Hayley Dwan Dwan itibaren Dats'ky, Zhytomyrs'ka oblast, Ukraine itibaren Dats'ky, Zhytomyrs'ka oblast, Ukraine

Wow. This is truly an amazing book. Before I explain why I loved it, let me issue two warnings: 1) There is some potentially offensive material in the book. So, if you don't like your literature to broach disturbing topics, this isn't the book for you. 2) About 1/5 though the book, I almost put it down. Right around the time when Bruno takes five pages to describe an apartment in meticulous detail, I started wondering where exactly the book was going. Soon after that, it took off and I couldn't put it down. So now onto why I loved it: It is a completely unique book. I doubt anyone who reads it will find it in a library 10 years from now and wonder, "Did I read that? I can't remember..." The author explores so many fascinating subjects - philosophy, animal rights, language, death, literature, adolescence and just humanity in general - all from the perspective of a chimpanzee. Even though it is supposed to be written by a chimpanzee, it is one of the most human books I've ever read, exposing life for all of its beauty and ugliness. It's also a great discussion book - every time I saw my friend who was reading it at the same time, we couldn't help but immediately begin discussing the book. 5 stars.

The first book of two (Language of the Threads) about Chinese women who are sold by their families to work in the silk factories. Amazing stories about amazing women...

I really enjoyed this. Very handy for anyone working at or interested in the ss Great Britain. Mary's writing is bright and witty and it gives a good first-hand impression of the ship on the Australia run.

This book is ambitious and impressive and well-crafted, but I didn't actually enjoy it very much. The present day scholars were boring; Maude never felt like an actual person, and Roland was a douchebag. I did appreciate all the different forms Byatt used to tell her story; she created two Victorian poets and their works from scratch. Perhaps if Byatt had created some of the works of her modern scholars, they would have been more interesting; maybe the effort of imagining a poetic voice for the characters helped invest Byatt in them. Christabel LaMotte is far and away a better developed character than Maude. I guess it's appropriate that the portrayals of the scholars were secondary to their objects of study; the theme of sublimating or losing one's own personality by devoting oneself to the work of another (in scholarship/biography) is certainly prominent in the novel. However, "appropriate" doesn't make the characters any less boring. I was disappointed in the sections when Byatt actually went back in the past to narrate portions from the point of view of LaMotte, Ash, or Ash's wife. I would have preferred their stories to be told entirely from the letters, diaries, and other clues that survived into the present day. I don't think these sections filled in any major narrative gaps, and, even if they had, I think they undermined the interesting structure of discovery that the "primary" sources gave to the novel. I would have enjoyed having some gaps left; that's the nature of history. I did find the Victorian parts interesting, if only because I usually find that to be an interesting time period. Ash's interest in natural history, LaMotte's interest in spiritualism, the jet jewelry from Yorkshire and the legends of Brittany were all interesting details that carried me through the incredible length of the novel. I didn't like most of the poems themselves, and Christabel's letters were tiresome to read -- mostly -- I think -- because -- dashes -- every other word -- are not an -- enjoyable -- substitute -- for -- real punctuation. My favorite section of the novel was the diary kept by Christabel's niece in Brittany, which had a strong sense of place and much needed narrative development. The end of the novel, when the trumped up Scooby gang stages a stakeout, had me laughing out loud, but not in a good way. It was a pretty ridiculous way to shoe-horn some action into the story.