Joshua Tree

I liked it, but not what I was expecting.

The story was entertaining, if a bit far fetched for the time. Unfortunately, the language used didn't age well.

My first reaction was that the police are a walking talking “how to” manual for sexual harassment in the workplace, which by the 3rd book was just getting on my nerves. I can see why there was only 1 female officer in the dept that is mentioned.

Combine that with the perfection that is the human being called Mac, was a bit much. He's good looking blond, tall and fit. He was the perfect college athlete, leading the hockey team to NCAA championships. Still as fit as he was in college. Add to it that he's the smartest and best detective in the St. Paul Police dept, (and probably all of MN). By the 3rd book, it was a bit too much

The story lines themselves were pretty good, I think it could have used more aggressive editing. The dialog was often unnatural being more like a formal writing than casual conversation–much more awkward and wordy than I would expect for casual conversation. There were also several scenes which didn't really server to move the story forward, including sex scenes, or one where a victim is trying to find ways to pass the time in the "coffin" – I don't think it really served to move the plot along. (and I just don't care about them having sex or not)

Overall, the books were pretty good for listening to driving to and from work, but I think there were some definite places that could use some improvement. Hopefully the newer books in the series are a bit tighter.

Interesting listen; I found much of it relatable, and the stories are generally fun to listen to.

It was OK. Doubt it is the type of book I'll have a second listen to any time in the future, but it was entertaining over all. For a book set in the far future, there were several references that really just pulled me out of the moment, such as USB cables being the preferred method of connecting tablets with industrial equipment, or a reference to WWII and the Russian front. On the other hand, I kind of liked the math slang that replaces the cursing and swearing.

the best of the more recent Fargo series.

This was an entertaining and fun way to get a bit of history about some interesting stories. I really fun listen on my drive to and from work.

The writing is sitcom bad. Bill, the main character, spouts off negative, derogatory stereotypes against some members of the IT profession that were off putting at best, and insulting at worst. Eric, Bill's mentor, is basically a jerk who enjoys the “game” of showing how much smarter he is than those around him.

Normally, in a novel this might be legitimate, but in this “teaching” story, it just undermines the actual point of the book. It's better than a textbook, but a lot of BS to wade through to get there, especially when the point of DevOps is to build bridges between operations/infrastructure and development, not burn them down.

Good enough to maybe look into the main books in the series

A bit outdated now, but still pretty good.

Wow. This was a long one. For the most part, it was very engaging, but there were a few times I was thinking “I get it. Get on with it, already.” However, overall it was it was a good book, and I am looking forward to the next book.

I remember reading this in the early 1980's and I loved it.

Since there is currently no description of the book, I'll add what my flawed memory still retains.
A young man is on Hawaii when the US enters World War II. He heads back to California on a ship carrying pineapples, and it gets torpedoed. He is rescued and joins the Navy and serves on a submarine.

It was an ok listen. I've never been that interested in the D&D books before and this didn't change that. I've heard of the Drizzt books but never read one before. There's something about the universe they're set in that isn't that appealing to me and these stories didn't change that. (I've never played D&D either.) Also, some of the stories got a bit heavy handed with the moral lectures.

The narrators were mostly very good with the only exception being Ice-T – he kept very heavily pronouncing the “w” in sword, which was a bit like nails on the chalkboard for me, and his story had that word in a lot. Otherwise, his reading was well done.

A pretty good story over all. I was fun and fairly light read/listen. I look forward to reading more of them.

Not the best of the Fargo books. Seems like several of their actions were un-Fargo like. Starting with going to Cuba, noticing a tail and thinking "we must have been sold out by a one of our staff" utterly discounting the bureaucratic trail the left just entering Cuba, not to mention the communist gov't just being suspicious of Americans, let alone treasure hunters that are American. Then, following that up with breaking into a gov't military museum, thinking all they need to do if caught is get into international water and they are worry free. Kinda short sighted since I'm sure there is at least one country that the Fargos would want to someday visit would be willing to extradite them back to Cuba--Russia and Venezuela come to mind

The overall story was entertaining, but their judgement lapse kept briefly taking me out of it.

This was a really fun listen. Wil Wheaton is a great narrator for it. It reminds me a bit of the [b:The Stainless Steel Rat 9354374 The Stainless Steel Rat Harry Harrison https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1284960062s/9354374.jpg 824589] books

It is an interesting subject. I got it cheap as an Audible daily deal, and I'd heard something about it, so I thought it might be interesting. Unfortunately, I tend to listen to books in the car to and from work, and I also tend to eat breakfast then...this book and eating do not a good pair make.

