Not as good as I'd hoped

This was my first Toibin, which was lent to me by a friend who highly recommended it. I love 'Irish emigrates to US' tales, so was looking forward to it very much.<br /><br />A simple tale, which I did enjoy, but I wasn't quite as taken with it as I'd hoped I'd be. Beautifully written, no doubt, but a bit, well, flat at times, I thought. Eilis didn't quite sparkle as I would have liked her to have done, and even seemed very undecided and a bit wimpish on occasion. <br /><br />Having said that, it is an enjoyable read and one which many emigrants could relate to.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

As it would be post Apocalypse

For a guy who nowadays sadly mainly reads magazines this is a book you cannot put down,harrowing ,heartrending and believable.In the End it will be like this.The most important thing in this world is mans humanity to his fellow man

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

My daughter loves this book, she's 2 and loves to listen to me read it and joins in and also takes it away and tries to read it to her barbies!!!! A very good choice of book to buy.

Nice little bit about Italy

But the rest - oh dear. I was half asleep through India, I'm afraid. And found the I-I-I me-me-me approach tedious. Average woman, living average life goes travelling and navel gazes. If she had turned the attention away from her wallowing self and travelled to, say, Iraq, or Somalia, or Afghanistan, rolled up her sleeves and got her hands dirty, not by scrubbing floors, but by helping others 'find themselves' and rebuild their lives - now THAT would be a book worth reading!

You'd be daft not to

<br />I ordered this book because it looked interesting. I wasn't hooked from the first line which, on reflection, I think is probably a good thing. This story weaves around its' central characters building up momentum but not in a traditional and tired way. It moves with its' characters and allows them space to develop without the reader seeing the writer's hand all over his characters. <br />The language of the book is beautiful and rich with tones. The characters are believable. The book is about as good as a piece of work can be. I was completely won over by it and as I finished it, I thought, 'I would have gladly paid double for that'.

Disturbing but not particularly interesting

I was really looking forward to this book after I'd read the blurb on the inside cover - the concept of a child taking on the impossible burden of finally finding and putting to rest the body of his murdered uncle to restore (create) a real family and put some happiness back into their lives was very appealing and totally different to anything I'd read before.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the read much. I appreciate that it is important to establish exactly why a boy that age would go to such extremes (digging holes in the moor for 3 years - and writing to a serial killer!) to find the uncle he never met, but the sadness in the family was really overpowering to me and the writing was too uninspiring to excuse this overload of hurt. There were also some discrepancies between the boy's musings on e.g. the UK's vs Africa's mineral wealth and the boy of 12 who can hardly spell and whose writing style is that of somebody much younger. The author does quite well in making the paedophile child murderer as disturbing and disgusting as he rightly should be, but it was also really, really off-putting to read about him and be exposed to the pleasure he takes in reliving the murders (which, it should be said, thankfully, are at least not described in graphic detail!).<br /><br />Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to read this book this week and I should give it another go some other time - if my opinion improves at such time, I'll update my review, but right now 5 minutes after putting the book down, 3 stars seems quite generous<br />

Wonders of internet shopping

Loved all his books so far and same for this one as well.<br /><br />Can't wait for the movie.<br /><br />Ordering over the internet was simple easy and got the book with a few days.

A Squash and a Squeeze

Daughter (aged 20 months) loves this book and have read it endlessly with her since purchase.

Excellent Recipe Book!

I've tried about 15 recipes so far. They are delicious thanks to the quality recipes. The instructions are easy to follow. It provides a weight (measurement) conversion & temperatures table so you don't need to worry if you are use to cup or oz or Gas/Fan. It has great variety of cake recipes. Ever since I bought this book, I finally realise that you don't need to be a chef to bake a perfect delicious cake as long as you have good recipe.

Touch of dead

Although this book will be finished quick because the print is large, it is a great insight into sookie stackhouse's world. I read it after I had finished the first 9 books, which I would reccommend as if you read it before it may ruin some of the plot.

The Shack

One of the most moving stories that I have read in a long time, I've laughed and cried, mostly the tears of joy, although it is fiction it has the ability to awaken a deeper truth and sense of being within you that makes the story real whatever your religious beliefs or your own innate sense of spirituality. A must, excellent as an audio book too. I have bought more copies to give to friends.

A masterpiece of clarity

Well yes, everyone should read this book; after which everyone will probably want to storm down to the City and start hanging bankers from lampost. No, not everyone who works for a bank, but some of the 'masters of the universe' who got us into this mess, clearly feel no remorse or even reflection that their models and prescriptions were wrong, and stand to ride out the storm while the rest of us suffer.<br /><br />This is a very clear, thoughtful, well-written book which sets out the roots of the present crisis and explains lots of the jargon with which the realities of the banking world are shrouded. Buy it, read it, give it as a present.

Ministry of Food

Appears to have some very usefull recipes. Great Hot Pot and Liver and bacon.

A MUST READ

While this is not the first publication to draw peoples attention to the impact of inequality, it is by far the most comprehensive and well written. The authors present compelling evidence that more equal societies, those with a narrower gap between rich and poor, are more cohesive, healthier, suffer fewer social problems and are more environmentally sustainable. It may prove uncomfortable reading for many but the book brings to the reader the hard realities of life in unequal societies like the UK and the USA. It promts the reader to challenge the conventional thinking about whether alowing huge inequalities is sustainable and to consider what could and should be done to develop a fairer society. This is a superb book and anybody at all interested in the society that they live in should give it a thorough read.

Disppointing

I have enjoyed reading Byatt before,. but I could only read 20 pages of this book.

No Incy Wincy!!

This CD will disappoint you. It only has 16 tracks NOT 25 as advertised. Very poor. Just for the record here's what's actually on the CD<br /><br />The Wheels On The Bus, Row Row Row, London Bridge, Hickory Dickory Dock, Miss Polly had a Dolly, Pop Goes the Weasel, Ten Fat Sausages, The Wheels on the Bus (again!), Grand Ole Duke of York, Girls & Boys Come Out To Play, Mulberry Bush, I Hear Thunder, Heads & Shoulders, Happy And You Know It, Twinkle Twinkle, Wee Willie Winkie

UNPUTDOWNABLE!

This is a brilliant book, with a good 'twist' at the end. Highly recommend to anyone who loves crime fiction. Superb!