Gio'

Nice small story set during an important period of Italian history, the post WWII. The most interesting part is that this story, for once, recounts Italy from a Sardinian point of view and that is not common to read.

Up and down, up and down... Nice characters, nice writings, but the story... In the search to deliver a story excessively grim, the author inserts too many obvieties and cop out situations. Also too many situation in which the character to stupid things, like designated victims in low rate horror movies, only for the story to be self-serving.

In many ways I consider this an important and deep book. Having battled with introversion and shyness for all my youth and having learned to accept these traits as fundamental to my personality while being extremely grateful of how my life turned out, it was very interesting how more complex things can be and to see clarified some concepts that were maybe already in rough form in my head. It was also fun to see how some things described in the book may apply to me or to people I know.
On the other hand, the book is pretty uneven. The author has a bias in proving her thesis that makes her analysis of cases a little unbalanced going deep on some concepts and barely mentioning others. Also, as a Silicon Valley resident, I strongly believe that she totally missed on the deep problematics of the Cupertino school system and that she only touched on the aspects of a very complex situation that were instrumental to her paradigm.
Finally, even though my kids are loud extroverts, I found the chapters and suggestions about parenthood, very helpful and well written.

Mixed bag in my opinion. I'll break it down.
1922: this is story is nothing special. Nothing really new. I did not enjoy it, 2 stars.
Big driver: this is fun, well written and with a good ending, 4 stars.
Fair extension: this is also fun, but I found it half written with a disappointing ending, 2.5 stars.
A good marriage. Another good one, 4 stars.
The average is about 3. This collection is not a masterpiece, but still an enjoyable read.

It is a good fun read, but... the plot has too many coincidence for me to fully enjoy. I'm totally ok with heroes that can take down 5 guys bare handed or that cannot be hit by bullets. I love James Bond as much as the next guys, but the coincidences... that's where I put the line in the sand.

How much fun! I didn't want it to end. I've got hours of please out of this book. Science fiction at his finest. Imaginative universes tied in human traditions, adventures, alternative religions and family drama. This book has it all.

If I were to judge this book on its own merit, it is a solid sci-fi book, but if I compare it to the first book in the series, it is definitely a step down. Of course it is very difficult to follow a masterpiece.

5 stars, that's pretty simple. The book's historical context is riveting. The characters and relationship are extremely vivid. The story is beautiful and with many many changes of scenarios. Really impressive. The notoriety of this book is well deserved.

Maybe there's a good book buried in this beast. The issue is that the good parts are drowned into endless boring parts that drove me crazy. If I'm able for a moment to redact all the useless parts, the book is sweet and nice and describe some interesting communities and some part of the American history I knew very little about.

This is a very good collection of stories, all tied together in a nice alternative world. The writing is elegant and so the scenes come out of the pages in very vivid color. Classy.

It is always with a mix of sadness and excitement that I approach a book from Michael Crichton that I haven't read. The books are always superb and riveting but thinking that this wonderful author has gone too soon and, selfishly, that I have not that many of his books left to read, makes me a little sad. This story is fun, goes fast without slumping and makes you smarter and more aware. The technology described is of course outdated, but this only adds to the vintage appeal of this book.

This is probably not the most wonderful book of Crichton. Maybe the setting forces a little of “normality” to the plot and make it a little less memorable. It was still an enjoyable read and I felt that a movie adaptation would have a lot of potential. Unfortunately I read the reviews of the movie that was made and the look pretty bad.

Interesting how I reacted o this book... After the first 10-15% of the book, I was ready to abandon it. I found it tedious, repeating the same concept again and again with just different words and different examples. I powered through the slog mostly out of curiosity, given the great reviews and finally got to the good part. The tone of the author is perfect, judgement is restrained and there's no self indulgence, and that made the read in the end quite compelling. Probably, as a fiction, it would be a 3 stars, but as a memoir. I think it brings something important in an elegant way, so it gets an extra star from me.

Taken one by one all this little stories are ok, but as a fragmented story I found this book confused with no apparent reasons and the society is described through large numbers if trivialities and stereotypes.

I couldn't get into it. The story is nothing special and I don't know why this book is well considered. The characters are pretty thinly defined and there's no consistency in their behavior, other than acting stupidly all the time.

What a read. I approached this book with fear, given the length. As an audiobook it is a massive 52 hours record (but I listened to it at 1.8X speed, still massively long). But I was soon captured by the settings and the story and the epic feeling of it all. This is a brilliant book that has to be savored. It was initially published as a serial and so it has to be enjoyed as long sequence of intense episodes. I'm so happy that I decided to read this!

Very good story that taught me something about a region of Italy that I don't know that well. Maybe the story could have been developed a little more.

Yes, it is a very good book. Short and clear, it does make for a very enjoyable read. It approaches all the toughest part with a certain levity , such that the reader can absorb the message without being overwhelmed by emotions. It is a very fine line, but worked very well in the book. The only knock I have is that the author, every once in a while, it makes it too much about himself than about Morrie, but, in fairness, only in a small portion of the book. I keep the 5 ratings for books that really capture me and stay with me for a long time, and while this book didn't make it to 5 for me, it is a very solid 4, may 4,5.

Exciting! I was pretty worried because the beginning of the book was not as good as the previous two, with too much of the usual fare of conspiracies. But I was once again surprised buy how the rhythm of the story mounted and mounted, with great old and new characters and by the end I could not stop and I lost good hours of sleep trying to get a few more page in. It is bittersweet to finish this amazing trilogy from a gifted author gone too soon...

The book is very short. In audio form is like a long podcast. Having said that, it comprehensively outlines a minimalist philosophy about small businesses and small size enterprises. While, taken one by one, all these observations are also found in other sources, I have not found a single place where they are all integrated together like in this book.
The only real downside is that for some of the “guidance” no counter arguments are analyzed to show where the limits are and where the methods break. In the end this is in line with the spirit of the book, something quick and actionable, not an all-encompassing academic book on business.

Easy easy read. A reminder of simple things that everybody should already know. Most of the book is decent, then it gets a little too spiritual for my taste, but overall good suggestions that might resonate with some people more than others.

The book was not what I expected, mostly because I didn't do my homework beforehand. I was expecting something more focused on fascism and persecution of the Jews, but these things are just in the background, while the book focuses on the “questione meridionale” that is a way to describe the long standing issues related to the south of Italy. Levi explores this complex matter through a series of episodes.
The style is very varied, there are flashbacks, philosophical and historical mini essays throughout the book and so on.
Certainly an original book but maybe a little cold in some places to really merit 5 stars. Anyway, I really enjoyed reading it.

There is certainly an underlying sad tone about this book. The premise is grim, the whole aura surrounding this book is grim. But the writing turned out not be heavy, it was actually a smooth read, and of course you root for the hero, but this is real life...

boh... I have not found much special in this book. The premise is strong, but that's just what this amounts to. A book with good premises and no development. It goes in burst, just when you're hoping for something to happen, for the book to find his rhythm, it goes back to endless accounts of nothing. The prose is good, but overall I'm disappointed.

This book is dark, grim, but more than anything else it is disturbing and relentlessly so. It is one punch in the guts after another. Basically one of Steve's best books. I loved it, I got into it pretty worried about hating the length, but the story was so good that the long ride felt great.