Beautifully crafted with deft, poetic writing. May be too flowery for some, but The Hours is absolutely gorgeous. Cunningham uses both Virginia Woolf as a character as well as some of her characteristic "stream-of-consciousness" writing in a book chock-full of symbolism. A must for Woolf fans, this book won the 1999 Pulitzer for fiction.

Waugh allows his Catholicism to prevent him from writing a great book. The end feels forced and too didactic. Too bad, it was really enjoyable till the very end.

A young college student gets to know and love the Brideshead family: a rich, upper-class eccentric family. An interesting look at English society in the early to mid 1900s.

What a depressing book. Oscar Wilde was recently voted the wittiest man in British history, and some of that comes through in his trials. But ultimately, no matter how unfair, he couldn't win against bigotry.
It's appalling to read about how England and society were at that time. I'm glad our culture is so much more free now.

Wow. I couldn't put this book down and I understand why it's considered one of the great American classics. It took me a while to get into the format- letters written in poor English- but it made the story extremely powerful.
I loved the fluid dynamics of the sexual and familial relationships between the characters. They seem to make their own rules about family and love.
The change in Celie from a totally passive victim to taking charge of her own life was very powerful. I hope it's possible for people to change, however gradually, as she does.
I can see why this book has been banned, but I thought it was an amazing book and I loved it.

I rarely react to a book, positively or negatively, with the intensity that I reacted to this one. I picked it up because I thought it would be amusing and I might learn something about sex. Instead the entire book made me feel inadequate about sex. I feel like it made all of these assumptions about what women want- not necessarily in the act but in emotions about sex- and while there's lots of variation, there's something wrong with her if she doesn't feel like communicating about sex all of the time.
I also think this book may give the impression to men that most women are into things like anal sex and strap-ons, when I just don't think that's actually true.
I hope no guy I'm sleeping with has read this book.

Like other Irving books I've read, this one was both funny and sad as well as quirky at times. The story kept me engaged as I wanted to find out what happens next to Franny, John, Frank, Lilly, Egg, etc.