Mer Barr

This book does a great job of focusing on a specific topic in each chapter, providing details from various womens' lives, some with very differing perspectives on the subject. After watching one of my favorite movies showing the heroine living aboard ship with her husband, I'd always wanted to know more about a woman's life aboard.

I did alot of questioning the author's interpretation of a woman or man's words. You can't get someone's tone or inflections accurately from their writings, of course it's her prerogative to voice her interpretation, and I to take it or leave it.

I threw down the mental penalty flag when I realized this was a twist on the movie Die Hard. I love Alan Rickman so the 'bad guy' immediately had the face and voice of him from that realization on. , and give kudos for the second plot, which I didn't quite catch all the subtleties of but I did get the general ideas.

75% of the book is on his life in school, showing all the synchronisity between who/where he was then and where he is today. I appreciated his honest sharing of his experience although I got a bit uncomfortable on ‘to much information' areas. I love that he is just as geeky as me as well as some of the deep thinking he does; I sure don't do that so “You go Simon!”

I dropped out completing the book first because I kept getting lost in the timelines. He did warn me in his introduction. Second, I was looking for the book to be touching into areas along his life rather than focusing heavily in his first 20 years or so.

The first several chapters were not that appealing to me; I'm glad I gave it ‘one more chance' because the plot got interesting and then all of a sudden I was caught by surprise to see I was near the end of the story.

I see this is a series, I may / may not continue; there's so much else to read.

This book showed up at my doorstep as part of a mail order book club [I have no idea today how I found out about] and has been a part of my library for decades.

I love how the 2 main characters are written, especially Starhawk, who is a strong female in a very male dominated world. There's alot to her I could use as a guide to how I should approach some things in my world today. The transition of Sun Wolf from one career to another is very well paced.

The Wizard King in the first book was a bit clunky, I thought, and I did alot of page skipping in Starhawk because the plot just draaaaged oooon! The mystery element was just too long for my taste but the development and transition of the main characters occurred rather nicely in the 2nd, and I love the author's many descriptors and similes. The place became easy to experience in my mind.

Made it thru the first half of the book and stopped. This much and the previous book reminds me of the reality tv shows that follow a family thru their daily life; not much going on. It is interesting to see how life in the two times are different tho.

There were several sections where I was ready to return the book to the library; thankfully the next sentence pulled me back in. One of those times I was sitting at 32% of the book and when I looked up, was at 75%. And there were sections I just got too lost amongst the science; again thankfully I've learned from watching Gilligan's Island, to just go with it.

Hmmmm, what IF the story line was Gilligan's Island? Alot of not good writing and I seem to remember one of the extras was a surfer that caught a wave back to where ever he surfed into the storyline from, so those writers at least didn't bump off the extras all the time but this does have me wondering what did happen to their extras. I'll never know because the last time I watched it as an adult I was throwing penalty flags right-n-left. Nor do I suspect I'd find it anywhere I have access to, for replaying.

The author does a great job with each chapter related to a specific topic, and progressing forward in time. He also does a great job with all the various characters and their timelines in each of the chapters.

I'd heard the urban legends that were not that positive so I'm glad to get a much better view of what Bellevue has offered the city of New York for a couple centuries.

Way too many names and government agencies to keep track of [like Tom Clancy's novels]. The science is, for the most part, at a level a lay person can understand and the author does a good job of keeping the many storylines running in parallel without too much confusion. I appreciated that he did mini reintroductions [intentional or not] as that brought the person quickly back into perspective for me.

You get a sense of how much time he spent on this book when you take a look at how thick the Notes section is; looks to be almost a quarter of the book!

This book really helped me appreciate a recent tour I took of 1 nuclear plant being constructed and 1 of its neighbors that had been working for quite some time. I did have an adrenaline jolt when they said they'd done a test that morning.

I think I finally understand the plot! It took many viewings of the BBC mini-series, a couple of the 2011 movie, and a slow read of the book; comparing it to the 2 shows to understand this!

Although I can't identify with any of the actors in the mini-series I think I had to see this plot visually and it had the plot I could understand better. Of the entire book I surprised myself by enjoying the last couple chapters and I realized it was because I finally had the 1st person point of view. I like being able to see how someone thinks; I hate intentionally missing plot points and unexplained actions.

A good bookend to Jon Krakauer's [b:Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster 1898 Into Thin Air A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster Jon Krakauer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631501298l/1898.SY75.jpg 1816662] in reinforcing the effects of high-altitude on climbers. All in all, I enjoyed the first half of the book better than the second because the authors focused on the perspective of the sherpas, as the subtitle says. The second half, when everyone was on the mountain, that the clients' stories seemed to take center stage and started to sound much like Krakauer's book.The first half filled in alot of gaps in my knowledge of the area and the peoples, and enlightened my understanding of why some people were doing what they did, in other stories.

