Book Review Quotes

“Too many people miss out on real love because they're too busy waiting for the ONE to show up”
― Alexandra Potter, You're (Not) the One

“A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;

A time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

“Does a soldier go to war in order to kill the enemy? no, he goes in order to die for his country.

Does a wife want to show her husband how happy she is? no, she wants him to see how she suffers in order to make him happy

Does the husband go to work thinking he will find personal fulfillment there? no, he is giving his sweat and tears for the good of the family

And so it goes on: sons give up their dreams to please their parents, parents give up their lives in order to please their children; pain and suffering are used to justify the one thing that should bring only LOVE..”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

“Here's to real heroes, not the ones who carry us off into the sunset but the ones who help us choose our princes." - commentary on Castles on the Sand”
― Emily Mah Tippetts

“PAIN was no longer a cause of suffering, but a source of pleasure, Because they were redeeming humanity from its sins. Pain becomes joy, the meaning of life, pleasure..”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

“sometimes life is very mean: a person can spend days, weeks, months and years w/out feeling anything new. Then, when a door opens - a positive avalanche pours in. One moment, you have nothing, the next, you have more than you can cope with..”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

“Hence," goes on the professor, "definitions of happiness are interesting." I suppose the best thing to do with that is to let is pass. Me, I never saw a definition of happiness that could detain me after train-time, but that may be a matter of lack of opportunity, of inattention, or of congenital rough luck. If definitions of happiness can keep Professor Phelps on his toes, that is little short of dandy. We might just as well get on along to the next statement, which goes like this: "One of the best" (we are still on definitions of happiness) "was given in my Senior year at college by Professor Timothy Dwight: 'The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts.'" Promptly one starts recalling such Happiness Boys as Nietzche, Socrates, de Maupassant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Blake, and Poe.”
― Dorothy Parker, Constant Reader: 2

“People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
[in review of a book]”
― Abraham Lincoln

“It comes as no surprise to find [Norman] Mailer embracing [in the book On God] a form of Manicheanism, pitting the forces of light and darkness against each other in a permanent stand-off, with humanity as the battlefield. (When asked if Jesus is part of this battle, he responds rather loftily that he thinks it is a distinct possibility.) But it is at points like this that he talks as if all the late-night undergraduate talk sessions on the question of theism had become rolled into one. 'How can we not face up to the fact that if God is All-Powerful, He cannot be All-Good. Or She cannot be All-Good.'

Mailer says that questions such as this have bedevilled 'theologians', whereas it would be more accurate to say that such questions, posed by philosophers, have attempted to put theologians out of business. A long exchange on the probability of reincarnation (known to Mailer sometimes as “karmic reassignment”) manages to fall slightly below the level of those undergraduate talk sessions. The Manichean stand-off leads Mailer, in closing, to speculate on what God might desire politically and to say: 'In different times, the heavens may have been partial to monarchy, to communism, and certainly the Lord was interested in democracy, in capitalism. (As was the Devil!)'

I think it was at this point that I decided I would rather remember Mailer as the author of Harlot's Ghost and The Armies of the Night.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Guess what Jeff found in his cabin for me," Grete says, "another book by the Martian Chronicle guy." "Ray Bradburrow", Jeff says. Bradbury, I think. "Yeah, right, Something Wicked This Way Comes," Grete says, "It's good".

She chirps the last bit as if that were all to say about a book. It's good or it's bad, I liked it or I didn't. No discussions of the writing, the themes, the nuances, the structure. Just good or bad - like a hot dog.”
― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

“I had a chance to read Monte Christo in prison once, too, but not to the end. I observed that while Dumas tries to create a feeling of horror, he portrays the Château d'If as a rather benevolent prison. Not to mention his missing such nice details as the carrying of the latrine bucket from the cell daily, about which Dumas with the ignorance of a free person says nothing. You can figure out why Dantès could escape. For years no one searched the cell, whereas cells are supposed to be searched every week. So the tunnel was not discovered. And then they never changed the guard detail, whereas experience tells us that guards should be changed every two hours so one can check on the other. At the Château d'If they didn't enter the cells and look around for days at a time. They didn't even have any peepholes, so d'If wasn't a prison at all, it was a seaside resort. They even left a metal bowl in the cell, with which Dantès could dig through the floor. Then, finally, they trustingly sewed a dead man up in a bag without burning his flesh with a red-hot iron in the morgue and without running him through with a bayonet at the guardhouse. Dumas ought to have tightened up his premises instead of darkening the atmosphere.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle

“Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most popular, as being the most readable.”
― Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now

“Who but the sports-mad [Norman] Mailer would liken the battle between God and the Devil to a game of American football? The contest, for sure, has with [sic] own laws (so that after God and the Devil 'tackle a guy, they don't kick him in the head'), but each side is not above cheating—with God breaking the rules occasionally by throwing in 'a miracle'. Strangely, Mailer doesn’t mention Jesus in this agonising analogy, but then the notion of the 'super-sub' may be an image too far even for him.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“TOTALLY AMERICAN” personifies the dreams, inspiration, and ambition of the American people at a time we need it most. Reach deep in tribute to our founding Fathers, our Constitution, and our brave military forces. This is the fabric of America!”
― Stu Taylor Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show Host

“We sometimes reveal how ignorant or bored we were when we read a book by giving it 5-stars.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Recommending a book to someone is the second best thing to buying it for them, which is the second best thing to reading it for them.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Taking inspiration from her own experiences as a wife, mother, principal and teacher, Ellick creates a realistic and thought-provoking modern scenario for readers to ponder, based on a well-documented historic trend.”
― Bainbridge Island Review

“Paper remains the standard to which digital media can only aspire.”
― Leah Price

“A book review helps more readers enjoy what you loved.”
― Oneal Walters

“I cherish this book review from the former Executive Director of Contemplative Outreach: A beautiful book. This elegant and authentic memoir of a faith-filled
woman shows how it is possible to be very successful and yet
vulnerable enough to completely depend on the indwelling Spirit. -Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler”
― Chris Manion, God's Patient Pursuit of My Soul

“Captain Hank Bracker’s book, Salty and Saucy Maine, should have been titled Salty and Saucy Hank Bracker. Yup, Hank’s stories are definitely saucy and salty.

The book is full of stories about Hank’s time at Maine Maritime Academy. There are plenty of tales that will make you laugh, a lot of interesting history, and then there are those stories I’d label ribald.

Hank worked for many years, after graduating from Maine Maritime, in the maritime industry, including the navy. And he’s written four other books, with lots more stories.

“More than anything,” writes Hank, “it was my time at the Academy that built the foundation for what evolved into an adventurous, exciting career and life.”

He describes this book as “a young man’s coming-of-age book,” and it is surely that. “Not surprising, by nature I am a free spirit, who loves the company of most animals and some people. You might say that I love to laugh, hold center stage, and tell my yarns the way I remember them. For years, friends have encouraged me to write these tales as short stories. This is part of that effort!

All I can add is that Hank’s wife of almost 60 years, Ursula, must be a saint!”
― Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"

“Editorial Review:
“Practical, positive money management strategies blend with bankruptcy-specific insights to give consumers a clear picture about how the process of financial recovery works.

Anyone considering, in the midst of, or grappling with the aftermath of a bankruptcy should place Bankruptcy Didn't Break Me at the top of their reading list. It goes above and beyond most other guides on the topic, pairing the emotional with business angles in a manner that makes the subject digestible and thoroughly understandable.” . Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review”
― Kassondra R. Lewis, Bankruptcy Didn't Break Me!: How to Learn the Keys to Success to increase your credit scores

“Unfortunately, missing the author’s point, or not understanding the book, is not enough to prevent one from reviewing and/or rating it.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Don’t judge a cover by the book. All know this quote is wrong; still, they judge.”
― Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma, You By You

“I received a request from Kritikkjournalen to review a novel by a Japanese writer by the name of Murakami, the book was about someone hunting special sheep, and I slated it, mainly because it was so western.”
― Karl Ove Knausgård, Min kamp 5

“From a wonderful book review of If I had an Old House on the East Coast in Cape Cod Home:
“A diminutive gem of a book available online at Nimbus Publishing, will inspire you to travel down the path of finding your own old house on the East Coast. Small enough to fit on your bedside table, If I had an Old House on the East Coast, by Wanda Baxter, delights with whimsical water-colour illustrations by artist Kat Frick Miller, evoking the quiet charm and comfort of coastal cottage living with poetic immediacy and practical, do-it-yourself know-how.”

Right from the first page, Baxter catches your imagination and holds on tight when she says, “If I had an old house on the east coast, I would fall in love at first sight. It would grab me by the heart and not let go.”

– Susan Dewey, Cape Cod Home (Summer 2023)”
― Susan Dewey