I actually gave my only copy to a friend and now I am checking it out and making my daughter read it. Although the rules are nothing new, they are things that we tend to forget because we get caught up in the "daily life" that slowly kills us and our dreams. This book reminds me that I can only control myself and no one else; however, if I allow it, I can give up my own power to someone else (even scarier to think a complete stranger). I highly recommend it! You will have nothing to lose but all [XBR] those negative thoughts and agreements that have cluttered your life!

This is the story of a family told by following the fate of its' collection of small, homey Japanese carvings called netsuke. The collection is acquired in Paris in the nineteenth century by one member of this Russian Jewish family and later resides in Vienna, where it and the family are caught in the Nazi annexation of Austria. The author, a potter living in England and the inheritor of the collection from a great-uncle in Japan, eloquently describes the history behind this art form and the historical background of this tragic time and how it affected his family. The reader [XBR] will come away feeling close to the main characters and thinking about the importance of certain objects passed down in families. More for a bookish reader rather than a casual one. With illustrations, but curiously with none of the netsuke. Perhaps these objects that were saved, when so many people were not, are too precious.

After reading the first two "Orphan X" novels, I was seriously anticipating this one. It wasn't a terribly long wait, as I have lots of equally anticipated favorite authors, and this one was well worth the wait. Despite similar attributes to characters like Jason Bourne, and Jack Reacher, Orphan X is different. He's singularly focused, and slightly OCD, yet trying to comprehend the more human (and unfamiliar to him) concepts of family, and love. He doesn't want to lose his focus, however, as the Nowhere Man who helps desperate people, with nowhere else to turn, by less-than-legal methods. So yeah, he's a walking dichotomy. This book continues his story at a break-neck pace, as usual. Hurwitz easily keeps you right on the edge of your seat, turning pages just as fast as you can. I haven't read anything else he's written, but I'm going to have to remedy that.

I really enjoy Weir's writing style and sense of humor, but they're the only things that kept me reading. The main character, Jazz, is totally unrealistic. She knows all, or can learn it online in an hour or two. This worked in "Martian" because we expect a NASA-trained astronaut to have massive technical knowledge and excellent problem-solving skills. Not so much here, at least for me. I did enjoy Weir's vision of what a moon colony would be - grand digs for the super-rich versus tiny "coffin" quarters for the worker bees, the Tranquility Base historical site, etc. Weir had a heckuva job trying to follow up his amazing debut novel, so comparing the two might be unfair. But I still give it only 3 out of 5 stars.

If you like to learn a little about several subjects, you will like this book. In telling the sotyr of a shipment of bath toys that go overboard, it covers containers and container ships, ocean currents and driftology, ocean pollution, research vessels and ice breakers, the chemistry of plastics, and Chinese toy factories. I could have used a little less information about some topics, but overall it held my interest. Maps and photos would have been useful.

This is an amazingly deft weaving, of the stories of many of the characters involved, into a taut suspense novel, complete with a red herring, that had me(hook, line, & sinker) looking in the wrong direction, at the climax. I've read a majority of King's work, including the Mary Russell series, Stuyvesant & Grey, and Kate Martinelli, and this is right up there with her very best. Martinelli, and one of her favorite characters, even have a cameo here. My daughter-in-law loves King's work, but says she probably won't read this one, which is understandable for a women with 3 school-age kids. However, if you have no qualms about the subject matter, and enjoy a really good suspense novel, go get a copy of this one, at your earliest convenience.

This is one of those books on cd that I rationed because I didn't want it to end! The story got even better near the end, and that never happens. Good to the last drop. Exquisite sentences. Characters who will stay with you for awhile. Fascinating geography. Brilliant plot.

This is the first book my son read by himself. The pictures are so cute that my son would stand up and make faces like the little piggie and the elephant. And he would enact the whole story by himself. We had a lot of fun reading it over and over again.

Not what I expected. It tried to be a cross between Indiana Jones and the Mummy series. Didn't quite do it for me. Disappointed!

this has gotta be the best one in the warrior series yet.