Jeop1986

Long Overdue Takedown of Wilson, but...

Revisado: 05-04-25

Less a biography of Wilson than a history of the suffrage movement and race relations in the United States tied to Wilson's life story. Wilson continually damns himself out of his own mouth, and Cox revels in the revelations. However, there is so much material here to support his thesis that it makes his forays into hyperbole unnecessary and unwarranted. For example, he makes much of one of Wilson's classes at Bryn Mawr consisting in one case of only 7 students, and another of only one. Sounds awful, but he leaves out the key fact that, at the time, Bryn Mawr had a total of 42 students.

The other big flaw is that he never makes clear how Wilson became a national figure. The first part of the book paints a picture of a vain, lazy, racist narcissist who lives off his parents and never completes a school. Yet, suddenly people are throwing PhDs at him, he's President of Princeton, and he has such a national profile he is being suggested as a presidential candidate. Cox is so busy tearing Wilson down, he never adequately explains how he rose to prominence. I felt the desire to denigrate him was so great, it left out much that would help us understand the man and the times.

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Terrifying, but Lackluster Narration

Revisado: 12-19-24

This terrifying and meticulously researched scenario is truly frightening. My only quibbles are the author's narration and her not so subtle plea for disarmament.
1. Were it not for the compelling material, I would have given up, as she reads everything in a plaintive, near monotone. At times she reads prose she actually wrote as if seeing it for the first time.
2. While it seems to be a plea for disarmament, the scenario conversely makes an argument for deterrence. Based on how this book shows that the U.S. could easily be bombed back to the Stone Age, it only makes sense that any so-called Mad Kings would have long ago attacked us if we did not have nuclear weapons that assured their own destruction.

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Fascinating, But a Lot of Sleight of Hand

Revisado: 12-09-24

Compelling and full of interesting ideas, stories, and facts, but, as always, Gladwell either skews some things to match his premise, or ignores alternative explanations entirely. For example, when discussing how cardiologists who move from a state where femoral catheter insertion is normal, to Buffalo, where wrist insertion is used (as in nearby Canada), Gladwell uses this as proof that people adhere to the norms of their location. He does not consider that, perhaps, the hospital in Buffalo has equipment set up and nursing staff fully trained to handle that particular procedure, forcing the new doctor to use that method. In discussing the Holocaust, he pretty much states almost no one in America knew about it until NBC broadcast Holocaust in 1978. I remember all students at my Catholic New Jersey high school in the 1960's being required to watch "Night and Fog", the graphic 1956 documentary about the concentration camps. Herman Wouk's novel "War and Remembrance" was a nationwide bestseller that dealt extensively and graphically with the Holocaust in 1971. Again, in his section on gay marriage, he prominently features George W. Bush calling for a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage, but never mentions Bill Clinton signing the Defense of Marriage Act or Obama's support for that law. In vilifying Harvard University, he compares its carefully engineered student makeup to an elite technical college that is 46% Asian, hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. He ascribes all of it to an attempt to keep white protestants dominate, instead of maybe also an attempt to maintain a diverse student body that reflects the nation. Liberal politics and white guilt are a constant undercurrent.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Half-Baked

Revisado: 10-19-24

Compelling writing style as always, but still feels like a soufflé not fully cooked. Plotting is a lazy and episodic: it feels like a series of treatments for the Ballard TV series strung into a novel. The reader is always steps ahead of the detectives, which is just wrong. And, as is often the case in Connelly’s novels, the lead character is smart when it serves the plot and stupid when it serves the plot. Ballard has such poor judgement: she gets people killed, loses her badge and gun, and breaks rules for no discernible reason. She is the hero and I thought she should be fired. Harry Bosch has little to do in this book. His brief involvement is set up for a major payoff, but is ultimately resolved with little suspense, and he basically disappears from the book. The subplot requiring his involvement seems to be there just so Connelly can score points with the Hollywood crowd through political commentary, because it just goes nowhere. Ballard’s final “confrontation” with the villain is surprisingly abrupt and limp. The novel is all intricate buildup with minimal payoff, and rides on waves of unbelievable coincidences and sheer luck, such as a careful villain leaving his van full of weapons unlocked and unguarded, and especially Maddie Bosch stumbling on evidence of the Black Dahlia’s killer. Luck should not be the guiding force of a mystery solution.

