Bean Books

I found Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees a delightful story, entertaining, engaging, enlightening and brilliantly told.

Barbara Kingsolver is a favorite author with an easy style addressing many social and political issues with a light but serious touch. This book is no exception with a poignant story of an young woman of the earth seeking to make a life of her own remaining true to her roots and beliefs.

I loved this story, couldn't put it down. Barbara Kingsolver writes in such an amazingly detailed and colorful way that you can't help but become wrapped up in the story. This was a really lovely read.

My book club chose The Bean Trees as our monthly read and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a delightful, refreshing book about life, love, loss and the ability to overcome.
If you like Fannie Flagg and Billie Letts then you will enjoy The Bean Trees.

This is an incredible book, well-written, fun, moving, and gritty. Its truth and comments about the human condition are well blended into an easy-to-read indelible mark on your soul.

I found Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees a delightful story, entertaining, engaging, enlightening and brilliantly told.

Barbara Kingsolver is a favorite author with an easy style addressing many social and political issues with a light but serious touch. This book is no exception with a poignant story of an young woman of the earth seeking to make a life of her own remaining true to her roots and beliefs.

I loved this story, couldn't put it down. Barbara Kingsolver writes in such an amazingly detailed and colorful way that you can't help but become wrapped up in the story. This was a really lovely read.

My book club chose The Bean Trees as our monthly read and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a delightful, refreshing book about life, love, loss and the ability to overcome.
If you like Fannie Flagg and Billie Letts then you will enjoy The Bean Trees.

This is an incredible book, well-written, fun, moving, and gritty. Its truth and comments about the human condition are well blended into an easy-to-read indelible mark on your soul.

Ah, what to say about "Lord Foul's Bane", a book I always wanted to experience and finally did? Well, the opening chapters set on Earth were pretty interesting (how many modern-day lepers does one run into, after all?), but then, alas, things went downhill for me. For me, you see, the worst crime a piece of art/entertainment can commit is to be dull. And, too much of this long, meandering book was just that. And the hero's rape of the young teenager shortly after transporting into the fantasy world known as "The Land" really bothered me, too. Not so much because it occurred (I'm all for edgy, unexpected content), but because Thomas Covenant was never forced to deal with it. No paying for his crime. No real, lasting guilt. Heck, even the raped girl's mother didn't seem all that upset. The whole thing made me scratch my head in wonder.

But it was those dull stretches that really got me. There were many, many instances of the author taking five pages to cover something that could have been covered in one page, and sometimes even one paragraph. Full disclosure here: I'm one of those people who loved the "Lord of the Rings" films but found the books a little slow. So maybe I'm simply one of those readers not-predisposed to this sort of storytelling. But it sounds like many fans of the LOTR books had trouble with "Lord Foul's Bane", too, as well as the other Thomas Covenant books. For what it's worth, I enjoy both the "Wheel of Time" and the "Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series (though I'm not blind to their increasing longwindedness, either).

By the way, I listened to "Lord Foul's Bane" via a newly-produced unabridged audiobook production, read by the excellent Scott Brick. It was Mr. Brick's polished narration that was principally responsible for me making it through this title in a fairly timely matter. If I was reading the book in paperback form or on my Kindle, I'd definitely still be slogging through the middle chapters somewhere, forcing myself forward like a guy fighting wind gusts in a blizzard. Hence the extra star to what would have been a two-star rating for the book itself. Thanks for the lifeline, Scott!

Purchased this book on a recommendation. I'm about a hundred pages into it and realized that I was not attached to the "hero" figure whatsoever. Let me rephrase that, I could actually care less about the hero figure at this point. The story has yet to captivate me and realizing there are 2 more books after this I believe I should quit while I am ahead. No need in spending any more time or money reading about a whining hero who may or may not have powers from an old divorce. I'll give it two stars because It has resale value at the half priced bookstore down the street.

It's been a long time since I attempted to read this series. Convoluted, overdramatic, derivative. It's got some great descriptions in it; I still remember loving the Land just from the way it was described. But. 1) High Fantasy really has to work hard not to re-visit every bit of Tolkien. This one didn't start out different enough not to suffer by comparison. 2) The main protagonist is both annoying and loathesome. Theoretically, I know the books are about his redemption. In actuality, I can't care. We're never given enough reason to care. He never seems to have the potential to be *smart*, never mind heroic, or even humane. Even trying to read it again, going in with the knowledge that no, he's not all that admirable? He doesn't come across as interesting. 3) Slow book is slow.

