The Last Tribe

by Brad Manuel, narrated by Scott Brick

I just finished reading The Last Tribe. I enjoyed the story but I found all the Biblical parallels trite. They were so blatant. The disease that killed the world was called "The Rapture." The pandemic paralleled Noah's flood story and in the end the survivors and their bull, cows, goats, pigs and chickens boarded an airplane and flew off to paradise to start repopulating the earth. At least the story was not preachy.The trite stuff aside, I did enjoy the story. It was not depressing. It was not a question of how many survivors can we kill off with as much gory detail as possible. This is not saying that there was no gore at all but that it was, shall we say, tastefully done. This not saying that there were no bad guys either because there were a few who got what they deserved, as should all bad guys who aren't willing to change their ways. 

 It was good people doing what they had to do when they had to do it and doing it without whining and complaining. I actually enjoyed the details of what they did to survive and to get themselves to the rendezvous point. The book was  thought-provoking. What would you do were you in a similar situation? Would you have the skills to survive? Could you find the inner-strength to carry on?  

Three stars for telling a readable post-apocalyptic story that was a bit more believable than zombies, aliens and rampaging hordes. Four and a half stars to narrator Scott Brick, who was nominated for a Audie award for this book.

Okay! I Get It!: How to Hide and Empire

by Daniel Immerwahr (read by Luis Moreno)

Maybe I am just cranky but I don't think I can read this through to the end. I get the point, I just don't need the supporting evidence and the gory details. I agree that:

• there is more to US history than can fit into a couple of years of high school American History classes
• there is more in our history to be ashamed about than there is to be proud of
• we have to stop sweeping our mistakes under the rug and own up to the idea that we are not the goody-goody, holier than thou nation that we have been brought up to believe we are
• we have a long history of treating non-white peoples and cultures -- Black, Asian, Native American -- as not worthy of citizenship in our country
• we are imperialist, whether we accept the idea or not
• it is time to talk more openly about the mistakes of our past and start understanding how they have shaped the nation that we are today
• we aren't any better than any other imperialistic national on this planet --and in some ways we are even worse
   

I am not saying that this is a bad book; I am just saying that I am not up to the read. Based on what I have read, 3 stars. I give the guy credit for talking in no uncertain terms about the very dark side of history.

DNF after about 4 hours.

Book Haul: Audible 2 for 1 Sale

Usually the Audible 2 for 1 sales run for a couple of weeks. The current sale started in May and will end in a week; the choices changed every few weeks. There were some good choices in the pile, but I already owned them. I bought these instead. Some I chose to get some variety into my reading and to try something a out of my normal range of reading. 

The Clockmaker's Daughter was meh. Murder at Melrose Court was such a hoot that I've read the second already and have the third in my Wish List. The rest are TBR.

 Over the course of the sale, I picked up...

 

 

 

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Okay, I have credits to burn, so bring on the next sale.

 

Not for Me: The Clockmaker's Daughter

I found this one in the Audible 2 for 1 sale pile and decided to give it a try. I don't remember why I chose it. Maybe one of my bookish friends had been talking about it. Maybe it had been mentioned in one of the two weekly news magazine we subscribe to. 

 It really did not take me long to decide that I was not enthralled.  I found it hard to follow with all the jumping from one point of view to another, from one time period and set of characters to another. The whole thing just seemed to drag. I don't mind long descriptive books when taking the time to get there is one of the joys of the book but I just wanted this one to get there already. Maybe I went into the enterprise with doubt and then reaped what I had sown. Whatever the reason, this book was not for me.  Solidly in the middle at 3 stars.

Shopping the Audible 2 for 1 Sale

Audible must have heard my complaints because there are new titles in the the sale bin -- and this time there was something worth buying. I bought four titles! which consider what a picky reader I am is a huge haul. I am making it harder and harder for me to spend my credits these days because with a thousand titles already in my library, I probably don't have to add a single new title and will still have plenty to keep my brain occupied for the rest of my life, so what I buy these days has to be something that I really want to read and re-read.

Three were Great Courses titles, which I really enjoy listening to. I am slowly working my way into areas of history that I haven't explored before--and being a lazy reader, the Great Courses spoon feed it. :

 

 

And the fourth was a novel, the only one whose Audible reviews did not turn me off completely to even trying the author:

 

I'm happy that they added some Great Courses this time because otherwise my credits would have stayed in my pocket for another day.