Gio'

Brilliant story within the story. I couldn't put it down. Also, some nice and funny insights on story telling.

This book was suggested to me while participating in an investing community and it was a great suggestion. I'm not an expert by any means but I found several strokes of genius in the book and idea that changed my way of looking at financial decisions and at probability applied to daily life.

What more can I say about my favorite writer that has kept me company for 30+ years. Thanks SK for another great book, another memorable character and for demonstrating that been older is not an excuse to stop creating and innovating and in general for not being at the top of the game.

As always a very enjoyable book, with good characters and an interesting story. The plot is slightly weak, in my opinion.

The author has a lot of radical ideas, presented in a very powerful and clear way. This is a must read, even if, in the end, you might not agree with everything Peter Thiel thinks.

The style is in a lot of ways similar to Stephen King's. The story is quite intriguing and the characters well developed. A lot of fun!

How much fun! I didn't want it to end. I've got hours of please out of this book. Science fiction at his finest. Imaginative universes tied in human traditions, adventures, alternative religions and family drama. This book has it all.

This book did not age well. The claims are doubtful and the tone exagerated.

This is a very good collection of stories, all tied together in a nice alternative world. The writing is elegant and so the scenes come out of the pages in very vivid color. Classy.

The book is so powerful and shocking that I was very surprised by the fact that I didn't already know the story of this family. It is brilliant how the author constantly ties this private events to a period of the history of US and to general themes.

Ok... quick read and somewhat funny, but not funny as Severgnini once was. Yes, he does hit on some good aspects for “Italians”, but his point of view is definitely northern, so he only really understands a portion of Italy. He has little familiarity with center and south and the book shows this limitation.

Sorry, I didn't get it. Incredibly boring, I couldn't even finish it.

The structure of the book is tried and true. A series of vignettes that slowly come together, but the issue to me is that it takes to much time to come together and the book slugs true endless repetitions of the same concept. Some parts are good and the end is gripping, but it still feels that the book is way to long and that it could have been better with less characters.

Well... this is a quick read, and as always with Grisham it is pretty smooth. The story is actually interesting, but the book feels rushed. Characters don't have much depth and the last part of the book is excessively condensed. I'm left with the feeling that the author either got bored with the story or had a deadline to meet, so he cut the story short and moved on.

Complex book, complex man, complex life. FYI, this book is really really hard, especially the first part, so the reader should be ready to deal with pretty intense stuff. Then it moves well into self development, but in my opinion it falls short of greatness, because everything is fundamentally limited to de physical aspect and even the mindset portion is geared towards pushing physical limits. The author totally avoids sharing other parts of his life in which he might not have achieved greatness and this leaves doubts on how his teachings might help a person live a complete and full life. Having said that, there are a lot of nuggets in the book and it is indeed a greatly engaging life story.

Up and down, up and down... Nice characters, nice writings, but the story... In the search to deliver a story excessively grim, the author inserts too many obvieties and cop out situations. Also too many situation in which the character to stupid things, like designated victims in low rate horror movies, only for the story to be self-serving.

Maybe not a full 5 stars, but this book is definitely much better than expected. I don't think that being open with his own thought process make the actor arrogant, so I don't agree with some of the negative reviews, but maybe cutting a little bit on the philosophical stuff would have made the book an even tighter read, but is still very good. There is definitely more to Matthew McConaughey that meets the eye. Adding to this is the superb performance that the actor himself gives in the audiobook version. I listened to more than 100 audiobooks and this was absolutely one of the best performance I ever listened to.

The story is very powerful as it is the style of the author. The images are strong, but the plot might be confusing at times.

The author is extremely creating and some of these stories are quite deep, but without using a heavy handed style.

That was complex! Lots of intertwined stories, a very bold and confident book. Only four stars because at some point it was a little bit to much and I got lost...

It is a rounded up 5 starts. Probably 4.5 would be better. The book takes a little while to find its footing but then develops in a exquisite story with many layers. Thoroughly enjoyable and it is always interesting to learn about how a Japanese character would behave and feel. I'm childishly disappointed by the fact that the plot doesn't develop exactly like I would have preferred, but that is my problem.

As usual, pretty good book. Interesting story, beloved characters that keep growing and overall good fun. I think the author used a little bit too many coincidences and also some of the multy-book storylines are getting a little too old. I hope that the next book will freshen things up.

How many ideas can this guy have. Very fun, very well written, a little too short to really be considered a great book, more like a short story that is a little long. On a less positive note the audiobook quality wasn't good. The voice was not crisp and the background noise a little bit too high.

It is a good fun read, but... the plot has too many coincidence for me to fully enjoy. I'm totally ok with heroes that can take down 5 guys bare handed or that cannot be hit by bullets. I love James Bond as much as the next guys, but the coincidences... that's where I put the line in the sand.

This is quite a book. A long epic story with complex historical backgrounds. In a lot of ways it reminds of the style of Garcia Marquez.