false 4 194 182 true 7932403 read 3 true 7932402 currently-reading 9 true 7932401 to-read 51 false 7932639 contemporary-fiction 36 false 7932644 literary-fiction 36 false 7932652 historical-fiction 32 false 7932654 humor 31 false 7932693 british 31 false 7932680 england 27 false 7932671 short-stories 26 false 7932688 classic 23 false 7932719 fantasy 22 false 7932679 new-england 22 false 7932686 romance 20 false 7932649 19th-century 20 false 7932638 adventure 16 false 7932767 family-relationships 15 false 7932708 new-york 15 false 7932673 coming-of-age 15 false 7932709 small-town 13 false 7932756 constraints-of-marriage 13 false 7932733 nonfiction 11 false 7932754 young-adult 11 false 7932768 family-dysfunction 11 false 7932749 mystery 11 false 7932653 murder 9 false 7932683 falling-in-love 9 false 7932772 new-york-city 9 false 7932735 travel 9 false 7932836 personal-odysseys 9 false 7932655 based-on-a-classic 9 false 7932721 magic 9 false 7932669 immigrant-experience 8 false 7932791 working-class 7 false 7934754 science-fiction 7 false 7932837 odysseys 7 false 7932676 fathers-and-daughters 7 false 7932742 childhood 6 false 7932678 fathers-and-sons 6 false 7932694 gothic 6 false 7932717 second-chances 6 false 7932743 memoir 6 false 7932661 south 6 false 7932844 western 6 false 7932716 west 6 false 7932647 unreliable-narrators 5 false 7932643 india 5 false 7932699 france 5 false 7932797 mental-illness 5 false 7932711 upstate-new-york 5 false 7932741 1950s 4 false 7932707 ghosts 4 false 7932691 thrillers 4 false 7932706 science 4 false 7932804 mothers-and-daughters 4 false 7932651 canada 4 false 7932659 friendships 4 false 7932789 brothers-and-sisters 4 false 7932725 fairy-tales 4 false 7932769 adultery 4 false 7932788 brothers 4 false 7932830 magical-realism 4 false 7932831 realism 3 false 7932817 british-colonization 3 false 7932690 survival 3 false 7932765 civil-war 3 false 7932827 servants 3 false 7932937 art 3 false 7932833 explorers 3 false 7932912 essays 3 false 7932803 epic-fantasy 3 false 7932866 egypt 3 false 7932660 music 3 false 7932758 time-travel 3 false 7932696 journal-writing 3 false 7932641 horror 3 false 7932851 wilderness 3 false 7932806 song-of-ice-and-fire 3 false 7932919 1920s 3 false 7932657 based-on-real-events 3 false 7932953 max 2 false 7932843 american-west 2 false 7932846 australia 2 false 7932848 ireland 2 false 7932764 abolitionist 2 false 7932950 lake-wobegon 2 false 7932783 chess 2 false 7932815 world-war-ii 2 false 7932701 french-revolution 2 false 7932705 first-contact 2 false 7932946 arthurian 2 false 7932954 poetry 2 false 7932746 academia 2 false 7932712 meaning-of-life 2 false 7932779 romantic-fantasy 2 false 7932931 alaska 2 false 7932905 authors-as-characters 2 false 7932744 midwest 2 false 7932951 minnesota 2 false 7932958 paris <![CDATA[Karen added 'I Was Told There'd Be Cake']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78498263 I Was Told There'd Be Cake (Paperback) by Sloane Crosley
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76772813 to: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (Hardcover) by Kazuo Ishiguro
bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, music, short-stories
Audiobook review: I found the title story almost unlistenable. I disliked the characters and found the narrator to be obnoxious. "Crooner" and "The Cellist" are told by the same character, an aging musician playing in Venice, and the actor narrating (Mark Bramhall) had a lovely talent with accents. "Come Rain or Come Shine" about a man trying to help his two friends get back together was a funny story (read by Simon Vance) that could easily be adapted into a quirky British comedy. Overall though, I thought the whole book was uneven and not a must read. ]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78009129 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) by Stieg Larsson
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78009042 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (Paperback) by Terry Pratchett
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'That Old Cape Magic']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76772821 to: That Old Cape Magic (Hardcover) by Richard Russo
bookshelves: constraints-of-marriage, contemporary-fiction, family-dysfunction, family-relationships, new-england, personal-odysseys, unreliable-narrators
Melancholy tale about a middle-aged couple coming to a bump in the road of their marriage with lots of flashbacks to the main character's childhood among self-absorbed, nasty parents. To be slightly snarky: this read like a Lifetime movie for men and not at all what I'd hoped for from the author of the wonderful Empire Falls. Ah, the cruel shadow of success.... ]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'Throw Like A Girl: Stories']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76772654 to: Throw Like A Girl: Stories (Paperback) by Jean Thompson
bookshelves: adultery, constraints-of-marriage, contemporary-fiction, falling-in-love, family-dysfunction, family-relationships, friendships, literary-fiction, short-stories
Ahhh... very satisfying. This collection of short stories is best read in short doses, story by story, as most feature similar characters and situations, i.e. bad marriages, discontent women. Still, I love Thompson's structure and intermingling of first and third person voices. She really knows how to end a good tale with a declarative punch. I enjoyed her follow-up to this collection, Do Not Deny Me, even more than this. ]]> <![CDATA[New Update::UpdateArray update]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'Return to Hundred Acre Wood']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76772816 to: Return to Hundred Acre Wood (Hardcover) by David Benedictus
bookshelves: based-on-a-classic, friendships
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
]]> <![CDATA[Karen added 'Servants of the Map: Stories']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76772432 to: Servants of the Map: Stories (Paperback) by Andrea Barrett
bookshelves: adventure, literary-fiction, science, short-stories
I stumbled on Andrea Barrett in one of the America's Best Short Stories anthologies some years back. Her title story, Servants of the Map, was an elegant historical fiction tale about a man (German? Swedish? I forget) who goes off on a scientific expedition and writes letters back to his family who have not seen him for a long time. Barrett weaves very intelligent stories about (mis)adventure in the pursuit of science--not a topic I'm normally hooked by, but you end up giving in to the fascination of the subject, both for yourself and for the characters who become obsessed by it. Servants of the Map: Stories expands on this theme and also links this big world of characters she has created. Any book you read by her, including The Voyage of the Narwhal, Ship Fever, or her new one The Air We Breathe, will bring in familiar characters from the other books and what's delightful is that you will probably need to read Barrett's entire body of work--especially those wonderful books yet to be written--to see how everyone, in fact, connects.

Andrea Barrett isn't as well known as Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Alice Hoffman, but she's in their league and she's an excellent read. ]]>