If you like it, more power to you. You've got more patience and detachment than I do.

I've read a number of newer reviews and noticed a surprising trend of negativity and bashing. I've seen a few good points in some and but think some others are reaching, i.e letting a few character names ruin the whole series for them. Maybe my review itself will be looked down upon, but although there are similarities between Stephen R. Donaldson's tales and Tolkein's I actually prefer the differences in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Maybe I just relate with some aspects of it better.

I could put out a very long postive review of the book but think some previous reviewers had done a great job of it already. I just want to add that out of the many popular sword & sorcery and fantasy works I read growing up in the '80s this series is the only one I have found myself repeatedly coming back to over the years and gets an easy five from me.

Okay, I could write a review of this book, but it was so UNENJOYABLE that I quit. You heard me I QUIT, and I'm still writing a review. HAHAHAHA!! You can't stop me...and you shouldn't. If a book is so unenjoyable that I just couldn't go on, it deserves my honest review. But I'll save my time here, too. Find on the webpage for this book where to click to see all of the "one-star" reviews and you will see people say everything that I want to, only they say it even better.

Avoid this book. So bad. Seriously, I don't know how people see this as some "epic" "masterpiece." If you want epic masterpieces, check out George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire series," or Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorne trilogy." Those blow this piece of garbage out of the water.

This book started out really well, but halfway through, I found it lacking in excitement and story line...Although the research involved in this book appears to be extensive, it looses a little bit of the story line, focusing too much on Jesus thoughts...Not a bad read, just a little slow..

I have read the vast majority of Anne Rice's other books( liked them) and really liked Memnock the Devil. It was obvious in that book that Anne had a grasp on Christian theology so I was very interested to read Christ the Lord. What a disappointment. Boring and writen for kids. Poorly fleshed out characters and one part when Jesus ( this is minor)stops the rain on a walk home...yea sure I grew up in a desert and you are thankful for every single drop of rain you get. ( that is how to tell the locals from new comers...locals don't complain about the rain) So my point is that she doesn't really have a feel for life in the area and ...yea like sure I believe in the virgin birth. Just like I believe in George slaying a dragon!!! I do think that Jesus was the embodiment of the Christ spirit but this woman did a pitiful job of creating what could have been a rich spiritual novel. I hope her faith is bigger than this book. I might add that Krishnamurti wrote At the Feet of the Master when he was 12, he was great spiritual leader.I also have known Mystic leaders who also could heal people by their touch, maybe she needs to meet some people like that.

I realise that authors go through many stages of their careers, exploring different facets of their personality, trying different roles.

I am a great fan of Anne's work. I have attended dozens of her events in New Orleans, and own numerous signed copies and first editions. I love (with the exception of Queen of the Damned) the Vampire Chronicles, I enjoyed The Witching Hour, I owned the Beauty Triology when you still had to ask for it quietly in kink shops on the lower East side. I had read the historical novels when few people knew she'd even written them. I forgave her for selling the title of Exit to Eden to that debacle of a film. And I understood that she became deeply ill with diabetes, had lost a daughter, and then lost her husband Stan. I suppose such things could turn any renegade Catholic back to the Church.

I don't know how I would have felt about this book if it had been written by anyone in the WORLD other than Anne Rice. I have read other religious and antireligious works... I believe " The Red Tent" was one of the best books I read the year it was released. I have nothing inherently against fictionalized accounts, I've seen JCS, Godspell and Joseph so many times I sing them in my sleep (some folks dream of the wonders they'll do...)

