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This was a beautifully written story about 2 worlds colliding when a British couple is in the wrong place at the wrong time in Nigeria. This is where they meet Little Bee, and their lives become entwined.

I particularly liked the chapters that were written in Little Bee's poetic voice, viewing the world from her perspective that reflects both innocence and a horrifying loss of innocence.

I was less enamoured with the chapters that were written from Sarah's point of view, and I found her to be a very unsympathetic character, in spite of her sacrifice and her championing of Little Bee.

Still, I think it is an important story and one worth reading.

This was an entertaining, frustrating, thought-provoking, and interesting read.

Dana Lone Hill is a good storyteller. Her characters were believable and likeable, in spite of their flaws.

The book could have used a good proof-read. There were times when errors made the text confusing. )These errors were not part of the characters' vernacular--those "errors" were clearly intentional and appropriate.) In spite of this, the book was readable, and the story moved along well.

I teach adults who have returned to school in hopes of improving their lives, and I know people like "Sis", the protagonist. So, this story hit very close to home for me.

As with the first book, I listened to the audiobook version of this on a road trip. Loved the story and loved Tim Curry's reading of it.

This was an inexpensive beach read for me. I purchased the book for 50 cents at a discard sale, which is what I like to do with books to bring to the beach. I didn't have high expectations for it, and it exceeded those expectations, although I did get tired of the book's characters, and I found it, and them, to be fairly predictable.

I thought it would be f*ck!ng funnier.

Actually, there were a few LOL moments, and it was entertaining enough. I "read" this as an audio book on a long drive, and it kept me occupied for a couple of hours.

I'm glad it's finished, in more ways than one.

This book reminded me of why I don't often read Chick Lit. I must be missing part of the x chromosome that is supposed to find this stuff interesting.

I loathed the main character; she is so whiny and childish. Brooke acts more like a teenaged girl than a grown woman. Perhaps if the author had spent more time establishing her credibility--demonstrating her to be a level-headed, mature, and loving person--then she may have been a more sympathetic character. However, I found myself almost rooting for her marriage to fail, so her husband would be free to be with a grown-up.

Although Julian's behaviour is questionable, we see this through Brooke's point-of-view, and since the author hasn't effectively established her credibility, we realize that her point-of-view may not be entirely accurate. Also, she immediately starts sulking and being jealous and defensive. It's not as if she had to put up with years and years of this. She gives Julian no time to get control of things or figure things out. Yes, he is on the road. Oh, boo hoo. He calls her frequently. He invites her to everything, but she doesn't want to miss work (fair enough), but is hurt because he goes. What? Grow the frick up. What does she want? It seems what she really wants is for him to go back to being an underemployed, struggling musician so that their lives don't have to change at all.

I can't imagine what she would have done if she'd married, say, a soldier, who had to be stationed overseas for months on end. There would have been no end to the tantrums, I'm sure.

The publicity would certainly be challenging, but Brooke seems to be weirdly two-faced about it when it comes to her own husband. She seems to be aware, early on, that the stuff printed in the gossip rags is often manufactured or manipulated, but she immediately buys it when it applies to Julian, and freaks out about it, even when she hasn't yet seen the pictures or spoken with him about it. Huh?

Therefore, it is difficult to condone her behaviour, which would be childish, even if it were warranted. Well, I suppose if everyone behaved in a mature, sensible, and loving way, there would be no conflicts and no stories, but there are enough real problems in the world without having to manufacture

There are also too many gratuitous details that, I think, are intended to make me like or dislike certain characters, but some of them are so petty and insignificant that they fall far short of the mark and, again, make me dislike the protagonist more for focusing on such details. One example is the mother-in-law's ridiculous hats at a wedding weekend. Both Brooke and others around her, such as the bride, sneer at the hats behind the woman's back, making me dislike them for their shallowness. Granted, there isn't much to like about the mother-in-law, but throwing in the hat issue towards the end of the novel does nothing to make her less sympathetic and, rather, has the opposite effect. That is just one example of how the writing seems clumsy and obvious.

If you think that pouting, not answering your phone, running home to mother, jumping to conclusions, being jealous when it's not warranted, and nursing past grievances are the keys to a good relationship, then read this book. If not, then you might want to skip it.

This is the best book I've read in months. After being disappointed by several lacklustre novels by some of my favourite authors, Tan came through for me. The story of Violet, daughter of Lucretia, and the lives of courtesans in Shanghai is compelling. The world Tan creates is vivid, and her characters entirely believable.

The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is that the story became a little too expository towards the end, with an extended denouement that was boring compared to the rest of the story.

I love Kingsolver's books, as a rule, but this one was a bit of a slog. The main character was a drip, the story predictable, and the message, while an important one, was far too "in your face" for a work of fiction.

Atwood has created a truly believable and complex dystopia. This third book in the trilogy rounds out the story and ties up loose ends, but leaves the reader imagining the possibilities for the future of both Crake's world and our own. Parts of the book bog down a bit, especially towards the end where the denouement is dragged out too much, in my opinion, but anyone who has read the other books in the trilogy will definitely want to read this one.

Oh, dear. I just have not lucked out with the books lately, even though many of them are by my favourite authors.

I have been a huge Wally Lamb fan, but I have not cared for his last two novels, which are filled with disaster upon disaster, to the point where it all seems gratuitous instead of deep.

In We Are Water, the characters are unsympathetic, the dialogue forced and fake, and the details petty and pedantic. Sometimes I wanted to scream, "Who cares?" or "Who would say that?" "Get on with it!"

Lamb explores the intergenerational effects of abuse, and perhaps he should have limited himself to that and done it more effectively and believably. However, he also tosses in racism, homophobia, same-sex marriage (between two people who seem completely incompatible), post traumatic stress syndrome in war vets, the consequences of a sexual relationship between someone in a position of trust and another person (who initiates the contact and then lies about it), artificial insemination, and paraplegia, among other things. It feels more like reading a soap opera than literature, and yet, there is such a dispassionate narrative voice--a result of too much telling and not enough showing, I think--that it left me far too unmoved, given the horrific nature of the events.

For me, this book was just okay. I didn't love it, the way I have many other Anne Tyler novels. It is well-written, of course, but I didn't care for the subject matter or the characters. Usually, at the end of an Anne Tyler novel, my faith in the basic goodness of humanity is restored. At the end of this one, I was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied. The characters did not have that deep-down goodness and decency that typically endear Tyler's quirky characters to me. Also, the ending, to me, did not seem believable, based on the previous thoughts and actions of the protagonist, and it was too big a leap of faith for me, as a reader, to believe in the change of heart, no matter how good a person's cookies may be.

This novel contains elements that are certainly classic Toews: a strong female protagonist who faces horrific circumstances, including homelessness, responsibility for younger children, etc. However, for me, the characters lacked the quirky charm that typically endears them to me.

Still, it's a good read with plenty of page turning suspense.