Rating: 
Summary: Now I Understand the Brouhaha
Review: Call me cantankerous but when I hear, "You must read this book," or "You'll love this movie," my first thought is "No, I mustn't" or "No, I won't." I have been disappointed too many times by the misleading commercial success of a book or movie to expect much from such recommendations. Major disappointments that come to mind include the movie "Pretty Woman" and any novel written by Nicholas Sparks. Despite my misgivings, on the recommendation of my brother-in-law the intellectual, I cracked open The DaVinci Code with low expectations and immediately found myself caught up in the puzzlement of a gruesome, after-hours crime scene in the very secure Louvre. Having spent 12 years as an earnest Catholic school girl, this book set my brain on fire. A usually passive reader too lazy to look up the occasional unfamiliar word, I found myself racing to Google on claims Dan Brown made regarding classic art, religious history, mystical numbers and such. Years ago, E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime captivated me in a like manner by mixing historical fact with fiction. It is the reader's decision where to draw the line between fiction and fact, and I find it fascinating to have to ponder where that line actually falls while reading a novel. The DaVinci Code is not great literature but it is a great book: the plot unfolds at a rapid-fire pace, the characters are likeable although trite and the points it makes about DaVinci's art and a secret code fascinated.
Rating: 
Summary: Really, really lame
Review: Cardboard characters...an art "scholar" who spouts goddess pseudohistory concocted by 19-century bunk artist and then popularized by neopagan Starhawk who wasn't really interested in actual historical truth...one chase/escape after another to the point of tedium. The scholarship and the characters who are supposedly scholars lack all credibility; this wouldn't matter if as fiction it still made a good story, but it is so lame. It's like a mishmash of a lot of thriller movies, but lacking any character of its own. I am totally puzzled why so many people recommend this book. They must not read much. Go find something else; it's not hard to find better reading than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast-paced and Action-packed
Review: Certainly The Da Vinci Code is a very easy read indeed. Each chapter is a cliff-hanger, so it's nearly impossible to put the book down in good conscience. It is a thriller on a higher level than most, it is intellectual to some extent. To many readers, it opens up a whole new way of perceiving history, and it is sure to augment your interest in art history. However, it is a book somewhat intended for the mass market. To intellectuals, it is a good read about an interesting subject; to the less informed it's an epiphone. I must admit that in places, Dan Brown goes a bit overboard with his message, but the main gist of the book is captivating. It isn't that his message is something new; movies like The Last Temptation of Christ deal with a similar subject, but Dan Brown puts his message in a form much more friendly to the masses by writing a hard-to-put-down thriller. Even if you don't agree with Brown, it's still a good read.
Rating:
Summary: CREEPY
Review: Chilling fiction with enough religious realism to creep the jeebers out of you. And replace it with the Heebs. Great, creative, work that will have you in suspense from page one. And once your done getting creeped out, try, The Little Guide To Happiness. This book is also a great book. The difference is that one will give you a good clean scare and the other will lift you up and have you smiling. Both great books I picked up at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Starts well, becomes preachy and flat
Review: Christianity is a con job that for 2000 years has obscured the Real Truth--that of the Goddess--under a layer of patriarchal oppression. That's what I ultimately took from this book. The story starts out gripping and fascinating -- a murder in the Louvre, a cryptic series of messages, a chase. There are hidden codes in works of art, and explosive secrets that tantalize the reader to read on. But the book founders when Brown devotes chunk after chunk to sermonizing under the guise of teaching. Sophie, the primary female character, is a cryptologist who initially shows great intelligence as she helps our hero (Robert Langdon) escape, but for the rest of the book she serves primarily only as a receptive pupil for the nuggets of wisdom and knowledge she receives from the other primary (male) characters. The pages devoted to delivering this information are tediously extensive. It's a device typically deployed in desperation when the writer can't think of a more skillful way to get his points across. In this case, it serves to bog down the story and try the patience of the reader. What's more, the information is a real-life mishmash of fact, speculation, theory, and myth, all couched as Truth. Brown himself states in interviews that aside from the story line, everything in the book is factual. This is nonsense, but it accounts for the book's preachy tone. Brown has an axe to grind, and grind it he does. Finally, character development is nonexistant, as is typical in books that exist primarily to preach (for other examples, see the horrible "Left Behind" blockbusters or anything by Ayn Rand). I say if you're looking for a masterful telling of this kind of story, head for Umberto Eco instead and leave Dan Brown behind. Far behind.
Rating:
Summary: Wait for the movie
Review: Clear out the cobwebs and dust off a place on your shelf next to the Celestine Prophecy and The Bridges of Madison County. This book will soon be taking up space there. Ever so often a publishing phenomena such as the above mentioned comes along and captures the attention of the public then drifts into obscurity. The Da Vinci Code is such a book. It is poorly written with an agenda that is as transparent as the plot. As a screen play it may succeed depending, of course, on the quality of the production. Good casting could breath life into the one dimensional characters. Although I'm not sure what more Hollywood can do with yet another albino bad guy. A good screen writer might be able to do something with the hoakie story. Keep your eyes open it will soon be coming to a theater near you.
Rating:
Summary: I'm simply amazed
Review: Clearly everyone and his dog has had his or her nose buried in this book for quite some time, but I didn't get to it until it was loaned to me by someone whose opinions I respect, then recommended by another friend in the same category. Oh my goodness. I'll acknowledge that I only read three chapters. The writing was so bad I just couldn't get any further. Combine that with the assertion, in the third (and my last) chapter that a spring evening in Paris was "winding down" prior to 1 AM (as evidenced by the main, purportedly, character's observation that he had been asleep 20 minutes prior, which time was given as 12:32). A small detail, yes, but evidence that this author has so little respect for his audience that I would not invest any more of my time when there are actually well-written, non-pandering books out there to read.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: Codes and secrets drive the plot of this suspense thriller quite nicely. The references to real works of art and architecture will probably be enjoyable for you if you like art history, puzzles, brain teasers, history, etc. Not being Christian, I wasn't bothered by the implications, this is a work of fiction, afterall, not a philosophical treatise, and the author has taken some poetic license. The main thing I didn't like about it was that the end was disappointing to me. Still, it was a fun read anyway, and based on older reviews, I will check out Brown's previous book.
Rating:
Summary: "Outside, the wind howled through the trees."
Review: Come on, people. "Stupid" doesn't necessarily equate "Fun". Aside from the fact that the credibility of this book has been consistently trashed by scholars, the writing is poor to the point that it would be laughed out of a high school English class. I'm wondering if there should be a required "What was the last book you read?" question, for amazon reviewers. I have a hunch the majority of these five star ratings would also include a lot of Danielle Steele and Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: The Mt. Everest of its Genre!
Review: Completely enthralling, and thought provoking, The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown is my pick for Book of the Year. Read in one sitting, with a glass of milk and only one sock change, i would have to say that this Novel purely ROCKED!
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