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Fine Retelling With Additional Insight

Revisado: 09-16-24

Having read multiple books on the battle, I found this one to contain additional insights and specifics that enhance the story. My three quibbles would be:
1. James Lurie's narration is so low key as to be almost sleep inducing.
2. The author's reuse of the same phrases over and over again ("moreover", "was in fact", etc.) is both noticeable and distracting.
3. The author sets out to disabuse the premise that the victory was a miracle, then proceeds to tell a story that rather seems to bolster that belief. Despite the Navy's prior knowledge of Yamamoto's intent, it is a series of lucky breaks and coincidences that lead to the victory. Among them are: Halsey's illness (he would have acted rashly), Spruance's and Fletcher's cautious leadership, American pilots disobeying orders or acting on their own initiative, the Nautilus's duel with a Japanese destroyer that led the dive-bombers to the enemy carriers - the list goes on and on.

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Compelling, insightful, entertaining

Revisado: 09-12-24

Less a linear history and more of a theater-by-theater retelling, emphasis on Europe (only Midway, Burma, and the closing days in the Pacific get anywhere near the detail of the struggle against the Germans.) Between the conversational prose and the narrator’s enthusiastic delivery, this is like WWII retold by your favorite history teacher at the pub after one pint too many. Always compelling and full of revelatory insights.

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Compelling Story of Medal of Honor Winners

Revisado: 08-02-24

I liked the focus on the Marne Men, and details on campaigns not usually at the top of everyone's list. The recreation of the heroic exploits is compelling. I especially liked the retelling Audie Murphy's one-man-stand on a burning tank, having visited the site a few years ago. I did have a quibble: at one point the author references women being more attracted to the U.S. airmen's "blue uniforms". While the RAF wore blue, blue uniforms for United States airmen did not come into use until 1949, after the Army Air Corps was split off to form the independent US Air Force. Something like that speaks of lazy fact checking.

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Superb

Revisado: 06-30-24

Great retelling, full of detail and perspective, but where it really shines is in recounting the actual attack on the dams. So suspenseful you feel as if you were in the Lancaster with them, skimming across the reservoir. The narrator does a fabulous job. First rate audio book all around.

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A Suspenseful Read Almost Ruined by Narration

Revisado: 06-13-24

Fortunately this novel seems more Crichton than Patterson, although he has done a good job of updating Crichton's years of research to set the story in 2025 and do a fair imitation of Crichton's style. Patterson is seen more in the super-short chapters, while the (seemingly) meticulous science underpinning the nonsense is all Crichton. I've never been a Patterson fan, but my hat is off to him here. He did the job.

The stakes in the story are so over the top as to be nearly laughable, but that's the fun of a compelling beach read. The characters are all classic Crichton, right down to the heroic scientist and his female colleague (think Dr. Grant and Ellie, only volcanologists), the over confident billionaire, unscrupulous media hogs, and mediocre bureaucrats, all lining up to be the first to die.
Unfortunately, this fun story is nearly ruined by Scott Brick's narration in the Audible version. Every character - male, female, child, soldier, scientist, etc. - speaks in the same slow, clench-jawed, faux tough guy manner of an early 1930's gangster movie. And it's narrated that way, which is even more annoying. Not the first read Brick has ruined, and I wonder how he keeps getting the job

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny

Revisado: 04-12-24

Enjoyable enough story, but it doesn’t stand up to even cursory examination. The villain - the Shape Shifter - is a man of many identities and passports; where did he get them? CIA? They audit those. He supposedly has staked out the Southwest because there are few people and he must remain hidden, he kills anyone that might recognize him, but let’s Architectural Digest come in and photograph his home and stolen rug? How does he explain why a full grown adult who appears out of nowhere is suddenly buying homes, trading posts, obtaining insurance policies, paying taxes? Hillerman obfuscates these huge holes with a lot of dialog and cultural folderol, but it is a comic book plot, extremely thin and implausible.

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