Can i finish one damn story

You can guess where this is going. Humor with impunity is rarely funny. Rape stories. Lorraine Ali is television critic of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she was a senior writer for the Calendar section where she covered culture at large, entertainment and American Muslim issues. Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd are comedy masters. Adult Swim Fest thrives by blurring the line between virtual and reality.

Eccentric, hilarious, but quite down-to-earth-realistic-humour. And the building itself. I lost myself in the description when Max first arrived. The library but also the hall must be so fascinating. I would feel right at home there too! You get sucked into the routine of scientific historian-timey-wimey-work and time flies by for Max as much as for the reader. But just then, when you think you know where the story is headed I was completely blind-sided.

I was unprepared. Boy, was I flabberghasted! That, by the way, is when we find out how St. Mary's was founded. But not just that. There is so much more. So you suck it up, take a deep breath, curse the train for arriving at your destination now of all the possible moments and read on as soon as you're able. And then you're in deep waters. Because now the author knows she's got you right where she wanted your innocent, unsuspecting, history-loving butt!

And now the proverbial shit really hits the fan. At first I had thought bursting out with hysterical laughter on the train had been embarrassing, but now I'm much wiser, knowing that uncontrolled sobs are even worse. I really felt for the characters. The only consolation: looking at how far along in the book I was, seeing how much further the story would go and that there had to be a resolution - even if I had to travel to the author's house and force her to write another ending.

Obviously, I cannot go into any details because that would spoil the fun, but I can tell you this: a rollercoaster's got nothing on Jodi Taylor. One more example of the fine, down-to-earth and much needed humour in this book: He'd been involved in the disastrous Icarus experiment last year, tumbling off the stable roof with his wings all ablaze.

He'd thudded heavily into the paddock, panicking the horses who took exception to small, burining humans dropping on them from a great height. Running for his life and looking anxiously over his shoulder, he'd run slap bang into a horse's bottom and knocked himself senseless.

The entire unit lay face down on the ground laughing. Even the Boss barked out something between a snort and a cough. The security section clubbed together and sent a Get Well Soon card to the horse, who promptly ate it. That's St. Mary's for you. And Max really is brilliant, not just intelligent, but a magnet for disaster AND clumsy. And sometimes a little thick maybe? This scene is when she and two other female staff members decide to go out to a fancy restaurant.

The table was laid for six. I know, but the margaritas were beginning to kick in. What a surprise," said Helen. Goodness me, you are right," said Kalinda. As I said: endearing. Not all the characters there are quite a lot are equally memorable but that didn't concern me. With such a cast it was bound to happen. Also because some are MCs, some have supporting roles and some are "just" in the same picture. As a history buff this sounded intriguing to me, but what I got was really more than I could have ever imagined - dinosaurs!

I will definitely be reading the rest of the series hoping the author manages to keep the quality up.

View all 24 comments. I am angry with this book. I so wanted to like it. It is not one of those one stars where you just can't get hooked by the story, and leave it after 30 pages. It started out so well. But there are gaps in the storyline, the caracters are sketchy at the best, sometimes doing things that are not in line with their previous caracteristics. The plot is oveer 5 years but there is no developement. And you don't get a real explanation as to why somebody did something.

I mean, there is some explanation, I am angry with this book. I mean, there is some explanation, it just doesn't ring true. But I would have put up with these if the story didn't turn to pure nonsense towards the end. This just does not happen. But here. I could take no more. View all 9 comments. Mar 12, David Putnam rated it really liked it. Great little story. Loved it. It really sparks the imagination as should any good time travel novel. Although this one has more relationship development and less time travel.

Some romance, and some worthy sex scenes, tasteful and properly motivated. The protagonist is a strong female character that is very believable. As soon as I read the first hundred pages I purchased the next three in the series. By the time I finished the first one I was glad I did. This book is four stars instead of five e Great little story. This book is four stars instead of five even though I read it in one sitting. There were a lot of British colloquialisms that tossed me about some along with the language and syntax where I had to go back and reread and still found it difficult to understand even in context.

For any time travel aficionados, I highly recommend this one. David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson series. View 2 comments. What a fun little time travel book! After the most hilariously bizarre interview process, Max join up with them and the adventures—and the disasters—immediately begin. The plot is very entertaining and filled with boisterous, comedic hijinks and perfect if you like British humor.

When it comes to the evaluations at St. Like many time travel books though, this one had its ups and downs. My main criticism is that, for a novel featuring time traveling academics who label themselves historians and who also work at an institute for historical research , there was in fact disappointingly little history involved.

I thought this would be a book like that, but it turned out not to be the case. Max is hilarious, and I love her spirited and crafty nature. Same goes for the sex, and the random emotional displays that seem to drop in and explode out of nowhere.

Whatever it was, I found it somewhat distracting. Doing it is as simple and straightforward as getting into a pod, setting the dial, and hitting the jump button. To be fair, the science and tech of it is not the point of this series, so Taylor probably did the right thing in glossing over the process.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a book about time travel. Although the historians of St. Taylor has so much story to tell, so much history to cram into one book, that the plot often moves around without much cohesion, and a lot of chaos. I will say that this chaotic nature gets better with each book, and the world becomes more established.

