Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) by Christina Schwarz Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.89 You Save: $11.06 (74%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: GREAT BEGINNING BUT THE REST WAS BORING
Summary: 2 Stars
This book started off well and I thought that it would have been really good but after the first 3 chapters, I couldn't get into it because the book was disappointing later on, and boring in spots. It was allright but not worth the time to spend reading it. GOT to be A BIG DISSAPOINTMENT.Book Review: Great read!
Summary: 5 Stars
I took this book on a 10-day vacation and it was perfect for lounging on the beach. I get bored easily if I am reading magazines too long, but don't like anything that requires me to really concentrate while on vacation either. This book was somewhere in the middle. A very easy read in that it definitely held my interest and kept me curious as to what the outcome would be. My husband even asked for a summary at the end of each day of our vacation of how the story was progressing! Interesting story and I truly enjoyed it! I will be interested in reading other books from this author.Book Review: Good Start.. But tThe Rest Was Bad
Summary: 2 Stars
I was very disappointed with this book. There were some good reviews but I found that the story could not deliver.
It started off good, a good murder mystery, I was excited to see what would unfold... I kept waiting for the book to get exciting or suspenseful or to get attached to one of the characters but it never happened.
The whole book was, to me, a lot of filler and the end was anticlimactic
Book Review: Please, someone just SAY something!!
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a very well done suspenseful tale of the kinds of secrets and pains that occur in families and how the sufferers of those manage them. In stiff and proper small town Wisconsin in 1919, we learn that Amanda lost her sister, Mathilde (Mattie) through the ice on a winter's eve. Returned from Milwaukee after nursing WW I soldiers and suffering a bad relationship, Amanda has only a year before losing Mattie and taking up management of the family farm and the raising of her little niece, Ruth. When Mattie's own husband, Carl returns from war, Amanda is not particularly forth-coming about the circumstances of Mattie's death and the two of them exist in the family home almost in a sort of truce - Amanda taking the lion's share of raising the child.
Ruth and Amanda are the story-tellers and there is some confusion early on about when things are taking place (in the recalled narratives) but eventually the cadence of the story picks up and is not only manageable but well done. Although ostensibly the book is a suspenseful one, all roads leading to the discovery of what actually happened to Mattie and why, it is also a complicated exploration how people deal with the traumas in their lives.
Very well written, I was only frustrated by the behavioral limitations that Carl and Amanda seemed to exhibit. There were many times I wanted to shout, "Just say something!" But I recognize the time period, the ethnic and sociological limitations, and the behavioral `expectations' that these people faced. And more than anything, I felt sorry for them.
Book Review: Can someone drown Amanda, please??!
Summary: 4 Stars
Very well written book. I liked the book particularly because it was not your typical story about a murder story where you can chronicle all the events after just a few pages of reading. The author keeps you wanting more as the story progresses. The characters are all well developed...I have to say I did not like or trust Amanda and wanted to reach into the book and drown her myself. I know it's just a book, but that's how much the story got to me!:))