Stewart O'Nan never fails to impress me. He tackles different themes, different eras, different everything in each book. This one, slim and incisive, is a masterpiece of understatement. The tale of Jacob Hansen's life and losses soon after the Civil War, when the town of Friendship is stricken by both a diphtheria epidemic and a raging forest fire, is exquisitely simple but remarkably powerful. I haven't stopped thinking about this book since I finished reading it. I marvel at how much O'Nan manages to convey without ever being explicit. Love, tragic loss, and survival against all odds are the interwoven strands of the theme. Life lessons compressed into one short book. This is a very special novel, written by a wonderfully gifted writer.

This is a truly gifted author. I became familiar with him when I read Snow Angels, and since then I have purchased nearly every book he has written. Each novel is an original piece. This novel, Prayer for the Dying is another stunning acomplishment. He takes the reader to post Civil War Wisconsin. His first person accounting is riveting as he takes you into the heart, mind and soul of Jacob Hansen, town sheriff, undertaker and pastor. Add to this odd mixture of occupations a devasting diptheria plague that threatens the town's human and animal population. A gentle, loving and spiritual family man, he must make horrendous decisions involving the township. While tradgedy befalls the town, he must cope with the possibility that he may have infected his beloved wife and baby daughter after undertaking the initial diptheria cases. Stewart O'Nan sets a thoroughly researched scene for the reader. You will walk through his surroundings and feel yourself in every step he takes, while you explore all his thoughts that challenge his faith and own mortality. An absolute masterpiece.

I've just read for the third time this amazing book. It's as stunning a read the third time as the first. Told in the second person -- which, admittedly, can first be a bit disconcerting (with its hey-look-at-me-I-got-an-MFA-in-creative-writing pretensions) but that soon becomes an evocative part of the haunting prose -- the novel involves Jacob Hansen, sheriff, undertaker, and preacher to 1860s Friendship Wisconsin. Jacob's life is no pleasure cruise: he finds himself battling a terrible outbreak of diptheria that steals his town, his friends, his family; in addition, there's an out-of-control forest fire bearing town on his little town. Part horror story, part treatise on the nature of good and evil, on the choices we make, part poetry, the tale is unforgettable, one that will linger long after you've shut the book. There is a litany of horrific revealations toward end, each more shocking than the one before. You'll reel, you'll gasp, you'll read more. And that last line will ring loudest, reverberating in your mind for a long time to come.

In the end A Prayer for the Dying is all about decisions and how some choices are less choices than obligations. What O'Nan allows us to discover through Jake Hansen is that our goodness is sometimes contingent on circumstances (something most of us don't like to admit -- if we even bother to think about it in the first place).

Tremendous.

A friend of mine gave me this book to read telling me how wonderful it was. I didn't share in her enthusiasm after I had finished it. I don't think that there was some hidden greatness to it that I somehow missed, I think that this is the type of book that you have to have a very specific taste to enjoy. While the relationships were interesting, I felt that they lacked certain emotions or realities, which alienated me as a reader. As a whole I found it to be an easy read, but flat. I felt that it ended just as Ms. Gibbons was beginning to enjoy herself with Charlie (main character) and it left me feeling indifferent. Unless you enjoy sweet, simple but unoriginal stories, I don't recomend this book.

I have seen negative reviews of this book, but I loved it. My teenage daughter's margin notes made it even more special.

While the story may be unrealistic, it is fiction, and why do we read fiction? I read it for escape, and this book "escapes you" to a place where women are strong, where your grandma can tell you everything you need to know, where there are some bad, lost, and abandoning men, but not all men are bad, where life is full of hope and magic is possible.

It is literate, with references to many authors we should all read. There is some social commentary, some sadness, some things everyone should know (papaya tablets for digestion, aloe for burns, etc.)

Charms for the Easy Life ("depending on your definition of easy" should have been a subtitle) was wonderful. I will be reading more of Kaye Gibbons books in the future.

A lovely novel.

This book is good, but only if you can tolerate the rambling narrative style it is written in. The characters are solidly developed, and the anecdotal episodes are well-done. It can be predictable at times, and I'm not sure if a male audience will like as much as a female audience, but both genders could find this book entertaining. Only the femaile audience may find it enlightening, however. As a college literature professor, I read this book in hope of perhaps using it in a course, but I decided against it. That doesn't mean it's bad; it just means it's a nice piece of light, easy reading which women will enjoy ... and men probably won't.

Fun, fun, fun page turner for those who love to read about grifters and con artists. In the prologue the best con artist in the US cheats a number of people at cards, including a mobster, who beats him nearly to death afterward (an act which is totally contrary to the way the character is depicted throughout the rest of the book, but oh well). After a number of convolutions, the lovable con artist and the local DA team up to run a huge con to take out the mobster and his psychopathic brother. The characters are all cardboard, but its fun to read along and watch the author shuffle them around and spin a good story. Of course, Cannell knows that the details make the story, and this book is chock full of grifter tricks and cons which are a delight.

"King Con" is an easy-reading and informative thriller. I really enjoy learning from a novel about things that I wouldn't read anywhere else. Here we are given the inside story on confidence games -- big and little, new and old.

The plot is lifted directly from the movie "The Sting." Grifter mistakenly cons bad guy, bad guy kills someone grifter cares about, grifter assembles and runs "big con" to get revenge, grifter gives away his share of the loot. But somehow this transparent plagarism goes down smoothly. The Sting was a great movie, and if you are going to copy from someone it makes sense to copy from the brightest kid in class.

Cannell's great gift is naming his characters. Who else could have come up with B.A. Barakus, "Howlin' Mad" Murdock, and Beano Bates? In King Con Mr. Cannell shows us Beano's extended family: large, unusual yet believeable, as quirky as their names, yet skilled professionals in their arcane specialty.

Mr. Cannell's books are fast acquiring a following, and this one will only add to it. If you like Cannell, don't miss this one.

King Con, is my first "non-Rockford" Cannell read. It was better than I ever expected. It follows the adventures of one B.X. Bates, as he cons his way to riches and revenge. Bates is aided in this venture by several members of his colorful, cunning, and con-ing family, as well as a few surprise helpers. He finances his escapades with his wit and his gift of gab. B.X. Bates as "King Con" brings you excitement at every turn of the page. If I were a betting man! I would bet that any reader of this book will "create free time" so they can sit down with it as often as possible. King Con, is the book you will loan to a friend, never to see it again, so be wary.

Mark Helprin is one of the most gifted writers in the English language. If you don't believe it, read A Soldier of the Great War, one of the most wonderful novels in many years. Ant-Proof Case displays Helprin's incredible use of language, but it's in the service of story that is merely diverting, rather than profound, as in Soldier. The protagonist's account of his life veers between acute sensitivity and buffoonery. There are images that will stay with you, perhaps for a long time, such as his exaggerated contempt for coffee and his descriptions of dogfights in the Second World War, but the truly insightful observations on life that are sprinkled throughout the work tend to get overshadowed by the clownishness. It's almost as if Helprin was embarrassed by his emotional refinement and wanted to laugh his way out of it. In Soldier of the Great War, it is his unabashed embrace of that sensitivity that makes the book a masterpiece.

The non-linear plot that is often a source of critisism is, I believe, one of this book's charms. Helprin's beautiful prose will keep you rivited, even if the plot is sometimes disjointed. If you insist upon a simple ABC plot/timeline, you may be disappointed.

This is one of the few books I've read and laughed out loud. Helprin's humor is subtle but hilarious. If you can't separate Helprin the novelist from Helprin the political writer I think you'll also be disappointed. The memoir written by an aging American ex-patriot speaks to the values at the core of our society, greed vs. charity, arogance vs. humility, complancency vs. revenge. Helprin's protagonist doen't always take the most noble paths in his life, but who does? Those who write that this is a long diatribe against coffee are completely missing the deeper meaning of his struggle.

Not as good as Soldier of the Great War. In fact if you haven't read that book yet you should: turn off your computer, tell your boss you don't feel well and are going home early (who are we kidding, you're probably surfing the web at work as you read this), pick up a copy of Soldier of the Great War on the way home, unplug the phone, and get set for one of the best books you'll ever read.

Memoir is an interesting book that will keep you thinking long after you have read the last page. Take a chance on this one, you won't regret it.

Helprin starts by recalling Melville, "Call me Oscar Progresso..." and then lets us know we are in for a wild ride, "Or, for that matter, call me anything you want, as Oscar Progresso is not my real name.Nor are Baby Supine, Euclid Cherry, Franklyn Nuts, or any of the other aliases that, now and then over the years, I have been foced to adopt". In a book with flights of fancy that soar every bit as high as those in the bestselling "Winter's Tale", but infinitely funnier and less grandiose, Helprin charts a course few writers dare. Giving away the story is betrayal to the reader, so suffice it to say that Helprin's newest hero is defined by his hatred for the "evil bean that enslaves half the world", coffee. His life struggles put him in harms way and at the top of the world. He knows riches and love, he knows betrayal and poverty. I laughed out loud continuously while reading our hero's description of his fall from corporate grace, defined by the ever changing quality of the art hanging in his office. Helprin has always been a comic writer, his "serious" works had a deftly comic touch, but this is his first work of pure comedy, and of course as all of Helprin's books are, it is a morality play of sorts and an exploration of life's abusrdities. But don't let that thought deter you, this a funny, brilliant, eccentric, even dazzling book. Read Antproof Case and let this extravagantly gifted author take you where he will.

This is a worthwhile read. After plodding through the beginning, I, too, fell in love with Lara. I could not put the book down any time her character and her relationship with Zhivago was discussed. The more high brow and intellectually challenging parts of the book that focus on the foredoomed defeat of a poetic free spirit by politics (and not necessarily Soviet politics)were, I felt, too tedious and plodding to qualify the novel among the genuine Russian classics. There is no real plot. The lingering impression is of a beautiful love story, set against a less beautiful and compelling but still profound philosophical and political background. The soap opera wins out.

Doctor Zhivago is a beautiful book about life, love, war and peace set during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The novel follows the intertwined lives of Yurii Andreievich Zhivago and Larisa Feodorovna Antipova as well as tracing the course of the civil war/Bolshevik revolution. By the end of the book I truly cared for Yurii and Lara. Dr Z is a great love story and also an educational book about Russian history and culture in general. The first 150 pages are rather slow reading and the long names are at first impossible to keep straight, but stick with this book. It'll be worth it. ( I would rate this book 4 and a half stars if possible-half a star less than perfect because of the confusion over names)

Doctor Zhivago is a work of greatness. It paints a picture so vivid, so real, that you can't help but see it. Boris Pasternak's greatest work, Zhivago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. That he was forced by the Soviet Government to not accept that prize is just another testament to his writing. His life was filled with censure from the government, and he was looked down upon by his people. Doctor Zhivago was rejected by Soviet publishers as counter-revolutionary, and was subsequently smuggled out to Italy where it was originally published in the Russian language. It was not published in Russia until 1988.

All this controversy could not have been generated by a lesser book. Pasternak's style of writing is one to provoke thought: rather than social issues running his characters, it was rather love, faith and destiny that did so. Social issues were considered by Pasternak to be important only in so far as they influence individual human destiny. This style can only be successful with the inclusion of powerful metaphors and intellectual conversations and thoughts; the author does all this and more.

Doctor Zhivago takes place in Russia during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed. This is a time of extreme poverty, and Dr. Yury Andreyevich Zhivago decides to move him and his family out of Moscow and into the country. It also follows the life of Larissa Fyodorovna Guishar (subsequently Antipova), another Moscow native who also finds herself in the country, away from the disease and destitution. The book covers the many chance (or destined) encounters these two characters have had over the years: a party in Moscow, serving together at the front (he as a doctor and she as a nurse) as well as meeting again in the small town of Yuryatin. Yury was an intelligent man. He was of course a doctor, and he was a writer as well (over 30 pages of poems written by him are included in this novel). He is a man of intense feeling, he sees things like we all would like to be able to see. He is highly philosophical, constantly pursuing the meaning of life (much, I suspect, like Pasternak himself). Lara, who becomes his mistress, does not see everything like he does. He loves her for that, and jumps at the chance to be able to recite poetry to her, to educate her in his version of life. But Lara is not stupid. She understands what the revolution means: "Everything established, settled, everything to do with home and order and the common round, has crumbled into dust and been swept away in the general upheaval and reorganization of the whole of society. The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined." Yury and Lara try to shelter themselves from the turmoil going on around them in the civil war that followed the revolution. Yet through all this Yury still sees the beauty of life, the reasons for trying to hold on to a single moment, and to try and make this last. Doctor Zhivago is a great story. I love the feelings it portrays, the pictures it paints. Even being translated from Russian seems not to have hurt the artistry. The only weakness in the translation is that the poems at the end of the book are very choppy, and do not resemble poetry that much at all. Yet after reading the novel, I could feel nothing but gratitude to the translators, for making this masterpiece available to the English-speaking world. The novel leaves you with a feeling of sadness. Sadness not just for the characters, but also because Pasternak's life was much like Zhivago's. Forced to live in a place where his views were no longer accepted, Zhivago tries to remain pure, a symbol of artistic incorruptibility. Pasternak did the same, living out his days in an artist colony in disgrace. Pasternak summed up his life with a poem he wrote in 1959 entitled "Nobel Prize", wherein he said: "Am I a gangster or a murderer? Of what crime do I stand Condemned? I made the whole world weep At the beauty of my land." If you are trying to understand Soviet mentality, you should read this book. If you are trying to discover meaning for your life, read this book. If you are looking to read one of the greatest novels of this century, one that will leave you awestruck with it's imagery and enlightened by it's philosophy, then by all means read Doctor Zhivago.

