John Daily

Fantastic Collection

Revisado: 03-12-25

I got this because it had both Ethan Frome and Tess, and I am not disappointed. Of course you'll want to get it for a credit but, now that they've sorted out the launch difficulties, this is a fantastic collection with a couple hundred hours of listening pleasure. You could get each title individually elsewhere, but why bother? This is a winner, and is professionally recorded with good narrators.

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Unfortunate description sets up unmet expectations.

Revisado: 11-08-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

EDIT: I had originally given this three stars, and have since upgraded it. The original review follows with my reasoning for the upgraded review in the final paragraph.

It's a shame, really. Clearly this is a passion project, and I don't really want to dump on it. However, it's marketed as a murder mystery, and that's not what it is. With that expectation, the mystery itself is only briefly mentioned a few times throughout the book, and the resolution is unsatisfying.

What this is, is a nostalgic, coming of age story during the 1980s. There is a certain charm about it, but I'm not sure who it's for. Yes, we all spoke with the filthiest, most creative curse words we could come up with but, as an adult who lived during that time, I don't need or want every single one of those to be spelled out anymore. And yet, kids wouldn't find this interesting, because they wouldn't get the cultural references of the time.

I would recommend that, if you are a fan of Stranger Things, thiis might be interesting to you. just understand that it's about the journey, and not the actual barely-there story. Take it as a week or so in the lives of some boys coming into puberty during the 1980s, and enjoy it for what it is.

Had I had the proper expectations going into it, this would be four stars. I do appreciate the effort the author put into it and, slight audio quality issues aside, it's very well written. UPDATE: After reflecting on this for a couple of days, I've adjusted my rating. False expectations aside, Fieldgrove did accurately capture the time and language that I remember from my childhood.

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Just be aware...

Revisado: 12-05-23

This rates a 3.5 from me. Like the previous entry in the series, I felt this one dragged a bit, only here it was in the second half. Earls is an exceptional writer, however, so the story remains engaging simply due to the strength of his skills. Listeners should be aware that this one has some production problems. There are awkward silences throughout; one 10 second-long dead air space had me checking to see if my phone had died. The narrator also consistently mispronounces one of the main character's names, Knut, despite the authors inclusion of the correct pronunciation, "noot," which the narrator then proceeds to ignore for the entirety of the novella. Get used to hearing "nut" a lot. Frustrating.

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"Mary Sue" character, YA level, unrealistic world.

Revisado: 11-24-23

My title sums it up. Based on the cover, I expected something literary, but that's on me. The writing is YA level (7th/8th grade with adult language). The story is somewhat interesting (if predictable), but the world in which it unfolds is so poorly researched (if it is at all) that it's impossible to suspend disbelief. As a longtime travel nurse specializing in geriatrics, everything about those sections of the book rings false. No nursing home would touch this guy because of liability / insurance issues and that's just for starters. There are the rampant HIPAA violations, the medication administration routes that don't exist in a geriatric setting...it's just not good. Moving to the other areas of the book, people continuously share private information about themselves and others with strangers they've just met simply because it serves the story. The main character is a hidden Mary Sue, meaning he is self-loathing but everything always works out perfectly for him, despite his constant whinging about being incompetent. He is also a one-man army in the Jason Bourne vein, despite being a hapless college student. It's melodramatic and filled with character tropes and cliches, and that's honestly okay. Sometimes you don't want a handmade angus burger at a sit-down restaurant; sometimes you just want one of those microwavable gas station burgers. This is that.

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Pointless, but writing and performance are solid.

Revisado: 09-15-23

With the exception of non-fiction and classics, I very rarely select books based on more than the title and cover. I enjoy going in completely blind, knowing nothing about the material, and just letting it develop. Needless to say, this one was quite a shock! Maude seemed like a cute character at first and, as a geriatric nurse, I was curious how true to life the author would be. then she murdered somebody for no good reason, and the story was over, and we started the same thing over again with a new person in a new story. It's pointless, and confusing, and there's very little humor here. Am I supposed to somehow side with the protagonist because she can't watch TV while her neighbor is being abused? The abuse isn't what's bothering her, it's the noise level. Maybe it's just a cultural difference that doesn't translate, but it didn't work for me.

The second to last story would have been an enjoyable one-off tale, but it completely removed any tension that might have been felt by the last story, which was the same story with a different POV.

All that said, I enjoyed the performance of the reader, and the writing was fine.

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15 years and this still hasn't been fixed.

