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emilysk

emilysk

I live in Seattle. I recently graduated from nursing school and am starting work as a new RN. I have a BA in English literature. I will read anything, up to and including the back of a cereal box.

The books on my shelf are books that I've read, not necessarily books that I own. My reading list is of books that I want to read but... more »
  • Seattle, WA, USA
  • member since November 22 2006

Reviews

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Displaying 21-30 of 334 reviews
  • While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family
    • Rated 2 stars

    “Okay, I admit it, I chose to read this book knowing that it would be sensational and that the author is pathalogically incapable of being impartial. That said, I still didn't like it much. Harrison tells the story of a family murdered by their teenage son - the only survivor is the youngest sister. The author interviewed the survivor and the murderer - but she couldn't stop talking about the parallels to her own life and her own tragedies. I found it quite distracting, and I believe it prevented her from being able to understand and communicate the motivation behind the killings and the impact it had on the sister.”

    emilysk wrote this review Monday, September 14 2009. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink )
  • Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs Novels)
    • Rated 4 stars

    “The Maisie Dobbs series continues to hold up. In this installment, Maisie helps her assistant Billy's wife who is experiencing some mental health difficulties, and also helps to solve a conspiracy by a madman to commit mass murder. Maisie gets additional respect from the authorities at this point in her career, which is nice to see considering the time period when the books are set. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Wednesday, July 22 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Un Lun Dun
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Really good young adult book. The main character is an adolescent girl who finds a way from London to UnLondon - an alternate reality where everything is strange and different, and the residents need her help to fight off the evil Smog. No, really, it's sentient air pollution.

    I liked the strong girl characters and their complete lack of preoccupation with their appearance or with boys. It was refreshing that the damsels were not in any distress and solved their own problems!

    I also enjoyed the cleverness the author employed in naming characters and places... like the garbage can bodyguards called "binja". Or the other un-cities like Bagdidn't and Parisn't. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Wednesday, July 22 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • A Fraction of the Whole
    • Rated 1 stars

    “I got halfway through and gave up. I just didn't like it. The writing isn't bad - I just loathed all the characters and felt like the story was going nowhere. I kept reading for a while in case I was missing something... but it just wasn't working for me. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Saturday, July 18 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Empty Chair
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Another Lincoln Rhyme mystery. In this one, Lincoln & Amelia are searching for a murdering in a small town in North Carolina. Everyone in the small town has pegged a weirdo local kid known as Insect Boy for the killings - but the solution may not be that simple. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Saturday, July 18 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Kalahari Typing School for Men
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Darling as always. In this installment, Mma Ramotswe's assistant has an idea to start a business on the side that will earn some additional income. She decides to teach typing skills to men who might be too macho to enroll in a secretarial class. She also meets a man, who seems to be interested in her despite her enormous glasses. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has a couple of detective cases to take care of, although she wonders if she should ethically take care of either.

    These books are always a sweet, light treat. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Saturday, July 18 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Instinct Diet: Use Your Five Food Instincts to Lose Weight and Keep it Off
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Not a bad diet book. It emphasizes eating high-fiber, low calorie foods more often throughout the day to increase satisfaction and decrease feelings of hunger and deprivation. I am personally terrible at following a prescribed eating plan, but I tried to incorporate some of the ideas I learned in this book and I found them helpful. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Saturday, July 18 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Queen's Fool: A Novel
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Pretty good, not as romance-y as "The Other Boleyn Girl". The Queen's fool is Hannah, a young girl who, along with her father, fled the Inquisition in Spain. Their family is Jewish and must therefore reinvent themselves. Hannah dresses as a boy for safety, and when a minor noble discovers her in her father's bookshop and engages her in conversation, he hires her to be an entertainment for the Queen. She is considered an oddity or jester - a girl who dresses as a boy - and she may have the gift of seeing the future, though she can't control or direct it.

    This was an interesting glimpse into the court of Queen Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine. She is succeeded by Queen Elizabeth I, who is painted as a conniving, self-absorbed tramp in this novel, in stark contrast to the many Queen Elizabeth stories told in other books and movies. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Tuesday, July 14 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Condition: A Novel
    • Rated 3 stars

    “I picked this book up because I was interested in reading about the character with the condition mentioned in the title - that condition being Turner's Syndrome. However, while the title character Gwen is the center of the story, very little of the book is from her point of view. Instead, the other characters (parents, siblings, cousins, etc.) all wring their hands over Gwen's prospects in life and otherwise act dysfunctional. It's not a bad book, I just didn't like it much.”

    emilysk wrote this review Tuesday, July 14 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Art Thief: A Novel
    • Rated 3 stars

    “This was a decent mystery, featuring lots of double-crossing and surprise twists. The book opens with the theft of a Caravaggio altarpiece from an Italian church, then jumps to the disappearance of a modernist painting from a conservationist organization. I was a little puzzled by the end of the book, but it was a reasonably entertaining read. ”

    emilysk wrote this review Sunday, July 12 2009. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 21-30 of 334 reviews

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