Helpful votes received on reviews:
60% (3 of 5)
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Reviews
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I've loved the movies based on his books for so long that it seems completely stupid that I've never picked up the books. The basic story is about Marcus, a 12-year-old newly moved to London with his off-kilter, depressed mother, Fiona, and his strange friendship with childless, aimless Will. To say anymore of their relationship is to reveal too much plot; suffice it to say, the road of this mismatched friendship is lacking in neither hardships nor amusements. This was a fantastic, funny book that tells a better story than the Hugh Grant movie of the same name. Perhaps my favorite part of this whole read was the way that Hornby captured 12-year-old Marcus's voice so completely; he can… Read more
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
I couldn't put this book down once I started it -- not such a problem, since it's pretty small. Linson aims for deliberate frankness from the very first quote to the final credits. The book is a series of conversations between Linson, the producer of such movies as Great Expectations, The Untouchables, and Fight Club, and an ousted movie studio exec, in which Linson relives all of his recent Fox Film "failures" (including GE, The Edge, Fight Club and Pushing Tin). Linson works hard to look like he's pulling no punches, and the anecdotes he does share are bizarre and funny - Alec Baldwin's beard tantrum, the stunned studio reaction to Fight Club, etc. Don't let the conversational style… Read more
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I read this book after finishing the His Dark Materials trilogy. It's obviously a Pullman work, from the strong female heroine down to the complex, fabled power of the titled ruby. Somehow, though, the book felt a bit like Pullman's test-run for the HDM trilogy. Sally, the daughter of a shipping and businessman, is suddenly orphaned when her father dies a half world away. Left to her own devices, she must piece together the clues of his mysterious death and his final message to her. Along the way, she meets and befriends a motley crew of helpers and makes startling discoveries about her own birth and parentage (a familiar tale to anyone who's read HDM). The book is a solid and… Read more
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