Kent Curtis

Well researched, thoughtful, evenhanded, honest

Revisado: 08-25-21

Assertions sounded researched and supported by original sources. The author seemed most interested in obtaining and sharing insight, rather than advancing any idea or point of view. I therefore found it an excellent and refreshing read.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Not enjoyable. Run away.

Revisado: 05-18-21

This was the least enjoyable book I've read in years. The protagonist is not someone worth cheering for. The antagonists are many and diverse, but are not distinguishable from the antagonist. I wanted to read the book to see why they made the movie which came out on home video and in theaters at the same time. I actually fast forwarded parts of the movie. It was that bad. Like The Last Airbender bad. So I got the book to see why it was made into a movie. The book is in first person, painfully so. And the ending gives no resolution. None. And when I say none I mean none. No resolution at all. It ends with a cheap attempt to goat you into reading the next book. Umm, no. Don't care enough about the characters to want to see what happens next. It's just well, distasteful. I wanted to stop listening but felt obligated to finish. I'm sorry I did. The reader did his best though. So I gave him a five.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Brilliantly written

Revisado: 02-24-21

I lived through it. He did such a good job of reliving it with me. He ties it all together, simply, and beautifully. I was very happy about how he retold the story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Bill Clinton's wet dream

Revisado: 08-23-19

This is what Clinton wishes would have happened to him. Massaged by Patterson into a decent story. The story, which is good, is too often interrupted by grandstanding and heroic self-aggrandizements or long winded policy speeches, thinly veiled as coming from the protagonist, and belonging instead in a Clinton memoir. The story was good though, with some good twists. I bought the book, so don't think I'm anti-Clinton. It's just too easy to not see through it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Hilarious

Revisado: 08-16-19

This audio story was honestly the funniest audio anything that I've ever heard. Simply hilarious.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not enjoyable

Revisado: 05-15-19

He begins with an a priori assumption that God doesn't exist and Jesus Christ is just one more made up religion to ease the minds of men, and then spends the first nine lectures trying to prove said assumption. Now tell me this: why, if I didn't have faith in Jesus Christ, would I be interested in this lecture series? Answer: I wouldn't. I suggest finding a religious scholar who is able to begin a lecture about Christianity from a standpoint of a Christian. Duh? He is a scholar, not a priest, and yet he interprets scripture to prove his beliefs, and sets about attempting to further prove those beliefs by logic, reason, factual evidence, and academic agreement. (The best one was this: the commandment that says thou shalt have no other gods before me proves that the Jews believed in many gods.) That's ridiculous, and relies on a very specific interpretation of that commandment's meaning, which is not commonly held, but is supportive of his a priori assumption. He goes about not trying to give a history, as the series misleads one to believe he is going to do, but instead, tries to lead the listener through a series of positions leading to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not divine. This has nothing to do with the series, yet he cannot help himself. It's sad. Faith is a special thing, and it is not for him to destroy. His conclusions rely on his assumptions. His assumptions are things he must have faith in. So his belief that faith is found-less, requires faith to believe. Ironic isn't it? And this brilliant atheist teaches religion? He teaches religion as a delusion, and gets rewarded? Wow. I myself will continue to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of mankind. If anyone cares.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

A missed opportunity

Revisado: 04-15-19

This could have been an incredible book, but the author and his ego got in the way. He seemed to think we wanted to listen to him instead of the soldiers this book was supposed to be about. So this book is 5-10% actual dialogue of Nazi POWs and 90-95% authors commentary. Not kidding. So the powerful insight one might have been able to gain by hearing actual soldiers words is severely and irreparably diluted by the author as he expounds upon, philosophized about, interprets, highlights, comments on, gives context to, insights on, relates with, or otherwise stands in front of, the actual subject matter. What a wasted opportunity to bring powerful powerful insight to the world. Instead we get just another historian, one of a million, who summarize the insights they themselves have gained, foolishly believing that such insight must needs translate from them to me, via their words, sadly oblivious to the fact that their words will never be as powerful as the source material itself. One can only hope another author comes along who will do justice to the same archive of source material by simply letting the reader read the actual words and letting the heated hear the actual dialogue, naked, honest, real, historical, sad, unbelievable, but able to provide the end user with opportunities to have their own a-ha moments, instead of having to read about the author's a-ha moments only.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Hard to finish

Revisado: 03-29-19

This was hard to finish. It consists of four different stories. The characters dither and dather, then eventually do something. It was so difficult to listen to because they don't do much without a whole lot of thinking beforehand. Half the book is the characters thinking this and thinking that and thinking more of this and even more of that, It's hard to visualize the story because you can't visualize someone's thoughts and fears and inner hopes and more of their most heartfelt desires. But we get them. All of them. The inner heartfelt desires are front and center of every character. I kept being reminded of papers I wrote in college, that needed a page of filler material to reach the minimum amount of words written. It feels like many many pages were written as filler space, just to reach a minimum number of pages. Add to that the jumping from one story to the next and you have a poor book. Sad because I'd love to know what happens in the first formal war but I'm not willing to go through another round of heartfelt desires. So sadly I won't be getting the next two books.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Fabulous fabulous fabulous

Revisado: 05-09-17

I don't need to elaborate. It's well worth the time to listen. The humor and wit is just fun

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Worthless

Revisado: 05-05-17

This book has no value except to those who value nothing. I kept saying to myself as I read "so THIS is what all the hullabaloo is about?" To call it satire is no excuse. To call it good is to glorify mediocrity. Yes, I know, that's exactly the point. I know what Ayn Rand would say about Joseph Heller. I would still love to hear her say it. To tear down takes little talent. To build, now that is another matter...

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña