Jerry Hilts

A mixed bag

Revisado: 11-13-24

I'm not sure how this ended up on my to-read list, but I'll need to figure it out so I can temper future recommendations.

The story ended up being good, really good actually, but the writing itself ... not so much. Mostly it was just banal, but occasionally it was distractingly bad.

I'm on the fence about whether I'd want to read additional books in this series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Natasha Lyonne is fun, the rest ... 🤷🏼‍♂️

Revisado: 03-16-23

This "audiobook" is actually more of a radio play starring Natasha Lyonne and various other voice actors. If you like Lyonne's characters in shows like Poker Face and Russian Doll, you'll probably like her character here too. Unfortunately there's not much more to like. Beyond Lyonne's charm, the humor falls flat and the story is pretty witless.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

New age religious hooey

Revisado: 02-21-23

This is a small book, but a big waste of time. What starts out as a possibly interesting take on dealing with procrastination, distraction, and other types of "resistance" to productive action quickly devolves into new age quasi-religious nonsense.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Classic Hard-boiled Detective Story

Revisado: 01-31-16

Not the best of Chandler's Philip Marlowe stories, but still better than most others in the genre. Warning: the story contains the racist attitudes and language of the times, which might be jarring to some modern ears. Also, the narrator needs to learn how to pronounce all the words and names.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Good Book. A Horrible Audiobook.

Revisado: 10-05-13

Stick with the printed version.

Although Bleeding Edge is an outstanding book, this is probably the single worst narration of any of the audiobooks to which I've listened. Given Ms. Berlin's history as an actress, one would expect a much better performance. Have you ever had that experience when you're reading aloud, think you've reached the end of a sentence then discover that it continued with another word or clause? Every sentence seemed to surprise her. Very often it felt like she didn't understand what she was reading. Why anyone thought this reading was good enough to release is beyond me.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Kevin Mitnick is Not a Hacker

Revisado: 03-20-13

Bill Joy is a hacker. Steve Wozniak is a hacker. Linus Torvalds is a hacker.

Kevin Mitnick is not a hacker, not even a bad hacker, he's a wanker. He's also a liar, a cheat, a hypocrite, and quite possibly a psychopath.

I picked up this book on sale, because I thought it would be interesting to hear Mitnick's side of the story. I got his side alright. Even in his own words, Mitnick comes across as a loser who's ego far out distances his mediocre talents. Nearly all of his break-ins were the result of using exploits discovered and developed by other people, or even more often "social engineering". Social Engineering is wanker speak for lying: things like pretending to be from tech support to get a naive employee to give up their password or turn off security measures. Lying and taking advantage of trusting people seems to be the only thing at which he excelled. Even then, his bragging seems ludicrously excessive. At one point he compares his charisma to "those guys from the Oceans Eleven movies".

With the exception of a few members of his family, he expresses no remorse for his actions. He often blames his victims for being gullible enough to believe his lies.

The prose is amateurish. I guess his ghost writer isn't much of a writer either.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Ellis Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

Revisado: 03-20-13

Tighter and more grounded than his previous novel, Crooked Little Vein, there is still plenty of the Warren Ellis outrageousness we know and love. This is an excellent, quick, fun read. Highly recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Extremely Thorough Biography

Revisado: 03-19-13

This was quite a comprehensive, enjoyable biography.

Most people who remember a bit of their high-school history will be familiar with the highlights of Hamilton's life: born in the West Indies, Aid to Washington during the Revolution, co-author of the Federalist papers, first Secretary of the Treasury, shot in a duel with Aaron Burr. As you might expect, this eight hundred page tome fills in the details and gaps of that timeline extensively. Those details are quite often fascinating.

I also learned a lot about the history of the early republic that I hadn't known. In particular, I had no idea about how polarized and extreme the reactions to French revolution and its aftermath were among the founders, how instrumental it was in defining our early party divisions, nor how close we came to war with France.

The author is definitely partisan. Although fairly forthcoming about Hamilton's own faults, his rivals are definitely presented in an extremely unfavorable light. Fans of Adams and Jefferson in particular should be prepared for some tough talk. In general, I think this is a good thing. I'm a pretty big admirer of Jefferson, and to a lesser extent Adams, so seeing this perspective was very enlightening.

I highly recommend this book.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Phryne Does Christie

Revisado: 03-18-13

You can always count on Phryne Fisher for a bit of light fun. This one is a bit different from others in the series, as the author tips her hat (or sticks out her tongue) at Agatha Christie. The story is full of the usual Christie tropes (the isolated country house, the long returned secret relative, and on and on) but Greenwood pokes and tweaks them in a very un-Christie way.

It wasn't my favorite of the Phryne mysteries by far, but was quite an enjoyable diversion none the less.

j.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Just Can't Connect with Bellow

Revisado: 03-04-13

Given his reputation, and the high esteem in which he his held by writers whom I hold in high esteem, I always feel like I should like Bellow more than I do. Herzog is a good book, but (for me) not a great one.

I'm tempted to blame my ho-hum reaction on the fact his characters often seem less like real people and more like puppets for the author, through which he can espouse some point or another. But if I'm honest that same argument could be made with even more accuracy at authors I love like Pynchon and DeLillo. Maybe it's just that what he has to say isn't all that interesting.

It could be that I find language is unmoving. There are occasional phrases that seem clever, but there's no musicality.

Whatever it is, Bellow just leaves me a bit bored.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas