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ClareR (6037 KP) rated A Ladder To The Sky in Books

Oct 12, 2018

A Ladder To The Sky

John Boyne | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A fascinatingly awful main character!

Maurice Swift wants to be a writer. It doesn't matter that he isn't particularly gifted, because he has access to a great story. Erich Ackerman meets Maurice in a hotel in West Berlin in 1988 - and so begins Erich's fall from grace and Maurice's meteoric rise.
Maurice works his way through writers at an astonishing rate. He's a narcissist, I think. He needs the admiration of others and doesn't care how he gets it, and this manifests itself;f in the need to write books, be recognised as a respected award winning writer and make lots of money.
Not wanting to give anything away, but he does some really immoral, terrible things, and doesn't to have any guilt at all. He's an awful person. I don't know why a character like this can make such a good book. I can, actually. This book is so well written. I felt empathy for those he swindles out of their stories, and Maurice is a fascinating character. The reader is drawn to him, just as those poor writers are. I wanted to hate him, but just couldn't.
I loved this book and I've already started recommending it to everyone I know!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this wonderful book.

Kudos

Roxanne (13 KP) rated Grandma's Poetry Book in Books

Nov 14, 2018

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a wonderful collection of poetry written by a Grandmother for her family and for all the doting grandmommas out there. I requested this in order to see things from my own mother's point of view as she herself is a new nanna. The words were so heartfelt and I enjoyed the journey surrounded by gorgeous grandaughters and grandsons who the author loves very much.
The book is described as an emotional journey from beginning to end...this it did well but one of my two gripes was that in my personal opinion the poems could have been placed in a better order than they were. Just the odd two thats all, which would of made it flow a lot better. My second and last gripe was that I felt some of the words were only chosen for the sake of making the poems rhyme even if it didn't make a lot of sense. This gripe wasn't prominent enough for me to give this collection any less than 4 stars as I enjoyed it very much.

I did have a favourite which turned my face into this...

<img src="http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/256/7/7/manga_moods__tearful_by_whitesakura59-d2yof2x.jpg"; width="180" height="160"/>

...so emotional.