Love this series...read it many times.

Not as good as Little Women but still fun...

I was ok with the book but 60 pages in I realized that this author belongs to a fundamentalist religion. There are many authors who are able to keep their specific religion out of a book and focus more on general christianty which is fine. However, I find over and over that authors who are in totalistic and fundamental religions don't do that well. They try but they convey the misogyny and particularly the unequal rules and blame for women that are found in fundamental religions. I was raised in a fundamental religion (the same one as the author) which is why I recognized it instantly.

If you don't care about those issues then this book is probably ok. Even without those issues it is still a bit immature and probably better for a younger audience around middle school age. It's cute and clean. While I'm fine clean books, I don't like clean when it also means indoctrination or subtle hints at fundamental religions. It does have at least one rule from the authors religion in it along with general references to "church," etc. I decided not to finish it as I've suffered enough at the hands fundamental religions.

Probably my all time favorite book! I have read her books so many times they all need to be replaced. This is her best with Emma a close second.
Some of my many favorite quotes...
"It is better to know as little as possibly of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."
Read it 11 times.

Read it 10 times.

Disclaimer: I usually review children's book based more on what my children think of the book and less on what I think of the book...

Read it 9 times.

Disclaimer: I usually review children's book based more on what my children think of the book and less on what I think of the book...

A favorite

So.....the movies are way better even though they have absolutely nothing to do with the books whatsoever, except that they share the same name. That being said, this book was okay. I liked it but it was a little too crazy with the plot. A little too much liberty taken, etc...and way too much swearing. It's just dumb to have people swear that much.

Always a good read.

I should say that I deep admire the work of Father Gregory. The subject of the book is 5 stars. The book itself 3 stars (for me)....

Even though it was from Edward's point of view, really it was just like reading Twilight again. I thought she had done an a good enough job in Twilight describing what kind of character Edward is that almost nothing was revealing in this version. For this reason it is probably good that she wasn't able to publish it unless of course she was planning on editing it further to have a a lot more unique parts. The only part that I really hadn't surmised from Twilight was about Angela and helping her with the boy she liked.

Not one of her better known books but I think it is right up there with O Pioneers and My Antonia. I love Willa Cather.

Great book. The reading is a bit "academic" but I really enjoyed it. My only complaint is minor. I grew up in South Korea. I wish there had been a little more effort to include the Korean/Japanese equivalent words so I could reference the Korean version for better understanding. He added them sometimes. I realize that there isn't always an exact equivalent but there is almost always something similar or related. For example, off the top of my head, Chinese rice punch Jiuniang. There is no exact match but you could add something like "Jiuniang (related to Korean sikhye or Japanese amazake)."

Not really that depressing...

This rating is not based so much on the actual book, which I thought was rather good but on the fact that my dad made me read it.

BYU Studies pulished this book while I was working there. I am not an expert in poetry but have always had a facination with poetry and literature. (I find my mind seems to deal with science a little better) That being said, I think this is a fun book. The poems make me feel like I am with my grandfather back in Idaho. My favorite, although probably not the most amazing poem in the book, is Bless Our Tacky Chapel. It's delighful...

I love to hate Pride and Prejudice spin-offs as much as the next person. They are almost always ok but never great...like 3 stars. I read a lot of them. For some crazy reason, I keep hoping they'll catch some of the magic of my most read book.

This is the only one I can say I actually really liked. It was hilarious. Was it magic? Not in the same way but I have a feeling Jane Austen would have appreciated the snide humor as much as me.

This book and it's second volume were some of my all time favorite books as a child. I read and read and read these books over and over again. I have found in general her adaptations are much closer to the original especially of HC Anderson and therefore not quite as PC as other adaptations. For example, my boys love how the hunter cuts the wolf open to let out Little Red Ridinghood's grandma :) These books are in pretty bad shape so I can't let the little ones look through them but we love to read them together. My older boys also love them! I watch for them on places like Amazon and occasionally a copy will come up for a decent price. I have gotten some for around $20 that I used as gifts.

Started out loving it...then toward the middle/end it took a weird turn and it just lost something...

I think this book made me admire Condoleezza Rice more. I gained a much better appreciation for how qualified she really was for her position (even if you don't support her and I don't, you can't argue now that she wasn't experienced). Her life really was amazing and she accomplished so much. She knew so many amazing people. After reading the book, in some ways, I wish her mother or father could have written it based on how interesting their lives must have been. I don't think Rice showed a whole lot of emotion, you get the history but not her deepest feelings or reflections (which is fine if that is what she wanted). I guess the best way to describe the book is extremely interesting but not deeply compelling.

