60. The English Patient

By: Michael Ondaatje
Rated 1 Star
Audio Book from Library

This book had no plot!  It really didn't.  But it did have beautiful prose.  But even beautiful prose can't carry a story if the story doesn't exist.  I thought the author was indulging him self by offering up his obvious talent for writing really beautiful phrases, and then sticking them haphazardly together  and trying to pass them off as great literature.

The story (?) was supposed to be about an unnamed English flier who was terribly burned in a plane crash who was left behind along with a nurse who refuses to leave when the hospital moves on.  Right.  Like that would happen in the military!  If anyone reads this blog and is interested in what the story is supposed to be about you can go to amazon and see what other readers tried to make of it.  Amazon reader reviews  For my part It passeth all understanding.

59. Fly Away Home

By:  Jennifer Weiner
Rated 2.5 Stars
From Library

The story line wasn't too bad. My problems with this book was the characters. They were just not the kind of people I could relate too. Also I felt the author wimped out with the ending. I think she tried to end it in a way that didn't offend anyone. But in doing that nothing was resolved for any of the characters and the book was left without making any kind of sense. [shaking head in disgust]


Publishers Description

When Senator Richard Woodruff's affair makes headlines, his wife and two daughters are forced into the spotlight. Wife Sylvie has shed everything that made her who she was in order to fit the role of a senator's wife. Daughter Lizzie is a recovering addict and older daughter Diana, an emergency room physician finds herself being tempted out of her loveless marriage. Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes, presents a new novel about a female bonding and the facets of family.

The Fort

By: Bernard Cornwell
Audio Book - DNF
Rated 0 Stars
Library

I would have never believed that Bernard Cornwell could wrire such a boring book if I hadn't tried the book myself.  It's simply mind numbingly dull.

Publishers description

On Aug. 14, 1779, a New England fleet, including a 32-gun frigate and the entire Massachusetts Navy, and 14 transports, was destroyed — sunk, scuttled, blown up, or captured — by a British squadron in Penobscot Bay. It was a disaster matched only at Pearl Harbor some 162 years later. Bernard Cornwell gives this little-known event his usual on-the-ground treatment, backed up by a detailed historical note. What will startle local readers is Cornwell's revisionist depiction of the iconic Paul Revere, the expedition's artillery commander, as petulant, insubordinate, and downright incompetent.

60. The true story of Paul Revere

his midnight ride, his arrest and court-martial, his useful public services

Rated 5 Stars
From Library

Product Description

Originally published in 1905. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume

58. Fall of Giants

By:  Ken Follett
Rated:  5 Stars
Format:  Audio Book

I just finished listening to Fall of Giants. It certainly held my attention from Start to finish. But as I said before, I like these long historical rambles. By the end I had realized it had less in common to Delderfield and was written very much in the style of Herman Woulk's Winds of War.

If I had bought a hardcover addition instead of an audio version I think I would have given this story 4 Stars. But John Lee who reads the story did such a wonderful job with the accents, especially the Welsh that he made the characters so real for me it fully deserves five stars.
One of the things that made this story stand out was that Mr. Follett seamlessly wove in so many interconnected points of view that it added to the drama of what was happening to each character. I can hardly wait for the sequel to find out what happened to these people. I hope the talented John Lee reads it, and I fervently hope Lloyd wins the Victoria Cross in WWII and stuffs it up Fitz's nose.

Before I purchased this book I checked the ratings on amazon and was very surprised to see it only had a two star rating.

I was so curious about so many one star reviews I started reading them.  I did't read all of them but did read the first fourty.  Those were all complaining about the Kindle pricing.  Apparently there is some sort of organized protest going on trying to force amazon to reduce the price.  Amazon is going to have to figure out a way to weed out the inappropriate use of the review system before it is destroy it.  Those 99 one star "reviews" are little more than spam IMO.

Link to Fall of Giants on Amazon