LimyCrescent61

Best if you are familiar with the series

Revisado: 12-17-20

This short story features Duster and Bonnie from the time traveling Thunder Mountain series. It's great for giving more of a glimpse into their experience but the explanation of events isn't very fleshed out. I'm glad to have read it but I think you'd need to be familiar with the series in order to fully enjoy it.

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Overall a good story

Revisado: 10-10-20

Like all of Muller's stories, this one is well-crafted. Some parts are a little hand-wavy (e.g., the details of past exploits that explain the bad guy's motivation), but the plot moves quickly enough that you don't really mind. The narration was excellent, and there were a lot of characters to keep track of. The one exception is the Spanish. When McCone travels to Mexico, she converses with some characters in Spanish, and a point is made that her facility in Spanish, together with her looks, help to put the Mexican characters at ease. Unfortunately, the narrator really butchered the pronunciation of the Spanish.

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entertaining thriller

Revisado: 08-10-20

All the elements are here for a great story: Rich folk. Evildoers. Engaging kids (one of whom is dying). Good guy on the run. This isn't a story with subtly shaded characters--you have your good guys and your bad guys and you know who is who. The narrator does a good job with the voices without sounding cartoon-y.

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A fun followup to Drop Dead Healthy

Revisado: 08-09-20

I enjoyed this short interview with AJ Jacobs. I recently read Drop Dead Healthy, so I was interested in knowing a little more about the process of writing the book. I lowered the rating one star because the sound quality is uneven; also it seems this content might have been available for free online at some point, so if you search for it, you might save yourself the 99 cents. I'm not sorry I spent the 99 cents though.

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An entertaining intro to Boswell's Life of Johnson

Revisado: 08-09-20

It has been some time since I read Boswell's Life of Johnson. This short lecture gives a good overview of the friendship between Boswell and Johnson, the circumstances under which Boswell wrote the biography, and a couple of interesting examples from the biography. The bio is a long read; if you just want the flavor of it, you'll be happy with this short piece. When you're done, you might find you want to (re)read the whole biography!

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Uneven, but sometimes motivational

Revisado: 11-16-19

I was disappointed in this book, but that could be because I expected the wrong thing. This book is not a collection of strategies to help you stay motivated to workout. Or maybe I should say, it's not just a collection of strategies, because there are a few strategies in here (e.g., use positive self talk). But the strategies are mixed in with what seems like a random hodgepodge of things the author encountered in magazines, like the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger's career, or Alexander the Great, or Jim Stockdale, or various Navy SEALs, or long passages where hypothetical nonfit people are insulted for being too lazy to work out and too quick to take the easy road. I guess the idea is that we can dip in and reread the parts that are motivational and skip the rest. I think that concept would work better for a print book than an audiobook.

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Educational and motivational

Revisado: 09-29-19

Other reviewers found that this book wasn't clearly aimed at women, but I didn't have that reaction. The examples are women, and the advice is given with a female audience in mind (e.g., if you're weighing yourself everyday, what to do about the days when you're having your period; and skipping the details about supplements that women are unlikely to want to take). Readers who are reluctant to use a barbell (like me) should know that the bonus material includes information about dumbbell specific workouts.

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More entertainment than advice--very enjoyable!

Revisado: 09-09-19

It's tough to know how to describe this book. The book starts off sounding like a tell-all about what it's like to be a Hollywood celebrity trainer--I literally laughed out loud at some of the stories. Then it morphs into a kind of "here's how to get fit" book, but with much less "system" and much more general advice than other books of that genre (sample pieces of advice: Don't eat sugar or grains. Here's how gyms make money. One size does not fit all.) The advice stems from author Vinnie Tortorich's experience rather than from scientific research. Then the book morphs into an account of what it is like to train and compete in "ultra" races that last more than 24 hours. Then it tells a very inspirational story about an unexpected medical crisis. I didn't see any of these changes coming, but I found them all worth listening to. While narrating, Tortorich goes off-script in many places and inserts entertaining rants and stories that apparently do not appear in the printed book.

In the very last part of the book, Tortorich and his co-author Dean Lorey discuss the origins and making of the book. Apparently many publishers turned it down so they self-published. I completely believe that because the book content changes so dramatically from beginning to end. However, what doesn't change is Tortorich's entertaining "voice." You feel like he's just talking to you as a friend (not over beer, because he no longer drinks "liquid bread," but maybe over scotch), telling you a bunch of stories, all very entertaining, all somehow related to fitness. They mention that he has a podcast, and I think I'll check that out also.

I highly recommend this audiobook. You wouldn't have to be an athlete or even a wannabe athlete to enjoy it. And I can't really think of another book quite like it. This book is an example of how the self-publishing revolution is a boon to readers. Yes, there is a sea of so-so self-published material out there to sift through. But when you are lucky enough to find treasures like this one, you'll get a reading (or listening) experience unlike that of any other book.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

inspiring and practical

Revisado: 08-03-19

The best part about this book, imo, are the workout routines that are drawn from published research. Also, the motivational parts. I'm convinced that HIIT is worthwhile, even for a non-athlete like me, and I've already incorporated the "10x1" into my regular routine.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

My daughter loves it

Revisado: 08-03-19

I find Junie B a little hard to take after awhile, but my daughter loves this collection, and no wonder: the narration is EXCELLENT.

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