Kathleen A. Woodward

Slow moving, lots of repetition

Revisado: 05-29-23

The premise of the story shows a lot of promise, that the book doesn’t live up to. The heroine remains very passive until chapter 21, when she seems to wake up and start doing something. That character is depicted, in part, through a lot of somewhat self-absorbed humor that doesn’t quite land, making her not all that likable in the long run. The narrator does a masterful job of bringing the characters to life, but it’s not enough to make up for some of the lackluster moments, Murder mysteries always include a certain amount of recapping of the clues and plot twists, but this book repeats the same information way too often, and tends to get bogged down on account of that. I did listen all the way to the end, because the plot was intriguing enough that I did not guess the ending and that’s a point in its favor. The ending does seem to be set up to lead to a sequel, and maybe the sequel will be a better, but only time will tell.

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Never gets off the ground

Revisado: 04-23-22

I will be honest and admit that I did not finish this book. I did listen to 2/3 of it and came back to it twice to try and finish. I just couldn’t do it. The narrator does a decent job of schlogging through very stilted language, especially in the dialogue. But the narrator alone couldn’t save it. The storyline had potential to be pretty interesting but instead went in circles versus advancing. The whole thing is punctuated by detailed descriptions of everything that everyone ate. It almost seems like it was trying to piggy back onto the popularity of Joanne Fluke’s cozy mysteries about a baker/sleuth, but without the down to earth characters and humor of that series. I’ve listened to and enjoyed many of these Murder She Wrote books. They are what they are—entertaining stories, not high literature. But even allowing for their TV spin-off roots, this one just isn’t worth the time and money. Sorry to be so blunt to some author who gave it a shot. The ones by Donald Bain are the best in this series.

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Almost classic Murder She Wrote

Revisado: 04-11-22

This is a pretty solid offering in the series, in terms of having all the standard Murder She Wrote ingredients. And after all, I can’t complain about it being predictable when the reason I listen to such books is because I know what to expect.
The storyline has the makings of a good mystery and includes some interesting info about the world of cyber crime.
Unfortunately the “clues” are so obvious that it wasn’t much of a mystery to figure out whodunnit, although the howdunnit was ingenious. Also there was quite a bit of filler in which Jessica Fletcher talks about her passion for solving crime. If you like Murder She Wrote, like me, it’s an entertaining listen.

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Great story, original and gripping w/slight flaw

Revisado: 03-25-22

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to mystery lovers as well as anyone looking for a good read. I have a personal bias against stories in which police behave in somewhat implausible ways. It’s just a nit, considering how good the overall storyline, characters and plot are. I can’t explain this minor criticism more without spoilers. It is fiction, so maybe fictional police should be allowed a bit more rope than their real world counterparts anyway.

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A bit uneven

Revisado: 04-26-20

Overall, entertaining but with two mysteries being told at once and one left unresolved, it was not as satisfying as it might have been. The plot is also unnecessarily recapped several times during the course of the book, which distracts from rather than enhances any suspense.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Good book - not great in audio format

Revisado: 06-26-12

If you could sum up Find More Time: How to Get Things Done at Home, Organize Your Life, and Feel Great About It in three words, what would they be?

Good information but a quiz and lengthy list of suggested names of files to be set up in your filing system make this book better suited to experiencing in hard copy than in audio book format.

What aspect of Gabrielle Gold’s performance would you have changed?

The reader needs to slow down and calm down a bit. She raced through the material like an over-caffeinated cheer leader. Using the half-speed setting on my iPod didn't help because when I did that the audio took on a weird echo quality. The chiripy delivery interferred somewhat with my ability to identify with the organization challenges and solutions in the book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Despite my critical comments, I'm glad that I've "read" the book, although I wish I'd have gotten this one in hard copy. There are nuggets of helpful info in this book and they will probably be different for each reader, depending on the areas in which you want the most help with organizing your time, possessions and activities. The author delivers on providing practical ways to get organized.

Any additional comments?

A few of the systems suggested -- like doing a detailed analysis of why one item on your to do list always gets pushed to the next day (which analysis only leads to the conclusion that it's okay to let low priority items carry over to another day) -- are overkill.

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