Soudant

This should have been a better book

Reviewed: 09-09-24

This should have been an excellent book but she filled her narrative with political opinions none of which were favorable to anybody except liberal Democrats. Had she stayed with the topic of disaster preparedness and management and even spent more time on documented and anecdotal disaster experience this would have been a good read.

Unfortunately from the beginning when she talked about racial injustice with Hurricane Katrina, then added her views on the injustice to native Americans in North Dakota over a pipeline passing through reservation property. She proudly proclaimed there is not a protest that she has not participated in ranging from Black Lives Matter to abortion rights.

In Dr. Montano's opinion there is nothing else the State, Federal government should be doing other than lavishly funding for emergency preparedness and ensuring only PhD's who studied disaster management are qualified to lead the effort. She seemed blindly unaware that governments have competing interests including education, public safety, maintenance of the physical infrastructure and for the national government Defense. I do agree with her observation that Homeland Security, as currently operating, is not even close to living up to its promise of an efficient, coordinated and integrated government department. Something that not only disaster management, (e.g. FEMA), but also the Coast Guard have come to understand very well.

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Dr. Sttrangelove updated but lacking any Irony

Reviewed: 04-19-24

Dr. Strangelove raised serious questions but it was also a parody with moments of humor including the final scene. To this day I wonder if the world could/will end because at a critical moment a password is lost or not accepted.

Not so in Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War. This is a book devoid of any humor and certainly no rogue Air Force commander. In Jacobsen's scenario everything works as as designed and there are no human or systems failures except, the lack of time, decision makers would have to make planet ending choices...certainly less than 60 minutes and quite possibly only 5 minutes.

Essentially, as presented, choices are few, none are good and consequences are hard to grasp.

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Ear Candy at Best

Reviewed: 01-27-24

Interesting premise but there were too many improbabilities for the story to hold together. I am familiar with the 1859 Carrington event, and in our highly integrated electronics society, a repeat will be disastrous. The premise that it CME could be predicted accurately years before the event is not consistent with known science anymore than predicting an earthquake years before the event. 

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2 people found this helpful

Good Ear Candy

Reviewed: 03-03-22

For me fiction Audio books are entertainment. I only listen when I am in motion walking, biking, gardening, etc. I don't expect the precise data required for non-fiction or even historical fiction. Having said that I stumbled across the Breakthrough series narrated by Scott Brick during a recent Audible sale. I started with Breakthrough and subsequently purchased all six of the books in the series. My thinking was if Scott Brick is the narrator it won't be bad. This is the first of six books and I expect the author and his editor will tighten his prose because the book was occasionally verbose. Likewise I expect he Mr. Grumley will improve his technical details. Regardless, I enjoyed this debut book in a new series and look forward to what follows.

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Excellent Thomas Perry

Reviewed: 01-29-22

Like most Thomas Perry plots this book moved along with speed and light humor. A couple of paragraphs explaining who are the terrorists were and their motivations would have been appreciated but there was no mention. Regardless the narration was pitch perfect and the story was enjoyable.

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Far Better than old Radio

Reviewed: 04-04-21

As a youngster I grew up listening to radio drama. The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Great Gildersleeve, Jack Benny and so many more is what we heard before we had television. They stimulated the imagination because we could imagine those characters. Today if you go back and listen to those shows from the 1940s and early 50s they don’t hold up so well. The Coldest Case has done an amazing job of making contemporary and enjoyable a modern version of old time radio. Our digital, 4K, on demand visual entertainment leaves nothing to imagination. In my opinion we are far the worse for not having the opportunity that stimulates the ability to dream and wonder. This was, by the way, an excellent story that kept me wondering. Hopefully we will see more.

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2 people found this helpful

A fun 28 minutes

Reviewed: 04-01-21

Neither time nor words were wasted in this very short story. The ending was unexpected but then again the entire story had delightful twists and turns. The performance was light hearted and very well done.

