ajsterkel's reviews
812 reviews

The Subtle Beauty is a twist on the classic Beauty & The Beast tale. Princess Glory is the most beautiful princess in the Twelve Kingdoms, but her vanity sometimes causes her to behave like a beast. That changes when she meets a sweet, arrogant, and ugly gryphon who teaches her that outer beauty isn't everything. The danger of becoming obsessed with beauty is also echoed in the book's subplot. Xander and Colin both own beautiful enchanted swords that cause their owners to behave like beasts. There are so many twists in this book that you'll never know what's going to happen next. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes twisted fairytales, Celtic mythological creatures, paranormal stories, or sword and sorcery fiction.

It's so difficult for me to review memoirs. I've avoided doing it because I don't know how. It's not fair to critique someone's memories, and a lot of people who write memoirs aren't professional writers, so it's difficult to critique the writing. This is one of the reasons why I don't read many memoirs. I'm never sure how to feel about them, and I feel bad if I don't like them.

Fortunately, I liked this one. This book obviously wasn't written by someone who has a ton of experience with writing books, but it is an extremely compelling memoir that deserves to be read. It tells the story of how the author became involved with the Peoples Temple as a teenager and how she escaped several months before the massacre occurred. The author's resiliency and courage are astounding. I was amazed that she could be under so much stress and still keep functioning. I also appreciated the author's honesty and attention to detail. This memoir does a great job of showing how people become involved with malignant cults and why they stay in the cult when things start getting crazy.

If I have to criticize a technical aspect of the book, I think the pacing is a little off. Some parts, especially toward the middle, dragged on too long for me. I kept thinking, Okay, I get it, time to move on. A few other parts felt like they moved too fast. I wanted the author to slow down and explain things better.

With that being said, this is a fascinating book. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I don't think I'll be forgetting it any time soon.

It’s been several years since I’ve given up on a book, but I just couldn’t stand this one any longer. It’s so poorly written that I might have been confused if I didn’t already have background knowledge about the COG. The book’s preachy tone kept me from feeling any connection to the author. The author also makes several broad statements that struck me as untrue. For example, she says, “The notion of 'innocent' victims is a myth. No one involved with the COG or any other cult has been a totally innocent victim” (62). Well, what about children? There are a lot of children who are “involved” with cults because their parents are involved. The children didn’t choose to be there. They seem like innocent victims to me.

If you’re researching the COG, there are other books about it that are much more informative than this one.

Fallen is Ann Hunter’s most complex and imaginative book so far. It tells the story of Prince Sylas, a seventeen-year-old who will do anything to free the girl he loves from the clutches of a witch named Crwys. Fallen is a companion novel to The Subtle Beauty and Moonlight. I’d strongly recommend reading those other two books first. Sylas is a complicated character who is easy to both love and hate, but the star of the book is definitely Rós, a magic chicken who becomes Sylas’s only friend. Fallen is intricately plotted, unpredictable, fast-paced, and full of smart dialogue. It has a great message about the powers of love and friendship. Many of the scenes have a surreal quality which I really admired. Overall, this book is a very entertaining read.

Set during the years that England ruled India, A Passage to India explores the tensions created when different religious and ethnic groups share a country.

For the most part, I was extremely bored with this book. The social conflicts between the British and the Indians were interesting for a little while, but then it just started feeling tedious and repetitive. Nothing truly interesting happened until more than halfway through the book. I couldn't get into the story, and my mind wandered a lot while I was reading. I also had some trouble following the dialogue. The characters change subjects quickly, and the author rarely uses dialogue tags in a way that's actually helpful.

I do understand why this book won so many awards and why it's on the "Books To Read Before You Die" list. I think it's an accurate portrayal of human behavior. The Indians aren't vilified, and the British aren't heroes. It captures the complexity of India. There also aren't many books set in India during this time period, so it's a unique story. However, I was bored out of my mind while trying to get through it.

This is a very well-researched book that explores the biological, psychological, and social reasons that people join cults. In addition to examining groups that are commonly thought of as cults (such as the Moonies), the author also looks at groups that have cult-like behaviors, such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

If you are just beginning to research cults, then this book is a good introduction to the subject. It's very thorough. The author has a lot of experience with these groups and obviously knows what he's talking about. I appreciate that he approached the subject objectively. He doesn't assume that all cults are evil and that all people should conform to the beliefs of mainstream society. I also like how the book discusses the conflicts between cults and society in an objective way. Many books only look at a cult's behavior and ignore the society in which it exists.

