latekelem прочитал

Книга не впечатлила, наверное стоит попробовать посмотреть фильм. Несмотря на хорошую идею, портит впечатление сам текст. Не понравился стиль изложения, не знаю кто тут виноват переводчик или автор, но, написано как-то коряво.

UPD: Фильм тоже не пошел.

The book is definitely NOT a success. I do hope the authors pick up their speed, because right now it feels like the previously ngaging series is dying. The plot is really not believable and it takes an effort to convince oneself to keep on reading. There is none of the liveliness of the previous books here.

Not worth reading. If you've never read Preston & Child before, I ecommend to read the RELIC, BRIMSTONE, CABINET OF CURIOSITIES or STILL LIFE WITH CROWS instead. They are far superior to this middling effort.

I have recently finished re-reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith, and this time around I think I am ready to share my thoughts on it. BTW this is not the first novel of hers that I read.The first one was The Autograph Man.

The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States. On Beauty addresses ethnic and cultural differences in both the U.S.A and the U.K., the nature of beauty, and the clash between liberal and conservative academic values.

I enjoyed reading the book for the prose and the well-written believable and very different characters. This is an intimate look into family life, family values as experinced and felt by very different members of this family. Zadie Smith manages to keep her style light, at times ironic, but very gentle and understanding. At the same time the book is not treading light on it's numerous subjects and themes, it has it's share of sad, sometimes even heartbreaking, moments, which may be all too familiar to many of us.

I recommend reading this. Despite the relatively young age of the writer (born in 1975), she manages to be insightful, believable and thought-provoking.

Further and better review @Guardian.

Well, this is an achievement! What with my fairly busy life, I've finished reading The Crimson Petal And The White by Michel Faber!!! It is 835 pages in print..

Faber weaves together ornate victorian prose and extremely straightforward or even gross details of 19th century whore's everyday living. Now that I've finished reading the book, I can say that to my mind it could have been shorter, however even at this monstrous length it is quite readable.

The historical details seem to be exquisitely researched and realistic, the characters are well defined and their thoughts and actions are laid bare before us. The cast of characters is wide too. We have everyone here, from prostitutes to High Society ladies and from debauchers to desperately sruggling with the carnal desires believers.

At one point of the novel, Sugar's mother, who started Sugar's "career" at the age of thriteen, replies to her daughter's question of why does she need to do this, when the mother and daughter are sufficiently well-off to live normally:

...
"Child: be reasonable," she smiles. "Why should my downfall be your rise? Why should I
burn in Hell while you flap around in Heaven? In short, why should the world be a better place for
you than it has been for me?"
...

Even the abrupt ending at the very highest moment of drama did not leave me disappointed. The ending of the book leaves much unresolved and unanswered. In the ending the author addresses us;

...
An abrupt parting, I know, but that's the way it always is, isn't it? You imagine you can make it
last for ever, then suddenly it's over.
...

And this is true. Life seems to never give you all the answers. In any case, after finishing the book it seems to me that there is a chance for good life for some of the characters and a well-deserved life for others. There is a chance after all, for daughters to live a better life than their mothers intended for them.

The novel is also not without a social meaning and critique. While reading one is reminded of how much has changed for the better, while at the same time, it reminds us, that many things are still quite the same. And as during the 19th century, we, who are better off than many, tend to take our life for granted and to dismiss the less fortunate multitudes. At times, the book is simply heartbreaking.

There are many reviews of the book on the web, so I will stop this "review" of mine. I would only add that the book grows on you, the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Oh, and naturally this "review" of mine is not to recommend this book for reading to everyone, but with enough time on your hands and some patience as well, this is a worthy read.

Книга оставила у меня двойственное впечатление об актрисе. Несмотря на многочисленные оговорки о том, что она никому за не желала, и т.д. и т.п., у меня осталось общения с не очень приятным человеком.

Кроме того, не очень понравилось ощущение, что за страницами книги осталось очень много. По-моему мнению, Быстрицкая оказалась довольно скупа на рассказы о себе.

This is one of the books I've been reading for years. I boughtand and started reading it two, or even three years ago. At last, I settled myself to finish it, and I did. The book is quite true to its name in many ways. Not least because of the way it is written I felt I was drowining in slow and deep waves. The prose is very sparse. The chapters are often one page long - and most often two pages long (there are 403 pages split up into 206 chapters). At first the atmosphere in the book is palpably heavy, extremely regulated and punctual, however later it becomes more oppressing and frenetic as the protagonist's fall (or drowning) into the depths of his own soul intensify.

Depending on your mood you might find the book too long, and too full of symbolic phrases, however I tend to like these things. I would call the book slow-paced and very meditative. Throughout the book there is a poetic-like feeling to the text. The protagonist, if he may be called so, is a very unusual one. He is by far not a nice person, but sertainly a memorable one. As the pace of events quickens the reader watches protagonist's desperate and unstoppable decline with an increasing fascination combined with a growing disgust.

This is not a book for many, however it is a worthy book to read. An exploration and to a certain degree measurement not only of the protagonist's depths, but a cause to measure our own..

Уже не в первый раз возникло ощущение, что Дяченки придумывают замечательную идею, с энтузиазмом начинают писать, но под конец руки у них опускаются. Концовка книги как-то разочаровывает.

A book by the long familiar to me Jacqueline Carey. A foray into a very different genre, as compared with her wonderful Kushiel's Legacy series. This book is more "masculine", more direct, while still retaining Carey's romantic touch. This book is a dystopia with deep character studies, and interesting questions raised.

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, a veteran of 30 years of police work who appreciates fine food and drink, reluctantly cuts short his vacation to help the police chief of the remote town of Kaalbringen and his small crew investigate two ax murders. When the killer claims a third victim and the town's best police investigator disappears without a trace, Van Veeteren, who has left only one case unsolved in his long career, intensifies his hunt. The contemplative inspector believes that in every case a point is reached where enough information has been gathered to solve the crime with "nothing more than some decent thinking." The trick is knowing when that point is reached. Thompson's smooth translation makes this worthy mystery readily accessible to American readers .

“Lean, atmospheric and full of existential uncertainty. . . . Nesser isn't interested in life's pretty offerings. His detectives expect the worst because they have seen the world go wrong too often.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Mind's Eye satisfies on every level. It is an intelligently written, cleverly plotted tale, populated with believable characters. . . . Nesser was superb right out of the gate.” —BookPage

The highly anticipated first novel in the Inspector Van Veeteren series in now available in English. At last, American readers will be able to enjoy, from its very beginnings, this addictive series by one of Europe's most beloved and best-selling crime writers.

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren knew that murder cases were never as open-and-shut as this one: Janek Mitter woke one morning with a brutal hangover and discovered his wife of three months lying facedown in the bathtub, dead. With only the flimsiest excuse as his defense, he is found guilty of a drunken crime of passion and imprisoned in a mental institution.

But Van Veeteren's suspicions about the identity of the killer are borne out when Mitter also becomes a murder victim. Now the chief inspector launches a full-scale investigation of the two slayings. But it may only be the unspoken secrets of the dead'"revealed in a mysterious letter that Mitter wrote shortly before his death'"that will finally allow Van Veeteren to unmask the killer and expose the shocking root of this sordid violence.

Not a very good book. However I quite liked the characters. Action takes places in the UK, and the portrayals of the english countryside and its inhabitants are rather nice and at times witty.

I think it is much too wordy. King was obviously enjoying detailing this book to the limit - I was not. I skipped some two hundred pages to finish reading it.

A nice book, by one of the better contemporary detective writers.
However I'd say, that it is better to start with earlier books from the Inspector Wexford series.