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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
Yes, America’s Treasure Tom Hanks can write. Really, really well. I would love to see him pick any one of these short stories and develop it into a full novel. One complaint about the audiobook was the lack of space between stories, so it was hard to tell one had to need and another begun. But hearing Tom read them made it worth it!
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
A delightful set of short stories, often emphasising the warm, hopeful Americana that we all once dreamed of. Stories to make you laugh and cry. Oh, and typewriters.
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love and collect typewriters, so I read it for that reason. Typewriters are featured in some way in every story. This book is a classic example of someone getting published because of his fame in other realms. This is not something that would have, in a million years, gotten picked up by someone who did not have the name Tom Hanks. All that to say, it's not the most terrible book ever written -- if you are looking for something simple and cute, with happy endings for all, and no real conflict to speak of, with stories that just ... end, this is the book for you. In some ways, this could be just what is needed in dark, dangerous times of impending doom. A example of the way things could have been-Utopian instead of dystopian stories.
I find that the more books I read, the pickier I am when it comes to rating them. This book was good. The stories seemed fine tuned and the characters well defined. However, I found myself drawn to only a few of the stories. The majority of them were just ok to me. I found myself trying to push through to make it to the end.
Tom Hanks is a great storyteller. While all the stories in this collection didn't particularly resonate with me, there were a few stand outs that I just adored. The story about the typewriter repair man, and the time travel story were wonderfully engaging and well told.
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks is a collection of short stories that have, embedded within them, some mention of a typewriter. The typewriter may just be a glance of a comment or it may play an important role in the plot; it runs the gradient. I like Tom Hanks so when I saw this book I grabbed it out of curiosity to see his style of writing. I was also curious if the stories would be interesting because short stories, I find, can be more difficult to write and often leave me wanting as a reader.
Short stories, of course, have limited words to develop characters in a way that they can be pictured by the reader and it is, for me, what I find so difficult about short story writing and reading them. Too many details and I struggle to understand how the details matter about the character or I find it too easy to dismiss the character as “created”. Too few details and the character and ensuing story are flat, one dimensional and dull. Mr. Hanks nails the character development in his stories. There is almost the perfect amount of detail that left me with a clear multi-dimensional picture of the characters. I related to the characters and found them to be real, some even reminded me of people I knew. In one case, a character was remarkably like one of my aunts.
The stories themselves some would call simplistic or nostalgic for simpler times or even camp, but to say that is to oversimplify what it takes to tell a good story with limited real estate. Said another way, I didn’t find the stories to be simple or nostalgic. I found them to be complicated and, like real life, a bit messy in any given moment in time: a child discovers a parent is having an affair, a man who starts to hate something he used to do for fun because of pressure, fickleness of what happens in the movie business and so on. Sometimes the messiness is obvious and other times it's an undercurrent that is flowing and picking up speed.
I found myself in each story wondering what was going to happen. I could see the story going in a couple of different directions and waited to see where it went and kept reading. I also found myself enjoying the writing. It had a crispness to the words that didn’t, for me, feel like there is waste. I also love my Voss typewriter and that could also be why this was 5***** for me.
The stories were interesting, I wanted to keep reading, I found the editing of the writing to be exacting for what I think is a hard medium, and the storylines varied enough to make me wonder what the next would be about. I typically stray away from short stories, but I'm glad I picked this up. It was a fun read and again I enjoyed the writing. I’d read more by Tom Hanks, loved his writing style.
Short stories, of course, have limited words to develop characters in a way that they can be pictured by the reader and it is, for me, what I find so difficult about short story writing and reading them. Too many details and I struggle to understand how the details matter about the character or I find it too easy to dismiss the character as “created”. Too few details and the character and ensuing story are flat, one dimensional and dull. Mr. Hanks nails the character development in his stories. There is almost the perfect amount of detail that left me with a clear multi-dimensional picture of the characters. I related to the characters and found them to be real, some even reminded me of people I knew. In one case, a character was remarkably like one of my aunts.
The stories themselves some would call simplistic or nostalgic for simpler times or even camp, but to say that is to oversimplify what it takes to tell a good story with limited real estate. Said another way, I didn’t find the stories to be simple or nostalgic. I found them to be complicated and, like real life, a bit messy in any given moment in time: a child discovers a parent is having an affair, a man who starts to hate something he used to do for fun because of pressure, fickleness of what happens in the movie business and so on. Sometimes the messiness is obvious and other times it's an undercurrent that is flowing and picking up speed.
I found myself in each story wondering what was going to happen. I could see the story going in a couple of different directions and waited to see where it went and kept reading. I also found myself enjoying the writing. It had a crispness to the words that didn’t, for me, feel like there is waste. I also love my Voss typewriter and that could also be why this was 5***** for me.
The stories were interesting, I wanted to keep reading, I found the editing of the writing to be exacting for what I think is a hard medium, and the storylines varied enough to make me wonder what the next would be about. I typically stray away from short stories, but I'm glad I picked this up. It was a fun read and again I enjoyed the writing. I’d read more by Tom Hanks, loved his writing style.
Did anyone else notice that in almost every story he writes about having coffee in one form or another? No? Just me? Ok, well besides that I found his stories simple and ordinary. Not good, not bad. Just kinda boring.
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Tom Hanks is a talented storyteller. I loved listening to this book that was narrated by the author.
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Fun to listen to Tom Hanks perform/read these. Several are quite charming and sweet.