Amy

Evanovich Bounces Back

Revisado: 12-11-11

What made the experience of listening to Explosive Eighteen the most enjoyable?

After

What other book might you compare Explosive Eighteen to and why?

Characters like Elmore Leonard's farcical Chili Palmer have a similar comic punch. You can find Chili in Leonard's

What does Lorelei King bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

King has great skill at affecting changes of voice and inflection. She uses this skill quite effectively in order to create a baffling array of distinctly separate characters. Love her over-the-top

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Ditto, Tony

Revisado: 07-09-11

After reading Tony's critique of this book, I wished that I had read his review PRIOR to having bought this book.

Like Tony, I often continue to listen to a book that seems like a dud at first. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised to find a book that rescues itself upon further listening. Then again--sometimes I am not. This book would fall into the "NOT" category. I kept listening, hoping that at some point, I would begin to give the faintest bit of a damn about any of the characters. All the characters were uni-dimensional literary wastes--not to mention grating--In the extreme. Wish I could give this zero stars.

Two questions continued to pop into my head as I tried to sweat this one out:
1) "What the hell was this author SMOKING?!", and, 2) "Why should I care about any of these characters?"

Unlike Tony--who sounds like a fair and rational human--I could not dismiss my disappointment with this book. Tony allowed that it's possible that this is not really a BAD book, but just a "bad fit" for his tastes. I can't even give it that. This book is truly a waste of precious time. I could have been putting the 4 hours I wasted on this book to better use. I'm sure that 4 hours spent in a dental chair, getting a root canal would have been more useful, and certainly more pleasant.

Get out while you can, and just avoid buying this one in the first place.

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Plum Losing Her Luster

Revisado: 06-30-11

As always, I enjoyed the newest installment of the Stephanie Plum numerical series.

The only problem is that some of the staples of the series--Steph's oft-repeated foibles--are beginning to lack any sense of newness. For example: You know that Plum is going to have at least one car trashed per book, but the ways in which those cars get destroyed seems to have been more surprising and/or creative at one time. Could be that it's just not possible to keep a recurring comic character fresh. Will leave that for others to figure out.

All that aside, I'm still plum-crazy for Stephanie and her adventures. I'm not sorry I bought this one.

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Word "Sh-t" in Title is a Descriptor

Revisado: 08-22-09

The answer to the title question, "Does Anything Eat Sh-t," is, apparently, "Yes." I really feel I bit on a big turd by buying this very un-funny book. Well, I may have bit on this turd--but I refuse to chew it--much less, to swallow it. Going to see if I can get my credit refunded by Audible. Would have given this zero stars, had that been an option!

Bought this book in search of a fun time, learning silly bits of trivia. There's something fun about peepee/caca humor, and trivia on same is a guilty pleasure.

This book, however, contains no fun facts of the sort for which we pick up such books. It's just a bunch of ridiculous made-up, fake "facts". I suppose it was supposed to be fun to read stuff which is so obviously, outrageously non-factual--in the format of a typical book of trivia. It was anything but funny, and even less funny that I spent my hard-earned money on something which any third-grader could have written.

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Not Quite Funny As Previous 3

Revisado: 02-17-09

As with my review of "The Darwin Awards III," I am still finding this series--based on the premise that other people's stupidity is funny--to be quite entertaining. Having said that, I must add that it feels like this is not as funny as the previous installments. I am beginning to find some of the narrative voices a bit tiring. Especially grating are some of the narrations which contain accents meant to portray a given ethnic group. While accents of ethnic groups used in a joke do not necessarily convey bigotry or prejudice, some of the accents used seemed to suggest that the narrator deemed people of that ethnic group to be inferior. This trend of accented narrations almost leans toward suggesting that the stupidity being described is a RESULT OF THAT PERSON'S ETHNICITY, rather than just incidental to the story. Even if one is not particularly sensitive to the possibility of undertones of bigotry--The accents were poorly-executed, in most circumstances. As such, they detracted from the humor, and were sometimes downright annoying!
Still, in all, it was a fun listen.