However, over the many years I have read Anne's work, I have come to expect a certain kind of character, and a certain kind of book. Not even necessarily horror, the original scene aside books like " Cry to Heaven" are not horror novels. But I have come to look for the sort of sweeping tale Anne has given us for years. This was not it. This book creeps well into the range of what I would consider to be "oppressively preachy." While alienating her HUGE fan base with a book so off-the-charts Christian, I doubt Anne was able to approach the audience who would have enjoyed this book-- Bible Belt readers, most likely-- since she would have hopelessly alienated them by the time Belinda was released. I still own my copy because it completes my collection, but unless I encounter G-d on the road to Damascus, I do not anticipate being able to finish it. I am just completely unable to reconcile the authoress I have read passionately for two decades with this work.

I recommended this book to "The Pope" in my review, because I assume one of the only reasons she would write such a completely out-of-character novel is to "make amends" with the Church for her earlier sexually-charged works, so she might as well get credit for it upstairs.

This is a picture of Jesus - as a young boy - that fits comfortably into the character of Christ as found in the Gospels... and yet the creative detail imagined to fully render that character brings a fresh light and joy to the subject. The heart of this book testifies to its author's spirit of humility and grace.

Those who know the Lord will love this story. For those unfamiliar with Christ, what an introduction to the possibilities of his undocumented early years!

Thank you Anne, for moving us.

Anne Rice, famous for books such as "Interview with the Vampire" an "Queen of the Damned," brings her skills to tackle her most challenging work to date: a look at the childhood of our Lord and Savior. "Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt," the first of a planned trilogy, takes a look at Jesus during His seventh and eighth years on this earth, struggling to come to terms with His identity, as well as pondering the special powers He seems to possess, while returning to the family home of Nazareth during a tumultuous time, as rebellion has broken out through Palestine.
For the most part, Rice's novel delivers the goods. It is a fascinating portrait of how Jesus came to learn Who He was, and what His life was meant for. However, there are certain passages that tend to drag at times. Instead of focusing on the life-changing events of the time, Rice gives us details that, while interesting, just drag the plot out. But overall, this is an interesting look at how the Son of God lived at an early age. Christians and non-Christians alike should enjoy "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt."
Book Grade: B

My title sums it up. When this thing's plot actually bothers to tick over, it is sensational. Unfortunately that's only half (at most) of the nearly 800 pages. The rest of it is re-iterating things already stated, for instance explaining yet AGAIN that Renie is motivated by finding her brother, that her old man is a frustrating person to know, etc etc etc. If you cut out the discussion of Renie's feelings, there's 200 excess pages trimmed right there.

Then there's 'Paul', as wooden and empty a character as I've yet seen in fiction. He's like the parody of an 'everyman'. Far too much space is given to this non-entity as he stumbles blind through the world asking questions. Cut out the question marks after Paul's dialogue tags, and there's another 30 pages trimmed.

Then there are good, readable characters like !Xabbu, who is regretfully saddled to Renie's never-ending chapters (the author for some reason clung to that format of Renie Chapter/other/Renie Chapter/other till the bitter end. Why?? Mix it up, man. No one cares about synchronicity of your structure, it's the CONTENT that matters.) Or there's the kid who plays Thargor (forget his name) -- there's a good character, but I bet you if there were a thousand pages about his feelings, he'd be otherwise.

I really wish the great ideas and setup of this book had a chance to steer the story all the way through. There's a difference between 'epic' and 'padding', and this book has discovered it.

Tad Williams is at his best creating fantasy out of modern reality. Here he creates a virtual world, an internet run amok, that draws the reader in. It seems a very long story at first glance, but it is really a series of tales linked into a common thread. Each story can almost stand on it's on -- this would make a great TV series. As in The War of the Flowers, Williams seems to have a dark view of the future, and he writes well enough to put you in that mood if you forget that it's just a story. This is not a quick read, but it is worth your time.

City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, Volume 1) is an extremely well written book written for the indulgent, imaginative reader. This book is not for the impatient or action-addicted. Though this book is not devoid of fast paces and action, it mostly goes at its own pace. The book is written to mystify and use imagination as a tool of entertainment.

Tad Williams is a great writer. He uses vivid, powerful descriptions and he never over explains anything. Skeptical readers or impatient readers will not enjoy this book. It is excellent world building, excellent description, and well made, distinct characters. I would recommend this to any reader who is looking for what I previously mentioned.

The book has enough "a-ha!" moments throughout its chapters to keep you trudging through. Unfortunately, this was literally the only book I've ever seen where reading 400 pages yielded about a paragraph of information. The titular "Otherland" isn't even mentioned until after the halfway point of the book.

The book as a whole is just a dense block of text - all mass and no volume.

This was a very hard book for me to get through. The plot, while interesting, was dragged out to a bloated 800 pages, much of which was completely unnecessary to the story. Perhaps reading the remaining 3 portions of this novel will shed some light, but based on the reviews I've read here, I'm not holding my breath.

However, I did go ahead and purchase volume two. Towards the end of volume one, the action kicked up a bit, and some mysteries were revealed, and it is for that reason that I'm going to continue. From what I've read of the reviews, I can look forward to an even more excruciating experience while reading the River of Blue Fire. I'm still stuck with Renie and !Xabbu, but at least Renie's dad (I'm praying) will not make many appearances in this volume (You gone read that crazy book, girl?).

As for my actual review of City of Golden Shadow, most everybody has already said it better than I could, so all I'll say is that unless you are a fan of quirky virtual worlds (think of Alice in Wonderland), don't mind philosophical side trips about African folklore and religion, and can put up with a glacially paced unveiling of important plot points, then Otherland is probably going to be a frustrating experience for you.

On a side note, I went to a used book store today, and I found an obviously read copy of City of Golden Shadow sitting right next to a pristine copy of River of Blue Fire. I had to wonder if somebody purchased both at the same time, and decided that they couldn't put themselves through the chore of reading the second volume. I can sympathize.

I purchased this book with the intention that, like any other book I pick up on a whim, it would sit on an anxious, lonely 2" shelf space for about 6 months before I actually sat down to the job of reading it. However, fate had another course and I was invited to join a group of hunters out into the desert so I packed the newly aquired "piece" in my backback. Now, I'm not even remotely a huntress so I stuck to environs much more suitable for comfort and passivity (hunting is a geurre of kinds). Swaddled in a musty old blanket in the back of a "vintage" Airstream, guarded by two vanilla-haired vigilante hounds, I set off on a journey with an adolescent Florentine as my guide. The hunting party came back, shared their desperate and now deceased captives, and still I continued to read on. I finished the book by morning light and was in a haze through the remainder of the outting; beguiled by the descriptions of textiles (I hold a Bachelor of Science in Fashion), and intoxicated with the invocation of scents and sounds; vibrant evidences of well lived lives of a time gone by.

This book takes you back through the years to 16th century Florence seen through the eyes of a young girl. It also provides an interesting insight into Italian politics and art of the time. Alessandra Cecchi is forced into an early marriage with a much older man who is homosexual but wants a son, while her true love is a young destitute painter that her father brings home to decorate their private chapel. The experiences she goes through make this book impossible to put down. A must read for lovers of historical fiction.

I thought this was the best book I have ever read. I have never read a novel by Sarah Dunant before, and was quite surprised at the depth of her writing. She is ingenious in her descriptions of the Rennaissance period, and the life of Alessandra. It was thrilling, deceptive, and told the story perfectly. I have now picked up several more of Sarah Dunant's novels, and I look foreward to reading more of her work. Fabulous book, couldn't put it down!!

I picked up this book a few years ago, and just last week reread a few chapters to see if I still liked the novel as much as I did when I first bought it. I'm happy to say that it is just as good the second time around, and even though I had had read the book before, I couldn't stop myself from reading beyond chapter three. I finished it again, and I think the reason I loved this book was the vivid descriptions of Renaissance Italy. Few historical fictions I've come across evoke the Italian Renaissance with such beauty.

The protagonist is an artist, and the author depicts her setting with a true artist's eye.

I suppose that I held a bit more of an expectation for this novel than usual because of the time it sat on my bookshelf until I found the opportunity to read it...and perhaps that added to my slight disappointment in it. Although Dunant writes with a mostly smart and rather seductive language, I found myself a bit tired of all the "modern" twistings and soap-opera antics by midway through the book. At times, the main character Alessandra speaks as if dictating passages of a sexually repressed sixteen year old's diary, and being wrapped up in her thoughts took me away from the whole feel and magic of the Italian Renaissance. I enjoyed the story, but I could not immerse myself in the true history, beauty and the art of the era, which I had hoped would be a large part of the novel's intrigue.

