Rating: 
Summary: I'm surprised....
Review: ... I, personally loved it. It had an interesting and little used theme, an interesting main character, and I loved the author's choice for a title. Here is the thing with the ending, it isn't a BAD ending conclusion wise, it is more a bad ending to the "quest" that the two main chracters, Zeena and Mark are suppossed to be on, the basic plot point of the book.What happens in the last chapter, to me, is a perfectly fine ending, I liked it. The chapter before that is why this book is really confusing, I couldn't really make heads nor tails of it, and it was an odd way to end the mission, and leaves a lot unanswered. However, this book deals with not only a great historical background of the great city of Pittsburgh, but with many of the racial and ethical issues in our world today. Overall, this is a good book, and I think it is definetly worth your while. While the ending of the quest left me and obviously a lot of others very disapointed. Yet it actually, now that I think about it, kind of leaves it up in the air, for you to imagine, to draw your own conclusion from the symbolism of this book. I still gave it 5 stars, because the over-all book is great, but if you are a person who is real into detailed plots and ending where all the answers are given, you might not be very into this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Started ok, but ending left me disappointed.
Review: As a Young Adult librarian, I read this book thinking I could recommend it to my readers if I liked it. I really liked the 1st half of the book, a real page-turner. The whole tie-in with the story of Great Expectations is wonderful, and the idea of a "quest" sounded fun. I even managed to smile at the references to the nasty, unhelpful "librarian" working at the "Circulation Desk" - most of us that have set foot in a (largish) public libary know that librarians do not work at Circulation Desks anyway, so I tried not to take it personally. Towards the end of the story, I had really lost a lot of interest in the "quest", and in the characters as well. I was waiting for a climax, but there was none. I thought the ending was totally ...well, boring actually. Maybe I just didn't get it, but I still can't figure out if going on this quest (risking their life, really) was worth it to the main characters,in the end. I don't think so.
Rating: 
Summary: A Different Kind of Mystery titled Another Kind of Monday
Review: First of all, I was required to read this book for English Festival and did not choose to read it. Overall,it was a pretty good book, but I definitely would not recommend it to any one under 13. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I completely did not understand it and it didn't fit in with the rest of the book at all. It was very educational, though. I live in Pittsburgh and, while discuccing this book in class, discovered that our class took a field trip to an observatory and looked through a Brashear lense! Before this, the only one of the historical people in this book I had heard of was Henry Clay Frick, and I didn't even really know who he was! This book is good for any one who likes mysteries or historical books.
Rating:
Summary: i just finished the book...
Review: first of all, this entire book was mediocre at best. a lot of people have claimed that another kind of monday was great up until the end, but i don't agree. this novel was more engaging in the first half than the second, yes, but even the most enjoyable parts of the book didn't go beyond satisfactory. the writing was fair, with pretty good pacing, and the premise had a lot of potential- two very different teenagers trying to solve a puzzle laid out for them by an enigmatic "benefactor". some of the characters were pretty well portrayed, especially mark's girlfriend merial.
the most interesting part of this book by far was the pittsburgh lore, which was nicely incorporated into the story. however, once i finished the book, i realized that none of it had been exciting. i had subconsciously spent the whole book waiting for it to get more interesting; i just hadn't realized it until the anticlimatic ending.
another thing that really irritated me was how many times the author referred to the title of the book. when the reason for the title was first introduced, i thought it was kind of cool, but eventually the author kept throwing it out there and it became gimmicky.
when i was getting down to the end of the book, i considered it 3-star material, but thinking about the story once i was finished made me subtract another star. the only reason i'd recommend this book would be if you were interested in pittburgh lore. another kind of monday allows you to absorb a selection of interesting stories about pittsburgh without having to pore over long history books- but it doesn't offer much more than that.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing book.
Review: I bought this book from a catalogue which usually sells books which interest me. The whole idea of a quest really interested me from the start but i was soon dissapointed. The story moved rather slowly for my tastes and some of the actions in the novel were unbelievable. Also, the ending was very disspointing, which to me, ruined the entire novel. My recomendatoin is that you should pass on this book and buy something which you're sure to enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting idea that could have been presented better.
Review: I enjoyed this book a lot. I was interested in the people that the characters had to research and the quests they had to do. It made me want to learn more about them. But I feel the plot itself was lacking a little. All in all though I thought it was a good story and I would read other things written by the author.
Rating:
Summary: A taste of history
Review: I found this book to be very exciting. As a Pittsburgh native, the vivid descriptions and the awesome facts about the city really peaked my interest. Mark was an interesting thoughtful young man that wasn't sure where he was going until he met and feel in love with Zeena. I was disappointed, however, that Zeena stayed so angry throughout the book, but I tried to understand her viewpoint. Also, I would have liked to have seen what happened with Mark and his father, but overall the book was a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome! Cannot stay away for one minute!
Review: I got this book and I am only on page 74 and I cannot stop reading it. I love this book because it is a mystery with clues and a purpose. Five star book, definately.
Rating:
Summary: A Weird Wild Goose Chase
Review: I had a difficult time getting through this book, but I pluggedon hoping things would get better. They didn't! The protagonist gotinvolved in a quest based on local history, but the clues were too specific to locale to make it intriguing for the reader. The book went on too long and ended very flat.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I read in a long time
Review: I loved this book so much I can not put the book down. I really liked all the history that took place in Pittsburgh. I learnd more about Pitts in this book than I do in my Social Studies class. The intensity in this book was outraging. I think this book is good for young readers.
|
