Daniel Powell

Good book

Revisado: 01-19-19

Narrator: please stop trying to do accents (poorly I add) and just read the book.

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Just perfect

Revisado: 10-25-18

The story is timeless, and the narration style is one rarely encountered--in a word, superb. I highly recommend this title to any and all.

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"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"

Revisado: 09-16-18

Are you interested in learning about dinosaurs? You should probably find another book. Are you dying to learn about the individual talents and idiosyncrasies of the people who research dinosaurs for a living? Then you're going to love this book! Steve Brusatte utterly fails to make a compelling narrative about dinosaurs, but he succeeds in telling you which "celebrity" scientist identified each dinosaur, where they were born, where they got their PhD, who they studied under, etc. As a scientist by trade I think one of the worst traits of our culture is the tendency to laud the scientist over the science. I came to this book hoping to learn about another scientific discipline and was very disappointed to get a crash course in modern history. The book is roughly 30% dinosaurs and 70% scientist. What a disappointment.

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This is the first book I've ever genuinely hated.

Revisado: 02-10-18

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Apparently lots of people considering the overall popularity of this title.

What was most disappointing about Fredrik Backman’s story?

The real problem I have with the character Ove is that he represents a societal archetype that I encounter all the time, especially these last couple of years in tight-knit work circles. The person who puts other people down all the time and who constantly thinks that they are the only intelligent person on earth and projects that self aggrandizing attitude in every single endeavor they take on. They live to bring other people down, and for some reason we think that because they are constantly tearing down the world around them that they deserve to be lifted up as intelligent and as the best of us because they say they are. He represents the archetype that is, to me, everything that is wrong with a work environment, and the fact that his character is so widely celebrated really just proves my point--that we love those who abuse us on a deep psychological level because we seek their approval, and the fact that we never do or will only makes us want it more. I hate that people love him so much because to me he is so transparently everything that I avoid when seeking relationships with other people in real life. This is not a story of a good man who sours and is brought back to life again. It is the story of a man who never changed. What you see in the beginning of the book is who he always was, and who he remains in the end.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Narration was fine.

What character would you cut from A Man Called Ove?

Ove.

Any additional comments?

The story arch was so painfully predictable that it was hard to finish. Of course this guy spends his entire life being complete ass to everyone he encounters, including these people who he tries to push away at every turn, and when he finally finds that they burrow themselves into his life (like a parasite, he would say) he inexplicably decides hes okay with it and actually likes it. He's presented as the stereotypical silent hero who never speaks and yet everyone wants to talk to. His whole life he takes these arbitrarily contrived hard stances for which he will not bend. The book says he had only one friend his whole life besides his wife, who he only liked to be in the same room as and never had to speak to. And the only reason they were friends is that the other man extended him the courtesy of not talking.

I just hate how the book romanticizes exclusion and a crotchety attitude. He is jaded and ceaselessly complains about anything and everything for 3/4 of the book. The entire first half is literally him bitching about this or that which used to be better in the "good ol' days, back when we did things right, dammit!" Anything that isn't done exactly the way he thinks it ought to be gets a 20 minute onslaught of complaining. I don't understand how this book has such high ratings? Who wants to sit through hours of the most stereotypical old man complaints one can imagine? I read so many reviews of people saying they wish there were more people like Ove in the world. Are you kidding me? Why does being an honest person with scruples have to be paired with a whiny, surly attitude and introversion that is boarder line personality disorder. And in the end of the book he never really changes. He just becomes this person who begrudgingly let some people in who insisted to be there. Not by choice, but by compulsion. Tell me, how does he, as a character, fundamentally differ in any way when comparing how he "changes" in the end to how he was his entire life with his wife? He was still surly, but just with a winking, defrosted surliness, ie exactly how he was with his wife!

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Very well done

Revisado: 10-04-16

An essential read for everyone in Western culture. This book clearly leads one to question the origins and implications of the social justice movement, and provides an extremely well developed examination of its birth from nihilism and dialectical materialism. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking an intellectual and rational approach to the subject, as opposed to an emotional one.

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