The start was rather difficult as I had a hard time understanding the accents of the actors and some of the references weren't known to me. About half way thru I was more comfortable with the accents but now wondering where the plot was going. The rest of the story I enjoyed, as the plot started to untangle and resolve.

Reminded me of several books I read in the 80s that were historical and followed several families thru the generations. I found it tough to stay interested in when a new generation was started but the author provided enough information to bring me back on board. This book is so big I had to renew several times.

There's something about most of the books by Patricia McKillip that I've read is they somehow make me sloooow dooown, and deestreeesss. This one does start to stretch my limit of putting up with confusing plot when the boundaries start to thin but not enough to kill the joy.

Not one of my favorites of hers but it's one I'll reread in several years when I've forgotten most of the plot.

For me, this book does a much better job explaining the Heart Sutra than the other two books that had been recommended to me: [b:The Heart Attack Sutra 13640878 The Heart Attack Sutra Karl Brunnholzl https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1336581546s/13640878.jpg 19255506] and [b:An Arrow to the Heart: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra 2405629 An Arrow to the Heart A Commentary on the Heart Sutra Ken McLeod https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348053278s/2405629.jpg 2412795]. The analogies worked perfectly for me.I borrowed this from the library and I ran out of time so this is going on the list for my personal library where I can read and study it at my own pace.

The storyline picks up where [b:Strange the Dreamer 28449207 Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1) Laini Taylor https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519915549s/28449207.jpg 48158509] left off, and the author did a great job of putting in enough detail to help me remember exactly how that ended and who was who.There were a couple places where I wasn't sure how the author was going to write herself out of the proverbial corner but the solutions were interesting and satisfying. One scene was gruesomely detailed and seemed to just go on and on with the detailing; it seemed out of character for the rest of the writing style.I found this book wrapped up the storyline of the first book nicely. The author hints there might be another book in the series but I'm on the fence about whether I need to read it or not. Will it tie in to her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series?

Alot of good information on the subject.

Not a current resource and light on the subject matter. Copyright is the late 90s and a very short list of job titles.

I love the concept of a spy's mind being placed in a body to investigate a mystery and I loved the idea of each book in this series being a completely different type of environment, each being an extremely creative concept.

I find it strange that half-way thru this book I've lost track of the reason for the spy being on the planet. The author focuses alot on the day-to-day living on the world and doesn't keep the opening scene tied in along the way.

Finally, after years of returning most books unfinished to the library, I've found a book that I actually made efforts to sit down and read, and dragged around in my purse for spur of the moment opportunities.

I love the space race of the 50s and 60s, the Mercury 13, stories of the beginning of rocket science (some very weird), and the beginnings of our technology advances. Although I don't ever remember there being anything in my home state of Kansas that remotely resembled something that could be mistaken for rocket creation, launch sites, and mission control centers... just the Triton missile silos and the traveling warheads.

Around this were alot of subjects for contemplation; discrimination of sex and race, some insight to being Jewish after World War 2, and an earth-changing catastrophe.

I'm crossing my fingers the sequel is just as appealing.

The author walked the line just right for me. Not too broad that there's no science involved and not so deep into the science and technical lingo to make my eyes glaze over or become confused and then frustrated.

Also a nice mix of interaction with experts in a wide range of topics and his own personal experiences.

Even tho I'm allergic to bee stings this book has me looking forward to seeing bees this summer and possibly acquiring plants to entice them into my backyard.

Way too many Bobs for me to keep track of, or how much time has gone by from the beginning to the end but I found this just as enjoyable as the first.

Enjoyed the new take on the well worn theme of vampires, and was so excited to enjoy, once again, the mystical elements of [a:Stephen King 3389 Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg]'s Gunslinger series, [b:Christine 10629 Christine Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1663053062l/10629.SY75.jpg 1150571], and [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]; Randall Flagg, Trashcan Man, The Crimson King's eye, Tom Cullen's M.O.O.N, a car with a mind of its own, downright creepy people, and people giving their all for others. And I had flashes of [a:Neil Gaiman 1221698 Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg]'s [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods (American Gods, #1) Neil Gaiman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1462924585l/30165203.SY75.jpg 1970226] on the kids under the ice.I aspire to be more like Lou in his immediate and full support of his loved ones and friends.Thanks Rob for the recommend!

I found the first page a bit off-putting with all the partial sentences; and now that I think about it, why were they there? The rest of the book was well structured.

Also, I can't remember how that opening scene tied to the end? Did the plot get caught up with it and then move beyond? Maybe it did and I was just too caught up in the creepy twist. Intriguing science but creepy! I'm praying we don't have people with those ideas but frightened they really are in places of power.

I'm not so fond of 3rd person perspective because I want to know why the heck Reagen did an about face a quarter of they way into the story? It never said!

I've enjoyed the Netflix series Longmire and thought of exploring the books. This first one was great because I didn't guess the culprit. It's been a while since I saw the pilot but I don't remember it being a woman and about her rape. If that's true, I find it interesting how they took the original plot and tweaked the ending; like the movie Clue.