If you have never read a Burke novel then you may like this. If you are familiar with the Robicheaux novels, then pass this one up. I like James Lee Burke's novels, but this book is just the same story and same characters with different names and in Texas instead of New Iberia, LA. Billy Bob is just Dave Robicheaux except as a small town lawyer rather than a small town cop. He has a woman partner, has semi-adopted a young ethnic child, talks to a ghost, defends the down-trodden and his father was killed in an oil company accident just like Robicheaux's father. He deals with sketchy characters from his past and has to deal with the "psychic scars" of his past as the NY Book Review put it. Sound familiar? If you have read the Robicheaux series then, of course it does. I found myself missing the antics of Clete Purcel. Same idea here: the rich and powerful screw with the down and out. Guess who wins in the end?

Former US Assistant DA,and Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland rides his horse into a honkey-tonk, unfurls his lariat and effortlessly loops it around the torso of a woman-beating thug. He drags the dude out the door for a bit of cowboy keelhauling discipline. Readers NOW must be aware--like Dorothy--they're "no longer in Kansas". Courtesy of James Lee Burke's hard-edged,yet superbly literary style, our New West hero essays roles of defense attorney by day and LONE RANGER at night. Burke convinces us Deaf Smith (a town near Austin,combining resort ambience of Lake Travis with working class morphed-Yuppster Round Rock Texas, and generously violent doses of old West Tombstone) exists on Earth, not galaxy far away in the Final Frontier.

This is only Setting. CIMARRON ROSE evokes old West and the New(Drug Thug)West. Billy Bob finds himself legally defending his unacknowledged son Lucas in a gruesome rape/murder case featuring a dog soldier battle-array of drug dealers; bent DEA; feckless FBI agents; a formerly abused-child, now border-line psychopath bent on revenge against the Bobster; some repugnant nouveau rich whose adopted son,at very least,is a sociopathic punk and prime candidate for the murder Lucas is(?)framed-for.

James Lee Burke writes like John Updike. He's got poet's command of language and maturely controls a difficult(fantastic)plot. Characterizations are excellent; psychological observations ring astute; his physical descriptions are striking and beautiful. Do yourself a favor. Read what a great writer can do with a seedy study of the human condition. I'm told Burke does this trick often.If this is formula writing, it's excellent. Take a gander at CIMARRON ROSE.It's no New Age Flower shop tour for sure.And in this one,The Lone Ranger doesn't use silver bullets.(4 & 1/2 stars)

Having read several of James Lee Burke's novels now, I have come to see that his approach to weaving together a story is intriguingly unorthodox. His narrative is choppy and at times almost disjointed; short vignettes, encounters, and episodes are cobbled together, and change-of-voice digressions and flashbacks are not unusual. Readers accustomed to a smoother ride will find Burke's approach difficult in places.

At the same time, Burke can positively hypnotize readers through the beauty of the language he employs and his ability to capture a thought, a moment, a mood, or a concept in a few well-chosen words or phrases. This combination of organizational looseness and powerful, evocative writing makes reading Burke a truly distinctive literary experience.

In *Cimarron Rose*, Burke has taken a break from his Dave Robacheaux series and has introduced a new protagonist, Billy Bob Holland in a new setting, Deaf Smith County, Texas. Still, the overall tone and style of the story will be familiar to readers of previous Burke novels. Holland is another fallen lawman-type haunted by his past, and his similarity to Robacheaux in terms of his patterns of action and thinking are hardly surprising. The story itself is populated by desperate criminal types, fallen women, drunkards, corrupt "leading citizens," a demented maniac, and in fact, a entire cast of typical denizens of Burke's stories.

