Melissa Lenhardt > Recent Status Updates

Amazing

It started off good but I'm putting this aside. I'm really not a fan of purposeful miscommunication and lying as a source of conflict.

They've finally started talking about gold.

The beginning of book 2 is super creepy and Rapey. No one is raped, but the way Jonny Fontaine talks about taking young girls’ virginity? Ugh totally gross.

Ha. I didn't even read the description of the book before I started and it says right there that it's going to be about a secret. I struggle with that as a major plot point because I believe there is better conflict through differing communication styles, inability to understand what the other person is saying and where they're coming from. But, hey. YMMV.

I've been very impressed with this debut novel. The writing & characterization are exceptional. But, it's looking increasingly like a lack of communication on one character's side is going to be the major conflict down the road? I'm not a huge fan of that plot point. Conflict from struggling to communicate, communicating in different, opposing ways, that I'm down for. Will keep reading but i'm cautious.

Abandoned. It's good enough but not good enough when I have other books to read.

I started watching the movie. I couldn't help myself. It was so different from the book I stopped. Will finish the movie when I've finished the book. Also, I would totally watch a Ripley tv series, using each book as the story for a season.

Listened to a pivotal moment of the book and was surprised I still have 6 of 9 hours to go. I haven't seen the movie in a while, but if I remember correctly Dickie was around for almost all of the movie. I can't decide if I should rewatch it now, in the middle of listening, or after.

One quibble: the narrator doesn't differentiate clearly between Dickie and Tom.

Amazing all the way around. Very clever concept, great characters. Don't want to put it down but I have to write my own book.

Apparently I read this in 2011? I don't remember it at all. Listening to the audiobook this time. Narration is good. I can't help but see Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gweneth Paltrow in my mind's eye. What are the chances I don't cheat and watch the movie mid-listen? Pretty good, tbph.

A bit of a slow start but oh so amazing now.

I'm suffering from elevated expectations with this one. It was on so many best of lists I expected it to blow me away. Instead, I'm finding it just okay. I'm thinking of skipping forward to Part Two: God What an Idiot He Was because that sounds interesting. Or I might just put the book aside.

Love the narrator.

Started this book last year and put it aside. Not sure why.

Bought on a rec from the Women Who Travel podcast. I didn't realize it was short stories connected, sometimes very flimsily, with the abduction of two girls in a remote area of Eastern Russia. The writing is superb, and I'll keep reading, but I've never been a big fan of story collections and calling this "a novel" is really false advertising. But, I love reading about a place and culture I know nothing about.

PIcked this up because 1) the movie is coming out next week or therabouts and 2) it's a nice thin book that will give me a sense of accomplishment when I finish it in a day. Wolitzer is brilliant. 47 pages in and I've read so many lines where I've thought, "I wish I'd written that."

It is difficult to read fiction without looking under the hood, so to speak. The challenges of being a writer, I suppose.

I wish I liked this book more. The TV series did a better job of making the setting/time/place come alive. Not giving up, but not dying to get back to it every day, either.

Amazing book.

Vastly different then the Netflix series but well written. The tv series does a much better job of time and place, IMO.

I abandoned this book months ago and forgot to update my Goodreads. The Austen Project - modern authors retelling Austen's novels - is a cool idea but this one is a major miss.

Listening to the audio book and Joe Morton's narration is brilliant. But, even Morton's performance couldn't make the sermon chapter interesting.