Steve James

Not as good as I expected

Revisado: 08-28-19

Having heard of Treasure Island most of my life, I expected it to be a great story. And after listening to Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I loved, Emily I thought this would be similarly good. But after going through the entire book I can’t say there was anything special about it. Maybe I missed the bigger meaning, but it was just a story to me.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Disappointing

Revisado: 09-13-18

While I respect Shefter's work on ESPN, I found his memoir disappointing. I'm grateful that he was the one who read it, and I appreciate anyone's own story as a snapshot of his life, but it was little more than that. He didn't talk about his work much at all. I didn't get a sense of what he does on a daily basis or how he was able to grow into that position of a well-respected NFL analyst. That would have helped make this a much better book in my opinion. Instead, I heard the story of a man who was desperate to get married and got "saved" when he met the woman who would become his wife. Nothing really exciting there except rather than grow much beyond his desperation he simply got taken out of the battle.

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Entertaining but not real deep

Revisado: 01-16-15

Any additional comments?

The book is fine. He's a fairly entertaining guy but I didn't find much depth to the book. It seems little more than a "this is what I did that i seemed to work." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I sensed my personality is VERY different from his and it's hard to take his suggestions seriously when I'm wired so differently. It's not a bad book but it's not a great one either.

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Another great book my Gladwell

Revisado: 11-02-13

What did you like best about this story?

Gladwell always has a way of showing you that the things that you thought were obvious aren't always as they appear.

Have you listened to any of Malcolm Gladwell’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

There's something about an author reading his own book that's quite appealing to me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and i was taken aback when it was over. I wanted him to keep going.

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An honest and heart-felt story

Revisado: 06-02-09

I really enjoyed this book for a number of reasons. It's an honest heart-felt expression of one woman's journey through life and how she tried to reconciled what she believed her faith to be telling her with what she experienced. She calls into question the traditional response that some people and churches have towards people and their issues and shows how, at least in her case, they failed. She eventually gets to a place of resolution with everything. It’s just that it was through an unconventional way. It's quite good and thought-provoking if nothing else.

I also appreciated her comments about her interaction with single men in the church, of which I am one. It was good hearing from a woman's point of view how she experiences single Christian men and how much we need to improve.

I really like this book in audio and can't imagine a print version would be as good. Hearing the author tell her own story is pretty compelling in itself. But I have to believe her experience as an actor helped significantly. The dialogue she has with God seems to be helped significantly by being in audio.

I do believe the book will likely bother some people because it calls into question orthodox ways of interacting with people within the church. But frankly that's one of the things i most liked about it. I think it raises issues that are too often ignored.

My only concern about the book is that there's some language in there that's not what you'd hear in church, but nothing worse than any PG movie. Most bothersome to me was several references to a man's "cojones" (or lack thereof) when describing his passivity. In the context of a personal memoir it wasn't too offensive, and it certainly communicates the idea well. However I'd prefer that a man's privates be kept private.

Overall I really liked the book. I certainly recommend it, particularly if you find the sample at all compelling.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Book Better

Revisado: 09-09-07

I enjoyed both the movie and the book, but the book gives an in-depth look of the author's childhood, which wasn't covered at all by the movie. It helped me see the context of how Chris got to where he was. How his birth mother had struggled with her relationships with men and the impact on Chris. His was not an easy childhood by many standards, but it was real and it was his and I enjoyed hearing how life growing up was for someone who had it very different from me.

It also, to my surprise, validated that the movie didn't use much literary license in telling the story. While some of the details may not have been accurate, (days he spent in jail, pay during his apprenticeship, etc.) the central core of the story in the movie was surprisingly true.

I recommend both highly. I first saw the movie and then read the book. And if you see the movie on DVD be sure to see the special features about how they made the movie. That was very good.

<note: seems you can't edit the title for the review once you've submitted it. I would have changed it to "A Good Pair.">

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esto le resultó útil a 11 personas

Good material but bad presentation

Revisado: 06-04-06

I concur with the other reviews that while the material is interesting and useful, the narration is a distraction. There were even times when there was background music, which made it more difficult to absorb. The music would thankfully go away eventually, but it made for an unpleasant experience. If I weren't specifically interested and motivated to get through the book, I would not continue with it.

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esto le resultó útil a 134 personas

What were they thinking?

Revisado: 02-04-06

I'm beginning to wonder about the usefulness of some of these reviews, particularly the negative ones. They almost prevented me from listening to Blink by Malcom Gladwell which I LOVED and might have prevailed against me for this one had I paid any attention. They are in such stark contrast to my experience.

I find this book a very enjoyable read and as people have said, it's as much about the author as the book he is reading. I have truly enjoyed the narrator Geoffrey Cantor portrayal of the book. He seems more like an actor reading a script than a narrator reading a book.

The book is long however, but I think I'll be able to stop it for awhile and come back to it fairly easily. I strongly recommend it.

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esto le resultó útil a 21 personas