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OljaG13 rated a book.

• Rated 4 stars

Mark V reviewed a book.

“Angelou is a national treasure. Her prose style is unpretentious, her framing is direct, she relates anecdotes succinctly, but best of all, her stories have heart. I really feel like I know Vivian Baxter, or "Lady," Angelou's mom and the wisdom, fire, and intelligence that that woman had for...”

“Angelou is a national treasure. Her prose style is unpretentious, her framing is direct, she relates anecdotes succinctly, but best of all, her stories have heart. I really feel like I know Vivian Baxter, or "Lady," Angelou's mom and the wisdom, fire, and intelligence that that woman had for Angelou radiates in this memoir/biography.”

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dreamtokens reviewed a book.

“I finished reading Ender’s Saga by Orson Scott Card Thursday. It’s been quite a journey.

One weird thing is, I’ve bought and tried to read Children of the Mind in 2006, but I didn’t understand a thing and threw it back on a shelf. Of the whole saga, this fourth book is the only one that...”

“I finished reading Ender’s Saga by Orson Scott Card Thursday. It’s been quite a journey.

One weird thing is, I’ve bought and tried to read Children of the Mind in 2006, but I didn’t understand a thing and threw it back on a shelf. Of the whole saga, this fourth book is the only one that doesn’t stand by itself, making no sense if it isn’t read after Xenocide. So, maybe, in some weird way, it could have been meant to be, for me to read it at this time in my life. Because it was, indeed, a beautiful read. It healed me of all previous obsessions, creating a new one: sci-fi. And now, I often think about Ender, or other characters from the book, like Wang Mu, Peter, Valentine, Jane, or Miro. They’re as alive as anything else.

I can’t sum up just how alive this book is. It contains a whole universe, with heavy feelings and deep thoughts. It poses all kinds of questions: morality, consciousness, guilt, community and communication, spirituality, life beyond death, intelligence, power of words, stories, forgiveness and understanding.

The first book, Ender’s Game, isn’t as mature, but the others three, I think, are a must read for any sci-fi lover, but, really, for any literature lover who finds himself in front of guilt, or failure to communicate with one another, or to understand. ”

dreamtokens reviewed a book.

“Xenocide by Orson Scott Card has not disappointed me. After falling in love with the first two books of the series, this one has done it all: has managed not only to keep alive perfectly shaped characters, but also to question and answer all there is. Life, death and the universe, morality, good...”

“Xenocide by Orson Scott Card has not disappointed me. After falling in love with the first two books of the series, this one has done it all: has managed not only to keep alive perfectly shaped characters, but also to question and answer all there is. Life, death and the universe, morality, good and bad, freedom and free will, the roles of genetics in all of this, the power of a single story. This book has it all. I can never quite get from what multitudes did Card get his ideas: the duality of human existence from Descartes maybe, the power of will from Schopenhauer, the cruelty of Peter from Nietzsche? I don’t know, but what I know is that his story is real, it’s a good story, it’s full of life and full of ideas, it’s wonderfully complex and well-structured and it’s a pleasure to read. I just couldn’t put the book down. I became a slave of it - I only thought about when I would get to read the next page, and the next one.

Orson Scott Card has one of those distinct voices that stay into your mind. Even now, after closing the book, I can still feel that part of his writing style has been imprinted in my mind. Some words. Sometimes, I see my own sentences italicized, like in the book, and I know they are similar to his. It happens. If you became attached enough to a book or a writer, if it gets close enough to you, it swallows you for some time. You connect a lose a bit of your old self, getting a new self, a symbiosis. Or, if you will, kind of like a philote connection. ”

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OljaG13 rated a book.

• Rated 3 stars

Mark V reviewed a book.

“I remember seeing the film, Amistad, in the theater in 1999 and being amazed at its significance so when I saw this new book on the shelf at my library, I wanted to explore my sense of wonder and support it with details. Rediker's history satisfied my sense of curiosity and my sense of detail. ...”

“I remember seeing the film, Amistad, in the theater in 1999 and being amazed at its significance so when I saw this new book on the shelf at my library, I wanted to explore my sense of wonder and support it with details. Rediker's history satisfied my sense of curiosity and my sense of detail.

He writes about the Mende's background in Africa prior to being seized--especially lingering on the secret Poro society--and this really helped me to understand who these revolutionaries were. Additionally, I was fascinated to read about how once the Long, Low Dark Schooner, the Amistad ("friendship" in Spanish) arrived off Long Island, it became both a circus as well as a firecracker for abolitionism.

I wish he had spent more pages on the Supreme Court trial, John Quincy Adams' defense and the opinions of the Judges, but overall, I still really enjoyed reading this history.”

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Mark V reviewed a book.

“It's a nimble guide to Rousseau's life, works, and achievements. The graphics distracted me some, but the brevity appealed to me. Best, though, I am now primed and prepared to begin reading Rousseau.”

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JudithAnn reviewed a book.

“This (short) story started off quite nicely, with Emily visiting her neighbour Victoria, as she had received a letter that was really for Victoria. After that, the story starts to fall apart for me. Some events go to fast and there are inconsistencies (or so it seems, I'm not sure). For instance,...”

“This (short) story started off quite nicely, with Emily visiting her neighbour Victoria, as she had received a letter that was really for Victoria. After that, the story starts to fall apart for me. Some events go to fast and there are inconsistencies (or so it seems, I'm not sure). For instance, Victoria really, really doesn't want her husband to know about the letter and the next moment she tells all.

The story then shifts to the next day, at Victoria's dance school and I lost my sense of time completely. Also, people that had just met or didn't know each other very well, made friends at the flick of a wrist and that didn't seem right. They were much too companionable for people that had just met.

There are some fun elements to the story, like a video that seems to kill the person watching it but there isn't much of a tension to carry the story forward. In the end I didn't care too much about what happened.

The writing wasn't very strong. It seemed like a beginner-writer's story. Such a pity, as it doesn't compare at all with The Miracle Inspector, another book by this writer, which I gave 4.5 stars and really loved (and the writing was good, too). ”

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