The essence of George Washington is everywhere in America. When we take out our billfold to pay a bill, there he is. When we watch the news of TV we always have reports from Washington. George Washington is the American version of Mount Olympas. He's there looking rather stoic on Mount Rushmore.
Mr. Ellis goes into great detail in giving us a read on who George Washington really was. As Ellis has found out, George Washington was a rather ordinary person who was neither a military genius nor an intellectual. What Ellis discovers is a man of ambition and stamina who had the ability to learn from his mistakes and also capitalize on the mistakes of his adversaries.
We find out that Washington realized that America would not survive without a strong central government base. He saw that a loose confederation of States would never survive nor prosper.
Ellis probes into Washington's use of power and his laying the basic tenets of the office of the President. The fact that his title was Mr. President and not Your Excellency can be attributed to Washington never wanting to base the office as a Monarch. Washington also set the precedent of 2 term stays at the White House until it was broken by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election. FDR did indeed tamper with Washington's precedent and Congress followed with the 22nd Amendment on February 26, 1951 limiting the President to 2 Terms in Office.
As Michiko Kakutani states in her New York Times book review, this book by Joseph Ellis breaks no new ground, but "it nonetheless provides a lucid, often shrewd take on the man Mr. Ellis calls the "primus inter pares, the Foundingest Father of them all." And it does so with admirable grace and wit."
Well I do agree Ms. Kakutani! Five Stars!!

Several years ago I decided to read at least one biography on every US President. Hearing a short lecture about Washington at a museum was a big catalyst for my decision. Here was a man that had transcended humanity in so many minds to be more of a iconic symbol of our nation's birth and it's ideals. I wanted to learn more about the person - not just the icon.

Ellis' book is the second biography I've read on Washington. (John Ferling's is the other.) While there is certainly plenty of personal interpretation on Ellis' behalf, there's also plenty of reality.

I know some readers are put off by this. They want to remember and recognize Washington for the great man he was and deem any attempt at adding to that picture as sacrilegious. I disagree. I think seeing a more complete and flawed image of the man himself makes him more accessible. Washington is no longer this man way up there on a pedestal that we can never connect with or identify with. He's a real person that did some amazing things in his life because of his integrity and his fortitude. Nothing in this biography (or Ferling's for that matter)takes away from that. For me, today sitting on the other side of the cover of these two books, George Washington is a real human being that had his faults as well as his strengths. He's a guy that capitalized on what he's good at and who was able to hold together an infant nation of wildly diverse people's simply because of who he was and the leader he was. Washington isn't less of gifted leader to me after reading this book - in fact, seeing "all of him" makes him *more* of an awe inspiring man.

Some have wanted to reserve 5 stars to a "War and Peace" type book. To me 5 stars means the book did what it set out to do and did it well. "His Excellency" indeed did. It is an excellent short biography of the father of our country. When I picked this book up, I realized all I knew about Washington was what I had been taught in grade school.

Ellis is an excellent biographer who delves into many aspects of Washington's life. The narrative moved well and was entertaining. Some may be put off by Ellis' style of going into analysis of issues. I found that this added to my understanding.

Washington indeed was a great man who's influence reaches us to this day. Now I know why!

The modern "pyschological" biography attempts what is probably an impossibility: to penetrate and elucidate the core "personality" or "character" of an historic figure. The danger that the resulting portrait may be a novel masquerading as a biography, a creation of the author rather than a rendition of the subject, is great. Still more so when the author has clear psychological quirks of his own, and a contemporary political axe to grind. When he also has formidable literary skills, the danger of creating a cogent, compelling lie is acute. This is certainly so in the works of Joseph J. Ellis. He has admitted telling lies about his alleged role in the Vietnam War, demonstrating that his own character and personality are not wedded to the truth. Stranger still, in light of the content of his self-aggrandizing fabrications, he is an avowed political liberal. Something very odd was going on in his own psyche. More recently, he has written that the political vision of Barack Obama accords with that of the Founding Fathers (or, as Ellis calls them, the "so-called founding fathers"). There are thus multiple reasons to be skeptical of Ellis' several attempts to psychoanalyze the Founders. In this volume the patient on the couch is Washington. It is altogether too convenient that Ellis' Washington is a man whose primary impulse is to seek control in all things, but above all in the attempt to control his own reputation (or, as we might say, his "image"), both for contemporaries and for posterity. That's the psychology; as to the politics, Ellis' Washington is the Founding Liberal, prescient in his perception of the need for a strong national government that would curb the rights that Jeffersonians, and today's conservatives, regard as reserved to the states and the people. According to Ellis, the psychology and the politics are linked: Washington's belief in a strong national government was an external projection of his inner control. As is typical with this sort of work, any behavior or pronouncement that departs from the general "insight" is just the exception that proves the rule. Ellis even manages to turn Washington's Farewell Address, with its admonition against foreign involvement, into a harbinger of Kissingerian internationalism. Although this book is well written, indeed a joy to read, and is superficially convincing, I am deeply suspicious.

