Sue

Fabulous Life Advice

Revisado: 04-26-25

Still listening, wish I had this advice 40 to 50 years ago.
1) Don't complain or criticize.
2) Listen to others
3) Recognize people are interested in themselves (so obvious, but ignored)
4) Talk about what interests others. Ask questions.
Not done listening, will add to this.

Added bonus - no swearing!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Baby murdered

Revisado: 03-21-25

Normally I love Ken Follett, but several chapters into the book a newborn baby was murdered. His mother was a slave who was treated despicably. Normally a slave baby would be considered an asset, so this felt like a literary device of Mr. Follett, but very upsetting so won't be listening to this horrid book. Very disappointing.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

The Villain is too horrible

Revisado: 01-23-25

Jack Reacher and the woman he tries to protect are great, but the villain is so awful, I am sickened and did not enjoy this.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Wonderful Stories

Revisado: 08-27-24

Frederick Forsyth is a superior author and the narrators of these 5 stories were also superior. These stories were not short stories, as the total length was over 12 hours. As Mr. Forsyth has matured, his story telling just gets better and better.

I loved the twisty endings of the first 4. Spoiler Alert: I cried throughout the last story and it did not have the happy ending I would have liked, but it did have a twisty ending. Raising a child by a single mother is hard.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Wonderful Stories

Revisado: 08-27-24

Frederick Forsyth is a superior author and the narrators of these 5 stories were also superior. These stories were not short stories, as the total length was over 12 hours. As Mr. Forsyth has matured, his story telling just gets better and better.

I loved the twisty endings of the first 4. Spoiler Alert: I cried throughout the last story and it did not have the happy ending I would have liked, but it did have a twisty ending. Raising a child by a single mother is hard.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Ok

Revisado: 07-17-24

Listened to July 2024.

Some good prepping tips --- not just for the end of the world, but if you lose your job, power outage, etc. Mostly about the hero's ego and gun play. Some cursing.

The hero was focused on getting home, which is good. The 3 men in real life I admire are very tough, do not get in verbal fights, can employ any amount of controlled violence to protect themselves and those they are responsible for, but they are humble. All of them are "builders" - businesses, gardens, parks, forest preserves, beaches, homes. I did not see those personality qualities in the characters in this book set.

I prefer stories about taking a mess and turning it into an organized something or taking a wilderness and turning it into a fertile, productive land.

If I want gun fights, I can turn to stories about WWII, where there was an obvious evil and the good guys sacrificed.

Just because someone is poor and lives in a trailer park does not mean they are worthless and criminals. Stereotypes.

I only listened to book 1 because I did not like the hero and the gun fetish. Some people, especially men who want to be boss, might like this.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

While not for me, some preppers may like this

Revisado: 06-15-24

Introduction is hypotheticals about North Korea. Then story line about the electrical grid going down and the water systems failing.

Tips on trapping song birds. Not for me. I just look at how the Amish live and what my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did to survive and "prosper" despite having to use outhouses, no toilet paper, no electricity. I do enjoy my refrigerator and fans, but I know how to hand wash clothes, heat water, grow and can my own food. If I had to, I could live without electricity. Kindergarten through high school, none of the schools I attended had air conditioning. When I first started working, the business offices did not have air conditioning. I grew up in a home without air conditioning. Our cars did not have air conditioning.

My cousin and my grandfather did not hunt squirrels or song birds. They hunted rabbits (more meat than a squirrel) and deer. My dad fished.

When my mother was growing up, she slept on an unheated porch, even in winter in Michigan. She and her mother both got chilblains in winter. I think most Americans do not even know what a chilblain is.

My maternal grandmother walked to school. In winter she had two pancakes wrapped around her hands as "mittens". She ate the pancakes for lunch, then put her hands in her coat pocket on the way home. She completed school through the 8th grade.

I do not know why, but it seems to me previous generations were mentally "tougher" than those alive today.

A family friend, who was like a second father to me, who was born in 1923, told me his mother boiled all their drinking water. They also boiled the milk from their cows. This gets rid of bacteria.

I only listened to about an hour of this story, because it seemed childish to me. People can live well without the modern conveniences, it just takes a lot of work (and some knowledge and skills). Considering the obesity rate in the USA and the unfortunate drug use, hard physical work would probably be a boon.

The premises of the book did not seem likely.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Guns

Revisado: 05-10-24

Listened to May 2024.
Little or no swearing. Only listened to 2 hours. Too much gunplay for me.

Totally agree with the author's repeated statement, "All empires collapse eventually." Over 50 years ago I took Latin in high school, and my Latin teacher was a big fan of the Roman Empire. The Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans - all their empires eventually collapsed.

The absurd debt of the USA, 16.7% of US population as of 2024 are addicts, and the prevalence of violence, dishonesty, and criminal behavior makes for a poor prognosis.

Just not interested in the guns. I prefer end of the system novels that talk about gathering useful people, helping others, growing food, etc. I do not think survival dependent on gathering supplies, which eventually run out. I think more about what my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did from the Civil War up to and through the Great Depression of the 1930s to survive. You need food and clean water to survive. You do not need paper goods or plastic. You need a heat source in the winter. You do not need AC in the summer.

When my 10 year old grandfather hit his foot with an ax while chopping wood, there were no doctors or hospitals around. My great grandmother sat on him and sewed his foot up. Would prefer stories about how to deal with things like this without the modern "conveniences" and packaging available today.

After the Civil War, my great grandparents on my father's side lived in the South. They could not get salt - I don't know if it was $ or unavailable. What they did for salt was go to the Smoke House where salted meat used to be hung and dig up the soil where the salted meat had dripped. They used the salty soil for salt.

During the depression of the 1930s, one winter my grandfather borrowed $10 and bought 100 pounds of flour, 100 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of salt, and a few other things. Those provisions got them through the winter. My grandfather hunted rabbits and fished, they kept a milk cow and chickens, and had a huge vegetable garden which my grandmother canned.

They used an outhouse. Had no toilet paper. Too many people today are spoiled and helpless. They do not know what is possible. With hard work, a pleasant life is possible.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Prescient

Revisado: 05-06-24

The debt, violence, and drug addiction in the USA is alarming. Mr. Akart wrote a story about the possible consequences of that with no swearing, (very much appreciated) and much information about water storage, food storage, and security. I also appreciate the morals and loyalty of the Friday night group. I am getting the next book in the series.

Entertaining.

May 2024 - first read (listen). Worth listening to again.
June 2024 - second read - spoiler alert: It was only a month since I first listened to this book, but for the first chapter of the second read, I thought there was some malfunction because I thought I was listening to a different book. I did not remember the first chapter is military in nature and not about the group of suburbanites. It becomes clear and is an attention getting introduction and becomes clear as the book progresses.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not for me

Revisado: 04-23-24

Listened to April 2023. I loved it for the vocabulary, about an hour into it the word, nomenclature, was used and I was hooked. So much modern stuff has the F bomb every other sentence or every sentence, and the vocabulary of this one was wonderful. I stopped listening though when the hero started having casual sex . I realize men are hard wired for sex, and possibly it sells, but cheap, casual sex and a blow by blow description (no pun intended) is not for me. I like my heroes to be heroes.

This is a who dunnit and the hero is a capable young man to suss out what happened and why.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona