Mer Barr
Insightful, sometimes the writing is a bit unusual and I'm not sure why. If it was directly quoted from a journal it would make sense but the entire book is more of a look-back to his experiences at the time. I was listening to the audio so maybe there is a visual clue in visual text form that would explain this.The author's view of this war reminds me alot of Mick Herron and John le Carré's portrayals of the ‘Cold' war. More realistic and not so glamorous as ‘Cubby' Broccoli's interpretation of Ian Fleming's stories. I've not read the latter recently so not sure if Mr. Broccoli's movies are true to the portrayal of the war as the author's books or not.And I think this book is a great companion to The Ten Thousand Day War, Michael Maclear's macro view, and a similar micro / personal viewpoint to Vietnam Voices: Perspectives On the War Years, 1941-1982, John Clark Pratt.
I think this is the earliest confident, intelligent female who's comfortable with her body that I've come across.
Images are easy to understand due to simple coloring and the text is pretty tiny [thank goodness for 2-finger zoom]. Although there's not a visual clue that you're looking at the next issue in the series, the fact that people come and go, do.
I wonder if the artists for the movie Heavy Metal got their female body shape from Barbarella? Maybe the creators of Barbie, the doll, did too?
I spent a good part of this book scratching my head. First I'm not sure where the story is going, then when I think I'm following it all goes wonky and stays that way for quite some time before making any sense again. But well worth the read.
I found several common themes; 1 to a recent movie and several to The City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clarke. The audio had a male and female narrator as the perspective switched, which helped reduce confusion due to the change, the story did move along [even when confusing], and many kickstarts to a new twist just when you thought the book was about to end, which was nice.
It's been awhile since I read a good hard-science sci-fi.
This one is only really fun if you're already familiar with the author and his prior lifestyle, know a fair amount of British slang, and can handle cursing.
I will say his responses are well thought out and he uses personal antidotes and research to back up his replies. He does a nice job of breaking themes into chapters and intersperses various types of factoids through-out so it's not just 1 ask-reply after another.
This makes me want to read Sharon Osbourne's memoir. How did she get through his wild days?
Didn't get moving really until mid-way thru and I'm seriously confused about which characters are which? There are several I have no memory of even those I've read all the previous books. It'd be nice if she had a prologue giving a summary of people and goings-on from the prior chapters/novellas in every novella.
Rather than reading all prior books multiple times, I'm going to way for the next 2-3 novellas to come out, which is years down the road.
I've read quite a few books on a specific species found somewhere in the ocean. This is a really great book for looking at the macro system of the ocean, which short dives into specific topics or species and how they interact with, affect, and are affected by, the whole.Lots of science thrown at you but the author does a really amazing job of describing the science in layman's terms. The number of subject is incredible! Of course, I shouldn't be surprised considering the size and complexity of the ocean. I also like how she intersperses her own career activities amongst it, not always syncing with the chapter topic. I'm incredibly jealous of her travels and world experiences but so happy she chose to share them.
This might have been one of the first books I was introduced to, when I was introduced to science-fiction and fantasy in junior high school. I read both the first and second Chronicles and remember mentally throw yellow and later red cards [rugby and soccer penalties] at the main character.
Had Goodreads been around at the time I would have rated all the books 1-star, which is why it's taken me decades to circle back to this. The weird thing is I still have both sets in my physical library collection and have been dragging them from home-to-home this entire time.
As an adult with more setbacks and dark days under my belt, I now understand the majority of the characters' motivations and reasons and therefore found this book much more enjoyable; no card displaying, let alone throwing them, at a character. I'm confident I'll read at least the next in the series, just not sure when.
This set brings you in not at the creation of the Winter Soldier but well along his arc, with not a whole lot of his backstory. And if you're like me who had their introduction to this universe by way of the movies, the relationships are no where near the same.
On it's own, the visuals, and the sequencing of the windows and speaking are easy to follow, and the storyline is not too difficult to catch up to.
