What is the last book you read, and your rating?

[Sunday diamond]

The last book I read was 'Road map to the End of Days' by friedmann. I gave it 4/4 stars.

I always love such a book like that. Its truths-revealing and knowledge- packed. I can't risk deleting the book even as I've already done with the reading.

[FionaTZY]

The last book(or rather series) I read was the mortales instruments. It gets a definite 3 of 5 stars from me. Sure, I loved the plot line but it dragged out a little too long with no action and the bad guy (not going to reveal so it will not be spoilt) just kept slipping out of grasp. I feel it would have been better if they had complicated the storyline and let the good guys find out slowly more information rather than making a sudden revelation and winning in the end. That said, the book was generally quite good as I am quite strict in giving out high ratings.

[mymanga003]

The last book I've perused was Stieg Larsson's The young lady who kicked the Hornets settle. I give it four out of five stars. The book was great and never for a second unsurprising. A couple of entries was a little overwritten and pointless, however. Aside from this last thing I absolutely adored it.

[sarahmarlowe]

I just read The Reel Sisters by Michelle Cummings. I rated it 4/4 stars -- one of few I have given 4 stars. I suggest it to those looking for a female friendship story.

[Norma Fleagane]

A non-fiction, "Ship of Fools" by Tucker Carlson. I rate it a 4 out of 4. It was thoroughly researched and very well written.

[Redlegs]

It's not the done thing to laugh at people with mental illness, but while reading Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan it is almost impossible to suppress a little chuckle every now and then.

The tale of Poppy Shakespeare is narrated by N (we never know her by any other handle), a long-term client of the Dorothy Fish day care centre for people with mental illness. Clients spend their days at the centre, and return home for nights, weekends and public holidays.

Poppy is forced to attend the Dorothy Fish centre, despite the fact that she believes she is completely sane. To be able to access a lawyer to help her get out, she must be in receipt of government benefits, known as MAD money, and to get the funding, Poppy needs to prove she is mentally ill. The classic Catch-22 situation!

N decides to help Poppy navigate the complex forms and bureaucratic processes that are required to demonstrate her mental illness, so she can receive MAD money support.

The story is related in the first person by N, using her particularly colloquial style of speaking (which will drive some grammar purists nuts), which is why the tragi-comic events described are so often laugh out loud funny.

I won't say much more about the plot, except that there is an underlying deeps sense of sadness and despair beneath the humorous style of relating the lives and fates of this group of peculiar characters.

Clare Allan has written a lively satire of the British mental health care system (I understand some from personal experience) that will keep you really engaged from beginning to end. 4 stars out of 5

[Zimall]

Just finished reading McDowell and i rated it 3 out of 4. Book was great but had a lot of erotic scenes. Otherwise it was an amzing read.

[Redlegs]

Thomas Hardy is always a quality, thought-provoking read, and Jude the Obscure is no exception.

This is his final novel - he was so upset by the criticism of the novel, on moralistic rather than literary grounds, that he thereafter wrote only poetry.

The essence of the story is the relationship between Jude Fawley, impoverished stonemason, and his cousin, Sue Bridehead,

Jude is trapped into a youthful marriage by the very forward Arabella, but it lasts only a short time before Arabella leaves him.

Jude, meanwhile, develops a loving but chaste relationship with Sue. Sue marries a schoolmaster, Phillotson, but her heart is Jude's and she seeks leave, and is granted, permission to leave her husband to live with Jude.

Eventually both Jude and Sue are released from their respective first marriages by legal divorce, leaving them free to marry each other. However, Sue gets cold feet at the last minute on several occasions and Jude, out of his deep love for her, indulges Sue's increasing irrational whims.

The moral attitudes of the time mean that Jude and Sue are shunned for their unmarried cohabitation, making their lives difficult and impecunious.

In sometimes convoluted passages, Hardy sets out moral arguments for the nature of the relationship between men and women. It is the proposition that perhaps genuine love between the sexes, chaste or not, is more important than marital status that ultimately caused the author, as well as his characters, so much grief.

It's despair and unfulfilling outcomes make it a little less enjoyable than other Hardy novels I have read, but it is nevertheless important quality fiction.

4.5 stars out of 5

[dailey2820]

The last book I read was Will of The Hill and I rated it 3 out of 4 stars. It was a good children's book but not as exciting as others I have read. It also had too many booger references for my liking.

[Charlyt]

I just read Kennedy's Revenge by Stephen Rodenbeck and I gave it 3 out of 4 stars. I'd recommend it to those who likes to learn about the untold history of the United States.

[Amyrich]

I just finished Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. I wish this book was never published. I am sooooo upset. I at least wish my friends had warned me, told me not to bother with this book. This was just hurtful...ruined Atticus for me. How could she? Ugh.

[rwhite1289]

The last book I read was The Traveler's Best Seller. I have it a 4 out of 4. It was a great read for history buffs.

[Ajoke-Ade]

The last book I read was The surgeon's wife by William H. Coles and I rate it a 3 out of 4

[SpencerVo]

The Sword Swallower and a Chico Kid by Gary Robinson. One of the most beautifully written novels I have ever read and I happily give it 4 out of 4.

[Redlegs]

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers is a 1933 murder mystery that is set mostly within a London advertising firm, and involves Sir Peter Wimsy operating undercover as his alter ego Death Bredon, to investigate the suspicious death of one of the employees.

Bredon's inquiries, which he needs to keep casual and discreet to avoid suspicion (he is supposed to be a new copy-writer), soon lead him to organised crime links involving the importation and distribution of cocaine and other drugs, through an upper class party set. At times, Wimsy resumes his own real persona to pursue the investigation with the police, particularly with his brother-in-law, who is a senior police officer.

Sayers has a load of fun with the intricacies and absurdities of the advertising business. The story is full of quirky characters, many of them quite fanciful, and much of the plot stretches the bounds of credibility up to and well beyond its limit.

Similar in style to an Agatha Christie crime mystery (perhaps a little more ostentatious), Sayers plays the whole thing for fun and enjoyment. Nothing is to be taken too seriously here.

The novel is deliberately whimsical in nature, and I think that Sayers' choice to name her principal character Sir Peter Wimsy (he features in may of her novels) is quite a intentional pun.

3.5 - not quite 4 - stars of of 5