J. L Roth

It just couldn't make me care

Revisado: 04-12-24

This was one of the dullest biographies I've ever "picked up" and one of the very, very few I've had to abandon. It just couldn't make me care one jot either way about the subject. The author uses so many French phrases without explanation that it's hard to follow in places or to get the real gist of the meaning. (By the way, I never studied French but did study Spanish. So please don't come for me with the "American's are so uncivilized" and don't learn other languages stuff.)

All in all, I got to her widowhood and could not make myself care anymore.

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Wasn't sure what to think

Revisado: 02-27-24

This was a solid if not standout mystery story. I did find the inclusion of the characters of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip to be jarring, especially at first though I knew going in the premise of the book. It made me wonder how it could be legal to use a living person as your main character in a story. This is not a parody and I think the author would be hard pressed to assert that it is.

Don't get me wrong, this book was in no way disrespectful to her Majesty. It highlighted a Queen Elizabeth II with a sharp mind and a keen eye for detail. In some ways it was fun to think of her Majesty solving mysteries and being so good at it.

Possible spoiler below:

It also seemed in character the way she let everyone around her think things had been their idea or their discovery as she nudged them toward the answer without anyone but her trusty assistant private secretary knowing it was her who unraveled the puzzle.

I wasn't impressed with the narration. There was something off about the tone the narrator created.

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Pleasantly surprised

Revisado: 02-27-24

I admit I entered this with bias against the author from preconceived notions about him based on his conduct and his press image stemming from his role as a member of the British Aristocracy and his tangential connections to the Royal Family .

I was pleasantly surprised. Earl Spencer seems to have found his calling as an historian. He manages the story well, it is engaging, well researched, extensive and detailed and not a topic that is over done. Avoiding the over done Henrys, the Yorks,
the Lancasters, and the Tutors, he gives us King Henry I, Empress Matilda and King Stephen, a story that some have not heard in detail. King Henry II enters only at the end almost as an epilogue to close out the story.

Definitely worth the listen.

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Heavily flawed and shockingly dull

Revisado: 02-27-24

This book had such potential. A close look at the devastating effects of the internment of the Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor. The story focuses on a single family. This could have been so good.

There are some details being discussed from this point on that may be spoilers.

The book is done third person with a limited omniscient narrative voice. It shifts between POVs of the mother, daughter, and son for the first two thirds and then settles in on the son for an extended time, until it shifts again at the end. Again, this could have been so good.

The flaws in this book are:
1. It becomes very hard to "like" the mother figure for the same reason it was hard to be sympathetic to the mother in the Hunger Games. You have children relying on you.

2. For a substantial section during the later third of the book the sister figure all but disappears and we don't see her POV again, though we have an occasional reference to her through the brother. It would have been fascinating to see what she was doing and how she felt about things as her brother describes "changes" in her.

3. The characters are never given names. I get that this was a choice, likely to reflect the fact that it could have been any of thousands of families. But the effect was to do exactly the opposite of what a book like this should be doing. It dehumanized the characters and made it harder for the reader to connect. I read this book because it was assigned to my 9th grader. This was a fatal flaw in trying to get Young Adults to connect to the characters. You can effectively have characters without names, but they need to have a way they are "named" to the reader. Mother, Sister, Brother could have worked but they weren't consistently treated as naming devices. It could also have worked if the sections were done in first person. That would have solved all of these problems.

I wanted to like this, but it was dull, tediously paced and very hard to connect to the characters.

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Not a rehash of the same old stuff

Revisado: 02-27-24

I was delighted to find this wasn't a rehash of the life of King Charles III that we've had ad nauseum. With brief nods to the past, this book focuses on the events after the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. It is a detail and interesting look at the coming together of the funeral, coronation, and the beginning of the reign of the new king.

The author narrates and does so well.

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Fairly well balanced.

Revisado: 05-16-23

Most of these biographies are either Team Charles or Team Diana and paint the other as the troll under the bridge or an hysterical harpy. While it's clear that the author was completely charmed by the late Princess of Wales, the fact that he seems to know it and was able to recognize when she was doing it adds to his credibility.

It's a sad tale of a man who watches as the lives of a family unravel before him and both adults seek what they need outside their marriage. This is probably the fairest bio I've read concerning the previous generation of Wales.

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Main character is edging toward TSTL status.

Revisado: 05-16-23

***minor spoiler alert, overall plot not indicated.***

The story isn't bad. It's fairly interesting and compelling. That being said it's worth the idle listen, (I used it to burn time on my commute) but the main character is starting to go off the rails. She's no longer quirky and endearing, she's down right annoying.

While I'm glad the stupid love triangle that has weighed down this series has been resolved, I'm not thrilled with the result. Though the "winner" was written much better this time, probably because his presence was toned down a bit. He wasn't nearly so desperate and cloyingly annoying as he was in the last book. I mean, Addie's a nice character, but the desperation that the author writes in these men make you wonder if someone is hypnotizing these guys. They are ridiculously desperate for her. Nice fantasy, but over the top. But the most disturbing is that the main character, who has always been stubborn and impulsive, has now started edging towards TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). Some of the choices she makes in this make me think the "dog with a bone" reference should be more like "a horse running into a burning barn." They don't make her brave, just stupid.

And the two new characters who seem to be new regulars are not that interesting or appealing.

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I should have listened to the one star reviews

Revisado: 03-02-23

I should have listened to the one star reviews on this. I adored Alan Rickman's work as an actor. He was brilliant. But there is no reason that this should ever have been made into a book, let alone an audio book. These are not what one thinks of when one thinks of journals, they really are just diaries. It's like listening to someone read someone's planner out loud with an occasional comment scribbled in the margins. But like most scribbles, they are often inscrutable or not interesting or relevant to anyone but the writer.

It's too bad this talented man didn't keep actual journals where he wrote his thoughts. But then I guess he might not have been so prolific if he'd taken time to do that.

Don't waste your credits or money on this, no matter how big a fan you are. If you are that curious, wait til your public library gets it and go check it out to peruse.

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