Dark and gritty visuals as well as ‘plane jane' characters give it what was most likely a more accurate picture to the business than James Bond movies portray. More like [a:Mick Herron 1237964 Mick Herron https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1512920134p2/1237964.jpg]'s [b:Slow Horses 7929891 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1) Mick Herron https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410800211l/7929891.SY75.jpg 11252875] and [a:John le Carré 1411964 John le Carré https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1606816199p2/1411964.jpg]'s [b:Smiley's People 18999 Smiley's People (George Smiley, #7; Karla Trilogy, #3) John le Carré https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348407722l/18999.SY75.jpg 2144486].And I do wonder if the spies in the field were mostly this old? Or was it more of a “young man's game” as the movie portrays.Regardless, the plot is definitely convoluted and requires multiple read thrus to grasp the logic along the way, much like the above mentioned series.
Although this has a pretty slow start to the storyline, the character building and mystery keep you hanging in till things begin to pick up. Where I thought the story would have a natural ending, I discovered the book was only half-way done, leaving one to wonder where the story could move to from here? I wasn't disappointed at the remaining half of the book, nor the epilogue.
Funny, easy on the eyes visuals, language that you can easily hear in your head while reading, and a quick read. This must be part of a pre-existing series based on how the introductions are done. I've already started the second graphic novel and may backtrack to the full book to see how the novel to graphic translation has gone.
Reminds me alot of the author's [b:2001: A Space Odyssey 70535 2001 A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432468943l/70535.SY75.jpg 208362] trilogy with the exploration of mind-expanding concepts of what could be in our far distant future.Can be slow at times and long-winded in spots but a good read none the less.
This is the ol' ‘similar but different' scenario. Similar to the author's prolific Stephanie Plum series with ‘I hate you then I love you' romance but different career choices involved. And because of the male main character's career choice the author seems to be channeling [a:Donald E Westlake 40532161 Donald E Westlake https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s hilarious Dortmunder series, which starts with [b:The Hot Rock 596576 The Hot Rock (Dortmunder, #1) Donald E. Westlake https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1424652145l/596576.SY75.jpg 980279].I'll probably read 1 or 2 more of this series.
Due to restrictions on the borrowing of the book, I was unable to get it all read before I had to return the hardcopy.
What I did make it thru was a bit too detailed for my taste. He began by explaining where he was at in life, what his motivation was for enrolling in the program, his progressive training leading up to the program and a bit of the beginning of the program before I had to return the book. Within this part the author goes into incredible detail of the people he lives, trains, and socializes with and the world and culture he's living in.
I think the amount of detail is a mix of sweet and sour. It slows down the story so much that my enthusiasm waned alot but that level of details did hold many moments of humor and created rich descriptions of the people. There are alot and I did get confused with who was who once he began his aikido classes.
I remember saying ‘What the heck happened that would topple multiple banks?' when I heard the news in 2007-08. The author did an amazing job explaining what, who, when, why, and how of this complex topic. As well as the multiple timelines of several groups and individuals, who strangely seem to gain knowledge from each other but never directly meet, with 1 exception.I appreciate the epilogue for a bit of closure.Numbers and finance are not my forte so I borrowed the movie based on this book and of the same title, and watched it twice during the reading of this book before the story began to make sense.I have [a:Alan Greenspan 1334 Alan Greenspan https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1207744113p2/1334.jpg]'s [b:The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World 522861 The Age of Turbulence Adventures in a New World Alan Greenspan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347515423l/522861.SY75.jpg 1203801] on my physical bookshelf and hope it gives me some insights as to how much he did and did not know [or will admit to] in the years leading up to the collapse. I'd always thought of him as a wise leader of the ‘Fed' but this book has me wondering if that was correct or not.
Chock full of information, so much so that it's quite overwhelming and I don't remember any of the information each time I set the book down. However while listening it provided insights that I was not aware of and corrected alot of misinformation floating in the world today.
I had to return the book early so I didn't get to the last, most recent, generation. I would have liked to have read that section. Maybe I'll pick this book back up and finish it.
If there weren't so much dark subject mentioned, I'd buy this for my newborn nephew. The topic is simple, there's alot of rhyming, it's short, and the narrator shows that it's perfect for all kinds of voices for a parent to make while reading this.
You can determine if this is acceptable tots, kindergarteners, or grade school readers.
