Play Book Tag discussion

2.25 stars

Jacob de Zoet is a Dutch man working in Japan. He meets and falls in love with a doctor’s daughter (??? I think that’s how they are connected). When the doctor dies, the daughter is sent to live in a nunnery, but there is something very wrong at that nunnery.

Ok, so my summary is only a small part of the book. Too small for my liking because it was the only interesting part of the book for me and the reason the book got an extra .25 stars. If it had been even a bit more of the book, I would have raised the rating slightly higher; if it had been the focus of the book, my rating would have been considerably higher. The rest of the book – no idea what happened. It was boring boring boring. I wasn’t even a little bit interested, so I have no idea what it was really about, except I think Jacob was working for the Dutch East India Company. Which reminds me, it was set, mostly in 1799.

I have tried twice to read this. I love the first chapter and then it loses me.

There are so few low ratings for this. Even some of the higher ratings say that it gets better. The most interesting parts for me were in the middle, but overall, it didn't really get better for me.

I loved this book, the writing was brilliant and the love story entrancing.

I also loved this book, but I haven't retained the details. I feel like I should read it again. Especially because there's a character that reoccurs in The Bone Clocks.

I'm intrigued enough that I want to read it to see which side of the fence I will fall.

I did not love this either...... I did listen to the audio and think perhaps that influenced my meh opinion. In audio, if I'm dealing with unfamiliar names of people/place, I tend to zone out a bit. In the case of this book, I think it was a bit more than a bit.

JoLene wrote: "I did not love this either...... I did listen to the audio and think perhaps that influenced my meh opinion. In audio, if I'm dealing with unfamiliar names of people/place, I tend to zone out a bit..."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the audio wouldn't have helped my opinion!

Susie wrote: "I'm intrigued enough that I want to read it to see which side of the fence I will fall."


Susie, I'm in a very small minority on this one, it seems.

I didn't love this, but I persevered until it started to make sense, and then I really enjoyed the second half. It's not an easy book to read, but I'm glad I did.

It's my least favorite of his books but still a 3.5 star book for me. I love David Mitchell

Have to admit I won't likely be reading any more by him! Already knew "Cloud Atlas" was a no-go, though! :-)

LibraryCin wrote: "Have to admit I won't likely be reading any more by him! Already knew "Cloud Atlas" was a no-go, though! :-)"

You and I have opposite tastes in books so I wasn't surprised you didn't like this one and he's not an author I would recommend to you.

Jen wrote: "It's my least favorite of his books but still a 3.5 star book for me. I love David Mitchell"

I loved this book - It's my favorite of his. I didn't love The Bone Clocks, although I really liked Slade House which featured some of the characters from BC.

I own Cloud Atlas but have yet to read it. I find him a wonderful writer, but sometimes his books are so dense it takes a while to follow what is going on.

Jen wrote: "You and I have opposite tastes in books so I wasn't surprised you didn't like this one and he's not an author I would recommend to you. ..."

True! I was reading it for High Notes and it may have been the only one in that year that I hadn't yet read. I know it wasn't on my tbr initially.

I enjoyed this one and I did the audio. Unlike JoLene, I loved this just because there were so many foreign names for people and places that I loved the fact that someone else was pronouncing them. When I read those words in print, it actually stops the flow of the story.

Barbara wrote: "I enjoyed this one and I did the audio. Unlike JoLene, I loved this just because there were so many foreign names for people and places that I loved the fact that someone else was pronouncing them...."

Funny --- sometimes if there are lots of "foreign" (or fantasy) names that I have no idea how to pronounce, I see if there is audio from library just for this reason, but I tend to remember better if I am reading (due to the single focus). :-D

I liked this book but understand why others might not. The writing style is as if the author wrote it during the time of the setting (17th century). I was on vacation when I read it and so I was able to immerse myself in it. Not sure I would have liked it otherwise. I do remember laughing out loud a couple of times at some of the subtleties used in describing Jacob and his interaction with others. It was the first book I read by Mitchell. I have since read Cloud Atlas but didn't like it nearly as much.

Charlie wrote: "I liked this book but understand why others might not. The writing style is as if the author wrote it during the time of the setting (17th century). I was on vacation when I read it and so I was ab..."

Yes! Maybe that's why I couldn't get into it!