I really enjoyed this book. I didn't want to put it down because it was written so well. The writing style was excellent with a section devoted to each character telling the story from their point of view. All the women characters are intelligent and strong even Ruby who is extremely precocious. To me, the theme was women empowerment and how decisions and events affect the women more than the men. When Aviva makes a very bad decision, she is the one who suffers the consequences, not Aaron who comes out of it with practically no consequences and goes on to a bigger and better life. Society judges women harshly.

This story was also very personal for me because I lived in Florida and knew all the locations mentioned and I knew women like Rachel and Roz. I have never met a woman like Embeth and at first I didn't like her. But when I read her section, I had a lot of sympathy for her. She did what she had to for her family and particularly her husband and for her own self-preservation but at a high cost to her mental health. This book was great and I have already told my friends about it. Book clubs will love it because there is so much to discuss.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was funny, crazy, sad, and much more. Every character had their own chapter where they related their thoughts which revealed the type of person they were. Except for Ollie, all were very insecure and misguided in their judgements of each other. The siblings had a dysfunctional relationship with each other and their mother but really loved each other. I particularly liked Alice who could spot all the phonies and even recognized it in herself. I like reading a book that's different and interesting and has characters with faults, just like the rest of us.

This book is filled with wonderful and unusual characters and Edsel Bronfman is the most unique of them all. For 34 years Edsel has walked through life without a clue to what is happening with the rest of the world. The nuances of life completely escape him and yet he has a great imagination and is able to 'size up' people except maybe his mother. Muriel is also a wonderful character as are all the other people in this book. I have never met any like them in real life which is why this book is so great. This book is funny, strange and a terrific read. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Book clubs will also love it because there is so much to discuss. I recommend it to everyone who likes to read a well-written book.

To me, this book was like a romance novel which is not my favorite genre. It's about an Englishwoman and her marriage to an Englishman who owns a tea plantation in Ceylon which is where the story takes place. She tries to fit in with her new life and her new surroundings. I felt it is somewhat formulaic with other books of this type. Of course her husband and she both have a secret that is revealed and confessed at the end of the book. Then there are the typical characters: the trusted servant, the jealous sister-in-law, the hostile plantation overseer, the beautiful business woman and the mysterious handsome native. The story did have a twist to it which kept my attention for awhile until I got bored and jumped to the last chapter to get the revelation. There were some interesting parts about historical events in Ceylon and the processing of tea. I am a tea drinker so I enjoyed reading that. As an aside, while I was reading, I spilled a pot of tea on the book. How ironic! I think that people who like reading this type of story will enjoy it and the cover says that it was an international best seller. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Ha!

I loved this book. The only word I can think of to describe it, is beautiful. Everything about this book is beautiful. The story takes place in two small villages in Provence where the author's descriptions are so real that I felt I was there. The book to me was a series of short stories where new characters introduced in each chapter relate back to characters in previous chapters. Generations of the same family are introduced in the stories and all the stories are intertwined with the happenings in the villages. It is just beautiful. I could read it again and again. I would recommend this book to everyone and I'm sure book clubs will love it. I hope to read more by this author.

This book is about a woman who grew up in a religious sect whose members practiced polygamy. It is a memoir and the author starts her story when she was 5 years old.
And what a story it is! This book reads like a novel and a could hardly put it down. I was truly amazed at the author's memory. She remembers conversations, the food she ate and even what she wearing. The author, Ruth Wariner, grew up in Mexico in a community where people were trying to live a life envisioned by a man (Ruth's father) who claimed to be a prophet. For me this was a story of misguided people who were living in a dream world that didn't exist. It is a story of deprivation, of a mother always making poor choices and of children who grow up poorly clothed, poorly fed and poorly educated. It is also a story of girls and women who in my opinion were brainwashed to believe that men were gods and had to be obeyed. One of the worst parts were when the author told about the pedophile husband her Mother and became his third or fourth wife. When the community learned about what he was doing, they really did nothing to protect the children. What kind of religion allows this to happen? Why didn't the wives of this man call the police? Although the author explains motives I still found it hard to understand the people who lived this kind of life. I admire the author very much because she had to overcome her upbringing with great difficulty and break out and make a new life for herself. This book is great. It will be a terrific book for book clubs because there is so much to be analyzed and discussed.

