Andrew

Marketers cannot stop marketing - or so it seems. As I listened to this I learned a lot about a subject I now have to apply as I retire from my profession to growing, processing and selling an agricultural product. (I think it is too vulgar to mention it is olives and olive oil - how am I doing Mr Jantsch?) Also as I listened I felt I was being marketed to (or at). Maybe it was unintentional. Probably not. This marketing at (or to) was the only reason the book didn't get all 5 stars. I learned so much and I enjoyed learning it.

This book was so very interesting. My genetics knowledge was marginally post-Mendel. If you are interested in matters scientific you must not pass this book by. If you think you might be interested in matters scientific but have either never tried or (somewhat predictably) tried Hawking's book as the entry then this is the book for you. This book has the wonderful combination of teaching you something and doing it in an interesting way.

I had forgotten very important details about the killing of MLK. The brilliant way in which the story is constructed had me unable to stop listening. The book also brilliantly evokes the America of that time and struggles and conflicts which, even today, are only partially resolved. MLK is also greatly humanised but in that portrait his greatness still comes out very clearly. The one flaw in the book - if it is a flaw - is that I could not be convinced that James Earl Ray was a sole actor. Sole gunman? Not a problem with that. There are had to be more to the story of how Ray found himself - from the perspective of the assassin - at the right place and at the right time. The author alludes to this but - maddeningly - does not really delve in to this.

This story is the story of a tragedy. The material is capable of being very interesting stuff and in this work some of it is truly interesting. What is truly awful is the endless repetition and the same stuff. It was interesting the first and second times it was mentioned but there are limits.