Moodini

More Excellence.

Revisado: 03-05-25

The only thing I like more than reading McKinty is having Gerard Doyle read it to me. Another work of genius by McKinty.

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Glad I Only Paid $1 For This.

Revisado: 02-15-24

This is a book that is written like a blog. The book was a collection of bromides sprinkled with some practical advice that amounts to common sense. If you like that kind of thing, this is the book for you. Personally, I got very little for the time invested in the book.

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Must Have More!

Revisado: 08-09-23

Adrian Mckinty and Gerard Doyle are like lime juice and vodka; bracing, invigorating, nutritious!

I really hope this is not the last Sean Duffy novel. Once again McKinty manages what few modern authors can, that is, tell a compelling story with equal measures of humor and gravitas. His characters are believable and endearing with actual story arcs that make you care about them. I love how he occasionally peppers the prose with obscure facts and philosophy. Without McKinty I would have never learned the concept of ‘mono no aware’ and my life would be less complete.

Also, unlike many modern authors, he is telling a story not giving a lecture. After working all day, taking care of my family, and dealing with the general chaos of life, I don’t want to listen to how much I suck because of my immutable characteristics, I just want to escape for an hour or so while I am running or in the gym.

Now I would be remiss if I didn’t point to the merits of the narrator Gerard Doyle. His voice is so mellifluous that I could listen to him read the text on the back of a shampoo bottle and be enraptured. He is able to seamlessly, at leas to my American ear, call up countless dialects from all areas of the UK, not just Ireland. Crucially, when he reads a female role you are not taken out of the story, they are believable but not overdone.

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Not Her Best

Revisado: 05-30-23

I’m a huge Tana French fan, but this one was a disappointment. The writing itself is excellent but there is no real mystery here. The plot twists are lame. Pass on this one.

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I Should Have Read the Reviews

Revisado: 12-31-21

The reviewer with the numbered bullet points is spot on. This is less a shark book and more of a conservation book. I am hardly against conservation books, I've read a few, but when I purchase a book about sharks I would like to read about...well, sharks.

In my head this book would started with the prehistoric sharks and their evolution and then ventured into the different species and their unique attributes. This could have been fleshed out with anecdotes and asides on other interesting ocean creatures.

In reality, well over half the book is about how 'society' is destroying the ocean. The author literally blames society. This term is so broad as to mean nothing. This sentiment, which could have been summed up in a chapter or less, is repeated over and over ad nauseam.

Not good. Return.

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Banal and Boring.

Revisado: 12-26-21

I downloaded this for free and wish I hadn’t wasted my time. Goofy pop-psychology presented in a ‘humorous’ and ‘clever’ fashion by a whispery narrators. Just a terrible book overall. Skip it.

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A Religion in History's Clothing

Revisado: 09-06-21

Are looking for a book that explores the peoples, flora and fauna, and history of the gulf? Well this isn't the book for you. You'll find a few of those things, but they are only sprinkled in to highlight the environmental degradation wrought by evil evil modern western society. Occasionally there is a short biography of a gulf artist or eco warrior.

This is the feel bad book of the year. It is basically one long effluvia of exaggeration and hyperbole, from one side of course. The few topics that I knew about previously (cancer alley and the so called ocean garbage patch) could be countered with only the most cursory research. It was hard to believe many of the stories in this 'factual" book after botching those well known topics, I assume there is a pattern of bias here.

This book really should be listed under the religion category. The narrator pharisaically delivers the news about society's 'original sin' of pollution et cetera, which I guess is appropriate considering the content.

Misleading and biased. Return.

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Almost There

Revisado: 04-11-21

I loved the idea of a history of the ‘small folk’ of France, but the execution of the text didn’t quite get there.

Robb did an admirable job of compiling the history of a largely illiterate and overlooked people. There are some fascinating anecdotes and ‘facts’ in the book, but the narrative jumps from region to region then back again in a way that I found disorienting. This happens in chronology too, though that was easier to parse.

Sometimes I felt as if the story was on the brink of summiting to some greater point only to slip back to its starting position.

In the final chapter, Robb felt the need to highlight some tragic event in modern France and suggest how far France has to go in order to satisfy his utopic vision for it. This tiresome, but oh so fashionable, trope always sours my enjoyment of a book. It would be nice to actually put down a book and be able to draw my own conclusions rather than have a ‘lesson’ spoon-fed to me by a virtue signaling author who can’t figure out any other way to close a story.

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Glad I Didn’t Pay For This

Revisado: 06-21-20

You can skip this one. It’s 45 minutes of material in 4 hours. A little about the actual crimes and the law enforcement agencies that try to combat them, and a lot of material about all of the evils of capitalism, especially that of large farms. The problems of agribusiness are helpfully pointed out by a clueless Aussie reporter and an equally hapless ‘gerontologist.’ There is a reason Audible can’t charge money for this.

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An Desperate Plea For Recognition Where None is Needed

Revisado: 04-14-20

Let me start out by saying that I love Canadians and their culture. They are some of the best people on the planet and don’t need anyone to apologize for them.

Mike Myers spends the majority of the book apologizing for Canada’s blandness on one hand and cheerleading Canada’s progressive ‘accomplishments’ on the other. This latter is usually elucidated by contrasting it to the US’s unfair and unfeeling policies.

Only a third child could have written this book. The tone is irritatingly insecure and pathetic. Lastly, the parts about the professional blackface stooge Justin Trudeau and his father are unctuous and nauseating.

With all that being said, I loved the parts of the book that deal specifically with Myers’ life. It’s interesting, funny and inspirational, especially when he speaks of his father.

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