With its loosely woven whodunit plot line and its accompanying quota of broken noses and gunshot wounds, the story is a kind of classic combination of police mystery and violent pulp fiction novella. Added to this are some interesting added elements, including recurring reference to Billy Bob's great-grandaddy's journal and the regular appearance of the ghost of Billy Bob's ex-best friend and partner. Combined with a rather weird ... ending, the whole mish-mash makes for interesting reading but doesn't constitute a satisfactorily well-woven novel overall.

Despite its flaws, *Cimarron Rose* is worthwhile not only because of Burke's talents as a wordsmith, but also because of his astute eye for social and class interactions and conflict in his small-town southern setting. His descriptions of the myriad ways in which the affluent "East enders" dominate the small Texas community in which events unfold in this book shows Burke's keen understanding of the sociological and economic as well as psychological aspects of his human subject matter. Clearly, his own sympathies are with the lower classes, the downtrodden, the underprivileged, and the way he skewers the powerful and hypocritical in this book is impressive, indeed.

The author weaves a fascinating tale of what could have happened in the lives of Eng and Chang Bunker, the original Siamese twins. The book opens when Eng, the narrator of the story, awakens to find Chang, his conjoined brother, dead. He realizes that just as they came into the world on a tiny boat in the Mekong River of Siam, they would leave the world still joined by that mysterious and ever-present "band" which joined them at the chest.

That first chapter captured my attention, and I did not want to put the book down. The writer masterfully switches from their early years and youth to their adulthood and back with ease as he fills in the blanks of their lives with skill and a vivid imagination. He takes the reader from the muddy waters of the Mekong River to the royal palace of the King of Siam; from the exhibition halls of New York City to rural Wilkes County in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina; from the facts of their life to the possible answers to questions everyone who knows about the "blemish of nature" have wondered about.

How did these men who lived every minute of their lives just inches from each other chop wood, walk on their hands, and develop very different personalities? Did they love each other or hate each other? How did one deal with his brother's drinking? How did they father twenty-one children? The author, in his own way, provides possible answers for all these and many other questions about the life and times of the original Siamese twins.

Even though the book is clearly marked "A Novel," there are too many facts to be fiction, and too much fiction to be history. As a native of Surry County, North Carolina, the place where the twins settled with their wives and raised their families, I could not reconcile the fact that the book implies that they spent their adult life in neighboring Wilkes County. The mixing of fact and fiction left we wondering just how much of the book is fact and how much is fiction.

Numerous descendants of the twins still live in Surry County, and I wonder what their reactions are to the author's delving into the private lives of their famous ancestors. Was it necessary to detail their sex life - including Eng committing adultery with Chang's wife? Was it necessary to dwell on Chang's drinking? Was it necessary to embellish the story with the rape of one of the wives by a slave? Was it necessary to write of Chang's jealousy that caused him to burn Eng's home?

While I enjoyed the book immensely, it would have been better if the author had used his tremendous talents writing either a true history of Eng and Chang or a work of pure fiction based on the live of imaginary conjoined twins.

Darin Strauss has elegantly polevaulted over the difficult hurdle of writing a novel based on historic fact while keeping his story refined and tight enough that the novel stands on its own merits, as though the "fiction" is beautifully embellished by "fact". Not only does he make the history of the famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng read like a flawlessly constructed novel, he has obviously carefully researched his subject so that all of the peripheral data (pre-Civil War America, early New York, the Civil War, the stature of Siam in the 19th century, supporting cast that includes PT Barnum et al) ring true.

In writing about the twins whose life was supported by being a carnie show act Strauss is sensitive to the concepts of how people out of the groove we consider "normal" relate. These twins are wholly believable in their interaction with each other, with an estranged society, with their two wives. At first the curiosity factor may be the reason for buying and reading this book. And for those readers who enjoy a sojourn into the bizarre, the incredible, this book supplies all that. By alternating chapters of the twins' childhood to manhood histories with chapters devoted to their adult status as husbands and fathers this fascinating book charges our interest to read until the inevitable slides under our eyes. Very fine writing, this, and a terrific lesson in human kindness and tolerance.

