People of the Book in WACKY READING CHALLENGES

Feb 20, 2021 〰️Beth〰️ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: about-books-library, group-read, historical-fiction

I picked this up to start two weeks ago, got sidetracked then sat down yesterday and just had to finish. Trying not to give spoilers.... 4.5 but rounding up.

At first I was frustrated by the “short stories” dropped into the main story (set in 1996). Don’t get me wrong I loved the “short stories” but it made me feel bad that the main character was missing out on the details I was getting as the reader. That was the Aha moment about the format.

Great historical details, interesting that it is built ...more

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Feb 01, 2009 Tien rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, australian-author, contemporary, literature

This book is a combination of contemporary and historical fictions. Hannah Heath, a book conservationist, was asked to work on the Sarajevo Haggadah, a book which has been lost for many years. The contemporary part of of the book follows Hannah in her work, investigating and trying to construct the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah, and her personal lives.

The historical parts of the book spans many centuries and explores conjunctions of where the book has been and how it came into existence. I fo ...more

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Nov 28, 2020 Hannah Peterson rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aty-2019-2020

This is the third book I read this year that followed the same basic structure: dual timeline contemporary/historical fiction where contemporary scholars study historical artifacts to uncover secrets about the past (the other two being The Weight of Ink and Possession). Out of the three, this was the weakest, though still quite enjoyable as a whole.

My major complaint about this book is that although I loved the premise and structure, I found the framing device (the contemporary element of the s This is the third book I read this year that followed the same basic structure: dual timeline contemporary/historical fiction where contemporary scholars study historical artifacts to uncover secrets about the past (the other two being The Weight of Ink and Possession). Out of the three, this was the weakest, though still quite enjoyable as a whole.

My major complaint about this book is that although I loved the premise and structure, I found the framing device (the contemporary element of the story, following the career and personal life of Hanna Heath, the conservator hired to study the famous Sarajevo Haggadah) to be very tonally jarring and ultimately kind of annoying, compared to the rest of the book. This might be a matter of personal preference, as I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction and certainly not a lot of contemporary romance, so I'm not really drawn to that style. I found it interesting that I thought that the historical sections of this book were pretty well written and compelling and that I found the writing style of the contemporary sections to be not to my taste at all - this suggests to me that someone who does like contemporary romance might really enjoy that part of the book.

I found the structure of this book, which alternated between contemporary sections where Hanna discovers physical "clues" about the Haggadah's history and historical sections which gradually went further and further back in time, revealing how those clues came to be part of the book, to be very clever and enjoyable to read. It was a little confusing at first, but I ultimately found that to be part of the appeal - Geraldine Brooks didn't overexplain the conceit of the book, she trusted the reader to figure out what was happening and piece together the story themselves to a certain extent.

Ultimately, this was a fun read and I learned a lot about a part of history that I was unfamiliar with, which is my usual aim when reading historical fiction. It wasn't all entirely to my taste, but I'm sure that elements of this story will stick with me. ...more

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Oct 14, 2019 Karen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

I wish I liked this book better. So many people love it. I finished it a while ago but can't figure out how to review it so I think I'll just throw in the towel on this one. It was a lovely story but it all just fit together too nicely - too many coincidences - and it was way too PC for the times. Almost revisionist history in Brooks' insistence on creating strong female roles in ancient jobs/situations women never would have found themselves in. I might have gone with four stars but the last li ...more

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