Three stars for writing, five stars for topic and content...this one will break your heart...

Read it 4 times.

11/10 Some people say that having the first movies come out before she finished the series affected her writing. Maybe it did but it is still darn good writing!

I don't know what to rate this book...in someways I liked it. I am glad it had Lightroom/Photoshop tips. So many books do not. However, it didn't have a lot specific technical advice. On top of that (and this is just my opinion), the photos weren't that great. I just didn't feel inspired. Also, women photos were really poor. It isn't what they were wearing but just the fact the the photos themselves are so contrived, nothing appealing or artistic about them. I know others with disagree with me but...just my opinion.

Just...no...this book has all the makings of something I should really enjoy. I don't know why but it just felt very forced and sort of pointless and...really, it didn't fix the bible fiction or make it any better...the writing is good (?) but I feel like the actually bible has more interesting characters and I don't even like the OT...

Way better than the first because it had so much less romance. Somewhat predictable...although a fun story line.

I am perfectly happy to give up a series after the first book if it isn't interesting...well, Cinder was enough for me to pick up Scarlet. I told myself it probably won't be great because it is rare that a series gets better. Scarlet was good enough for me to read the next one...really about a 3.5 star book

Read for book club...
With exception of a crazy religious apocalyptic book, I have never give a 1 star rating to a book that has at least a 4 star rating on goodreads. A 4 star book usually means at least I will like it or find it "okay." I kept reading thinking something is going to happen, somehow this book will come to together because so many people "liked" it. Honestly...probably the worst book I ever read.

I am truly saddened over the rating on this book.In a world where Tolstoy or Cather or Steinbeck can't be tolerated by the average reader, we replace it with stuff like this and call it amazing. The problems have probably been flushed out through many reviews but here is my list...

-the whole book (the whole thing is a problem)

-the editor...whoever edited this book should be fired and never allowed to work again as an editor. Maybe they tried to get it edited and it caused all the editors to weep and want to gauge their eyes out after 20 pages. Maybe the editors took up the task and realized it would take the rest of their lives to properly edit the book so they just skipped it.

-all the words...there are SOOOOO many of them. BLAH...it is like someone threw up a dictionary. It is like the author chose the word lovely and then looked up all its synonyms and then proceeded to use them all in the same sentence. Even worse, half of his descriptions don't even make sense when you really break them down. I like wordy books (see my Count of Monte Cristo or Les Miserables show more unabridged reviews :) but not wordy books without a purpose. Do you want to know how wordy this book it? Just for a test I had my husband read every 4th page for about 40 pages. He was able to understand the basics of what was happening skipping 3 pages at a time. (Now I wish that is how I had read it)

-the plot...I know you are probably thinking, "why would she complain about something that doesn't exist?" But it is true, I am complaining about the fact that there is no real plot at all.

-The Sun...once again, a writer obsessed with "writers" in their book. What a surprise. The glorious "print" will save the day. A whole book with a random plot and random characters designed just so there can be a glorious newspaper.

-The sex...well...sounds like a horny old man decided to pretend he was a teenager and make his characters go around doing all the things he didn't get to do when he was a horny teenager.
Then, to add insult to injury, all the women in the book are, of course, absolutely beautiful and perfectly willing to throw their "unspoiled" self at a stranger that they instantly fall in love with. Convenient (for the men) that the women character's main attribute is that they are beautiful and easy without too much personality.

-the characters...mostly...they are all terrible. I liked the horse, and I liked Abby and Martin and Mrs. Gamely. I tried to like the others but eventually they all just fell apart...of course, with no real plot it must be hard to develop characters.

The good news is that there is no way the movie could ruin the book! show less

Hmmm....
I want to...I don't know...it is just a hard subject to tackle and do it well from both sides.
I am not African American but I am from Texas (not really considered the South by Southerners or Texans but there are some similarities :) My guess is that most African Americans would understand the effort but not find this book satisfactory.
On my side, I am kind of getting sick of every female hero being some kind of hippie/feminist and a "writer." Stockett is more subtle than some authors. I understand the genre and occupation of being an author lends itself to certain personalities and viewpoints but the truth is that it is the women who stay behind that affect the most social change.
So once again we have a woman who "finds" herself, hides in the shadows, makes one big statement and goes to the big city to become a successful career woman = Hero. Not convinced. Meanwhile, it is her mother and friends she leaves behind who over the next decade will have to confront these deep social issues. If I keep going this could get too preachy so I'll just end saying that it was a good book but the stereotypes on both sides were too much

Read it 9 times.