Cape Cod

Changed my view on Everything!

Revisado: 05-30-21

All natural born pessimists, and everyone else who just keeps up with the daily grind of bad news...READ THIS BOOK!
The long view of humankind reveals an upward trend of civilization. Empathy, treatment of animals, treatment of women and children, violence, attitudes toward war versus dealing with the underlying problem...we humans are evolving. We have communication, education, massive tools of economic diplomacy.
Yes we need to employ these tools big time in the coming decades (read “The Ministry of the Future “ for insights as to how things might unfold) but we MIGHT be in a position to pull this thing off.
I need to read Steven Pinker’s other books, I’ve heard they are also phenomenal.

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Authentic and Inspiring

Revisado: 05-29-20

A realistic account of what it’s really like to be a heavy (really heavy) drinker, and what it took to get this boulder off his back and find out what this thing we call “life” actually is.
Only drawback is an inexplicable hostility to a widely used alternative- AA - hey why not go with whatever works? You’re not competing here, you want the same thing as AA. Does a disservice to talk someone out of AA if they can’t manage to go it alone like Shubaly did.

I’ve been to many AA meetings to support friends (by the grace of whatever, I’m not personally susceptible to heavy drinking) and have not observed or heard word of mouth relative to the negatives Shubaly cites. But hey, maybe the NY metro area has some low life members/chapters.
But tremendous kudos to Shabaly for kicking ass here. Great and inspiring read.

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Captivated to the End. Narration incredible!

Revisado: 02-09-20

Twists and turns, plausible yet scary...could happen to almost anyone. The level of scamming possible today is unsettling. Supporting characters were unique and warm, and greatly enriched the story. And I’ve never heard an outsider get the Boston accent right (Hollywood movie attempts are a joke). David Aaron Baker was either born here or is a genius. Narration throughout was incredible. Definitely listen to, don’t read, this fabulous book. But if you listen while driving, as I do, prepare to find you’ll be driving a lot!

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Just awful...horrible

Revisado: 03-30-19

How can Audible choose junk like this to promote? It makes me lose respect for the editors and really, the whole enterprise.

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Can’t make through the 2nd chapter...

Revisado: 02-16-19

Don’t bother- cliched and shallow. Can’t believe implausible drivel like this can find a publisher.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

First Chapter- Hang in There! Five stars

Revisado: 11-19-18

It gets better- in fact just fast forward till you’re done with the “4billion years equals 3 days” etc. that’s for the paper version.

Loved the details of the Big Bang - the trillions of degrees of temperature and all the energy of the universe- packed into less than an atom.

And as our universe unfolds, the story of WHAT HAPPENED unfolds. Fascinating new material and maybe best if all - a cohesive linkup of all those little bits of information lurking alone and confused here and there in your brain.

Well we’re all critics, and I hereby offer my own wee mite. Where in all this progress from hunter gatherer to agrarian (we were forced into it by the way!) to chieftains with their hired thugs (knights)... is the miracle of incipient democracy in Athens? The unfolding of slow recognition of individual dignity, a communal decision making process that skips over the era of brutal strong man structure, and hearkens back to the extended family decision making of the paleo era.
Well maybe that’s another book. But Big History puts a huge amount of info in perspective and I highly recommend!
Narrator Jamie Jackson was perfect - passing on all that info is difficult for the reader, but his pace and delivery made it as effortless as possible.

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Got pulled in ....never guessed

Revisado: 08-25-18

Surprising plot twists, lots of angles. Didn’t expect to like it but after 2 or 3 chapters, couldn’t put it down.

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Not bad plot, awful narration

Revisado: 06-25-18

Lots of “girlfriend “ filler marring some creative plot twists. But the narration made it tedious; dropped consonants, sentences running together without regard to punctuation (the book must have punctuation, right?). Took half a chapter to be sure heroine’s name was Norah-not Maura. A breathless gush of vowels followed by a mid-sentence pause. The studio producer should have corrected this. Narrator’s voice is perfectly melodious, just needs some direction. Did a great job on the Maine yankee accent, as a matter of fact.
The main focus of the plot - the mysterious disappearance of Norah’s father - dribbled off to an anticlimax at the end. I’d been half thinking we had a decent murder mystery going on here! Occasionally there were some lovely, poetic lines, but overall too much shallow “cool” modern girl talk. So three stars that could have been four.

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Unremitting brutality marred an otherwise great story

Revisado: 04-04-18

Great dual time period Himalayan summit drama, incredible knowledge of high mountaineering. Should have been a 5 star. Trouble was, I always had to steel myself into resuming the story due to the sadistic thugs, maiming, and outright torture that permeated both timelines. Almost returned the book several times, but my interest in the Himalayas kept me listening.
Why ruin a great storyline, with a deeply researched subject containing plenty of intrinsic drama, with that trashy violence that cheap shallow novels have, because they have nothing else?
Loved the “Henrietta Richards” personna. All mountaineering fans will recognize her immediately.

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esto le resultó útil a 23 personas

Delightful Nerd ROTC HR Magical Tussle

Revisado: 01-17-18

Pulled me in quick with Linguist Mel escaping from her Lecturer position at Harvard into the military-industrial complex via wow take charge straight arrow, West Point physics grad Tristan.
Long book - it’s fascination meter dropped a bit when the bureaucrats inevitably wormed their way to run things RIGHT. These guys definitely know corporate. This section made its point quickly and hilariously and could have been heavily edited for the benefit of the pace of the story. We get it!!!
Puzzling that they never could get the voice of All American force of nature Tristan right. I had to imagine his true voice while I was listening! They used more than one narrator- the first got his unique single minded energy better but used a strange wonky pitch.
The power struggles that work eternally- whether early Vikings being Vikings, Middle Ages witches being witches, paranoid spies in spy-unfriendly Elizabethan England or Human Resources (no you can’t do that- we have a Rule!!!) 21st century are the same! The power hungry simply grab their power in era-adaptive ways. Laughed my way through their plots and schemes.
Loved the insight into the workings of our institutions- Harvard’s hard working underlings, MIT and the infamous Schroedinger’s cat, miscellaneous entrepreneurial start up guys with their delightfully serious, heavily bearded faces, and the eternal middle management forces that float in like dust, multiply and divide like fly cells, and work their way into every working enterprise, happily and indolently damping down the energy of the workers bees.
Well worth your time!

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