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Rehashes other more comprehensive

Reviewed: 04-24-20

The marketing of Perdue Pharma is well documented and for several years that distribution channel has been tightly controlled. Their guilt is established but now what?

In Dreamland the author, Sam Quiones, gets deep into the replacement of legal dope into the scourge of modern illegal drug distribution with synthetic designer drugs. Fentanyl is the most obvious but Meth has returned both manufactured in Mexico with the precursors coming in bulk shipment from China to the illegal labs. None of this was mentioned and it seems to get worse by the month.

If you have the time and a strong stomach read the Don Winslow trilogy "The Power of the Dog" that uses a fictional narrative which describes the evolution of the drug lords and their sheer brutality. Perhaps with the new USMCA trade agreement the U.S, and Mexico can work together to stamp out this scourge at the source. The levels of violence and death on both sides of the border must be resolved before we are all drawn into this very dark pit of despair fueled by drugs.

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My next one conclusion to a complex story.

Reviewed: 05-19-19

Fortunately I chose to listen to the trilogy after the last book was published and was able to follow the continuity. Many characters come in and out of the story and most of them seem to die. The author of these many characters and circumstances credibly demonstrating to me that he had done his research. It is a tribute to his craftsmanship that he was able to wind up the story, not without acceptable loose ends, but after as many hours as I have invested listening to the three books I was satisfied.

The Cartel trilogy may be seen as a tale of the Mexican and illegal drug industry but it is really about the American drug consumption market. I live in an affluent part of northern New Jersey. Each of my five adult children as well as me personally, has direct knowledge of someone from grade school or high school years who has since died from an overdose.

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Heads Up America - we have a problem

Reviewed: 05-28-17

On the day “The Vanishing American Adult” was published I purchased and read it immediately. The author, Ben Sasse, is currently the junior Senator from Nebraska. He is a conservative Republican who grew up in rural eastern Nebraska. His father was the high school wrestling coach and young Ben excelled in wrestling and academics which helped him obtain entry to Harvard University. From there he went on to be a Rhodes scholar and upon returning to the United States he earned a Masters and PhD in history at Yale university. Following Yale he worked with the Boston Consulting Group, held government positions and an assistant Professorship at U of Texas. At age 37 he was recruited to become the president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska which at the time was a failing school barely able to make payroll and not attracting new students. Dr. Sasse used his skills as a consultant and as an academic to revitalize the University. In 2014 he won a seat in the U.S. Senate where he is today.

Along the way to the Senate, Dr. Sasse came to recognize that too many American youth were not moving gracefully into adulthood and in fact too many were stuck in adolescence or post-adolescence. Although not discussed in his book during the 2016 election cycle he opposed both Trump and Clinton. He also opposes Obamacare, as written. [Sasse shows up occasionally on the talk shows and describes the health care issue in the United States as an unintended consequence of employer provided insurance versus a more universal and portable health care system such as we have with our IRAs. When you leave a job you can take your IRA contribution with you. Not so healthcare. If you quit or lose your job you also lose your healthcare tossing you and millions of Americans into the very dysfunctional healthcare insurance marketplace.]

Unlike our current president and many of the politicians we observe, Dr. Sasse is articulate and uses his words carefully. In my mind his book is something that every parent should read although some of his observations will obviously not apply to every family. The common denominator throughout his book is the need for parents and children to understand the value and the need for work. He decries the failure of most American youth to actually read complex or challenging literature because it is hard or boring. Indeed an amazing number of Americans of all ages no longer read books and only get their information from webpages, social media or even twitter. How, he opines, will these youth of today manage the increasingly complex country of tomorrow without critical thinking skills and a solid work ethic?

While not a difficult book Dr. Sasse occasionally drifts into what one might expect from a multi-degreed professor. I refer to him as Dr. Sasse and not Senator Sasse because this is not a political book. It is the work of an academic who has worked successfully in and out of academia.

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