DrK

Bryant beautifully embraces all the contradictions

Revisado: 08-15-24

Author Howard Bryant once again shows the complex relationship between a Black superstar athlete and the media, and how the social climate in the US, along with baseball’s money machinery, so profoundly impact the meaning-making process. Aaron’s steady gravitas, even as he worked to claim joy and satisfaction throughout his life, really inspired me. The narrator wonderfully synthesized the voices and perspectives of Aaron and the author.

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Flat, gory, and humourless

Revisado: 11-25-21

The story about the exploitation of artifacts for political power has potential but the characters are ultra-bland and unappealing, and the whole novel takes itself way too seriously. The ridiculously graphic murder scenes are both dumb and gross. There’s nothing the narrator does, or could do, to help.

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going downhill

Revisado: 12-23-19

The first book was good, with a new, postcolonial perspective on British arrogance in India. But now it’s going for a formula, with a highly unlikely, action movie ending that plays out just like the previous episode. Forgettable, under-developed characters and zero intrigue.

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irresistible as usual

Revisado: 05-01-19

Charles attempts rehabbing! I love it. Keeps the character interesting while catching him up to Nighy’s real-life sobriety.

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reverses the downward trend of the series

Revisado: 12-16-18

The Easy Rawlins series, still valuable for its insights into race and hypocrisy, had been getting tired, absurdly complicated and too full of improbable sex scenes. Charcoal Joe is more focused on the plot, and I could keep up pretty much. I do love the narrator’s version of Mouse—spot on and fun.

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worth it for the history

Revisado: 12-06-18

Narrator David Shih is pretty good, but the storyline is far too slow-moving for the first half. I appreciated the picture of Chinese history, along with the subtleties, and terrors, of party politics. Qiu’s perspective is valuable, and I will read more to see if his plots get better, and clearer.

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miserable character backstories

Revisado: 12-21-17

The mystery plot is fine, but some serious editing should have been done to scale back the agonizingly drab and unimaginative, faux-literary details about what the characters were going through in their personal lives. I almost couldn’t go on, when I was told that one of the detectives ‘’picked a satisfying piece of wax from his ear and rolled it between his fingers.’’ The situation was not improved by the reader, who had an uninspired range of voices.

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Great Irish voices, nervy, hard-edged characters

Revisado: 01-12-15

This is part of an ongoing series, but each book has a standalone plot. There are two narrators for this one, one male (the first-person voice of one of the detectives) and female (the third-person voice for the girls at the school who are under investigation). The story captures the intensely bitter machinations of young female rivalry at the school, as well as the intensely bitter machinations of police officer rivalry on the detective squad. Although French tends to get repetetive with the atmospheric language (the air is too often "crackling," or "electric"), the characters are powerfully, and emotionally rendered. The Irish voices are captivating to listen to, and I always suffer withdrawal when her books reach their conclusion.

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