This book is a story of how people allow someone to take control of their minds. It is based on true events that occurred in Israel to a religious ultra-orthodox family. The mother, Daniella, and father, Shlomie are Americans who with their seven children .make Israel their home where they live among the ultra-orthodox communities. Both of them are trying to live a religious, spiritual life and are desperately searching to be as close to God as possible.
They feel that by be scrupulously observant in their religious life, they will be pure. Daniella is really a person who has no self-confidence and feels that she never can finish anything that she starts. And her mother who lives in the U.S. never lets her forget it. Even though deep in her soul she feels that maybe her marriage is not what she wants, she won't allow herself to think about it. Shlomie is a good kind-hearted person but can be rather stupid. They both come under the spell of a psychopathic
Rabbi who has horrible things done to the children and to Daniella and Shlomie. there have been many stories in the news about people who join fanatic cults and I have often wondered how people allow themselves to follow such leaders. The author really does show how an unethical cult leader can get into the minds of insecure people who are looking for something in their lives. This story show how the cult leader is able to manipulate people and take over their thoughts and feelings. The Israeli detectives who were assigned to the case had a very hard time dealing with it because of what happened to the children. The female detective had nightmares. The police are not hardened to these things as a lot of people believe. For me, it was very difficult reading portions so this book especially when describing the children. I think everyone should read this book as an insight as to what can happen to people who believe in phony prophets, ministers, rabbis, etc. it will make an excellent reading club book.

Like most people I never gave much thought about the Grimm brothers and their collection of stories with which we are all familiar. I was surprised to learn that the stories were folk tales from different countries with differences in some of the details. I really liked reading about Dorchen and her relationship to the Grimms and how important she was to the family. A big criticism I have is that in too many chapters in the first half of the book was Dorchen's 'he loves me, he loves me not' about Wilhelm which started to get boring. When the author finally got to the Napoleonic wars as part of the story then the book got more interesting. I always like to read about how ordinary people lived and how these wars impacted their lives.

Another part of the book that bothered me was the relationship between Dorchen and her father which suggested incest and sexual abuse. At first I thought it was a literary device to try to 'beef up' the story. But after I had read the Afterword I learned that many of these folk tales were sort of hidden tales of sexual abuse by parents. I wish I had read that first then I would have understood better. All in all I enjoyed this book.

The author is an expert in her field and she has written a book that I think many people would like. It is not like the run-of-the mill book you get now but is a work of fiction on a fascinating subject with many historical facts. This is the kind of book I like to read.

This book is amazing. I knew just a little about the sinking of the Lusitania and after reading this book I feel as if I were there on the ship. The rich details and tremendous research that obviously went into writing this book make for great reading. The authors describe the lives of the passengers and a history of that era and it is written In a clear and extremely interesting story. The authors describe how the war between England and Germany, the actions of the British Admiralty, the Cunard Line and the captain of the ship, Turner, all contributed to the sinking. The passengers who were aware of the danger were so naive to believe that nothing would happen to them. They were a product of that Era and the authors call it hubris. I really liked the descriptions of the lives of the passengers and of the Lusitania. While I was reading the chapter just before the torpedoes were released I experienced a terrible feeling of dread. The descriptions of the sinking and what was happening on the ship was truly frightening. I have never read a book before where I felt that it was happening to me. This book really is remarkable. I think everyone should read it to know what actually happened 100 years ago.

