Caliope

Great story

Revisado: 12-16-20

Obviously, I Liked this book quite a lot to give it five stars in every category. I'm writing this review to encourage the people who hated the narration to give it another chance. I understand your initial despair because I didn't care for her at first either. I have a list of people whose voices have been either too old/too young, too shrill/too flat, too dull or too enthusiastic over the course of several books. I will not listen to anything they read. But I knew Ms. Pilcher to be such a formidable writer that I couldn't imagine a terrible narration. The longer I read, the more her voice settled into the routine of an experienced and interesting voice. Remember the character starts out as an older character, not a young girl. Not far into the book, Jilly Bond becomes this character and she is delightful throughout. Perhaps you didn't read far enough. I urge you to give this book another try because I think you missed a beautiful book with an incredible narration.

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Shines the light on the Lincoln we never knew.

Revisado: 07-12-20

Abraham Lincoln is known in the United States as a good and decent man who lived too briefly but accomplished more in his years and his circumstances than have so many others. This book is less about the statesman and more about the man he was. It's the story of his last trial, a murder trial whose principal characters were well known by each other and by Mr. Lincoln as well. The story was taken from the work of the court reporter who wrote it all in longhand. The report was accepted and then lost for many years. When it was found many people were astounded by the work itself because it was that good and that accurate according to those who were present at the trial. The best part of the book was learning more about Mr. Lincoln's wit, honesty, and the genuine love he had for his neighbors. I'm so glad it was written and that I had the opportunity to read it.

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This book from this Author???

Revisado: 07-12-20

Ken Follett has written some of my favorite books and they were best sellers. I can't imagine that "A Place Called Freedom" will get there. To me, it was underwritten and flawed with stupidity and vain behavior. The story itself ground along at a snails pace, only one character was marginally decent, and the whole thing was pretty implausible. The book was a huge disappointment for me considering who wrote it.

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Middle of the Road

Revisado: 07-12-20

This book wasn't bad. Then again, it wasn't good either. It took a long time getting started, my attention wandered all over the place, and when it was over I wasn't sure if I had really read it or just imagined that I had. I don't like to be negative in my reviews, but I'd skip this one if I had the chance to do it over.

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Well done

Revisado: 04-14-20

This is a well written, plausible novel with good characters who are fleshed out well. The writer makes you aware of the history of each of the principal players, making the story run smoothly. There are a couple of small surprises, but by and large, the reader can proceed without a lot of convoluted plot switches. That made the book especially wonderful to me because lately, I have read so many things where the plot tripped over itself trying to make up for something that should have been included much earlier. This book has a beginning, a very real and interesting middle, and an end that was bittersweet but well done. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a novel to read, or hear, strictly for the love of a good book.

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Don't bother

Revisado: 08-20-19

Before I buy a book, I should read more of the reader's comments on that book. More readers didn't like this book than did, but those who did really gushed about how good it was. I thought it was awful and I stopped reading for so many reasons. As one reviewer put it, there was hardly a likable character in the bunch. Certainly, the husband wasn't likable. His in-laws were the in-laws from Hell, and no real man who loved his wife would tolerate the man. Actually, nobody came off well in this book. I never got to know the couple from the other cabin because I packed it in just as they were coming on the scene, but I'll bet they weren't sweet and loveable either. Not helping the situation was a stiff, sometimes whiney, narrator. Save your credits and find a more enjoyable book--it won't be hard to do.

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Engrossing Story

Revisado: 05-29-19

I liked this book and would love to have given the story 5 stars. I couldn't do that and I'll give the reason at the end of my review. To start, let me say that a book running nearly 24 hours has to have great content and amazing continuity. Cemetery Road has both. Greg Iles is an excellent content writer and he stays with the meat of the story from word one. I'm a Scott Brick fan, so the narration suited the book perfectly for me. Cemetery Road--an actual road--runs through a small town in Mississippi where the story takes place. Populating that town are a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has returned home to manage the newspaper that his father owns, his former girl friend, now married to his best friend, a book store owner who has a romantic interest in the journalist, and an organization filled with men who are corrupt, meddling, self-serving, and criminal in so many ways.
Behind the story is an incident that happened years before and is still prominent in the minds of the characters populating the book. Intriguing, well stated, and easy to follow, this book maintains everything that should be present in a great novel. I highly recommend it. Here's my caviat: For people who are listening to books for pleasure, there is a lot of very biased political commentary that has no place here. Whatever your politics, keep them out of fiction books unless the story line is dependant on them. Otherwise they are just the writers opinion and have no place in in an unrelated fictional story. The second caviat is actually offensive to me. Toward the end of the book, the author gives a character some anti-religious and venemous words to say. The reader already knows that this man has no belief in a higher power of any kind, so to condemn Christianity in the way it is done is unnecessary and unprofessional. If those two things don't bother you in any way, you will devour this book and give it the 5 stars I could not give it.

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Futuristic "LOST"

Revisado: 05-15-19

I was a big fan of the TV series LOST, so I was interested in this book when it began in much the same manner. A flight, a crash onto unknown territory, discovering the passengers were not alone. All of this kept me going. I can't pretend to understand the sci-fi angle but the futurism was quite good. Some will say it's "too pat" an ending, but I enjoyed the read that got me there. The only thing I didn't like at all about "DEPARTURE" were the sound effects. When I listen to a book, I expect the writer to take me to a place I can visualize in my mind. I then hear the sounds one would expect to hear. Hearing someone elses idea of the sound is annoying and distracting.

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Terrible

Revisado: 05-15-19

This is possibly the worst book from Audible I've ever listened to. I don't even know where to begin to explain how bad it was. The voices were too loud and not very professional sounding. The characters were unbelievably moronic, and the background sounds not only distracting, but also too loud and not at all necessary. Sometimes the noises threw off the timing. I listened to the entire book hoping for a crumb of anything that I could give praise, but there was absoultely nothing. All of the Audible originals have that annoying background noise which detracts rather than enhances. You might consider remoing that.

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Never Forget

Revisado: 05-15-19

Light Over London is a story of a young woman working in an antique shop who finds a diary of another young woman who lived during WWII. Given permission by the shop owner to read the diary and try to locate the owner, the young lady becomes absorbed in the diary and curious about her own Grandmother who lived in Germany during the war. Between the diary and the Grandmother's story lies an interesting read for anyone who takes seriously the concept that we must never forget the Holocaust and the other horrors of that war. I have always been interested in knowing all I can about that period of time. This book doesn't necessarily tell the reader anything new unless the reader knows little or nothing about the war, but the way the story unfolds is charming and enjoyable. And there is pertinent truth in the words, Never Forget.

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esto le resultó útil a 45 personas