mafo
Well-paced and told alongside historical context for those of us who are not experts, plus an engaging cast and story
Very interesting, untold story told largely based on the POV of a female civilian administrator from the project, which I think adds something. It loses it's away a little when it gets into the HUAC stuff - it feels like the author feels compelled to add it, but isn't really excited about it. Overall, I recommend the book.
Nothing happens, it's obvious nothing is going to happen, but it's extremely readable and kept my interest.
Definitely engaging and page-turning, but looking back after finishing it there was more cliche than I expect from Ian Rankin
Enjoyable writing style, but this book was a let down for me. I thought it was going to be about Paris as a whole, but it was all about one circle, and had too many uncompelling characters, and ultimately circled around “investigations” and “trials” that were just one person's word against another ad nauseum.
Among the most page-turning books I've read in years. Good characters, great backdrop, great story, but sort of didn't live up to its potential. Would still definitely recommend to others.
The majority of the information is in the minority of the text. It suffers from constant restatement of the author's thesis that humankind sees underground pursuits as hell-like, and relies heavily on the reader's existing knowledge of the topography of London.
Sad but bearable because the son's death is the jumping off point for the book, so it doesn't hit you like a ton of bricks. I think what I liked best was that there were a lot of things that set it up to be very cliche, but most of them got turned on their heads.
Good story, good narrative style, interesting topic. Will make a good unintentional trilogy with “The Worst Journey in the World” and ...?
Interesting and entertaining, but somewhat scattered. Passage of time was sort of confusing, and the author seemed to have several motifs she wanted to convey, but it was sort of a mixed bag. Not as good as Destiny of the Republic, but definitely recommendable.
Very atmospheric and moody, but a bit slow, and I was distracted a lot at work while audiobooking, so: grain of salt.
Might be part of an unintentional trilogy with House of the Spirits and another book that I knew I'd forget if I didn't write down...and did, cause I didn't.
I expected it to be a little dull, but as an enthusiast wanted to read it anyway. I was totally mistaken, it was extremely well-paced, covered large events as well as interesting anecdotes, and included a great breadth of information.
Loved it. It definitely starts out slow (pleasant, but sort of “surely this cannot go on for all these pages?���) but then it gets nuts, but not in a “did someone put this dust jacket on a different book?” sort of way. I appreciated the depiction of Una not necessarily as a “strong female character” but as a real person, and more importantly as a woman who can roll with the punches. I'm sort of sick of books where you're supposed to be impressed that the woman who was TOTALLY CRUSHED INTO RUIN AND DESPONDENCY climbs back out, when a more universal experience for women is to be bowed but NOT broken. I'm undecided about whether it improves this book to read/have read Moby Dick. I had read MD first, but several years previous so I didn't notice all the clever, fun nods to the original text. Just make sure you EVENTUALLY read Moby Dick.
Mostly about lots of horrible things that happened to a lot of people. Sort of redundant (there was dust! again). Definitely more a collection of stories than a history, which sort of turned me off.
Like Herman Melville, I thought John Irving was a srs bsns author and I wouldn't want to read anything he wrote, and like Melville, I was wrong. This book, at least, reads a lot like Vonnegut with the wackiness turned down. The beginning was great and the ending was very satisfying (by making the book better than the sum of its parts), but maybe the 2nd quarter was not my taste, and I almost stopped reading, but I'm glad I didn't.
I will open with the disclaimer that I audiobooked this and it might be easier to follow if you have pages to flip back and forth to. Interesting story, including many great short-stories-within-a-story - the type you find yourself retelling to others, even. My problem is that it follows like 4 or 5 different people, whose paths don't really cross, while also attempting to build up to a climax along only one of the storylines? I thought it was just all anecdotes until I was more than halfway through and I realized that the story was actually supposed to be moving in a direction. I was disappointed, ultimately.
It's a great travelogue of the format “drive around the country, stop and talk to people wherever you go”, with a very meditative tempo to it. All of the vignettes are just the right length, and many are provocative without being diatribes or derailing. It's an important snapshot of America in 1975.
Very good but not exceptional. The best part of this type of book is the relationships and many were included but not fleshed out, though ultimately the bond between the three main characters might make up for it. But where Garp seemed cosmically correct, Last Night can be somewhat contrived.
Very dark and honest and I still don't think she's a literary genius, but I found I wanted to hear the next thing she had to say. Skippable if you're only interested in the butchering part.
Good characters, amazing true story, not a super strong narrative path, but something is always happening. The author has a slightly weird style where his attempts at metaphor and wordplay seem sorta forced, but as you get to know his personality you start to appreciate it. One thing I found sort of frustrating is that the author attempts to demonstrate “how the code works” at a few points early in the book, and maybe it was the Kindle format or maybe I'm a little dyslexic, but I didn't follow at all. The good news for those of you who also experience this, is that it doesn't really matter in the end, as he generally explains the situation in lay terms as well. Highly recommended. Made me hate my job because it's not as noble as staying up all night decoding secret dispatches to help heroic secret agents blow up Nazi trains.
Started off awesome, was disappointed by the end. Made me want to go to New Orleans so bad I made beignets.
A thoughtful abbreviation of this book would be AMAZING, but it's so important as a historical document you really couldn't. Very fascinating and moving at points, but a lot of drudgery. Would recommend to others, and I think it might be better as not-an-audiobook.