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Justin Winokur's Read Books: Blog 12
Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 12:00 AM
★★★☆☆
Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 12:00 AM
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Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
Series: Chief Inspector Gamache/Three Pines, Book 3
Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
Quotes
The near enemy. It’s a psychological concept. Two emotions that look the same but are actually opposites. The one parades as the other, is mistaken for the other, but one is healthy and the other’s sick, twisted. There are three couplings. Attachment masquerades as Love, Pity as Compassion, and Indifference as Equanimity.
Compassion involves empathy. You see the stricken person as an equal. Pity doesn’t. If you pity someone, you feel superior. As long as the pity’s in place there’s not room for compassion. It squeezes out the nobler emotion
★★★☆☆
Thursday, February 06, 2025, 12:00 AM
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
Quotes
Around 2:25:00
If a person lets you down, it’s time to reconsider what you’re asking of them
And
If you give them control over how you feel, they’ll always use it.
★★★★☆
Sunday, February 02, 2025, 12:00 AM
Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
★★☆☆☆
I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed this. It kind of felt like the author had a story but also wanted to write essays on various topics and tell them through the emails in the story. It wasn't all together bad and certainly felt more like "literary fiction" than many of the other books I read. But it wasn't my favorite. Also, I think the author did an acceptable-but-not-great job narrating. Not many voices.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025, 12:00 AM
Narrated by: Helen Laser
Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
★★★★☆
Sunday, January 26, 2025, 12:00 AM
Narrated by: Caroline Lee, Geraldine Hakewill
Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
My review of this book started at 3/5 and dropped all the way to 1/5 before coming back to a 4/5. In fact, I started writing my review before finishing it, and it gives some context. A bit of a spoiler is implied:
I generally love Liane Moriarty. She is an expert at making you fall in love with her characters, and she is really good at including little details that make you relate to them. I am constantly stopping to highlight (or note if listening to an audiobook) a passage or anecdote I find particularly meaningful.
In that regard, this book did not disappoint! But I do not recommend this one to others, nor did I enjoy it. It was just upsetting! The plot wasn't intriguing at all. It was just cruel! Sure, there is some interest in self-fulfilling prophecies and how you will behave, but that was secondary. What she did was force you to fall in love with a bunch of doomed characters, and all you did was follow them on their doom.
Sunday, January 19, 2025, 12:00 AM
 Mr. Mercedes.jpg)
 Mr. Mercedes-2.jpg)
Narrated by: Will Patton
Series: Bill Hodges Trilogy, Book 1
Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
★★★★☆
Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 12:00 AM
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
★★☆☆☆ ... barely! Gratuitous sex scenes that didn't add much (and, while in place in the narrative, were well out of place in how other things were described). Poor plot with faulty logic everywhere. The story shoved ideas down your throat (e.g., class warfare). I will give the author credit: I didn't envision the major plot development (though probably should have), and it takes a certain amount of guts to make the main character so hateable!
I have no interest in further reading Teddy Wayne!