Samuel Proulx
I wish Goodreads let us give books half-stars; 3 stars feels like not enough, and 4 stars feels like way too many. So pretend that I gave this book 3.5 stars.
In short: the start of this book is 4 out of 5, the middle bits are 5 out of 5, and the end is about 3 out of 5.
I'll start with the good things. Once you get used to her, Jenny Lawson is extremely funny. The start of the book kind of feels like she's trying too hard, but as you keep reading, you start to realize it isn't the case; I'm pretty sure that's just who she is in real life.
Surprisingly, Jenny is at her best when writing about more serious issues like friendship, sickness, and the babies she lost. She manages to handle these issues in her trademark style, without getting extraordinarily depressing, or being particularly offensive.
If you read this book in print, I kind of pity you. The audio edition is entirely worth the price. Although I must admit that I purchased my copy from audible for $5. But those of you reading the print book, instead of listening to it as Delivered by the author herself, missed a lot. First of all, Jenny feels the need to sing every chapter heading, for some strange reason that I really don't understand. This does add something to the book, although I'm not sure quite what. Second, she's an entirely natural sounding reader, giving the audiobook a conversational feel that I suspect would be missing from letters on a page. Third, some of the included sound effects were just so silly that they made me laugh in and of themselves. Fourth, the five or so minutes of bonus outtakes at the end were worth it, if only to convince me that Jenny Lawson really is who the book makes her out to be. But I'm glad they were saved for the end, because if I had tried to play that drinking game, I would be dead. The only criticisms I have of the audio are that the narration sounds really unnatural when she's trying to read her footnotes, and that her voice sounds a bit like she's 13. Hearing someone who sounds 13 say the word Vagina that many times is just a little disconcerting at first. Even though it's been 2 days since I finished the book, I've heard the word Vagina so often that it still sounds like nonsense.
Okay, now I'm going to move on to the stuff that I didn't like. First off, keep in mind that I don't suffer from any kind of anxiety disorder, and don't have a lot of experience with it. Also, I don't have a vagina. I suspect that makes my reaction quite different from those who are coping with anxiety, or do have a vagina. The best way I can articulate the problem is that I felt like I was laughing at the author, not with her. Especially in the chapter when she was discussing anxiety disorder directly, I would find myself belly-laughing. Then I would stop, realize this is a serious problem, and wonder if I should really be laughing at it. But the writing is so funny that it sets you up to laugh, even if you suspect that you shouldn't. I ran into that discomfort repeatedly throughout the book, realizing that I was laughing at something serious (poor parenting, female issues, etc) that I had no experience with, and wondering if that made me an insensitive person. If you're a female with anxiety disorder, I doubt you'll have this reaction at all, though you could be totally offended.
My second problem with the book is that it seems to drag on far too long. By about the three quarter mark, I was getting ready for the end, but it never seemed to come! Some of the visits home could have been cut, or shortened, without really taking anything away from the book. They just felt like the same humour, repeated with only slightly different events. Once again though, this could have had something to do with how I read the book. Me and my girlfriend sat down to listen to the audiobook in two marathon sittings, and by half way through the second one, we were both thinking about what book we wanted to read together next. I suspect that if I had read each chapter in the context of a blog, at one chapter per day, I might not have had this problem. It might just be a case of Lawson overload. If you have the time and ability, I recommend pacing yourself, and reading only 1 or 2 chapters per day. I suspect it'll be funnier that way.
If you're already interested in the recent history of Journalism, this book is an enjoyable read. However, it isn't particularly earth shaking. If journalism isn't one of your interests, give this one a pass. If you are going to read it, I especially recommend the audio version. It's read by Dan Rather himself, and that does add a little extra something.
When I initially purchased this audiobook, I didn't realize it used multiple readers for the various characters. For the most part, with one notable exception, they all did an excellent job, and the different voices added a lot to the reading.
I decided to read this book after having watched the movie. While their are a lot of things in the book that were skipped over for the movie, I don't find that makes the book better. The book and movie each stand alone, and serve different purposes. The movie does a better job at telling a tightly plotted story with a point. However, the book does a better job at painting a true, full picture of the characters and setting. But for the most part, if you enjoyed the movie, you'll like the book just as well, for different reasons. If you enjoyed the book, give the movie a try; it doesn't mangle the basic story at all.
At first, I thought that this book would appeal mostly to language geeks, the kind of people who speak 11 languages, and are working on number 12. Fortunately, I decided to give it a chance, even though I'm not at all that sort of person. The appeal of this book is much, much wider than just polyglots and linguists. If you're interested in nonsense in the style of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear, you should read this book. If you're interested in wordplay, you should read this book. If you're interested in the inner workings of interactive fiction, text adventure, and mud parsers, you should read this book. If you're a wannabe writer or speaker, you should read this book. If, like me, you're interested in all of the above, you'll probably be reading this book a second time at some point in the future.
