Sara

I listened to this book on a trip through Avignon and Paris and it was wonderful. What an addition to our travels by TGV south from Paris. The reader was a delight and more than up to the challenges of the french language and all the culinary terms. Julia's take on the world a breath of fresh air. I was sorry when the book came to and end. However, to compensate I have pulled out my dog-eared copies of "mastering the art" and jumped back into cooking a la Julia! Brava Audible!

Tales of strength, disaster, delight, and integrity in war time Poland are spun through the lives of the family who inhabited the "ark" of the Warsaw zoo. Beautifully read and not to be missed.

I felt as though I had entered a conversation midway through and spent the book trying to catch up. In the end the author does distill what he believes Paul meant into several concise lines; but the chapters up until that revelation were grueling and disturbing. A great deal of stress was placed on Nero's sadism and the internal battles between christians and disciples.

If you like history, science and the step by step retelling of discovery this book is for you. The author deftly weaves together events across time and from sites around the world to give a cohesive vision of illness caused by infection, war, disease and transformation brought about by science. At times heart wrenching and disturbing but an amazing read nonetheless. Excellent!

Part country-house farce, part chaos theory, part time travel fantasy and all fun. This book was long but held the interest and had moments of laugh-out-loud silliness. There wasn't a rush to end the story but a careful playing out of the tale that lent to a sense of near perfect closure as loose ends were neatly woven together. Highly recommended.

The book is really about listening as another person explores deep feelings about connection, family, adoption and responsibility for personal behavior and choices not limited by time. It is all too easy to judge such a free flowing stream of consciousness tale as it unfolds, however letting the story play itself out pulls all the threads together. The need for connection and story transcend adoption issues and pertain to anyone who has struggled to know themselves better.

While I really am drawn to the author's take on the world, how to approach life and view oneself I disappointingly was surprised by his reading voice. This sense of surprise was quickly replaced by an interesting problem of being drawn into the voice and losing tract of what he was saying. Then, I found that the reading was possibly the best remedy for insomnia ever invented. Try as I did, repeatedly to stay awake and really listen to his message I never could. I shelved the recorded book and moved on to a text copy which I give a whole hearted thumbs up. Oh well, Audible I applaud your efforts at having the author read his own book, but for me it just didn't work out.

I completely enjoyed all aspects of this audio book. The narrator was engaging and his voice was pleasant to listen to for the many hours required. The writing style drew me in and I became enthralled with each small detail revealed about the lives of John and Abigail and the early American and European life depicted. I have gone on to read several books of Abigail's letters with great pleasure. This was an excellent, life affirming, and positive experience. Thank you Audible!

I had read a great review of this book and was thrilled to have found it on audible. However once I started listening I found it was very slow, plodding and exhausting to listen to. At first I decided that the reader's dead pan style was ruining what at times could have been a sarcastically funny narrative. So--I kept at it and finished the whole thing. While the book had an occasional interesting insight -- the "good" parts never materialized and over all it was depressing. Even when the reader perked up a bit it was still deadly. It focused on betrayal of those we love, our families, spouses, friends and most of all ourselves. It presented such as nasty, hateful view of life that I am very sorry I lasted through the whole reading. It lacked any kind of redemption and left a really dark cloud hanging over the heads of the reader, the listener, and the poor characters portrayed. I hope I've learned not to be such a compulsive "finisher" of things I've started. I would have been better off walking away from this one.

A captivating story which was beautifully read. This was a book that I took a chance on as I hadn't read a review or heard about it prior to download. At times heart-wrenching but a definite page turner that kept my interest until the last word.