astridandlouise's Reviews (665)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it a breeze to read... Could hardly put it down!

It also brought out a lot of emotions in me that made me want to see the book out mainly to see what would happen.

It's basically follows the story of a bloke that hit a child that wasn't his own during a backyard barbecue with friends and family. The story is divided into each of the characters that were present at the barbecue telling their reactions, detailing their lives and the own problems they're facing.

In short - the kid whilst an absolute shit didn't deserve it. Who really deserved to be slapped were the parents of the child. The parents that didn't discipline their child, that wrapped their child in cotton wool, who placed him on a pedestal, who told him he was a beautiful, smart, perfect child. That's who deserves a slap. As well as lifetime contraception. That is what is wrong with so so many of the children growing up today. No discipline. Who are raised to believe that everything they do is perfectly acceptable and that actions have no consequences. The parents of children today have a lot of live up to and perhaps not get it right but at least try... Raise a child with smarts not selfish self obsessiveness.

(Rant over)

i enjoyed this book. it kept me thoroughly entertained and i always wanted to keep reading. towards the end of book 3 it started to lag a little but with the beginning of book 4 that changed and had me furiously reading once again.
basically the story of a smart man who got pulled in the wrong direction making mistakes as he went about wanting to be a man of extreme wealth and power. a story we hear often. i enjoyed it because i could sense that underneath his drug addictions was an extremely smart man who wanted to be pure and good but was so wrapped up in addiction he didn't know how.
i hope scorsese doesn't fuck up the film.
will definitely be reading the sequel.

good follow up to the first book. storyline was good. kept you entertained and captivated enough for you to want to keep reading. it's not a literary masterpiece but if it works, go with the flow..

i was a little worried when i started reading this book after the first page that i wouldn't enjoy it, or that it'd be a book that would drag on and i'd drag out reading because i wasn't enjoying it. and i'll admit the first 50+ pages i found a little tedious trying to get a handle on the style of writing. but something clicked and i could hardly put it down. there were moments that made me want to keep reading and moments where i felt complete relation at that exact point of time.
i haven't seen the film (always always always read books before seeing the film. books are always better.) and i don't know whether at this point of time i want to just yet.
i loved the relationships between abilieen and mae mobley, minny and miss ceila and oddly enough miss skeeter and stuart. reading the stories when these relationships were highly involved had me captivated and made my heart melt.
would i read it again? maybe. would i recommend it? definitely.

Good book. The beginning I found tedious and I hated the way the author wrote how the characters actually spoke. I find that irritating in any story though..

After that it got better. Once the story began intertwining with the trial aspect the story became much better. I didn't overly enjoy the "childhood adventures" at the beginning of the book. Mainly as scout drove me nuts..

Wasn't a favourite but it was well written and engaging.

it was okay. he's definitely not the best writer in the world - too many tangents and too much defensiveness. but it was interesting.

highly enjoyed of course. robert langdon in my eyes can do no wrong.

i didn't enjoy this as much as the first two mainly as it was centred around so much history based in the US. i'm not a huge American history fan so there were times throughout the book that i got slightly bored (especially towards the end).

but overall the book had some great twists and turns and as always the historical references that were made were written in a fashion that made you interested and i enjoy that about dan brown's writing.

YAY YAY YAY!!!

Christian loves Ana!

Putting the amount of excessive sex aside, I love this romantic little love story!

it was good. nothing exceptional. couldn't put it down though and had to keep reading.

there were just too many grammatical errors and it drove me INSANE!!! i honestly think they skipped the proof reading process and just hoped for the best. bad move. always irritates me. never a good thing to see coming from a publishing house.

i liked the story. it was a typical love story just with an excessive amount of descriptive sex. by the end of the trilogy i was over all the sex and just wanted to get to the story.

Anastasia was a lame character. no backbone. and if she say "oh fifty" "my fifty" one more time i'm going to scream!! it was the same thing backwards and forwards over and over again.... i love you - i love you too - why do you love me - you're loving and caring - oh ana i'm not - oh fifty you are, why don't you believe me - i'm fifty shades of fucked up - but i love you unconditionally, forever - i love you too ana - oh fifty why does he love simple plain virginal me - oh ana why can't you see it - SHUT THE FUCK UP! they both need to get it through their thick skulls already!... still loved it though. hah!

i really enjoyed this book. i'm a little LC obsessed i'll admit but this book was put together quite well.

the main themes of the book are all separated well, its bright and fresh (there's not too much going on that you're confused as to where to look), i love the photography and a lot of the tips are great.

a great little addition to my bookshelf.