D. Frrazier

Interesting, but the movie is better.

Revisado: 03-15-25

The story is quite short and not very well developed compared to the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." The afterward presented here may actually be longer than the story. I think the afterward might have been better if it had been less fawning, and more insightful. In particular, I would have liked to know more about Mr. Stern's life. Also, Stern apparently wrote two earlier drafts of the story. I would have liked to know more about those drafts. Also, developing the screenplay for the movie was its own ordeal, with various drafts being written. More could have been said about that here. Overall, a worthwhile listen, and a very good performance, but maybe could have been a little bit better in some ways.

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Amateurish like a podcast

Revisado: 12-21-24

This feels somewhat amateurish, a little like a podcast. The most valuable part may be a recording of Frank Capra answering questions about the movie from a live audience, but even this, for the most part, is not especially riveting. There is a fair amount of trivia and fluff here, presented in a scattershot way without the linear narrative you might find in a well-researched history book.

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Good, but maybe lacks something.

Revisado: 11-14-24

This is a good book about Tesla. Not sure how it compares to other books, but it seems fair to Tesla, neither fawning nor overly critical. You see the man, genuis, warts and all. But I felt like maybe something was missing. Perhaps it would have been a better book if it had diverged from Tesla's time-period more often to put his experiences in the context of present knowledge. For instance, the book notes that Tesla created a small vibration machine that he claimed could destroy buildings and bridges easily. The book mentions an episode of Mythbusters in which a similar machine was tested on an old bridge, and did not cause any serious damage. More of this sort of thing might have been interesting. I was especially curious to know if Tesla's many experiments with high voltage electricity might have harmed his health -- especially his mental health. I am not quite finished with the book, but so far that has not been discussed, though some of his eccentric behavior has been mentioned.

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Rambling and scattershot

Revisado: 10-29-24

For some of Sacks' biggest fans, and for scholars, this may be a worthwhile book, but for me, it seemed too rambling and scattershot to heartily recommend. It does provide a lot of detail and nuance about Sacks' life and personality, but in a very non-linear way. We are talking to Sacks in a diner about his college years. Now we are talking to an old friend of Sacks about his eccentricities.We are talking to Sacks in a rowboat about his writing of "Awakenings" (or something). It is very meandering and episodic. Some interesting anecdotes along the way, but not exactly riveting for most listeners. Most of Sacks' own books are probably a better read.

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The mystery is a minor part of the story

Revisado: 10-13-24

This should have been called, "History of the Diesel Engine." Or, "Biography of Rudolph Diesel." The mystery surrounding Diesel's death is a minor part of the story that, predictably, arrives very late in the telling. Still, if you have an interest in engines or Diesel, this is not a bad book. However, much of it seemed a little dry and academic to me. If you are here for a detective story, you are going to have to be very patient.

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Mostly about cars and travel by land

Revisado: 06-05-24

A competent narrative about the history of travel on land. From the wheel and chariots to stage-coaches and steam engines. But mostly it is a history of cars and travel by car, from Ford's assembly lines and the model T to today's ride-hailing services and tomorrow's driverless cars (or today's?). Maybe not quite riveting at every turn, but always informative and educational. What you won't find here is anything about air travel, space travel, ships or submarines. Even train travel gets surprisingly little attention. Buses too are not much discussed, though the Montgomery bus boycott is discussed in some detail. This book is reasonably good, but certainly not comprehensive, A bit of a grab-bag of topics related to land travel and especially the automobile.

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Pretty good for a looong biography

Revisado: 08-24-23

I am surprised I was able to finish this audio book, which at more than 36 hours, is one of the longest books I have ever listened to. It was actually even longer for me because I found it helpful to listen at 80 percent of normal speed. I felt the narrator talked too fast for my liking. If you are expecting lots of exciting gun battles and gripping accounts of investigations like you might see in a TV show, this is probably not the book for you. This is not that kind of book. Part of what makes this story interesting is the sweep of history it encompasses, from the Palmer Raids of the 20s, to the Red Scare years and McCarthyism, the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. all the way up to the beginnings of Watergate. Hoover does not come out looking very good, but overall it makes for pretty interesting biography.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Difficult for me to get into.

Revisado: 07-18-23

I found this story difficult to get into. Not sure why. Following complex action sequences that have been written out can be a bit tedious, especially compared to watching the same events unfold visually. I found that if I slowed down the playback, it was a little easier to follow the action. Still, I found it hard to care about what was being described. It just didn't grab me somehow. Maybe I am not the right target audience, though I do enjoy the Indiana Jones movies.

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Disappearance gets too little attention.

Revisado: 06-27-23

I might have preferred an abridged edition. This version is long, with a lot of details about Amelia's early life, including grandparents and great grandparents! It does present a more complete rendering of Amelia than you will find in many books, but all this detail can be tedious.

I thought it interesting that the book did not mention the idea that Amelia was a lesbian or bisexual, though it is clear that Amelia's interest in men was always secondary to her flying, and her marriage may have been one of convenience.

I felt Amelia's disappearance got too little attention. It is discussed, but easily comprises less than 10 percent of the book. After all, her disappearance is what interests many people more than anything else. Whole books have been written about the disappearance. I recently listened to one of these ("Finding Amelia"). If you want to know more about the disappearance, and get a different take on some of the details surrounding it, I recommend that book, though it too can be tedious in its own way.

I felt "East to the Dawn" was the better book, more professionally written, with a better structure and a better sense of balance. The writer presents a sane picture of the disappearance that is not couched in conspiracy theories. Interestingly, the Nikumaroro Island theory is not mentioned at all, though that theory has gotten a lot of attention in recent years.

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Ending is more of a cliff-hanger than I expected

Revisado: 06-17-23

I found this book somewhat interesting, but also somewhat disappointing. It is very narrowly focused on Amelia’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe, and especially her disappearance and the ensuing search. There is very little about her personal life or earlier adventures. There is also nothing about more recent investigations of Amelia’s disappearance. Nor is there much about conspiracy theories surrounding Amelia.

Much of the book is focused on a seeming minute-by-minute account of various faint or cryptic radio transmissions reported around the time Amelia disappeared. This gets to be a little tedious and I found myself anxious to move on to some other aspect of the story.

Perhaps most disappointing of all is the abrupt way the story ends. Obviously, with Amelia’s story still a baffling mystery, any book on the subject is going to lack a fully satisfying ending. But this story seems to end almost in mid-sentence. There is a mention of the 1940s discovery of specific human remains, along with a woman’s shoe. There is mention of the possibility of testing those remains against dental records. But there is no mention of whether any testing of any kind ever happened. We are just left hanging.

At the beginning of the book, the author suggests that there is really no mystery, suggesting that by the end of the book, the author plans to offer at least a coherent theory of what happened to Amelia. Maybe there is something along these lines that comes out over the course of the book, but I was expecting more, and especially was expecting some kind of summary of conclusions at the end of the book.

I’m sure this is an important and thoroughly researched book about Amelia, but I it is not quite the book that I was expecting. Looking forward now to listening to other books about Amelia that flesh out more of her story.

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