While it's totally hip to de-mythify things our parents (silly things) thought were good, Ellis's de-mythification of Washington is not satisfying. His basic thesis is that Washington was a nincompoop who happened to be in the right place at the right time his whole life. That's unlikely, and it doesn't explain why Washington was a legend in his own time as well as our own, unlike most "mythical" legends, whose myths grow in time.

Five stars for doing what everyone else does.
Two stars for insight.

I have enjoyed the book but felt it was somewhat of a slow read. Thoughful and reflective.

I didn't know much about Wright and enjoyed this book - learning about his work and getting a glimpse into his personality. Although the work was mainly about Mamah, and got a little dull at times, overall it was a quick read and well written.

I read this book based on a recommendation from a friend. Even though I am not usually a fan of historical fiction, I was interested, as I have been to Falling Water and knew a few things- or so I thought- about Frank Lloyd Wright.
I was truly captivated by this book. Loving Frank tells of the clandestine love affair between the Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney. This book was so amazing from a feminist stand point...Mamah was a very well-educated, strong woman who was trying to fight her way in a man's world. She did not get a fair shake in the world, but was very courageous.
The end was quite a shock and inspired me to find out more about the lives of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney. (Ahhhh, now I understand the draw to historical fiction!) I spent a few hours on the internet researching after I finished reading this wonderful book. It is a story that will stay with you, and leave you wanting more.

A rather disappointing book after all the hype. Too much dwelling on Maymah's emotional torture and not enough on the relationship that drove her to leave a conventional life for that of an outcast. Too little about Frank and I still am not sure why she loved him since she portrayed him as a completely arrogant and self absorbed creature. The pain of leaving her children was well documented and finally tedious but the joy of being with Frank was stated but not explored. Too much minutia on financial matters and then all brushed away as she travels and studies and does as she pleases. Felt there should have been more at the end about Frank to tie up her influence on his life.

Loving Frank fictionalizes the love affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Mamah Cheney, a union that scandalized the world. Mamah is a woman who prizes ideas and personal freedom over convention and subservience, but sadly, she also prizes this above motherhood, and they leave behind their marriages and a tribe of children to go abroad together. This brings scorn upon them from every direction. Whereas Frank is condemned for being merely naughty, she is deemed perverse.The novel paints an accurate portrait of anti-feminist social mores of America, prone to a busy-body, indignant hypocrisy, then as now. Horan does a mainly predictable job with this material.

The flaw in this book is the lack of spark! The writing, and the characterizations are dull and insipid.Wright's genius is treated like an encyclopedia subject, the reader has to be told, not shown; we feel none of his fire. Mamah, is portrayed as his thoughtful and provocative equal,but we have to take it on faith, because she doesn't seem to be more than a foil for his narcisissm and excess.

Frankly, I was bored.

I really liked the start of this book, written from the point of view of an outsider, it helps to draw you into this strange world. This book is a good read for those interested in folklore as there are many traditional tales and creatures interwoven throughout. However by the middle of this book I found myself tiring of the constant dangers and quaint (but somewhat irrelevant to the story) tales of the fantastical creatures of this world as it was a little repetitive. I found myself skipping paragraphs just wishing the author would get to the point.
Overall I enjoyed parts of tis book but not enough for me to pick up it's sequels.

