Andrea

Captures the spirit of the TV show. Lots of fun.

Revisado: 01-12-24

I wish I would have known about this series sooner. I'm on the final book of the series, and each reads like a standalone episode of the show. The book does a good job laying out Monk's idiosyncrasies, his relationship with the world, Natalie and Stottlemeyer, against a backdrop of murder and crime. I'm glad I found this series, and was even more excited they were free listens!

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if you like murder and horse jokes this is for you

Revisado: 12-17-22

Another funny Jim Gaffigan show filled with lying, murder and horse jokes. It passed the driving time quite enjoyably on my road trip.

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Decent enough to listen to the entire story

Revisado: 06-23-22

There are a few distracting things about this story that kept it from being a five star and demoted it to solidly "good enough" territory.

1) Odd regional expressions that were out of place , e.g. a water fountain/drinking fountain was described as a bubbler. As far as I know, that's an expression only used in Wisconsin. A couple of other regional words, from regions outside of Providence where the story was set, were also used.

2) Strange pronounciations of commonplace words - again this happened a few times, but I can't clearly remember all of the examples. One was when someone was talking about barrettes that were in someone's hair, but they were pronounced berets - as in the Raspberry French hat Prince sang about. This happened at least 5 times - made me wonder (despite the accents of the characters) if there was a non-native English-speaking narrator, who was unfamiliar with those particular words.

3) It's supposed to take place in 1985, but there are things from the future that are part of the story. A Lexus is blown up. Lexus launched in the US in January 1989. Chex mix is consumed. A packaged version was first introduced in 1985, unlikely to be a ubiquitous item in someone's pantry. Before then it was something people made from a recipe on the box...little stuff like that.

Anyway, all of these inconsistencies were jarring and would take me out of the story...Still, it was a freebie with my subscription and it held my interest, so I'm not complaining.

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Similar to rest of the series - Show is better

Revisado: 12-03-21

If you enjoy the others in this series, you'll probably like this one. I keep listening to these, despite my frustration with some of them, as they hold my attention well enough...Throughout the series, the heroines of the Sweet Magnolia books exhibit a passivity, incompetence and helplessness to their bad situations, until their Mr. Right comes along and makes things perfect, It's a case where I like the Netflix series better than the books, since the women and their friendships are front and center taking initiative, versus waiting for things to improve.

The twist in Where Azaleas Bloom was very predictable, and I was quite surprised by reviews that said otherwise. The narrator speaks slowly so listening at 1.15-1.35 speed, or faster, makes it tolerable with fewer long pauses. I'd rate this one toward the bottom - it's better than the droning, whining Karen books (Midnight Promises, and the Karen plot line in Feels Like Family).

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I expected to like this more than I did...

Revisado: 10-03-19

The concept is an interesting one, but the execution fell flat. As background, I got into genetic genealogy in about 2011 when I had a surprise result show up on a DNA test. Through DNA testing and research on my side, I managed to figure out the truth...that I was donor conceived and I have 13 half-siblings. This is all information made discoverable by DNA testing and research that wasn't possible when my own parents were alive.

Paul seems to put in zero effort into his own quest - he relies entirely on others to do the legwork and his constant litany of complaints and pity parties is wearisome. In my perspective, if I can do this research, it can't be overbearingly hard for others to attempt. to. something. He won't even make a financial contribution to it; he just waited for people to come to him and offer help. The types of testing and slow unfold make this seem like it took eons, but from when he first tested until he has some answers I think it may have been a shorter time than it took me. Again...I'm no genius.

He talks about CeCe (Moore) only having a few tests left to send out...dude, if you want to find out the information, buy them and send them. It's a simple online purchase. His entitlement and inaction and willingness to entirely rely on others to do the work and the constant self-obsessed woe-is-me made me turn on him about 1/3 of the way through. The issue with that is, the story has the opportunity to be fascinating. Maybe it was the telling that turned me off.

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esto le resultó útil a 15 personas

Predictable, contrived and silly story

Revisado: 03-02-18

I loved the narration, but the great narration did not help this contrived tale. The premise was appealing and it sounded exciting, but it was very predictable and exasperating.

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I gave up. The book had no point...

Revisado: 04-16-17

This book lacked a purpose. It filled with rambling musings, and after struggling to listen through three hours, I gave up. I'm sad I wasted a credit on it...I only purchased it because of an audible email suggestion. It's exhausting to listen to three hours of someone talking about their appearance. I couldn't fathom two more.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

wowza!

Revisado: 12-22-16

A depressing book, but at the same time gripping and suspenseful... and not so long it affects your mood. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and don't want to spoil anything for future listeners.

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One of my top 5 Audiobooks...EVER

Revisado: 04-12-16

I don't know why I waited so long to listen to this. The story is captivating, thrilling and exciting. I saw another review titled MacGyver on Mars and that's a perfect description. It's incredibly entertaining and the time flew.

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Terrible narration and a mediocre story

Revisado: 08-29-15

For over 30 years I've been fascinated with the Oregon Trail, the pioneers and the great migration west, so I started listening with great anticipation and ended with disappointment.

The biggest detractor for me was the narration. Why the author decided to narrate is beyond me. It sounded as though he recorded himself speaking several thousand different words and a computer then created the narration by stringing the disjointed words together. His cadence is bizarre and the way he splits sentences makes them hard to comprehend.

The story itself is less about the Oregon Trail itself or his trip across and instead a collection of anecdotes of events that either happened preparing for the trip, reflections of his father, mentioning Hormel chili in cans (no beans) and self-satisfied rants about various topics.

I did enjoy a few sections of the book a lot, including one about how the trail was preserved, and one about how mules were bred.

Bill Bryson he ain't. His writing lacks the charm, wit and kind-spirit.

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