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Lieberoth

  • 7
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  • 14
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  • 86
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The third, final, Green Town story

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-21-24

In the afterword, Ray Bradbury describes how he always saved the title, Farewell Summer, for his final return to Green Town - the imaginarily enriched version of his boyhood in Illinois- and old age.

The two preceding novels - Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes - are among my favorite books for mixing mystery, memory and a bit of poetry and philosophical allegory on childhood. The storytelling is magical and (even of sometimes a bit heavy handed in their symbolism), moving.

For me, the style of Dandelion Wine was slightly strange at first, like a puzzle of its own. I needed to find the rhythm of Bradbury’s prose, before truly losing myself in it. The key, for me, was drifting into a seamless mix of boys’ imagination, considerations and feelings, blended with the possibility of magic, and life remembered from a small town in the early 20th century. While Bradbury is most famous for his science fiction, these sorts of stories are my favorites.

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Maybe the most important current theory of human cognition accessibly explained

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-05-24

Andy Clark is one of the most recognized and important faces in cognitive science. The theories of the predictive and extended mind have proven extremely successful at explaining everything from placebo effects and magic tricks, over stupid everyday mistakes, to how conditions like ADHD and addictive behavior work.

The book does an excellent job of explaining everyday (as well as more extreme) psychological phenomena, by interpreting the basic architecture of the human brain, senses and body as fundamentally a prediction machine.

Accessible and interesting. Well worth a listen.

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Like random notes on a napkin

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-19-24

By “No nonsense” guide, the publisher may have meant, that the book wastes no time on providing arguments or support for the advice contained within.


While some of the thoughts are fairly common sense, most of the chapters reads like random notes jutted down on a napkin, by someone who argues too much on the internet.

The text is interspersed with folksy analogies, often involving coercing cats; a style that gets tired and repetitive very quickly.

The narration is not horrible.

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Just another self-help book

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-21-19

I was hoping for a book on the self-help genre. Turns out that this is just another one, based on the premise that others are wrong, and that common tropes like “be yourself” are stupid - with more swearing.

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7 people found this helpful

Two books in one - half only about UK newspapers

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-12-15

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the inner workings of the press, and sound explanations for the increasing amount of "churnalism" over originally researched and fact-tested stories. The book divulges very interesting mechanisms behind the sway of PR-people over the media, the economy of fast and readable headlines, and unscrupulous wartime coverage in favor of Irak 1 and 2 despite the press having solid sources saying that Hussein had no WMDs.

Any additional comments?

Unfortunately, that is only half the book. The other half concerns frontal attacks on particular British Fleet Street Newspapers. The author has his own bones to pick combined with solid resarch based on personal experience and many professional contacts. This sometimes feels a bit personal, but the big problem is that those parts are largely irrelevant to readers outside the UK, even if meticulously researched and easy to read. In conclusion, this could have been a five-star listen for me if an "international edition" of maybe 9 hours was available,. If you aren't in Britain, you might get bored with Fleet Street name games.

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: By Stephen Covey -- Summary Audiobook By Save Time Summaries cover art

Need a rundown of "7 habits"? Read a website.

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-10-14

What would have made The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: By Stephen Covey -- Summary better?

Several of the "chapters" in this summary are just marketing for other products. More real content would be needed to take this anywhere beyond 1 or 2 stars. Apart from that, it simply confirms my worst impressions of the self-help genre.

What could Save Time Summaries have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This review is exceptionally shallow. It does not present any arguments from the book (which I assume are there) - almost only reads the chapter headlines and sales pitches aloud.

Did John Steele do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

There are no characters. The question does not apply.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: By Stephen Covey -- Summary?

Again, no scenes. The review is so short, that I would have cut nothing. Additional material was needed for me to get much out of this.

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The design of future cars - a view from 2007

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-17-14

If you could sum up The Design of Future Things in three words, what would they be?

Don Norman is one of the foremost minds in the psychology of things, and how we interact with them. Always a pleasure to hear his thoughts, although already a bit dated.

What did you like best about this story?

The book is on one hand a good view of design psychology in a time where machines are becoming more and more smart and automated, and interaction more a question of them communicating with us in the right way (and second guessing us gently rather than forcefully) than us understanding their workings fully.

Any additional comments?

Sadly, a lot of the book is about cars and "smart homes", and it was written before the true advent of cloud computing and the smart phone. It's absolutely worth a listen, even if it's a view from the recent past, which is fascinating in itself.

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7 people found this helpful