Kindle Customer

Brutal story - Should have a Warning

Revisado: 01-07-24

The narrator, Lazarre-White was nuanced, balanced and multi-voiced. There was lilt, accent, emotional range. S A Cosby is nuanced with an emotional commitment to his main character. The sheriff character is strong, committed to 'right' the wrongs of history and the malevolence that comes from bias and hatred. Unfortunately he does not need the excess of crime, the venality of those around him nor the sheer terror that Cosby mandates. The book is over filled with pervasive evil; horror so overstated that it detracts from both the story and each character. The listener has to come from a world of day-to-day evil that is pervasive. Lacking this, few listeners will be comfortable with the plotting, the subplots and many of the characters.

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Too Man Themes

Revisado: 12-13-23

I wanted to like this book. I am addicted to mis-wired characters; the eccentrics of British collectors, the hidden 'idiot savants' who see the world in different colors. But Ms. Miller populated her book with Jordan, Mrs. Stanford, the DSM and her resolve of vision. The result was discursive and I found myself digging into the ancillary reading while listening to the author. The island's history was fascinating; Hansen's disease islands were wonderful reading, genetic taxonomy was a pleasant interlude and Starr's eugenics became a deep dive. If a book is meant too provoke thought and catalyze reading, the Why Fish Don't Exist did so. But I still do not understand why they do not exist.

So the book seems a Beta release to a more carefully edited work. The Feather Thief might be an example

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An Extraordinary Listen

Revisado: 08-22-22

Taken from every vantage point this is a READ of majesty. Enter it as adventure, as history, as geography but stay for the reward of an extraordinary mind in Richard Burton; for the triumph of his passion over the English upper classes; for strength over adversity and persistence over doubt. The author has done it all aided by a skilled narrator. This is a compelling read for all ages.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Well Written; Poorly Plotted

Revisado: 07-01-22

Each chapter of this book is stand-alone well written. That is not enough as characters jump between Alabama, Florida and then 'who cares'. Characters jump between epochs, between decades then disappear and reappear as if the author's 100 monkey-writers have quit, gone silent and then forgotten what they wrote on the last hire. The Sherriff is great, Hollys are great, bar denizens are great, mountain-men are weird but the book lacks plot, is not tight and thus does not reward. It doesn't much matter as they all die anyway. Resurrection by death? Grace by pain?

Read one chapter and then move on until Panowich gets his act together

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More Engrossing Than Fiction

Revisado: 06-14-22

I would never have chosen this book except for a stupendous review in the Wall Street Journal. I would have then missed a captivating story, composed by writers who know their craft and articulated by Perkins with immediacy. Taken as fact the story of the demise of a supertanker speaks to piracy on the highseas, lunacy in the British insurance system and misbehaviour in Africa and Greece. From start to finish I could not cease listening until well into the night. The characters are well healed and well drawn, evil to the core. Take this as adventure, as informative of the sea trade, of insurance shenanigans. A stupendous read and a memorable listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

If You Loved 'All The Light We Cannot See'

Revisado: 02-13-22

The prose of Levi is the best example of 'Writer's Slight of Hand'. With elegant metaphors he spins the web of the 'Ponderous root of man' - Chemistry. But the allusions to the elements of the PERIODIC TABLE are the frame in which fits the horrors of the Holocaust. The superficial layer is beguiling - Noble Elements, Gold, Sulphur, Zinc, Vanadium. From these there emerges a riff of personal history, personal tragedy and political horror. Thus Noble gases are both 'Noble and Inert' - much like the Turinese family from which Levi springs. Vanadium is the springboard for the reconstruction of a chemist's role in making artificial rubber miles from the crematoria; making rubber and yet agnostic to the nearby horror. For the listener there are some overstatements of science BUT they are balanced by structures of brilliant writing. I could not imagine reading this book as, the narrator, Neville Jason speaks both for the writer, articulates for the listener and provides articulation which informs the prose. This is seminal writing and a high-wire act of story telling and the story teller.

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A Peak UnderThe Curtain - The Lady in The Booth

Revisado: 01-11-22

Walter Isaacson gets it. When this hits the Silver Screen, Meryl Streep will not have enough Doudna nuances in her face , George Clooney will have needed a transplant to play George Church and Juliette Binoche lacks freezing temperature and the humor of the French Ladies. "Under The Curtain" are very bright people, driven to create NOT driven to succeed. Their long hours, their collaboration, their attention to the next question are beautifully detailed. Were it fiction, it would be less than believable. Isaacson's dissection is a lesson to young people on the excitement of scientific creativity. The AHA moments are chilling and the listener will remember each one as they pile up like defense on the One Yard Line. Every step that is detailed is compelling and the listener can even forget the molecular details, take them as given and harvest the excitement of both discovery and deception. A superb listen, the equal of The Polio Wars, and the trials of Leonard Hayflick.

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Magical Road With Magical Narrator

Revisado: 11-16-21

Imagine a protagonist so vital, so colorful, so enigmatic that you want to continue in their presence. Jerusalem, in this book, is no longer a city nor a place on a map. It is of non consequence your background as the produce is even handed, fascinating in detail. And Bikel draws you in, balances the tone; understands the inflections. This is a book that will extend your car ride to 3000 miles...it is that hard to put it down.

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No Traction

Revisado: 08-19-21

Having been addicted to and sailed through Connelly, SA Crosby, Winslow, Patterson whose criminals and saviors have depth and color, I found my attention wandering. The narration was captivating but the characters two-dimensions never lifted off the page. Their backgrounds were interesting but they lacked the 'AHA' which marks the difference between tolerable and believable. I return about 10% of my purchases from Audible and they are gracious to me but this one went back after the fifth chapter. A serial author should know better how to capture attention.

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Say: Denzel Washington and Jeff Bridges

Revisado: 07-29-21

Since Elmore Leonard and then Robichaux and Clete Purcell, Noir fiction thrives off novel pairs. These are pairs who speak vernacular, are forced into action despite themselves and are forced into understanding by a world not of their own doing. Cosby has built 'Riot Ike' and Buddy Lee from swamp origins into killing machines. Cosby does not remove disbelief, he simply starts slowly, builds on slow speech and then triumphs over a cast of villains. This is not a read for the 'faint' as mid-America speech patterns are laced with expletives, with haints of social and racial and sexual injustices. But there is resolution. The plot flies off the page, the reader is engaged from square one and Cosby never lets go. This is an ultimate beach read, plane read and COVID read.

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