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Mostly Funny

Revisado: 02-17-09

As has been proven through the Ages, other people's stupidity is something humans find a great source of humor. The more stupid the other person's actions, the funnier we find it. The fact that this stupidity could lead to someone's demise does not seem to diminish from our perception of its funniness. As such, this book continues that great comedic tradition. As in the psychological phenomenon known as "Schadenfreude," other people's short-comings can be satisfying, by making us feel superior.
Listening to this, I got that much-needed ego boost. Just the thing to listen to after getting laid off!

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High "Awwwwwwwwwwww!" Factor

Revisado: 02-17-09

As a lover of all things that are furry and four-footed, I am drawn to stories about the animals in our lives. This story satisfied everything I'm looking for in a critter-tale: It reminds us of the best of what it means to be human through the lens of our interactions with beasts.
This one's a great listen for the road--maybe for a family vacation.
"Marley and Me" is a must-listen for anyone who loves dogs.

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Good book. Bad narrator.

Revisado: 01-24-08

I was pleased to see a title written by the daughter of one of my favorite authors. I was not disappointed by the story and the quality of writing. Ms. Burke stands on her own feet, and I'm looking forward to more by this author.This is really quite good, especially for a new author's debut.

The Brit-accented narrator, however, was an ill-suited choice for a story set in Portland, Oregon. The accent was most disconcerting.

Aside from Brit accent, the narrator was irritating. This is the narration of a failed actress. Trying to add feeling to the story, the narrator over-acted. The narration featured phoney laughs, meant to punch up the warmth of the interactions between the characters. This effect really fell flat. These phoney laughs were sprinkled liberally throughout. It was as un-nerving as listening to your stupid boss who laughs at his own jokes--HAR-DEE-HAR. This narration sounded less like an audiobook to me, and more like a crazy, cat-hoarding old woman reading to her pets. I guess the producers of this audiobook didn't figure a new author merited a narrator of any quality.

My conclusion--I'd better enjoy the works of this author in real-book format until after she's got more notches on her literary belt.

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Slow start--Good overall

Revisado: 04-10-07

Make no mistake about it--the first 35-45 minutes of this audiobook are almost a chore! This is not a book for those who cannot deal with delayed gratification.

I would really only give this 3 1/2 stars, had the star-click mode of rating allowed this.

The start of this book was so painfully slow that I almost gave up on it. The introductions of all the characters, especially those of the villains, were a clunky workload. It was difficult for me to follow this book while going through my daily commute, where I usually listen to most of my audiobooks.

Initially, the ham-handed, poorly-layered character developements made this listen into a real challenge (I suspect the co-author was responsible for this wretched start.) I recommend listening to the beginning of this in a less hectic environment if you don't want to become as peeved with the book as with your commute.

It really picks up after the first 45 minutes. Clearly Patterson is back in the game.The suspense that Patterson is so good at creating is still to be found here. Later character development is much smoother. I was glad I held out, as I now have a new Patterson character whom I will enjoy following.

If you love Patterson's characters, and are looking for a new character to engage you, I would recommend this book. Now that these new characters are established, it's a good read--leading to more good (maybe better) reads in the future. If you are perfectly happy with the characters and authors you are presently following, it might be too much work for you to invest.

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Not My Kind of Mystery

Revisado: 04-25-06

According to the rating system, I had to give this one star just to get to the page where I could write a review. Trust me; if I could have given it a big fat zero, I would have.

I am sorely disappointed that I paid good money for this piece of religious propaganda. I thought I was purchasing a mystery audiobook. Turns out I was paying for the privelege of having someone else's religious views shoved down my throat. The murder mystery I set out to read [listen to] quickly devolved into a thin premise, a subplot, used only to support the spiritual musings and meanderings of the author.

If you enjoy the religious treacle that currently passes for literature and music in a growing sector of our world today, then by all means--go ahead and purchase this religious tract--Errr, uh, I mean--book.

If you still prefer your religion kept personal, and without ostentation, then you'll want to skip this one.

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