This is a story of a man, Peter, who travels in space to a planet, that is never identified, to be a religious missionary to the natives. The author has a great imagination describing the planet, the surroundings and the natives. However, I would not classify this as science fiction. This is really a story of what happens to people when they are in unfamiliar and strange surroundings and how people react when there are strange and unusual occurrences. Peter comes to this strange environment to be a type of religious minister and he eventually 'turns native'. There is a way to communicate to family on earth but Peter ignores his wife who was left in England and only wants to be with the natives. I also thought the people who were sent there to colonize the planet were very strange in their relationships to one another or perhaps their lack of relating. I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down until I found out what happens to Peter. I think this book would be great for book clubs because there are many themes to discuss.

While riding the New York subway, I often wondered how it was built. Not only did this book answer, but also told a great story. It was a fascinating book that read like a novel.
The subways were built with the help of many men who saw the need for underground transportation and had the intelligence, fortitude and money to make it happen. To me it showed the great entrepreneurial spirit of America. The stories of all these men made for a great read. I believe that anyone would love to read this book. It has clarity along with great story telling. I recommend it highly.

I liked this book very much. It is quite different from anything I've read especially in the way Indians are portrayed. The story takes place in the 1700's in the wilderness of USA. Syawa and Hector take Katie through the wilderness which is Indian territory and take her to many Indian villages. To me the descriptions and beliefs were very interesting. The author obviously did a lot of research. But the gist of the story is really about Kaie's discovery of her inner self - how she comes to realize how strong she really is. She also develops an understanding of her family especially her mother and learns why her mother behaved the was she did. She also accepts her fate and trusts her instincts and learns how to use them. She comes to accept the 'gift' that was bestowed on her by Syawa. The only criticism that I have is that at times it seemed like a poor romance novel especially when the first half was taken up with her emotional feelings. Then when she and Hector were journeying alone, I knew that of course there would be a love relationship. It was just a little too much. But all in all it was a good book and I think that women will like it a lot.

What a great book. To use a cliche, it really is a page turner. Every chapter and page was suspenseful and exciting. This book belongs to a genre of books that I really never read - David Baldacci type - so I found it very fascinating. I felt as though I were reading a How-To Handbook on the methods to commit a heist. There are really two stories, one in the present day and the other told in flashbacks, but the two stories do intertwine. The protagonist is the ghost man, someone who appears and disappears when he wishes and we never do learn his real identity. He is the narrator and his moral code is a simple one, don't kill anyone unless absolutely necessary and never reveal your true identity. The writing is great and full of all kinds of details. I believe that anyone who reads this book will love it and it will make a terrific movie.

I read this book based on BookBrowse review and was glad that I did. This is a story of a German housewife in Berlin during WWII whose soldier husband is away fighting. Life in Germany during this period of time, is something that is rarely told. It describes how she copes and endures all the hardships and bombings from Allied warplanes and daily criticisms from from a soured, old mother-in-law. She becomes sexually involved with a mysterious stranger and this love affair entangles her in something she never would have done at any other time. I found this book to be very revealing about motives, desires, selfishness and bravery. I felt the story was about ordinary people and the decisions they make about what they see happening before their eyes. It made me ask myself 'What would I do' under these circumstances, and my answer is 'I don't know'. This book gave me a different understanding of the German people. I only wish there had been more of them like the heroine of this book.

I have previously learned about the Armenian holocaust and was anxious to read about it in a novel format. I am certain the the author did much research and based stories of the suffering of the characters in the book on that information. But I found the style of writing very off-putting and couldn't relate or feel very sympathetic to the the plight of the characters in this book. I didn't like the manner in which the two settings in time were told. I really wouldn't recommend this book unless someone to learn little about this episode of history.

I loved this book. The stories of the two main women were so fascinating and interesting that I could hardly put the book down. Both women were adventurous and yet were trying to find a place for themselves in the world. As I read the book, I knew that eventually they would be connected in some way which only added to the story. This book is so well written and I felt I could relate to these women. All the characters were well defined and the incidents and descriptions of the locales were intriguing, especially in Kashgar. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a great book. I think book clubs would have a lot to discuss with this book.