Not a good thing but especially in the case of this book
938445
I can't finish this book. Part of it is my fault in that I had too many long periods between reading sessions and lost track of the story lines. Not a good thing but especially in the case of this book. Too many long flashbacks, too many long drawn out explanations of tactics used by operatives and not much action or thrills. Technically I'm sure tactics described are accurate given the authors experience, but rather than have characters use those tactics in an actual operation we are left with page after page of explanations of them.

I got confused, bored and lost, and just as things seemed to pick up 78% of the way in I got lost again. Maybe when I have time to sit down and read for longer periods I will give this book another try.
492871
This is not a good book. At all. As some of the other reviewers have said, it's basically 4 pages of information (most of which is common sense) repeated over and over again under different chapter headings. She has some other books that may be worth taking a look at but this is absolutely not one of them. Good thing I got it through Kindle unlimited because I would be pissed if I'd actually paid for this.
3296050
In his blog Altucher confesses this is a bad book and that he is ashamed of it. I read this book a few years ago, and I must concur with the author.
2595492
A friend loaned us a (different) book entitled OUR NEW BABY written by Beth Atchison, and while browsing in [local store], this book caught my eye.  Wanting a similar book to keep for ourselves, I picked up this book and read it.  I was extremely disappointed not only in  this books content but that someone would write such a negative book for children.  A new baby can be a delicate situation in the minds of little ones and it is my opinion that books which reassure the child and help them to feel positively about the new baby would be best.  The first half of this book, left me with a very negative feeling, with such lines as "my new baby is a pest....  Mom likes him the best.  It wasn't until the final pages that this book turned those negative images into positive ones.  I felt that the damage had already been done.  Please find this book and read it for your self, before you decide to buy it.  It may work for your child, but I put it back on the shelf, not willing to take that chance with ours.
2839960
The author's point of view is...well...it's whack.  It's completely whack.  Which makes the book unpleasant to read.  A few interesting tips in there, but dissociated from any real ethic and with insufficient emotional detachment/professionalism.
3504930
I skim books and read reviews before I read them to see if they appear worth reading. This book appeared to have little science or analysis and to be badly organized and full of irrelevant material and repetitive. I don't doubt that the author's main point is worth writing about but I don't think this is a good book. That is unfortunate because it is an important topic. Many books don't have much meat in them and are really articles that have been extended into books for whatever bad reasons. I assume this is at least partly due to the publishers. There are far too many books being published and far too few good ones.

Midwest Independent Research, educational websites. Mental Health, mwir-mentalhealth.blogspot. There are book lists here.
3549542
No one seems to care this is a book about a female pedophile. It seems the image of female pedophiles in our society are okay but male pedophiles are cast out and condemned as worse than animals. What an awful statement about the double standard in this screwed-up female-worshipping society we live in today. The author and publisher of this book should be condemned for writing and publishing it.

I am not impressed with a story that would let an accused person suffer because the protagonist's character, especially a protagonist who is attending law school, is too weak to speak up concerning the special knowledge he has that would reduce the culpability of the accused...unless the central part of the story was his character and the moral dilemma he was in and subsequent suffering for not have more moral courage to speak out. However, his lack of moral courage does not seem to be the point of the story. In fact, the only point of the story I can ascertain is the cheap propaganda the "Holocaust" receives upon the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Only people who enjoy wallowing in the self-imposed misery of Jewish angst should read this book.
4951776
I'm sorry to say it, but this is not a good book.

The twins Alex and Jason are supposed to be 17.  However they come across more like pre-teen boys, or maybe very young 13 year olds.  They have a 'gift', of sorts, with Alex being able to make animals talk and Jason sharing a similar rapport with inanimate objects.  Or so I assume.  Talking birds, tea cups and sea sprites show up for a fraction of a scene and vanish into thin air, with no more notice taken of them by the characters than a stop sign.

This is the only part of the book I almost liked.  If this had been the focus of the story, two boys - and their family - treating these magical events like commonplace things and using them as an ordinary person might use a phone or a door, it could have lent an interesting angle to any story.

But it was a thought that was never fully explored.  In fact, nothing in this novella is fully explored.  When the twins and some fellow students beat another student bloody - after he's bullied the twins - it's shrugged off in a 'boys will be boys' excuse.  There are no consequences, and no character growth.  It's just a scene there to prove to us these boys are, what, not afraid to stand up to bullies?

Unfortunately, it's handled so poorly and briefly that it adds nothing to the story.

What little story there is revolves around their father's affair - abruptly tossed into the story a third of the way in - and their mother's falling apart when he leaves her.  This part of the book could have been - and perhaps was meant to be - the focus of the story.  Unfortunately her breakdown is  handled clumsily, cartoonishly, and almost insultingly.

