Rashel - The United States (154 books)

Rashel is now friends with Maureen

Rashel is on page 100 of 402 of The Magicians: I'm utterly bored and annoyed. Taunted on the cover as a "homage" to Potter books, Lewis and other magical adventures, this is so dreadfully slow and pointless, it's making my teeth ache. Yes, I'm passed 100 pages, and nothing happens!!! Yes, the protagonist is in magic college, there's a character death, fight & visitor from another world. But each event got whooping 1 page coverage and guess what - I don't care :(

The Magicians
by Lev Grossman (Goodreads Author)

progress:

My rating:

Rashel is currently reading:

The Magicians
by Lev Grossman (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Rashel gave

to:

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern

recommended for: "visual" type of people, rather than "action" ones :)

read in December, 2011

My rating:

Just finished reading. One of the very rare (unfortunately) cases when the book is almost worth the hype. Beautiful narrative, interesting setup, very visually rich imagery. I was not crazy about the "choppy" style of going back and forth in time and...more

Rashel liked Stephanie's review of The Night Circus:

" My Summary: Celia and Marco have been trained in the magical arts since they were children. Told only that they will have to face a powerful opponent one day, each is taught using a different school of thought: Celia's a crude course designed by her ... "
Read more of this review »

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Rashel marked as to-read:

Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)
by Beth Revis (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Rashel made a comment on Danny's status in Timeless (Timeless, #1)

"Danny wrote: "OK, depends on what you are in the mood for.
1.) Funny, paranormal YA,:
[image]

2.) SciFi, YA and soo good:
[image]

3.) Awesome adult ......more"

Rashel gave

to:

The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain (Goodreads Author)

read in April, 2011

My rating:

Oh, how I wanted to like this book...
Lots of hype for it everywhere, I read an excerpt somewhere before picking it up, and it was romantic and exciting, mostly because it was describing a real people and events that actually took place. It felt pret...moreOh, how I wanted to like this book...
Lots of hype for it everywhere, I read an excerpt somewhere before picking it up, and it was romantic and exciting, mostly because it was describing a real people and events that actually took place. It felt pretty strange for me to know the ending before even starting a book - anybody, would be hard pressed to imagine that story of Hem's first (out of 4) wife is going have a "happily ever after". But like I said, I was looking forward to hearing fiction-ized love story between the legendary writer and the woman he married first. I'm not hiding this review, because being a fiction based on historical events, spoilers are kinda irrelevant, but if you're planning on reading and don't want to know exactly what's going to happen, STOP RIGHT NOW!
It did start interesting enough for me. Most of the book is told by Hadley, the "Paris Wife" herself. You get to almost experience her first meeting with young Ernest at the friends' house, her instant attraction and excitement. Everybody's young and hip and wide eyed Hadley drinks in everything that is going on around her. We find out the whole elaborate story of her childhood, and a string of tragedies and misfortunes that fell upon her family. It's actually quite amazing that she came out pretty "normal" with all this childhood psychological trauma...
Then it's on to a long-distance romance, daring plans and finally marriage. For me, it went down the hill from there. As soon as the newlyweds finally ended up in Paris, in search of fame and fortune, it fell into an endless string of meals, flowery talks and idle people watching. Everybody loved them instantly, and they loved everybody in return. Yet they keep bickering with everybody, take prolonged trips (by themselves and/or with other people), smoke, drink and eat non-stop. They gripe about supposed lack of money and recognition and despise others who seemingly have no problems finding both. Yet, Hadley never had a desire to work and spent her days pining for her husband, who was "wrestling" with his muse in a separate apartment all day long. She proclaims herself indifferent to fashion, yet spends pages after pages describing everybody's clothes in great annoying detail. She's constantly insecure and keeps hinting at "trouble in the air" although not much in the story at this point supporting her suspicions. When finally, her best friend AND her husband betray her, it's almost a relief! Yet, she lets it go on and on, literally lives with both Hemingway and his lover for months and drowns in indecisiveness.
In conclusion, I can only say, that yes, there were some morsels that I did enjoy in this book, like little facts about Hemingway himself and other writers, certain descriptions (for example of their collective fascination with bullfighting), and several chapters that are written from his point of view.
But overall, unfortunately, this book was hard work for me to read, and I felt like I just had to get it over with :((less)

Rashel gave

to:

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1)
by Deborah Harkness (Goodreads Author)

read in March, 2011

My rating:

One more of those "very hard to rate" books. One star off, because I could put it down. Another - for the lack of ending. I feel so ripped off, when the book doesn't come to a logical conclusion, all the building (sloooooooooowly and quite weakly by ...more

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Rashel is now friends with Maureen
Jan 29, 2012 01:08pm
Rashel is on page 100 of 402 of The Magicians: I'm utterly bored and annoyed. Taunted on the cover as a "homage" to Potter books, Lewis and other magical adventures, this is so dreadfully slow and pointless, it's making my teeth ache. Yes, I'm passed 100 pages, and nothing happens!!! Yes, the protagonist is in magic college, there's a character death, fight & visitor from another world. But each event got whooping 1 page coverage and guess what - I don't care :( The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Goodreads Author) progress:	My rating:
Jan 24, 2012 10:25am · like · see status
Rashel is currently reading: The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 20, 2012 09:16am
Rashel gave to: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern recommended for: "visual" type of people, rather than "action" ones :) read in December, 2011	My rating:
Just finished reading. One of the very rare (unfortunately) cases when the book is almost worth the hype. Beautiful narrative, interesting setup, very visually rich imagery. I was not crazy about the "choppy" style of going back and forth in time and...more
Dec 16, 2011 07:48pm · see review
Rashel liked Stephanie's review of The Night Circus: " My Summary: Celia and Marco have been trained in the magical arts since they were children. Told only that they will have to face a powerful opponent one day, each is taught using a different school of thought: Celia's a crude course designed by her ... " Read more of this review »
Dec 16, 2011 07:30pm · see review
Rashel added the Goodreads iPhone app
Jul 07, 2011 02:55pm
Rashel marked as to-read: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1) by Beth Revis (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Apr 13, 2011 11:37am
Rashel made a comment on Danny's status in Timeless (Timeless, #1) "Danny wrote: "OK, depends on what you are in the mood for. 1.) Funny, paranormal YA,: [image] 2.) SciFi, YA and soo good: [image] 3.) Awesome adult ......more"
Apr 13, 2011 11:36am
Rashel gave to: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Goodreads Author) read in April, 2011	My rating:
Oh, how I wanted to like this book... Lots of hype for it everywhere, I read an excerpt somewhere before picking it up, and it was romantic and exciting, mostly because it was describing a real people and events that actually took place. It felt pret...more
Apr 11, 2011 10:53am · see review
Rashel gave to: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1) by Deborah Harkness (Goodreads Author) read in March, 2011	My rating:
One more of those "very hard to rate" books. One star off, because I could put it down. Another - for the lack of ending. I feel so ripped off, when the book doesn't come to a logical conclusion, all the building (sloooooooooowly and quite weakly by ...more
Mar 30, 2011 08:21am · see review

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