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This book was fantastic, just like everything I have read by Danny Duncan Collum. returnreturnThis book was the first fiction of his that I have read. returnreturnTommy Jackson is just a normal working class white boy from rural Mississippi. Like any 1950s teenager he likes driving around with his friends and getting drunk when mom isn't looking. One day a black boy in town is disrespectful to a white girl, and later that night Tommy inadvertently witnesses his murder. returnreturnFor the rest of his life he tries to pretend he didn't. returnreturnWhen in college in Jackson, Mississippi in the 60s the freedom riders come to town, and he thinks he has found a way to make up for what he didn't do in high school. returnreturnBeing the only white southern boy involved in the movement ends up making him a target for all the locals, and the sit ins don't go as expected. returnreturnIt's really a fantastic tale of race, love, family, friendship, religion, God and the long arm of the law. returnreturnThe end was a bit rushed but that was the only downside I had.

I found this book absolutely wonderful. Levi looks a wrestling from a whole new angle. Granted occasionally I felt she was seeing things that weren't there, but that is true of almost any academic work. returnreturnMuch of the book is based on her experience, as an American Sociological Academic, training to be a luchadora in Mexico City. Its the way she really get to see how training happens gets to actually have real conversations with Luchadores. returnreturnI found it incredibly suprsing how Lucha Libre had developed quite differently from its American counterpart primarily because it had been banned from being on TV for almost 40 years. returnreturnHer take on the class struggle was interesting and how it relates to various characters and takes on this sport. Her emphasis on the sport of lucha, not sport-like, not sports entertainment was also interesting, always while acknowledging the match outcome is pre-determined still argued it was less corrupt than every other sport in Mexico. returnreturnThe only thing that prevented a 5 star from me was her huge obsession with homosexuality in Mexico and insinuating that ever "straight" man in Mexico City would glady do another guy in the rear, but would never take it. I almost skipped chapter 4 completely because of it, but then it got into gender roles related to luchadoras and it made a lot more sense, would have been better if the chapter took the ladies first and the gays later. returnreturnI wanted to add every book in the bibliography to me "queue" but most of them where in Spanish.

Probably was one of my least favorite in Heinlein's "Scribner's Juniors" "series". Like the others it's really a stand-alone story amongst a series of similar tales. (Young adults leading scientific adventures). returnreturnThis one is about two teenage twin boys finishing school and invited to a symposium by the "long range foundation" a private non-profit company that can focus on funding endeavors that don't have to make investors happy with quick returns, nor be at the will of fickel politicians, they can work on projects that will be years, decades or centuries before a return, if any occurs. returnreturnThe project the LRF is now working on is to deal with the overpopulation of the planet. The 1954 written book is very concerned that in the future (maybe 200 years from now?) the world population is unsustainable with over 4.5 billion people (never mind that 75 years from when ti was written we are doing just find with 8 billion). returnreturnIn order to explore what planets beyond or solar system may be suitable for habitation they need to find a way to communicate back to earth that is faster than the near light speeds of the ships. Ta-da the proof of telepathy that distance cannot substitute, primarily available between identical twins. returnreturnA little far-fetched but certainly interesting. I appreciate how Heinlein brings about theoretical ideas including those like over taxing large families etc. returnreturnSome of the story is pretty unbelievable though, like giant sea monster attacks in space, that could have been prevented with encoded messages from light years away being approved to be sent 2 days earlier. returnreturnThe ending was anticlimactic to say the least, but all and all I still liked it.

I was really pretty disappointed by this audibook. Contrary to what the subtitle says this is not a novel, but a collection of short stories. I kept hopting they would all come together in the end, but alas no. One of the characters from teh second story takes a leading roll for the last story, but nothing satisfactory occurs. returnreturnMost of the stories just kind of end, no climax, and certainly no happy ending. From rich man's kid dies, to servant girl gets fired, to someone MIGHT have found out wear the dancing bear guy lives. returnreturnThe best story was the second story about an Indian guy who lives in Britain who gets his employer to pay for his annual trip home under the guise of writing an authentic Indian breakfast cook book travel to each state and sampling their unique cuisine. It was interesting and made me hungry but alas no good ending.

This audiobook was an interesting one, but I didn't ever feel the need to stay and the car and find out what happens next. I guess that's why it only gets 3 *'s. returnreturnBoba Fet is yet again hired for another murder, he runs into Hann, who is also trying to murder someone? His son is now leading the galactic army against his father's home world, all while slowly (or maybe not so) turning to the dark side while being led by an enemy of Uncle Luke's past. returnreturnFet is in search of a long lost relative who may have a solution to his aging problem, only for them to try to murder him too. Then the story ends abruptly, because we've got another book to sell.

I thought this audiobook was fine. The copy I have is from the National archive for the library from the blind. So it is all one very long MP3. Thankfully my listening didn't get interrupted otherwise that could have been a pain. returnreturnHaving been a Sci-Fi fan since I first saw Star Trek on reading Rainbow, and a member of the class of 2001 I had heard of this story for a long time, but never actually read it or watched the movie till now. (Though I did see the movie sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact because that's what our video store had). returnreturnThis story was certainly better than that one. returnreturnLike much "hard" science fiction it is too slow and has very little action, as the adventure isn't the point its the exploring of science. returnreturnIt starting with a time pre-garden of Eden is pretty hard to believe, claiming that God didn't make man, but rather we are the result of an experiment by a superior race that gave us the ability to make tools. returnreturnIn the introduction the author claims their goal here was to make believable science fiction that didn't suck. Set less than 40 years in their future what might space travel look like. Well they certainly are doing more of it than we are, so that's ahead of where humanity is 60 years after it was written, but it seems all other technology is significantly behind. returnreturnFor example the greatest consumer device ever invented seems to be basically an iPad that can only access news websites. Even as long ago as 2001 our BlackBerries where better than that. returnreturnIt seems the cold war still continues but rather than the USA vs. the Soviets of the 1960s it has changed into the USA AND the USSR together against the Chinese. returnreturnI really enjoyed Clarke's description of Saturn, even if he indicated in the intro that everything about Saturn is actually wrong, and that's a good reason that they went to Jupiter in the movie. returnreturn2001 is interesting in that neither did the book come first and then a movie was made based on it, nor was their a movie made that had a novelization after the fact, but the screenplay and the novel where developed simultaneously. It probably would have worked better if the book came out 6 months before the movie rather than 6 months after it. returnreturnThe computer HAL had less influence on the story line than I had expected from the often quoted lines of the movie such as "I can't let you do that Dave" All in all an important part of American Sci-Fi history and probably worth reading for that, but nothing to get too excited about storywise.

This audio book was emotionally draining. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Its not comfortable, but I guess that Means Finkel did a good job. returnreturnThis is the story of Chris Knight a man who decided life wasn't' for him and went to live in the woods and was found 27 years later. I first heard of Mr. Knight and this book during a segment on Public Radio. I feel like that segment gave me the same info as this 8 hour book, but of course this was deepr and more emotional. returnreturnPartly I was distraught because I see how many of my friends/family could have ended up like Chris.

I thought it was a fine book, though not as great as its fans think it is. I found some of it quite fascinating, particularly relationships between the Fed and the bank of England. However I find Griffin's nationalism disgusting. It seems to shroud much of his understanding of history, economics, and politics. He also repeatedly talks about problems of capitalism, yet for some reason calls its socialism. (Like bankers and big corporations controlling entire economizes and political structures). My other concern is that this book was frist published in the 1990s, and although having been updated several time since then it is extremely out of date. Checks are near non-existent in 2021 in the US and have been for decades in much of the rest of the world. Younger audiences will have trouble following at all. returnreturnThe story line of war and its preparatory was also interesting and a different look. He makes a decent argument that environmentalism is the "socialists" new substitute for war, but I think he under estimates the number of "Americans" who would totally believe an alien invasion.

