Mer Barr

Can't quite put my finger on it but I didn't like this one as much as the first. Maybe there wasn't so much of the word play that I find humorous, and more emphasis on forms of humor I don't find funny?

I have not laughed out loud in a long time! It's nice to find some humor I can enjoy. Right up there with the Dortmunder series by [a:Donald E Westlake 21453878 Donald E Westlake https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and some of the Discwold series by [a:Terry Pratchett 1654 Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg].

A great insight into a world I'm not familiar with, and I found I was envious of someone surrounded by strong and supportive women. Most of my life has been in male dominated work environments which at times was very lonely and you had to have your own back.

I made it to about the 20% mark and then started jumping chapters. No where did I run across the “Fall” mentioned in the title, or “Hell”, and Dodge had completely disappeared from the story, except in past tense. He's like a “red herring” with the actual story being everyone else, and the generations and technology that comes after.

What I did like was the exploration of the technology of the time, that today seems to be the beginning of, not yet at the level of, the book.

A very quick read that reminded me of ‘meditations on a specific theme'. Some of the thoughts that arose for the author are memories of her family and growing up in segregated Texas, history of slavery in Texas, the origins of Juneteenth, and how her family celebrated.

It helped me understand a bit more of the world that I didn't grow up in.

The author does an amazing job of making what has to be an extremely complex science with a unique language, into layman's terms that a science fan like myself can follow along and understand the science theoretically but not necessarily the details.

I'm so happy to see a book about a woman who has navigated the male dominated industry so well! Not only can she stand up to male-bias but rise above that negativity by focusing on collaboration, supporting others, and mentoring.

I thought the author did a great job of staying in the middle during the divisive sections of the story. Not presenting the folks from China as ‘bad' people, but people with different cultural perspectives and emphasis and not making the European and American cultures as ‘good' people.

And I especially like that the author interjected his own thoughts and perspectives in the storyline. He wasn't just telling someone else's story but how their story impacted his own story and expressed his differing opinions.

I think I enjoyed to visual art better than the first as there wasn't as many battle scenes to confuse my brain. I also liked the greyness of the motives and personalities; not so black and white. Which is why I also like [a:Elmore Leonard 12940 Elmore Leonard https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1240015224p2/12940.jpg].

I was introduced to this series by way of the Netflix series. Love the concept, the characters and the different times the creators have chosen. Thankfully the weapons of choice are an easy way for me to identify the different characters in a frame.

The sequencing of the frames and bubbles is not quite intuitive for me, probably as I don't read many graphic novels. I also find the frames way to busy to understand most times but I do pause to appreciate and admire the skill in the design and drawing of the really busy frames.

I'm looking forward to reading volume 2 and sad to see it's the last available.

This should be marked for reading after the original series. The only reason it wasn't outright confusing is I've seen the movie version a couple times and could sort of piece out who was who.

That said, I found the stories helpful and thankfully the image and bubble sequencing fairly logical. The images were too busy for my brain. Maybe it would make more sense if I have more graphic novels under my belt.

I thought the author did a good job of gathering stories from many different sides of the event, as well as showing the positive and negative sides to human beings.

She dove into why PGnE was the one that started the flames and why but what I would like to know is did the residents of Paradise ever acknowledge their part in the catastrophe? There were so many mentions that the flames moves much more rapidly than most fires do but didn't really clarify what folks determined why. Was it a combination of the communities enthusiasm for being surrounded by nature and duff as well as the extremely dry weather?

One thing it took me awhile to understand was that Paradise is north of San Francisco. I've not watched the local or cable news channels or read news papers in decades, so I had always assumed this was in Southern California where all the fires from the 80s and 90s were occurring. I've driven thru the smoldering n blackened countryside in the north bay area of the San Francisco area, so I can now align Paradise with these memories, and time, in my mind.

I've struggled to understand the letting go aspect during meditation and non-meditation but this book really clarified that for me. And the examples are those that I can readily identify, which I've struggled with, with other teachers.

I will say Rinpoche does a more than thorough job of providing examples. I found myself starting to skim pages towards the end of the book, mumbling ‘I get it! I get it! What else do you have for me to learn!'

