Edward

Best Professor Ever!

Reviewed: 03-18-24

Steven Pollock is so great! His knowledge is so profound, and what speaking abilities! He speaks extemporaneously for the entire course, with the result that the listener is completely drawn in, there's not a single second of "dead reading voice". I only wish he taught more courses, I'd be in for all of them.

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This Is Abridged!!!!!

Reviewed: 07-25-22

I listened to The Last of Mr. Norris all the way through, thinking it was awfully flat. All we're given is a narration of events, with no color or flavor. Why on earth is this so highly esteemed? I wondered. When it came to Goodbye to Berlin, I was more familiar with it, and noticed some gaping holes. When I compared what I'd heard with the actual printed work, I found that an enormous amount had simply been skipped -- so much color, so much flavor, so many delicious details, all missing..
This explains why Part 1 sounded so flat. But it does NOT explain why the word "Abridged" doesn't appear anywhere in the description.

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Good but not Great

Reviewed: 07-11-21

Absorbing story and characters with interesting storytelling techniques and superb narration. But at times it was a little slow, and the ending feels a bit rushed. I think some of the threads that needed resolution could have been spelled out more thoroughly.

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If you like Altman, you'll love this.

Reviewed: 11-05-19

Robert Altman is my favorite director, and I've seen most of his movies. But I don't know much beyond the movies themselves -- what took Altman so long to get started, why these particular movies were made, what the actors thought, what the critical and popular reception was, why Altman receded in the 80s, how he came back with The Player, etc. etc.
This book answers all these questions and more, often with the actual participants narrating.
It's really all I could have hoped for, and more. Really sorry to have it end.

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Surpasses My Greatest Hopes

Reviewed: 05-17-19

This is the second course I've listened to from Allen Guelzo, and I am thoroughly hooked. He is a really engaging speaker, but even better, he writes fascinating and thoroughly engaging courses.
As with the other course I listened to, The American Revolution, Guelzo veers far afield, covering details you've never heard anywhere else, but which are really fascinating, and which bring the era completely to life.
This is essentially the story of the tumult in America that led to the Constitutional Convention, the debate over the Constitution and the subsequent ratification fights, and the first years of the U. S. Every single chapter is riveting. I was really disappointed when it ended.
I'm going to go look for my next course from Prof. Guelzo.

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9 people found this helpful

Good but not great

Reviewed: 09-22-17

This book had great promise and some really fun concepts, but settled on being a thriller of middling suspense and dubious credibility.
I'd have preferred it if the author had done more exploring of the concept of multiple lives, but she decided to make it a multi-century cat and mouse game. This was still fun, but both of the main characters did some things that were pretty weak (as well as way out of character) in the last couple of lives, and this put a serious damper on my enjoyment of the book.

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Great match of author and narrator

Reviewed: 07-23-16

This is a fun book, one that had me laughing out loud regularly. An example is when the central character -- the white-trash gal of the title -- gives up trying to figure something out when she realizes that she'll have to do division in her head.

But for me, the highlight is the narration. Allison McLemore brings this book completely to life. She doesn't just read what is written, she lives it, she completely buys into the story and the character. Every aside, every emotion that the words imply, she is on it and expressing it and bringing the listener right inside the words. This is easily one of the best narrated books I've ever listened to.

If there is any drawback to this book, it is that the character isn't entirely believable as white trash. Yes, she has the loser's life, she dropped out of high school, she lives with her alcoholic father in a trailer, etc., etc. But she is also really sharp, and really self-possessed. You can't really imagine her as having been a loser. Showing the transition, showing her growth, would have enhanced this book immensely.

But what IS there, is enjoyable and fun, and a great way to spend 8-plus hours.

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Another Great Read from Kadrey

Reviewed: 05-13-16

Richard Kadrey just never fails to delight. This book is a departure from his wonderfully addicting Sandman Slim series: it is still filled with bizarre creatures and a protagonist who doesn't know when or how to quit, as well as plenty of violence and mayhem, but it is also a Keystone Kops-type madcap comedy, rather than a paeon to the Apocalypse.

There are certain unwritten rules to this type of bungling comedy -- for instance, there have to be a large number of bumbling incompetents, and they have to be bumbling in different, but always entertaining, ways, and they all have to be on a path that is leading inevitably to the same goal, you have to mix in laughs with plot elements, etc., etc. The point here is that I think this is a far more difficult type of book to write than the more freeform, make-the-rules-up-on-the-fly Sandman Slim series. I had to wonder going in if Kadrey could pull it off.

Not to worry. This book reads like he's been doing this all his life. There are more laugh-out-loud moments in this book than maybe any other book I've read. Kadrey is the modern master of the outrageous metaphor, and this book fairly explodes with them. The various plotlines all come together in a completely satisfying conclusion, leaving this reader definitely wanting more.

I don't know if this, too, is intended to become a series, but I hope so. I started missing Coop pretty much the moment the book ended.

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1 person found this helpful

Surprisingly Original and Enjoyable

Reviewed: 05-03-16

This is a really different paranormal book from any other that I've read.
I knew that it was the story of a very, very old Druid who has transplanted to Arizona. But I didn't expect that he would have regular conversations with ancient Celtic goddesses, or that so much of Celtic mythology would be found here, or that his encounters with the local weres and witches would ring so true. In all of his many interactions with them, he is always careful about everything he says, because these are powerful beings, and one slipup could bring disaster.
Likewise his explanations of how his magic works, and the many wards and protections he uses. Everything rings true, and his explanations are fascinating.
And the best thing of all is his sidekick. A really fun character, whose dialog is funny and again rings true.
An unusual style, but I like everything about it, and look forward to reading many more in this series.

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He Forgot To Make Us Care.

Reviewed: 04-16-16

I take no joy in criticizing a work of Mike Carey. He has created flat out masterpieces like the comics Lucifer and Suicide Risk, and complete joy rides like the Felix Castor series. And I liked The Girl with All the Gifts just fine, so I came to this work full of enthusiasm.

And I was pretty into if for the first few chapters. He was clearly pushing the boundaries, writing in a way he never had before. He wasn't writing with lightness, or with any comic relief; he was getting serious.

The problem is that he never let up. The book is relentlessly grim, without a moment's respite. It is 100 chapters of grim. Additionally, the characters are, with a few minor exceptions, utterly unlikable. There is just no hook to the book. By about Chapter 25, I was asking myself why I was continuing: I didn't like the story, I didn't like a single character, and the central character was acting in ways that defied credibility.

In short, I just didn't care. About any of the various storylines, about any of the characters, about the outcome. I continued out of the respect that I have for the author, and, really, felt only relief at the end, that I didn't have to listen any more. The writing in the last few chapters, the last chapter especially, was pretty extraordinary. But it didn't make up for what it took to get there.

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93 people found this helpful