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Swisher groks it

Revisado: 03-05-24

Of course this is a great listen. It’s Swisher’s words in her voice - inflection and nuance abound.
It’s also an exceptional account of, quite literally, the history of Silicon Valley and all the tech we now take for granted, or have forgotten completely. Swisher is also quite candid telling her own story, and her word choice reflects a lifetime of excellent writing and reporting, attune to her audience.
Finally I understand her dislike of Elon Musk! In her podcasts, she is consistently dismissive regarding him but not here.
I wish she’d named more names; despite a lot of dishy storytelling around some (most) of tech’s biggest players, she often demurred which felt out of place in a book with this title.
My only criticism is her too-frequent use of the trendy locution “grok.” Is it such an important and lasting part of the tech lexicon that she will look back on this book years from now and like it?
Highly recommended listen.

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Heavy French accent

Revisado: 02-06-24

The story itself is entertaining with decent character development and overlapping story lines. The end is particularly clever.
However, the Audible version uses a very authentic French accent that is at many times too strong to easily understand. It took away from the experience for me. I appreciate the rationale for authenticity, but it didn’t work for me.

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Great personalization of a tough history

Revisado: 01-02-24

An interesting historical fiction that laters a slew of emotions: survivor’s guilt, passion, regret, shame, determination. And it asks us readers to decide: to what degree is Gretel complicit, and does the end of the story create some kind of ersatz make good? This would be a great book for a book club discussion.

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Dishy… and sad

Revisado: 01-17-23

I always assumed that someone who’s royal was always by definition honorable, attune, proper and good. Different too, and distanced from the rest of us by class alone.
In Spare, Prince Harry shows us there ls nothing “royal” about this mess of a family: Charles is more stilted and out of touch than one would have imagined, Camilla truly is a wicked step mother, William is petty, peevish and unsupportive, Kate drank the kool aid, and the whole awful staff aiding and abetting the abuses heaped in Harry should be fired, then keel hauled.
Also, the UK must have horrendous laws for libel, since Harry makes it sound like anyone can seemingly report anything in whatever scurrilous tone and word choice they want. Secondarily, it’s clear the “palace intrigue” of yore is only different today in that stuff gets published, not just whispered, so in Soare, Harry took the family mantra “never complain, never explain” and set it on its ear, explaining his life in vivid, sad detail.
This book is dishy for sure, but it never felt salacious - more like this was a very honest “my side of things” from the Duke of Sussex.
And wow, Harry’s defense of himself reveals that royalty doesn’t prevent a family from being emotionally unavailable, overtly cruel, and intentionally dysfunctional.
Great listen and highly recommended, especially if you’re a fan of his, but be forewarned that it is overall a very sad story with no fairytale happy ending. It made me simply hope that this “darling boy” has found the peace he yearns for in the US.

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The sex is meh, plot options left unfinished

Revisado: 08-14-22

Maybe the sex is s’posed to be fun and steamy, but I found it pedestrian, with references to the male anatomy and the f word for most sex scenes a distraction from the thriller component of this story.
Without giving away legit spoilers, the basement, for example, could have played a bigger role. The door to it, that opened the wrong way, totally felt like foreshadowing so it later felt like a miss that it wasn’t more of a thing.
Overall the plot is clever, but the characters didn’t add up to much and I was hoping for a bigger ending.
I’m glad this was free with my audible membership; it’s not worth spending a credit on it.

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Just ok.

Revisado: 07-31-22

It’s marginally entertaining, in a “Meal Girls, grown up version.” But the characters aren’t very believable or engaging - especially the male character who felt like place holders, the plot is thin and I caught myself frequently checking to see how close I was to the end.

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Disturbing…and good

Revisado: 05-27-22

Even though the plot is thin and it’s easy to see where the story is going, this author has created and interesting journey. No character is particularly deep or personable, and yet many have stuck with me after I finished the book - and to me that is enough of a vibe for me to recommend it. It’s not an “easy” read because that parts that are disturbing and rather creepy, but it held my interest.

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Romance novels are not my thing

Revisado: 03-04-21

To me, there’s a distinct and clear difference between women’s fiction and romance novels and I would recommend this book be classified more clearly as a romance novel since it includes every predictable element of “ girl meets boy, girl and boy have tons of friction, girl and boy fight falling in love, girl and boy have passionate, if tamely written, love scenes” formula.
But I gave it 4 stars instead of a roasting 2 or3 because of the very difficult topics the author tackled.
And for crying out loud, move the author’s note from the end of the book to the prologue! I would have been so much more invested from the outset, and it’s not too-too spoiler-ish.
I listened to this on audible and did not care for the reader. Her version of a guy voice was awkward enough to detract from the story.

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Beware of the horror scenes...

Revisado: 02-14-21

I’ll start by saying I loved her writing style. But this is a horror genre and my book club picked it because it had the same kind of “funky title” and as “the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.”
To be clear, those two books couldn’t be more dissimilar! :)
This book is well written, the pace kept me invested, the characters were believable - and the reference to old favorites that they read for their books club(s) was delightfully nostalgic for me.
The gross scenes were Stephen King level gross, so without noting any spoilers, it’s got some pretty intense scenes.
Enjoy?

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This book is about so much more than the fire!

Revisado: 10-19-20

Great, detailed info not only about the fire and the mystery around who dunnit, but also MANY of the people and events which add to the history of both the downtown library building and the entire Los Angeles library system.

If you’re looking for a mystery, you’ll likely find this a good but not great story. There’s just not much mystery...

If you’re looking for main characters you can dig into and come to love and hate, this book comes up short. Susan Orlean provides interesting yet limited details about a lot of people, but even the “antagonist” (i use that term loosely, since he doesn’t really strike me as the bad guy) wasn’t portrayed in a way that made me choose a side for or against him.

If you want an Audible book because you LOVE a great voice in your ear, you will be disappointed. Except for her description of the fire, which grew in intensity much like the very fire she described, Susan Orlean lacks the skills of inflection and nuance. And her attempt at voicing foreign names and titles? Atrocious. She doesn’t even TRY to get them right.

But if you don’t mind a slightly textbook-y tone to a very interesting part of California history, you will really enjoy her extensive research. Further, her ability to knit together such disparate sources is exceptional.

So overall, this is a great book, if you’re cool with a few shortcomings.

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