Jonathan

well written and well narrated. makes many, many points about the nature of politics and society, but never delves into them too deeply. the result is a short book, so it's up to you if it's worth the price. i reccommend it simply because it has a well earned place in western literary and political discourse. but if you have read ayn rand, or even orwell's, "1984," then you have already been exposed to all the political and sociological messages this book illustrates.

a better title for this book would havve been, "What the brain does." if you don't think my suggested title is any different from the actual one, this would be a good book for you. if you think that my title and the actual one are indeed different, then you probably already know all the info in this book.

this is a good book, but it's aimed more at people just begining to explore what's happening inside a persons skull. it's well presented, though a bit long on examples. my only real gripe is that the author tends to make the same point several times before moving on to the next one. but then so did all my teachers in high school. i listened to this book on my android at x1.5 speed which made it much better to listen to. at regular speed the narration is a might slow, but maybe that's just me. well read, just needed to pick up the pace a bit.

this book is totally non-political. nor does it give away any details that could jeapordize other elite special forces individuals. rather it is just as it claims to be, a first hand account of the raid that got osamma, plus a little more. the details given in this book are either personal to the author, giving some background on this individual and where he came from; or are just a fleshing out of some of the more famous and well known ops since 9/11. if you are at all intrested in the subject, or are just a fan of military history, this book is definatly worth your credits.

i got this book after watching the mini-series. this is basically a political thriller in an epic fantasy (a.k.a - medievil) setting. there is even a smidgen of sci-fi in here if you listen closely for it. the writing is very good. the story is both believable and engrossing. the narrator on the other hand has 4 voices, all of them are over the top varients of british stereotypes. before the mini-series i had passed on this book after listening to the sample. strongly recommend you listen to the sample too. that's as good as the narator gets. after seeing the film adaptation though, i was determined to get through this book. after a few hours i found i had built up a tollerance for the narrator. as for moving on to book two, i really want to continue the story, but i just don't know if i can put up with the narrator for 4 more books.

this story is well written, if a bit un-imaginative. the pacing is good, and some passages are quite compelling. though the end of the book sort of loses track of the timing of events as well as becoming as cliche as possible. the narration is excellent. kate reading can't be beat for fantasy stories.

the first two books had a little too much angst for me. but i'm a fan of vampires and this series wasn't bad, so i kept going. i'm glad i did. this book starts out in the same vein as the 2 before it, but a little more than half way through the pacing slows and the story really blooms. it becomes very entertaing form then on and the twist at the end is handled very well. the author tellegraphs everything way in advance, but the joy here is seeing just how what you know is coming unfolds. as for the reading, it's not stellar, but it's not bad either. each character gets their own cadence and pattern, though the voices are often very similar. overall, there's lots going on in this book, but you don't need to give it your full attention to follow the story. a great listen for paranormal fans while driving or working on other things.

this book is not a straight forward, "this is how randomness rules our lives. point 1, point 2, ect." rather its a detailed explination of the more important points in probablity theory, and a brief history of each. it's up to us to incorperate the knowledge and start seeing the randomness in our daily lives. the material is very easy to follow and understand. but it's up to the listener to take the lessons on offer here and see for themselves, "how randomness rules our lives."

this book is about the neruoscience behind our BMI. most people stay within a 20-30 pound range for most of their adult lives without giving it much thought. for others, losing 20-30 pounds wouldn't even be that noticible. to sum up what the author is getting at, i'll give two of my own examples. first) when most people go sightseeing in a major city, they look at the buildings and shops, ect. when they get hungry, they begin focusing on the resturants where they are likey to eat a little too much. but after eating, they generally don't think about food again for hours. for really fat people (like myself), the resturants are what grab our imagination first. even if it's only been a few minutes since the last meal, our minds will focus on the all the tastes that there are to explore. thus even if we do succeed in losing weight, it becomes a 24/7/365 inner struggle not to gain it back. like a recovering alcoholic, the desire to relapse, to go binge, is always there, nagging loudly like a spoiled child. second) at the other end of the spectrum you have people like sylvester stalone. he did a movie once where he had to let himself go. stop working out and gain several pounds of fat. he's said it was one of the hardest things he's ever done. for him, the inner nag kept telling him to go workout. once filming was over, he lost weight and got back in shape with a speed almost everyone would envy. this book is about the emerging science and psycology that is trying to explain why stalone can't help being in shape; and why people like john candy have such a hard time simply losing weight. if i had one book i wish everyone would read, it's this one. it's not offering excuses or permission to be fat. rather it is trying to explain that for many people, changing their bodyweight takes more than willpower.

somewhat predictable, but most stories are to some extent. the twists added to the standard fantasy formula are what make this book shine. the narration is excelent. my favorite aspect of this book is the way the underlying mystery, which is the linch pin to the whole story, is allowed to grow at such a nice easy pace. supporting several subplots that are sharing center stage with great ease. if you're a fan of the fanasy genre, you will enjoy this book.

this book is all about dog behaviour, and it covers that subject very well. if you ever wished dogs came with an owners manual, here it is. an interesting side benifit of this book is that once you learn to read dogs better, you also start to notice the same body language in humans. this book makes no attempt to delve into the minds of people beyond their interactions with dogs, but the link is impossible to miss once you know what to look for.

lots of emotional ups and down here also. the narrator does a great job not only delivering the technical lessons, but also delivering dramatical performances in the sections where the author gives dialog to help illustrate a point. an excelent book for drama fans, psychology fans, and dog lovers alike.

this book is not this author's best work. the characters and realtionships are well developed, but the underlying story is predictable. granted, there is a formula to this genere, but this story just feels like it was rushed to meet contract obligations. it's a collection of good scenes held together with the literary equivelent of cheap duct tape. the narrator, who has previously done outstanding work with this author's other titles, just goes over the top with bad accents and even worse characterizations. she does a decent job with the central characters, but everything else is distractingly bad.