"Everything about our birth is known," writes Eng in Darin Strauss' novel, and in a way, Eng is right. We know about the lives of the famous Siamese Twins, that they were born to a poor fisher family along the Mekong River, that they spent time at the King of Siam's court before they were brought to New York by a cunning entrepreneur, that they had a brush with P.T. Barnum, that they married sisters, fathered lots of children and became slave-owning farmers in rural North Carolina. But what we can never know is how it was to be connected to each other by a five-inch ligature which contained a shared stomach. It is that imagining that makes Chang and Eng such a fine and poignant book.

The twins had completely different personalities. Eng, the book's narrator, was the more reserved of the two. He spoke accent less English and read constantly, frequently annoyed by Chang's immigrant-English and cheerful banter with the crowds. Chang may never have learned how to use the verb to be, but his slyly clever jokes and warm smile made him the more popular of the twins, and seemingly the most contented with his lot. Eng always yearned for separation but Chang did not, even when the two were in continual conflict. Chang drank, and Eng was a spokesman for the Temperance Union. Because Chang dared make his feelings known to a small-town Southern girl, the twins married-something that neither had ever dreamed of-and might have been happy if Eng had not fallen in love with Chang's wife. And because Chang died, Eng had to follow him too soon.

There is enough historical detail in Chang and Eng to set the novel in the proper period: Strauss is not out to write a piece overly heavy in historical detail. It is the characterizations that draw the reader into Chang and Eng's circle and make this book so memorable. Don't miss this book. I wish Darin Strauss every success, and look forward to what he writes next.

I have read all V.C. Andrews books that have been published so far, and my favorite series is the Landry series. Of the Landry series, my favorite book is "All That Glitters." The book is packed full of suspense, excitement and tragedy that could have been prevented. The descriptions of New Orleans, the Bayou and Cypress Woods are vivid, and quite different and refreshing than the other series. Although this is my favorite book of all V.C. Andrew books, it was quite disappointing: Ruby was selfish, Beau was selfish and Giselle was her normal self. Paul was the only character I liked in the book, he had an enormous amount of love, respect and devotion for Ruby and Pearl, which was more than admirable. I was shocked that Ruby could use Paul and disgard him so easily.

This was the very first V.C Andrews book I read. I didnt read the first two books of this family saga before, but as I read this book I found it very interesting. It is sad a sad story, and if you favor Paul's character, I dont reccommend you reading it. Ruby treated him, (a man who loved her beyond words can desribe), made him feel rejected and in the end, I would think she drove him to his death. However, if you read the book, some will sympathize with Ruby. I am a very fond reader of V.C Andrews, having read all her books after this (except the Dollanger Family Saga) The Landry series will always be my favorite, because of the way the novel is expressed as a magical life of a young woman living in the bayou , and in the end, she finally finds refuge from a once horrific life.

Any thing by Andrews is worth reading. I have read her Heaven series, Ruby, Dawn, Melody, and anything else I can find with her name on it. You won't waste your money on this book. I loved it. You begin reading and before you know it your done with the book and waiting for her next novel. I sometimes find my self envisining myself as the characters in her books She writes in words and in a tone anyone can understand. I began reading her books 10 years ago and now I'm addicted.

The main character is the town of Northhampton, Massachusetts. The problem is, towns don't really do anything. The people who are born, live, or die in them add color and spice. In this town, as Mr. Kidder sees it, some of the main characters of this town include a bald hometown cop (who eventually departs for the FBI), a rich obsessive compulsive (whose therapy includes kinky photography), a Smith College student (who is 26 and suffers from a mid-life crisis), a police informant (who is a likable loser--big surprise), a mayor (who might be a lesbian). Kidder presents them respectfully. A thousand years from now sociologists may study the book with great curiousity. But in the here and now one is left with a huge so what? As a reader and fan of Kidder's earlier books, particularly SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE and HOUSE, I looked for something interesting to hold this book together. In the end, the town's main street is Kidder's only glue and is presented about as interestingly as Elmer's hardening on veneer. Elmer's hardening on veneer can be interesting, I suspect, but I know now there are more interesting subjects to study and more compelling ways to present the results.

Northhampton is a town. There are good people, bad people, indifferent people, well-intentioned people, crackheads, juvenile delinquents, liberal judges, graffiti, old buildings, a history, etc. There's nothing revealing or surprising here. Save your money. If you have to read HOME TOWN, borrow it from the library. Sorry, Mr. Kidder, but it may the last book of yours I read after the unevenness of SCHOOLCHILDREN and the perceptible decline and weariness of OLD FRIENDS.

This book is a pot pourri of stories about people who live in a little town in western Massachusetts, called Northampton.

However well the author writes this book, it is very hard to get involved if there is no real story that holds the book together. I found it very hard to be able to follow everybody's comings and goings if there is no real central story and no central character. Of course the policeman, Tommy O'Connor if interesting, but there is absolutely no relation to Laura (the single mother) or to Alan, or even to his friend Rick because Tommy "does not want to be involved".

The writing is very good, and the descriptions of characters and places are also very good, but without a real plot to the book, it just feels as if you are reading a newspaper story.

I enjoyed "Home Town" because it delved into the "shadow town" that underlies the physical town most people experience. The characters that Kidder chose to follow were interesting and eclectic. The realities of the dark side of Northampton were amply illustrated as were some of its historical and rebuilding facets.

Kidder's characteristically clear prose and ability to draw illustrative scenes is evident throughout the book. I've rated this book 4 out of 5 stars because it didn't reach a satisfactory sense of closure -- many loose ends dangle. While this is a characteristic of the life of Northampton - or any town - I would have felt closure if Kidder had provided more follow-up on the main characters.

This is a good read and portrays something that may be missing for much of our transient society - a true sense of place and belonging. The multi-generational history of some of the book's characters should be warmly familiar to long-time members of any small town.

It goes against all of my instincts to give any Jude Devereaux book a less-than-stellar review, but I just can't recommend this book for the purpose it pretends to have.

This is not a romantic book, at least not in the traditional man-woman way. The storyline is enjoyable enough - an intelligent, attractive woman who is clearly ahead of her time meets a cranky, handsome man, who is clearly behind the times. As a story of personal growth, the book works. Temperence learns that in order to give, you have to take a little; James learns...well, I'm really not sure what James learned. He seems strangely dishonorable, disdainful and a whole lot of other "dis"-es I can't come up with right now. This is a book about Temperance and her journey, and James is almost an afterthought, more of a plot device to move Temperance along than anything else. I've rarely read a book where I wasn't remotely interested in the main male character, but this has the dubious distinction of being the most memorable example of that so far.

I could count on one hand the romantic or intimate scenes between the two characters, and even those felt stilted and awkward. Temperence and James would make good friends (or heaven forbid, brother and sister), but lovers? Not that I could see. After reading the book twice, I still don't have a clue why either of them are supposedly attracted to the other. There was no build-up, no feeling that these two had any passion for each other. When they do get together, it's forgettable (apparently for them too), uncomfortable and unsettling and James is insulting. It just felt wrong, for reasons I can't articulate.

I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who felt the ending was jarring and unsatisfying - none of the characters act remotely like they did throughout the rest of the book. I won't spoil it, but when I saw the date written on the last chapter, I actually said, "HUH?" out loud. I still don't get it, and plan on dumping this book off at the nearest reseller to make sure I don't read it again by mistake.

Buy this book if you are interested in one woman's experience in the early days of the women's equality movement, but save your money if you are looking for a passionate or tender romance with characters you know are destined to be together. You won't find it here.

As much as I enjoy time travel or paranormal romances (if you haven't read _A Knight in Shining Armor_ or _Remembrance_, do so ASAP!), I'm so glad to see Jude Deveraux return to what, in my opinion, she does best...historical romances! _Temptation_ is WONDERFUL, with a great heroine who is far more modern than the early 1900's time period would suggest. If I had to pick one thing that I would have changed, I'd say the ending was a bit too brief, but nevertheless it was still satisfying and ultimately true to the characters. No matter, I remain a huge Deveraux fan, and I would wholeheartedly recommend this book! One more thought: I definitely agree with one of the previous reviewers who called for a book about Ramsey and Alys...they certainly deserve their own story!

Once again Jude Devereaux comes through with another well crafted story. I read some of the other reviewer comments about how this is not the Romance they were looking for. The writing is a little different for a Jude Devereaux novel but that same great character development and story building that I've come to expect of a Devereaux book are all here. The ending is not a surprise but the twists and turns to get to the happy ending are a little different and make a good read. I enjoyed it page after page until the end. It's too bad the book ended. The big brown library cart (UPS) just delivered another Devereaux novel from Amazon as I was writing this - I can't wait.