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thebigz's Reviews (699)
8/10 but minus one star for being fiction.
I really liked this book. Very rarely do I find a book that I read in every spare minute, but this was one. It's hard to pinpoint what I liked so much, but it was probably the dinosaurs.
I really liked this book. Very rarely do I find a book that I read in every spare minute, but this was one. It's hard to pinpoint what I liked so much, but it was probably the dinosaurs.
5/10
I had a hard time keeping all of the people straight, but that's my fault.
My biggest problem is that at the end the author says all these stories are real. If they are all real then just write a non fiction biography instead of keeping us in the dark as to what is real and what is fiction. Is it just the conversations that are fiction? Just tell us at the first that the stories are true and the actual conversations are fictional to add character and make it more readable. The content was very good, writing was decent, format terrible. I'm sorry, but this book just left me full of anger for not knowing what was real, instead of empathy and reverence for the people involved
I had a hard time keeping all of the people straight, but that's my fault.
My biggest problem is that at the end the author says all these stories are real. If they are all real then just write a non fiction biography instead of keeping us in the dark as to what is real and what is fiction. Is it just the conversations that are fiction? Just tell us at the first that the stories are true and the actual conversations are fictional to add character and make it more readable. The content was very good, writing was decent, format terrible. I'm sorry, but this book just left me full of anger for not knowing what was real, instead of empathy and reverence for the people involved
8.5/10
The author takes you through what it's like to work on minimum wage. She did a great job at conveying the plight of the working poor.
One big problem is that there aren't any solutions given. That I gotta is because there aren't many things that the general populous can do about this problem. I've promised myself to be far more considerate and generous with people working minimum wage jobs.
Further, I can only imagine how much worse things have become in the 20 years since this book was published
The author takes you through what it's like to work on minimum wage. She did a great job at conveying the plight of the working poor.
One big problem is that there aren't any solutions given. That I gotta is because there aren't many things that the general populous can do about this problem. I've promised myself to be far more considerate and generous with people working minimum wage jobs.
Further, I can only imagine how much worse things have become in the 20 years since this book was published
3/10
I guess I should have read the title because this is mostly about searching for hominid fossils in Ethiopia. That's probably the first 80 percent.
The last part starts talking about what the fossils can teach us, but it's very anatomy dense, so it didn't make too much sense to me.
Worst of all, at the end we learn that almost nothing discovered by the fossils that are the stars of the book has been accepted and hasn't been the major revelation promised earlier in the book.
If I hadn't listened to the audiobook, there's no way I would have finished
I guess I should have read the title because this is mostly about searching for hominid fossils in Ethiopia. That's probably the first 80 percent.
The last part starts talking about what the fossils can teach us, but it's very anatomy dense, so it didn't make too much sense to me.
Worst of all, at the end we learn that almost nothing discovered by the fossils that are the stars of the book has been accepted and hasn't been the major revelation promised earlier in the book.
If I hadn't listened to the audiobook, there's no way I would have finished
5.5/10
If this was my great grandfather writing to be, it would be a treasure, but I didn't find anything too amazing for the common reader.
The parts I liked best were: when he saw himself in a mirror for the first time, his thoughts on God and religion, and his battles with addiction.
If this was my great grandfather writing to be, it would be a treasure, but I didn't find anything too amazing for the common reader.
The parts I liked best were: when he saw himself in a mirror for the first time, his thoughts on God and religion, and his battles with addiction.
This was really interesting. It's too bad there isn't more actual science on the topic rather than this is what a lot of ancient civilizations did (they also drank mercury to become immortal, burned witches, made human sacrifices, etc. Ancient wisdom is not always right). I liked our all, but it needs much more investigation.
One bonus for the audiobook is that at the end you have a professional walking you through various breathing exercises
One bonus for the audiobook is that at the end you have a professional walking you through various breathing exercises
I'm a big fan of other Mary Roach books, but not this one. Maybe it's a rejection of my own grumpiness, but this book never grabbed me
Unfortunately this wasn't as good as I remembered or hoped. Dragons of winter night was by far the best of the Chronicles trilogy.
This one seemed like everything took too long to happen.
This one seemed like everything took too long to happen.
5/10
In my opinion he first story/book was much better. What I really like about these books are Hadrian and Royce's interactions. On the second book they were almost relegated to minor characters as the majority was basically politics with some entities planning a new empire, wanting to kill people, etc. It could have been much better if it focused more on Ryreria and less on all the other stuff
In my opinion he first story/book was much better. What I really like about these books are Hadrian and Royce's interactions. On the second book they were almost relegated to minor characters as the majority was basically politics with some entities planning a new empire, wanting to kill people, etc. It could have been much better if it focused more on Ryreria and less on all the other stuff
7/10
I had never heard of the wasps, so this was all entirely new to me. The book is well researched with lots of first hand accounts and reads well.
My initial reaction was meh they're just ferrying planes, no big deal. As I got deeper into the book and found that it was actually somewhat dangerous work, I was more impressed. I feel for these women who had to fight so hard just to be given a chance, then have the rug pulled out from under them and be left out in the cold. They had a huge fight into the 80s just for recognition of what they did.
Good for the women that did this and may we all learn some lessons from this book
I had never heard of the wasps, so this was all entirely new to me. The book is well researched with lots of first hand accounts and reads well.
My initial reaction was meh they're just ferrying planes, no big deal. As I got deeper into the book and found that it was actually somewhat dangerous work, I was more impressed. I feel for these women who had to fight so hard just to be given a chance, then have the rug pulled out from under them and be left out in the cold. They had a huge fight into the 80s just for recognition of what they did.
Good for the women that did this and may we all learn some lessons from this book