audioreader Male, 28. Ottawa, ON, Canada

Well, more of the same with my last few reviews of Terry Brooks Shannara series. Same two complaints: characters spend too much time worrying about other characters and chastizing themselves instead of taking the time to develop plot or describe action.

Next I'll be rereading the earlier books in the Shannara for comparison to see if its my tastes that have changed or Brooks' style changed over the years.

A good tool for understanding differences between the Muslim-world and Western-world mindsets. He approaches the difference in mindset not only from current political conditions but also how the mindset is shaped by history.

A good book, it should probably get 4 stars but I've been becoming less lenient lately.

Same complaints as his last book....most of the time is spent inside characters heads repeating the same annoying thoughts of them worrying about other characters or chastising themselves. Still enjoyable, but certainly not nearly as much as his earlier books when I was a kid. I feel there's alot he could cut out and still leave the story intact...

Enjoyable as always, but what started out as such an exciting series for me (finally linking modern times with the other Shannara novels) ended up as a bit of a disappointment. I never thought I'd give a Shannara novel 3 stars out of 5.

One thing I'm tiring of is that most of the book is spent on characters worrying about other characters, or characters chastising and being very hard on themselves even though the protagonists are never in the wrong. It gets really tiring really fast and the same pattern was set through the whole 3 book series. I wish there would have been more time spent on plot development, storyline, and much more action. This is not how I remember the old novels...unless it's because I viewed them through a different lens because I read them at a younger age (age 12-23).

The other bone I have to pick is that you gave up so many chances for GREAT scenes Terry! I mean, c'mon there was a scene where one character had a chance to kill an enemy, let him live and that enemy swore he'd track him down and find him wherever he went. But then you never heard from that villain again? And how about describing in exquisite detail all of the weapons systems (missiles, lasers, bombs) of a virtually invincible military vehicle one of the character comes across and making it clear what this vehicle could be used for, but then never delivering? It's tantalizing, I was salivating at the possibilities and there were plenty of chances the vehicle would have been perfect for the character to go on one-man destruction heroics against demons, but instead later in the book the car just dies due to a wiring problem with its solar panels and you never do see it fire even a single weapon over the course of the book....sigh

Great book aimed at young curious readers on what Science is, the true nature of reality, and how we go about thinking scientifically and logically.

It covers lots of interesting examples from various fields of Science and I enjoyed the read despite already knowing the Science behind most of the material of the book. And I did learn some new things. The way Dawkins puts things is quite straightforward and approachable and conveys his fascination with understanding the world around us.

I feel that he missed a good chance in the chapter on probability and statistics and talking about how false information spreads and why people believe things that aren't true. These are paramount topics which are much more important than what is currently taught in schools, and nobody is doing this, but I feel that Dawkins did not take the time to explain these ideas clearly and simply enough that all readers would totally grasp them.

Overall, nice to see a good book instilling kids with a passion and understanding of science, and giving them the tools to think for themselves and help them avoid typical bias in thinking.

It was a decent book, with more interesting political intrigues and scheming, but I got the sense that it was missing pieces all of the time, or maybe I was missing something... I enjoyed the first Dune alot more. You could certainly use the word "epic" to label the original Dune, but the sequel falls short of "epic".

A two page spread for each of 50 islands around the world. One page a very nicely done map (each page is same scale so you can get a good sense of size), the facing page contains one story from the island and a few stats like population and closest landmasses.

The stories are often very interesting, but unfortunately have very little context about them. On the other hand, there isn't room for a long history or context of each island, and perhaps too much background info would be boring.

I checked a few of the islands on wikipedia, and they often don't show up as part of the wikipedia article, meaning that the author did some research to bring some interesting stuff to the table. However, one of the stories I checked could not be found anywhere on the Internet other than sourced directly from this book itself. This makes me skeptical about its truth...for such a remarkable story, why has no one reported on it, especially since it happened decades ago?

In this story, a 6-year-old boy in Europe learns a strange language in his dreams night after night. Decades later researchers try to identify this mysterious language he speaks that no one else can understand. It finally turns out it is a Polynesian language spoken only on Rapa Iti, a small island in the Pacific Ocean home to ~500 people. He lives out the rest of his life on that island, finally able to speak his language and be understood by others.

I really loved this book because I love the idea of islands.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. What makes Frank Herbert special?

* He's created the richest world I've ever seen in a novel. I mean, it's just staggering how he's created not only another universe; but all kinds of world within that universe....numerous groups and "sides", political posturing and intrigue both at the race relations level and at the individual level (in one memorable seen at a political banquet he brings to life the characters and their motivations, while keeping you guessing), numerous themes, an oppressed religious group, trade considerations, personal vendettas, an all-out war with multiple players...it just goes on and on

* The most amazing thing is how Herbert accomplished this in only one book. The way he did it was by making every word count for something. There is absolutely no filler this book. He could have easily made this book a trilogy...I found it surprising how he could have spent much more time in some areas but chose not to. One example would be a terrific war full of great battles which would have provided plenty of suspense and action...but Herbert instead chooses to focus on the characters

* I like how Herbert allows you to discover the world through the eyes of the main characters as they struggle with it and figure it out...makes it very real. Rather than just a description.

* Finally, the plot is always changing, taking on a new thread. He never goes in the direction that I would logically expect. It's incredible. And he ain't afraid to kill off important characters ;-)

What a life Feynman lived! I love the guy for so many reasons; his outlook on life, his playful nature, his intelligence, the importance of human issues he focuses on, the wonderful unimportance of problems he focuses on (safe-cracking, playing the bongos, joining a Samba band in a poor south American neighbourhood).

I think it's great how he is able to interact equally with all types of people.

He's one of my heroes

This is a memoir by Irish-American author about his days growing up in an extremely poor household with an alcoholic father. Sounds depressing, right?

Actually no! The story is filled with warmth and humour. McCourt tells it through his own words as a child, in the present tense, and it's a voice unlike I've ever heard in a book before. Honest, funny without "trying" to be, and simple innocent childhood questions which cut right to the absurdity of the many issues covered (Catholicism and the church, stereotypical judgments of others, the behaviour of authority figures, Catholics vs. Protestants).

In many books, there are several memorable moments that make the book. This book (and McCourt's life) are packed wall-to-wall with these moments in unbelievable density.

This book is a semi-autobiography of Joyce in his younger years, as he grows up, learns about the world, and becomes disillusioned with the Catholic upbringing and Ireland National sentiments inherent in the people around him.

I at first found the tendency of Joyce drifting from scene to scene and time to time annoying, but later thought it was a really cool effect. It made the whole book one big flow, like a real reminiscence. I think this is called "stream-of-consciousness" technique.

I didn't understand a lot of the book. I think a better knowledge of the politics of Ireland and the time and the history of their conflict with the English would have helped, as would a better intimacy of Catholicism (although I feel the book did help with that itself, at least for understanding what the environment might actually be like for a schoolboy growing up).

My favourite section was Joyce's descriptions of art and beauty, which I think were quite clear and added much to the discussion, certainly much better than some of the silly stuff you hear.

I didn't really like the ending, but I won't say anything so that I don't give anything away.

One of my favourite non-fiction works. Mlodinow provides a very complete picture of important statistical phenomena, with an interesting historical note for each (who knew centuries-ago mathematicians could be so much fun?), easy examples to understand them, and most importantly, their consequences for explaining the way as humans we behave and the mistakes we constantly make without realizing it.

I like this book because he very clearly explains what I've always known about many human pursuits but I was not able to put into words; that due to a lack of fundamental understanding those pursuits are flawed and sometimes serious mistakes are made. He also explains why when these constant mistakes are right under our nose we fail to recognize them.

A must-read

A cool little coffee-table kind of book which has about 100 interesting wine labels from around the world and a short description of interesting stories about the wines or labels.

Would probably be of interest only to a wine enthusiast, but if you had a wine enthusiast who also likes quirky facts, here you have an excellent gift with which to hand them.

A nice Christmas gift from my parents.

Came across this book by accident, but what a find. My buddy and I took a long road trip down the West Coast of the US and before we left he downloaded a whole bunch of audiobooks for the car. Some were questionable, but this turned out to be a gem.

I think that many people will find elements of their relationship described in this book. It's amazing how the author can take a situation, and help the men and women listening to the book understand the underlying needs of their partner which are causing them to behave the way they do, or even learn about themselves when they don't always realize why they do the things they do. She also provides practical advice to men on how to satisfy their partners needs once they understand them.

The focal point of the book is the focus on women's three basic needs: They need to feel safe, connected, and valued. Guys, I know this may sound wishy washy to some of you, but trust me, you should read this book. The author is straight up and practical, and doesn't talk down or demean men in any way. And if you're looking for what YOU get out of it, the author points out that the more women's core needs are satisfied, the less behaviours they will exhibit that men typically find annoying. So there ya go. And if you love your partner, wouldn't you want to make her feel as loved and cared for as you can?

I should caution about one thing. The author describes situations and explains how the male sees things and his motivation and how the female sees things are her motivation. Now in my experience, often this is bang on. But she never mentions that this is only a guideline. By this I mean as you're listening to the book, in some sections, a man listening to the book may feel he's fitting more into the women's needs and typical actions described, and a woman may feel in the man's shoes. In fact, my friend said that for him the situation was quite often the reverse of what the author was saying in terms of the genders (although in other parts of the book, the gender viewpoints were as she described). I would read the book with an open mind and the willingness to look at the male/female descriptions with more flexibility, and try to identify in your relationship which elements you are fitting into. After all, even though they may often manifest themselves in different ways than for women, feeling safe, connected, and valued are ALSO just as important needs for men! The bottom line is that you should read this book as it is fantastic for breaking new ground in your relationship on things you never thought could change, as long as you read it knowing that the gender roles the author describes may sometimes be shaded or even reversed.

