Mom in FL

Ugh narrator

Revisado: 11-26-15

Since I listened, there's no way for me to know (without actually reading it) whether this is one of those poorly written books with lots of errors (like subject/verb agreement), or if the narrator just changed a few words here and there to make it wrong, but it was bugging me. Besides that, much of the time, her voice was just so monotone. The story itself was pretty predictable, and I don't plan to continue the series after this one. It was on my TBR for a really long time, so I guess I'm glad I know now, but I didn't get out of this what many others apparently have. No biggie.

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Female narrator awful

Revisado: 05-30-15

My performance rating is entirely on the female narrator. The male was fine; not great, but definitely not the worst I've heard. Sometimes his "Texas accent" sounded contrived. I have to wonder if the female was reading the words as they crawled across a screen in a single line, like karaoke, because she'd emphasize words that had no business being emphasized and not emphasize the words that were important. It was like she wasn't seeing the whole sentence at once. If that's the case, the production company needs to change their methods, because her interpretation didn't work for me.

The story was OK. Again, not great, but not horrible. I liked both Salem and Rowdy and were glad they ended up together.

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Fascinating and scary all at the same time

Revisado: 08-26-13

What our food processors have done to our food supply is sinful, and it seems like every new change or additive is made with profit as the driving factor. I understand that companies are in business to make money, but so much of what they're doing seems so questionable and seems to completely discount long-term consequences. Of course, they're not going to outright kill us, but who knows what the long-term impact is of adding so much soy to our diets in the form it's being provided to us? And how our food is manipulated is kinda gross, too. I listened to this twice, back to back, to make sure I absorbed as much of it as I could, because there is a LOT of information. The first time intensified my desire to eat more homemade foods and rely less on processed. Second time is just reinforcing that decision. I'm not going to pretend I can stay away from processed entirely, but if I can make even small changes, it has to be better than maintaining the status quo.

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A scary view at the dysfunctional political system

Revisado: 12-06-12

So this is just scary. And sad that our political system has gotten to the point where we are now. We don't have elected officials. We have people bought and paid for by American corporations. Or big wigs. Who are usually associated with those corporations. OR super religious people whose beliefs don't seem to have evolved with the rest of the nation, who have huge audiences of their own, who want to keep the status quo. And the people lifted up by these influential organizations are willing to say or do whatever they need to in order to keep their power.

That's definitely a blanket statement and I think it applies mostly to a minority in the parties, but they are the most influential and outspoken members of the parties. In order to try to keep some optimism, I have to believe there are people -- maybe not the elected members themselves, but on the payroll -- who are there to really make a GOOD difference. They're not looking for accolades or power, they just see a problem and want to try to help fix it.

But even the whole process seems so freaking screwed up. When a defense bill can have a line item about abortion included, there's an issue. Two polar opposite issues, but in order to pass it, someone made a concession that somehow tied defense to abortion. That kind of thing should be outlawed. As should filibustering. And redistricting.

Another thing I'd *really* love to see is a viable third party. I find it highly hypocritical that there are international Democratic and Republican organizations that cry foul when other countries' democratic elections appear to squeeze out a party's representation, but look what happened to Paul Rand at one of the debates. They would not let him in. The man was running for president, but because he wasn't Republican or Democrat, he was not welcome to debate them. It just seems like anymore I'm choosing the one I dislike least or will at least not degrade my comfort level rather than one I feel passionate will make my life better. Nobody represents ME anymore.

So anyway, the author had a lot of interesting topics and anecdotes. While the Republican party got slammed (that's what he knew best), it's not like he left the Democrats spotless. They have their hands dirty as well. And, believe it or not, he believes real change will happen with the Millennials, when the baby boomers pass. The baby boomers still have such socially conservative values, and, because of their size, they are draining the "entitlement programs" they hold so dear.

It was definitely food for thought. Lots of great information. And lots to make me scared of the immediate future, especially if the parties can't figure out how to get along and compromise.

I think I'm going to have to buy this book in DTB form. There was a lot of interesting information, and I'd like to just flip through a book and read as opposed to trying to find the right passage in audio.

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Story much better than the first

Revisado: 11-12-12

Before I started this series, I was a fan of the Fever series. I followed up the Outlander series with the first of this series and was a bit disappointed. Not only was it nothing like Outlander (not that much could come close to the story and Davina Porter's incredible portrayals of the characters), but it wasn't even on the same level in terms of story as Fever. But I had already bought the first few, so I continued with this one. While it's still no Outlander, this story was much more compelling than the first. It's still a little odd to hear Phil Gigante do women's voices because his is so very deep, but he did pretty well, and I enjoyed this story much more than the first one.

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Fascinating

Revisado: 01-09-12

This was my first non-fiction listen. Everyone knows exercise is good for the body, and we always hear about the mind/body connection, but this book goes into detail about how and why exercise can help the brain. It's amazing the range of brain-related issues that can be helped with exercise. It's also amazing how the brain can "self repair" given the proper conditions. While it took me a while to get through this (there was no "I have to see what happens next" as I'd have with fiction), it was still so very interesting. I'm hoping, since I read this around the first of the year and I make that cliche New Years Resolution every year, that maybe I'll stick with it this time. There's so much more to exercise than just getting a nice body, and it becomes so much more important with age.

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Great narrators!

Revisado: 02-18-11

I didn't read the book. I wasn't even sure what it was about before I bought it. I just knew people had raved about it. But wow. I mean really, wow. I'm sure I would have enjoyed reading the book, but this audio book was really well done. The narrators were perfect and drew me into the story quickly. I wish all audio books could be done this well. This was my second audio book, and I'm afraid the bar is set pretty high now! My first audio book was just meh. The one I'm listening to is better than the first, but I think I will be hard pressed to find another like this one.

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