Benoibe

This IS NOT A SMUTTY ROMANCE BOOK. By any reasonable standards! But Ive been Shocked to see the neg reviews calling this incredibly famous novel just that.

*****A tip for the prude or those who aren't interested in love stories: read the description before you get the book. If you can't stand any mention of sexuality, or cant understand and appreciate the story of two lovers amidst tragedy of war and time, don't purchase a 32-hour, time-travel, Scottish romance novel.

Considering all the positive reviews, I rated this book, but never wrote a review bc it was all said already. This is a beloved novel, and it is also a beautiful work of literature that will stand the test of time. I am obviously not the only one to think that.

The reason I write this review is in response to the readers who call this a silly romance, a piece of smut, or overly and offensly sexual. Oh my God! I can't imagine anyone thinking there was too much sex or graphic sex in this book. Moreover, I was annoyed for the first 15 hours that there wasn't more love and romance. This author writes the few love scenes with grace and tenderness, choosing precise words that are not offensive in the least. The few major intimacy scenes are brilliant, in fact. Diana Galdaldon was able to convey the intensity of the moment without resorting to brash language.

I wanted More time for the lovers to talk and get to know each other, mentally and physically. Thus I gave the story 4 stars instead of 5. But I still gave the overall a 5, because it was excellent.

It actually both angers and scares me that anyone is so sexually repressed that they think this PG novel is too sexy or smutty. Of all the fantasy novels I've read, excluding Harry Potter :), and of all the romance novels I've read, the sexuality is mild, to put it lightly. There are some wonderful scenes, and they are needed and important as part of the story. But as I said, these are written with precision to avoid offensive language.

So to anyone who fits the uptight mold I describe- start looking for your fantasy books in the kids section.

Having read Bryson's The Short History of Nearly Everything and At Home: A History of Private Life, this book was a surprise for me. This book was written well before those two, and was a huge departure from what I expected.

This has a little history and a little science, but it is mostly the story if Bryson and a friend walking Appalachian. While that may not sound very exciting, it is! This story is never boring and will constantly make you laugh. It demonstrates a much different side of Bill Brysonthan I knew.

Highly recommended.

Also, whole many reviewers say they prefer when Bill Bryson reads his own work. I do not agree. At Home was read by Bryson, and it was ok. The narrator for this book is more than ok! He is exceptional and does an amazing job with the character voices. I don't think fans of the author will be disappointed with the narration!!

Upon finishing this book, I couldn't understand why I didn't already know more about this shocking tragedy. I realize that the suicides occurred before I was born (Im 33) , but so did the Charles Manson murders- and I grew up knowing all about that story and its victims. Anyway...

Knowing just a little about this story, I was transfixed with this book. It is so well written and well read! Kudos to the author for the ability to be empathetic, but also straightforward and cutting when necessary. The reader definitely gets to make up his own mind about various individuals involved, i.e. the members who were forced to leave family including their children behind when escaping.

The thing that was most surprising to me is that Jonestown was a movement for socialism, and not actually a religious cult. Jones started as a religious minister, but dropped all pretense of religion after a while. He forbade bibles and told the group that he was god. His message was not religious or spiritual, but economical. They killed themselves for socialism! ?????

I was shocked and disgusted after listening to a book about Scientology recently. Compared to Jonestown, Scientology barely registers on the radar! I have so much trouble understanding individuals who fall prey to men like Jim Jones or L Ron Hubbard. Both men had similar personality types, marked by the ability to charm and move people, and also by a growing and bizarre paranoia and isolation. Though I must add that Jones was just a really bad man, through and through. Why do people get caught up in cults? There was an obvious point where Jones had gone nuts, and yet these people followed him still. For years, the members lived in squalor and starved. Many lived in fear, and rightly so.

The final chapter of the saga, the circumstances before the mass suicide, was the most shocking. I knew about the suicides and forced suicides, but not about the slaughter of nonmembers.

I haven't read a more interesting book in a long time. I will definitely read more by Julia Scheeres. Also the narrator Robin Miles was excellent.