First time I read this, back in the 90s most likely, I gave it 4 stars. Today I've quit reading before the halfway mark because the plot is not drawing me in.

It's hard to put my finger on but there's something about this sort of magic in a person's life that I enjoy much better than the other types of stories about witches and magicians and vampires and such that I don't have the same reaction to. Is it the origins of the magic being written about? That it seems to be more earthy?

Loved reading about a time and place I've not yet explored in books. The pace was almost too slow, thankfully I was too intrigued by the people and place to get frustrated. I did find it very difficult to keep track of who was who, and who was where, after awhile and just gave up.

I would have liked a reminder of what happened in the previous book, there are so many folks referred to in this one that have died in prior books. I hate getting those shockers all over again.

I thought the authors did a great job of wrapping things up! Considering the middle section started taking the concepts so far ‘out there' I was wondering how they were going to bring those to a closure AND THEN bring a closure of the book and series that wouldn't leave their fans wanting to throw big penalty flags and flashing red cards at them. [as in those authors that wrap up 6 storylines in the last 2 paragraphs of a book!]

Another great story in the life of Johnny and his friends.

Interesting journey into an expansion of the world of [b:Out of Africa 781787 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608486134l/781787.SY75.jpg 1189079].

Very enjoyable, lots of characters to get to know, and an interesting twist to my childhood memories.

The author says this is not a ‘history' book, which is true. I learned some things but it took alot of words to tell it.

So much comedy is contrived, which is probably what I don't like about that sort of comedy. This book, on the other hand, is natural comedy. And the audio version is so good! I'm not sure how the interaction between the 2 authors is done in the book, but the audio was like sitting there, with a good whiskey in hand, listening to 2 good friends roast each other while regaling you with their recent trip.

Sounds like this is about a travel show Mr. Heughan put together. I bet the show is even funnier, capturing the visual as well as the verbal humor.

Tons of good information about the history of Scotland, and both authors' careers, and I especially liked the songs and poetry scattered amongst the story.

A very fast listen, read by Ms Beard herself. It's a great introduction to how things are and why. It does not go into how to make changes.

Being a female in a male dominated industry starting in the 1980s means I've been on the receiving end of the sort of bias and prejudice the author is writing about. I've even had to point out to women how their view of ‘pushy' or ‘loud' women is most likely inaccurate due to bias and that I'm most likely described the same way just for being a woman in this time and place and not sticking to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.

I'm looking forward to a book that talks about how to make changes.

This book gives me a better idea of what was going on back in February and March 2020 in New York hospitals. Gut wrenching, bring a kleenex sad but also so good to know that there are still doctors and hospital staff that truly care about people, not just the money.

I'm thankful this is such a short book [4 hours]; I don't think I could have handled a 10 hour book.

Horrifying topic and frightening at how some people looked at things. Disregard for someone's human rights still exists today but I'm glad that there have been improvements here n there since the 40s.

The author has organized the story into logical topics by chapter, and although I was really wanting to get to the stories of the individuals themselves faster than the author had things organized, I did find the chapters helpful in seeing the roadblocks put up to delay justice.

As I had to request this thru Interlibrary Loan, I wasn't able to complete the book in the time allowed to me but in the end I got what I really wanted to know.

The humor and the storytelling of this series reminds me of [b:The Atrocity Archives 101869 The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1) Charles Stross https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440461724l/101869.SY75.jpg 322252] and the Laundry Files series. Good flow to the plot, characters you can like and dislike, no sidetracking from the storyline, no jumping back-n-forth between plots, all things I like when I'm reading.Definitely will continue to the next in the series.

Not the usual Stephen King read. I scratched my head thru the whole book looking for Mr King's signature twist into alternate reality, looking for the creepy part to arrive that I assumed was referred to in the book jacket summary. Just a couple easter eggs to [b:The Stand|149267|The Stand|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1213131305l/149267._SX50_.jpg|1742269] and [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585] about the 3/4 mark.

Many interesting ideas to contemplate thru the entire book! The traumas of childhood, war, rape, and revenge, the meticulousness and [can I really call it] split personalities required for an assassin, and the master craftsmanship of a good and long time writer as Mr King.