Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Battle Hymn review


a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10173280-battle-hymn-of-the-tiger-mother" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">Battle Hymn of the Tiger MotherBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I gave this book 4 stars because it was well written and very readable, not because I agreed with her.  I couldn't put it down.

However, it was kind of like watching a train wreck... like you can't not watch it.  This mother is the typical asian music mom times by 20.  I think we've all seen parents like these in all fields, but this book shows what happens behind closed doors.  I do appreciate her honesty.  She made no attempt to see things through rose colored glasses.  However, it was a little disturbing how emotionally abusive she is of her daughters and how proud she is of it.  I actually agree with a lot of her theories, but I think she is too far on the extreme side.

She says, "What Chinese parents  understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it.  To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences."  I agree with the first sentence...and partially with the second sentence.

She also says, "my goal as a parent is to prepare you for the future-not to make you like me."  Agreed.  Parenting shouldn't be about trying to be your kids' friend, but that doesn't give you license to emotionally abuse your children and work them to death either.

Chua has some good concepts and Ideas, but they're poorly executed in my opinion.  No wonder her youngest daughter hated her and rebelled.  There's just no excuse for calling your daughter garbage...


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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Book Reviews

I hope you are enjoying Follow the River, but in the meanwhile, I thought I'd put up some book reviews from the past year.

Here are some from our friends here on the book club (Andrea, you are an honorary member...) that I put up without their permission, so give me a holler if you want this off.

Ashlee's 2010 book review

Andrea's 2010 book review (part 1, 2, 3, 45, and 6)

Shayla's 2010 book review (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)

And if there's anyone else out there with a review, let me know and I'll put it up!


And here are some very random lists of the best of the best from 2010 lit.

Amazon's Best Books of 2010

NY Times top 10 of 2010

Best of 2010 from Fiction Award Winners

Publisher's Weekly

NY Times best illustrated children's books

More Children's books

Publisher's Weekly best of Children's books

ALA's best young adult books

Goodreads best of YA books for 2010

Amazon YA books

I don't know about you, but my "to-read" list just got about a mile longer.

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Actor and the Housewife

Have any of you read this book?  Below is my goodreads review.  But I'm curious, what did you guys think?

The Actor and the HousewifeThe Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really have had a hard time knowing what to rate this book.

For the pros:  The dialogue really was very witty and at times I laughed out loud, and it was good enough that I actually finished it in not too long a time, which at this stage in my life is saying something.

However, I think I'll agree with some of the previously written reviews of the book that it was a little bit too much of the authors personal fantasy fleshed out in a book and it got a little ridiculous at points.

I love Shannon Hale and I salute her for doing something different, but it really didn't work completely although I enjoyed the ride for the most part.


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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Review

As a book club, we gave Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

1 out of 5

we were not fans!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Westing Game Review

As a book club, we gave The Westing Game

3 out of 5

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Informative Site

Although you all are the type that would read your children's books yourself to find out whether they were suitable for your children, I thought this was a great site.  It's called The Literate Mother and she reviews children's and young adult books based on violence, language, adult content, etc. so you can see what your kids would be reading.  She also reviews books.  Click HERE to check it out.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Great Divorce review

As a book club, we gave The Great Divorce

4 out of 5

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Review

As a book club, we gave The Help

5 stars out of 5

One of the best we have read yet!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Review

As a book club, we voted and gave Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale:

4.3 out of 5


Saturday, February 6, 2010

Review

The book club gave Three Cups of Tea

4 stars of 5

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Book Review

As a book club, we rated The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

5 out of 5

Our best rating yet! If you haven't read it yet, we highly encourage you!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Wives and Daughters Review

Out of the voting members, we gave Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

3.8 out of 5

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Review

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands received the rating of

3.8 out of 5 from our book club members

Friday, August 28, 2009

Twelfth Angel Review

The participating members of the review of Twelfth Angel by Og Mandino gave this book:

3.5 out of 5

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Book Review: The Lightning Thief

This book was hard to get ahold of, so not many were actually able to read it, but out of 4 votes, the Lightning Thief had an average book club review of

3.5 out of 5

Hope you are enjoying The Twelfth Angel!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Book Club Review

Hi all,

According to our poll (thanks to those who voted!) this was the average response for the past two books. If you haven't voted for The Lightning Thief yet, take a sec...it's fun!

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven got a reader review of
3.3 out of 5

Little Britches got a reader review of
4.2 out of 5