Mer Barr
The 30 hours to the audio was rather intimidating and I thought the author probably went into so much detailed it'd get boring after awhile, or bog down alot. That turned out not to be the case.
Balanchine lived thru some pretty traumatic times: the revolution that ousted and then killed the last Czar, Lenin, Stalin, World War 1, and World War 2. I found it very insightful to see what those times were like for the people and an individual, in particular. It does sound like he was fortunate to stay 1 step ahead of the trauma of the World Wars' fighting and bombings.
I was happy that I made it to the creation of the New York City Ballet before my loan was up.
The start was a bit gruesome and hard to take but because the focus kept shifting it was bearable.
Towards the end [and personally I think there are 3 endings in this book] so after the first and during the second storyline I noticed this author took a different approach to world building, one that I really enjoyed.
Alot of authors will put the firehose in your mouth and turn on the tap, which eventually bogs down the storyline [if you ever get to it] and a storyline that moves is important to me. Others will throw you in the deep end of the pool and leave you to drown; they don't spend any time on the world building and their plot has huge gaping holes, which really ticks me off.
This author, doesn't do all the world building during the first story, there are clear gaps in understanding and the world, but not enough to bog down the progress of the storyline and piss off the reader.
The second story is pretty much all back trailing, filling in the gaps in the story and alot of world building which has me interested if there's a second book. The third story was the wrap up on individual story lines and tying up loose ends, leaving me contented.
This is a book I'd put in my personal collection to pull out when I'd forgotten the minor details and enjoy multiple times over the decades.
An unusual format for a memoir. A set of short stories of different cases that the author has overseen or participated in, rather than a sequential timeline of her life.
The stories are fairly mild compared to many forensic stories one sees on tv and movies these days. And the author does a very good job of providing both the proper, technical term along with a short description or more common term for a bone or a procedure.
In the soft copy there are many pictures of coffins types, difference in bones, and reconstruction of a face in clay and bone.
Overall, I enjoyed the storyline and the author did a great job with the presentation.
I did find several things incredibly frustrating: an over-protective mother figure and a narrator that was contemplating out loud, how different types of science would occur. Both stalled the story much too often. I started jumping chapters until I found movement again.
Much of what the author imagines still hasn't come to pass, much of what he does talk about, about society and human nature are still the same.
I love how the Dalai Lama can bring concepts hard to visualize or find something analagous to compare the new concepts to, down to such a simple language for easier understanding. And it amazes me that he's able to remember all the subtle differences of interpretation of a particular topic across many different lineages of Buddhism.
The sutra he uses is definitely different from the one I chant so it's interesting to see how different word choices have been used.
A nice reminisce for the Firefly-verse with lots of references to the show storyline.
I did start jumping ahead 1 chapter at a time because the main character had been gone awhile and folks seemed to be wandering waaay down rabbit holes to the point I was getting lost as to why a character was in one to begin with and how this hole related to the missing person recovery.
There was a nice wrap-up.
Not what I was expecting based on the synopsis. Probably because what the author presents is not as traumatic and flamboyant as seen in the movies for near future scenarios.
Also, not much really happened in the 40% that I read before returning the loaner. Some mystery person roaming around India and some folks getting together in Texas to explore global warming solutions. Also a bit of how the author presents the impact of global warming on human interactions and lifestyle as well as the impact to the local and European environments.
Who knew a book about a man under house arrest for decades could be so interesting! But when you have really interesting characters it makes a HUGE difference. I also found it interesting how the last couple chapters suddenly jump into overdrive on the action, kind of a shock to the system.
And I found it intriguing to see a different perspective on the transition thru 3 different leaders and their influence on Russian culture.
A fantastic book for anyone who's a science-fiction fan or even a science fan, who wants to understand what this ‘metaverse' we keep hearing about is. The author looks backwards into the history for each chapter, the current situation [as of 2022?], and what folks project about the future.
The start of each chapter is great for newbies like myself but be warned! The author proceeds to dive into the politics, business strategy and tactics, and financial aspects of the chapter's topic to the point your eyes glaze over and it's just a buzz of sound, like a language unknown to you.
An intriguing topic but the presentation of the topic is waaay too something for me. Too intellectual? Too many references to concepts brand new to me? It came down to my understanding about 75% of what the author was trying to convey and finding this more of a difficult, rather than insightful, read.
This book is for the Dune connoisseur, which I'm not; not really. It was interesting to hear some of the earlier drafts of Dune put together as a novella but I find the copy put into the hardcopy medium to be much more complex and interesting.
And not being a lover of the short-story format, I didn't enjoy the rest of this book, other than knowing there were pieces the 3 authors crafted to fit around and in between pretty much all of the books.
There is clearly alot of research here because she's constantly referring to the documents but there's also ALOT of interpretation [guessing] of others' thoughts and actions based on these same documents' authors' opinions, as well as the author's own interpretations [guessing] that draw from her own viewpoint / perspective.
Granted, Jeanne Baret is a woman in a time and place where women were ignored and overlooked, forcing researchers down the road of ALOT of interpretations, however I prefer less guessing in a non-fiction book, or a different way of approaching the lack of direct documentation.
This book has alot of the writing qualities of the first book that I enjoyed but there were some changes that put up some roadblocks to my enjoyment. First there are whole chapters, some are quite long, where it's all backfill. I prefer short bursts of getting off-track.
Second, there are quite a few people that you're looking thru their eyes at the goings-on, and there is no effort made to give you a heads-up that you're changing viewpoints. Too much getting lost on my part.
I was glad to see that the main character of the first book shows up. The tricky thing is the shifting perspective; looking thru her eyes as well as looking at her from others.
I'm 25% in to a TWENTY-THREE HOUR book. I'm not sure where the plot is going, and I'm not interested in putting up with all the above issues that long.
Even tho this book is copyright 1997 the history and explanation of the various elements of tea are still relevant.
It's got me interested in trying single-source teas and I would never have thought teas would acquire tastes from their environment [as with wine grapes] but in hindsight that makes perfect sense.
The beginning is incredibly dark! The middle is strangely, considering this is a not-fiction story, a nice mix of beauty, personal challenges, interesting individuals, risk, insight, and reward which normally describes a fiction plot. Thankfully there is an end although it felt like only 2 sentences long compared to the rest of the story.
She doesn't go over her decompression into the world, which I would have liked to know more of but what she provides is also good closure.
Good use of words to describe her inner and outer world.