This is our tax money at work

I love this book and Annie Jacobsen’s catalog in declassified government programs. I’m not reading this to shoot holes in theories or to credit/discredit the underlying research. What is interesting to me is how long and persistently our government ran these programs. That is our government at work. When I hear that old schools can’t get new books or dilapidated roads cannot be paved, I will think about how our government paid to strap a polygraph (lie detector) to a houseplant and then set the plant on fire to “read its thoughts.”

Jacobsen gives a well rounded portrait of the figures involved, revealing their beliefs and their apprehensions as the work proceeded. She does a great job of giving an honest, document/witness-based account of events, without coloring it with her own beliefs about the validity of the work. She only really gives her own opinions briefly at the end of the book, and I largely agree with her position.

What are we left with? More questions. As most government programs go, it grows and grows until it becomes impossible to tune out the signal from the noise. There are notable outcomes that defy all expectations and leave you wondering how to explain what happened, but it gets lost in the feuds and noise of people who are resistant to change their own thinking about the unexplainable.

10 people found this helpful

Best non fiction book ever

I loved this book, it changed my sense of reality. It is thoroughly documented and assembled in a way that the reader can make sense of a complex history involving hundreds of people over a seventy year span.

I suspect that the author was very skeptical as she started putting the history into order, but eventually became overwhelmed by the evidence. She takes you along for the ride in a brilliant and beautifully written history. She made a believer out of me!

7 people found this helpful

Annie does it again

I really enjoyed this book. Annie Jacobsen seems to always deliver. It’s a long book but very well researched and a very interesting story.

3 people found this helpful

Strong beginning and ending but sags in the middle

This was an interesting book and well researched but the anecdotal stories in the middle tend to drag on and become almost unbearably maudlin in parts. The strength of the book is in the beginning and end parts where the author talks about the post-war programs that were initiated by the government looking into these areas and the cold war aspects of the programs. It is fascinating how much money has been poured into these programs over the past few decades. The book really drags in the middle and there is far too much time spent on Uri Geller. Nothing really new is revealed but it takes up a significant chunk of the book and it appears that the author has become something of a fangirl of Uri. This story has been told over and over and the book would have benefited from a stronger editor.

The narration of this book was painful. The publisher really should have gotten someone other than the author to narrate. Dull monotone voice that required me to speed up the narration just to get through it. I might have enjoyed this more if they had a more dynamic narrator.

5 people found this helpful

Phenomenally mediocre narration of a good book

Any additional comments?

I have listened to 3 annie jacobsen books. I listen to well over a hundred books a yr. and have come to believe that the narration is as important as the information. I have struggled through very poor narrations that has made me want to give up or nod off to sleep, but struggled through to get the story. I have also discovered with few exceptions (Malcom Gladwell being the only one that readily comes to mind) that the author make the worst narrator. I loved all three stories in the Jacobsen books, but was very put off by her breathy pronunciation, badly acted and badly paced narration. I know I could never do better, but I have heard many professional narrators that can. Please get one. I almost stopped listening several times and I'm glad I didn't, but it was a struggle. I'll have to get any other books she does on Kindle and forgo the audible. The story was worth the pain, but please try out some other options. Love the story, the narration not so much.

25 people found this helpful

Superb

An insightful look at a complex topic. Well written and meticulously researched. Jacobsen maintains an objective stance throughout.

Well performed by the author.

4 people found this helpful

Slllllllooooooowwwwwww

I couldn't even finish reading....I'm sorry i mean listening....So uninteresting..i was waiting for it to get better and it just got worse.. This author has many interesting titles. and so far as i have found no interesting books...how is she popular????? If u dont mind being bored to death go ahead ..Ill send it to you free...

1 person found this helpful

Horrible narration

Just bought this book but immediately returned it because the author/narrator pauses several times in each sentence, was already driving me crazy. No way I can listen to this entire book, which is too bad because her book Area 51 was amazing. I’ll have to buy this in paperback.

Think of reading this sentence as one would normally speak it out loud. No problem, however, the narrator/author would read it as...Think or reading, this sentence, as one would normally, speak it, out loud.

It was so infuriating, I was unable, to focus, on what is probably, a great story

1 person found this helpful

some information but lost in the weeds

the content is well researched and thorough, but the writing style leaves something to be desired. the topic and book are with the read if this is an area of interest for you, but if you are only moderately interested you may want to do so the audio version and read it in print. it seems as if this journalistic approach isn't best absorbed in this medium as the audio format doesn't hold up for me when the author/narrator rattlers off details, names, code names, etc.

1 person found this helpful

Remarkable

Riveting, stunning, important, invigorating, mind expanding, great research. I'll return to this work again and again.

1 person found this helpful