I really enjoy these books. They're just so much fun. That said, this is my least favorite of the series, so far. In the first two, Atticus wasn't looking for trouble, it came looking for him. This time around, he purposefully went seeking trouble, which diminishes him; to be fair the story deals with that very thing, and maybe in future books he'll be a slightly more deserving hero. Still it was fun, and the bacon latte scene is the proverbial cherry on top for me.

It was an interesting listen. It wasn't so compelling for me that I couldn't put it down. I mostly listened to it driving to and from work, it was good for that, but it didn't inspire those “driveway moments” where you you sit in the car listening for just a few more minutes.

It was an ok story. I enjoyed it for the most part, but in the end it just ended up being depressing. Most of the reviews and descriptions of this book talk about humans moving on to their next stage of evolution, but I think that is an inaccurate characterization of the end. Man isn't evolving naturally, it is being re-forged into a tool by the Overmind, and what was left behind was left to go extinct. This didn't seem to me to be any more the natural course of events for Humans any more than it is for the gardener to trim a shrub into the shape of a dolphin.I also got very tired, by the end of the book, of all these characters repeating, that if it wasn't for the Overlords that we would have blown ourselves up with nukes long ago. It just disturbed me how it portrayed the virtually whole of humanity drinking the Kool-Aid of the Overlords within less than a generation.Part of my negative attitude for this may stem from the audio book introduction about how this is one of Clarke's greatest stories and shows how Humans get past being on the brink of self-destruction on earth and move on to a new beginning.

A well written and interesting story, but I just didn't fall in love with the characters like I did with the ones in [b:The Cranberry Hush 10768069 The Cranberry Hush Ben Monopoli https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312742074s/10768069.jpg 15679574] and [b:The Painting of Porcupine City 12361754 The Painting of Porcupine City Ben Monopoli https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327852021s/12361754.jpg 17341799]. Overall a good story, but probably not one I will re-read, unlike some of his other books.

It was pretty good, but so not what I was expecting. I suppose with a title like this, I thought it would be more of a mystery novel, rather than a novel about a woman who is a detective.

A really good story and characters you could empathize with. I enjoyed the entire book. The only real down side to it was that I didn't like it too much when Simon would break the fourth wall. It doesn't happen that often, but I found it a bit cheesy.

The only part that kept me from giving this 5 stars was that I don't think I'll read this book again, at least not for a fairly long time. I liked the characters and could relate to them, but I just didn't fall in love with them.

Finally done with the entire series. I started reading, well listening to, it very late in–I think around the time vol. 9 or 10 was the latest. Overall, the story is good, but the characters, esp. early on, were always only 2 1/2 dimensional, always falling back on gender stereotypes of men and women thinking the other is stupid and can't do a thing for themselves, etc. even though they grew up together and know that it isn't the case.

The 14 audio books combined are over 18 days long–I hope Peter Jackson doesn't make this a future series–it will probably be about 3 dozen 3.5 hour installments...I don't think I could take that :)

An interesting book, but not that well written. The author has some very annoying tendencies in her writing that just ended up grating on my nerves by the end.

For one, she latches on to something she doesn't like an harps on it far longer than she should. For example, the tendency in the United States for us to measure dry ingredients in cups instead of weight clearly annoyed her and she let us know it; She just needs to get over it, that a slight improvement in accuracy does not make up for the convenience of “scooping” over weighing.


Another annoying tendency she has is to make statements about how until a very recent date, every invention of a specific type was just crap, until this widget came along, when in fact the “new invention” isn't new, just modified. For example, on the she states that there were no good ways to peel vegetables (for the home cook) before the 1990's, and that the ones that were invented in the early 20th century worked well enough (the traditional swivel and rex models) but would hurt your hands and give you blisters if you had to use them for very long. The answer to this was just the “OXO Good Grip” version that had a chunky plastic handle. I've used a vegetable peeler since I was a child in the 70's and never hurt my hand with one. That said, the OXO one is an improvement, and evolution to consider ergonomics in the design, but to claim that it has revolutionized the peeling of vegetables for the general public is not only inaccurate, but detracts from the book as a whole.

Overall, the subject matter was interesting, but I wish the writing was more polished.