Anonymous

I kept feeling like there was something more

Reviewed: 10-11-23

The author read the book which sometimes works. I didn’t feel like it worked that well in this case.

I learned a few things that’s why I gave it three stars. But I kept thinking that the full and complete story here could be much more interesting. The author goes about as deep as a magazine, article or a blog post. I be forewarned that there’s very little information about the first iteration of the ghost club. I thought there would be more about the Dickens era ghost club, but they either never kept or destroyed the earliest records.

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Worth the time to listen.

Reviewed: 03-31-23

I thought ms Halverson-Taylor did a great job of distilling a super complex book down into a few key issues. She actually did a pretty good job of narrating as well.

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1 person found this helpful

A good book but too dark for me.

Reviewed: 05-05-20

The books seem to be real to fact, but thank heavens I really don’t know.

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Find out what the president has been up to

Reviewed: 06-13-19

I listened to the Muller report. came to three conclusions: One) the Russians used social media to hack our democratic institutions and likely changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. This should be a great concern to every American of either party. (What the Russians do for you they can do to you.) if we do nothing, we should expect the Russians to do the same thing again and other adverse countries will follow suit.I question whether free constitutional institutions can survive in the Internet/Troll universe.

Two) The President of the United States is a conniving liar. He should never be trusted. The book contains numerous examples of what Trump called “fake news” with multiple sources proving that it was truth. Trump and manny of his allies had no concern for precident he set for future elections, this country, the constitution, or the truth. His sole objective was to win, no matter the cost. He’s a bully. And he is not smart.

Three) President Trump obviously violated the law, committing crimes and misdemeanors, impeachable offenses. The justice department does not feel it is their place to make that decision, however. That decision constitutionally belongs to the house and the senate. I’m a lawyer and I feel that prosecutors tend to over charge obstruction of justice claims. But here it fits. The person who is supposed to be executing the law is instead conniving, to suborn perjury from his cronies. Trump is too stupid to learn the lesson from Nixon that it’s not the crime but the cover up that will get you.

Full disclosure. I didn’t vote for Trump or Hillary. If you’re not a lawyer, you’ll have to plow through the legal citations. I think it can be done and it’s worth it. Find out what your president is doing. If you like it keep him there. I don’t like it. That being said, I’m not sure it’s worth the turmoil of impeaching him.

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Not worth the time.

Reviewed: 03-06-19

Egg and Spoon is a disjointed Kluge of Russian folk stories and historical events. Gregory Maguire hops from one storyline to another faster than Baba Yaga’s chicken legged house. As soon as you are interested in the people of the poor village, the heroine takes off to St. Petersburg. As soon as you’re interested in that story, enter Baba Yaga Stage right. Just when it looks like the stories are aligned as they head to Petersburg, they decide to takeoff for the north country. But the story never develops as a good journey tale, instead each phase of the story seems to be an independent unit that never quite fuses with the rest.

Maguire never develops realistic characters, like the cat in the story, they are all shape shifters. One moment the aunt is a priggish old maid, the next she is a maternal caretaker. There’s no reason in the story for the change. The two heroines Elaina and Cat switch back-and-forth between being humble and sweet one minute and conniving or stuck up the next. All of the characters were mercurial. They changed from one minute to the next with no real reason for the change.

I didn’t like the narrator either. His voices for Baba Yaga, the cat and the old woman in the village were grating.

I will admit that sometimes he had some funny lines. Maguire is good at that. But the rest of the story lets you down.

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Powerful!

Reviewed: 11-08-18

Read this book if you want to know the stories of people unjustly incarcerated and put on death row. Read this book if you want to know about the real heroes who fight for the most vulnerable in our society. Read this book if you want to understand the need and the blessing of exercising mercy to those who most need it

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A great book about a quiet man.

Reviewed: 08-06-18

Loved the Narrator. Loved the story and the way it unfolded. The story arises out of some of the hard things in life and the walls we build to protect ourselves from them.

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It made me think about Music

Reviewed: 08-06-18

I like music, but I don't often think about it. The best part about the book was when it was explaining how music works? How did different music styles evolve? I was less interested in they information about the music industry. But it was interesting to hear how the talking heads music evolved over time.

The narrator was difficult to listen to. He had a flat tone that put me to sleep. I have no idea why David Byrne did not narrate this book. That would've been much better. I also would've loved to have a book with music samples in it, but I'm sure the copyright problems associated with such a book would've been horrendous.

All in all I think the book was worth listening to. It made me think about music in ways that I had never thought about music.

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A good overview

Reviewed: 11-29-16

Fully Present provides a good overview of the science, art and practice of meditation and mindfulness. Each chapter is divided up into sections describing the art science and practice of mindfulness. The format seems a bit contrived at first but it grows on you as you continue.

The authors give several references to recent studies but are careful to avoid overstating their conclusions. While most of the studies appear to be preliminary, there is a growing body of evidence supporting beneficial effects of mindfulness practices.

In the art sections of each chapter, the authors provide several helpful tips for implementing mindfulness practices in your daily life. I found these to be quite helpful.

At the end of each chapter there is a brief meditation. These meditations could have been improved upon. The narrator simply reads the meditation as if she were reading a book-which admittedly she is reading a book. There were no pauses or breaks to allow the student to participate in a guided meditation. I would have preferred to have her perform the meditations like a guided meditation. Doing so would have played to the strengths of audiobooks by having the narrater do something that you cannot do with a hardcopy book.

Fully present was a helpful overview of the science art and practice of mindfulness and meditation.

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Neurotic not Psychotic

Reviewed: 07-16-16

I love the writings of John Ronson. They're very personal. He brings his neurotic self into every story.

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