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The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
Product: The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $13.39
Your Save: $ 1.61 ( 11% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Book written by: John Connolly
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Product Description: The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Washington Square Press
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2007-10-16
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Studio: Washington Square Press
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Editorial Reviews about The Book of Lost Things: A Novel:
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High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mournsthe death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf forcompany. But those books have begun to whisper to him in thedarkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imaginationand soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. Whilehis family falls apart around him, David is violently propelledinto a world that is a strange reflection of his own -- populatedby heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps hissecrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things. Taking readers on a vivid journey through the lossof innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Timesbestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling talethat reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.
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Spotlight customer reviews about The Book of Lost Things: A Novel:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: So Good, My Head Fell Off!
Comment: So the Quality Paperback Book Club chatted this fairytale up so much that their marketing worked even on me. Of course since I'm a book slut, that wasn't an Herculean task. Finally, I graciously freed the book from the book dungeon in my closet when its time came due. Oh no, what was I thinking? John Connolly was that guy who wrote Bad Men [NOT a good book]. Well, The Book of Lost Things did serve its time in the dungeon, so I began to read... Why does this restroom issue keep disturbing me when I'm trying to read?... What Honey? What do you mean it's time for dinner? Again?... Yes, I'm coming to bed! Soon, Honest! Where was I? Oh, yes The Book of Lost Things was so good that my head popped off while I was reading it. Imagine! Fortunately, my eyeballs remained intact and were in a position to gaze upon the already opened page. As luck would have it my wife happened into the room right when I finished the page I was reading. Better yet, we have at the house some of that body parts superglue (as written about in Lost Things) and my wife was able to reattach my head (backwards at first, silly her) with no ill affect. Now how many story books are good enough to lose your head over? I guess that when John Connolly decided to write fiction; he said, "Let there be FICTION!" For me, it's a reread for later keeper. Too bad I have to put it back into the dungeon.
P.S. My conundrum for the future is: to read more Connolly (the great writer) or not to read Connolly (the is this book going to be as bad as Bad Men writer).
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Fractured Fairytale" for grownups
Comment: Grown-up fairy tale reads like the "Fractured Fairytale" a writer for The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show might have written 40 years ago, if it could have been imagined or published or broadcast in that simpler day.
Strong graphic images intersperse with humor and poignancy as a young boy in Battle-of-Britain England struggles with anger and sadness over his mother's death, his fathers busy-ness as a cryptologist working at Bletchey Park, and his father's remarriage and birth of a half-brother.
His love of books helps him survive but leaves him vulnerable to the things that can be lost or destroyed by words spoken and unspoken, written and unwritten.
Hm, I just realized that I referred to the 60s as a simpler time. Those were days of vast change as morals and minds and militaries crumpled, shifted, blossomed, and faded, but yes, in retrospect from the perspective of a whole generation later, it was a simpler time than ours today, which stands awaiting for complexities just over the horizon that my grandchildren will have to accept, except, or conquer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book
Comment: This book I loved. Yes it's a dark tale mainly for adults, but I love the way the author blends all the stories we learn when we're kids and makes them a bit more surreal. The writing is exeptional and very hard to put down. Strongly reccomend this book.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Be careful what you wish for
Comment: "Once upon a time" in the outskirts of London (during WWII), there lived an only child (and bookworm of a boy) named David. He had the misfortune of watching his mother die a slow and painful death. Soon, there is a new woman in his father's life named Rose (p 15) "very thin, with long, dark hair and bright red lips." They have a child together named, appropriately, Georgie. The three move to a family home of the stepmother, one with a dark past: a young boy and girl disappeared from it one day and were never seen again. Because of a shared affinity for stories, David is placed in the lost boy's book-filled room. Infatuated with fairy tales, he soon notices something strange: he can hear murmurings from the volumes on the shelves. As his relationship with his stepmother, and in turn his father, deteriorates, his resentment towards Georgie increases. One day he leaves his family, and conventional reality, behind and follows the pull of a very unconventional fairy tale world, a place where a slothful Snow White (p 132) is the "biggest, fattest lady that David had ever seen," lords over the Comrade Brethren, belittling and berating them at every turn. Little Red Riding Hood beds a wolf and creates a new breed of fairy tale creatures. Hansel and Gretel's stepfather is bad, mother is good, and the two suffer entirely different fates. The Crooked Man does much more (generally evil) than walk a crooked mile. Along the way he is helped by a woodsman, Roland, (on a quest to find his own lost love, Raphael), solves a riddle solves a riddle enabling him to safely cross a troll bridge, foils a hybridizing huntress, and encounters a whole lot of wolves and wolf-like creatures. Throughout his journey he is alternately helped and hindered by the Crooked Man and eventually obtains an audience with an elderly, ailing king. David sleuths out the secret behind the man's crooked dealings, learning valuable life lessons along the way.
Although The Book of Lost Things contains a significant amount of the type of violence prevalent in the pre-PC versions of fairy tales, it is very well plotted. Author John Connolly puts the perfect twist on the tales he tweaks and does a great job of incorporating subtle and blatant aspects of many different fairy tales into the story. The excellent writing continues through to the final end punctuation mark, and the plotting of the last few chapters is particularly good. Similarly spooky: The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue and The Time Traveler's by Wife Audrey Niffenegger.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Wonderful!!!
Comment: I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked this up. I have like Connolly's detective fiction over the years quite a bit, but this was a dramatic departure in genre (obviously). Connolly seamlessly moved from noir to fantastic with great talent and artistry, proving once again that if you can write, you can write anything (well, maybe not poetry). I think this is one of my favorite books this year, and since I read about 5 books a week that's saying quite a bit. Any fan of good writing and a good plot will definitely enjoy this one. Not for kids, though, unless you want them to have nightmares.
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