I have no idea how to rate this book. I HATE the subject: the sadistic serial murder of children and others. I try to avoid reading the blurb on the inside flap until after I've finished a book, but in this case it might have saved me hours. I began reading (and it IS a page-turner!) and got hooked before I discovered how creepy plot and subplots are. Once in, I kept reading in the vain hope that order of some sort would be restored in the end. I guess I have to give it a low middle rating, because the things I admire are more than cancelled out by the things that disturb me.

This is apparently a best seller in Europe. I read Steig Larsson's whole trilogy, which can hardly be called cheerful, and enjoyed nearly every twist and turn. But there the writing and the translations are superb, and at least some of the characters are people you can root for and identify with. In at least some of the truly evil situations, the punishment fits the crimes with a wry humor. That is not the case here. Besides the unrelieved darkness and humorlessness, I found the translation often intrusive, with frequent use of colons and semi-colons and odd word choices. Also, I am a fan of books where the setting is specific and necessary -- practically a character itself. The Whisperer is set in an unidentifiable place, and to further muddy the waters, the characters have a New York phone directory of names.

Just be forewarned. This is not a terribly written book. You won't guess what's coming. But to enjoy it you must be a fan of the blackest horror stories, which I am definitely not. You've been warned. Here be monsters.

The Philosphic Breakfast Club helped shape the modern world in which science plays a starring role. The PBC was four Cambridge students in the early 1820's who had long Sunday breakfasts together and discussed the role and methods of "natural philosophy", as science was then called.

This is a group biography--warts and all--of the life-long friends and occasional rivals who coined the term "scientist" as a parallel of "artist" and were the movers and shakers of science as it devleoped into something we recognise today. They were polymaths and prolific writers.

This is a very good book that connects the dots for anyone interested in history or science or the history of science.

Jeanne Baret's is a story of pioneering, romance, intrigue, adventure and science. It deserves fleshed out characters and settings. This book doesn't deliver.

At a time when people of her class seldom ventured farther than their feet could carry them in a day, Jeanne Baret not only left home, she was the first woman to sail around the world. When the only "profession" open to woman was the oldest one, she had a working knowledge of plants in the wild and how they could be used. She didn't travel in relative luxury as the wife of an expedition captain, but as the strong and knowledgeable assistant to the trip's botanist--disguised as a man.

PBS, please do your thing.

Despite using an f-word as a noun, this book grabbed me harder faster than just about any book I can think of. It was difficult to put down, and at first I would have recommended it to just about anyone, including my German physician daughter-in-law for my son to read aloud. Later, there were some of the most graphically violent scenes I have ever read. I suppose they did move the story along, and I still liked the story enough to give this top rating, but the nothing-left-to-the-imagination violence is a big reservation. You just know this is going to be made into a movie.

And no, I wouldn't give this book to anybody, certainly not my daughter-in-law or my doctor.

The premise is original, nothing is as it appears, the tale is very funny and intelligent, and--oh, yes--very, VERY graphically violent.

It appears that most BookBrowse readers really liked this book. I tried. Really, I did! With the news always so full of the current wars, scandal in high places, natural disasters and murders du jour, I thought it would be fun and relaxing to read a gentle story about three different love affairs in the Tower now, and pick up a few tidbits of history besides.

And yet, I thought this was a big yawn. Ms. Stuart was trying to emulate the style of a Victorian novel, I presume, but I found it distracting and tedious that she kept repeating some things over and over. Perhaps she is in love with her words or maybe it's careless editing, but I don't feel it necessary to be reminded every few pages that the counter in the London Underground Lost Property Office is original, the entire official name of the heroine's place of employment, the official rank of every character or the age of the tortoise. I did like that two of the love affairs were left to readers' imagination, but not enough to make me imagine I enjoyed reading this book.

Sigh.

This thoughtful memoir is written by a young man whose mother is white and whose father is a black man who came up in the pre-integration south. When he finally got the opportunity, Mr. Williams senior embraced books and scholarship wholeheartedly.

Growing up in a relatively white NJ suburb, the author and his brother bought completely into black culture as portrayed by BET and rap music. This is the story of how he moved selectively to the norms of the larger society. It's an interesting book with a few magnificent passages.

If money is no object in your family, pass on this book. If your college-bound student adores the pressure of tests and getting into a prestige college, don't bother with this book. If your student isn't interested in the wide world out there and how to make her mark, skip it. But if your family wants to save time and thousands of dollars in tuition and give your child the tools to become someone with impact in the global community,, run--don't walk--to your local independent bookstore and buy this book. Excellent advice and specific addresses to tailor your student's individual program.

When Poisoned Pen published this last year I looked forward to an interesting, offbeat mystery. So I was surprised that this is not a mystery in the conventional sense at all. Sure, there are (very) bad guys and good guys, but no actual detectives, amateur or otherwise. We don't know until late in the book not just who done it, but what they did. Perhaps that's why Poisoned Press sold the book to Delta.

Still, this is a wonderful story. It's got interesting characters that are easy to care about, and the plot is about things that matter. This is a tasty and nourishing meat-and-potatoes book, not just a fluffy confection.

What fun!!

This book has what I look for in a book: it took me to a time and place not well known to me in the company of people I care about. Even the bad guys are more than cardboard people.

The story follows Gen,an extremely restricted traditional young Korean woman who escapes to Hawai'i by becoming a "picture bride" in 1914. On the way she travels with four other picture brides, and we follow them for several decades as they make lives for themselves and mostly thrive in the slums of Honolulu. Real historical figures from Queen Liliuokalani to the cop that inspired the Charlie Chan character and a native Hawaiian lynched for allegedly raping a white officer's wife are unobtrusively woven into Gen's story.

My favorite of these is a wise-cracking whore that Somerset Maugham based his character Sadie Thompson on. Even Maugham himself has an (unflattering) walk-on part.

This novel was so interesting and involving that I intend to read Molokai as well, and I look forward to what Brennert produces next.

This book was a shock and an eye-opener. Of course anyone who's been paying attention in the last few decades knows that Saudi Arabia is a "sexist" society. Women can't drive, vote, etc. But the big shock to me was the guilt the detective felt about even thinking of or seeing a (dead) naked woman. The story was pretty good, especially for a first-time author, but the real deal here was the close look at beliefs, customs and lives in this society - and the truly extraordinary lengths some people will go to in order to circumvent the rules. I look forward to reading her next book.