Review: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I started listening to this audio book I expected it to have a little more that could be applied to fields outside of medicine. The end did a little, but most of the book was about medicine.

I started reading this book in 2014, but didn't get far at the time because of health issues. It has been on my list of books to read ever since. On a recent trip to the library I saw it and picked it up as an audio book. Clearly I wasn't going to finish it in the written format.

I enjoyed the audio version of this. It didn't give me the greatest confidence in the medical profession, but I already had some mistrust. The above health issues were not solved and I'm still looking for answers. That is extremely frustrating. This book looks at ways that medicine can do better, it doesn't say that doing better will mean solving every problem it means doing the best and striving to make that better. The stories in here were interesting for the most part. I wanted to really like and learn from this book but I don't feel like I got a lot that is applicable to my life as a non doctor. I'm glad I listened to it eventually, but I don't think it is a book that I'll return to.

View all my reviews

Review: What Happens in London

What Happens in London by Julia Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Who is the real spy: Olivia Bevelstoke who has taken to watching her new neighbor or Sir Harry Valentine? This set up for the story is both intriguing and a bit funny at times. Olivia doesn't realize that Harry knows she is watching him. However, when they first meet it becomes clear he knew she was spying on him. Harry finds Olivia to be a very different person than he would have expected. She seems to be unfeeling. What makes her societies darling?

I really enjoyed this story, and the funny Gothic novel that all the characters, except our main characters seem to be in love with.

This was another fun novel from Julia Quinn. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series..

View all my reviews

Review: Time Travel: A History

Time Travel: A History by James Gleick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened the the audiobook of this. I enjoyed it. However, I realized that not having read many of the books discussed in here I was missing out on some of the history of writing about time travel. I did find it interesting and am looking forward to reading or listening to many of the books that were mentioned in here.

Time travel is not as old an idea as I would have thought.

View all my reviews

Review: Any Duchess Will Do

Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Griff is kidnapped by his mother and taken to Spindle Cove to select a wife. He selects Pauline, the barmaid. The set up for this story was amazing and I enjoyed the characters. Griff seems to fall for Pauline quickly at least as far as attraction goes. Pauline has a similar attraction but hers seemed less hurried.

I guess the rags to riches story had more appeal to me than I thought it would.

View all my reviews

Review: Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I would not have finished this if I had not been listening to the audiobook. Ishmael is not what I would consider a reliable narrator and I often wondered how he could know private conversations between Captain Ahab and Starbuck.

My biggest complaint about the book was all the tangents. I remember early on there being a tangent about the color white and think, alright already, I get it. You are foreshadowing death, enough. That is the first example of when a tangent hits you over the head with something. At times the narration would speed up, but most of the time it was slow, and if the narration did speed up there was sure to be a tangent to slow it down.

By the end of the novel I was waiting for the white whale to not be real and the book to end with a "ha! Got ya! There is no white whale." After the slow meanderings of the rest of the novel, the ending hit quickly, and without the epilogue I would have hated the book. Instead of hating the book I feel generally ambivalent about it. I was hoping to gain some incite into the books that are based off of Moby-Dick, but I don't think I gained any new perspective on these past reads. I have really enjoyed books that are based off of Moby-Dick, and now I'm surprised since I did not care much for the original. This is not a book I would recommend, but it is a book that is frequently referenced, so reading it for me seemed like it would add to my enjoyment of other novels. I don't know if that will be true, but I hope so, otherwise I just spent 25 hours listening to a novel that I enjoyed disliking.

View all my reviews

Review: The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever

The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel starts when Miranda Cheever is ten years old and meets Viscount Turner for the first time. He is kind to her where others have not be and she falls in love. Instead of growing out of the childhood love she remains in love with him. Turner does not realize this until after his wife dies and he finds himself drawn to her.

While I enjoyed the novel, I felt like Turner was a bit slow.

I liked the story for the most part, I just didn't find it as fun as I would have liked from a Julia Quinn novel.

View all my reviews

Review: Silk Is for Seduction

Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book had me smiling to myself as I read the funny interplay between a determined dressmaker and a Duke who wants nothing more than to seduce her and send her on her way. Little do they know that won't happen. I however, did know that they would not walk away from each other the way they thought they would. Historical Romance is predictable in the on the way to the alter plot. This one had plenty to keep me smiling and laughing as it made its way to the ending.

Marcelline Noirot is determined she will be the dressmaker for the Duchess of Clevedon, so she sets on to convince the Duke of Clevedon to have his future fiance come to her shop. She does not count on the Duke being handsome and clever. They both get more than they realized when they come to a clash of wills. Really a fun read.

View all my reviews