multi-millionaire who doesn't know what hummus is?

And who lives in DC, where there's a...more "

reply to this comment

Nicole read and liked Robert's review of The Gnostic Mystery:

"A passable first effort but a bit to didactic for my taste. Every other page the author was constructing straw men to be knocked down and the main character was made out to be impossibly ignorant on common subjects for no good reason (a middle-aged ...more "

1 comment

Nicole made a comment on Aaron's review of The Gnostic Mystery

Nicole wrote: "Nice review, and extremely accurate. I agree on all points. "

see all 5 comments

More of Nicole's books…

Nicole's favorite quotes

"You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?"

"It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize.

"Must be a human thing."

"Exactly."
— Christopher Moore

tags: ethics, humans

29 people liked it

Nicole's groups (recent posts)

Paranormal Romance — 1672 members — last activity 4 hours, 3 min ago
Welcome to Paranormal Romance! This group is for the discussion and recommendation of paranormal romances and paranormal romantica, along with simila...more

URBAN FANTASY — 649 members — last activity 4 hours, 55 min ago
Urban fantasy is a subset of contemporary fantasy, consisting of magical novels and stories set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings--as oppose...more

Trash Talkers — 119 members — last activity 15 days ago, 01:05AM
Calling all those who love so called "trashy" romance novels! Historical, Regency, Supernatural...Let's gab! Also, a little celebrity gossip...more

Time-Travel Romance — 128 members — last activity 17 hours, 48 min ago
A group to get together and discuss time-travel romance books, i.e., The Outlander Series, Nora Roberts, Susan Grant, Linda Lael Miller, Karen Marie M...more

The Bards of Luthiel — 100 members — last activity 08/03/2008 01:46PM
We are the Bards of Luthiel -- a very solemn order. Our rules are as follows:

The first rule of the Bard of Luthiel is to read and learn Lu...more

More of Nicole's groups …

block this member *