I listened to this audio book because I work with so many Indians in my line of work that I had wanted to read more Indian literature to get a greater cultural understanding of my fellow workers. From that perspective the biggest thing I gained here was learning that at least part of the reason that the Indian caste system continues to this day is a feeling that the caste one is born into is part of their just rewards for actions in a previous life. So if you are born to a lower caste it may because you were a real asshole in your previous life, so it is correct to treat them lower. returnreturnI give this book only 2.5 stars primarily because from an audio perspective it was very difficult to follow. The story is told from at least 4 different 1st person perspectives (which isn't normally a problem lots of my Star Trek books do that) but on the audiobook it isn't always clear when the transitions occur, especially as it doesn't always change just at the Chapter break. I suspect that it is easier to follow in the dead tree form, like a double line break or something. returnreturnThis is basically the life story of an orphan we know mostly as "the judge" his rise from poverty to study to become a member of the ICS when Britain was Indianizing their regime. His daughter, her math tutuor, their cook, and the cook's son. Immigration back and forth to India, the judge to England for education, the cook's son to the US to try to make ends meet. The math tutor and the daughter fall in love, only for the tutor to turn on her because of political upheaval and his acceptance of a new nationalism. It bounces back and forth from India to the EU to the US. It bounces around time lines until it finally all falls into place. If that sounds interesting to you I recommend reading it rather than listening to it.

This audio book has a good premise. Professional economist takes a break from trying to convince the Eurobank to bail out Greece because reasons, and tries to teach his young daughter what the economy actually is. returnreturnLater editions give it the subitle "How Capitalism Works and how it doesn't" returnreturnThis was originally written in Greek, so maybe something is lost in translation, however basd on the forward written in English by the author I don't think so. He usually writes in English and specifically worked with the translator of his original work. Some of the lessons on Greek roots of economic words may have made more sense but that's it. I suspect I have read and studied as much economies as anyone without an Ecnomics degree and this seems really really too deep and technical for a child. returnreturnHe goes on basically to say that capitalism is working just fine, and the problem with it is when people don't want to give the banks all the control. And everyone should forgive Greece because Greece is special. He REALLY hates Bitcoin for some reason.

I picked up this audiobook from the library because the title revived me of the situation we are going through now being sober together with quarantine and 'Rona. W hike I knew this want coordinating with the current situation, but with technology. However it was very different than I expected, mainly because i misread the sub title "We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other" as I thought it was about why WE SHOULD expect more from technology and less from each other. So while I was expecting an uplifting tale about how things aren't that bad and technology is already saving us. Instead I get a boomertastic Tome about how awful reddit is. "Oh my gorsh! The Japs are f'n robots! Oh my gorsh everyone has a BlackBerry! Ohhhhh no body writes let's anymore!returnreturnShe starts out with an introduction saying that she's not talking about robots but the internet, then goes on for half the book to talk about robots. It's so different especially when I just finished "I, robot" a week a go.returnreturnThe most interesting part b was being revived of how much social media has changed in the 10 years since this book was when. The Facebook she speaks of is almost unrecognizable compared with the 2020 incarnation. Oh and don't forget "oh my gorsh! I just made a MySpace page, why didn't need Facebook?"returnreturnNow it's just for old peoplereturnreturnreturnHow someone has made a career studying the interaction between man and technology and hates tech so much, I have n no clue.returnreturnPractically no redeeming qualities at all.

This audio book was OK. Like so many audio books it could be improved by having the author read it. That is almost always better, and particularly when the author is someone who is known outside the literary world, like Steve Harvey, it just doesn't seem right with some other random black guy reading it. Also like many non-fiction audio books I recommend that if you are interested, get the dead tree version. Not only does it make referencing later easier he has many "write this" exercises throughout here that are difficult in audio format. Granted they really tried by including an enhanced PDF version of these portions on disk for of the Book-on-CD, but even after printing the 29 pages out, I don't feel it is a substitute. returnreturnAs far as the quality of the work itself, it mostly feels like regurgitated standard self-help malarkey with a few personal stories thrown in for color. I'm not sure what to make of that. I'm not sure if that's because this self-help stuff is all BS that is too difficult to follow up with so everyone can say do it and no one can prove it doesn't work; however it could also be that this stuff really does work and that's why everyone says it. Maybe Harvey's words will be enough to let me follow through and see. We'll have to wait and find out. returnreturnThere was a lot more Jesus in this book than I expected. I appreciated that, others might not.