Nick

An amazing circumnavigation and transformation!

Reviewed: 01-23-23

Incredible and compelling account of the Cravan family’s personal transformation on their circumnavigation of the world!

An inspirational story of one man leaping with his family toward their dreams - considering the upside and the taking the calculated risk toward achieving it - 5 years in the planning and 2 in the making and everything beyond.

It is also a great voyeuristic way to journey along with them without going through the tough and very real challenges and risks they face on the journey.

Inspirational!

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1 person found this helpful

The Jamie and Claire Saga Continues ...

Reviewed: 02-23-22

The saga of James and Claire Fraser continues. The characters and their progeny continue to be developed in interesting and often unexpected ways. And interestingly some of the questions around how the time travel through the stones might be possible start to be theorised by these characters, particularly Brianna with her engineering mindset to problem solving.

The mystery of time travel, the accurate historic references to the American Revolutionary War and how the fictional characters interact in these events and across time is fascinating.

I did however expect the story to end here. Instead it has ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

I think @Diana Gabaldon has been watching too much Netflix. 😉 How long will we have to wait for the next one???

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JA characters are perfectly portrayed by Steven P!

Reviewed: 05-14-21

Joe Abercrombie is becoming one of my favourite fantasy authors. His depth of character and world creation are enthralling! I thought Glokter was my favourite bad-ass, but I now think I might really like Monza Murcatto more! Nice to see some of the familiar others appearing here too ... Cosca is always a favourite, and Im intrigued by Shylo Vitari too. And what is Shenk - there is a mystery I need to read on to solve!? A carpenter/cannibal/shape-shifter/time controller aka the matrix - awesome!

Steven Pacey narrates this story perfectly and he captures the accents of the North, Styria and all the different characters brilliantly. Love his rendition of Friendly ... gotta love Friendly.

Great Story, Even Better Narration and Performance ... 4.5 stars for me.

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Historical Character Snippets and Tasters!

Reviewed: 03-16-21

Titans of History is literally a chronological collection of abridged biographies which was, for me, a snippet or taster of the particular individual and perhaps a hook to explore them in more detail as this book offers no references or sources of its information.

The narration is done clearly and well by Steve West (at first I thought it may be the author himself).

The audiobook is broken down into chapters per character and so was easy to flip through quickly, slow down where it was interesting to me, or repeat where I wanted to hear something again.

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Great intro and info for Enneagram Newbies!

Reviewed: 03-01-21

This audiobook does exactly what it promises to do, and the narrator voice is easy to listen to (perhaps slightly monotone but not off-putting).

The book provides:
- the history of the Enneagram, the basics of each type, the movements, and subtypes.
- describes underlying patterns that influence the way you and others behave
- provides some tools to discover own enneatype and others.
- a basic understanding of the Enneagram

For someone like myself exploring my ennea type through coaching this provides very useful context. I think that without a coach to explore and further understand some of the concepts, further reading may be required as this is quite high level overview - which is exactly what I wanted.

Was easy and quick to listen to/read.

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Another classic Kingsbridge saga!

Reviewed: 12-15-20

This was another classic Ken Follett read for me. Full of interesting characters on both sides of the historical divides which Ken is so good at depicting and washing over his fictional Kingsbridge, and its beloved townsfolk and characters.

I like his interpretation (fictional) of how the real events of the day unfolded, and why, and how the Kingsbridge folk were involved.

Some of the plot was a little bit predictable, but the characters were full of intrigue and listening to it on Audible with John Lee's narration and superb characterisation and accents - particularly of Piérre Ormonde de Geez ... who was an absolute sleaze! :-)

Thoroughly enjoyable read/listen! highly recommend for anyone who vaguely enjoyed Pillars of the Earth or World Without End, both of which are not a required pre-read at all.

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1 person found this helpful

Humans ... how we got here. Where to next?

Reviewed: 02-14-20

The most fascinating book about our history as Sapiens contextualising a lot of things I had learnt or read already, and shedding light and new learnings on others. For example, Homo Sapiens being responsible for the earths first genocides i.e. eradicating their "cousins" all other sub-species in the genus! And now the possibility of bringing the Neanderthals back through biochemistry and genome engineering!

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Not the most compelling MG book Ive read

Reviewed: 10-03-19

I am a huge Malcolm Gladwell content fan. However, I have to say that I enjoyed this book the least out of all of the MG books I have read/listened to.

Positives:
I always appreciate Malcom narrating his own audio books - first class.

I was hugely excited by the novelty of including actual recordings in the book i.e. hearing quotes from the very sources themselves and making it into a kind of podcast on steriods. I think this was novel and a front runner of how future audio books of this nature will evolve. Full marks here.

I enjoyed the high pace and reporting style which the book follows, which aligns to previous MG book formula.

Thought provoking.

Negatives:
The subject and the stories while interesting did not make a convincing argument for me. In comparison to how compelling the subjects, theories and arguments in the stories of Blink, David and Goliath and Tipping Point were, this is not in the same league.

I found the argument tenuous at best. I think the stories were compelling because of their emotive and moral shock value, but the arguments put forward as to why these happened were not convincing ... they almost had a 'conspiracy theory' quality to them. I was hoping for more sources, better examples, less repetition on for example 'default to truth theory' and a clearer and more compelling link and argument. It was however, thought provoking which is I would imagine always an author's objective.

I still remain a fan, and continue to look forward to all of Malcolm Gladwell's content - one to mention, is that I am well into season 4 of Revisionist History and love the subject matter and format of these episodes.

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11 people found this helpful

An inspirational and thought provoking memoir!

Reviewed: 04-08-19

Wow! It is amazing how adversity finds its way, uninvited, into people's lives and how they find a way, despite the most unbelievable conflict (often within themselves), to overcome such adversity and achieve such amazing human endeavour. Tara's story is amazing and her achievement despite set-backs is inspiring - thank you for sharing this very personal account of your life! I couldnt put it down, and have found this to be such a thought provoking read, and something which has made me grateful for some of the freedoms I often take for granted. Inspirational!

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Great Debut Fantasy Series!

Reviewed: 03-22-19

A great fantasy book with a superb twist at the end. Incredibly detailed character development, and quite a philosophically thought provoking suggestion about who makes and motors the world, and influences the direction of 'human' endeavour!

I do think Joe Abercrombie must really like:
(1) The word 'grimaced' ... I would love to know how many times this word is used in the trilogy - my guess is 60+!? :-)

(2) Sour gums ... there is no doubt as to the nature of San Dan Glokta's gums! :-)

Really enjoyable read and fantastic third book in the debut series! Would recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy and also elements of comparison with 1984 and Animal Farm (both George Orwell).

#Fantasty
#Orwellian
#Magic
#Characters
#CharacterDevelopment

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