Time travel is a complicated subject to get your head round, and Jodi just about manages to hold onto the topic in the first book without it getting too complicated and out of hand.

She can drop her characters anywhere in time, and make me want to learn more about it. The writing is good, well described and fast paced perhaps too much at times! Madeline Maxwell, Max, the main protagonist is self deprecating, smart, unable to keep her mouth shut, and a lover of chocolate. The same goes for her colleagues Kalinda and Helen.

In fact, the undeniable bond that forms between them all is rather lovely, and when Jodi rips this away with her unbiased deaths, it makes them all the more hard hitting and difficult to cope with. A great start to what has become one of my all time favourite series. Come for the history, told with a passionate hand, and stay for the flurry of wonderfully imperfect characters. View all 4 comments. Well where to begin? The book really grabbed my interest at first, and I thought the premise of the story was good.

However, some of the actions of the principal characters did not appear to be inkeeping with their previous behaviour - making them unbelievable. Also from the description of the book I expected there to be a lot of detailed, historical content and there just wasn't - not enough to satisfy any history buffs anyway and that disappointed me.

Also annoying were the quips made by Max, Well where to begin? Also annoying were the quips made by Max, the main protagonist and some of the other characters which peppered the pages quite frequently but were not funny just very predictable. I still think, however that the plot itself was a good one, but the execution of it could of been so much better. I find it hard to think of a group of people that this book would appeal to and it seems the author does too - her writing consists of a little bit of a lot of genres, in fact even the cover and title give no clues and seem inappropriate themselves now that Iv finished the book.

Absolutely brilliant! This book was far more than I expected. I expected a fun romp. It was. It was fast- paced and funny and action packed. But it also had a clever plot, great characters and provided an original and unique look at time travel. Strongly recommended. Jun 14, Susan rated it really liked it. The title of this book feels very apt as this really is a roller coaster of a ride — not only through history, but through a whole host of different plot twists and turns.

Our heroine is Madeleine Maxwell Max , who is saved from an unhappy childhood through encouragement to get out of her bad situation through education. This is observation and documentation only — history will not permit anything, or anyone, to change events and will not hesitate to eliminate any historians who try to do so. The plot is very involved, but concerns Max being trained in time travel, with various different outcomes.

There are madcap adventures in various times and locations, a love story, obviously some baddies and an awful lot of adventures and missions. Although this is obviously a flight of fantasy — time travel, non-stop excitement and danger — there is also enough realism to make you care about the characters. Max faces real issues, for example, with colleagues; including the kind of unpleasant sexist behaviour that makes you squirm as a reader.

Still, in some ways, this is essential. Too much derring do and you might forget you are reading about characters who can get hurt, or killed, or wounded. I enjoyed this, but it was more than a little busy and I felt the author could have slowed the pace down and invested me more in the plot and characters.

Still, the idea of historians careering around the past is an intriguing one and I may well read the next in the series; once I have calmed down a little after this non-stop thrill ride… Jan 15, Mir rated it really liked it Shelves: science-fiction.

A fun and funny frolic. Very amusing prose and fast-paced action. There is no attempt to explain the mechanics of time travel and very little effort to make sense of what it is being used for and why. You have to be in the right mood to accept that; easier done in the first half, which is quite light, but gets harder in the second half, when unexpectedly darker events take place.

A couple incidents and and inconsistencies had me on the verge of lowering the rating I'd give it 3. I'll probably read the second book at some point when I need another light read of this sort, but I don't feel in any rush to get back to the characters. View all 7 comments. Jan 28, Robin Bridge Four rated it liked it Shelves: reads , buddy-read , awesome-audio , chick-i-want-to-hang-out-with , bb-b , sci-fi.

So Max is this disaster of a historian the historian part is fine it is just the woman that is a walking talking disaster but in a fun way that finds out she could actually join an organization that travels through time observing various historical events. Max is funny and I love the humor in the book.

Since you are jumping all over time there is never quite a feeling of linearity to the story. But if you are a history buff then jumping around to various events in history is probably a lot of fun. This was a super solid Due to that and the thrown in Muse of History at the end we end up at a 3 star rating.

Still it was a lot of fun for the most part and Max can be a hoot in her narrative. I do love how she is able to make fun of herself it makes her all the more likeable. The downplayed romance was just enough for me and added a lot to my enjoyment of the story.

Keller that ascribed an instance of the saying to Toynbee. Keller correctly recognized that Toynbee was using the phrase critically: 9.

In December Charles R. Unfortunately, the context did not indicate that Toynbee was being critical: Let me begin with a statement of the things that I thought needed changing. What was wrong with the social studies? The fact-by-fact approach prevailed. He suggested that spiritual rather than material forces controlled the course of history and that individuals played a creative or destructive role in the unfolding of events.

The abridgement of Arnold J. But it is important to note that Toynbee was describing a viewpoint concerning history with which he disagreed. Portrait of Arnold J. Toynbee circa Great thanks to Massimo Fuggetta whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.

Special thanks to John McChesney-Young for obtaining scans of the important citation. Those pages add up fast. The library is an amazing institution that understands one universal principle: free shit rules. Also, almost every library now supports some kind of ebook borrowing program. I'm usually reading several very different kinds of books concurrently: a novel, something nonfiction, and maybe a comic book.

Watching live TV? Just sneak in a little reading.