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Spare Time
Turmoil in the Middle East. Economic crisis in Europe. Violations of the Constitution in the United States. Division, fear, entitlements, and class envy are tearing the nation he loves apart. Why doesn't someone do something about it? If efforts are made to change the direction of things, will someone be upset enough to try and stop it? To what lengths will either side go to stop the other? Spare Time, a novel about the issues the real world and the United States face, takes a fictional look at real solutions to real problems. Everyone is busy, but maybe we can get something accomplished ... in our spare time.
314 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2012
8 people want to read
About the author
Michael Murphy
1 book3 followersMichael and his wife live on the plains in the log house they built. A retired captain with a major airline, he is active in the alpaca industry and keeping up with the Bed & Breakfast they operate in their home. In addition to his love of aviation, he also enjoys bow hunting and shooting different firearms, gardening, raising various livestock and fowl, meeting new people, volunteering for the Honor Flight organization (taking veterans to the Washington memorials)…and now writing. Flying is of course a long time love, he has owned and flown many planes from Cubs and Champs to 777 and 747's. They have four grown children and fourteen grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 7, 2014
Having recently finished reading my copy of “Spare Time” by author Michael Murphy I’m going to review this title in two parts: format/layout and plot content.
With regards to the layout, formatting and spelling… I had a difficult time reading “Spare Time” due to its odd layout. It seems that about half of the book has unusual spacing, and from what I can deduce, those spaces seem to have been intentional. In most books, when a section is ended without the chapter ending, a series of asterisks or some other type of non-alphabetical/numerical system is used. Unfortunately, Murphy does not subscribe to this style, or at least not on a regular basis. Instead he chooses to double space the lines in between these sections and this makes for a choppy read. Because of this, the book does not flow well since it’s a consistent stop/start, stop/start format. Example: chapter three is three and a half pages long, yet it has eight separate sections. Obviously asterisks after each paragraph are unwanted, but if each paragraph had proper indentation then double spacing would be unnecessary.
With regards to the spelling… Murphy does a wonderful job of having the majority of the words correctly spelled; however, they are not always spelled correctly for the sentence in which they are located. Having read, and reviewed, hundreds of books I cannot stress this fact strongly enough to newer authors. Spell-checking programs are a wonderful (not to mention time saving) addition to our industry however, nothing replaces a person’s understanding of spelling for context. A computer program cannot differentiate words like “there” versus “their” nor does it know the appropriate time to use one over the other.
Moving on to the book’s premise… “Spare Time” is a novel that is intended to provide a look at today’s troubling events and offer fictional solutions to these problems. Problems like the ever present turmoil in the Middle East, or the economic upheaval in Europe. With that said, I had a problem right off the bat with the author’s use of his, and his wife’s, real first names in a “fictional” novel. And…I have to admit that (for me) the author’s writing style and verbiage caused this book to read like a preachy rant rather than the helpful guide I’m sure he intended it to be.
On the bright side, I did find “Spare Time” to be an interesting read, albeit at times, it was a troubling one. I do understand the author’s concerns. I can empathize with his feelings of frustration at how far we, as a society, have separated ourselves from what our country’s founding fathers had envisioned for us. On the other hand, I also realize that change due to progress is inevitable. As people grow (positively or negatively) and expand their minds, viewpoints invariably shift. Without understanding, compromise and tolerance our world becomes a very small, confining and/or hostile environment. I did not always agree with the author’s views. At the end of the day, where is the line that differentiates the good guys from the bad guys? And if you draw that “line in the sand” we all know that someday, someone will cross it “for the greater good.” And isn't that how we all got here to begin with?
(Reviewed in association with Rebecca's Reads).
With regards to the layout, formatting and spelling… I had a difficult time reading “Spare Time” due to its odd layout. It seems that about half of the book has unusual spacing, and from what I can deduce, those spaces seem to have been intentional. In most books, when a section is ended without the chapter ending, a series of asterisks or some other type of non-alphabetical/numerical system is used. Unfortunately, Murphy does not subscribe to this style, or at least not on a regular basis. Instead he chooses to double space the lines in between these sections and this makes for a choppy read. Because of this, the book does not flow well since it’s a consistent stop/start, stop/start format. Example: chapter three is three and a half pages long, yet it has eight separate sections. Obviously asterisks after each paragraph are unwanted, but if each paragraph had proper indentation then double spacing would be unnecessary.
With regards to the spelling… Murphy does a wonderful job of having the majority of the words correctly spelled; however, they are not always spelled correctly for the sentence in which they are located. Having read, and reviewed, hundreds of books I cannot stress this fact strongly enough to newer authors. Spell-checking programs are a wonderful (not to mention time saving) addition to our industry however, nothing replaces a person’s understanding of spelling for context. A computer program cannot differentiate words like “there” versus “their” nor does it know the appropriate time to use one over the other.
Moving on to the book’s premise… “Spare Time” is a novel that is intended to provide a look at today’s troubling events and offer fictional solutions to these problems. Problems like the ever present turmoil in the Middle East, or the economic upheaval in Europe. With that said, I had a problem right off the bat with the author’s use of his, and his wife’s, real first names in a “fictional” novel. And…I have to admit that (for me) the author’s writing style and verbiage caused this book to read like a preachy rant rather than the helpful guide I’m sure he intended it to be.
On the bright side, I did find “Spare Time” to be an interesting read, albeit at times, it was a troubling one. I do understand the author’s concerns. I can empathize with his feelings of frustration at how far we, as a society, have separated ourselves from what our country’s founding fathers had envisioned for us. On the other hand, I also realize that change due to progress is inevitable. As people grow (positively or negatively) and expand their minds, viewpoints invariably shift. Without understanding, compromise and tolerance our world becomes a very small, confining and/or hostile environment. I did not always agree with the author’s views. At the end of the day, where is the line that differentiates the good guys from the bad guys? And if you draw that “line in the sand” we all know that someday, someone will cross it “for the greater good.” And isn't that how we all got here to begin with?
(Reviewed in association with Rebecca's Reads).
Displaying 1 of 1 review