There should be six stars
341950
Wow. I lived in this place and time, and I lived enough of Cherie's life to wonder at times if the author knew me!! Excellent period research, beautiful characters, poetic, humorous, and life affirming. It is really nice to find a book that is a complete story all by itself instead of dragging into sequels. Kudos 's. Ms. McCarty!
4722837
A wonderful children's book. Needs to have more stars than 5.
3044978
Masterful. Engrossing. Instructive. Satisfying. A must.
1134063
Give it 6 speeds and it would be perfect.  As it is, it's a hall of fame candidate: handling, reliability, style.
2288690
As always, do not let my star count override your judgement of content. More on the stars, counting, and my rating challenges later. Lets get to the good stuff, Becks work.

What happens when a writer of strong opinions decides to take you with him into an experience? You get pieces like Abandoned, an ambush in the very first poem.

For social commentary, turn to I Sing My Land: whose streets lurk pale men /awaiting black men /hated by shotguns.

On the topic of war, Beck can be cynical, as in Recon in Vietnam, where we find this: The Hollywood myths of fixed bayonets, /noble sentiments and thunderous artillery barrages, /didn't seem to help our guys much, /while those television grunts, black, white, hispanic, /were courteously interrupted by the network /and prevented from dying before the commercial break.

What happens when a man sees a very special nude sculpture? In Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf, this: compelled me back so often that bored guards /trapped in shabby suits of suspicion /abandoned their conversations /and followed me from room to room.

Another favourite here is Back to Work, which is a classic example of being led into an experience, and includes this: creeping in to cover Denny and untangle Beth /then strip, wash, gargle, slip into bed, /molding the warm woman closer /much too excited to sleep.... There is no way I can really give you the experience of this poem with just a quote. Buy the book and turn to this page.

I have many other favourites in this work, but the above should give you a decent feel. Anyone scrolling for tiny carps can give up. There might be a typo. Now for the star count boilerplate.

My personal guidelines, when doing an official KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. I try hard to be consistent. With this collection Beck easily reaches five star territory. A bit like Frost, a bit like Crane, maybe a bit like W H Auden, but with his own distinctive voice.
Extremely recommended.

Kindle Book Review Team member.
(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)
427990
Pearl Buck did an amazing job of historical fiction writing here. Reading the notes afterwards only built my respect higher. She's taken on completely "foreign" cultures and left her loving impression on everything she touched. Are the characters unrealistically lovable and wonderful? Absolutely not.

If you've ever belonged to a minority population in any context, this book is particularly likely to speak to you. As has been said by so many before me, Buck is a powerful writer graced with so many impressive attributes. If there were six stars, I'd have easily awarded this one the extra star!
3618000
If there were more than five stars to rate your book, I would have gladly given you a rating of TEN stars!
797338
I cannot imagine how I can be the first person to review this marvelous new fantasy.  There should be a thousand reviews, all saying this book is an exciting opening to a new trilogy.

The Oversight is an organization in Victorian England (though of much, much older origins) that is down to few members.  It must survive to protect the world from the supranaturals, and to protect the supranaturals from the world, so to speak.  They are keepers of the Lore and the Law, making sure that everything keeps to its proper level.

A young girl with bits of her memory missing comes into their lives and the story unfolds from there.  What I loved in particular were the excellent descriptions of each character (good and bad), the amount of engagement that the author drew from me, and how much I was vested in the outcome.

The story was exciting, colorful, full of the kind of clever British writing that many of us love.  If the trilogy pans out, I will keep it on my shelves next to Gaiman, Mieville, and Harkaway.  High praise, indeed!
3127033
Do yourself a favor and read this book. This book deserves a place in the pantheon of fantasy novels with Tolkien and a few others. It is that good.

Rothfuss' writing is superb. The characters are fantastic. The pacing is excellent. The story is well constructed. I really can't do the book justice, so just read it.

My only quibble is that Rothfuss is too much of a perfectionist and it taking too long to finish the series. In an interview he said that he added a section of this book during a re-write that he felt really improved that book. The irony was that I thought that the section he referred to was boring and pointless and could have been cut with nothing of value left out of the book.
1685660
How many of anything average five stars? This book does and it absolutely merits it. I loved it.
1574195
WHAT? Only 5 stars?  There should be 10. If you know Bette I need not say more. If you're new to her, you're in for a treat.
2123868
The whole series is beautiful; not so much individually though.  These four books should always be sold in a boxed set.

Very imaginative, with the authors making a good job of presenting it in "vivid colors", if I may say.

On making it into a movie, I'd say that if the recent feature will be the benchmark, then some serious stepping up needs to be done; otherwise, it will be a pity that cinema will not be able to do  it justice.
1997153
If they had six stars, I would rate this series that high. The politicians should view this series before they send our boys to war. nough said
1869778
Morrison has written some great comics - New X-Men, Doom Patrol, WE3, Animal Man, JLA, and the list goes on - but this might be the best thing he's ever created.  He strips Superman down to the basics, blending Silver Age earnestness with wild, far-ranging science fiction and mythology, and in the process he creates the perfect Superman story.  From the one-page, four-panel origin story to Clark and Lois kissing on the moon to Jimmy Olsen dressed as Britney Spears to Lex Luthor's costumed baboon to the indestructible flower at Jonathan Kent's grave, the entire thing is pitch perfect.  And Morrison ties all of these iconic images together with deeply effective emotional anchors.  Even Luthor comes off as sympathetic.

Frank Quitely's art needs to be mentioned.  Morrison and Quitely work together a lot and it can be hard to separate one from the other; this is indisputably a good thing.  Morrison is brilliant, but when paired with Quitely the combination tends toward the perfect.  Quitely's sense of pacing is unrivaled in all of comics (perhaps in the history of comics), and there are places where he almost seems to be channeling Jack Kirby's mad imagination.  This is gorgeous work and Quitely deserves all the credit he can get for it.
355020
I wish I could give this book six stars. One of Pratchett's finest. The whole Tiffany Aching trilogy is marvelous.
4204873
I would be happy if there would be another book like this every six months for the rest of my life. I am not above begging for a sequel Connie!  These are characters whom I would like to spend time with.  They are dealing with the fantastic but in a world that asks questions of our own, not on the level of government but in the personal forum.
606561
This is a six star book, worth it's weight in gold.
So far I've bought three copies.
I wish I'd seen the Motorama's for real.