Mer Barr
Very enjoyable, comfy read! A bit too many people to keep track of at times but an interesting way of introducing people and peeling back the layers of not the onion but the mystery. I love that the story is so complex that I was still scratching my head a bit after the reveal, leaving me with a interest to reread the book down the road to get what I missed the first time.
Amazing book! I've not read but have heard of the author's other, very famous book but this book is incredible because it talks about areas of the oceans that I've not heard about in other books or conversations, her choice of words is almost poetic, and she hits so many topics related to the ocean that it seems like it should be, but isn't, a massive "thome."
I normally don't read short stories but there are so many of the author's stories translated to movies and even the full stories of his are amazing, that I chose to read this. And I'm glad I did because not only does it have the one story to movie but two other movies, one which did like and the other I'd not heard of.
Each story's topic is thought provoking even today, 70 years later.
Four Doors
- Story - medium
- Character - high
- Setting - high
- Language - medium
If you love sitting in gardens or being a part of a family-of-choice this is an excellent book. The characters are very vivid and distinct, the jumps between timelines is marked by the date at the start of each chapter and the voice of each character is distinct, making it easy to keep track of who's eyes you're looking through.
Four doors
- Story - medium
- Character - high
- Setting - medium
- Language - high
This might be a bit dated for some as it definitely has a different pace and language to it but if you are vaguely familiar with the 1950s you'll be able to slide into the setting and language well. The struggles the characters go through is ageless.
I've not seen the movie but it's going on my to-rent list now, while the story is fresh in my mind.
About as close as you can get to being there, yourself. And so glad the author showed not only the kindness of animals but the dangers that can occur when humans don't pay attention to where they are in relation to an animal in its home territory.
It's been decades since I participated in a Black Rhino census in Zimbabwe, where I had opportunities to experience African days and nights, many of which included seeing animals of all shapes and sizes. I loved this.
The storyline plays out very slowly, and does some jumping back in time without a preamble (in the audiobook). The characters are fairly fleshed out and just as you think the story has reached the end, the main character exits the scene and an apparent new storyline continues without her.
I don't know how this second storyline played out or how the book ended because I borrow books I have not read, from my libraries and my loan was up. I was not interested enough to get back in the waiting line to complete it.
Heavily character-driven story, which I like and which keeps me hanging in there for a slow plot and not much forward momentum.
Reminds me alot of Elizabeth Gaskell's books (Cranford, Wives and Daughters, North and South), Colleen McCullough's The Ladies of Missalonghi, and Vita Sackville-West's All Passion Spent.
I almost returned this book early and uncompleted, to my library. Although the main character was different to many I'd ever read but the storyline was really slow. However, I hung in there and the longer I listened the more characters were introduced, the more detail was added to each, and the faster the plot twisted and moved along.
I've read only one other book by the author, Project Hail Mary, and I had a similar reaction to. I'll consider reading other books by him.
Another fun read from the author and this particular series. We're getting to know the gang that's gathered around Fred since the first book and we see them working together as a team.
This is a set of short stories that chain together nicely to create a solid book. This structure made me realize what I hate about short stories is that they rarely provide depth to a character or closure to a storyline. Each short story here, brings a particular challenge to a close and each successive short story, picks up shortly after the previous ends, nicely cutting out the uneventful "recovery" periods and taking you right in to the next challenge.
There are also a lot of concepts and characters to interest a mind grown cynical on too many stories with the same plot just a renaming of characters or a slight spin on the storyline.
While listening to this book, I kept wishing I'd read this BEFORE my trip to Morocco. Many of the cities and towns she describes are places we toured or stopped in! I've always found I appreciate a place more, when I have a bit of history and cultural context.
Ms. Warton writes about her journey just after World War I which is new enough to my time to probably recognize some of the places she describes. She had unique access to the rulers and their families, saw people and their environments at all levels of quality of life; lavish to squalid. She also had access to mosques which are today forbidden to non-Muslims.
The author does a great job of rotating through three different topics
- Share details on the daily duties of wilderness fire fighting across the western US
- Provide historical and cultural context to the particular area she's working in at the time
- shares the physical and mental challenges she struggled with during this time; trauma from her childhood as well as being the only female in a testosterone-heavy, hostile-to-females, environment.
I applaud the author for taking the risk to bare their soul to the public eye.
There are alot of books out there about the 1940s-80s and the US's missions to the moon. This one focuses on John F. Kennedy from his youth to his death (and a bit beyond) and his interactions with:
- space exploration,
- the "Space Race" with the USSR,
- the "Cold War" with the USSR,
- the astronauts,
- the technology involved, and
- the people who pioneered alot of the technology like Werner von Braun.
Well written and organized, stays on target with only short side trips to provide background on important characters like Lyndon B. Johnson and Werner von Braun.
Not too technical so a great first book for someone just starting out on these topics and time period.
This book helped me figure out why I don't like short stories. It's because each story is only a snapshot of a bigger story not completed. I prefer a fully fleshed out story with deep characters.
I will say this book has some stories unlike most of the author's books that I have read and enjoyed, so I found theses intriguing. And there were some that were they fleshed out would be of the same dreamy quality of her novels. But I really dislike stories that stop mid-story so I didn't complete this book.
I can't put my finger on it but there's something about the author's choice of words that I absolutely enjoy! Every one of the books that I've read give me a sense of dreaming that I'm reading. And her storylines are always of personal experiences of the characters.
It's sad that her books are so rarely accessible in libraries and when they are available they're usually in physical formats only.
A unique topic, which is incredibly rare these days! So refreshing!
Unfortunately, it's a novella and could have used a bit more fleshing out on the transitions from one scene to another and a bit of a preamble rather than diving right in mid-conversation-like. But what's there is a great story that's just too short for my taste.
A good first read for the subject, however it only covers the first six months of 2020 and makes the situation sound like everything sort of ended on a high note when it came to Covid. If I remember correctly, things really kicked in later that year as the cold weather set in and people were back to being inside together for the winter and governments and institutions had to come to terms that this was not a short-term situation.
It does do a great job of putting the reader next to each of these early-graduation interns; their personal lives and their interactions at their various jobs. I hope someone is still following this year of medical and nursing students to see the longer impact positively and negatively across many areas of their life and writes a book on it for me to read.
As I'm from a different culture, I had a hard time distinguishing similarly sounding names to their respective characters and found it difficult to figure out who just had what happen to them. I did enjoy the growth of the main character and how the author addressed a grown woman in mens' clothing in a male dominated world.
I understand there's a second book after this but this isn't a series I'll pursue.
