Patricia

The reviewer who mentioned Princess Bride was right. I bought this on a whim (and a liking for Bronson Pinchot's reading). I hated it at first - was very close to taking the return option - but I was trying to listen to it on a workday. Gave it another chance on the weekend - it is definitely a weekend or vacation or road trip book - then had trouble putting it down. It is very silly and the plot feels like it is being made up as it goes along, But its all a great romp with a reader who brings the bizarre cast of characters to life. If you like Princess Bride and/or the Jasper Fforde Nursery Crime books,or just want something very light to listen to, give this one a try.

if there are any...seems impossible. This is one of the most annoying books that I have ever tried to read. I started it a couple of times, put it away, and now its too late to return it or I would do so. AND I resent the reference by another reviewer along the lines of "60 year old grandmothers" not appreciating it. Many 60 year old grandmothers (and grandfathers) grew up in the heyday of the great science fiction writers - Clarke, Heinlein, Brunner, too many to mention, - and this writer is simply not in their class. If you go ahead and buy this showy piece of jumpy junk, don't let the "return by" date pass you by.

... this should be required reading for anyone interested in business, management, politics, great scams, or just wants an exciting story that they already know the end of. The author's fly-on-the-wall details of how key figures behaved; the intricacies of the financial sleight of hand; and the behavior of the management, employees; auditors, lawyers, and rating firms were beyond what even the most cynical (well almost the most cynical) person could imagine. It is a true tragedy - on both the personal and political level - which reads like a fast-paced novel. If you are interested in (or obsessed by) other contemporary accounts of corporate and political bad behavior (as for just one example, The Big Short) don't miss this book.

This was my third-in-a-row Enron book, so maybe I was just over it by then, but although it was an interesting perspective, it didn't add much to either Conspiracy of Fools, in my opinion the best, or The Smartest Guys in the Room, which did make some of the financial dealings a little easier to understand. It took me until the second section to get resigned to the narrator - it made sense to have a female narrator and maybe she actually sounded like Sherren - but she was definitely trying (way too hard) to emphasize things that were really not that exciting and did nothing to add to the story. Stick with stopping at two unless...

I love Jasper Fforde. I like Thursday, love the Nursery Crimes, and go back often to Shades of Grey, which keeps turning up new shades of meaning. I actually pestered Audible to make The Last Dragonslayer available in the U.S. Although I'm not at all sure that my pestering helped, I feel a bit responsible, and therefore want to warn others. This is in no way up to Mr. Fforde's standard.

I like paranormal tales, and in particular creepy appartment stories (Rosemary's Baby remains one of my favorites, and I have been a H.P. Lovecraft devotee since I discovered him many years ago, so I bought 14 on the basis of the description and the good reviews.
At the start it looked like I was onto a good thing. The book starts well with a cast of normal-but-just-a-bit-off-center characters (voiced perfectly by Mr. Porter) and increasingly weird indications that something very strange was going on. Then it got stupid, draggy and pointless, And then it got grossly ugly in an an apparent attempt to channel Lovecraft (which failing, remained only gross), and moved on to an ending that didn't make any sense at all.

Maybe, maybe, if Mr. Clines had written three separate books each of them would have been able to have a focus, or maybe if he had tightened up the plot? Or, as someone once said about Stephen King, "he's a brilliant writer, but he really does need an editor."

Her reading of The Incorrigible Children of Aston Place sold me on Katherine Kellgren, so although I generally don't trust the hype for cozys, particularly historical cozys, I fell for HRS when tempted by a sale. I'm not sure whether or not I'll follow the series - it may take more sales to tempt me (Hint) - but the book is a lot of fun - the heroine a ditz who admits her ditziness and prevails in spite of herself and a full complement of upstairs/downstairs characters all perfectly voiced by Ms. Kellgren, Although I'm not an expert on the period, I have read enough about the 1930's (mainly Evelyn Waugh and the Mitfords in the fiction category and quite a bit of history), and Ms. Bowen gets the tone of that era spot on.

If you are a fan of the standard Reginald Hill books, you could be surprised by this one, which is much longer, much darker, and more intricately plotted than the Dalziel and Pascoe series. Having said that, once you suspend disbelief - a necessity for accepting the somewhat fantastic plot and its coincidences - it is a truly great listen, and Jonathan Keeble is the perfect voice for a protagonist (who is a just a bit Dalziel-esque).

I enjoyed Connolly's "The Gates", which had an energetic protagonist and a reasonable premise, and fell for the good reviews for this book. After 2+ hours of hearing about the problems of a depressed and depressing young boy, the action finally started. Some of it was inventive; much was ugly; some was related to fairy tales but other bits seemed like just an opportunity to bring in grotesques. There was an almost complete lack of humor, and what there was was heavy-handed and soon over. Since it was set in WWII, I kept looking for parallels, but, trust me, Tolkein did it a lot better. But obviously, given the reviews, a lot of people have like it. Go take a look at a hard copy before you decide this one is for you.

I'm greatly enjoying the Charles Paris BBC dramas - the music alone is a blast from the past; the actors are pitch-perfect; and the stories a lot of fun. I know Charles would not be much fun to know or live with, in reality, but he is such a wonderful scoundrel to hear from as he continues to live in a state of scotch-fueled non-divorce with his long-suffering wife Frances. The scene where he's a stand-in in his daughter's prenatal class is particularly memorable; as is the anniversary scene in "A Reconstructed Corpse." If you like radio drama with a sense of humor, these are for you.

I had planned to write to encourage any adult who likes Joan Aiken, E.Nesbit, Monty Python (the videos), & T.Pratchett to try this superior series. It's not particularly like any of their works - well maybe Aiken's "Serial Garden" - but plays to the same part of the brain through its overall sense of the absurd and superior wordplay. Not sure how it would plan with most YA readers, but seems great for the 7-12 year old set - and their parents - since it works extremely well at both levels.
I'm afraid to give any details because almost anything I would say would be a spoiler - just trust me that by piling hackneyed formula upon formula, and throwing into this in a set of totally recognizable stereotypical characters, and a great deal of slowly unfolding - and growing as it unfolds - mystery, the author creates an amazing and extremely amusing jumble. The reader is perfect - ordinarily I prefer deeper-voiced narrators, but I can't imagine this book without her rendition of the heroine's thought processes and the wonderful "voices" of the children themselves. Can't wait for the next one in the series!