Ernest Gundel

Competent novelization

Revisado: 10-14-17

I was neither impressed nor disappointed with Mean Girls: A Novel.

The audiobook very accurately follows the movie right down to the dialog, and it fills in some of the gaps in storytelling (for example, it explains why Regina stuck with the nutrition bars so long despite gaining weight).

Unfortunately, though, the additions are few and add little to the story, much like as if deleted scenes were added back into a movie. They don't significantly add to the story.

The humor of the movie does not directly translate into the written word, and the author's own humorous contributions are hit and miss.

Also, the novelization is written from the first person, but it shifts perspective very frequently. It's hard to keep up with who "I" is, especially in an audiobook. It doesn't help that the Plastics feel plastic even when we are seeing the world from their POV. This would have worked out much better written from a limited third person perspective.

The narrator gets Cady's voice right, but some other voices feel over-the-top. Not great, but not bad.

Overall, if you are a huge fan of the movie and just want to hear the story while walking or driving to work or doing exercise, this audiobook might satisfy you, but not much more than that.

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Not a natural transition to audio

Revisado: 02-03-10

This book contains many excellent responses to common objections to Intelligent Design, and is an must have reference for the subject.

Unfortunately, it is not really meant to be read (or listened to) from beginning to end. Questions are answered in sequence, as individual responses. The author does not assume the reader has read the book from the beginning to that point, so he repeats himself often.

So my suggestion would be to buy the printed version -- unless you don't mind highly repetitive narration of very strong arguments.

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Horrible Audio Quality

Revisado: 08-03-06

This title cannot be downloaded in anything but the poorest quality setting, and combined with the subpar recording quality and the narrator's accent, I found this very difficult to follow.

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Preaching to the choir

Revisado: 04-26-06

If you are already convinced seriousness of global warming, then the stories about humankind's relationship to the environment will likely invigorate and solidify that belief.

However, as a skeptic trying to find the faith, I found the arguments scattered and weak. I needed a clear presention of the evidence both for and against the prediction of global catastrophe, even if the verdict was prejudiced. Instead, I got lots of examples of how delicate the environment is, of how unbelievers are somehow blinded or dishonest, and lots of fire & brimstone types of adjectives.

That, and a general lack of organization in the work, made The Weathermakers not just unconvincing, but often tedious.

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Flawed, but occasionally hits the spot.

Revisado: 08-14-05

I don't have a problem with a book which presents a point-of-view, neglecting others. I rate it the same as I would rate a lawyer's presentation of their case. A lawyer need not present both side, but must be truthful with the case they present (i.e, Michael Moore would fail as a lawyer every time), and the lawyer must anticipate what opposing counsel would argue. That is where this book fails. There are too many moments where I can just imagine an opposing lawyer (or critic) would object or even completely undermine the argument. The book also neglects to stay on topic, and eventually reverts to simple preaching. A better, more focused book dealing with many of the same topics is Persecution by David Limbaugh.

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Surprisingly Balanced

Revisado: 07-08-05

Given Fuhrman's association with Fox news, I expected this book to push a conservative point of view, and maybe even a religious point of view. Instead, we get a very balanced, logical account of events, reflecting Fuhrman's career as a homicide investigator, with a focus much more on how Terri ended up brain damaged, and very little on the right-to-life/right-to-die debate. For many people, attacks directed at her husband were seen as merely a means to an end, to keep Terri alive. This book shows that there was much more to the controversy.

On the other hand, the book was clearly rushed to print, and could use a heavy dose of editing. I found this difficult to understand. If the publisher just waited a couple of weeks, the book could include information from the autopsy (even though this information had little relevence to Fuhrman's argument), or gleaned some information from the investigation going on in Florida.

So I give this book a marginal thumbs up, but I expect better books will be written about this subject in the near future.

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A surprisingly centrist book

Revisado: 04-17-05

When I bought this book, I worried it might be Limbaugh or Hannity style attack on liberals, but it turned out to be surprisingly centrist. It is more the story of an effort than a reality - the challenge to create a left wing answer to the Right Wing Conspiracy Hillary Clinton famously described. A group of famous and wealthy liberals, challenged by Al Franken to "fight back", organized with the expertise, enthusiasm and far-sightedness of a 1999 startup internet company. Move-On.org, George Soros, Michael Moore, and Air-America tried to create in a few months for the Left what had grown up over decades in Right. Perhaps the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy will learn from it's youthful indiscretions.

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