A happy case of serendipity led me to this brilliant short novel about a murder on a south Texas farm in the l930s. Porter's prose is dry and understated but she wields a masterfully descriptive pen that says more in one sentence than most books in one chapter. I must have read it 50 times and will probably read it 50 more.

This book quickly grabs hold of you and engrosses you in the world of the narrator, a spinster schoolteacher in England. Despite the narrator's intention to detail the scandal involving her friend's affair with an underage student, she instead offers up a fascinating study of herself and her own obsessions. While I haven't yet seen the movie, the book is definitely worth a read, especially for those who enjoy devilishly creepy characters.

This was such a great book! It's like nothing I've ever read before. The story gradually builds up and keeps you anticipating...with a very ironic and romantic ending.

I loved this book, I just happened to pick it up, I was not familiar with the author but this book is a great read for all 70's afro-centric baby-boomers. I have shared it with several people and they all have enjoyed it. I highly recommend this book.

The is a very engrossing novel, the author's first and it is a wonderful work of fiction which rings true enough to be real. I highly recommend this novel and have shared it with several people who couldn't put it down.

I know, I know--this is an oldie, and pretty overexposed recently, what with last year's movie release. But I just discovered this wonderful recording. It's actually more of a box set of separate recordings of all seven books, but what recordings! Each book has a different reader, and they're all wonderful: Kenneth Branagh, Michael York, Lynn Redgrave, Patrick Stewart--that's what attracted me to the set. I first encountered the books as a college student, when I took a seminar devoted to C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein, then read the books aloud to my kids, but I hadn't had anything to do with the series for 25 years. So this was a fresh encounter with some old friends, and very satisfying. If you're not used to the typically British narrative style it may seem a little too "cute", but the sytories are as enthralling as ever, vividly realized by the brilliant readers.

In between research,work and all other things that go with my mundane existance, I read "Shantaram". And I m glad I did. A good book with some real absorbing parts. Very well written and brings out the real essence of Mumbai.Lots of the parts about the Mumbai-underworld is very realistic and had me totally spellbound. The other remarkable parts are the insightful thoughts of Karla,Khaderbhai,Prabhaker....Some of these pieces are so well penned. In particular, I liked the parts Lin reads from Karla`s journal the night he takes Tariq there. "I dont know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us or our endless ability to endure it." The 1000 page tome of Shantaram,talks about a group of foreigners, all hiding from law in Mumbai...and all of them have lost their hearts to the great Mumbai and could never live elsewhere. They are a part and parcel of the bustling city. In Delhi,however,they struggle to adjust to India and its vagaries... But we see,how finally,they do lose themselves to India. Gregory David Roberts (author of Shantaram) has done a very good job painting the picture of India - both the good and the bad but has managed to bring out the soul of the country. The parts where he describes Lin`s life in the slum are most realistic. In all,a very good read. I hope this one`s NOT made into a movie. (I heard that Shantaram was going to be made into a hindi-english film).No movie ever made justice to a good book.As someone one rightly said, "Dont judge a book by its movie"!!!!!I whole heartedly recommend this book to those who want a full-filling read - from the point of view of both substance and clarity of expression.

