Lynda Rands

Lovely historical account of the OED

Revisado: 03-04-23

I loved learning about the making of the OED. Lovely story and lovely characters. I didn’t realize until the author’s note how much she tried to include factual material.

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Entertaining and some useful insights

Revisado: 01-27-18

This book moves along nicely and has several jaw-dropping anecdotes which you've probably already heard. Who knows what's true, especially since the primary source is Steve Bannon, who plays as fast and loose with facts as does the current inhabitant of the White House. The bits on process and staffing were more interesting to me and are more likely true since nobody really thinks to lie about this stuff. Worth your time.

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Phenomenal Trip Through Early History

Revisado: 05-16-17

I have my differences with the idea of Churchill as a great leader. His gifts were many and so were his faults and a lot of the myth surrounding him drives out consideration of his darker qualities. But boy oh boy, he could write.

History as presented here is clearly on the side of the "great man" theory and there is little discussion of how the rest of the folks live. Despite this view, the story of England's early years is told in a compelling and highly interesting way.

For those looking to have an overview of how things progressed through the War of the Roses, this is the book. Narrator does a very fine job with some great prose.

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Unfortunately simple slant.

Revisado: 01-22-17

Ms. Goodwin is a wonderful writer. This book suffers from her viewing the life of LBJ through a purely psychological lens. I simply couldn't listen very long because everything discussed was related back to LBJ's need for acceptance, based (in the author's view) on his early yearning for his mother's love.

For those interested in this very interesting man, take the time to read Robert Caro's four volumes.

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Not his best effort.

Revisado: 01-13-17

James Hornfischer has written some exceptional books - starting with Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, a phenomenal effort. He is a lucid and graceful writer who generally is able to weave enough personal narrative into his work to give a touch of human interest to the overall story he is telling.

I expected the Fleet at Flood Tide to focus more on the fleet. The book spends a great deal of time on the various landings undertaken by our forces in the Pacific - mainly Saipan and Okinawa. These sections did not do much for the overall narrative.

The decision to spend more time on individuals in this book made it less appealing for me. Others might think differently. Hornfischer focuses on the founder of the Navy's UDT force, the pilot of the first atom bomb drop, a Japanese nurse, and Raymond Spruance, the Fifth Fleet commander. I could have done without all of them except Spruance, a truly remarkable and underappreciated hero of our country's Pacific war effort.

With all this said, my disappointment in this book is entirely because of my own expectations. For people who enjoy human interest stories of wartime and a good, solid overview of the US effort in the last year of the war in the Pacific, this is a fine book. For those looking to a more intense look at the naval effort, look elsewhere.

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Personality, not narrative-driven

Revisado: 08-03-15

Lawrence Wright is an excellent author. His "Looming Tower" should be read by everyone with an interest in the Middle East and its problems. This book was not in the same league. As a mini-bio of L.Ron Hubbard, it was interesting. The rest of the book got sort of tiresome, due to the fact that the disaffected members of this cult seemed to have pretty much the same issues. The stuff about the Hollywood folks was mildly interesting, in terms of Entertainment Tonight kind of gossip.

Mainly, this book struck me as a very good magazine article that was lengthened into a book and suffered from the additions.

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What a waste

Revisado: 10-06-14

Ken Bruen writes wonderfully. Jack Taylor is a very interesting character. I get great references to authors who I've not read and will truly enjoy. And yet ... These stories are an unremitting slog through the life of a bad alcoholic. I really don't see the point in revistiting, time and time again, the depths to which Jack can descend while he's ruining his life with drink. It's so unfortunate - I love the location, I love the characters - I barely finished the first book and I could not finish this one.

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Great stuff for the movie/history buff

Revisado: 06-15-14

If you like movies you'll like this book. Great discussions of how these various directors worked in the field or in Washington during the runup to WWII and during the war itself.

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Excellent overview of the 60s and how we got there

Revisado: 06-15-14

The divisions in our country played upon so expertly by Richard Nixon continue to plague us. The various cultures of resentment that developed throughout Nixon's career are nicely brought out in this work. The narrative is a bit uneven, due to the author's fondness for lists of contemporaneous events. Aside from that, the overall story is compellingly told and really does make clear the damage done to our nation by Nixon in his never-ending quest to get even.

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Good characters, pat ending

Revisado: 04-13-14

Since is the first in the series, it's not too surprising that the ending of this book sounds as though the author ran out of paper and had to wrap everything up. Still, the writing is good and the characters are nicely drawn. The narrator, not so great. He fails to convey any of the sense of a hardbitten private dick and the vocal characterizations are off-putting enough to keep me away from the rest of the series, which he also narrates.

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