Mer Barr

An interesting twist to the Dracula story in the fact that Dracula, the person, only appears for about 30 seconds, and is promptly “bumped off”. And this is on disc 22 of 22.

The rest of the discs are a story line designed to allow the presentation of tons of information about the history of the real-life Dracula and the search for him thru old manuscripts and, strangely enough, monasteries. It gets a bit confusing at the beginning because it's a young girl recounting the story of her father, who is recounting the story of his mentor, who is recounting the story in his present time about things in his past. With a bunch of other people recounting their stories scattered thru out.

I'll be honest; I only made it to disc 16 before I reached my limit of information and suspense and skipped to the proverbial last few pages (disc 22) to see if they found the missing persons (the mentor and the vampire). One I'm not sure of and the other was quite anti-climactic.

I enjoy Neil Gaiman's work and I enjoy Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories but this particular joining of both wasn't quite my cup of tea. It brought some unexpected chuckles to me but I got confused by the number of characters and plots and when my library loan time ran out I still hadn't figured out where this was all going.

I did meet 2 people at work that broke into smiles and expressed their appreciation for the book.

I still maintain a couple physical shelves of books that contains my all-time favorites and mind-expanding books. I define favorites worth rereading and therefore keeping a copy of, for that purpose. This is a favorite which I've read probably 3 maybe even 4 times since I saw the movie version.

In a world where I'm driven by the calendar and clock, and a mental list of must dos before I can take a break, let alone relax, this story really gets me to daydreaming about a time in my life when all that pandemonium falls away and I can slump into a comfy chair with a great page-turner. The fireplace would be icing on the cake.

And growing up during the transition from women being defined by and deemed less than men, and women making major changes to the world, creating more equal footing, this book also strikes a chord.

This is a great beginner's book, not alot of Tibetan or Sanskrit words to memorize, he reiterates alot of the concepts and lists several times. It gives me several opportunities to let it sink in but may be too much for another person.

There was one section I really enjoyed and now have it written out as a morning intention. I'll definitely get a hard-copy to add to my library and make notes in.

I first listened to this book while driving to and from work. I was so fascinated with the high-level view of history and how much there was of it that I just had to get a copy of my own to reread at leisure.

Wow, the group was just as comical and ad lib off-camera as they were on. “Howard” really puts you there in the action. I listened to the book and the narrator really helped by putting the appropriate accent to the person.

I loved this book. It's written by a couple who could be my neighbors they're so average. They promote appreciating what you have and keeping things simple. It gave me hope that with some work I could stop stressing over those minimum payment amounts that at times were too big to pay.

Simple terminology, lots of explanations, very structured; just what my brain needs to be introduced to and understand a science topic. I was glad to see an update to the decades old guess that was based on years of study.

It had alot of cultural references as well as regional music references that left me in the dark. I'm usually not fond of short stories which each book in the series are but I did like how they took me out of the usual story lines created by my culture.

Fascinating biography of a person who was on the forefront of rocket science; a founding member of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Reminds me of [b:Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend 164344 Moon The Life and Death of a Rock Legend Tony Fletcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348818818s/164344.jpg 158661], the biography of Keith Moon of The Who, in how the subject is part of a close group and as life moves on and changes, the subject slowly separates/is separated from the group.

I L O V E the Dortmunder series. I don't condone crime in the real world but how can you not be drawn to a character that has such fascinating compadres and find such ingenious ways to get out of the tight situations they end up in.

I've just found a copy to add to my library.

Great meditation book!

I enjoyed reading this transition point in the history of Pern. Seeing what was still around from Earth [technology and animal] what would be come transformed, and what would now be lost [intentionally and unintentionally]. It did leave me wondering what would become of some things like doctors and solar panels.

One thing I've never enjoyed in the series is having one person in every book that everyone despises. I don't need ‘everything is wonderful' stories but this theme seems to be played up every time.

Poetry I can finally understand and enjoy thinking about.

I was confused by how it all worked.

An Ahah! book

I loved how the main character investigated the centuries old mystery all from his hospital bed. This book is probably what got me interested in the Lincoln Rhyme detective series by Jeffrey Deaver.

I know I've read this book twice from the library and I've finally found a copy to add to my library.

Reads alot like the society column in newspapers, which I found fine for a while, but it got old after a bit.

The telling of the story doesn't always seem to follow a clear timeline due to the gossip-like quality, more like listening to someone say whatever came to mind at the moment. I didn't find this good or bad, just unusual.

Interesting ideas but simple and slow plot.

An interesting way of talking about physics and other sciences.

I love the idea of the story but the pace is too slow for me.

Not sure where this was written in the sequence of his other books in the Dark Tower universe but it does include the spider and the spider's baby from the last 1 or 2 books in the series. And most importantly, it has the wonderful mix of you not being sure if this is in the land of time-space that we know, or if it's somewhere between known and some alternate reality.

I also enjoy that the main character is a woman pulling her self up out of physical and mental abuse and making a new life for herself.

I like the idea of the series but this one is too slow of a plot for me.

Interesting science on living life backwards in time and yet somehow it's a slow plot.

Still enjoying this series.