I knew this book was going to be dreadful the moment I saw the "Acknowledgments" page where the author had her initials fashioned after Tolkien. If that doesn't say "wanna-be" I don't know what does.

The story begins.
A bad beginning.
Envision the beginning of THE BOURNE IDENTITY but with flowery prose that would be the equivalent of watching BOB ROSS painting "Happy Trees" on PBS.

There are lots of made-up words, but there are lots of REAL words dredged up from some long-lost thesaurus. Words like "eldritch" should only be used if your name is H.P. LOVECRAFT. It got so bad that after a while I couldn't tell which words were made-up and which ones weren't.

Not only are there made-up words for her language, but they're also unpronouncable. How one gets the sound of "baavan shee" from a word spelled "Baobansith" is beyond me. A good fantasy-language should draw you in with its charm, not scare you off.

Several pages in a storyteller tells a tale. Problem is, the protagonists in this tale are utterly stupid, even when you take into account the fantastic situation they find themselves in. When an unnaturally perfect horse is invitingly growing loooooonger, why on earth would you want to sit on it?!

The map of the world is one of the most sparsely populated I've ever seen, so I wasn't expecting any exotic locations, which is a shame. There might have, but I'm not willing to read further to find out.

In spite of my dislike for this book, resulting in my being unable to finish it, I still give it two stars as there are many other books more qualified for the "Worst book ever-written" category.

This book has a terrific beginning in close third-person as a mute, amnesia-stricken youth with a disfigured face escapes imprisonment. He is grudgingly taken in by an old serving woman in a huge manor-tower reminiscent of Mervin Peake's Gormenghast series with its elaborate hierarchies of spiteful servants and decadent aristocrats.

Outside the manor stretch lush Australian forests - major points for avoiding Northern European fantasy clichés. Even better, a mineral exists that defies gravity, and an elite class has arisen of couriers and sailors who use it to travel on the air.

Then comes my first gripe: the author's enthusiasm for stuffing Celtic folklore down our throats. (In the afterward, she waxes on about rescuing Celtic folklore from obscurity, apparently not realizing that it has long ago been strip-mined and incorporated into modern fantasy to the all-pervasive extent that it feels absolutely worn out to many of us fantasy fans.) Here, the servant class tells way too many folktales about water-horses and such that I have already read many times elsewhere.

Then the plot veers away from the intriguing interpersonal dynamics of the manor, and turns into a simple adventure story. Our hero escapes the manor, finds a new friend, wanders through the forests on a treasure hunt (now the folklore actually starts happening to them), and finds out something major about what he really is. I don't want to give this away, but I found it disappointing that he subsequently seems weaker and diminished.

There's a brief stay in a city, then another wilderness journey with yet more folklore happening, and an encounter with an impossibly perfect Aragorn-type ranger with whom our main character falls into unrequited love. In the end, voice and face are restored, and of course our main character is now gorgeous.

My main gripe is that the adventure/folklore suppressed the characters. They were under-drawn. Plus they barely interacted with each other at all, leaching the book of any real strong interpersonal tension. I may go on with the series, but this first book didn't live up to its terrific beginning.

I could not make myself finish this. Horribly twee, with too much forced floweryness. You could give it a rating of 5 florids out of 5, perhaps! Anyway, it is possible younger girls may enjoy this, but for a fantasy of kid hidden away, must escape and do great things after being a servant, then it is pretty easy to find dozens of more worthwhile books, whether for young people or adults.

I am shaking my head in bewilderment at all the rave reviews here. I have never had such a hard time reading a book. I felt like I was forcing myself through never-ending sludge. The author certainly proves she has an expansive vocabulary and a wild imagination, but her style is anything but engrossing. After 100 pages I couldn't care less about the characters or storyline. I do not recommend buying this book. It was not what I expected at all.

not really sure about this book...its an overall pretty good read.....it was the first book of hers i had read......more than likely i will purchase another......overall a good read

