Mer Barr
I love [a:Michael Crichton 5194 Michael Crichton https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359042651p2/5194.jpg]'s books because they have alot of hard science [even if it's not so factual to those who work in those fields] and he pauses just long enough to explain it and make it real to me, and then he's back on to the plot.I picked this book up because I'd seen the movie and although the plots stay in sync the characters are waaay different.
I remember hearing alot about Israel as a child but I don't hear so much about them today. This is a good book to get caught up on some of the big events for the country as well as fill in the gaps for what I did hear about.
The authors stay focused on the subject of their book, they don't wander off onto other subjects and don't put alot of detail and wording where it's not needed. All things I find make good writing for me.
A continuation of [b:The Heritage of Hastur 472778 The Heritage of Hastur (Darkover, #18) Marion Zimmer Bradley https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1175044337l/472778.SY75.jpg 461050] that picks up several years after but really years that wouldn't contribute to the plot of the 2 main characters' stories. And it brings their stories to a nice conclusion.I did get confused over who was related to who, which families had what traits etc. but I gave up and found not knowing those details really didn't impact the plot or dull the enjoyment of the story.
How wonderful to hear and see Mesopotamiah in the 1900s thru the eyes of Gertrude Bell! A bit saddened tho, because this trip is an focus on architecture that has almost blown away it's [even then] incredibly old!
I did get a thrill reading her description of Babylon, sounds like this was the furthest south she got on the Euphrates before moving over to the Tigris for the return trip. And along that latter route again getting a thrill to read about her stop at one of the locations for the landing of Noah's Ark.
There are many references to other individuals who had travelled in the areas she was in, before her. Sadly men with European sounding names and not locals. But she mentions so much history that she's clearly read far and wide on many subjects pertaining to the regions she travels in.
Well worth the read if you're interest in Ms Bell and her time.
Well written! A great mix of research and personal experience, alot of detail and very good presentations of overarching desires, ambitions, and faults that are hard to see and condense without contemplation.
I'm glad someone mentioned this in a bookclub I belong to because I wouldn't have come across it on my own.
The Darkover universe is one of my favorites. Ms Bradley did a great job of intuiting the culture of some peoples of our Earth today, to a future that I can follow and found believable.
I'd read this book a couple times from my own physical library but today it's much easier to read via audio so I'm grateful Recorded Books took the time to convert it to audio for my use.
This book has nice transitions back and forth between 2 primary characters because the shift is provided in the chapter title. One of my personal pet peeves is no visual or audible clue of perspective / time shift.
Made it to the 20% mark and still cant figure out why this is classified as science fiction or fantasy. This part is strictly fiction with a desire to talk about translation and the life of a young person in a foreign land.
And where's the plot that this huge tomb is supposed to be conveying?
What an abuse of a reader's and narrator's time! And if in paper what a waste of trees and chemicals!
I'm not a solid fan of sword and dragon topics so the heraldry, jousting, and melee details I zoned out on and the same with the political intrigue.
I did love the 2 main characters and their adventuring and many of the secondary characters. The stories weren't too short and each plot moved along nicely.
Finally got this read! It took me 5 years to get thru this but so much good information about the women only hinted at in my very male biased, and opinionated, education.
There are ALOT of women in this book! Many are related to each other by birth or marriage, and many interact with each other. It can get really confusing if you're trying to keep everyone straight across all the time covered by the book.
A nice addition to the Enderverse and I”m happy to see it's not a big overlap of Ender's Game. People don't see the same events the same way so why should that happen in a book?
Although there's alot of time spent in the mind of Bean, it's not so much that it gets boring and slows down the movement of the story and thankfully not any wandering off into ideas and thoughts that don't have anything to do with the main storyline. In the last chapter of the edition I listened to, the author mentions he's written plays and participated in the screenplay so he knows how to keep the presentation focused.
I don't think I've seen this form of presentation, the literal relay of a pocket diary, and what a great way to catch thoughts and activities mid-day rather than trying to remember things at the end of the day. The only draw back is there are whole sections of his story that go missing, for example how did he come to be the director for ‘The Winter Guest'? What was he working on at the start of the book? He didn't say [or I missed those few words while I was focused on something else].
I listened to the book and the narrator did a great job of translating words to the language of nuance and tempo, which where you truly hear Alan Rickman.
I felt the beginning a bit confusing because the scene at the start was so different from the scene that followed. I eventually figured out the moment my focus had shifted to my own world was when I would have caught that the 2 scenes are for the same woman, just her present and her backstory.
The characters were interesting and unique, I enjoyed getting to know them. The storyline moved along nicely, a few sidetracks that added new characters and moved the story along in some way. Well done author! I think the sidetracks are a tricky edge to walk.
If this is the first in a series, I'd read the next.
Oh boy! This was a challenge to follow, even reading the textual version! Don't let your focus stray and don't read too fast or you miss the change of scenery [literally].
And for some reason I continue to get Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg mixed up. How I can do that with two incredibly different women, I do not know but I do.
Great storyline and it's always wonderful to see characters I love from other books on the Discworld. And new characters like the trees and the storm with no name keep me coming back for more.
The theme of the chapters is amazing. Each memoir chapter is based on an element of the musical structure called fugue. And there are several other chapters all called Intermezzo which are on the sciences involved; acoustics, physics, frequencies, violin design, etc. In the hardcopy these intermezzo's are a different color of paper to the memoir chapters.
The memoir is well written with only a few backtracks or jumps ahead in time with an overlap in a later paragraph or chapter. I found it interesting that the author clearly devoted alot of time to researching Mrs Hutchins but spent a good chunk of the book pointing out with some pretty negative choices of words, how Mrs Hutchins neglected her family to focus on her craft with Mr Hutchins being the saint. I'm glad the author called out the imbalance between family and career but it was the strength of the dislike by the author I homed in on.
A couple different storylines running in parallel which the author likes to do cliff hangers of when switching from one to the other. And the last quarter of the book is unusual in the fact the who dunnit is answered and then the storyline continues for quite some time with the nail biting resolution rather than a quick wrap up of any loose ends. I liked this book.