This is another book in the Black Jack series. It won't stand alone, so unless you're already up to date on these books, don't bother. If you are keeping up with them, and enjoyed the last one, this one continues where it left off. The writing is as good as ever, and the characters are the same. I'm starting to feel kind of trapped in an endless saga, though. But that doesn't mean I can bring myself to stop reading. Be warned, once again, this book has no real ending. Just an opening for the next book.
The writing style of this book makes it obvious just how dated these stories are. Do not go into this expecting political correctness; the way other cultures are portrayed is, while mostly harmless, utterly outdated. I was surprised, however, about just how many of these facts I already know from other sources to be correct. A few from The Straight Dope, but many, many others were plot points in Science Fiction I have previously read. It makes me wonder just how much of an influence, intended or otherwise, these cartoons were on scifi authors of the 1950's.
I don't struggle with this problem myself, and I don't really know anyone who does. I picked up this book mostly on a whim, hoping for a more compassionate understanding of Hoarders than one generally sees on reality TV. That is, for the most part, what I got. This book does a good job of telling the case stories it provides, making them real people, rather than objects of amusement.
This was the first science fiction book I ever read by myself, in grade 3 or so. When I discovered it had recently been digitized, I just had to give it another read, to see how it holds up now that I'm in my 20's.
In spite of the vast number of books I've read over the years, I found myself surprised at just how well I remembered the plot and characters from this one. That in itself is the mark of a good story; it isn't every book whose characters and plot stick with you for any length of time.
However, it really is a popcorn book. It's light simple reading, without any life lessons that would challenge even a 4th grader. The action is well written, the plot progresses quickly, and the characters are memorable. But the morality, political opinions, and emotional conflict are over simplified.
Despite its flaws though, it is a fun read. And sometimes, fun is enough.
This novel felt a lot like science fiction that might have been published in the 60's, after having first run in several parts in a magazine like Analog. I mean that in a good way. Today's preference for 15 book series, where each book is several hundred thousand words, often results in wordy and slow moving writing. Reading something that is tightly plotted, fast moving, and resolves everything at the end, is rather refreshing. I did find the pace a little alarming at some points, especially when one short chapter covers over 50 years, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The author knows what he's doing.
Some of those transitional scenes are, in my opinion, the best writing in the book. It seems obvious Carl Frederick started out writing short stories, and still enjoys doing it. However, even when writing longer passages, his writing still holds up quite well.
This book is a lot more about Walter Schirra than about space. Thankfully, he's a colourful enough character in his own right. If you're interested in mission details or technical information, this isn't the book for you. But if a collection of largely personal stories, along with some personal opinion on the state of manned spaceflight, is down your alley, you'll be happy with this one.
A short, novella length work that I finished in an afternoon. The plot is straightforward, and I could see most of the twists from several chapters away. But the story was competently handled, the writing got the job done, and the characters were well developed. Not every book needs to be a paragon of literature. I enjoyed the time I spent in this world, and it made for a perfect non-taxing read on a sunny Sunday. I'm glad this is available as a download on Goodreads, as I doubt I would have bothered with it otherwise, and I would have missed a good story. I'll be purchasing the next books in the series, once I catch up on my book backlog a little.
This book is packed with interesting and useful information. Unfortunately, the Arrogance and unnecessarily confrontational style of the author really get in the way. Perhaps he has spent too much time in online debates on this subject; read as a collection of forum posts in an online discussion, it would be fine. As an informative nonfiction book, however, this style of writing is much less to my taste.
This book is much less depressing than you might think. It is jam packed with crude humour, random pop culture references, and puns. Each of these things managed to make me laugh out loud, at least once. However, I don't recommend this one for anyone easily offended by dick jokes, or who isn't part of modern internet culture.
I purchased this book mostly for the setting; as a Harry Potter fan, I wanted to read another young adult book set in a modern British boarding school. This book did, largely, give me what I wanted. The plot and writing weren't really anything special, but as with most of the BBC Audiobooks I've listened to, the book was well enough read that I didn't really mind.
The plot and writing of this book were OK, and the audio edition was decently read. Unfortunately, I hated the main character so deeply it's utterly beyond description. I have never wanted to slap a protagonist so hard in my life! Maybe she gets less terrible in later books in the series, but I'm not willing to purchase book two in order to find out. I got the first book on sale, and I'm rather glad.
