Jonathan Hoffman

I've read other Halprin books, and he's always shown a lot of potential, and some terrific writing in places. But in this book he really put it all together: wit, satire, tenderness. My wife and I loved it. Be patient: he takes his time, but it's worth the wait. Listen to the UNabridged. Despite its length, Helprin isn't trying to get you there quickly. Rather, he's letting you savor the details of each event, so you have to be patient. But if you are, you'll be amply rewarded.

1. A plot that a) didn't give away the ending at the beginning; b) was plausible; c) where the only issues that created any possibility of suspense weren't resolved within the plot, but thrown into the denouement--almost as an afterthought.
2. At least ONE character I actually cared about.

I'm starting Harlen Coben's latest, Six Years.

He does a terrible job portraying female characters.

I would start by cutting the author. And if we cut the cop, then we'd be spared the pathetic denouement/epilogue.

I believe the last Robin Cook book I read was Coma, and perhaps one more about the same time (long ago). I liked it. But it looks like Cook has kept the formula, but hasn't improved his character or plot development. The vast conspiracy between the health insurance company and the plaintiffs' lawyers is ridiculous enough, even if the reader/listener isn't a fan of either group. But serial murders based on THAT ridiculous conspiracy? It would be laughable on its own, but it's even more ridiculous, given that it doesn't even make economic sense, let alone simplistic page-turner-thriller sense. We knock off long-term high-risk consumers to keep our rates low. Why? Because it'll cost more to cover them in the long term. Why? Because they're at risk of dying from a sudden heart attack. Uh, wouldn't that cause them to drop dead, and cost LESS? Besides, who signs up for health insurance for LIFE? It's a year-to-year proposition for most people. As long as they're young and healthy now, why would an insurance company care if they're at risk of dropping dead 20-30 years from now? They'll probably be someone else's problem by then. The central idea of the entire story is simply so preposterous on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin.

Terrific writer, excellent performance

Two very smart main characters, each plotting against the other. Both kept outsmarting me. What will they do next?

No, but they were terrific.

Dumb question. It's a great book. I wasn't paying any attention to how to adapt it for the Big Screen, and I don't intend to start now.

Disappointing sequel to one of our favorite DeMille books. Not much happens until the end, and it's a LONG wait, with fairly tiresome conversation, until something finally occurs. Too little, too late.

He is a terrific narrator, and he makes the best of a bad situation, but he can't make the story shorter, and he can't create action that doesn't exist.

No, enough!

I'm a big Harlan Coben fan, but Promise Me was a big disappointment. First and foremost, he should stick to writing and not narrate his own books. I know that some authors can do it well, but he's terrible. Someone as talented and successful as Coben ought to be able to get someone good to do his reading, but alas, he didn't.
Second, while I realize that his books follow several formulas, they are usually so engaging on other fronts that I don't mind. They have heart, you care about the characters, and they're written with true compassion that transcends a lot of other formulaic thrillers. This one seemed contrived. Perhaps that's a result of his lousy narration--maybe the characters would have exhibited more heart if a good narrator breathed life into them, but it was not to be.
Harlan: PROMISE ME you will stick to writing and PROMISE ME you'll stop pretending you're Scott Brick. Unfortunately, you're not.

The good: It's a nice follow up to Pillars of the Earth, and it's clever and original to create a "sequel" several centuries later. Follett does an excellent job blending the story with actual historical events, and he brings to life a period of history too few know about and fewer still care about. As always, his main characters are compelling. Overall, these make for a very good listen, and you know it's good when you pull into the parking lot and sit there until the chapter ends rather than get out of the car.

The bad: how much badly-written sex and violence do you want? I'm no prude, but I thought a lot of it was gratuitous and not particularly well done in any event.

The Gate House sounded like the one everyone was bugging him to write: "Oh, you HAVE to do a sequel to the Gold Coast. It was such a GREAT book!" So he tried, and tried, and finally succumbed. But, its not the Gold Coast. It's just going through the motions. Fairly slow plot, and, with a few delightful exceptions, it lacks the sharp, hilarious, satirical dialog that distinguished most of his other novels. The narrator didn't help, either. There's a fine line between upper crust, "effete preppy snobs" and "gay," and the narrator sounder more the latter than the former. ("Not that there's anything wrong with it."), but it just sounds wrong and, in the process, detracts from the humor that might otherwise exist in some of the dialog.

This is a terrific book, stunningly written, adeptly performed. Having come of age during the era of the early Civil Rights movement, the time in which the book is set, these characters and their challenges brought back so many memories, mostly heartbreaking but also inspiring, of the evils of a segregationist society and the quiet courage of those who dared to challenge it. The characters are brilliantly drawn. My only regret is that the principal antagonist of the book doesn't get whist she truly deserves, but that's kind of what happened in the Deep South.

A guilty pleasure, it was hard to stop listening, but if and when I stopped to think, even for an instant, I readily recognized what a trite, shallow, two dimensional piece of fluff Memorial Day is. The Bad Guys (all Muslims, of course), are sleazy, lying little bastards. One "good Muslim" is briefly thrown in for a trivial attempt to minimize the book's otherwise bigoted tone. It's reminiscent of those movies and TV shows from decades past that allowed for one "good Negro" to counterbalance an otherwise racist presentation. Almost worse than the Bad Guys are the Liberals, who dare to believe in such impediments as the rule of law, the US Constitution, and limitations on torturing the Muslims-even those who are also American citizens. So if you're a right-wing yay-hoo who believes that we should unleash CIA assassins to do whatever they want in the name of our national security, then this is the pablum for you. If you believe that putting unchecked power in the hands of such people would destroy American freedom, or even if you think there ought to be a little balance, then this is not your book.
The narrator is OK, and does a nice job with the gruff and growly hero/assassin, Mitch Rapp, but I agree with some of the reviewers who said he does a pretty bad job on the women. But then, so does the author: reducing two of the three female characters, whose principal offense is that they're trying to uphold the rule of law (i.e., tying Rapp's hands) to whiny, officious, insincere and despicable characters. But thank goodness, we have One Good Token Woman, too, the Director of CIA, who is willing to bend the rules just so Rapp can Do His Thing.

This is one BAD book. Pointless, unengaging, boring, and impossible to listen to. Worst book I've ever tried to listen to on Audible.

Christopher Moore isn't for everyone. Incredibly irreverent, profane, offbeat. But this is the fourth book of his I've read or listened to and I liked it the best. Part of that is due to the narrator, Susan Bennett, who absolutely does the best narration I've heard on any book. When she starts reading Moore's character "Abbie Normal," th book takes off. I loved it.