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There are currently 24 member reviews
for A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
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Anne B. (Carson City, NV)
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
This book was very interesting moving back and forth as it does between present day London and 1923 Turkistan. There is a little mystery, a little romance, some intrigue and danger. The author did a great job of describing the 1923 desert landscape and made me feel like I was there. I had a little problem with a couple of the important, but not major, characters in that I wanted to know more about them and what motivated them. The main characters were very well drawn however. I think this might be a good book for a book club because there is a lot of meat to the story with a lot to talk about.
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Sharon B. (Rome, GA)
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
The action starts in the first few pages of this debut novel with the birth of a baby in the desert. Eva continues her story of living at a mission in a remote village in China in 1923 through her journal of notes intended for publication as a travel book. The hardships and intrigues of this adventure pull the reader in immediately.
The alternating third-person account of Frieda, a businesswoman in present-day London who is left a mysterious inheritance, is a little slower to get into, but about halfway through the book I could not put it down and was eager to find out what happens to both of these women.
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Vicky S. (Torrance, CA)
Lady Cyclist's Guide
I enjoyed the interplay of the two stories and timelines and I was surprised by how they connected but I didn't care very much about the characters. I set it down before a a weekend trip since I was nearly done with it and wanted a new book to take me through the weekend and then was not compelled to finish it when I returned. The variety of characters and the cultural differences though could make for interesting book club conversations.
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Andrea S. (Lafayette, IN)
Not What I Thought
I read the description of this book and thought I might find it interesting. Upon reading it, I found it to be slow and uninteresting. It is what I would call literary fiction, a genre I don't always enjoy. The plot was interesting, but Suzanne Joinson's writing style slowed it down and I would often just want her to get on with it. I did finish the book, but I was never really involved with the characters. I just wanted to see how she would end it.
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Jan B. (Tetonia, ID)
A LAdy Cyclist's guide to Kashgar
I love the idea of what the writer was creating with this story. Three women who leave London to become missionaries in Kashgar. Each of them with their own "agenda" as to why they were really going. I found some characters not very well developed, and the writing fairly bland, especially in the earlier part of the book. I also felt that the description of the different cultures were not fully realized, though the emotional intent was. It felt like this story is still in rough form, though with great potential if fleshed out more. I do like the counter story of modern day London, and the woman who gets left this estate with no idea of the connection to her. And the growing romance between the modern protagonist and an immigrant from Yemen was to me a delightful set of circumstance that unknowingly reverberated with her families past.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It feels undone.
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Hilary H. (Tucson, AZ)
Lady Cyclist's Guide
Overall, I enjoyed this book though I would not put it into the same category as Major Pettigrew's Last Stand which I loved. Suzanne Joinson has created two interestingly interconnected stories stretching from 1923 in Kashgar to present day London. Both tales were engaging though I liked the present day one better. I think Joinson could have developed the Kashgar tale more fully - I did not engage with all of the characters. I also would have liked to have the map which was not in the ARC edition.
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Pat M. (San Antonio, TX)
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
I started to read this book the first day it arrived. Halfway through it, I had no idea where I was with the characters and their relationship to one another and with the past and the present. So I started to read again from the beginning and I began to focus on the story and the possibilities of how the characters were interrelated. I guess this is the reason that I stayed with the book. Would I recommend this book to my book club, I don't think so. This book needs to go back to the drawing board. The premise is good, but it is poorly developed and it leaves many questions unanswered.
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