Lost: A Novel
Registered by k00kaburra of San Jose, California USA on 11/27/2007
This book is in a Controlled Release!
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
Rec'd from a lovely fellow who had eight boxes of books to give away on Freecycle. My boyfriend and I simply drove over to his house and picked up the books, and now I'll be working on distributing them around the world. Yay!
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From Publishers Weekly
Before he broke onto the adult bestseller lists with his irreverent interpretations of the Cinderella story (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) and the Wizard of Oz (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West), Maguire wrote children's books with titles like Six Haunted Hairdos, Seven Spiders Spinning and Four Stupid Cupids. His latest is a virtual literary paella of adult and children's fantasies: Jack the Ripper, A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Exorcist even a wafting glimpse of Dracula. The result is a deftly written, compulsively readable modern-day ghost story that easily elicits suspension of disbelief. American writer Winifred Rudge, whose mass market book about astrology has been far more successful than her fiction, is in London to research a novel linking Jack the Ripper to the house in Hampstead where her own great-great-grandfather rumored to be the model for Ebenezer Scrooge lived. But as Winifred discovers, there is no evidence that the Ripper ever visited Hampstead, let alone buried one of his victims inside the chimney of a house there, and his presence in the story is a red herring. Much more interesting is the mysterious disappearance of Winnie's cousin, John Comestor, the latest resident of the family house. Moreover, something is making an infernal racket inside the chimney, and soon there are other bizarre manifestations of some unseen force. A Dickensian assortment of neighbors (one dotty lady is called Mrs. Maddingly) variously obfuscate and hint at strange events. Maguire's prose is both jaunty and scary; he knows how to mix spooky ingredients with contemporary situations. By the time a spirit called Gervasa begins to speak through Winnie, readers will be hooked.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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From Publishers Weekly
Before he broke onto the adult bestseller lists with his irreverent interpretations of the Cinderella story (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) and the Wizard of Oz (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West), Maguire wrote children's books with titles like Six Haunted Hairdos, Seven Spiders Spinning and Four Stupid Cupids. His latest is a virtual literary paella of adult and children's fantasies: Jack the Ripper, A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Exorcist even a wafting glimpse of Dracula. The result is a deftly written, compulsively readable modern-day ghost story that easily elicits suspension of disbelief. American writer Winifred Rudge, whose mass market book about astrology has been far more successful than her fiction, is in London to research a novel linking Jack the Ripper to the house in Hampstead where her own great-great-grandfather rumored to be the model for Ebenezer Scrooge lived. But as Winifred discovers, there is no evidence that the Ripper ever visited Hampstead, let alone buried one of his victims inside the chimney of a house there, and his presence in the story is a red herring. Much more interesting is the mysterious disappearance of Winnie's cousin, John Comestor, the latest resident of the family house. Moreover, something is making an infernal racket inside the chimney, and soon there are other bizarre manifestations of some unseen force. A Dickensian assortment of neighbors (one dotty lady is called Mrs. Maddingly) variously obfuscate and hint at strange events. Maguire's prose is both jaunty and scary; he knows how to mix spooky ingredients with contemporary situations. By the time a spirit called Gervasa begins to speak through Winnie, readers will be hooked.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Rented the audio cd version of 'Lost' today from AllEars Audiobooks in Saratoga.
OH MY GOSH REALLY?
This is the most BORING piece of writing I've picked up this year - and I've taken accounting, statistics and anthropology.
Winnie, the main character, is annoying. I read her as a dumpy, dissatisfied middle-aged frump who is sarcastic (but never witty) and quite unbearable to be around. (Seriously, by the end of the third disk I was quite sure her cousin John was missing because he knew she was coming and couldn't stand the thought of dealing with her visit.) The 'quirky' characters fall flat and uninteresting, and the plot doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I'm listening to the audio book, and I've made it to the beginning of the 6th disk, so I'm a little over halfway through, and I just can't stand it anymore. The Dickens references aren't so bad, nor Jack the Ripper (but he is so overdone) or the dozens of mentions of Peter Pan. With a different narrator, these plot elements could have tied together quite nicely into an interesting story. But Winnie, who seems to be a Mary-Sue stand-in for Gregory Maguire to describe his process as a writer, is such an irritant that I can't wait to find a different book to listen to on my commute.
This is the most BORING piece of writing I've picked up this year - and I've taken accounting, statistics and anthropology.
Winnie, the main character, is annoying. I read her as a dumpy, dissatisfied middle-aged frump who is sarcastic (but never witty) and quite unbearable to be around. (Seriously, by the end of the third disk I was quite sure her cousin John was missing because he knew she was coming and couldn't stand the thought of dealing with her visit.) The 'quirky' characters fall flat and uninteresting, and the plot doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I'm listening to the audio book, and I've made it to the beginning of the 6th disk, so I'm a little over halfway through, and I just can't stand it anymore. The Dickens references aren't so bad, nor Jack the Ripper (but he is so overdone) or the dozens of mentions of Peter Pan. With a different narrator, these plot elements could have tied together quite nicely into an interesting story. But Winnie, who seems to be a Mary-Sue stand-in for Gregory Maguire to describe his process as a writer, is such an irritant that I can't wait to find a different book to listen to on my commute.
Journal Entry 4 by k00kaburra at -- Mailed, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Released 12 yrs ago (5/24/2011 UTC) at -- Mailed, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
sent to Sarah E. of Winnsboro, SC to fulfill a request on Paperbackswap.com!
