Anthony Howes

Most thourough account of political order

Reviewed: 05-10-23

This book is the gold standard for understanding political institutions. Tremendously researched and wonderfully written, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand our past, current, and future political realities.

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Well written, but not concise

Reviewed: 05-10-23

The book is well-written and read. The narration is on point and the story flows. The problem is that the story is less about the "hot hand" and more about a collection of people who sort of ish thought or interacted with a concept of the hot hand. Ultimately I ended up returning the book because while the stories were interesting and well narrated, I wanted to learn about the science of streaks, not the lives of a collection of individuals I really do not care that much about.

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1 person found this helpful

Rambling and a little outlandish for my tastes

Reviewed: 01-08-23

Been on a science fiction/conspiracy theory kick lately and thought I would check this book out. It starts off decently enough and the narration is pretty good. As the story progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to believe. The claims just get more and more outlandish and less credible. In addition, the story is written as if the author exists everywhere and has access to everything. If the book was a tad more balanced and a bit more believable, it would have been a 4 or 5 star.

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Great, but not as good as 1st book

Reviewed: 03-30-22

This was a good second entry into the series, but the 1st book was better. Would have given a 4.5 if possible. Still recommend the book and the series.

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Some real winners...and some losers.

Reviewed: 03-14-22

This book is a collection of short stories from Kurt Vonnegut. Some of the stories are fantastic, the one about "equality" is great, as is the one about the captured prisoners. Some of the stories are less than fantastic and hard to get through. One story kept saying "x said" after every sentence and was almost impossible to listen to.

As you see I have to use the words "one of" because none of the chapters in the audiobook are titled. They are just "Chapter 2, Chapter 6, etc." This is very frustrating from a navigation standpoint and I knocked a star of [Performance] as a result.

Overall I would recommend this book simply due to the fact that the good stories are so good and better than the bad stories are bad.

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Reads like a movie

Reviewed: 03-14-22

Best book I have listened to since the book 1984 by George Orwell. The writing is excellent and is done in a way that lends it self to audio. The narrators voice is steady and oscillates well with the emotions of the story.

The story itself is a classic and likely needs little praise. The story reminds me a little of the show "The Expanse" on Amazon Prime, but with less focus on space and more on the struggle/tension between characters.

Another parallel I drew while listening to the story was of the American empire, or really any empire for that matter. The story weaves in the decline of a vast empire with the creation of a new empire seamlessly. The connection between the old empire and new empire is almost implicit in the writing style and anything unsaid is left to the reader to easily connect the two.

I highly recommend this book for a philosophical look at human history past/present/future, an emotional look into the struggle of moving human civilization forward, and just the general look of it being a very enjoyable book to listen to.

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Interesting book with an outdated worldview

Reviewed: 03-09-22

Book is well written and the narration is good. However, the worldview / predictions seem incredibly dated. I won't spoil the book for the would be reader, but many of the predictions, especially the significant ones, seem unrealistic at best.

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Content is good, narration lacks

Reviewed: 05-27-21

The content of this book is good, but the narration makes listening to it a bedtime story. I recommend that listeners become readers for this particular title and skip the audio version.

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Good story on why education in America struggles

Reviewed: 11-29-20

A tale of government bureaucracy, top down planning, and misaligned unions. Good read on why education in America fails, especially in poorer inner cities.

Pros: book does an excellent job detailing the inner workings and politics of education in America, specifically public education.

Cons: book casts individuals as heroes and villains at times. This narrative undermines the arguments implicit in the book on how education fails due to the complex cast of competing interests involved.

Narration: narrator has a steady, calm voice and was a good choice for the book.

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Classic Malcom Gladwell, but not as profound

Reviewed: 10-04-20

Excellent book, however I found myself searching for the takeaway. The very last chapter in the audio book, the Afterword, is the most insightful and profound part of the whole book. The three ideas presented are very relevant to today, especially immunity. Overall excellent book, but I preferred some of Malcom Gladwell's other books more.

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