Joshua Tree

A really good story and characters you could empathize with. I enjoyed the entire book. The only real down side to it was that I didn't like it too much when Simon would break the fourth wall. It doesn't happen that often, but I found it a bit cheesy.

The only part that kept me from giving this 5 stars was that I don't think I'll read this book again, at least not for a fairly long time. I liked the characters and could relate to them, but I just didn't fall in love with them.

It was an ok story. I enjoyed it for the most part, but in the end it just ended up being depressing. Most of the reviews and descriptions of this book talk about humans moving on to their next stage of evolution, but I think that is an inaccurate characterization of the end. Man isn't evolving naturally, it is being re-forged into a tool by the Overmind, and what was left behind was left to go extinct. This didn't seem to me to be any more the natural course of events for Humans any more than it is for the gardener to trim a shrub into the shape of a dolphin.I also got very tired, by the end of the book, of all these characters repeating, that if it wasn't for the Overlords that we would have blown ourselves up with nukes long ago. It just disturbed me how it portrayed the virtually whole of humanity drinking the Kool-Aid of the Overlords within less than a generation.Part of my negative attitude for this may stem from the audio book introduction about how this is one of Clarke's greatest stories and shows how Humans get past being on the brink of self-destruction on earth and move on to a new beginning.

A well written and interesting story, but I just didn't fall in love with the characters like I did with the ones in [b:The Cranberry Hush 10768069 The Cranberry Hush Ben Monopoli https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312742074s/10768069.jpg 15679574] and [b:The Painting of Porcupine City 12361754 The Painting of Porcupine City Ben Monopoli https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327852021s/12361754.jpg 17341799]. Overall a good story, but probably not one I will re-read, unlike some of his other books.

I remember reading this in the early 1980's and I loved it.

Since there is currently no description of the book, I'll add what my flawed memory still retains.
A young man is on Hawaii when the US enters World War II. He heads back to California on a ship carrying pineapples, and it gets torpedoed. He is rescued and joins the Navy and serves on a submarine.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but when describing what characters were thinking or feeling, it just be came too wordy, and often redundant or containing unnecessary recapping of the story. It caused the story to drag a bit at times, and for me to actually think at a few points, “alright, I get it...” Also, the recapping of what happened a couple chapters earlier is as unneeded as it is is on modern TV shows when they do it after every commercial break.

It was OK. Doubt it is the type of book I'll have a second listen to any time in the future, but it was entertaining over all. For a book set in the far future, there were several references that really just pulled me out of the moment, such as USB cables being the preferred method of connecting tablets with industrial equipment, or a reference to WWII and the Russian front. On the other hand, I kind of liked the math slang that replaces the cursing and swearing.

My first reaction was that the police are a walking talking “how to” manual for sexual harassment in the workplace, which by the 3rd book was just getting on my nerves. I can see why there was only 1 female officer in the dept that is mentioned.

Combine that with the perfection that is the human being called Mac, was a bit much. He's good looking blond, tall and fit. He was the perfect college athlete, leading the hockey team to NCAA championships. Still as fit as he was in college. Add to it that he's the smartest and best detective in the St. Paul Police dept, (and probably all of MN). By the 3rd book, it was a bit too much

The story lines themselves were pretty good, I think it could have used more aggressive editing. The dialog was often unnatural being more like a formal writing than casual conversation–much more awkward and wordy than I would expect for casual conversation. There were also several scenes which didn't really server to move the story forward, including sex scenes, or one where a victim is trying to find ways to pass the time in the "coffin" – I don't think it really served to move the plot along. (and I just don't care about them having sex or not)

Overall, the books were pretty good for listening to driving to and from work, but I think there were some definite places that could use some improvement. Hopefully the newer books in the series are a bit tighter.

This isn't so much a book as a series of really long guest lectures from a university professor. I half expected Power Point slides with the audio book.

For a book, the writing style is unprofessional with a snarky attitude. He half sounds like Barney Stinson, quite often using the constructions and wait of it..., or using the same descriptions over and over, such as blew away like autumn leaves.

The author's reading of his own book only added to the lecture feeling. He had a hard time not laughing at his own “witty” remarks and apologizing for plugging his other books.

