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More things change, more they stay the same

Revisado: 05-03-22

Given society's recent experience with the novel coronavirus pandemic, this book is a timely review of the intersection of contagious disease (namely tuberculosis) and medical history. The parallels between the response of society more than a century past to that highly infectious disease and today are eerie and timely. Krishnan does a marvelous job weaving these story elements together and making them relevant to the experiences nearly every human has had over the past several years. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the development of science, medicine, infectious disease, or is just looking to better understand the failings of today's society in dealing with Sars-Cov2. Even with my interest in these things, I was eager to learn of the fight to stem public expectoration (spitting positively forbidden) and the struggle health departments had in changing public behavior to limit the spread of disease. The blame placed on women for having too long of skirts for the spread of disease when it was men doing the spitting reveals that nothing has really changed with respect to victim shaming...that these fights are intergenerational...that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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Really well written

Revisado: 05-16-20

I found this story really engaging, not merely because we're in the midst of a pandemic in this moment, but because it flowed so well from topic to topic with delicious foreshadowing and was packed timely tidbits information, such as the role of social networks in spreading viruses. Reading this book now was like a peak into our next year or two as a society and receives my highest recommendation.

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Timely and important

Revisado: 05-17-19

I call this book timely and important because it both hits upon elements of today's global issues that need to be dealt with AND does so in a way that makes the issues understandable and clear. Mann does an excellent job of story telling in this book by giving a coherent background that sets up the issues, then proceeds to walk through those issues pointing out how these two different world views have shaped our societal responses to those issues. I wasn't sure about the narration at first, but Pinchot did an excellent job telling Mann's story with very few (read, almost no) pronunciation issues of the scientific terms (as a scientist I find myself unduly annoyed by those). I have recommended this book to fellow scientists and non-scientists alike; it is good enough that my recommendation is that anyone with a modicum of interest should check out this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 13 personas

An unexpected pleasure

Revisado: 09-04-16

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I didn't really know what to expect from this book. What I discovered was an interesting and engaging story of the global impacts following the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. This book is not just about the actual eruption, which was the largest in recent history, but about the subsequent global weather impacts that was connected to a cholera outbreak, political upheaval, famine. It was the links to things such as literature (for example Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein") that made this book a truly remarkable expose on the existence of global connections even two centuries ago. In short, this book was fascinating and interesting, even if it was unexpected.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

The beauty of the reveal

Revisado: 03-17-15

What made the experience of listening to The Buried Giant the most enjoyable?

Ishiguro's "The Buried Giant" is similar in style to his other novels. This is not to say that is more of the same, but an extremely engaging and interesting novel. The aspect most enjoyable is the process of discovery that is present in the other Ishiguro's novels I have listened to (Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day). The reveal is slow and paced, but appropriately so. The language is delicious and engaging. The story is many things all at once, which makes it all the more interesting. For the first third of the novel it was a bit difficult to figure out what the story actually was, but having read other works by this author I was prepared to be patient. Doing so is well worth the effort as the interplay of the different characters results in a weave of such intricacy that it's hard to stop listening.

What other book might you compare The Buried Giant to and why?

Other works by Ishiguro are similar. In particular the slow, steady reveal of plot seems to be a hallmark of this author. The weaving together of a very tight story makes it similar to other great stories.

Which scene was your favorite?

No one particular scene, but one device that I particularly appreciated about this story is the use of reminisces to fill in what has happened up to this point of the story. It seems that every character in the story experiences such reminisces at some point of the story and they are well used to skip ahead in time, but keep the listeners informed and engaged.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Clearly endings are something this author does well. The ending is tender, heartfelt, and moving. It is the perfect bookend to the story that both finalizes the reveal, but allow for the reader's imagination to come into play in the concluding of the story.

Any additional comments?

There are few authors who I read without any knowledge of what the story is about. I purposely avoided reading other reviews of this story since storytelling is what Ishiguro does so well. Listen to this book at the pace it was intended; give it the attention it deserves. You won't be disappointed.

