Alan E. Gesler

Enough is enough

Revisado: 12-05-22

I've had my fill of John Corey. He's gone from wise-cracking annoyance in the early books to full blown narcissist in this one.

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Remember why you hated high school history?

Revisado: 08-03-22

The book is brutally long-winded, very slow paced, filled with dates you can't possibly remember and brimming with what Elmore Leonard called "the stuff you skip." Oh, and it's accompanied by the customary overly dramatic Scott Brick narration. If you want interesting history buy Jon Meacham instead.

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My ratings are odd, I know. But hear me out

Revisado: 09-03-19

John Hart is a good writer.His characters are livid. They jump off the page and I care about the ones I should. His stories are complex and interesting. All of that is accurate about this book. And the narration was very good.

There are two things that affected my overall rating. First, the book was just too grisly for me. Some of the scenes actually made me nauseous. I had to stop listening and walk away. Second, the identity of the killer was clear to me early on and I'm not that good at figuring those things out. For example, I have no idea how the title relates to the story. Despite the good writing, I was really glad to be done with it.

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I love this series

Revisado: 08-16-19

The main character is authentic. He's bright, funny and irritating in equal measures, and has an inflated view of his own ability. In other words, human. I'm already awaiting the next one.

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Out of the frying pan, into the fire

Revisado: 08-16-19

For. the. entire. book. Improbable premise leads to highly improbable situation which leads to extremely improbable situation which leads to ridiculously improbable situation which culminates in laughably impossible situation. Jonathon Davis is a fine narrator and does as much with the material as is humanly possible. The story must have been created by a bunch of guys sitting around having beers. When the hero gets into a spot and the question is posed "how do we get him out of here?" someone puts down his bottle and says "I know. I know." The deeper they get into the case of beer, the more outlandish the solution becomes.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Meh

Revisado: 07-25-19

The whole premise is a non starter for me. My mom (Serbian) was Orthodox. My dad (Croation) was Roman Catholic. They were both passionate people and had their differences, but never over whether the Pope was one step below God. Neither one cared. I know that people kill for no reason these days, but, even so, this is a reach.

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Made me nauseous

Revisado: 03-18-19

Bought this book because I enjoyed Denzel Washington in the movies. This writing is sophomoric, and that's generous. I don't even want to detail the offensive passages. I'm a father of 2 daughters and a grandfather of 4 granddaughters and I would like to take a baseball bat to this author. The world would be a better place.

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Old hat

Revisado: 02-22-19

It's mostly stuff we don't know. Lots of it is technical (the scientific names and locations of various parts of the brain). It's repetive: socialize, exercise, eat a Mediterranean diet and you'll live longer and have a better brain. Apparently, if you're an introvert, you'e doomed. The narrator thinks he's hilarious. Spoiler alert--he isn't.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Dreary, depressing, and way too long

Revisado: 11-28-18

I think I have read or listened to every Grisham book. This is his slowest moving book by far, and perhaps the slowest moving book in American literature. Even if you skip all the WWII stuff (which I think is advisable because none of it advances the story) you will still be left with chapter after chapter of a family's decline, death, disease, destruction, the evils of racism, the flaws of our legal system, all brought about by a strategy intentionally devised by a man who for all appearances is intelligent, demonstrably courageous, and a loving husband and father. There is nothing to enjoy here.

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Painful to listen to

Revisado: 07-13-18

I now remember why I didn't like American history in high school. This author takes a story that should be interesting and turns it into an endless and mind-numbing stream of dates, names, and places. There are dictionaries that are livelier reading. The writing style is also off-putting. Rose seems incapable of creating a simple, declarative sentence. He strings together clauses and parenthetical phrases in such abundance that the sentence length becomes Faulkner like. I wanted to enjoy this book, but I couldn't finish it.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas