Leesha

Boring and Annoying

Revisado: 09-19-21

This story opens with an exciting scene but quickly falls flat on its face. The pacing is too slow and plodding.  The main character is so unbelievably foolish and naive, it's infuriating. The secondary characters are flat, cardboard cutouts. I had to force myself to finish this and the end is not satisfying at all.

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Please watch the doc "Goodby Holland" after this

Revisado: 08-31-21

Corrie Ten Boom and her family were incredibly brave, honorable heroes.

Unfortunately, the majority of Dutch citizens were not so noble. Most Dutch citizens enthusiastically deported almost 96% of their Dutch Jews to their deaths. In fact, the Nazis didn't really have to do very much, because the Dutch were so eager and willing to do the dirty work.

For the shocking history of what happened in the Netherlands during WWII, I strongly urge you to watch the documentary, Goodbye Holland. Some 96% of Dutch Jews who lived in the Netherlands was before the Holocaust were rounded up and deported to their deaths by local antisemitic Dutch neighbors, Dutch poiticians, Dutch local police, and train drivers who knew exactly what they were doing.

Goodbye Holland:
https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Holland-Destruction-Dutch-Jewry/dp/B07FZ9696P

"What happened was not just the result of German evil. The Dutch were not willing to save Jews because they perceived the Jew as 'other'," says Jacques Wallage, the Jewish son of Holocaust survivors who is now the current mayor of Groningen, once home to a vibrant Jewish community.

Classic Christian antisemitism was all-pervasive among the devoutly religious Dutch population, and in the wake of economic recession, scapegoating and hatred of Jews reached an all-time high in the early 1940s. Many Dutch citizens, ordinary people, became willing collaborators, betraying Jews who were in hiding, like the Frank family. The ordinary Dutch people actively participating in the slaughter of Jews of the Netherlands. The Dutch were "fully at the disposal of the Nazis, and in some cases, the Germans didn't have to do anything, because the Dutch willingly carried out the deportations," the mayor explains. Others merely "looked the other way, so they didn't have to see anything."

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American Jihadi dies while fighting with ISIS

Revisado: 07-30-21

An American man born in the comfort of a wealthy western nation converts to fundamentalist Islam and decides to become a jihadi. First, he grows a long beard and starts dressing in Islamic costumes. He meets and converts another man, Sami Osmakac. Together they film a series of extremist youtube videos condemning other religions, non-Muslims, and secular Muslims. They denounce the US and democracy, claiming they are incompatible with Islam. Islamic Law is the only law. He refers to non-Muslims as Kafir, an Arabic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a non-believer in Islam, who denies the authority of God and rejects the tenets of Islam. The term is often translated as infidel, rejector, denier, disbeliever, unbeliever, and nonbeliever. Dennison's friend Sami Osmakac would later be arrested for trying to buy explosives and firearms for a terrorist attack on an Irish pub as retribution for wrongs committed against Muslims. Dennison is on the FBI watch list.

Dennison leaves the US because he feels he can't be the Muslim he wants to be in the west. He travels to Egypt but he is too extreme, even for Egypt. He finally decides Syria is the place for him so he can fight with the Islamic State of ISIS where he could be the Muslim he wanted to be, under strict interpretations of Sharia Law in a caliphate. His parents mistakenly believe he is living in Turkey.

During his confessionals, there is not a single mention of the atrocities he committed during his jihad in Syria or the grotesque brutality of ISIS. ISIS murdered tens of thousands of civilians, kidnapped thousands of Yazidi women to use as sex slaves. They committed forced marriages of young girls, extreme acts of ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide, robbery, extortion, smuggling, slavery, the use of child soldiers. ISIS conducted public "punishments" such as beheadings, crucifixions, beatings, mutilation and dismemberment, the stoning of both children and adults, and the live burning of people. ISIS committed mass rape against tens of thousands of children, mostly girls and women, mainly members of non-Sunni minority groups and families who slaughtered thousands of innocent civilians, women, and children. ISIS also uses civilians, women, and children as human shields.

I have no empathy for this loser. He never expressed a shred of remorse or regret for the destruction and heinous crimes against humanity that he supported and participated in. He was a narcissistic psychopath who made a long series of horrible decisions and chose a path in life that brought nothing but misery, harm, and destruction to this world. Good riddance to him and others like him.

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Intimate, powerful, engrossing

Revisado: 01-18-20

I absolutely loved this.

Eloquent writing, vivid setting, intimately-drawn characters, multi-layered plot. This is a very personal character study that feels like non-fiction. The setting is the gritty side of inner-city Philadelphia, full of abandoned buildings, desperate drug addicts and sex workers struggling through the opioid epidemic. The tone is melancholy and bleak. The chapters alternate between “Then” and “Now,” which explores the childhood and history of Michaela and her sister Kasey, while also propelling the narrative’s mystery which paints a larger portrait of society. This is not your typical quick-read crime-thriller. It's much deeper and much more engrossing.

Strongly recommended for fans of audiobooks: Winter's Bone, Mystic River, Fourth of July Creek, Where All Light Tends to Go

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

5 stars until the ridiculous ending

Revisado: 03-03-19

This was so good, but then came that ridiculous ending! The end felt like a parody. It ruined it. It's so bad it's almost funny. Almost.

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esto le resultó útil a 25 personas

This is a great story but the audio is really bad

Revisado: 01-10-19

There is another version of this not on Audible that is much better. I highly recommend and finding out one instead of this one

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Title of this book is very misleading

Revisado: 12-28-18

Shocking statistics:
5% of the families in America commit 50% of all crime.
10% of families in America commit 2/3's of all crime.

That's where the science ends.
This is not a book about how crime runs in FAMILIES. <-plural
This is about one singular family.
The stories in this book are anecdotes and hearsay from the criminals in this family. We know that criminals lie. I'm not sure how reliable these stories really are.

But here is what I found really disappointed about this book.
1. The book completely ignores the nature vs nurture debate.
2. The book ignores any and all questions about science, genetics, and criminality.
3. The book ignores any questions about the concept of free will.

Why write a book like this but ignore all of the science around the topic? What's the point?

The author even confesses that other people avoid discussing the role of the family in criminal behavior like the plague because it raises uncomfortable questions about heredity as a source of criminality, and which could lead to reinforcing racism. So what does he do? He does the same thing as everyone else. He avoids the topic.

This book should have been marketed as a crime family history.
I really wish I had known this before I bought it.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Very slow

Revisado: 10-21-18

First, the narrator was ok until he started using a very exaggerated valley-girl voice for the gay character. Some of it was the written dialogue but a lot of it was the narrator who used that rise in pitch at the end of each sentence when the gay character spoke. It got really old. REALLY old.

Now for the story. This is a long book and the pace is slow. The premise is very compelling, but the story really drags in long stretches and could have used a good editor. It's a decent listen but not my favorite Tana French book.

Themes of free-will, identity, character, and personality as a fixed construct are explored.

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Surprisingly good!

Revisado: 08-18-18

I was very skeptical going into this one, partly because of the cheesy Hallmark-ish cover of the two wedding rings and partly because I've never heard of this author in spite of all of the 5-star reviews. I went in with no (low?) expectations and that's probably part of why I enjoyed this so much. The plot is unpredictable, the characters are very fleshed out, and the story was well told and well-paced.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Patrica "Rabbit" Williams is THE REAL DEAL!

Revisado: 08-12-18

So entertaining and real. The author reads the book, and it feels so authentic. I lived in Columbus GA around the same time she was in her teenage years. They are in talks to make a sitcom television show about her and her life!

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