lit_stacks's Reviews (579)

I audiobooked this Peter Wimsey mystery and let me tell you, I thought the thick British accents in the written word were occasionally difficult to decipher, but the audiobook was a foreign language at times. However, you never have to worry about missing a detail because Sayers repeats all of the minutiae in her entirely too lengthy denouements. This is the one complaint that I have had with both Wimsey novels I have read so far, the wrapping up at the end is both repetitive and long. Otherwise these are cute, lighthearted mysteries that satisfy when needed.

I should not have finished reading this book. I only did so because my husband said that it got better at the end. Well it took to 80% of the way through the book and, yes, it did get better, but not enough to justify the days that I spent getting to that point.

The problem with this book is that Kvothe, the main character, is downright unlikable. He is arrogant, childish, and deluded. While he is very young during the telling of the story, it is older Kvothe who is doing the telling, making the ego of the character unforgivable.

So if you're wondering what the first 80% of the book was spent on, it was character development. Kvothe's development from arrogant to excessively arrogant. Which, as you can guess, does not make for enjoyable reading. To make matters worse, there were no other three dimensional characters to connect with in the entire book. This happens because Kvothe rarely interacts with other people and when he does, he does it badly.

In the end, I regret the time that I spent on this book and so therefore, do not recommend it.

Barack Obama wrote this book after he finished law school, so there is nothing of his later life in it. Which makes it quite slow at times, in fact, if Obama were not president, you would wonder why you were reading this book at all. However, it was quite interesting to learn the history of the president, the high points being the time he spent in Indonesia and the life of his wandering father. In addition, I was reading this book during the Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore and this book provided some of the feeling behind black America's anger. Ultimately, I would not recommend this book because you can really find all of the information on Wikipedia, which detracts from the suspenseful parts of the book because (spoiler alert) Obama goes to Harvard and doesn't get in enough trouble to prevent him from becoming president.

The problem with this book is a problem with Parks and Recreation, in that you think that Leslie Knope is Amy Poehler, and that is just not true. In real life, Poehler's humor is crasser and ruder than Knope would ever be. So going in with Leslie Knope expectations and getting Amy Poehler humor made this book a disappointment to me. Really the only good part of this book was the chapter on Parks and Rec in which Poehler and Parks producer/writer Michael Schur talk about making the show. Otherwise, "Yes Please" comes nowhere close to the masterpiece of "Bossypants."