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<![CDATA[Katherine added 'New York: The Novel']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77680439
to: New York: The Novel (Hardcover)byEdward Rutherfurd
It was only my love for Edward Rutherfurd in general that kept me slogging through this book.
Sarum was the book that converted me to a Rutherfrudite; it's still one of my all-time favourites.
That book was clearly more personal than New York, because Rutherfurd gave it both a strong sense of time and place that kept me riveted. His characters were part of the fabric of their time and place, and the story was memorably strong.
New York, on the other hand, feels like a publisher's mandate to an author--"Keep up with the gimmick that makes us cash". There isn't much of a feel of the city in its old days. Sure, Rutherfurd tries to convince us (in the first 400 pages I think he mentions the 'gabled Dutch houses' about 50 times), but instead this book comes off like something that would happen if you did enough research into a place to fill your publisher's mandate but didn't actually care about it all that much.
The real problem, though, started for me about the time of the War for Independence and continued right on through to the end. There is an off-putting pedanticness about this book, with Rutherfurd feeling the need to lecture to his readers about American History. When he brings up things like Lincoln's proposed resettlement of the freed slaves there is an undertone of arrogance, as though the author is saying "Ha! Betcha ignoramouses in America didn't know THAT!!!"
I suppose if you are not a history buff, you won't feel as patronised as I did while reading this book. Then again, I suspect that a large share of his audience might be somewhat attuned to History, as that is the overarching theme of his works as a whole.
I wanted to like this more because of how much I like him as an author. But I found myself unable to be convinced by New York, let alone swept away.
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<![CDATA[Katherine
is on page 476 of New York: The Novel
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http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77680439
Katherine
is on page 476 of 880 of
New York: The Novel
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<![CDATA[Katherine added 'Lakeshore Christmas']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79431978
Lakeshore Christmas (The Lakeshore Chronicles, #6)
bySusan Wiggs bookshelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Katherine added 'Germ']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78563220
Germ (Mass Market Paperback)
byRobert Liparulo bookshelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[new comment from Katherine]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/244529-king-james
Katherine made a comment in the Goodreads Librarians group:
And what do we do with Thomas Nelson's copywrittten "New King James Version" that was actually translated by other people in the style of King James?
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<![CDATA[Katherine added 'This Christmas']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67534643
This Christmas (Paperback)
byJane Green bookshelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Katherine added 'The Ghost']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67483682
to: The Ghost (Hardcover)byRobert Harris
This was an okay sort of book. The fact that I was content to read it in fits and starts over a couple of weeks might give you an idea about how much of a thrill this thriller actually delivered.
I normally really like Harris' stuff because he's able to have a good balance between characters and plot, and his plots are well-paced.
This was a bit of a letdown because his pacing seemed to flag a bit. I didn't know until part way through reading this that Harris was actually quite friendly with Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain. I think that real life relationship cost some thrill to leak out of the book and I felt in some places that Harris was using this novel as a sort of apologia for Blair.
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<![CDATA[Katherine added 'Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78206714
Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success (Hardcover)
byJames Marcus Bach bookshelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[new comment from Katherine]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78150990
Lydia's review of
On The Edge byRichard Hammond