Steve Gross

An impressive work of scholarship. Normally I bridle when an author interjects his opinions in a work of history, but here I liked it. Interesting comments. Plus, he seems to add facts to what are thought to be well-known stories; for example, Copernicus's theory did not eliminate the need for epicycles.

Good but too long

Still good in the series but Simon gets badly beaten and never stops going

Good advice but a bit too much personal information

Good but long

Too long

Shows its age and very talky but still fun

Too long and too gruesome

Ending felt somewhat forced. Also, it's bad radio procedure to say “Over and Out”.

It's an interesting thesis, but... it's soooo long and filled with dubious graphs. It does the annoying sociology thing; creating terms like “Near-kinship sock assessment relativity” and then applying it in all kinds of places.

A fun romp through the world of puzzles. The writer, my ex-step-brother-in-law, gives too short shrift to mathematical puzzles and too much to his family and personal experiences.

Interesting view of what it's like to serve in Afghanistan

This is a strange book; at times brilliant, opaque, scattershot, angry, irrelevant, unclear. But interesting a lot of the time.

Millard is a fine writer who picks interesting topics. This is not her best work. Too much woke-ism with a little preaching here and there. The chronology is sometimes confusing as well.

Fun mystery if you like magic

Most of the book that concerns cholera in 1800's London, was worth 4 stars. But the too-long epilogue is already outdated and is just musings on cities by the author.

Adequate but uninspiring

Some good flashes, but the repetitiveness of the soap opera elements - “I'm a woman”, “no one likes me”, “I just want to close my cases”, “my mother is horrible” became too much. Also, what's with the constant fast food descriptions?

Amiable - a little history, a little anecdotal, a little essay. Should have been subtitled “How computers can now beat every human at every game”.

Fun. Very similar to the Bernie Rhodenbarr series.

Nicely written but too depressing, as most psychological thrillers are.

Would have given this 4 stars - it's full of interesting history and other facts - but the sheer repetitiveness of explaining hieroglyphs was too much.

Maybe it's me, but I couldn't keep up with all the characters.

Fascinating take on Israeli Judaism

Beautifully made book. At the risk of sounding like a Philistine, I found the sonnets somewhat repetitive. It would have been nice to have a different subject than my True Love and how Unworthy I am.