Donna > Recent Status Updates

I did not finish this. I got bored & could not finish. Very poor character development, imo

For me, the magic from The Kite Runner is gone. I cant relate to most of these characters, or their motivations. The historical aspect 8s interesting. But Im starting to skim read at this point.

I finally was able to get some of this read, no thanks to ebooks.com. But it had to be on Adobe Digital Editions, which makes you promise away ALL your privacy rights before you can read. Ebooks made even that difficult. Misnamed files (both volumes were named the same, TG my phone renamed the 2nd one a copy.). Even tho I had blue reader installed, when I clicked on that link, it opened Adobe. Avoid ebooks(dot).

3 nights wasted fiddling with all the junk on ebooks(dot)com preventing me from reading the 2 volumes I paid for. I'm not a novice. I've had Adobe authorization since 2001 for library books. Kindle, pocketbooks, all. But this one is really ridiculous.

Sadly there is no progress. In my eagerness to get the book I made the HUGE mistake of buying it thru ebooks(dot)com. Hate everything about that company. Hate their app. Hate that they collect personal info on you. Please don't make my mistake. It is available on Kindle (bad enough but not as bad as ebooks(dot)com) and other places now. My money has been totally wasted on ebooks. I'm done. Total loss.

Sad. Sad. Sad. I did not get to this til a couple of days before it was due back at the library. Now I have to wait in line again to read the rest. 😞

Interesting. But I wished for a happier ending.

This is a book that skips around a lot. Thru places & time periods. That is OK if it is not excessive, IMO. Somehow Hossein knows how to stop just short of the line. Any more & I'd probably put the book down & not finish it. But as is, I'm engaged. Also the hero/heroine changes from time to time. When next heard of someone dropped is a vague acquaintance of the people in the present. Intriguing or irritating?

I keep falling asleep while reading this. Not a good sign. I picked it up because I enjoyed it's sequel, The Judge's List. So far this one is not measuring up.

I am rather disappointed in the letters. The "reveal was not much of a reveal. Eik's parentage had been hinted at least a couple of times. Olga's last act seemed rather pitiable to me. For someone who thought herself to be so sensible. Was it a reference to today' marauding thugs tearing down the symbols of Western culture? I admit, war heros are not really very laudable, considering its usual motivtion.

I love Mr. Schlink's writing. I have been captivated before. But in this book Im finding sloppy mistakes. Such as a deaf woman "listening" to the (first person) child narrator. Pomerania being called Slavik. (Maybe it is, but I never considered it to be. The author, living in the area would know.) I believe it is the fault of the translator. But the ideas flow well, and I can overlook the errors for now.

The stories illustrating the NYT's extremely casual approac to any kind of accountability or fidelity to the truth were rather haphazardly chosen. And in each case the author seemed to minimise the motives behinds the deceptions perpetrated by the Times. I think the author, while correctly noting many of the Times' vast deceptions, would love to find the motives are something other than blatant propeganda.

This one is gonna take a while. Having to look up events that were totally omitted from my public school education.

Returned. Only read 1/3 of it. Not half as good as American Tabloid.

Id be surprised if I finish this. I liked American Tabloid, which rang entirely possible because we understood the the characters' motivation. Not so with this one. They seem to have arbitrary hatreds and actions. We have one flying way out of his way in order to merely gaze at his wife singing at a party? The party itself was mostly about raunchy acts. The sexual scenes seem gratuitous. So far, yuk.

Ive been using this more as a referrence book than a read-right-thru book. Very interesting info that is hard to get elsewhere. I recommend it for any kind of research into the nephalim, illuminati, etc.

Did not finish. I started with the book. Got bogged down (how many repetitions of the same trip do we have to read about?). Returned to library & saw audiobook. Decided to try that. Kept falling asleep. I woke up a few times, one of which was the Walmart raid, which was kind of clever & amusing. Not for long tho. I gave up.

Disappointed so far. Stephenson does not usually propose some physical property without some justification via science, even though it may be controversial. But the main characters snap judgements on all things is annoying to me, and unlikely. With suspension of disbelief being the normin this book Im not sure Ill finish it. Not up to his standards.

Im disappointed in this. Too many "suspension of disbelief"that are *central* to the plot. Govt agent would just meet someone in a hall & a couple of hours later offer a highly classified job. Leap to conclusions re causes, just happen to run across a patent that *seems* to support the iffy hypothesis, build device at great expense then when proven, funds cut. Capable time altering witch goes hungry? Not like NS.

This book is so dense with facts. I read a while, get bogged down. Lay it down for weeks, review what Ive already read, read some more...repeat. Excellent research & information, but so compacted it is very hard to organize inyour mind. Id buy a separate book with only charts about these geneaologies and the interactions between the various organizations, sects and cults. I think a graphic like that would help.

I really wanted to like this. I share Walsh's views in general. But so far, yuk. Guess Ill stick to his non fiction from here on.