I finished listening to this author's first book, Demon Under a Microscope, just yesterday. I immediately went online to see if he had written anything else. I definitely recommend starting with Demon Under a Microscope first, as the stories are somewhat connected. I think you get a better understanding if what life was like at the time of this story.

This is another EXCEPTIONAL story from Thomas Hager. He gives the reader a rare point of view. I listened to both of his books straight through. (Honestly I think Hager could make anything interesting!) Hager is a truly gifted author, who tells each story with a fresh and unusual perspective. I loved the way he presented the main protagonists, with their flaws and disappointments.
Ultimately, this book is about the unintended consequences of the work of two important German scientists, from WWI to WWII, and how things just don't turn out like people intend or expect.

Great narration. Highly recommended!

While the name of this book is catchy, I really don't believe it does the book justice.

Devil Under the Microscope is a history of the first real advances in medicine in the 1930's. The story is better than fiction. One of the best nonfiction books I've read/listened to in many years! Could not put this down for a second.

This author did an amazing job with the subject matter, and the narrator is perfect.

Devil Under the Microscope gets my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!!

As an abridged version, I was a little reluctant to by this book. But the reviews from various sources, including amazon, goodreads, and audible, convinced me to try it.

While I would buy this book again if an unabridged version were released, I am thrilled with my purchase! This is fascinating newly charted territory!! The author has done a great job showing so many aspects of the Americas and its native peoples. For ex., religion, philosophy, art, poetry and other writings, along with the complicated cities and structures and lifestyles of these people. We discover the vastness of life on the americas; perhaps for the first time we can see how tragic the loss of these civilizations really is.

I don't feel like he blames anyone. Instead, I was impressed that he gave the native Americans a powerful voice in the book, instead of just portraying them as being victims of the inevitable.

Highly Recommended!!

My god! What a tragic story! This is the story of most well-known tragediy on Everest in my living memory: the 1996 Everest attempts.
Jon Krakauer was is a magazine journalist and an author of many excellent books. His story on Pat Tillman is fascinating, and his book Under the Banner of Heaven is a favorite of mine. Into The Wild received so much fan and critical success that they made a movie.

This book is if different, though. He was on one of the two ill-fated expeditions that shared a common fate. An amazing story told by the author. I never really like to listen to the author read, but it definitely works here!

Because Jon Krakauer wrote this only 6 months after the disaster, it has an intensity that is rare. Krakauer was dealing with a tremendous amount of survival guilt. I only hope he is me a man at peace.

A must read!!

Extraordinary book by Candace Millard! Beautifully told and well documented. Great performance by Paul Michael.

A book about the most dangerous of expeditions.

Great book. One I'll listen to again for sure. For anyone interested in general science, or anyone just curious how the world and universe works!

Very accessible and extremely well-read by narrator.

I thought the book had good points, but it was very disappointing. I have read many books on the subject of Richard III, nonfiction and fiction. This is my least favorite. The total vilification and spurious attacks on the Woodville family was shocking.

This is a fairytale version of the story. It's not good historical fiction!! In fact, I would recommend reading books 1 and 4 of Phillipa Gregory's Cousins War series before touching this. I'm not a fan of PG, but her work on Ann Neville and Elizabeth Woodville is far more touching and well-researched than this book.

Read Kingmakers Daughter, then The White Queen. Anne Easter Smith's story of Richard III is also very good and available on Audible. Also The Seventh Son.

Great narrator!!

This is an amazing story of survival. It's shocking, heart breaking and really shows the ability of the human spirit to keep moving forward.

My issue is that it turns into a "Christian Rebirth" story at the end. The main character finds salvation through Jesus with the help of a young Billy Graham, a southern baptist evangelical preacher.

I am truly interested in resilience and the coping mechanisms of soldiers who have been through trauma. Naturally many turn to religion. But considering the book was supposed to be about resilience and survival, I believe the ending here was short and anticlimactic. Other than the one man who found jesus, the book did not offer any evidence that the soldiers were "unbroken".