Mer Barr

Nothing against the author's writing style, the subject matter is something I don't get excited about to read.

I wished I had known the Thames much better so I could visualize where the author was talking about, which would have made this more of an armchair-travel like read for me. As it is, this more like a broad history of London, well back behind the Romans at times, she does have one chapter about how our century is represented [it's ugly I must say].

Maybe I'll reread this another time, and use a mapping tool that uses satellite imaging and street car views, to get a better visual.

Majority of his stories are very upbeat. Strangely he doesn't go into as much detail about how the Foo Fighters came together as he does with Nirvana. Meshes nicely with the tv series he and his mom did, based on her book about mothers and their successful, musical, children.

Do the audiobook where he does the narration himself.

Footloose meets Regency-era England.
Lots of individual mysteries and some romance [thankfully not too gooey].

So glad I heard about this book. The books I'd read previously on Genghis Kahn gives one the impression he was really ruthless, but clearly there were aspects of him where he was much more liberal [in today's standards] to raise his daughters to be such competent and strong women who could manage whole regions and therefore maintain the grounds his sons and sons-in-law captured and conquered.Also glad to hear about the women and their relationships so far after Genghis Kahn and the very ending was a real ahah for me.I'll be circling back to [b:The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe 153288 The Devil's Horsemen The Mongol Invasion of Europe James Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172249672l/153288.SY75.jpg 147971], to see what perspectives are changed as a result of this balancing of history.

The title of this book is a bit misleading. You think you're going to have a biography but the mix is really 90% history and culture of the vikings with 10% biography and that 10% doesn't really go into her journey thru Europe but mainly the east and west of her homeland.

Once I shifted my perspective to align with the actual topics, I found this book incredibly fascinating! So many journeys by so many voyagers, and alot of archaeology and interpretations of historical documents.

I'm sure Bob's outlook on life was considered humorous when the book was written but he wouldn't survive very long in today's world, thank goodness.

The plot was confusing at the beginning but stablized before I gave up on the book. Intriguing ideas and concepts and alot of ‘Is the author making a statement here?'

Alot of references to prior books, many of which I couldn't stay invested in the story and others that were just to creepy for my taste. I may reconsider reading them..

I'm reading this book after several other books about the guards whose plots are much later in time. It's strange to see how different the situation and the guard are, between the time lines. I'm looking forward to finding and reading the books in between.

Good mystery with a surprise that I didn't see coming. A nice intro to the second lead character.

What's with all these novellas! A 2 hour story is waste of my time! 1 star for this.

Not sure how this ties in to the first in the series, maybe the cleric in the story? Nothing else is sounding familiar.

Other than these, it seems well written so giving it an extra 2 stars.

I normally prefer books that have alot of substance and depth to them, which is why I avoid short stories in general, and sometimes novellas. I did enjoy this novella more because it's a time period I enjoy and especially a strong woman as the Empress is.

I found the quick switching of the time periods confusing. I would appreciate an audible pause [or visual break] be included in all such book structures.

I'll definitely read the next in the series.

Can't quite put my finger on it but I didn't like this one as much as the first. Maybe there wasn't so much of the word play that I find humorous, and more emphasis on forms of humor I don't find funny?

I have not laughed out loud in a long time! It's nice to find some humor I can enjoy. Right up there with the Dortmunder series by [a:Donald E Westlake 21453878 Donald E Westlake https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and some of the Discwold series by [a:Terry Pratchett 1654 Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg].

A great insight into a world I'm not familiar with, and I found I was envious of someone surrounded by strong and supportive women. Most of my life has been in male dominated work environments which at times was very lonely and you had to have your own back.

I made it to about the 20% mark and then started jumping chapters. No where did I run across the “Fall” mentioned in the title, or “Hell”, and Dodge had completely disappeared from the story, except in past tense. He's like a “red herring” with the actual story being everyone else, and the generations and technology that comes after.

What I did like was the exploration of the technology of the time, that today seems to be the beginning of, not yet at the level of, the book.

A very quick read that reminded me of ‘meditations on a specific theme'. Some of the thoughts that arose for the author are memories of her family and growing up in segregated Texas, history of slavery in Texas, the origins of Juneteenth, and how her family celebrated.

It helped me understand a bit more of the world that I didn't grow up in.

The author does an amazing job of making what has to be an extremely complex science with a unique language, into layman's terms that a science fan like myself can follow along and understand the science theoretically but not necessarily the details.

I'm so happy to see a book about a woman who has navigated the male dominated industry so well! Not only can she stand up to male-bias but rise above that negativity by focusing on collaboration, supporting others, and mentoring.

I thought the author did a great job of staying in the middle during the divisive sections of the story. Not presenting the folks from China as ‘bad' people, but people with different cultural perspectives and emphasis and not making the European and American cultures as ‘good' people.

And I especially like that the author interjected his own thoughts and perspectives in the storyline. He wasn't just telling someone else's story but how their story impacted his own story and expressed his differing opinions.

I think I enjoyed to visual art better than the first as there wasn't as many battle scenes to confuse my brain. I also liked the greyness of the motives and personalities; not so black and white. Which is why I also like [a:Elmore Leonard 12940 Elmore Leonard https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1240015224p2/12940.jpg].

I was introduced to this series by way of the Netflix series. Love the concept, the characters and the different times the creators have chosen. Thankfully the weapons of choice are an easy way for me to identify the different characters in a frame.

The sequencing of the frames and bubbles is not quite intuitive for me, probably as I don't read many graphic novels. I also find the frames way to busy to understand most times but I do pause to appreciate and admire the skill in the design and drawing of the really busy frames.

I'm looking forward to reading volume 2 and sad to see it's the last available.

This should be marked for reading after the original series. The only reason it wasn't outright confusing is I've seen the movie version a couple times and could sort of piece out who was who.

That said, I found the stories helpful and thankfully the image and bubble sequencing fairly logical. The images were too busy for my brain. Maybe it would make more sense if I have more graphic novels under my belt.

I thought the author did a good job of gathering stories from many different sides of the event, as well as showing the positive and negative sides to human beings.

She dove into why PGnE was the one that started the flames and why but what I would like to know is did the residents of Paradise ever acknowledge their part in the catastrophe? There were so many mentions that the flames moves much more rapidly than most fires do but didn't really clarify what folks determined why. Was it a combination of the communities enthusiasm for being surrounded by nature and duff as well as the extremely dry weather?

One thing it took me awhile to understand was that Paradise is north of San Francisco. I've not watched the local or cable news channels or read news papers in decades, so I had always assumed this was in Southern California where all the fires from the 80s and 90s were occurring. I've driven thru the smoldering n blackened countryside in the north bay area of the San Francisco area, so I can now align Paradise with these memories, and time, in my mind.

I've struggled to understand the letting go aspect during meditation and non-meditation but this book really clarified that for me. And the examples are those that I can readily identify, which I've struggled with, with other teachers.

I will say Rinpoche does a more than thorough job of providing examples. I found myself starting to skim pages towards the end of the book, mumbling ‘I get it! I get it! What else do you have for me to learn!'

First time I read this, back in the 90s most likely, I gave it 4 stars. Today I've quit reading before the halfway mark because the plot is not drawing me in.

It's hard to put my finger on but there's something about this sort of magic in a person's life that I enjoy much better than the other types of stories about witches and magicians and vampires and such that I don't have the same reaction to. Is it the origins of the magic being written about? That it seems to be more earthy?