Mer Barr
Very enjoyable, lots of characters to get to know, and an interesting twist to my childhood memories.
Interesting journey into an expansion of the world of [b:Out of Africa 781787 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608486134l/781787.SY75.jpg 1189079].
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 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].
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.
Good mystery with a surprise that I didn't see coming. A nice intro to the second lead character.
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 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'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.
75% of the book is on his life in school, showing all the synchronisity between who/where he was then and where he is today. I appreciated his honest sharing of his experience although I got a bit uncomfortable on ‘to much information' areas. I love that he is just as geeky as me as well as some of the deep thinking he does; I sure don't do that so “You go Simon!”
I dropped out completing the book first because I kept getting lost in the timelines. He did warn me in his introduction. Second, I was looking for the book to be touching into areas along his life rather than focusing heavily in his first 20 years or so.
Another fine plot in the series, more detail that sometimes is hard to track and although not as funny as the original book in the series, it still had me smiling now and again, which is good.
Footloose meets Regency-era England.
Lots of individual mysteries and some romance [thankfully not too gooey].
It's been awhile since I visited Pern, one of my favorite worlds as well as my introduction to science-fiction and fantasy.
Normally I don't like short stories but maybe my brain made an exception in this case because I could fit most of these into their right place in the Pern universe timelines, and none were a duplication of something I'd already read.
I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to the universe as the stories span centuries and don't backfill for the mentioned people, places, and events.
This was so much better to read in sequence. The first read was when it initially came out which was several ?years? after the series ended and my memory of details was let go.
Great flow, great story telling, it is a bit tricky to remember that there is one story around a campfire within another story around a campfire. Warning, this book is still more world building, no progress towards The Tower.
Picked this one from a bookclub friend's TBR and it was a good one! A mix of those film noir movies and [a:Mickey Spillane 50948 Mickey Spillane https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1318950096p2/50948.jpg] type of ‘no nonsense', first-person, who dunnits, with a dash of [b:Altered Carbon 40792913 Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1) Richard K. Morgan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531415180l/40792913.SY75.jpg 2095852]'s uncertainty as to who you're actually meeting.I don't usually like the who dunnits as some are really easy to figure out and I'm not fond of murders as the base for a story. This did have some of gruesome but it definitely did not give things away too soon.
A very fast listen, read by Ms Beard herself. It's a great introduction to how things are and why. It does not go into how to make changes.
Being a female in a male dominated industry starting in the 1980s means I've been on the receiving end of the sort of bias and prejudice the author is writing about. I've even had to point out to women how their view of ‘pushy' or ‘loud' women is most likely inaccurate due to bias and that I'm most likely described the same way just for being a woman in this time and place and not sticking to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
I'm looking forward to a book that talks about how to make changes.
The interest here was what it might have been like the ‘eve' of the Nazi army's invasion of Paris. What are people worrying about, what are they doing or not doing, who is cutting and running? The list of characters are pretty seedy and not altruistic and of course not alot of action but there is alot of interaction between characters and lots of mystery.
A different kind of ‘murder' mystery you might say. Alot of technical details that I had to just cruise thru, no way I'd understand all that was meant to convey, but still a fascinating journey; and so nice to hear about collaboration, in this age of divisiveness.
Had heard about this book on an NPR interview with the author and I see it's on Goodread friend, who recently died's TBR so reading in now in her honor. #jennyguycolvin
Loved the language lessons, especially the slowing down the pronunciation so I could pick up on each part of the words. Lots of good tips to explore for myself, including chapter 1's unscented candles.
Interesting topic, some canned characters, the plot continues to move which I prefer, places I've not been to which I like. Reminds me a bit of [b:The Da Vinci Code 968 The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2) Dan Brown https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579621267l/968.SY75.jpg 2982101] with the hidden clues, niche knowledge, and hidden groups.
If you like storytelling then you'll probably enjoy this book. Layer 1 the protagenist today, layer 2 protagenist is recounting his life story, layer 3 stories told to him by others when he was younger.The author spent a good chunk of time in layer 3, which didn't move the plot along and didn't appear to add any value to the other 2 layers. Reminded me of the 4-page paragraphs from [b:Heart of Darkness 4900 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392799983l/4900.SX50.jpg 2877220].
With several different story arcs it gets a bit confusing at who is where and when but the author does a good job at the very end refreshing one's memory enough that you see the whole picture. Not sure if the Navaho traditions mentioned are real or not but they do sound intriguing.