Nancy McDermott

Lazy, ridiculous ending (spoilers)

Revisado: 06-05-24

I admit I had so little sympathy for the characters, and the plot was so silly that I was starting to wonder vaguely if it might be better for everyone to perish at the end. I didn’t think the author would actually do it!! So many loose ends! It was like the author just got tired of writing. It was truly appalling. And if anyone out there is thinking that this is somehow stunning, brave or innovative… all I can say is I pity you. How on earth did this get published?

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Sometimes the author shouldn't read

Revisado: 03-17-23

This is an important topic and Mary Harrington is worth engaging with, HOWEVER she's just isn't cut out to be a reader. I would describe her style as brittle, She seems tense and uncomfortable, and this makes it almost painful to listen to. This is a pity because audio books are so convenient and I do want to find out what she has to say. In the end I decided to return the audio book and purchase the printed copy.

I rated the content in the middle because I've only just begun to read.

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Music made my flesh crawl

Revisado: 08-08-20

Somewhere in America there is a workout video producer who thinks this sound track is exactly what people want to listen to when taking up running. He /she probably chose the cover too. This person was probably a fan of CSI Las Vegas. If your aspiration is to feature as the murdered runner in an episode. This is your ticket.

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Music made my flesh crawl

Revisado: 08-08-20

Somewhere in America there is a workout video producer who thinks this sound track is exactly what people want to listen to when taking up running. He /she probably chose the cover too. This person was probably a fan of CSI Las Vegas. If your aspiration is to feature as the murdered runner in an episode. This is your ticket.

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One of the most creative writers out there

Revisado: 04-20-20

I met Anthony Horowitz about 10 years ago at, of all places, a sociology conference. I don’t remember precisely what he spoke about, (I think it might have been about the problem with reading logs) but I remembered I liked him and I remember having a nice chat with him after the talk. Anyway, I remembered his name and noticed it in the credits and of some British shows I watched on BBC American. The shows he worked on were invariably excellent, with compelling characters and really creative plot lines.

I picked up the Magpie Mystery on a trip back from London a few years ago, and again was delighted. I loved the House of Silk and so I thought I’d give this a try.

Without giving too much away, it a book that would make Agatha Christie jealous. One of the most unusually executed who-done-its I have read in an age. Anthony Horowitz is having fun, and you will too.

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Kind of a mess

Revisado: 02-04-20

It feels like David Mitchell was trying to combine a coming of age novel, mystery, and dystopian fiction in banana, cherry and white chocolate chip muffin. Some sections work on their own, but the don’t work together.

The switching narrators just makes it worse. Holly’s accent is particularly bad. One moment she’s Dot from Eastenders, the next she’s a Home Counties matron, and in the last bit she sounds vaguely Australian!

And doesn’t anyone check pronunciations with the actors? Die Zeitung which is pronounce Dee Zi-tung was pronounced Die (as in “die you bastard”) throughout. And Poughkeepsie is pronounced puh-Kip-see not Pooh-KEEP-see. Was it really too difficult to consult Wikipedia?

Worst part was the last book. I say “book”.... it was more like a sermon on eco doom. In the midsts of this sermon, he introduces an obnoxious catholic woman for apparently no other reason than to have remind us that religious zealots are awful. He does this between lecturing us on our decadent lifestyles.

That said, there are parts of the book that are tolerable and engaging, if annoyingly preachy.
Disappointing.

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Nature Porn for Therapists

Revisado: 05-29-19

At one point, Casey (or Cassy or Kelsey) the Vet leading a rafting trip for veterans with PTSD cautions Florence Williams that the trauma of her divorce will be with her in some way for the rest of her life. This was the first of many, many cliches about trauma and recovery that recur through the course of this... glorified podcast. Three days camping and whoa! the veterans (and Williams) were feeling a lot better because graduate students measured Big-ass alpha waves in their brain activity as compared to the beginning of the trip. It wasn’t clear to me at least why these alpha waves were so significant, whether the effect would last or whether some other 3 day excursion, say a weekend in a city might not result in something similar. But never mind, on to the ex sex-workers/victims of human trafficking. These women told very sad stories about how the traffickers are really just like the guy next door. The effect was every cliche about therapy and recovery combined with every cliche about sex trafficking. As the segment on the former sex-workers wore on, it all began to feel a bit too much like misery porn. Both segments felt cloying and intrusive. I think this would have been better with more hard science, a greater emphasis on how nature affects people who have not been soldiers or victims of sex trafficking and less from the people who,well-meaning, see the world through an Oprah-colored lens. .

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Good mystery but the accent!!

Revisado: 07-09-18

Caroline Lee is a fine reader. I don’t even mind that a story set in Britain is being narrated by an Australian. But why, O why the poor attempt at the accent? Dolly’s accent seemed to be Norther Irish at times, sometimes lapsing into some sort of regional melange of scows, West Country — almost anything but a Coventry accent. It shifted from one thing to an another and it was distracting. I think it’s quite difficult to speak to carry off a regional accent T the best of times. Even very good readers can’t always do it. Caroline Lee reads so well in every other way. Just leave out the accents next time. Please!

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Spy fiction for 14 year old girls

Revisado: 01-24-18

What a disappointment. There was so much potential. Not a bad story but over shadowed by cringe-making sex scenes and adolescent fantasies about men, sex, France, etc. I seriously considered sending it back because I couldn’t bear another segment told from Charlie’s point of view.

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Accents are wrong

Revisado: 07-28-17

The narrator kept giving characters southern accents— it's set in Michigan! How difficult is it to do a midwestern accent? There's really no excuse. It was very, distracting from what was, over all, a reasonable story.

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