Mark

If I could buy one book for the world right now...

Revisado: 11-29-17

If I could buy one book for the world right now, this would be it. I'm actually buying it for a half-dozen friends now because I think it's such an important book for the time that we live in. We are a nation divided, we are polarized, isolated, and starving for community and connection, yet even when we find other with the same thoughts and beliefs we have, somehow we still have this sense of longing and loneliness. This book starts the conversation. This book sets forth a brave path toward healing, reconciliation, conversation, and more than anything else, connection. I've longed for this book for years and it hit me right between the eyes this week. I'm in awe, inspired and full of hope going forward. Thank you Brene Brown, you knocked it out of the park.

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Good, but not great

Revisado: 10-12-16

There were a number of points where this book drew me in and a handful where it started to lose me. Growing up in Colorado, with time in both the Front Range and the Western Slope, I found the author's descriptions of the seasons, the terrain, the weather, and the hunt were well crafted and pulled me deeper into the story. Her use of some wildlife as the villain was a turnoff, as were a few other subthemes that didn't ring true (I don't want to give away too much). Nonetheless, the author has a good writing style and crafts descriptions that are enticing to the reader and create a vivid story landscape. The crafting of the psychological landscape was well written as well. I just found some elements were outside her wheelhouse and either a little more experience or more research would have crafted a more perfect book.

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Well written, well researched & interesting story

Revisado: 10-12-16

This isn't the first story to come out of Outpost Keeting, but to me, it's the best. Sharply detailed descriptions, built on incisive interviews with his comrades in arms, along with heroic action and no BS explanations of why things unfolded as they did. It is probably my favorite book of the year. None of the bravado and (IMHO) BS of Luttrell in Lone Survivor. This book is grounded in reality and openly exposes the soul of the men in Red Platoon. Respect.

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Fascinating, but a little thin on research

Revisado: 10-12-16

While I found the overall book interesting, along with the subject, the author comes to a great many conclusions with statements like "initial research is encouraging" or "future research might reveal" which is not science. I think the author's enthusiasm to contribute to a new and growing pool get in the way of sound and defensible conclusions that adhere to scientific method. What you're getting is her "gut" feeling on things a lot of the time. There are interesting studies and the science of gut bacteria is growing, but few conclusions in this book are backed up by real, hard science.

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esto le resultó útil a 33 personas

Disappointing, especially from such a good author

Revisado: 08-08-16

I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but maybe some general direction and purpose would have been a good start. While the story of this guy was initially interesting, the book didn't really go anywhere. The author drifts in a few directions, but in the end, I don't really like the person she's writing about. He's self-centered, not willing to learn about the social environment around him, and he's pretty sure everyone else is messed up. And hey, I'm not going to disagree that our society couldn't use some more strong spirited, independent, bold men, but not like this arrogant douche. No thanks.

There's so many better books out there about great men. Maybe pick up something like The Big Burn or something with Teddy Roosevelt. Those are characters worthy of respect.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

The best book I've read on thru-hiking

Revisado: 08-08-16

Regardless of what trail you're considering thru-hiking, consider this book. The author does an excellent job of describing the range of emotions, demands, and needs of a thru-hiker, from the start to the finish of their hike. I started listening while on my own hike of the Colorado Trail and I could completely identify with the author; far more than with Cheryl Strayed or Bill Bryson. His descriptions of day to day life on the trail more closely matched mine; I wasn't having a mid-life crisis or anything, I just wanted to go for a long walk. I didn't seek some grand epiphany, I wanted to enjoy exploring a beautiful state and challenge myself.

In the end, I think the author's personal accounts are the kind of information that a thru-hiker needs to prepare, both in terms of what supplies are important and as far as what to expect with such a long hike.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

No more shades of grey

Revisado: 06-14-16

I read the first book on paper and while I was extremely disappointed in the ending because it didn't fit the previous several hundred pages of character development for Christian Grey, I wanted to give book two a shot. I couldn't make it three chapters in before deleting it off my phone. The reader is horrible. It's simply unlistenable. The story isn't really all that much better. It's far short of the tension that was built in the first book.

Do your self a favor and stop at book one... and read it in paper format, not audible with this reader. She's seriously one of the worst readers for the genre ever. She might be ok for YA books, but never, ever for this subject material.

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Sucked me in from the start

Revisado: 05-30-16

I like these kinds of books; starts off at the end and fills in the pieces, looks into the life of the missing person, looks at the search, the evidence, the slow reveal, and the leading theories. They draw me in and this book did it exceptionally well. The missing person is interesting, the circumstances of his disappearance could lead you in a lot of directions, but the author walks you through years of mystery slowly revealing a lengthy history. This was written very much in the style of Dead Run by Dan Schultz.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Missed in so many placed Born To Run was a hit

Revisado: 09-28-15

When I read Born To Run it was inspirational, educational, entertaining, and wove all those elements together beautifully. This isn't that. It's an attempt to re-create that formula verbatim and it fails pretty badly. It's to bad, too, because I agree with a lot of his arguments about changing our diets, the pushing of gatoraide and hydration to the detriment in performance (and even risk to health), and even some of the movement discussions. However, instead of focusing the book on science or finding a more relevant story to tie into, McDougall stretches to make the adventures of the British special forces and Greek resistance fit his research. The result is disjointed, sometimes makes bizarre leaps of logic, and made the book a struggle to read.

I really wanted the book to work and I think the information he presents on the failure of the USDA recommendations for the past 40 years is really important, but the British reader doesn't make sense for the story, the story line doesn't match the research and he's just trying too hard to re-create Born To Run. I can recommend a number of health tips that I pulled from the book, but I can't recommend the book. Go paleo, don't overhydrate and let thirst drive your drinking, and learn to move dynamically in the world and not in a gym. Take those three things away and you've got the gist of it without the hours of suffering through an meaningless story with a bad reader.

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esto le resultó útil a 17 personas

An entertaining book for exploring the southwest

Revisado: 05-20-15

A few months ago I stumbled upon Dead Run, which led me to Tony Hillerman as I decided it was time to explore and relearn the desert southwest I played in twenty years ago. The Great Taos Bank Robbery is a collection of essays that run the gamut of local politics, local history and modern epidemiology. Somehow the stories connect well because of the land they're centered on, despite exploring many different topics over many centuries (and millennia) of human history.

The author does a great job of keeping things light, entertaining, but still informs and educates. Gotta love that blend.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas