Ania's books

This is an awesome little selection of French poems. I didn't like all of them - no, far from it - and not all of them are easy to learn by heart, but I could give the book 10 stars just for those 10 or so that I absolutely adored. They are of such incredible beauty that for a moment you feel as if you were transferred to a different reality, floating somewhere in the air, tingling from pleasure.And now I know which French poets I should pay special attention to. Highly recommended to anyone who loves poetry!

Very outdated. Not very relevant. I would say it needs to be rewritten - completely.

Even though the book is quite outdated, it is spot on! If somebody outside of Russia wanted to have an idea about how people live there, I would definitely recommend to read this book, it covers all the main issues. Plus, it's very funny - at least, for someone who has spent a lot of time in Russia :)

A great continuation! Big, no, ENORMOUS thanks to the author for making it just that - continuation - without a long and boring retelling of the first book, something too many authors do while writing series. The book is packed with action and mysteries, as well as interesting scientific and historical facts. I enjoyed it a lot and can't wait to read the rest of the series.

A really nice thriller with everything you need: UFOs, government conspiracies, a bunch of heroes on a "we have to save the planet" mission, lots of mysterious events, a bit of archeology, a bit of history... a great mix indeed.

The only reason I gave this book 2 stars is because of the mystery line. I've missed reading thrillers and I was curious to find out what would happen in the end. However, the love line was hopeless. It was... words fail me, actually. Words are not able to describe just how implausible, ridiculous and stupid the whole "love story" was. Here we have the main heroine who lives a practically chaste life - but two days of seeing our main hero and she is into having wild sex non-stop. Interesting. But hey, wait, that's not all! After three days she loves him. Yes, you heard it right. She's not in love, she *loves* him. I knew sex could work wonders on people but to that extent? Forgive me for being naive but I had always thought you actually need to *know" the person of your feelings a bit in order to have those feelings in the first place. Obviously, it doesn't work that way for our lovely heroine. As for the object of her wild affection, well, here we have a typical alpha male, shouting, bossing around, a real macho etc etc. I understand it may be exciting for some people. For me it is pathetic.As for the above-mentioned night of wild sex... Well, can you guess just how many orgasms can one have and how many times the main hero can be proud of his extreme manhood - during one night? Don't bother - whatever comes into your mind will certainly be less than what our lovebirds got to experience. I know the book is a work of fiction but still, shouldn't there be at list a hint of realism in there?To cut a long story short, spare yourself the pain and don't read the book - there are many better books out there, including those by Linda Howard.

The book is not exactly bad and it would have been quite ok had it not been for the fact I've already read quite a lot on the subject. There was nothing new for me in there, and all the "precious pieces of advice" were actually nothing more than common sense would dictate to anyone.

I enjoyed several books by Barnes. Why, I actually loved them. I was so looking forward to reading this one, that's probably why the disappointment was really huge. For me, this book looked like a mix of pornography + a weak attempt at some psychological analysis. It was ugly, it was boring, it was disgusting at some places and totally implausible at others.I'm glad I'm done with it and I hope other books by Barnes are more like Talking It Over than Before She Met Me.

I liked this book a lot. It's a pity many of the things about job-hunting, interviews and useful sites do not apply to Poland but I learnt a lot anyway. What I enjoyed most were the exercises - an excellent set! I haven't done all of them yet but I'm pretty sure once I'm through, I will have no doubts whatsoever as to what my vocation is and how to get that dream job.Absolutely recommend it!

I was charmed by Cleo and her unwavering devotion to the family. But I have to say, the more I read, the more I disliked the author and her life decisions. Going away for a year and leaving the cat behind? Getting married exactly in a place where it's going to be the most problematic? Moving to Australia and then complaining about the heat? Really, she could have done better.

A nice, warm fairy-tale for grown-ups :)

Even though it took me a long, long time to read (and I really have no idea why), this book is quite interesting and useful. Lots of exercises to identify and strengthen the brand "you". I especially loved the chapter on archetypes and how they fit into your work life. Pleasant reading with lots to think about.

The book itself would have probably got 2 stars from me if it hadn't been for its effect. It's not easy to read and there are lots and lots of empty places that just take your time and attention but bring nothing crucial to the subject in question. Frankly, the better part of it is just plain boring.But.I'm giving it 4 stars for the fact that it discusses something so often tabooed and omitted - money, how we deal with it and how much it means (and yes, it does mean much despite all the proverbs, sayings and your own parents telling you otherwise). The influence of money on my life was a revelation to me. I honestly had no idea before I started to read this book. Several of the exercises were quite useful. I dropped my obsessive shopping habits thanks to this book - or rather, thanks to the fact that it got me thinking, writing and analyzing all things money in my life. That is why, despite the rather dry style, I definitely do recommend it.

The book does offer some really good advice. I don't agree with everything the author has to say about relationships and how to manage them but I will definitely put to use some of the things from the book.

If this is your first book by Linda Howard, I feel sorry for you. Truly. Just set it aside and try others - they are much better. Honestly. Not all of them feature a trembling damsel in distress whining after a chauvinistic macho.So, where do I start? Just how many things are hateable about this book? Well, pretty much every single one. The suspense is so weak it doesn't leave you even with a twinge of doubt as to who the main villain is. The main heroine doesn't mind being insulted and abused by the hero. Scene one, she's 11, he never pays attention to her but she follows him like a little obedient puppy. Scene 2, she's thrown out of her house and, literally, into the dirt by the same, - she still finds no fault with that. Scene 3, she is (presumably) a successful grown-up woman who is threatened and assaulted by her knight in shining armor - but her knees still grow weak at the very sight of him because obviously she never does any thinking with her brain, only with her intimate parts. Speaking of the trembling knees, I kept wondering how she was able to walk at all - the amount of time she spent going all weak over the oh-he's-so-sexy-i-don't-care-he's-a-stalker guy should have actually left her lying on the floor non-stop.It is really amazing how any idea of self-esteem would just disappear from her little mind whenever HE HIMSELF appeared. Obviously, the poor thing had so little sex in her life that the sight of a good-looking man was too much to handle. I thought that self-control was one of the differences between homo sapiens and other species but obviously I was wrong.But let's look at our hero, shall we? He didn't talk. He growled. I think I should have counted the number of times the world "growled" was used. Is he a bear or something? Well, judging by his behaviour he is definitely close to Neanderthal. The only thing he thinks about is sex, and his only way of communicating with the heroine is seizing her, shaking her, grabbing her and intimidating her as much as possible. Oh, sorry. I forgot that sometimes he can be articulate enough to shout. Or growl. Big RRR. So masculine, huh? Excited? Are you going all weak in your knees already?Somehow I did not, and the only reason I read the book until the end was to see if it could get any worse. It did. There was a cute plot twist where one of secondary characters - surprise! - let another secondary character screw her just because she felt it was kinda inappropriate and impolite to refuse. So she went on with it. For 7 years. But you should understand that, of course, she could not stop him from having having sex with her because otherwise he might get upset and leave, and if he left, then maybe her mummy would also be upset. NB: We're not talking about a teenager girl here. We're talking about a 30+ woman. Ok, I know, people have weird issues etc. Right. But sometimes too much is just too much, and some plausibility really should apply even to romance genre. I'm inclined to believe Freud himself was turning in his grave when Linda Howard was writing that stuff.The conclusion: this was one of the worst, the ugliest and the stupidest romance book I've ever read, and I'm sorry for the precious minutes lost on it.

I was no big fan of the heroine, or the romance, or the endless descriptions. And I honestly didn't want to read this book after the first 10 pages. But it just hooked me on, I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what would happen next and how the whole mystery would unravel. The plot was really fast paced, and, all in all, to my utter astonishment, I ended up really liking this book. A lot.