Mallard

Mostly good stories, grating narration

Revisado: 01-14-25

I listened to this anthology after finishing Time and Again. For the most part I enjoyed the stories, some more than others. No real clunkers in the batch. Of the 12 stories, three are not related to time travel. The one about noon shop visits was still entertaining though. What got to me were the narrators. I don't know which was which, but two of them had such a halting delivery it got annoying. One of them sounded like a very bad Cary Grant imitation. That was the only negative thing about the title. If you like time travel stories and can put up with the two narrators, then you'll like this title.

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Lightweight history

Revisado: 12-17-24

I ordered this book because they said it offered some inside looks into each of the president's lives. While it does include some interesting trivia, it is by no means a scholarly review. Based on what I know from the Kennedy presidency through the Biden presidency, the book doesn't cover all important aspects of each administration. For example, They almost completely gloss over Ronald Reagan's successful efforts to break the USSR. They make no mention of Obama's many scandals including Fast and Furious and the spying on reporters. While they mention Carter's Iranian hostage crisis, they give it little attention considering it defined his presidency. They mention the economic collapse at the end of George W Bush's presidency without clarifying it wasn't due to his policies but the mortgage crisis set up by Congress.

All in all, it was an easy listen, I learned a few things about the presidents, but I am left wondering about their editing process to decide what to leave in and what to leave out.

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Great time travel sorry but a lot of filler

Revisado: 07-27-24

I am a sucker for time travel stories, so this title appealed to me as soon as I discovered it. I enjoyed start of the book with Jake and Al testing how the rabbit hole worked and what would happen if Kennedy was saved. The latter part of the book that leads to the historic event was also captivating. The story drags once Jake gets to Texas. The several years before 1963 have to be lived, so King inserts a love story to occupy the time. It was well written and if you enjoy that sort of story, you'll be okay with that. Myself, I kept wanting to get to the assassination attempt. I would have been happier if the rabbit hole dropped people in 1961 or 1962. That would have condensed the middle of the book to stay on the assassination sorry. Wanting to get to the ending events kept me going through the middle of the book. Overall, a very good listen, but required patience to stay with it through the middle.

I thought the narrator did a good job of portraying Jake. He came off as a regular guy trying to make sense of extraordinary circumstances.

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Your View of This Book Depends on Your Expectation

Revisado: 01-01-24

Feinstein is a good writer, that's well known. His narration is okay if you increase the speed so he isn't so plodding. I didn't enjoy the book that much because my expectations were not not in sync with the story. You will like this book if the following is what you are looking for
1. You are interested in one or all of the quarterbacks profiled
2. You enjoy hearing game recaps over the span of several seasons in the 20-teens.
3. You have no problem following how the narration jumps forwards and backwards depending on which QB is being profiled at the time.

You won't enjoy the book if
1. You expect to hear about how QBs prep for games, strategies of an offense that must be learned, or descriptions about how QBs develop their craft.
2. What a star QBs life is like in the locker room or outside the stadium as they balance family and fame.
3. You have a low tolerance for Feinstein's liberal politics and random snark of President Trump unnecessarily injected into the story because Feinstein can't help himself.

In the end, I was expecting more about the hows and whys of QBing and not a recitation of the careers of 5 men I am not particularly interested in. I also found Feinstein's taking on the Kaepernick and anthem kneeling antics unnecessary to the story of the QBs. Feinstein only presents the left's view of the events, which is fine since it's his book and he can write about that he wants. I think it is also because he doesn't know/understand the other view point or even acknowledge that another view exists. I don't recommend this book unless you are fine with the first three items I listed above.

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Good analysis of game origins but . . .

Revisado: 04-19-22

John Thorn has done a very thorough job of researching the origins of baseball. He details the context of how baseball evolved out of other bat and ball games in early America such as cricket, rounders, town ball, and 1-cat etc. games. The focus of the game is the 19th century organized game, both amateur clubs and the development of pro ball. My problem with the book is the last 1/3-1/4 of the book devolves into a biography of Albert Spalding and his ties to Theosophy. Thorn goes into detail about the history of Theosophy and development in the USA, particularly California. Yet, he doesn't show how Spalding's (and Abner Doubleday's) involvement with the movement had any tangible effect on the development of baseball. If I was reading the book, I would have skipped through the large sections dealing with theosophy to get back to the baseball topics. Unfortunately, that is too hard to manage with an audio recording.

TL;DR: If you are interested in the development of baseball you'll enjoy the book, but beware of the extensive tangents into the history of Theosophy.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Two-thirds of a great book

Revisado: 03-30-22

I enjoyed the first two thirds of this book. The tales of Twain's stagecoach journey to Nevada and then his adventures in mining and other endeavors in the west were very enjoyable. Twain has a way of creating characters and then telling tales of them in outlandish situations. Classic Twain humor. Unfortunately, the last third of the book is about his visit to Hawaii and his dispatches about the islands and life there. For me, the book ground to a halt and became a fairly routine travelogue. He no longer was writing about characters and humorous adventures. It was more just reportage of his trip. I made it through to the end, but did not enjoy the later part of the book. When Twain returned to the mainland and ended the book with his efforts to become a lecturer, the story picked up again and ended on a high note. So I give the book a conditional thumbs-up.

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Easy, breezy story

Revisado: 04-06-21

Good story with short essays about different behind the scenes aspects of the Masters and Agusta National. I knew some of the stories already, and there were new ones I hadn't heard.


My only complaint is the narrator's attempt to do accents when quoting international players. The accents are poorly done and the players sound the same. He should not have tried.

If you are a golf fan, I recommend this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

It was okay.

Revisado: 03-14-21

This was a light book probably geared for teens. I learned about the WH operations and history in a cheery, sanitized story. Don't expect nuance regarding how first families interacted with the WH staff. This is a "Disney movie" level of scholarship. If you are okay with that, you'll enjoy this book.

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I would give this 7 stars

Revisado: 02-02-21

If I could give more than 5 stars, i would. A thoroughly entertaining and interesting book about the Beatles when they were paying their dues in Liverpool and Hamburg. Lewisohn goes into great detail about their lives growing up and working hard to make it as a band. George Martin, Brian Epstein, Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe and others important in the Beatle's lives are also profiled. If you are a Beatles fan, you can't go wrong with this story of how they became a 5-year overnight sensation.

The reader, Clive Mantle, does very well including passable imitations of the individual Beatle's voices as they are quoted. That adds to the listening experience and helps keep it straight who is speaking.

Now I'm waiting for Mr. Lewisohn to finish vol. 2 to continue on the magical mystery tour.

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Some interesting tidbits among the garbage

Revisado: 10-02-20

The concept is interesting: share some human characteristics and stories about our presidents. There is some information that is entertaining. However, there is a clear leftist bias to the subject matter chosen that has to be taken into account. In addition, every episode seems to have a lame "humor" bit that is nearly intolerable. It is unnecessary and a bit cringey. If you have an outlook similar to the hosts, you will enjoy these episodes. Otherwise, you will need some patience and tolerance to hang in there and glean the interesting information from the garbage.

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