If you aren't new to cult research, then there's nothing stunning about this book. The writing style is fairly dry. If you've done enough research, you've probably already come to many of the same conclusions as the author. However, I still thought the book was pretty fascinating. It's worth reading.

This collection of linked short stories chronicles the life of a woman named Nell. The stories aren't in chronological order, but they begin with Nell's childhood and continue until she is in her 60s.

I'm a huge fan of Margaret Atwood. She might be my favorite author ever, but I didn't like this book as much as her others. A few of the stories seem very dull. There is a lot of telling and not much doing. Nothing really happens. I'm not sure if the stories went over my head, or if I'm just used to stories with more action, but I got bored with several of them.

Fortunately, the majority of the stories are great. I loved the ones about Nell as a child and as an older woman who is taking care of her parents. I also loved the ones about the animals on the farm. The title story, "Moral Disorder," is the stand-out for me. It tells the story of how Nell and her almost-husband, Tig, accumulate (and lose) their farm animals. It's the perfect mixture of deep and hilarious. I haven't read a short story that I enjoyed that much in a long time.

I would highly recommend all of Margaret Atwood's books. I think she's one of the best modern writers. Nobody develops characters, writes description, or evokes emotion like she does. Her books are amazing.

I think "Lively and Entertaining" is a bit of an overstatement, but this is one of the most readable books about literary analysis I've come across. Most of them are so boring that they're nearly impossible to get through. I had no trouble getting through this, and my reading list is now a little longer. The author mentions a few books that sound very interesting.

If you already have an English degree (or several), then you probably won't learn anything from this book. If you read a lot and think deeply about what you read, then you probably won't learn anything from this book. It only provides a very basic overview of irony and the most common symbols in literature. Some of the symbols that the author discusses are so obvious that they didn't need explaining. Most readers would be intelligent enough to figure them out for themselves.

I was hoping that this book would have a little more depth and be a little less western-centric. The author ignores half of the world. What about the irony and symbols in Eastern literature? I want to know about those.

I would recommend this book to high school students and anyone who hasn't taken literature classes. Those people would get the most benefit from it.

I saw this book at B&N and bought it without knowing anything about it. I didn’t even read the back cover. All I knew was that I liked this author’s other books, so I thought I’d give this one a try. I was not disappointed.

After a summer of doing landscaping work, Tyler’s new muscles attract the attention of Bethany, the most popular girl in school. At first, he’s thrilled, but after he gets blamed for posting naked pictures of Bethany on the Internet, his life starts to spin out of control. Twisted is intense and very realistic.

Even without reading the back cover, it quickly became obvious where this story was heading. The foreshadowing and the references to death/murder/suicide are strong. This made the plot a little too predictable for my tastes. I also had a hard time connecting with Tyler. He has a good sense of humor, but he doesn’t seem as deep as the other narrators in Laurie Halse Anderson’s books.

I did love the author’s approach to the naked-picture scandal. These scandals impact more than just the person in the pictures. Tyler is just as much a victim as Bethany. He is harassed, threatened, falsely accused, and treated like a criminal until his innocence is proven. When we hear stories about teens posting naked pictures on the Internet, we don’t think about everybody who is involved. Victims like Tyler are often ignored. Focusing on Tyler instead of on Bethany is a unique approach to a familiar story.

I didn’t like Twisted as much as I like Speak, but it did give me a lot to think about.

It’s my New Year’s resolution to read more plays. I started out with a Shakespeare play, but it reminded me of horrible high school English classes, so I switched to this one.

A Streetcar Named Desire tells the story of a mentally unstable woman, Blanche, who is tormented by her brother-in-law, Stanley.

I hate every character in this play. Stanley is a terrible person. Blanche is annoying. Stella refuses to see what is right in front of her. None of them are people who I’d want to know in real life. However, I enjoyed reading about them. I read this play straight through without putting it down because I needed to know what happened next. These awful people are pretty fascinating. It takes a talented author to make me want to read about un-relatable characters. This play is impressive.

My favorite line: “I don’t want realism. I want magic. Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it.”