I loved this book. Its incredibly well written, imaginative, and has great character development. I really like how Gruen uses the framework of the main character in the last stage of his life to ground the story of his younger days in the circus. I really liked reading about circus life. For me, it was long enough ago that the animal (and human) brutality seemed more like fiction. Totally recommend it! I couldn’t put it down!

Wow. Powerful. This is a spectacular book. I also loved Kite Runner, and often second books don’t live up to expectations, but that was not the case with Thousand Splendid Suns. The perspective of two women in Afghanistan over a ~30 year period of time starts out as shocking and unfathomable. But as Hosseini draws you into the lives of Mariam and Laila, their own struggles and modest triumphs become incredibly real. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Nearly 3 weeks and 500 pages later…and I still didn’t want it to end. Loved this book! Seton writes clearly but authentically, and uses the history to guide her fascinating story. Not knowing the actual historical outcome of the story perhaps made this even more enjoyable for me. Classic.

Ann Patchett’s writing style is fabulous. I think regardless of the underlying story line, I would enjoy reading her descriptions and anecdotes. However, this book also had a good backbone in the story of a woman who loses the love of her life (a gay magician) and embarks on a trip to Nebraska to uncover the story of his background and soothe her broken heart.

Drivel. Last 100 pages are slightly more bearable than the rest of the book. In the first 3/4 of the story, the shopping addiction and subsequent financial irresponsibility of Rebecca Bloomwood is apalling. Control yourself! Anyway, a quick read and not totally without merit, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Interesting subject matter, fascinating anectdotes, and a good dose of history. Hard to tell just how one-sided this book is about the Mormon faith, especially since this was my first experience reading in depth about this religion. But regardless of just how shaded this is by Krakauer’s own view, it told a compelling story, explained carefully the basis of the Mormon belief system, and described some very powerful events and decisions made due to a “revelation from god.”

Pretty interesting read…not the best written book of all time, but if the subject matter sounds good, I’d recommend it. Story of two guys who enter the Atlantic rowing race presented in diary-entry type form with each of the rowers describing the events of the 50ish days in turn.

I guess I just like Nicole Krauss. Her other book (History of Love) quickly climbed to my list of all-time favorites, and while I didn’t feel quite as strongly by this novel, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. She has a knack for letting the reader really get inside the main character. Wasn’t a huge fan of the science-experiment days described in the middle of the book, that I thought was its biggest downfall. Very interesting premise of a man who, at 31, is found wandering in the desert and has lost all memories from age 12 onwards.

This is undoubtedly a fascinating story. I was really looking forward to reading this book after all the press and the reviews. Though the events were interesting, the writing left quite a bit to be desired. Its hard to judge someone who has gone through so much, but the bottom line is that the flow of the book was hindered by the writing.

This was the perfect book to pick up in the Dublin airport and finish well before landing at JFK. I like historical fiction, and the story of Griet and get relationship with the painter Vermeer and is family was fascinating. Both a country and time period that it was great to learn about through this story. Highly recommend (its written well too, which is always nice)!