Reviews by 21621031390949
I've read several of Bill Bryson's books and this is my favorite so far. He loves Australia and his enthusiasm for the country is infectious. So infectious, in fact, that I finished the book and promptly booked tickets for my family's next vacation to be there. We've just returned and I have to say that this book prepared me well. Several times during our 3 weeks Down Under, we ran into situations or places that were exactly as he had described them. We made sure to visit several of the places he delighted in and were never disappointed. The only significant difference was that he traveled in January, in the height of Australia's summer, and so he was much, much hotter than we were. I recommend traveling in April, when things are beginning to cool off, and the rainy season is done in the tropics. Wonderful country!
If you like this series of books about Precious Ramotswe, the No. 1 Lady Detective in Botswana, you will like this book. It's the usual simple, sweet story, this time spotlighting Mma Makutsi.
This is a marathon of a novel that was at least 30% too long. The overall tone is angry, depressing, and very bitter. While the author is adept at satirizing nuances of life in 2010 America (where people use credit cards to buy a pack of gum: "I mean, cash is so yesterday"), he preaches and bemoans and belabors everything. Like my mother at her worst, he says everything three times.
I listened to this BOCD, rather than reading the hard copy book. It was very hard to take the reader's snotty, bitter tone for 25 hours. Perhaps without his whining voice I would have felt better about the book. As it is, I simply feel I slogged through a compulsory reading, pushing to the end in the hopes that something would redeem it. Nothing did.
I listened to this BOCD, rather than reading the hard copy book. It was very hard to take the reader's snotty, bitter tone for 25 hours. Perhaps without his whining voice I would have felt better about the book. As it is, I simply feel I slogged through a compulsory reading, pushing to the end in the hopes that something would redeem it. Nothing did.
This is a marathon of a novel that was at least 30% too long. The overall tone is angry, depressing, and very bitter. While the author is adept at satirizing nuances of life in 2010 America (where people use credit cards to buy a pack of gum: "I mean, cash is so yesterday"), he preaches and bemoans and belabors everything. Like my mother at her worst, he says everything three times.
I listened to this BOCD, rather than reading the hard copy book. It was very hard to take the reader's snotty, bitter tone for 25 hours. Perhaps without his whining voice I would have felt better about the book. As it is, I simply feel I slogged through a compulsory reading, pushing to the end in the hopes that something would redeem it. Nothing did.
I listened to this BOCD, rather than reading the hard copy book. It was very hard to take the reader's snotty, bitter tone for 25 hours. Perhaps without his whining voice I would have felt better about the book. As it is, I simply feel I slogged through a compulsory reading, pushing to the end in the hopes that something would redeem it. Nothing did.
I guess it's always risky to read a fictional book build around a topic on which you have expertise. Adoption is my field and so I had problems with this book. The author was trained as a lawyer, but the book is inaccurate about adoption law. It's also not always accurate about adoption issues. Still, to most readers that won't matter, and the story is a good, though fairly predictable yarn. My first of Scottolini's mysteries and I will probably read another in the future.
