The Last Judgement

Life's Too Short

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Publisher's Summary

In an exchange of favors with an art dealer colleague, Jonathan Argyll unluckily offers to transport a painting from Paris back to Rome. It seems routine work, and Jonathan gets to meet his girlfriend, Flavia, who works for Rome's Art Theft Squad.But when a would-be thief tries to take the painting at the train station, and the art dealer seems less interested in his purchase once he sees it, Jonathan wonders why, as events unfold, someone is willing to kill for it. With customary wit and panache, Jonathan and Flavia embark on a breathless chase to capture a killer who has been refining his own particular art for many years.

©1993 Iain Pears (P)1997 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

 

 

It is so much easier to write about the books you hate!

 

A few weeks ago I read The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears. It was enjoyable but nothing to write home about. The other day, I picked up another book in the series, The Last Judgement. It was DNF within 15 minutes -- just as soon as a supposedly intelligent man falls for one of the oldest cons in the book and lets a stranger watch his bags, which include a purchase (i.e., not his property) that he is delivering to buyer on behalf of a gallery owner while he goes off to buy cigarettes. The stupidity of the whole set-up so utterly pissed me off that I quit reading before the chase was even underway. I don't care how amazing the rest of the story is supposed to be.I lost interest in pursuing it. DNF!

 

I soothed away the hurt with a nice Ngaio Marsh.

Life's Too Short: The Horse You Came in On

DNF👎

 

 

Richard Jury, Book 12

By: Martha Grimes

Narrated by: Steve West

Series: A Richard Jury Novel, Book 12

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-25-14

Language: English

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Yes, I started in the middle of the series, but that is what was available from the library.

 

I absolutely cannot get into the story. The narrator is putting me to sleep. 

 

I'm done.  Life's Too Short. Moving on.

The Philosophy Book

by D-K Publishing (read by Jason Culp)

One of the Big Ideas Simply Explained series

Life's too short. This one was DNF. My fault, I fear. I knew I should not have purchased it. Reading philosophy has been a perennial failure and I should have know better than to think that this attempt would be any different.

Nonetheless, it is not a bad book. It doesn't do a bad or even uninteresting job of explaining Philosophy. It just does lend itself to an audio edition. D-K is known for its highly visual style -- lots of pictures and few words. This series is not meant to be read in order; it is meant to seen, browsed and absorbed in bits and pieces. The visuals are as important to the content as the words.

Buy the book, buy the whole series -- just don't buy the audio edition!

 

Foundryside

 

by Robert Jackson Bennett (read by Tara Sands)

 

Life's too short. This book is DNF barely a third of the way in. I am tired of waiting for it to get better. I am tired of wading through the violence while I wait for it to get better.

Howards End

 

 

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 E.M. Forster (1910)  Narrated by Nadia May -- DNF 2/3rd of the way thru.

 

A classic and beautifully written but sometimes you just have to be in the right mood for such sagas. I just am not invested in the characters and have little patience right now for their story. We will mark this one as DNF, proclaim that "Life's Too Short" and move on quickly and quietly to another 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.