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Amazing grace!

Revisado: 07-27-21

The phrase never shows up in the book, but "amazing grace" is exactly what it takes for 9 boys in a skinny boat to row faster than any other crew in the world. A great personal sorry of hardship in the Great Depression, abandonment by one's own family, the amazing barrage of propaganda that had millions of people thinking this Hitler gentleman was a fine asset to Europe, even as he was already beginning his campaign of slaughter.
I listen to books as I drive, and this one has me reaching for the box of tissues more than is strictly safe, sometimes out of rage, but more often out of joy over the perfect synchronization of 8 long oars in an impossible combination of speed and power, through soul-crushing pain, all of the rowers sacrificing themselves for their crew. An inspired display of amazing grace.

Can you tell I liked it? Excellently written and read for us, it stuck home for this guy who's never rowed on a team, never lived through the Depression, never faced the Nazis. But "The Boys in the Boat" put me in the middle of it all. Thank you for this jewel of a book.

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Give me reading, not dramatization.

Revisado: 07-18-21

I grew up reading constantly, but now I consume my books as audiobooks while driving. Audible makes life good.
But "Call for the Dead" isn't an audiobook, it's what we used to call a radio play. With the variety of voices, this one demands total silence while listening; road noise makes much of it inaudible. Consequently, I have an idea of the plot but only a vague grasp of the details.
I'm going to delete this one from my phone's storage. I have enjoyed John leCarre for decades, and I'm fine with rereading favorite books, but "Call for the Dead" was a waste. If I find an unabridged audiobook of it, I might try it again.
From now on, when reading Audible descriptions, I'll be much more careful to avoid dramatizations, especially if the BBC is involved.

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Loved this!

Revisado: 07-13-21

One of those stories that has me sitting in the car long after I arrived at my destination, unable to turn my story off. I fell in love with the characters and worried about them when I wasn't listening to it.

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Important, often overlooked chapter in our history

Revisado: 01-23-21

Where the Declaration of Independence says, "... free and independent states" it meant free and independent not only from Britain, but from each other. They were united (barely) against a common enemy in war, but once that was over, few people saw any reason for a central government. The USA could easily have fallen into a collection of small, bickering states - could have become another Europe, even as Britain was already constructing forts south of the Great Lakes, ready to sweep up the pieces after our collapse.
Here's the story of four men who saw the danger and formed a plan that half-negated the victory over Britain in order to preserve it.

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So good, it's distracting.

Revisado: 12-23-20

A great story will take you away from the world. This one does that, but so brilliantly that sometimes I emerge from the story to quietly thank the author for his genius, then dive back in. I'm not sure that fiction should be so good that it makes me aware of the author, but American Gods does that.
I'm less thrilled about using a cast to read the characters' parts. If this was a script for a radio play, that would make sense, but this is a book, and I want it read to me as a book, by one person. But maybe that's just me.

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I'm in love with the characters.

Revisado: 10-14-20

As with a certain group of school kids in an earlier series, Galbraith has written characters I love and care about, even while their flaws drive them apart.
The story is gripping - sometimes I arrive home, but remain in the car listening to whole chapters before tearing myself away.

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