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esto le resultó útil a 59 personas

Fascinating Insight into Western Civ

Revisado: 05-17-13

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This book is a fascinating examination of western civilization: its origins, strengths, and weaknesses. As Ferguson sees it, western cultures developed "6 killer applications" that allowed them to succeed as empires. While one might not agree with each and every assertion that Ferguson makes, this book will no doubt stimulate discussion and consideration of these factors. What's more this book does a very nice job taking the history out of the history book and making it relevant to modern events as well as an eye toward the future. This book is well written and interesting. I recommend it for anyone interested in history as well as the intersection of historical processes with current events.

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Not especially uplifting, but quite good

Revisado: 04-18-12

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The author did a good job pulling together quite a bit of different sources to describe what happened leading up to and following the sinking of the Titanic. This was a great story and look at J. Bruce Ismay's life. The story was fascination and mostly well told. It was a bit convoluted in parts and delved into aspects that seemed only tangentially related (e.g., there's a long section relating Ismay to a character in Conrad's "Lord Jim"), but overall I would rate it as entertaining and informative. It wasn't entirely satisfying in that one never really knows whether Ismay is a selfish bastard who took a spot in a lifeboat from one of the 1500 casualties OR if he was just an opportunist who jumped in one of the last boats to leave OR if he was the secret cause in his acting as superCaptain. It almost doesn't matter what the answer is since in trying to figure out the answer to this question one may actually have insight into one's own character and thoughts. Ultimately until and unless you're put in that situation I don't think it's possible to know what you would do and that may be one of the points of this book. Recommended.

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Mostly good; could have been better

Revisado: 04-18-12

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For the most part I really enjoyed this book. Yergin does a good job of going through the history of the geo-political universe that has led us to this point as regards energy. While this book is very U.S-centric for the most part, he does investigate energy from a broad perspective in numerous parts, which adds to the depth of this book. What's more he laces his narrative with subtle historical aspects of the energy story that give it more depth than I was expecting. For instance, he talks about the people involved and the back story in some detail. This makes the book rather long, but it wasn't annoyingly so. In addition, this book was very timely and up to date. My biggest issues with this book were the seemingly glib glossing over of certain problems, especially environmental concerns as regards hydraulic fracturing (fraking) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For instance, with the latter the author cites a NYTimes report that bacteria are consuming the oil and that the spill was just not that bad an environmental problem. I think this is a gross simplification of an important component of an important issue. Another problem I had with this book was that the author went into great gory detail about certain aspects of new energy (e.g., photovoltaic effect to make solar panels), yet didn't even mention certain emerging technologies that may arrive on the scene of energy production. For example, no mention of tidal power, which has been operating successfully in France for several decades. Granted this would fall in the tenths of percent of energy currently produced, but if your goal is to look forward to the "remaking of the modern world" one would think that more fully discussing these possible energy sources would be of value. Alas, no. This book is mainly about oil, coal, gas, wind, solar, and efficiency. Don't get me wrong, I HIGHLY recommend this book and think it essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of energy, conservation, efficiency, and our complex global economy, but it could have been better.

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Great, great story

Revisado: 08-12-11

Who cares if it's all entirely true or not, this is a great, great story. Funny at times, gruesome in spots, this book recounts the exploits of Avery during his time in British forces of WWII. I thought it was very well written and well read. The humor is of the dry, British sort, but this book kept me listening just to find out what else could happen to Ginger (Avery's assumed name). I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Fascinating examination of being human

Revisado: 03-19-11

I really liked this book. It was fairly well written and read. There were spots where the author went on and on about some obscure aspect of technology (e.g., lossy vs. lossless data compression) and some stretches where the focus seems to wander, but overall this was a fascinating and comprehensive examination of artificial intelligence and what it means to be human. I though the author could have provided a more consistent thread relating to his participation in the Turing test, but the competition itself was less important than his examination of the various aspects of humanity. I liked this book so much that I assimilated (i.e., read) it in one day, then again on the very next day. There was just that much fascinating detail to hold my attention as much the second time through as the first.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas