Marco Polo

A fun thriller that is the true story of Roger Bannister and his colleagues. It is a Rocky-type sports story. I really enjoyed listening to this while running. (However not only I did I not crack a 4 minute mile, I probably didn't even crack 8.)

One advantage of the audio version is it is read by the author who is a very popular and distinguished Harvard professor, so it is as though you are in his class.

Makes you consider where we should draw the line of what should and should not be bought.

The author says repeatedly that we have had no public discourse about this issue and we should start a national dialogue about it, etc, but it is unclear what exactly that means. Should we start writing editorials, talk about it on TV news stations, or what? Where would the solution to this problem lie?

I really enjoyed this novel even more than I enjoyed the excellent movie. The accents I thought seemed fine (except a woman Israeli accent) and did not bother me at all, though I have spent little time with Scots. I did not notice any boring meandering as other reviewers have suggested. To me this seemed a well paced, fascinating story that helped me understand how Amin began as a somewhat charismatic and intelligent leader and gradually transformed into a monster as the main character gradually found himself trapped in Amin's sphere, unable to leave. My understanding is that the main character is fictional but based on several actual white expatriates who became close to Amin.

I really enjoyed Kite Runner but I found this one quite boring. I felt like, it is no surprise that women living in an oppressive, mysoginistic culture are going to have a terrible time. And yet the woman routinely has sexual relations (and has a child) with her disgusting older arranged-marriage husband, which seems to me like accepting serial rape in a way. Also I found the narrator's voice very annoying and did not want to return to this audiobook. I forced myself to for a while, then gave up when the monotony persisted.

I read both of Robert Baer's previous (nonfiction) books on his life in the CIA and US-Saudi Arabian relations, and they were great. This novel is a so-so international espionage thriller, whose most interesting part is details about what it's like to be a CIA agent (better outlined in his nonfiction). I think it probably suffers greatly from being abridged because I found some of the connections hard to follow in an abridged audio format.

I made it through this novel, which is a family drama dealing with Chinese and Chinese-American ethnic identity. It's sort of interesting but most of the adult characters in this "love triangle" are not really very likeable. I could only emphasize with the children, who sound like an adult mimicking a child. Bottom line: this is OK, but there are better novels out there.

Not especially interesting or compelling. Actually rather boring for the most part. I don't really get why this book was on so many top 10 books of the year lists. Maybe there is something I am missing, because I couldn't relate to her issues at all. Lots of sad tales about her going back & forth from the hospital to the Beverly Willshire Hotel (boo hoo). Also she is so surprised her husband drops dead of a cardiac arrest after he has heart disease for 20 years and has a pacemaker in. Don't mean to be callous, but didn't you see this coming? Even the husband said he knew how he was going to die (heart attack).

I am very disgusted with the current administration and the religious right in this country. But I think this book does not do a great job tying together its main themes: that this is a theocratic regime which is burying us in huge amounts of debt and is beholden to big oil interests. The author takes many side trips into reviewing other "superpowers" in history such as the British empire, though their relevance to the US in the early 21st century is unclear. The focus on economic themes and detail makes this book rather ponderous and boring. Try Jimmy Carter's new book for a great, concise recap of what's wrong with the far right and the current administration.

I bought this based on prior good experiences with Stephen King and the mostly very positive reviews. I was bored out of my skull. Very unrealistic, maybe you might like it if you are into sci-fi or fantasy books, but I could not get into it at all. Virtually all of the characters are men which increases the boringness of it. I tried many times to get through even the first hour and had to keep rewinding because I could not focus. A little bit like Mad Max, if you are into that kind of fantasy. To me it felt like just a huge waste of time to listen to this. I felt like asking, is this supposed to be entertaining or am I supposed to get anything of value out of this or what?

I can't believe how dull and boring this story is. It's as though the author set out to be deliberately boring. I really tried to get into this one but it just never picked up, and finally I just shut it off and cut my losses. Little mundane details of this preacher and his father's life will bore you to tears. Avoid at all costs.