Aubrey

His ineptness and how anyone could support him!

Revisado: 05-01-24

Mary’s expertise in clinical psychology and its application to his personality and circumstances that formed it.

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I learned so much. Great story

Revisado: 03-14-24

How it caused me to think about many things in life from various perspectives. Excellent writing.

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Captivating with surprises

Revisado: 07-12-22

Enjoyed the story, characters, and the way it gets the reader to examine the complexities of being human, and trying to be authentic within the parameters society imposes upon us.

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Could not put this down

Revisado: 06-12-22

Excellent captivating story and history. Showed how we can all make a difference in difficult times. Many intriguing nuances of human interaction.

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Captivating with twists

Revisado: 01-09-22

Engaging story and plot. Relevant topics. I learned a lot about the subject matter.
Appropriate for teens or adults.

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Amazing book by an amazing woman

Revisado: 06-21-20

Michelle writes an engrossing story of she and her families lives before and during the White House years. They are very passionate people who truly brought their ideals and values to work with them in their positions as president and First Lady. They listened to the citizens of the United States putting programs in place to meet the needs of our country, and putting the country first over personal needs. Highly recommend this book to everyone.

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Engaging!

Revisado: 07-16-18

Very visual storyteller. Captivating heartfelt stories and excellent narration skills. I laughed and cried.
Highly recommend.

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Best Book I've Read in a Long Time

Revisado: 09-07-16

I absolutely loved this book. It's incredibly well-written, emotionally moving, and has fully developed, flawed characters.

Broken Angels tells the story of three individuals -- Elsi, Willam, and Mathilde (possibly spelled wrong because I listened to this so I'm not sure) -- brought together by circumstances of WWII. Elsi is a half-Jewish teenager living in a ghetto in Poland, Willam is a Nazi doctor, and Mathilde is a Romanian child taken from her home and placed in a Lebensborn center for potential Aryan adoption.

This was a detailed, emotional depiction of life in WWII Poland and Germany, but all the more moving for those reasons. I've also rarely seen an author who can give a child a full character, both shaped by nature and circumstance. While not easy to hear about, it was masterfully done. Willem is also a flawed character. His actions can't be characterized as 100% good or bad, which is interesting and honest in a character -- and true to human nature and what our situations hand us.

The book also chronicles horrendous, gruesome events with an appropriate level of detail -- not a gloss over but not enough to make you vomit in your car while listening. So I appreciated that as well. Too many books about this subject matter provide too much gloss.

My only small critique is that it took a long time for the characters' stories to intersect. However, the individual stories were so well-told and crucial to the character development that in the end I retracted this thought. However, just be aware of that if you read this book.

Additionally, the narration was just ok. The man who narrated Willem's part was great, but the woman reading the female parts (first, each character should have gotten her own reader) was a bit flat. The voices could have been brought to life a bit more.

That said, this book is so well-written that I recommend it completely. Anyone who enjoys history and complex characters would enjoy this book, and I will be reading more by this author :)

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esto le resultó útil a 35 personas

Couldn't Put it Down All Week!

Revisado: 08-19-16

Loved this book! Very Downton Abbey-esque, in the best ways possible. There are heroes, there are villains, and there are those who will surprise you. The writing is sharp and the storytelling is superb.

Perhaps not the most unpredictable of plots, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Julian Fellowes is just as good on paper as he is on the screen, and I couldn't put this one down.

I also loved the narrator, so an all-around win!

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Poorly Written Story; Returning

Revisado: 08-19-16

I really wanted to like this book, as the premise sounds great and I love reading about unfamiliar historical periods. However, it's so poorly written that I just could not get into it.

Instead of the story unfolding and being shown to the reader as it should be, the events are simply told to you. You learn way too much about how the characters are feeling, instead of about the actual events happening. It's cheap and lazy writing. The same information about the feelings also repeats many times within a short period. I just wanted to shout "I get it!"

I'd hoped it would get better once the story flashed back in time, and it did -- but only slightly. The narration is also just ok, but it's really the writing that's the main problem.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas