Audiobook Review: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions- Randall Munroe (narrated by Wil Wheaton)

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've reviewed this book before, after I read it in less than 24 hours about a month before I got it as a Christmas gift last year (2014). While waiting on a book to come into the library I went ahead and listened to the audiobook version this time.
I don't have anything to add to my review really, other than my surprise at how well it held up despite lacking cartoon images and the jokes within. There really wasn't anything added by listening to this book, rather than reading it, in fact because of the loss of some jokes and it pictures it probably takes away from it. None-the-less, it was an entertaining and re-informative read. Also, this is the second book I have listened to with Wil Wheaton as the narrator and he is good at it. Will is very much my kind of nerd.

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Book Review: I Heart My Little A-Holes: A bunch of holy-crap moments no one ever told you about parenting- Karen Alpert

I Heart My Little A-Holes: A bunch of holy-crap moments no one ever told you about parenting by Karen Alpert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was friggin' hilarious. I read it in about a day and cracked up laughing so much that I decided to share it with my wife and I read it through again that same weekend. There were a few times I disagreed with the author on her point of view about life, but overall it was very entertaining and it is nice to know that as a parent I am not the only one who as problems and difficulties raising my children. I've since started following her blog, Baby Sideburns. This book was worth a lot a great laughs.

(view spoiler)

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My Thought [Again] About a Listen-to-Book: The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know about the All-There-Is- Roberto Trotta

The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know about the All-There-Is by Roberto Trotta
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book, like actually read it, earlier this year- and I wrote my thoughts about it then. This time read it again to pass the time while I waited for other books to come in to the book house to continue reading the group of books I am right now going through . Since I could listen to the book this time instead of reading it again, I decided to give it a chance. It works well as a listen-to-book, which surprised me, but the book could have been about a half of a half (or so) shorter, because at the beginning all of ten hundred most used words was read and that the end the whole word-explainer was read. I think I failed to point it out last time I wrote my thoughts about this book this book, but it not only explained the way we study the world around us really well it also had some very good choice of words to get the point across, like saying the student lady was "drinking a glass of red".

Again, the book pleased me, but really made me look forward to reading Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words when it comes out this fall.

If it has not been see-able already, I wrote these thoughts I had about the book in the same way the book wrote about The All-There-Is. This time, I used a different computer page to check my words, since the first writer Randall Munroe put one on his computer page.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi & Tales of the Jedi: The Sith Lords

          

I'm going to review this series of two audio productions together [Star Wars Tales of the Jedi & Star Wars Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith], there might be spoilers within.

I am not a fan of full-cast productions usually because it is often times hard to tell who is talking, unless there are really distinct voices, and because the lack of narrator makes some of the story telling awkward, because it puts a lot of explaining into the mouths of the characters rather than a narrator. This production however was not bad, although the transitions were awkward. Frequently, if not always, as one scene would finish with a noun the next scene would begin with someone else saying the same noun.

In regards to the story, the biggest downside is that in an attempt to elevate it to be on par with the movies, there are so many plot twists that they become too numerous to count and fairly obvious to see coming. Another pitfall, is that almost every Sith story sounds the same and I found myself confusing the story of Freedon Nadd with Marka Ragnos. The story line is solid and has since been so interwoven into other narratives that it became almost foundational. It is a shame that the other graphic novels in this series were also not adapted into audio, it does kind of leave you hanging if you are not familiar with the broader story.

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Book Review: The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of Tue Love and High Adventure: The 'good parts" version- Abridged by William Goldman

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have check this book out of the library many times with the intent of reading it, but never was able to bring myself around to doing it. I remember my dad reading it at some point, and I think that he believed the story within a story idea (view spoiler)[(William Goldman claims that he got the rights to re-tell the story by S. Morgenstern which was originally read to him by his dad and he was surprised to find out that his dad skipped lots and only read "The Good Parts"; he also later makes the joke that Stephen King will be writing the sequel Buttercup's Baby) (hide spoiler)], but then again maybe he explained it to me and I misunderstood. Either way, I did briefly [and re-internet] try to find the full version which also hindered me reading Goldman's version. I stumbled across this unabridged audio version at the end of the summer and decided to go ahead and give it a listen.

The movie is very true to the book. The book contained about two extra scenes, one of which was with Fezzik and Inigo going through Count Rugen's "Zoo of Death", which I wish could have been incorporated into the movie, if for not other reason than it was also funny and would have given those two more screen time. Of course, the similarities come because Goldman wrote both, but still the book seemed like an old friend as I read, and yet it also offered a new perspective that allowed me to appreciate both of them better. My biggest complain is that it was short and rarely are movie and book lengths so similar- a more elaborate book would have been welcomed.

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