Mer Barr
This might have been one of the first books I was introduced to, when I was introduced to science-fiction and fantasy in junior high school. I read both the first and second Chronicles and remember mentally throw yellow and later red cards [rugby and soccer penalties] at the main character.
Had Goodreads been around at the time I would have rated all the books 1-star, which is why it's taken me decades to circle back to this. The weird thing is I still have both sets in my physical library collection and have been dragging them from home-to-home this entire time.
As an adult with more setbacks and dark days under my belt, I now understand the majority of the characters' motivations and reasons and therefore found this book much more enjoyable; no card displaying, let alone throwing them, at a character. I'm confident I'll read at least the next in the series, just not sure when.
This set brings you in not at the creation of the Winter Soldier but well along his arc, with not a whole lot of his backstory. And if you're like me who had their introduction to this universe by way of the movies, the relationships are no where near the same.
On it's own, the visuals, and the sequencing of the windows and speaking are easy to follow, and the storyline is not too difficult to catch up to.
Dark and gritty visuals as well as ‘plane jane' characters give it what was most likely a more accurate picture to the business than James Bond movies portray. More like [a:Mick Herron 1237964 Mick Herron https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1512920134p2/1237964.jpg]'s [b:Slow Horses 7929891 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1) Mick Herron https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410800211l/7929891.SY75.jpg 11252875] and [a:John le Carré 1411964 John le Carré https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1606816199p2/1411964.jpg]'s [b:Smiley's People 18999 Smiley's People (George Smiley, #7; Karla Trilogy, #3) John le Carré https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348407722l/18999.SY75.jpg 2144486].And I do wonder if the spies in the field were mostly this old? Or was it more of a “young man's game” as the movie portrays.Regardless, the plot is definitely convoluted and requires multiple read thrus to grasp the logic along the way, much like the above mentioned series.
Although this has a pretty slow start to the storyline, the character building and mystery keep you hanging in till things begin to pick up. Where I thought the story would have a natural ending, I discovered the book was only half-way done, leaving one to wonder where the story could move to from here? I wasn't disappointed at the remaining half of the book, nor the epilogue.
Funny, easy on the eyes visuals, language that you can easily hear in your head while reading, and a quick read. This must be part of a pre-existing series based on how the introductions are done. I've already started the second graphic novel and may backtrack to the full book to see how the novel to graphic translation has gone.
Reminds me alot of the author's [b:2001: A Space Odyssey 70535 2001 A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432468943l/70535.SY75.jpg 208362] trilogy with the exploration of mind-expanding concepts of what could be in our far distant future.Can be slow at times and long-winded in spots but a good read none the less.
This is the ol' ‘similar but different' scenario. Similar to the author's prolific Stephanie Plum series with ‘I hate you then I love you' romance but different career choices involved. And because of the male main character's career choice the author seems to be channeling [a:Donald E Westlake 40532161 Donald E Westlake https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s hilarious Dortmunder series, which starts with [b:The Hot Rock 596576 The Hot Rock (Dortmunder, #1) Donald E. Westlake https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1424652145l/596576.SY75.jpg 980279].I'll probably read 1 or 2 more of this series.
Due to restrictions on the borrowing of the book, I was unable to get it all read before I had to return the hardcopy.
What I did make it thru was a bit too detailed for my taste. He began by explaining where he was at in life, what his motivation was for enrolling in the program, his progressive training leading up to the program and a bit of the beginning of the program before I had to return the book. Within this part the author goes into incredible detail of the people he lives, trains, and socializes with and the world and culture he's living in.
I think the amount of detail is a mix of sweet and sour. It slows down the story so much that my enthusiasm waned alot but that level of details did hold many moments of humor and created rich descriptions of the people. There are alot and I did get confused with who was who once he began his aikido classes.
