Mer Barr

A unique topic, which is incredibly rare these days! So refreshing!

Unfortunately, it's a novella and could have used a bit more fleshing out on the transitions from one scene to another and a bit of a preamble rather than diving right in mid-conversation-like. But what's there is a great story that's just too short for my taste.

Better than the first book on action and suspense. Really enjoyed it!

Funny, intriguing concepts to contemplate, a plot that doesn't sound similar to one I've already read so yeah, I enjoyed it.

A good first read for the subject, however it only covers the first six months of 2020 and makes the situation sound like everything sort of ended on a high note when it came to Covid. If I remember correctly, things really kicked in later that year as the cold weather set in and people were back to being inside together for the winter and governments and institutions had to come to terms that this was not a short-term situation.

It does do a great job of putting the reader next to each of these early-graduation interns; their personal lives and their interactions at their various jobs. I hope someone is still following this year of medical and nursing students to see the longer impact positively and negatively across many areas of their life and writes a book on it for me to read.

The summary sounds interesting but by 25% in, neither the plot nor the characters were intriguing enough to hang in for.

As I'm from a different culture, I had a hard time distinguishing similarly sounding names to their respective characters and found it difficult to figure out who just had what happen to them. I did enjoy the growth of the main character and how the author addressed a grown woman in mens' clothing in a male dominated world.

I understand there's a second book after this but this isn't a series I'll pursue.

Still quality writing and storytelling by the author.

It's been four years since I read Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes so not sure if some of the references to Snow and the snake and bird on Hamich's pin in this book, are connected to anything in Ballad. I will say I find it suspicious / gratuitous that the author has loaded this new book with alot of the people associated with the District 12 group in the Hunger Games main books. They can't all come into the storyline with Hamich.

More good writing from the author, however this hero seems just too good to be true for me. I did like the creativity that the author gave the villain, and his personality was unnerving.

Not sure I'll continue this series.

Intriguing (but not new) theme of symbiotic body inhabitation. The publisher is clearly using font and paragraph inset to distinguish characters in the ebook format but it's not done in a consistent manner and causes me confusion. I probably would have found another way of presenting multiple interior and exterior characters in the same scene, easier to follow. How did they handle this for audio mediums?

And I am a fan of the cold-war era spy stories, especially the dark, gritty types of Le Càrre, which this seems to be like. I'm just not interested at the moment.

There was alot of good storyline and I was just starting to understand the new environment and main character when a new character was introduced. Then there was so much stalling of the storyline, introducing backstory (which didn't apply to anything told so far) that I dropped the book.

I see there's another book that just came out. The title is about a character I'd love to understand better and it seems to carry on from this book. Can't decide if I give it a try or call this series quits.

A deceptive and slow start with a boatload of world building and "see how tough a person has it before things change." I just about dropped the reading when I realized I was only about 10% in to the 16 hours; wondering "Is the rest of that 16 this slow and no real plot? And if so, what can the author have to say? But if you hang in there the pace slowly builds, and you get an education in politics, strategy, psychology, sociology, extreme makeovers, and more.

Well written and unexpected as a class in 'ologies'. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Holy cow Batman! I thought I could handle alot of lewd and foul language but this kicked my butt. Much more than "Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Unabridged." I couldn't finish the book.

Outside of that, the plot and the viewpoint were interesting and unique; probably because I've never read Shakespeare's "King Lear."

I saw the movie version of this story and it progressed slower than the majority of movies I usually see. I do love a spy story and hung in there for all the gaps in the story to close. It turns out the movie plot is pretty faithful to the book's. Closer to the realistic grit of John Le Carrè than Ian Fleming's James Bond. And more modern than either.

Sort of like book 2 of Ready Player One, not because they're in the same universe but in the homage to the music and video games of the 80s.

I was not a video game player but I definitely know the majority of movie, book, and music references which makes me feel I'm a part of a community of geeks.

The storyline is constantly moving and doesn't get bogged down with too much universe builting or technology explanations, the author doesn't sidetrack on to topics not related to the storyline, and the characters have depth to them. All this makes this a book I enjoyed but there's nothing really complex or surprisingly unique or mindbending to rate more stars from me.

I should've read the synopsis closer. I was thinking the title meant across a larger and older part of history but this is specifically the period between Henry VIII's son Edward dies and the reign of Elizabeth, about several women I was not really aware of among the movers and shakers of that time. I had been hoping for pre-Roman times.

Well written, relatively easy to follow along if you know some of the names and can place these women amongst the men and women you always hear about.

I was introduced to the Longmire universe by way of the t.v. series which seems to be well into the book series somewhere. This is a great book because it fills in details of things that are hinted at or referenced in the t.v. series.

Smooth storyline, lots of interactions that aren't connected until the end so the mystery is nicely drawn out. And George Guidall is always good to listen to.

Interesting and funny characters, Terry Pratchett humor, and a storyline that's NOT based in Ankh-Morpork for a nice change of pace. And so good to know there are several more books to this series.

The summary says the storyline starts out dark but then shifts after awhile. The beginning is just too dark for where I am right now and there are so many people wanting to read this next, that I returned it.

What I did read was well written, especially when trying to describe the technologies involved in the world. The main character's longing for her family is described in a way that is very clear and convincing.

It's been a long time since I read my last Shannara book. All that sounded familiar in this new book is bits of the geography and the fact this world is post-apocalypse. But it was really nice to get back to the author's writings and the universe.

For some reason I thought this might be humorous but it was more a study in a life extinction event. Not a bad thing but definitely not expected.

Great characters and more great storytelling on an unusual topic.

Well-written, thoughtful, full of insights. Not only how to see your medical practitioners as people but how medical practitioners can improve their lives by bringing more balance into them, as wells as the lives of their colleagues.

This book is not a continuation of the prior book's main character's story but does mention him in passing. It is in the same universe and does include one of the characters from the prior book but this books main character is new.

Still alot of interesting technology and ethics to contemplate, still good writing.

My favorite fiction books are those focused on unique, well-crafted, characters who interact in a small area. In this book there are plenty of characters to choose from and all the story is within an environment I would be so happy to have access to. A bookstore that has tea and wants their customers to get comfortable and stay awhile.

There are some moments where the story stalled a bit but then picked back up. It was nice to see people mature, grow, and improve over the several years of the storyline.<spoiler>Also glad the store owner's sadness at the very beginning of the story was spelled out at the very end, rather than upfront, as so many authors like to do.</spoiler>

This book seems to be well-rounded on Luther and his break with the Catholic Church. It has alot of details about different debates between Luther, the Emperor, the Pope, and the different interpretations of Catholic belief. The author refers to alot of source documents which I like to see when it comes to non-fiction, however I have no desire to confirm their accuracy or validity. The author did a good job of trying to tell Luther's story.

I wanted a high-level understanding of his why and how so this book had much more than I really needed.

Interesting concept, interesting people, well written, no sidetracking but the author lost me with the plot. At the halfway mark there doesn't seem to be any forward motion. It seems to be people living their lives, trying to deal with disconnects and unrequited desires, and interacting with others. And maybe a hint of mystery.

I do love good stories about unique characters and their interactions with each other but this story isn't about that.