Because this is more a short story than a full length novel not everything could be gone into in any detail, but I think it could have been done better than this.  I do not recommend this book to anyone.

* I received a free copy of this book through Good Reads First Reads program in exchange for an honest review.
803926
This is a picture book.  So, presumably the intended age is about 3-5 years old.  When I read this to my 4 year old, I was horrified at how it kept harping on the fact throughout that little Eleanor (a name my daughter shares) was so ugly.  Really?  You think this is a good thing to read to little girls?  I'm trying to teach my daughters not to use words like ugly and fat and not to be cruel to their friends, and this book comes right out and says she was ugly.  Has this author ever watched preschool girls play?

The story itself was also not very well crafted for this age group.  It opens not with an explanation that this is the story about a little girl who grew up to do great things, or any really introductory language, but with a rather odd sentence that Eleanor was a disappointment to her mother because she was such an ugly baby. I didn't find the story, as told in this book, to be very uplifting at all.  Her grace in maturity didn't translate well at all to a little kid, and given the large number of pages devoted to her early and depressing years, it didn't really make up for it.  The whole book was depressing for both me and my 4 year old.
390574
My wife and I are reading this book as part of our preparation for parenthood.
This book is EXCLUSIVELY written from a feminist point of view, at page 50 her husband is almost incidental to the entire process of pregnancy. So if you are male, don't expect either too much practical input for you or being able to read this book without feeling queasy. There are enough references to other belief systems to make even the Buddhist connection tenuous in the extreme. Her website is even worse.
  The positive from all this is that we have decided to write our own book on pregnancy and parenting from a Buddhist perspective and we are not going to be including any references to Isis or Hestia. We will be presenting teachings directly from the Pali Canon.
I will finish reading this book, but it simply shows me the need for something that is both more rational and significantly less feminist/New Age in orientation.
But then another use for this book will be as toilet paper.
4674516
I am unimpressed.  This book while having some merit, is generally poorly written, and I had to push through and skim some sections.  Use this book as indicated at risk to your own happiness and that of those around you.

The first part of the book was interesting, and a good guide for actors, about what looks genuine.  For example, the emotional reaction, (the facial expression) occurs prior to the verbal reaction.  You don't say "Oh, that milk is sour" and then make a sour face.

The middle of the book explains how to ruin your relationships with loved ones with suspicion and doubt.  If you're a cop using this on suspects that's one thing, but only a fool would use this on there family.  If you trust your loved one - you don't need this book.  If you don't - you need more than this book has to offer.

Towards the end of the book the writting and style improves considerably, but the material has uncanny resemblence to material written by other authors who had written years earlier, and does he dows not always site those authors.  A coincidence I'm sure.
1344323
The book is dated and written in a wordy style. The effect is to draw out the subject matter with irrelevant material and it generates boredom for the reader. The subject material may be accurate but it takes a bit to get at that which matters.
2987685
A total whitewash for what really is a crappy thing to have... Aspergers.  Every positive mentioned in the book realistically has a downside to it, Aspergers aint great no matter how hard you try to pretty it up.
632016
This book is Not Good. It was written by a kid, and GOD does it show. But Damn is it entertaining if you know what your getting into. Warning, whatever you might be expecting, you are wrong. Also, this is not suitable for children, pregnant ladies or those with heart problems.

And there is a fairly lengthy and graphic rape scene.

So...yeah.
3432932
This is not a "thriller" as the jacket claims.  It tells the sad story of a cancer patient dying, primarily because he was unable to access a treatment John Grisham feels would have been lifesaving for the story's protagonist.  Cancer treatment decisions are rarely so cut and dry.  I read this book only because it was recommended to me by my sister whose sister in law had lost her husband to glioblastoma several years ago.  Duty done.  I would not really recommend this book.  Not helpful at all medically (my husband has a different cancer this book also claims could be cured by what Grisham advocates -- not true in my husband's case) and certainly not a good entertaining read either.
4740085
Another book that is not worth the paper it is printed on.
1476015
If you were to go by all those wonderful reviews until now who just could not put the book down, you would think you have got a pretty good read on your hands. I beg to differ.

The book is filled with bad prose, weird happenings, a very contrived plot, superfluous characters, twists in the plot just to up the 'shock' value and very badly put together narration.

The saving grace: the last few chapters where to all appearances, the author was in a hurry to wind up and finally started writing sensible prose with logical 'flow', skipping all the manufactured style. Clearly, the author can write but only if he wasn't so eager to please.