A Map of the World

Rating:
Summary: lost momemtum
Review: At first the drama is exciting and well written but began to fall apart with one hopeless event after another which made the plot seemingly unrealistic. I would have rather the author take more time to do character analyisis and court proceedings. Found the ideas somewhat choppy throughout and predictive.

Rating:
Summary: GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT
Review: The only successful thing about this book is that it proves thenew trend in America that you are "guilty until proveninnocent" as opposed to "innocent until proven guilty." Other than that, I found it boring, boring, boring. Oprah must have a personal friendship with Hamilton since she's picked two of her books for her book of the month club. I didn't like the first pick, Book of Ruth either so I probably should have just let this one go. Instead I ploughed through 390 pages of characters who are all victims with the saddest victim being the husband Howard. I think I'll pass if Oprah picks another Hamilton book. END

Rating:
Summary: Slow at first...
Review: I had an extremely hard time getting into the book and I usually give up if that happens. But, even though this was not one of the best reads I've had, I wanted to finish it to see what would happen. But, that is the only reason I finished it. The Book of Ruth was much better.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This was one of the worst books that I have read in a long time. I had to force myself to keep reading in order to finish. The best part was in the middle when the story was told by Howard. The pace seemed to speed up somewhat. In addition, I found that the detail of this book was very distracting and a little too detailed.

Rating:
Summary: The Novel as Cudgel
Review: With a surgeon's precision Hamilton shows how rapidly one awful event leads to the next awful event, causing lives to unravel. Sometimes the intensity of the author's vision, her anxiety to have the reader see what she sees, made this reader feel yanked out of the story and beaten about the head.

Rating:
Summary: Total Waste of My Precious Reading Time!
Review: Actually, NO STARS IS BEST SAID! This is a case where the author "tries" to hard to WRITE! It is overdone with excessive meaningless detail that dragged the plotless story further! I did read "Book of Ruth" and enjoyed it, but this, Map of Nowhere was totally boring, nothing happening, nothing doing! Characters aren't profound or defined, and the book takes too long to get to one point! I could read pages and pages and still not have a good grasp of characters or story! Waste of my precious reading time, repeat, a TOTAL waste of my precious reading time!

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not exceptional
Review: This book starts off as a real page turner and tear jerker. The middle drags a bit and the ending just kinda hangs out there in a way that makes no false attempts at a "happily ever after" but doesn't provide full closer either. Overall, it's a pretty compelling story of how one family's life can be turned upside down by tragedy and false accusations. The writing is good and Hamilton has a way of really getting inside her characters heads. I especially like how she switched the narrator midstream and then back again to get different perspectives and maintain continuity.

Rating:
Summary: A painful odyssey
Review: I identified somewhat with this story, because like Alice, I have felt frozen out by the community we live in. Moving from San Francisco to a small southern town, has been the biggest challenge of my life. Alice's inability or refusal to let anger dominate her life in prison or toward her false accusers, shows a much stronger person than was shown in the first few pages of the book. An extremely enlightening book!

Rating:
Summary: Boring, boring, boring...
Review: As a teacher, the subject of this book had a lot of potential. It is terrifying to think how one's life could fall apart so quickly because of the accusation of an angry child. However, this book was so boring I almost had to stop reading it on several occasions. If you are looking for a good read by Hamilton, try The Book of Ruth. It will not let you down.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific book!
Review: This is a really great book. It encourages kids to not be afraid of letting people get to know them even if they think others will laugh, and it does it so well! The storyline is really cute--what kid wouldn't like the idea of being rainbow striped? I enjoyed the book and the illustrations are wonderful.