Revisado: 09-02-23

Come on, Audible. This is beyond embarrassing and ridiculous by this point. The story is derivative and generic and, frankly, there are much better LL books available. But certainly he and the narrator deserve much better treatment than this. At one point it sounds like a line has been punched in from a telephone. 15 years this book has been available on Audible, and yet the editing still hasn't been done, and it's not even that long of a book.

To listen to a book filled with coughs, line repeats, and ancillary comments to the narrator's self is distracting, to say the least. Right now it's available for free to subscribers, but the fact that this is being charged for at all after 15 years worth of complaints is pretty shocking to me. You can do better, Audible. Please fix this. The story might even be more exciting than I originally thought, and I would happily listen to a newly edited version.

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Useful and insightfu even for a Christian like me.

Revisado: 09-02-23

I'm not into Eastern mysticism, and so chapters such as the one on the Bardo don't really work for me. That said, the chapters "Anger and Patience" and "Ego and Compassion" are exceptional, and definitely left me thinking. Also useful is the chapter on meditation. Like many other Tibetan Buddhism books, Rimpoche is respectful of other philosophies and religions, and does mention Jesus a few times in a positive light. This is a book I can see myself revisiting again in the future.

Brian Nishii is one of my favorite audiobook narrators. Here he is, as always, excellent.

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Good Supplemental Material

Revisado: 09-01-23

If you're already familiar with the life of Fuller, this will provide a bit more insight into his theological background and how his contributions fit into the work of the body of Christ as a whole. Otherwise this brief essay, like the other "biographies" written by Piper, whilst carrying a lofty title, promises much yet delivers little.

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Right material; wrong performer.

Revisado: 03-04-23

Look, I get it. I'm a Presby Elder who provides Pulpit Supply, and the tendency with religious texts (until you're used to reading them) is to MAKE. EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. SOUND. IMPORTANT. Unfortunately, it's annoying to listen to. Worse, it pulls you away from the material, which is excellent, and focuses you on the performance instead. It's unnecessary as well, because Piper's writing is conversational in tone, yet the narrator wants to enunciate everything. He also sounds a bit like Casey Kasem, which doesn't help any when discussing God's glory and grace. I believe this is the first time I've ever docked an audio book for a narrator but, in this case, it truly does matter because you'll be dealing with it for nearly 26 hours.

That said, the only reason I haven't returned the audio book is because the material, as I've said, is excellent (in fact, I've since purchased the hardcover to mark up). The only Piper I'd read previously (a short bio on Calvin) was shallow and superficial, so I went into this not expecting much. I was wrong. It's exhuastively researched, well sourced, points directly at God, and features copious Scriptural references throughout. Piper doesn't just pluck out verses that support his thesis however; he uses the whole of scripture and builds his thesis around the entire Word. This is such a refreshing change, and it really shows the glory of God to the fullest. If this is ever re-recorded, I'll be picking that version up, too. It's that good.

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Shallow and superficial.

Revisado: 02-25-23

It's not awful; there's just not much here to recommend. It's a cursory glance at a fascinating life, but what's here is so superficial that it just raises more questions about Calvin than it answers. Consider this intriguing passage, as an example: "Easter day of 1538 after preaching, he left the pulpit of St. Peters, banished by the city council. He returned in September of 1541, over three years later, and picked up the exposition in the next verse." I have questions, don't you? Banished, you say! On EASTER DAY? Why banishment? Why that particular day? And he came back again three years later? How? Was he invited back (why would they)? Did he ask to come back (why would he)? Piper doesn't care about any of these questions but I do. This kind of ambiguous teasing is dispersed throughout the book. I suppose one could argue that it doesn't fit the thesis (Calvin's passion for the majesty of God) but, truthfully, I didn't get much of a sense of that, either.

Some of it, particularly the section dealing with Calvin's sermons, feels like a Wikipedia entry: dull, lifeless lists of facts devoid of personality or insight roll past as if trying to fill the page. There is a bit of social commentary in the conclusion reminding us not to judge our forebearers for some of the things they did (as they most certainly would have looked down their noses at our behavior), which might have been developed into something meatier and more interesting, but Piper keeps it, like the rest of the book, shallow. This comes off as an extremely light biography, and there is little information presented on Calvin's spiritual practices (other than that he preached scripture a lot and in succession, but so did a lot of others. I wanted to know why he stands out for having done so.). I am unfamiliar with Piper's written work, so I had a neutral approach to the material and relatively low expectations. I did, however, expect more than this.

The narration was servicable without drawing attention to itself, which is perfectly fine for a title like this.

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