I remember saying ‘What the heck happened that would topple multiple banks?' when I heard the news in 2007-08. The author did an amazing job explaining what, who, when, why, and how of this complex topic. As well as the multiple timelines of several groups and individuals, who strangely seem to gain knowledge from each other but never directly meet, with 1 exception.I appreciate the epilogue for a bit of closure.Numbers and finance are not my forte so I borrowed the movie based on this book and of the same title, and watched it twice during the reading of this book before the story began to make sense.I have [a:Alan Greenspan 1334 Alan Greenspan https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1207744113p2/1334.jpg]'s [b:The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World 522861 The Age of Turbulence Adventures in a New World Alan Greenspan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347515423l/522861.SY75.jpg 1203801] on my physical bookshelf and hope it gives me some insights as to how much he did and did not know [or will admit to] in the years leading up to the collapse. I'd always thought of him as a wise leader of the ‘Fed' but this book has me wondering if that was correct or not.
Chock full of information, so much so that it's quite overwhelming and I don't remember any of the information each time I set the book down. However while listening it provided insights that I was not aware of and corrected alot of misinformation floating in the world today.
I had to return the book early so I didn't get to the last, most recent, generation. I would have liked to have read that section. Maybe I'll pick this book back up and finish it.
If there weren't so much dark subject mentioned, I'd buy this for my newborn nephew. The topic is simple, there's alot of rhyming, it's short, and the narrator shows that it's perfect for all kinds of voices for a parent to make while reading this.
You can determine if this is acceptable tots, kindergarteners, or grade school readers.
The 30 hours to the audio was rather intimidating and I thought the author probably went into so much detailed it'd get boring after awhile, or bog down alot. That turned out not to be the case.
Balanchine lived thru some pretty traumatic times: the revolution that ousted and then killed the last Czar, Lenin, Stalin, World War 1, and World War 2. I found it very insightful to see what those times were like for the people and an individual, in particular. It does sound like he was fortunate to stay 1 step ahead of the trauma of the World Wars' fighting and bombings.
I was happy that I made it to the creation of the New York City Ballet before my loan was up.
The start was a bit gruesome and hard to take but because the focus kept shifting it was bearable.
Towards the end [and personally I think there are 3 endings in this book] so after the first and during the second storyline I noticed this author took a different approach to world building, one that I really enjoyed.
Alot of authors will put the firehose in your mouth and turn on the tap, which eventually bogs down the storyline [if you ever get to it] and a storyline that moves is important to me. Others will throw you in the deep end of the pool and leave you to drown; they don't spend any time on the world building and their plot has huge gaping holes, which really ticks me off.
This author, doesn't do all the world building during the first story, there are clear gaps in understanding and the world, but not enough to bog down the progress of the storyline and piss off the reader.
The second story is pretty much all back trailing, filling in the gaps in the story and alot of world building which has me interested if there's a second book. The third story was the wrap up on individual story lines and tying up loose ends, leaving me contented.
This is a book I'd put in my personal collection to pull out when I'd forgotten the minor details and enjoy multiple times over the decades.
An unusual format for a memoir. A set of short stories of different cases that the author has overseen or participated in, rather than a sequential timeline of her life.
The stories are fairly mild compared to many forensic stories one sees on tv and movies these days. And the author does a very good job of providing both the proper, technical term along with a short description or more common term for a bone or a procedure.
In the soft copy there are many pictures of coffins types, difference in bones, and reconstruction of a face in clay and bone.
Overall, I enjoyed the storyline and the author did a great job with the presentation.
I did find several things incredibly frustrating: an over-protective mother figure and a narrator that was contemplating out loud, how different types of science would occur. Both stalled the story much too often. I started jumping chapters until I found movement again.
Much of what the author imagines still hasn't come to pass, much of what he does talk about, about society and human nature are still the same.
I love how the Dalai Lama can bring concepts hard to visualize or find something analagous to compare the new concepts to, down to such a simple language for easier understanding. And it amazes me that he's able to remember all the subtle differences of interpretation of a particular topic across many different lineages of Buddhism.
The sutra he uses is definitely different from the one I chant so it's interesting to see how different word choices have been used.
A nice reminisce for the Firefly-verse with lots of references to the show storyline.
I did start jumping ahead 1 chapter at a time because the main character had been gone awhile and folks seemed to be wandering waaay down rabbit holes to the point I was getting lost as to why a character was in one to begin with and how this hole related to the missing person recovery.
There was a nice wrap-up.
