Beautiful novel about sisters, death, and coffee. And a few other things as well. I couldn't remember why I had put this on my to-read list, and I wasn't exactly eager to start it, but I flew through this book. It's a rich, layered story that doesn't have any false notes. It would have been so easy to end things in a neat little bow, and she didn't. Highly recommended.

Light, fun, summer novel.
A little horrified that they had an 11-year old babysit twin babies, but I eventually got over it.

Book club book

A very wandering book. Never really seemed to focus--rather it was "check out this Astor story, now this one, and check out how much money they spent on parties"

Very, very disappointing. Kept thinking of the better books of the genre, like Alva and Consuelo.

Started off so well, with delightful lines like
"Shabby in a gentell way, as if the people who lived there didn't have to keep up with the Joneses because they themselves were the Joneses."
But the momentum just didn't stay. I loved that the story involved Nazi-stolen art and smart kids and funky grown-ups, but it just didn't feel right. There's a museum director as a character who is completely unlike any museum director I've ever know (not in a good way).
And the ultimate resolution, while satisfying, almost felt false.

Just doesn't have the same magica as other Konigsburg, though it's still Konigsburg which makes it better than lots of kidlit.

from Bas Bleu catalog
A growing up story, full of discovering family secrets. I loved the theater background to it all--and her grandmother was a fascinating character.
Overall, I was very lukewarm about it--at times, Beatrice is incredibly annoying. Her first-person voice got very annoying at times, especially since it was written as if she was looking back on one pivotal summer. So she didn't sound like she was 20 even as she was acting as if she was 20, which was almost jarring.

Sincerely hoped that this would be in the style of Bailey White and/or Fannie Flagg. It's not. And after reading the umpteenth reference to pop Southern culture (Miss Daisy, Designing Women, Steel Magnolias, etc) in places where the references didn't even make sense, I abandoned it around p. 50.

Deeply layered and twisting story of survivors. There's a mystery and detective work, but it's really more a study of characters in horrifying situations. Atkinson's writing is breath-taking. Highly recommended.

As a babysitting veteran, this book cracked me up. Not outstanding, but very, very enjoyable.

At 780 pages, this isn't anything for the faint of heart or casual Teddy fan. But I am neither. And though it is long and detailed, it actually reads fairly quickly.
Richly detailed with plenty of humor thrown in, I am now a much bigger fan of Roosevelt. I knew the barest outlines of his life pre-president (this book is exclusively about his life before he became president in 1901), but I am struck again by his energy. In some ways, reading about Teddy is just exhausting, but in a good way.
At times, I would have liked a bit more context and also more about his family. Once he marries Edith, they kinda fade to the background.
Highly recommended--and a great choice for the long days of summer reading.