false3717387true5720377read9true1295083currently-reading77true1295082to-read34false1312436fiction33false1312439non-fiction17false1312432history12false1817533children12false1312346favorites5false1363945self-improvement5false1312433biography5false1312424young-adult4false2588010science-fiction4false2052162humor2false2761540travel1false8467870historical-fiction
<![CDATA[new comment from Joel]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10712224
Joel's review of
The Trial byFranz Kafka
Maedeh wrote: "hi dear joel this book show aperson couldnt change his future and to end forget what was his problem please dont lauph to me my english isnt good and itrid to learn can u help me to improe my engli..."
Maedeh - Thank you for your message. I think you are right. The main character got so caught up in the process that he lost track of the substance. Don't be afraid to keep working on your English. The fact that you try is half the battle. I live in France and still struggle with French but I am not going to give up. You can e-mail me any time.
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<![CDATA[Joel added 'The Lightning Thief']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77862156
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)
byRick Riordan bookshelves: children,
currently-reading,
fiction
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<![CDATA[Joel added 'Johnny Tremain']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77862039
Johnny Tremain (Paperback)
byEsther Forbes bookshelves: children,
currently-reading,
historical-fiction
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<![CDATA[Joel added 'One Hundred Years of Solitude']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12510707
to: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Paperback)byGabriel García Márquez bookshelves: fiction
I had incredibly high expectations for this book; I guess too high. If I am lucky, this is the book that will teach me to trust my instincts and not spend time reading a book that I am not enjoying. I have a hard time walking away from a book that I have started and it is even more difficult when the book is a Nobel Prize winner and it considered by many to be the finest novel of the 20th century. I kept waiting for myself to like this book; hoping that something would happen that would turn it around for me. But it was not to be. A lot of people love this book. A lot of people I love, love this book. A lot of people whose opinions I love, love this book. I do not love this book. I am so happy that I have finished it and can move on to reading something else. I don't get it, I don't think I will ever get it. I won't go so far as to say that I don't want to get it. If someone can explain it to me, I will listen, as long as it doesn't take a long time and as long as I don't have to look at a family tree where all the names are the same.
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<![CDATA[Joel added 'The Kid from Tomkinsville']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71217053
to: The Kid from Tomkinsville (Odyssey Classics (Odyssey Classics))byJohn R. Tunis bookshelves: children
I read this book about 15 years ago when my father-in-law recommended it to me. I really enjoyed it but I had forgotten about it until he recommended it again, this time to my 12 year old daughter. This book was written when he was about the same age as my daughter and became very popular at the time, and is the first in a series of sports books written by John R. Tunis. But it is much more than a sports book. The Kid from Tompkinsville draws on the experiences of real athletes but is otherwise fiction. It captures all of what baseball is about -- being a rookie and learning the ropes, following (or ignoring) what the press has to say about the players and the teams, getting through injuries and batting slumps, experiencing different styles of leadership, winning and losing, and learning from mistakes. It really captures baseball at its best and the way it was meant to be. This is a pretty wholesome book and is great for kids. Some knowledge of baseball is needed to get the most out of the story.
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<![CDATA[Joel added 'Christopher Mouse']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73126462
to: Christopher Mouse (Paperback)byWilliam Wise bookshelves: children,
fiction
Christopher Mouse is a great, wholesome story. It is the story of a kind, white mouse as he gets sold to a pet shop, and then passes through a series of owners, good and bad. Along the way, Christopher experiences a lot of different emotions and learns a lot about life, all in a few weeks! One of my favorite sections in the book is the banter between a hamster and a parrot in the pet shop. The parrot used to live with an owner who was an amateur poet. The hamster, who has very high standards for poetry, can't stand when the parrot starts to recite his former owner's poems. The hamster insults the parrot and then the parrot refuses to speak until the hamster apologizes. The book also uses a nice selection of vocabulary words, as my 10 year-old daughter and I discovered about 100 new words that were new to her. This is a great book to read to your child, or for a child to read by herself or himself.
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<![CDATA[Joel added 'The Time Traveler's Wife']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76993111
The Time Traveler's Wife (Paperback)
byAudrey Niffenegger bookshelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[new comment from Joel]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75001872
Joel's review of
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay byMichael Chabon
I read a great article on the author in the International Herald Tribune, so I then went to Amazon and Goodreads to read about his books and this one sounded really interesting to me so it's on my list.
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<![CDATA[Joel Simon
voted on the book list Best Baseball Books]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vote/217475
Joel
voted on the book list Best Baseball Books