What is the last book you read, and your rating?

[Adealaric]

Stay with me by Adebayo Ayobami. Very Good and we'll recommended.

[Orithea]

I finished “The Venus Throw” by Steven Saylor this weekend. It’s the fourth book in his historical novel series and I’ve loved all of the books so far.
The series revolves around Gordianus, a private investigator in the Ancient Rome at the time of the Civil War between Marius and Sulla to just before Caesar case his legendary dies.
This particular book in the series dealt with the murder of an Egyptian emissary and especially with the enigmatic figure of Clodia (apologies to everyone who’s not an enthusiastic student of this time period and has no idea what I’m talking about ^^).
The writing is superb, but the ending dragged on a bit when we were made to listen to most of Cicero’s speech in the defense of Caelius, this my rating of 4.5/5 stars. It is still that good.

[Lady-of-Literature]

The last book I read was The Warramunga's Aftermath War by Greg Kater, which I just finished yesterday. I initially picked it because I thought it was the book of the month, but in reality, it turned out it was the sequel I read. The first book was deemed the book of the month. Oh well.

Anyway, the sequel as far as it goes seems to stand independently well enough. The plot is consistent and the characters, while I didn't get to know them as some might have in the first book, are well developed and likable. I especially liked how there is more than one goal to be achieved, as in when I thought the end was near another equally dangerous was sprung. However, I was thrown out of the world to many times to count because of the punctuation errors, stiff, unnatural dialog, and the slow pacing of the narrative. By slow pacing, I don't mean that the action starts late. What I mean is there is a lot of talking about the same thing over and over again, but with different people! There is a lot of stopping and barhopping, not nearly enough investigative work as promised.

Its outsides are crafted well, the author seems to have all the ingredients there to make an intoxicating story, but, in the end, its presentation made it fall flat in my opinion. I struggled with the rating, as I often do when I'm torn between passion and quality. I'm the first to admit to being a difficult critic, but hopefully fair and through. I gave it a rating of 2 out of 4 stars.

[Redlegs]

I finally completed the second volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It was very detailed, informative, but kind of dull. A modern writer might have presented the material in a more lively fashion.

3 stars out of 5.

[amnell khaylan]

magic house for sale by saathvik jarajapu, a short story , speaks more on personification.

[Bighuey]

I just heard an audio book of The Argonautica by Appilonius Rhodius (not sure of the spelling on that one) or most of it anyway. Interesting story, not equal to Homer but still a good story. What was interesting about it is that in the Jason And The Argonauts movies Jason is portrayed as a good guy super hero. In the story he and Medea both are not-so-nice people, in fact they come off as real jerks. Jason had an affair with the queen of Carthage and dumped her and left town and she killed herself. Even after he got with Medea he had numerous affairs and Medea herself was an evil witch who did all kinds of nasty stuff. I liked it, it was different for a change.

[cadelfavreau]

Cherry, by Nico Walker. It was a 4/5. I felt like it was a bit unimaginative, but it is essentially a memoir, and when put in that context it is quite compelling.

[Noosh]

That would be "A Summer of Guiltless Sex" by Dan Skinner. Absolutely amazing.
Which reminds me, do we get to read LGBT genre books here as well? When I joined I could only choose from Sci-Fi, C/T/H and romance...

[Dawud Adaviruku]

The last book I read was twisted threads by McFarren. A very interesting book. I rate it 3 out of stars due to some shortcomings of the novel.

[Kinap]

The last book I read was "Les Miserable". I give it 4/5. It was such a wonderful book and I absolutely loved it! Although there were some slow parts, it was still a great read!

[lisalynn]

I just finished The Altitude Journals. 4/4 stars.

[Redlegs]

True crime is not really my preferred genre, so I came across Deranged (The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer) by chance.

Albert Fish was certainly fiendish, perverted in many shocking ways, and a true monster - a man who killed, maimed, raped, dismembered, tortured and even ate his victims, who were mostly children.

The story documents mainly one particular murder that took place in 1928 in New York - that of 10 year old innocent child Grace Budd. Posing as a harmless and generous old man, Fish convinced young Grace's parents to let him take the girl to a (fictitious) birthday party. Grace was killed and dismembered the same day, and parts of her were eaten over the next week or so. If Fish can be believed, at least she wasn't raped.

Ultimately, before his demise in the electric chair in Sing Sing prison, Fish confessed to other crimes. It is thought that he may have been responsible for up to 15 murders and possibly hundreds of other violations involving his uncontrollable perversions.

It took 6 years and devoted determination, and a touch of luck, to track him down Grace Budd's killer. Once caught, Fish confessed readily to the murder and to all of his deviant behaviours. So, when the case came to trial, it was a matter of determining whether he was sane or not when he committed the murder of Grace Budd.

The jury brought down a guilty verdict, which carried a mandatory death sentence. Several jurors admitted afterwards that most believed Fish was insane, but that he deserved the electric chair in any case. Fish was executed in 1936.

Schechter has done an excellent job of research and documentation, and has managed to capture the atmosphere of poverty and desperation of New York in the time of the depression. He has presented the gruesome material in a manner that is honest and necessarily graphic, but without gratuitous sensationalism (unlike many of the newspapers of the day).

4 stars out of 5

[Pimmy822]

The last book I read was The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager and I couldn't put it down. I'm not normally a fan of thriller novels, but this one kept me hooked. You just didn't know which way the story was going to go, and the ending was a huge shocker. I highly recommend!

[Sade3607]

The last book I read was manifesto for a cancer patient by Colleen Huber, NMD. It is very educative and enlightening.

[Reviewed_By_Julie]

The last book I read was Shake Free by Samuel Rodriguez. It's a self-help book to take charge of your life and let go of things holding you back. I felt the book was a lot of opinions and experiences of the author. At times I felt the author was a little judgemental sounding, speaking at you instead of to you as a person. I didn't feel like the information in the book was anything new in the self-help area. He had some good points which may be helpful to someone in not letting those around you hold you back, and to keep going no matter the circumstances. I just didn't feel this was new information.

I gave the book a rating of two because to me there were no "WOW Factor" moments that you look for in a good self-help book. I like self-help books that bring something fresh and new that you never heard before. I like self-help books that give deep insight into areas of struggle. It just lacked the WOW Factor for me. I hate saying that because it's a lot of work to write a book and get it published. I appreciate the author's work and thought process, and I wish him all the best with future audiences.