I am not into reading the "hot" list doing the rounds in libraries and NYtimes. I wanted to try this one because a couple of my friends seemed to think highly of it. The reviews said something about Afganistan,and dad-son stuff and the like. "Wow , what an intelligent way to make money!" I thought. Your have an Afgan born, American writer, who writes about Taliban, and human suffering pre and post 9/11, and the good old movie formula of some friendship, and dad-son sentiments and boom! There you go! You have the right formula to a superhit American novel. This was the usual cynic in me speaking. After reading this one, I knew one thing. The reviews did no justice to the book at all. They tell you what is written, not how it is written.There are very few books , which deal with emotions and feelings without getting icky-sticky and mushy. There are very few books which make you feel good about having feelings at all. Books that say "Hey wait a minute, this does not need to be a clinical research paper on symbology or anthropology, and you can still like it."A book that says "Hey,this is not a maudlin, tearjerker that you can forget your brains at work to read, and you can still relate to it." The Kite Runner, is about an intensely personal account of a rich Afgan boy, who later migrates to the US.The political uncertainity , and fundamentalism in Afganisthan, is gently draped around, and peeks through their lives, unobtrusively - not too loud, not too judgemental.It is not Ayn Rand - It does not lash out against ethnic cleansing, it does not push any high flown democracy down your throat. It is not Daniel steele either - It doesnt eulogize the Dad-Son bond. The one thing that crossed my mind repeatedly as I was reading the book was - "Ok now, something is disturbingly familiar about this book." When I reached the climax, I was able to place it. It was around my fifth grade.I refused to put down "Swami and friends". At the end of it I cried. This book brings in me the same feeling I get when I read any R.K Narayan. So simple, yet so powerful. The Kite Runner story revolves around the rich,spoilt, meek protagonist, his dad and his best friend - his man servant. These are everyday human beings, make choices, and live with the choices they make. The choices they make have powerful, and everlasting influence in their lives, in a war-torn country with scant respect for human lives. What is refreshing about the book, is also the fact that the hero is fallible. He does not simply do the "right" thing everytime. He is a silent spectator to injustice. He runs away to another land, and turns a blind eye. He almost lets go of his only chance to do away with his guilt. And then slowly, and gradually , he deals with the ghosts of his past and finds happiness. In all , a welcome break from the insipid murder mysteries, which , I guess I have finally grown out of. A must read too.

This book was very good...I loved the conflicts of the novel. I just finished reading it as a freshman in school and I am now writing an essay on it!! Well, wish me luck!.

I am currently reading this book in college and it is a great read. It is like many people said it is as if you are the characters in the book, it is so real.I am glad my teacher told me to read this book. I give it 5 stars for it being easy to read and get into. This book is hard to put down once you start. I recommend this book to everyone who wants an adventure that is inexpensive. I do hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

I first saw this dog-eared peice at Corryville, and stared at the other two books in hand - "Complete works of O Henry", and "short stories of Evelyn Waugh". I needed to curl up with a "light" one. And so I picked the "Goddess for Hire". The charecteristic second generation Indian cockiness is represented nicely in this book - although Sonia tries to add that curry and and incense stick Indianness to this one, to the casual eye , its just too stereotypical - especially the part about every Gujrati being a doctor in the US. Overall - without all this Goddess-like powers, and lighting and thunder, this book is still your run-on-the-mill-good-for-mindless-reading kind - the M&B , chick flick genre.To someone who still thinks Indians commute by elephants to work, this book might actually come accross as "an exotic potrayal of the East". To me its plain snobbish. Overall rating - Average.

Susie Salmon, aged 14, is murdered on December 6, 1973. She narrates the story of her death and its painful, far-reaching effects on her family from heaven. This devastating, luminous story is one that has stayed with me for years

So far so good. A lovely & compelling story though a bit long-winded. "Flowery" I suppose might be a better word, but I do not doubt what an English major recently told me: Dickens was paid by the word...

And no it is not what you are thinking (whatever that may be). It is an acronym meaning Failed in London Try Hong Kong, and used as a nickname for the main character Edward Feathers. Edward begins life in British Mayalsia around the early 1930's. The British empire's style of child rearing seems to give Edward the short end of the stick at every turn. Through a series of flashbacks Gardam slowly illuminates why and how Old Filth became the peculiar man that he is. By the end I am confident that you will absolutely love Old Filth.

For the next person that asks for a good vacation novel for middle school readers (or for yourselves, for that matter), Uncharted Waters by Lesie Bulion is a GREAT read! This is also a good choice for older disaffected boy readers, full of descriptions of tools and schematics and fixing motors in a marine setting with a life problem the hero has to fix, as well as all the motors and boats within. Budding marine biologists will find inspiration as well as those who experience a fear of the water and its denizens (especially jelly fish). I enjoyed this book SO MUCH I didn't want to stop reading it; I would pair it with The Young Man and the Sea by W. R. Philbrick (another one I really liked), for those guys who love to read books set at the edge of the sea, with the wind blowing and the ocean crashing in their imaginations.... Sigh. When is my next seaside vacation? I can't wait until this is made an audiobook.

Great book about forgery, passion and insanity in the global art world. Highly recommended!

This is an action-packed, suspenseful thriller in true Child fashion. Plenty of bad guys, an exciting locale, a damsel in distress...what more could you need?