Rating: 
Summary: Superlative.
Review: The evocative images of Daisy's more-or-less ordinary life struck me with far more force than have the images of hundreds of novels that have gone before. I never once had to work at reading it, yet it kept me pondering eternal verities for days: an absorbing, joyful experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Author Ever-Present (Too Bad I didn't care for her company)
Review: Every fiction writer must play the role of God. However most writers are subtle about it, silently leading the reader to his own (but also the writer's) conclusion. There is no subtlety in Miss Shields. She hits you over the head with her overly analytical philosophy, and even on some of the most mundane things. Her characters never flushed out as real, but rather paper dolls to look at. I will soon forget I ever read Stone Diaries, but I will never forget Miss Shields.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderul quiet story
Review: I've read this book twice in the past several years and enjoyed it the second time as much as the first. It records the life and thoughts of a fairly ordinary person from her (unusual) birth to her death.I loved the way the mood and the characters themselves change as the story proceeds. (Daisy's father is a gem.) Carol Shields' writing reminds me of Jane Hamilton's although the story lacks the drama and crises in Hamilton's.
Rating:
Summary: compelling..couldn't put it down
Review: as well-written as anything I've read in years..masterful use of language and different types of writing styles.. after a slowly moving beginning, the book picks up speed and doesn't let you put it down. I had a hard time leaving it to prepare dinner! I can't wait to read other books by Carol Shields.
Rating: 
Summary: not quite
Review: I thought the pictures in the middle were confusing and un-nessecary to the story. I felt that the story she wanted to tell got lost in the story she tried to tell. All in all, it just didn't work for me.
Rating:
Summary: The most thought-provoking book I've read in years
Review: I just finished reading (well, listening to the audio version of) The Stone Diaries and I found it beautifully written, thought-provoking, and not long enough. It was one of the most complete presentations of a life that I've found in fiction. Daisy Goodwill is approached/presented from a variety of points of view, including a look at her trousseau, a rummage through a trunk of accumulated belongings, and a presentation of "theories" offered by friends and family to explain her behavior at certain periods of her life. Altogether, a novel with a difference. I want to read lots more of Carol Shields' work.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, stunning study of story-telling
Review: Several years ago, one of my professors recommended that I read The Stone Diaries. I finally got around to reading it last summer. From the first page, I was struck by the beautiful, evocative, almost tangible writing. Carol Shields creates distinct images with her words--I can still see Mercy in her kitchen the day Daisy was born. But the true beauty of the novel is its exploration of the role of the fiction writer. Carol Shields' novel, with its combination of autobiographical and fictive elements, becomes an important study of the way any fiction writer writes. Every writer uses elements of her or his own life, yet every writer also uses "artistic license" in order to add depth and continuity to the story--even the person writing an autobiography. Like Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, Carol Shields, by relating Daisy's "autobiography" from birth to death, is forcing us to look at the role of the story-teller. Although Daisy is present at all the events in the novel, she isn't witness to them in the way the author describes the scenes. But Daisy possesses an imagination, and, like a writer, she creates these moments. Really, she is rewriting her life, much like any successful fiction author rewrites a life into a book. And are these fictive elements any less important than the autobiographical elements? When The Stone Diaries is declared an autobiography, readers want truth, veracity, realism. But the life Daisy imagines for herself is as real as any "true" life she would relate to the audience. An exploration of the whole of a person's life--birth to death, hard facts to imagined ones--The Stone Diaries is by far the most stunning book I have read this year. If you would like to read a beautiful display of the process of the written word and the process of one's life, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Worse than watching paint dry.
Review: This book came highly recommended to me, so I was a little concerned when I didn't feel it warranted the same merit. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this book was the most boring they had ever read. I've read slower, quieter books before and quite enjoyed them. However, this book was beyond slow. I didn't make it past the first three chapters, and I must say that if a book doesn't grab me in the slightest way within the first 120 pages, then it is not worth my time.
Rating:
Summary: BAD.
Review: There are certain books you read that make you stop and think: "Lower than rock bottom. There never was a worse book written. Never." During those dark times, you gullibly believe that. Then, turn around and there it is!!! A puff of smoke! Magic! Something comes along that's even worse. Such was the case with this novel. Boring, inexcusably long, overly complex, vulgar. To be very eloquent: BAD. Just plain BAD. BAD BOOK. BAD. Um, I didn't like it in case my point wasn't clear. (I'm a traitor to my country!)
Rating: 
Summary: A winner??
Review: I have heard so much about this novel, and started it with great expectations. The fact that it was a award winner in such an aclaimed competition ensured that I would like it. I was disapointed. The most acurate way to describe this novel, is that of having both good points and bad. Something that confused me immensly whislt endevouring to read this book was whether it fell upon biography or fiction. The photographs and tree lead me believe that it was infact a real family, yet I was told later it was not. I was constantly wanting a climax to the novel, something that would grasp and return my interest in what had so far been a tedious and dull book. It never came. It was the story of, a life. A typical life. We know of it, we can relate to it, so why must we read it? I felt, that while this may attract some readers, it bored the hell out of me. Well written, true to life, sure, but dead dull.
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