Ana

So, I first I thought Scott Card had run out of characters, Bean's kids seem to be Ender, Peter and Valentina all over again, but in the end they developed personalities of their own and then it was interesting.

Other than that, it is good to know what happened to Bean, because we love Bean, right? And like all Scott Card books this one is very worth reading.

Enjoy!

If you like historical fiction at all, do not miss this book. It is absolutely amazing. No body disputes the historical accuracy of the book, so there is that and the way Cornwell brings it to life is fanttastic.

The book is engaging from the first sentence. The characters are likeable (I like a main character I can root for =), the descriptions are amazing (beware of listening to the battles while driving, you might find yourself speeding way, way too much, oh, and don't, listen, do not chopped vegetables while listening to the battles!) and the reader is great!

To help you decide whether you will like what I like, here's other authors I like: Connie Willis, Terry Pratchett, Ruth Downie, Patrick O'Brian, plus the usual suspects: Dickens, Steinbeck, Hemingway and them =]

I cannot get over how bad this book is. I love The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of the Horses and I really liked the next two, number 5 wasn't all that good, but this one is a tremendous dissappointment.

I have listened to over 8 hours of the book and let me tell you what has happened so far: NOTHING! The book is full of the most boring dialogue, we get to listen to people having the most inane conversations you can imagine, the smallest of small talk. These conversations don't add anything whatsoever to the narrative, the only thing they do is highlight how underdeveloped the characters are.

On top of that, Jean Auel seems to have no faith whatsoever in her readership and spends a long time repeating stuff about Ayla's life that we all know quite well and describing Ayla and everyone else doing things like setting up camp, making tea, gathering plants, skinning a kill, things that were interesting the first time around, but that we really do not need to hear about in all detail again and again and again!

It feels as if Jean Auel, decided to write for mentally challenged people. You know when you are trying to help someone with learning disabilities understand something and you speak slowly and carefully and elaborate and repeat to make sure they get it? That's how she writes. It's unbearable.

I am very, very sorry. I was looking forward to this book --with some trepidation because I didn't love the last one but still, looking forward to it, and I am sure there is a good three hours book somewhere in there, but I don't think I am going to have the patience to wade through the hours of fluff to find it.

I imagine that if you don't know Connie Willis Historians and their particular form of time travel you may have something of a hard time with this book and it's second part "All Clear". I enjoy CW's time travel books as historical novels just as much as I enjoy them as science fiction books. Her portrayals of whichever periods her Historians are visiting are magnificent. But if you want to really enjoy her time-travel books I'd say read "To Say Nothing of the Dog" first because that one will help you better understand her whole time travel concept --it is also a great book, of course and laugh-out-loud funny-- I don't think she explains time travel much in "Blackout" and "All Clear". I read a review where someone is puzzled by Polly's desperate search for a black skirt and someone else wonders about the frequent mention of the drop and I can see how those things don't quite seem important if you don't know CW's approach to time travel and history. But if you do, oh if you do, how very much sense it all makes, how very important those things are and how well you enjoy it all. When you are done with "All Clear", make sure to read "Firewatch" a short story where we meet Mr. Bartholomew in the flesh! and we re-encounter Kivrin! She's doing well. I love this woman's work, she's given me many hours of happiness. I am sure there is a special place reserved for her in Cori Celesti.

This is a beautiful book. I am an immigrant and came to this country with my baby son and it was only six years later that his father could join us, so I know what's it's like to be a single mother and one struggling to survive in a foreign country to boot.

Maybe that's why I enjoyed this book so, because I know what it's like to do everything you can to make your surroundings a happy place for your child regardless of actual circumstances.

How beautifully Emma Donoghue has written about it and how very credible her characters are and how well developed! And I loved the reading. The readers are all great, I particularly liked Jack. The person who reads Jack must have much experience listening to children's peculiar cadences and intonations.

On first approach you wouldn't think that the history of the discovery of sulfa could be fascinating, but this book is absorbing, it is history at its best. You know how history has to be felt? How history should not be something we think about only at an intellectual level, but, something we experience at an emotional level? That's what this book allows us to do. And the great thing is it is not melodramatic, it is wonderfully done. I warmly recommend it.
The reader is also great, he is now up there with Simon Vance and Stephen Briggs in my list.
I have to say that I don't usually read non-fiction, but the book was on sale and the reviews were good and I was not disappointed one bit. Way to go Audible! =)

This is a great book, the characters are very likable, it is interesting, humorous and credible.
It is read by Simon Vance, who is, as always, an absolute pleasure to listen.
To give you an idea of what I like, I spent 6 moths reading Patrick O'Brian (the audio books are also read by Simon Vance, by the way) and a year reading Terry Pratchett.