The Mermaid Chair

The Mermaid Chair
By Sue Monk Kidd
0143036696 332p

If you liked 'Bridge Over Madison County', you'll love this one. However, I despised that book. I'm so tired of stories of women getting tired of their (always long term) husbands, going off to 'find herself' or confront some mystery past, only to fall 'in love' (at least be honest and call it lust) and sleep with a stranger. Seriously, grow up and talk to your husband. And 'finding yourself' involves yourself, now falling into bed with the first guy who looks at you. Childish adults piss me off.
5/10

Love and Freindship And Other Early Works

Love and Freindship And Other Early Works
By Jane Austen
via gutenberg.org

Dreadful. I don't even know where to start. She was 16 when she wrote these, sounds like she was about 11. Melodramatic, far-fetched, ridiculous characters. I don't know how this girl grew up to write Emma and Pride and Prejudice and all her other novels. Were these a joke?
5/10

What’s Right With America

What’s Right With America
By Dwight Bohmbach
0553257110

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I didn’t finish this book. I read to about page 150, then got bored and put it down. I guess a lot of the data is out of date, so maybe that turned me off. It was also very boring, just facts and more facts. Then I started to skip around, figuring I would just read the topics that interested me (there weren’t many, or at least the titles of the chapters didn’t jump out at me enough!). I finally put the book down after the chapter about women being ready to run for President. The author begins by talking about suffrage, then talks about the anti-suffrage movement. Spends a bit of time calling a woman names for not agreeing with women’s suffrage. There were women (and maybe there still are) who didn’t think women should have the vote. They formed societies to try to block women’s suffrage amendments from being passed. Okay, history has decided they were wrong, that women should have the vote. Personally, I believe they are wrong. But there is no need to call them names for their opinion! In a perfect world, maybe they wouldn’t need to vote, maybe their husbands/fathers/brothers would look out for their well-being as well as their own. In a perfect world, no one would need to vote, politicians would just instinctively do the right thing! I was disgusted by the author calling these women all kinds of names just for having the audacity to have an opinion and try to work change in their world. We should all be as politically active as those brave women were. The book, for that, gets 5/10

The Virgin’s Lover

The Virgin’s Lover
By Philippa Gregory
1419327607

Who is this woman??? This is Queen Elizabeth? I certainly hope not, spoiled little brat that she is here. She and Richard have zero chemistry, but he seems to have the biggest hold on her despite that. She’s an absolute moron in many ways. Let’s see… don’t sleep with a married man. Especially if you’re the Queen of freaking ENGLAND. And if you’re trying to get someone else to marry you for political reasons. (Hint: your future husband wants a virgin, not an adulterer.) Elizabeth is a whiny, selfish, stupid girl. She’s nothing like the Elizabeth I’ve been taught about, the strong woman who kept her kingdom together despite being “only” a woman. I’m not sure how historically accurate this is, I hope not at all.
5/10

Composition on the Net 2001

Composition on the Net 2001
By H. Eric Branscomb
0205330738 (16)

I’m sure this book was relevant when it came out. At this point, I knew basically everything in the book (what I didn’t know, doesn’t matter to my life). Doing searches, building websites, checking sources, it’s all here in easy to follow format. Since I’m feeling generous and this book did come out so long ago, I’ll be nice:
5/10

Sarah

Sarah
By Marek Halter

Well, nothing like changing a little history, huh? Here's a tip: if you're going to write a story based on the Bible, don't contradict things in the Bible! That's just silly and makes you look like you didn't do your homework. Let's see, Abram and Sarai were half-siblings, not strangers who met in a stream one night. Pharoah ended up with a skin disease when he wanted to sleep with Sarai, thinking she was Abram's sister instead of wife. He didn't, as this book so... graphically describes it, sleep with her. Well-written and an interesting concept, but it didn't quite work for me.
5/10

Saraband for Two Sisters

Saraband for Two Sisters
By Philippa Carr (Victoria Holt)
0499232077

I love Victoria Holt. Her books are always well-researched and take the reader to far flung places. This book is not one of those, unfortunately. That's probably why it's under a different name, but the writing also wasn't as good. It was more stilted and pretentious. Maybe that was on purpose, since the reader was supposed to be peeking at 2 girls diaries, but the girls should have gotten more mature voices as the years passed. Instead, the narrative dragged a bit. And the end... well, I won't spoil it but it was ridiculous.
5/10

The Omega Code

The Omega Code
By Paul Crouch

Ugh. Why did I read another one? You'd think the Left Behind series would be enough for me, but no! I have to say that I like the Left Behind series, although the writing leaves a bit to be desired. This book was so short that there wasn’t much character development and the twists and turns came out of nowhere. There was no foreshadowing that you could later think “oh! I should have known!” Instead, things just happened and I would blink and say “huh?”
5/10

Least Likely Bride

Least Likely Bride
By Jane Feather

Ugh. I liked the character Olivia. And her friends were very funny! I liked her playing chess with her pirate, that was very funny also. But the ending sucked... *spoiler alert* You're really telling me that in that time period, her father lets her sail off, unmarried, when he knows she's sleeping with the pirate? I don't think so!! Stretches believability too far for me. Oh, she was strong-willed. Blah blah blah, she was a girl and as such she was under her fathers authority.
5/10