Books - Finished

Original notes:

I'm really enjoying this so far. I dream sometimes about taking a nice long road trip, and it's a pleasure to take this one vicariously.

After finishing:

This was a pleasant read. The main character, Alice, was likable enough (although I was occasionally impatient with her over-accommodating ways early in the book), and I enjoyed the plot's journey - I was slightly surprised by Alice's ultimate career shift, and there were a number of nice moments along the way.

Not a huge favorite, but enjoyable.

I picked this up while browsing the fiction shelves at the library. The cover illustration is beautiful and intriguing, and the plot description on the flap drew me in enough to check it out.

What enchanted me was the writing. Davis is poetic and mystical and simultaneously precise and clearly descriptive. The striking language is never gratuitous; Davis keeps the story unfolding.

I think this may be a book I need to own, just so I can reread the beautiful sentences, to revel in them, to learn from them.

Well, that was one of my fastest reads in a while. It's nice to be able to sit and read for hours at a time. It's a luxury I hope to indulge in more often.

I enjoyed this book more as it went along. At the start, I didn't like Bernice, and I started longing for a book with likable characters. By the end, though, I liked nearly everybody.

I picked this up at the library on a whim; I'd been intrigued flipping through it at the bookstore.

It's the first book of Murakami's I've read; I have a copy of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and I'm looking forward to reading that. But I came to this book with no knowledge of Murakami's themes or style.