Susan B.

I had no idea what huge influences Jacques Pepin had on America's culinary culture. The book is well read, and Monsieur Pepin is really an amazing guy, but this is mostly just a fun reminiscence. His recollection of meals he cooked so many years ago is pretty amazing!

I agree with the information in the book, but this was just too relentless. One gets tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.

Probably not

I would have cut down on all the repeated information.

Don't know. Dave Eggers is really lauded as a great author, but I just couldn't get interested in the story or characters.

I don't expect Dave Eggers cares about making the book more enjoyable! Need to have a main character who is more relatable

This was a waste of the credit.

The book was fine. It was interesting enough to keep me listening. Not expecting to get any more books in the series. This was definitely a beach book!

Next listen is the Emerald Atlas

She reads the book well, but a good reader doesn't make a mediocre book good!

It was OK

I think it's important that the reader/listener read the history of the Prester John legend, in order to understand how the story works. Go to Catherynne Valente's website and at least skim through Prester John's letter. This is the story of WHAT IF the Prester John legend were real? How would it have played out?

I also think it's vital to understand that the story is narrated by Brother Hiob, and that he is copying 3 different and parallel stories from the Tree of Books. One is the story of Prester John himself, one is John's wife, and the 3rd is the nanny of Queen Abir's children.

The narrator reads the book beautifully. However, I had a very hard time following the audio version. There were many new words I couldn't understand or spell, and there was no way to go back to figure them out. I've listened to many audiobooks, and this was one of the hardest I've tried to listen to (Dante being the most difficult). I actually had to buy the written version of the book to try to clarify the language.

Once, however, I finally caught on to the story, the language, the creatures, I was captivated by the story and didn't want to stop listening to it. It was a disappointment that this was just the first of a trilogy and I'm anxious to continue the story.

I read a bunch of glowing reviews for this book. Valente writes some really spectacular prose, gorgeous and crystalline. However, some of the creatures are just distracting, and prevent you from focusing on what's going on. I think she loved the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie, and wanted to create some of her own creatures. She could have benefitted by better editing that sharpened up the story some.

We read this for book club, and several folks couldn't get far enought to finish it. There also had to be some meanings behind some of the creatures, but we couldn't figure some of them out.

It could have been a 5 star book with better editing, but it was still interesting, like traveling to Wonderland!

It wasn't clear to me that you REALLY had to read the preceeding books. I listened to quite a bit of the book before I just gave up, I wasn't able to make sense of the characters and the situation.

Read this book for book club, couldn't wait for it to end. Characters very unsympathetic. Can't imagine why this was an award winning book

one of those sweet little stories about a dedicated teacher making a difference in the life of a disaffected kid. wasn't particularly compelling or memorable.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly, so I was pleased that the protagonist, Mickey Haller showed up in another book. While I enjoyed the story, it didn't warrant the 5 start rating earned by the first book. First of all, this new book suffers by not having Adam Grupper narrating it. This newest story suffers a bit by Connelly twisting the coincidences as much as he needs to in order to make everything "come out in the wash". That being said, I enjoyed listening to it. If you are a fan of Connelly's you will probably enjoy it.

Who doesn't love this story, and it's surprise ending the first time you read it??? It's hard to put a finger on what was missing in the narration, though...

Listening to McCourt makes me want to write! This is a great follow-up to his other memoirs. One of the memoirs I've most enjoyed listening to since he's an engaging narrator, as well. If you enjoyed his other books, you will enjoy this one. I feel like it's a real bonus to get to listen to an author read his own work.