Most of us in our book club had never read a Harlan Coben book. We all agreed that he is a good writer, as we kept turning the pages, but there wasn't enough for us to relate to in this book. He sets the scene really well, and no one guessed the ending, so he gets points for that alone. There were too many POVs, and most of them were irrelevant to the story/plot. We talked alot about the characters, and their actions, but it didn't inspire any deep discussions.

While we all agreed that the topic/subject of the book was interesting and intriguing, we couldn't get past the writing. It was difficult to follow and depressing throughout. We were all mixed on whether or not we would read other books by this author.

Our book club read Life of Pi with mixed results. Several members couldn't finish the book, 2 members liked it, but of those 2, only 1 would recommend it to others. We felt it was an interesting take on the animalistic side of humans, but didn't have much else to say about it.

This book was a thorough history of modern medical practice in this country. Henrietta's story was fascinating and troubling. But it doesn't stop at Henrietta, the detailed chronical of her story and legacy continues through her children, and it was a book that was worthy of discussion and debate. A wonderful book-club book.

Our book club chose this book because many of us live in the area around the Monocacy Battlefield. It was also the right time of year- the battle occured in July, so we chose to read the book in July, too. We were all pleasantly surprised at how interesting the book was and how easy to read it was- not a dry reading of fact after fact.. None of us are history experts or anything, but all of us agreed that this book was interesting and worth reading. It was very personable and I loved how the author gave a post-war synopsis of each of the major characters in the battle. One member of our club visited the battlefield 3 times over the summer! The author even connected me to my great-great-grandfather. While reading the book, and looking up the "roll call" of infantries in the back of the book, I realized he was a part of the battle, and maybe even marched across my front yard. If you like history, especially Civil War history, you will like this book.

Our Book Club was varied in our reactions to this book. Some liked it, some hated it, but most all thought the ending was lacking in some way. I thought the story was told in a unique way, and I would recommend it to others.

This book contained two different stories, about two different men, who never meet, and in fact, have only one thing in common. They both lived in Chicago during the construction and for the duration of the World's Fair. I really don't understand why the author chose to relate both of these completely separate stories in the same book. Both are interesting by themselves, and could've been written separately. I really didn't need to read the story of a moral, upright citizen, against a serial killers, in order to see the contrast. I know the contrast. Serial killers are evil and dark, and have deep psychological issues. "Normal" people do not behave in this way, know right and wrong, and feel badly when they commit a wrong. I ended up not reading the parts about Burnham, because he's not why I picked up the book. I wanted to read about "the Devil" in the White City. Luckily, the stories were divided into chapters, so I could skip the Burnham parts easily. In fact, Holmes's story flowed seamlessly when jumping through to each of his chapters. Some other people in the group couldn't finish the book, as they didn't like all the skipping around, and just wanted to read one story. It confused them and bored them. A few people liked the contrast and thought it interesting. I think both men have interesting stories, they just don't belong in the same book. The Epilogue was great, and reading the facts about the Fair, and how we still use the products that had made their debut at the Fair. These facts were like a nice little bonus for getting through the book. :) In conclusion, we liked Burham's story, we just didn't feel like it belonged in the same book as Holmes. We felt the writing of each individual story was great. I found Holmes's story a good page-turner, and the detective who was following his footsteps to try and solve the disappearance of the three children, was even more fascinating.

This book was interesting, in that it was the unapologetic account of one woman's journey in life and on the Pacific Crest Trail. Not everyone agreed with, or understood, Cheryl's choices/behavior, but that just made our conversation about it more interesting!