Reviews and Comments

Like many who enjoy audiobooks, I listen to most of mine in the car. I've come to prefer borrowing CDs from the library rather than streaming from my phone, like Audible, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is I don't want to mess with my phone when I get in the car, and half the time I can't find it anyway.

Our minvan has a CD player but it doubles as a DVD player, so whenever the kids are in the van they're usually watching Veggie Tales or something like that. So, I end up ripping my library CDs and loading them on the hard drive in the van to avoid losing my spot when the kids watch a movie.

This time, I learned I accidentally missed ripping disc 5 of the 9-disc book. I had a decision to make: I go back and request it again just to rip that one, or I pirate it, or something.

I ended up deciding I would go ahead and watch the movie up to the point where disc 6 starts, when he just gets to New Hampshire. The movie was pretty good, a few things either they added, or they happened in later parts, and they put them earlier in the film. Also, the movie ends right when Bryson gets to New Hampshire, so there's still more than a 1/3 of the book that isn't in the movie at all.

We'll see how it stacks up when I finish.

Starship Titanic has everything I like in a book: science, romance, dirty humor....yet, just like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I didn't really like it. I can't really put my finger on it. I mean it was fine, but it just didn't scratch my itch.

I liked it just fine. It could have been an episode of the 1984-85 TV series during whose run this was published. Unlike the T.V. series the Visitors still had their distinctive reverberating voice and we didn't see any of the L.A. resistance. While officially book 4 in the series its a stand-alone tale of the Chicago resistance, all new characters, shortly after the events of the second T.V. mini-series V: The Final Battle. It didn't have the creativity of V, The Florida Project (Book 5) but it also didn't have the continuity errors. A quick read, worth it if you've got in your library or run across it at a yard sale, probably not worth seeking out on-line unless you are a real completionist.

I received this book for free through the librarything.com early review program in exchange for an honest review.

I had to read this book by myself as my six year old refused to read it because "it looks like AI."

It really tries to do too much at once with an attempt at silly humor in comic bubbles, while telling an interesting story and giving thought provoking questions on every page.

It could be better if you took 2/3 of that out and hired an actual illustrator.

It earns one star as I did learn bats are pollinators that I didn't know before, even if the bat character is particularly two deminstional, both being the only AI character that isn't drawn in 3-D and he repeatedly says he's on the night shift and not much more.

I'm finding that in general I haven't appreciated any of the "Tantor Unabridged Classics" in the future I will try to find different versions if available, even if it means not getting it from the public library.

V, The Florida Project is an interesting story to rate. It starts out really great with Natives disappearing from the reservation, but nobody taking that seriously, but one persistent girlfriend keeps on. Sullivan's descriptions of the Everglades and alien Visitors hidden research lab are top notch. But there are a few points that don't quite add up. Why are these Visitors still here after the Red Dust caused the rest to leave? Well, the protagonists determine they must have found a cure or something, but no elaboration from either, then again if it was a real scenario that is probably all you would get. The description of the genetic procedure to create the alligator/human hybrid and resulting intelligent monster are great. But why does this lead to the Visitor Dr. Marrow needing to mate with the pro football player's fiancé? Then when we finally get the Los Angeles resistance involved it turns into a completely different story.

It almost feels forced into the V universe. Makes me want to read one of Sullivan's original novels to see if it's better without the TV Tie-In model.

I found the most interesting the first "essay" of Coates's trip to Africa and how it related to the make-believe place his radical parents taught of growing up. The South Carolina trip certainly could have been more, but it properly shown what local school board meetings are about, organized minorities showing up at one night to make it look like everyone in town agrees with you. His trip to Palestine took up like 3/5 of the book and it probably could have taken even more. I came away with a much better understanding of how difficult the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are, with the state continuing to own the land and leasing out its use and the practice of leveraging even the smallest "archeological discovers" to oppress Palestinians. The first time in decades I'm questioning my idea that a no-state solution in the Holy Land will be the jumping off point for an inevitable libertarian society.

Coates is an atheist, while he didn't go to the point of making fun of believers by "making decisions based on fairy tales" as some do, it comes through that he thinks poorly of those with religious beliefs.

The book Field of Dreams is based on. "If you build it he will come."

It's almost time for SantaThing again, so I think the first of last years' gifts should be my next up. I'm not sure if this is something I'll like so I want to read it before I leave for my holidays in case i want to drop it before I'm done.

If you are a young ballplayer who wants to know some insight in how to make the big leagues, how to keep getting better, etc. this book may be of some value to you. For the rest of us...Rose goes way out of the way to show he's "not racist" which is only something that racists do. He lies about "I don't see color." Even if you are legally color blind you can look at someone and notice their skin tone. He went out of his way to talk repeatedly about how winning is everything, while that in of himself makes him a jerk, it feels like he is using that to back up his claim that he never bet against the Reds. My perception of his arrogance may h ave been influenced by the condescending tone the narrator used, but I have a feeling that is completely intentional and approved by Rose. He ends the book complaining like an old man about how much stuff that was great in his day sucks now, including that now there are too many baseball teams, that the world series was better when all games were afternoon games we couldn't watch because we were at work/school and above all how great his son Pete Jr. was at baseball and no one ever game him a break. His earlier autobiographies may have been better, but I don't care enough to find out, their descriptions actually sound worse.