Richard

I would heartily recommend this to someone who loves to fish or to any devoted McPhee advocate. I happen to fit both of those checkboxes, but this book is probably not McPhee's best. The author still has juju: he still flares his unique ability to drill down into witty detail at the most unexpected moments like a peacock revealing a jeweled fan. Which is still highly alluring. Unless fishing just isn't your thing.

Always and ever.

The author narrated this, and he's very good at it. There are some annoying repetitive oratory pops in some sections that endure for entire chapters as if the speaker had a very dry mouth, but hearing him narrate his own book brings the listener closer in. The pace of the story seemed to stray occasionally into dry turf. Overall, the telepathic process of his writing was able to build grand pictures of the subject in my imagination.

Certainly. I can't wait to see a shad rise to a dry fly set in an a New England river some day.

Read it if you're a piscophile. Read it if you like McPhee's style.

I would again, even though I've just finished listening to it twice through. I feel that this is McPhee's best work, synthesizing Wyoming's fascinating geologic complexities within the framework of a pioneering generational American family story. This is the author at his very best, and Nelson Runger's narration is also top-notch.

The central figure of course: the late David Love, eminent geologist.

Everything he narrates seems to be a flawless work of vocal art.

Not extreme, but yes- McPhee's wily sense of humor is always present. Thus laughter.

If you're heading for the Grand Tetons or the Wind River Range, or just to Jackson Hole, give this a listen before and during your visit.

This work was 75 % entertainment and 25% education, the inverse of the usual McPhee ratio, in my view anyway. I usually give his books a triple read /listen because they're so informationally packed, but not this one. Still, it was worth the time. But not three times the time.

Forensic geology.

Rustling up cattle rustlers.

No- not relevant to a collection of essays.

I liked the wry sense of humor always lurking in the background in what otherwise might be considered a collection of merely interesting topics, nonetheless superbly written about. The narrator was also top-notch in conveying McPhee's subtle humorous undertone. Without that, this might have been a flop.

Only in terms of ease of access while driving or heading off to sleep at night is it superior. Missing are the pertinent illustrations that might lend to clarification, but this is only a small impediment. Overall it is a better work in audible format, mainly due to the elegant and perfectly timed narration of Henry Leyva portraying San Keene's finest work yet.

The odd Russian era of almost creating human/chimpanzee outcrosses= humanzees. Read the book to find out if it ever really happened.

Description of Nicolo Paganini's more flexible dexterity feats under the assumption that he may have had Ehler's Danloss Syndrome. Of course, a complete explanation of every genetic quirk and misfire of a whole range of genetic aberrations is well explained throughout the entire book. Understanding what goes wrong is how we advance in this detailed and salient field of work.

Exploring the genetic minglings of the physically sorrowful Hapsurb dynasty. And of course the moving passages about what happened to Einstein's brain after his death. Keene makes historical figures come to life in all cases.

Do not let terminology and vernacular turn you away. Wikipedia everything you don't understand, soak it all in and then run it a second time. This book makes one realize how many shoulders scientific discovery has stood upon, lifting its focus now into well understood human and Neanderthall genome sequencing and paleogenetics. This has been my favorite book ever via Audible.

Yes: The storyline and character development is classic Hemingway, truly ageless. It easily transports one back to four tragic days in the mountains during the Spanish Civil War. Recounted through the great channel of one of America's best-ever authors, the tale becomes almost telepathic in its raw power. I found no point at which the story bogged down. Though many of us have read this long ago, to hear the book again in such fine narration was pure pleasure.

The pinnacle of plot resolution at the very end.

Some of the interpersonal omteraction scenes between the main characters, especially the carefree "Gypsy".

Definitely

I'll start listening to everything in Audible's offerings concerning Hemingway's epic works. It was hard not to give this one carte blanche five stars all the way across, so I docked one star from the Story section only because the plot was a bit oddly resolved in a certain manner which I won't reveal here in order to keep the element of surprise fresh for others.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who has the patience to listen closely to a deeply layered analysis of Spanish history. I found the academic tone of the work to be highly stimulating. This is no rough sketch such as you might find in any lesser work; the author brings his long career as an historian and academician to bear on analyzing everything from economics to war to geography to politics in the shaping the Spain of today.

The discussion of the highly controversial dictator Franco was intensely interesting, as was having a better understanding of the root causes of the Civil War. But so was the entire story from the Visigoths to the Twenty-First Century.

I haven't listened him before, but he gave an incredible performance in spite of his understandably Anglicized enunciation of tons of Spanish words. Getting past those hiccups was a bit distracting, but not much.

The closing chapter, in which specific conclusions are drawn to illustrate what Spain is today and where it might be going, from the perspective of a very intelligent social scientist.

The lengthy introduction was tedious but probably necessary in order to establish the author's credibility. The rest of the work was so good that I've given it a couple of listens. Of course, just having traveled through Spain for the first time added to the correlative joy of hearing this. I highly recommend this unique outlook on the history of an amazing culture.

The author's style of recanting detailed survival scenarios adds an intense element of interest, and there can be no doubt as to the value of the lessons he derives from these actual events. One downside of the book (to me) is the author's repeated chest thumping over his own miraculous adrenaline packed thrill-seeking endeavors. Still, he definitely gets his message across. There are dozens of tips about how to avoid the befuddled state of mind that shocked humans can find themselves in amidst ultimate despair and tragedy. Should you ever find yourself in a calamitous situation, being mindful of what was presented in this book might just save your life.

Excellent presentation, though repetitive in places.

No.

Yes

You can fast forward through the sections in which the author drags you through his moments of self importance. Or, you might just love it.

Accurate, engaging, enlightening.

Favorite character: All of us, the bearers of the magic gift of consciousness. Bill Bryson's insightful ability to weave together a picture of our natural history is unsurpassed. This book was chock-a-block with interestingly connected facts and analogies that explain who we are and how we got here. I gave it three listens and will hit it again in a few months. Throughout the entire series, I didn't encounter a single dry spot or boring passage. He also was able to vivify all of the historical characters whose shoulders we now stand upon in our emerging understanding of the complex reality of our existence. It is a spellbinding book.

Richard Matthews is the most pleasing narrator I've ever listened to- never monotonous or quirky and thoroughly British enough to please the American ear.

The Story of Us.

Give this one a try if you're even remotely interested in understanding the natural world and its perceived meaning. Get ready for a happy existential crisis after you've finished it.

Shorten it to two chapters and it will have said it all.

Most: Snippets of the history of neurology. Least: the (unusual for Sacks) incessant, off-topic stray into his own tedious emotional outlook on the whole process of injury/shock/acceptance/healing/triumph. It was if he wrote this so his readership could give him free amateur psychotherapy. In the end, this was an unengaging emotion-rich/fact-sparse book about the process of healing up a broken leg. Not a Sack's Best.

Oliver Sacks normally writes a fine, engaging book. This one was such a sleeper though, that at least one didn't have to keep one's eyes open to get through it.

Yes- frequent incursions into falling asleep.

I wouldn't judge the whole excellent spectrum of Oliver Sack's excellent books by this one flopper. I'll not give up on purchasing his other audio books, even though iIve also read most of them in print form.

Concise but informational

Summary

Pleasant voice inflection and a chance to rest the eyes while taking in rich information

N/A

This seems to be an update to Mindsight, repeating much of what was stated there and building on it too, but rolls out in a more concise and well-paced manner. I have taken these principles into daily living, with immense benefit in interpersonal relationships and calmer days in spite of the storms of living.