Robert Anthony

The author is woke.

Reviewed: 02-24-24

From David Baldacci’s viewpoint, Christians, and most especially pro-life Christian’s, are very bad people, and women who terminate the lives of their unborn children, as well as the men who give money to these women so that they can kill their unborn children, are very good people indeed. If Baldacci calls himself a Christian, something that I think is very unlikely, then he is a Christian in the same sense that the mean little demented curmudgeon who became our illegitimate President 3 years ago, is a Christian, i.e., in name only.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Men having sex with men is a disorder, it is not something to be proud of

Reviewed: 08-31-22

3% of American males are homosexuals. 1/3rd of homosexual sex when introduced to homosexuality when they were victims of childhood rape by adult homosexual man. The only thing this disgusting novel gets right is that men having sex with men, or boys, is nothing to be proud of.

If you want to read a woke novel, this may be the book for you.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

This is an author worth supporting.

Reviewed: 02-23-21

This book was well written. The characters were developed enough that they took on distinctive characteristics that gave them life. The plot held my interest. And who doesn’t hate lawyers, as a general rule of course. We don’t necessarily hate the ones we know, not individually. We actually like mist of the lawyers we have grown to know outside the legal system, so maybe it’s really our legal system that we hate since most of us know few lawyers personally But, as a class most people really hate lawyers, so I appreciated the lawyer joke in this book. Forgive my loose quote. I’m working from memory.

How do you know the victim of a hit and run vehicular homicide was a lawyer? No skid marks.

That principle has actually been tested scientifically by researchers who placed realistic looking silicon toy versions of first a turtle and then a snake in the middle of a roadway at night, a roadway with little traffic and no nearby obstructions to hit that might damage a car swerving to avoid vehicular turtle or snake-oxide. And yes, you guessed it. if a realistic toy turtle was ever hit, and that rarely happened, there were always skid marks as the driver tried their best to avoid a hit and run, most drivers succeeding in avoiding running over the fake turtle through sometimes amazing acrobatic maneuvers performed with their cars.

But a snake-in-the-road was an entirely different story. Everyone ran over the snake, many drivers stopping to back up and run over the snake two or three or more just to make sure the snake was dead.

Another lawyer joke. What do you call 300 high priced New York lawyers at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean? A good start. :).

So you guessed it. The snake-in-the-road in this novel is a lawyer addicted to serial murders, a study that is all too plausible.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

When women try to sound like men while reading a novel, the result is almost always disastrous.

Reviewed: 11-26-19

Women who attempt to sound like men while reading a novel out loud, universally fail, miserably. I’m alway reminded of the gender neutral Jean on SNL. His?
/her? Voice sounds more like a man who’s underwear is so tightly constructing his manhood that all testosterone has drained out of his?/her? body. It just sounds uncomfortably unnatural.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Surprisingly engaging protagonist.

Reviewed: 05-14-19

The protagonist, Ryan Decker, is surprisingly engaging, and that, after all, is the key feature of any novel, especially a novel that is part of a series, and most movies. Think of why Dennis Quaid is paid so much for those Esurance commercials. He’s not being paid the big bucks for his dazzling good looks or his brilliant intellect. He’s being paid well because the characters he plays in movies become people we care about, causing us to hope that, in the movie, his character will enjoy good fortune, and come to a good end, as we would wish for anyone we care about or love.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

This book is about magic, not science fiction.

Reviewed: 12-23-18

The book might appeal to magical thinkers, but most magical thinkers are children and this isn’t really a children’s book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Black Lives Matter

Reviewed: 08-04-18

I didn’t give this novel a 1 star rating because the author is highly talented and if I were simply being a dispassionate reporter I might have given this book a 5 star rating. Also, the author is not completely biased in her portrayal of this movement in that she doe, more than once, advise Americans of predominantly sub-Saharan African descent to follow police instructions if involved in an encounter with a potentially hostile white or black police office, which is sage advice since most fatal police encounters involve an extreme lack of respect for authority on the part of a frequently unarmed black victim. But don’t let that dissuade you from reading this book if you are a liberal. You, liberals, will love this well written book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A talented writer with a flaw that 1/3 of Americans may see as a strength.

Reviewed: 04-27-18

Ellen Gilchrist is, undoubtedly, a talented writer. She excelled in character development and now, in her 80’s, is not devoid of wisdom. Her writing style is unique in a very good way. Her fatal flaw, from my point of view, is that she is decidedly liberal in her outlook on life. This fact will not bother the 23% of Americans who are standing beside her in far left field, but I simply couldn’t stomach reading along, complicit, as Ms. Gilchrist portrays a doctor as a hero because he has no regard for human life if the human life is not yet born, and her promotion of a multitude of other liberal causes. I do not feel this way about all liberals, but the liberals I can admire and listen to for words of wisdom are few and far between, Alan Dershowitz being a stellar example of a liberal with compassion that is tempered by an abundance of wisdom, sadly, Ellen Gilchrist is no Alan Dershowitz, but few liberals are. If you are a true Trump-hating liberal then you really should love excellent this set of short stories that focus on the characters rather than the stories being told.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Sad Girl is a depressingly sad audiobook.

Reviewed: 11-11-17

Sad Girls by Lang Leav is appropriately titled. Don’t listen to this audiobook without first seeing your doctor, and then only if your doctor will prescribe a strong prophylactic antidepressant. Otherwise you might decide to end it all before finishing this book. The book is enshrouded in a doleful cloud of melancholia. This young author, she is 34 if my web search is correct, and ‘young’ is a relative term, appears to lack a solid moral compass. She also lacks a basic understanding of human nature and human interactions. She misunderstands people, profoundly. So her characters are difficult to develop an attachment to. They are difficult to like. When she kills one off, it is difficult to regret their loss. If she is the phenomenal best-selling author my web-search says she is, then I worry about our lost generation of twenty-something’s who are reading this drivel, living in their parents’ basements, still playing video games, and reading trash romance novellas. They really need to come out into the sunshine, interact with real people in the real world, and give up smoking dope. Instead I think they, too often, shrink from the light, remaining alone, in a self-imposed solitary confinement. The light hurts their eyes. Interacting with real people is too difficult. But I have derived some benefit from the long and unpleasant experience of reading this tiresome novel. It has given me much to think about as I deal, on a daily basis, with this lost generation of snowflakes who yearn to live in a socialist utopia, free from work and worry. I hope, if the author reads this unkind review, she will use it to seek a better moral compass. I suggest seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is Love incarnate, the Word of God made flesh. She should also seek to better understand people, so that human nature will be more accurately reflected in the characters she creates in her future novels. Fame and fortune alone do not bring happiness or instill the sense of purpose that humans need more than happiness. A kind review is not what Lang Leav needs. She may also need to be on Prozac, or maybe she just needs more aerobic exercise. Daily exercise can often sufficiently counter even significant depression, doom and gloom. That being said, I do think this young author has potential if she can overcome her inexperience with life and the thick fog of depression that permeates this novel. She has a unique and artful dexterity in her use of the English language, Australian though it may be.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Not a book for adult men.

Reviewed: 11-03-17

My daughter bought this book with my credit card. Maybe she enjoyed it. I think she also might be politically left-of-center. I give the author an A for honesty. The language is a little too flowery, but well done. The narration is good.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful