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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin (Non-Classics), 2007
Chew Slowly
I picked up Eat, Pray, Love in an airport over a year ago. I have been reading it off and on since then and still have not finished it. I am thoroughly enjoying this book. Perhaps the reviewers who left a 1 or 2 star rating read it in one day. Eat, Pray, Love is not to ...
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The Secret
Rhonda Byrne
Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2006
You'll Read It Over & Over Again1
Rhonda has captured the true essence of the law of attraction in a simplified format that is easily understood and can be put into action immediately. Great Masters of motivation and spirituality have been brought together to create a one-of-a-kind book that stands ...
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Middlesex: A Novel
Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador, 2002
I was turned off by the first sentence...but kept reading
It is true. I was turned off by the first sentence. I even thought about not reading the story. I decided I would give it more time and I am glad I did. This is a great story with many twists and turns. I would not recommend it to a conservative reader with high ...
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The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead Trade, 2004
A great work of fiction, a must-read
This book was just perfect in every sense. Obviously a difficult topic that many readers are probably sheltered from in day-to-day life but it is a story that anyone can relate to on many levels. I LOVED this book and was very inspired by the finish. I read a review ...
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The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
Cormac McCarthy
Vintage Books, 2007
End Road
In terms of the flow of language and gramatical structure, I really do not feel that Cormac McCarthy is a good writer. Though the book progresses clumsily at times, the engagement of the plot overcomes this flaw. With a morbid and disspiriting theme, the reader plots ...
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The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls
Scribner, 2006
a book of hope
A deeply moving, unforgettable memoir of a truly hard-scrabble life. What I admire most about this book is that Jeannette Walls never paints her family as victims. Nor does she portray her unbearably narcissistic parents as evil (even though it would certainly be easy ...
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz
Riverhead Hardcover, 2007
Worthy of the Prize
A common theme of novels on the immigrant experience is the success or failure of achieving in America or blending in with the culture. In this novel the American experience is incidental, the focus is on the ghosts of the former life.
The writing is raw and ...
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead, 2007
so addictive, so inspiring, so touching
After reading Kite Runner (highly recommend) I sought out A Thousand Splendid Suns. There is something about Khaled Hosseini's writing that is so addictive, so inspiring, so touching that you can't help but feel compassion for the young children in his stories. In Kite ...
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Loving Frank: A Novel
Nancy Horan
Ballantine Books, 2008
A great introduction to Frank Lloyd Wright
I knew almost nothing about Frank Lloyd Wright's personal life before reading this book and I must say for someone that does not usually enjoy historical fiction, this book is a winner. I was shocked that I couldn't put it down after the first chapter and that I found ...
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A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61)
Eckhart Tolle
Penguin, 2008
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
This is NOT a book about the earth's environment per se. It takes us back to our origin--our purpose in life when we awaken to it, to a spiritual basis of humility and oneness. To Consciousness. Tolle has a very logical way at arriving at this basis and one which we ...
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Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Dial Press Trade Paperback, 1999
Complex and Compelling
Vonnegut's novel is about life, thought process, and death set against the author's life experiences in Dresden during WWII and his fictional character, Billy, who we see through memories and partial linear plot line. In my opinion, the story, however; very important, ...
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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson
Vintage, 2004
An exciting while informative read!
The Devil in the White City is an exciting book. Thank heavens, since it is non-fiction, I knew that it ended well, otherwise I would have died from the suspense. I got such a rich perspective on what it takes to pull off an event like a World's Fair, or The Olympics ...
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon
Vintage, 2004
Fantastic
This book is a book that all teachers should read! Really lets you look into the mind of an autistic child. I could see some of my previous students and now understand better why they were the way they were.
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The Friday Night Knitting Club
Kate Jacobs
Berkley Trade, 2008
Exactly what I needed
I read this book on vacation this year on the beach and could not stop reading it! The characters seemed like that could be anyones friends and acquantinces. It was real to me and caused me to analyize my own 'cast of characters' in my life. When I finished, I ...
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Night (Oprah's Book Club)
Elie Wiesel
Hill and Wang, 2006
Simple, thought provoking
I've never read such a short book with such a huge impact. When I read this as part of a college class, we learned that it was originally some 600 pages long. Then the author decided to cut it down to the absolute bare bones - and it worked brilliantly.
Too much ...
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