This is my third Nora Robert's book. The first two I read were written in 1995 and 1998 and I didn't like them much. Because this is more recent, 2006, I'm wondering if her later work is better than her earlier work. I may try another of her more recent novels. This book "Angels Fall" is about a talented woman chef who has been terribly wounded by surviving a gunshot massacre. She moves away, is in the process of healing and witnesses another murder. It's a good murder mystery. The story also has an interesting romance developing between the chef and a writer who helps her. I enjoyed reading about these two characters. I also enjoyed a supporting character, Joanie, owner of the diner. There were some good lines. I'm extracting parts of three of them here briefly, but they are better within the context of the story. Page 211, after he said her eyes looked tired, she thought "He would always be brutally honest with her. Tough as it might be on the ego, it was better than platitudes and soft lies." Page 266 "a man puts his hands around a woman's throat once, he could do it again." Page 279 "what selfishness you have seems awfully healthy from where I stand."

Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: four. Setting: current day Wyoming. Copyright: 2006. Genre: romantic mystery.

To date I've read the following Nora Roberts books.
4.5 stars. Angels Fall. Copyrt 2006. Review Date 6/30/08.
3 stars. Spellbound. Copyrt 1998. Review Date 1/22/07.
Born in series:
5 stars. Born in Fire. Copyrt 1994. Review Date 7/04/08.
2 stars. Born in Ice. Copyrt 1995. Review Date 6/30/08.
3.5 stars. Born in Shame. Copyrt 1996. Review Date 7/04/08.

Mystery written by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts):
2 stars. Naked in Death. Copyrt 1995. Review Date 7/05/08.

I have over a dozen favorite authors, in all genres, but NR is definitely on the list. First off, I'm amazed that she has been such a prolific writer, while continuing to crank out the level of entertainment she provides. Yeah, much of her work is frequently described as formulaic, but when I need a relaxing, comfort read, I turn to NR. Nora and a little piece of chocolate and I'm healed.

I loved this read! It was like a brief vacation, with Nora's ability to so perfectly describe the environment. I could almost smell the fresh, crisp air of the Grand Tetons and sense the critters hiding in the mountains and swimming in the streams. It made me wish to pitch a tent and stay a while.

Then here comes Reece, sputtering into town in her overheated Chevy Cavalier, battling severe PTSD, with mistrust of everyone, including herself. She hasn't been able to land and stay anywhere very long. She's been on an aimless journey, running from herself and her own emotions, after a near death experience. Her car trouble grounds her long enough, that she begins to realize she can't change anything about her past, except her reactions to it. She learns she needs to fortify her backbone. Some of it---the hard way.

The secondary characters are very entertaining, particularly Brody who shows guarded interest in Reece. She's cute, but he's just not that interested, until he is involuntarily dragged into what may have been a murder scene, witnessed by Reece. Or, is Reece just a little unreliable, considering her traumatic event? Many would say she has the right to have some brief, reactive psychotic episodes, considering her past. She does come off a little quirky, sometimes. Time will tell.

The Cafe patrons', where Reece lands a job, are fun to visit with and you feel like you're sitting at the counter, sipping a cup of coffee, while eavesdropping. The cantankerous Cafe owner is a hoot. She is...and isn't, what she appears to be, on many levels. I found her a delightful dichotomy between Drill Sergeant and nurturer, in a crusty, believable way.

If you're a NR fan, I'm quite sure you will find much to love with this read. And, if you're not, you probably still will, too. It's a great reminder that women have internal strength that can pull us through almost anything---if we just remember to make it our mission to connect with it---regularly. Also, that women need to stand up and mentor other women in crisis. We are one!

I'm a great fan of NR and I was not disappointed. I've liked everything about this book, and wanted to remain as long as possible with Reece, Brody, Joanie, Linda-gail et co. Sorry to see it end, since I've spent so many pleasurable hours reading it.

This book has it all , Romance and a Thriller .
To me it is the best of Nora Roberts .

Reece leaves big city Boston after she has been shot in a restuarant , and heads out driving not knowing for sure where she is going and then she comes to the small town Angel Fist and thinks this will do for awhile, as her car is breaking down , she sets out and finds a job she loves and meets Brody on a trail she is hiking . But Reece see's something on that trail and as she is running she bumps into Brody and it is Brody that ..... Sorry you got to read the book to find out what happened to Reece on the trail and to see how Brody handles all this . Trust me it is well worth reading .