I love it. People have all kinds of opinions on any particular topic, but often the only way the issues can be settled is by proper analysis of good data. This book does it for soccer.

I'm not a soccer fan and I still found this very interesting. If you're a sports fan in general and are interested in looking deeper, I bet you will like this book.

This book makes me realize that not only was Adams a hilarious writer and all-around good guy, but that he also deeply appreciated music and physics at their most fundamental level! It's possible to recognize this in his writing and see that he has surprising familiarity with the same things that other enthusiasts would find beautiful.

My favourite part about this book is how Machiavelli takes a practical approach; talking about things as they really are rather than an ideal. This idealization of a prince I've read, is how the subject was handled before Machiavelli.

I'm not saying that I condone evil actions by a prince, only that Machiavelli describes what based on the evidence he believes is effective and not effective, whether or not that is labelled evil or good.

As usual, superb reading seems to be slightly above me as I didn't get what was going on at all times, but I liked it alot.

The greatest thing about this book is that it is quite fresh both in terms of its characters and structure. By this I mean that it's such an odd and imaginative array of characters (a white orphan boy born native in India, an old llama from Tibet, a Mohammaden horse dealer spy...). The structure is fresh in that it is not the same old introduction and buildup, difficulty, climax, and resolution. Kipling seems to follow his own path and it works.

Glad I finally got to this one as it has been on my reading list for years. Incidentally, just heard about Kipling's travels in Canada and his visit to Medicine Hat, Alberta and his persuasive argument that saved the city from changing it's unique name around 100 years ago.

Keegan focuses on three battles: Agincourt (Medieval), Waterloo (Napoleon), and the Somme (WWI). This is an inside look at what the battles would have been like for an ordinary solider, which is something that is not often treated in military history (at least not before the World Wars). I liked this aspect of it.

What I didn't enjoy about the book was that Keegan spends a great deal of time discussing what should and should not go into a military history and what makes a military history good or bad. At times, this was less a book of military history than a book about the practice of military history. Although in retrospect, it was valuable to me to look into the writing to question how well it actually captured the details of real events and to allow me to read with a bit more critical eye in the future.

I had thought "Second Foundation" would naturally be the second book in the trilogy...but didn't realize until 3/4 of the way through that it was actually the third and I had completely missed the second!

Kinda explains why I hadn't been following the plot exactly...but I suppose I should have realized alot sooner.

I never did read the actual second book.

Good book on the complete history of Islam from Mohammed till 2000. It can help give a view of what many muslims want and yearn for; to understand them better and their motivations. However, the conclusions she draws in the last chapter I believe are unjustified.

One thing I took away from this is that there really is no thing called "Islam". There's been numerous reinterpretations and creations along the way since Islam's inception so that different people in different groups have different ideas about what Islam is. This is also true of Christianity and other religions.

That's why I think it's difficult sometimes when we refer to a religion with a single word like "Islam" as if it is a uniform set of beliefs and practices. It can vary shockingly widely between groups and over time.

I think this should be a novel study in middle school. It's such a great book for growing kids because Jules Verne manages to weave many forms of science into the plotline to demonstrate how amazing and useful our knowledge of the universe is.

A group of 5 gets stranded on a desert island with no resources but their own wits. One of their group is an engineer with practical knowledge of all of the sciences. I love how they build themselves up from nothing to a "civilized" existence. We take for granted that just about everything around us comes from our knowledge of science. Jules Verne weaves this in when the engineer calculates their unknown position on the planet by measuring the Southern Cross star location without even having an instrumentation other than sticks, and correcting for the height of the hill he was measuring from using trigonometry. Or to create nitroglyercin to drain a lake to create their home. Or to create mud bricks from raw ingredients which they could then make a furnace out of to make iron in order to make tools in order to etc. etc. You can see how their colony builds up.

On top of that, it's just a great adventure story, desert island story, and there are some mysterious happenings around the island that don't get revealed to the end. AND Verne ties up storylines from two of his earlier books; I won't say which ones so I don't ruin it for you.

How can it get any better than that?

The reader who recorded this in audiobook form on librivox.org is professional and enjoyable.

It was cool to read the oldest epic tale we have on record. But I found it quite boring and arbitrary.

The penguin edition is a fantastic publication with a detailed foreward by the author, numerous appendices describing in detail such things as how the tablets are recovered and translated, and not only the classic epic but all sorts of other Gilgamesh stories.