Despite the fact that I have no training and very little knowledge of linguistics or etymology, I found myself less sympathetic to his view of the history, because of his style of writing and reading.

I really enjoy these books. They're just so much fun. That said, this is my least favorite of the series, so far. In the first two, Atticus wasn't looking for trouble, it came looking for him. This time around, he purposefully went seeking trouble, which diminishes him; to be fair the story deals with that very thing, and maybe in future books he'll be a slightly more deserving hero. Still it was fun, and the bacon latte scene is the proverbial cherry on top for me.

This book is targeted squarely at the junior high/high school audience. In a spirit of full disclosure and since one of the themes of this story is to be honest and up front, I must confess that I am not in that group and have not been for many years. I picked it up because it had ???Iowa??? (my home) in the title, and it sounded like it could be a fun story to read.I started reading it as the free sample from Amazon on my Kindle and almost didn???t buy it. The main character???s ego, attitude and manner (not to mention his attitude* toward my home) had me on the brink of hating him. However, that is exactly how kids that age can be: the pendulum swings from completely self-absorbed to something approaching maturity and then back again. Also, I found the description of Iowans as flannel wearing hicks especially annoying. But I soldiered on and bought the book. The character became more likeable and much more mature as the story progressed.The overall story was pretty good and kept me engaged???I wanted to know what happened next, especially in the latter parts of it. In the end, it embraces the ???teen??? too much (it even feels as if part of this could have come nearly verbatim from someone???s high school diary). There few similar books I???ve read recently that I think have an appeal beyond the demographic of their main characters: [b:Something Like Summer 10682947 Something Like Summer Jay Bell http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302546853s/10682947.jpg 15086656] and [b:The Cranberry Hush: A Novel 10768069 The Cranberry Hush A Novel Ben Monopoli http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R05YZHWbL.SL75.jpg 15679574].*Coming in to my home and pointing out the short comings that I already know about is not an endearing trait.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was fun and exciting to read. I didn't want to put it down at night, despite how tired I was. The author's other book ([b:Something Like Summer 10213367 Something Like Summer Jay Bell http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1294956195s/10213367.jpg 15086656]) is just as good and even thought it is not fantasy, it is still worth checking out, too. I am really looking forward to his next book, whenever that might be.

I really enjoyed all three of the books in the Night Angel Trilogy. Even though it was an “epic” story saving the entire world from catastrophe, the characters are not run-of-the-mill, but deep, and interesting, and so too is the story itself.

The only real negatives for me were the superficial similarities to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. None of it was the same, but some of the points were similar enough to pull me out of it every time I came across them, it pulled me out of the story because I recognized them.

The first of these are the Lae???knaught???an army without a country that dislikes magic; similar to the White Cloaks from The Wheel of Time. The second is the Chantry and the maja are, on the surface, similar to the White Tower and the Aes Sedai. In both cases, the differences are more important to the story and define it as something different, but unfortunately the similarities were enough to bring me out of the story, if just for a moment. This may be because of my mixed feelings about The Wheel of Time books.

All in all, I???m glad I finally got around to reading them. I???ve had the series in paperback in my collection for a few years???I was drawn in by the covers, but never had the time to read them, even if it meant spending my Audible credits on them.

I look forward to reading more by Brent Weeks.

First off, the “edition” I have lists on one of the the inside title page that it contains 6 new stories (from his other books), which are not mentioned on the actual cover.

I really liked the “SantaLand Diaries” (the first part), but I did not like the “Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!” story at all; it was way too dark and twisted. The rest of the original 6 were pretty good. The 6 from the other books were all pretty good and they had a note of familiarity about them, which when reading I chalked up to having heard them as segments on NPR, but when I looked at the copyright page, is when I realized why they looked familiar–I had read them before in his other books.

The writing is sitcom bad. Bill, the main character, spouts off negative, derogatory stereotypes against some members of the IT profession that were off putting at best, and insulting at worst. Eric, Bill's mentor, is basically a jerk who enjoys the “game” of showing how much smarter he is than those around him.

Normally, in a novel this might be legitimate, but in this “teaching” story, it just undermines the actual point of the book. It's better than a textbook, but a lot of BS to wade through to get there, especially when the point of DevOps is to build bridges between operations/infrastructure and development, not burn them down.