Zen

JFK as a young man of substance

Revisado: 11-24-20

Outstanding bio. Portrays JFK as a serious and insightful thinker whose political views diverged from his father's in his early years.

One interesting fact about Joe Sr is that he was deeply involved in his kids' lives but he always encouraged them to think for themselves and did not seem to be bothered when Jack differed with him. He was grooming Joe Jr for a life in politics but the author points out that Jr was not nearly as bright or personable as Jack.

The book is fast-paced with lots of interesting and entertaining stories about JFK, his friends, loves, and family. The book almost seems hagiographic but the author's assertions are very well supported.

Can't wait for volume 2.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A compelling and timely story of redemption

Revisado: 10-14-19

Megan was a well-educated, bright, confident young woman who lived in the mainstream of American life. She was normal in almost every way except that she was raised within Westboro Baptist Church, a small family cult who, based on scripture, preached and practiced an exceptionally vile form of hate.

One passage that WBC believed compelled them to carry their "God Hates Fags" signs at fallen soldiers' funerals was “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.” This extreme rebuke was their bizarre way of showing love to sinners who would burn in hell if they didn't repent.

On Twitter, Megan stridently preached the WBC line, but along the way she had exchanges with some kind and patient people who raised doubts in her about the Bible's lack of coherence and her cramped interpretation of it. She was disarmed by a Jewish man's telling her that they viewed the "rebuke thy neighbor" passage to mean that you should gently rebuke your neighbor when they're ready to listen and in a way that they might actually hear you. Indeed, this man gently rebuked her and it changed her for the better.

Megan also met her future husband through Twitter and her telling how they slowly came together makes for a very sweet but not at all gooey subplot.

She tells many other stories about how she and her younger sister slowly came around and decided to leave the church. Amazingly, despite essentially being abused by her parents, who used her as a pawn starting at age 5 to preach hate, turned her into an object of hate, and rejected her after she left, Megan still deeply loves them. More amazing, she brought out her parents' humanity in some measure. She even dedicated this book to them.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fascinating book but too many mispronunciations

Revisado: 09-28-19

Dear Audible: Please use your influence with audiobooks producers to ensure that narrators get basic pronunciations right. I enjoyed Larry Herron's warm and clear voice, but he mispronounced way too many words. For example, "peremptory" was repeatedly pronounced "pre-emptory," "mores" was pronounced phonetically, and a number of fairly common names were mispronounced. While this might not be a big deal to some, it's fingernails across a chalkboard to me and suggests a lack of care. It also sometimes sends me running to the dictionary to make sure I haven't been mispronouncing those words all these years. IMO, mispronounced words/names in an audiobook are about as bad as misspellings in print books. Come on, man!

That said, I appreciate Audible's providing a PDF of footnotes and I hope it will be better about including notes and visual materials that have not been included with many other audiobooks.

As to the content of the book, I've always been interested in what fuels Thomas' unconventional and sometimes ugly jurisprudence. Mainly using Thomas' speeches, articles, and opinions, Robin sets out some provocative but well-supported theories. In Robin's view, Thomas is intent on destroying liberal remedies to racial injustice because they only exacerbate the problem. As one remedy, Thomas generalizes his grandfather's response to racism by being a good capitalist and patriarch as the prescription for how all other black people (or black males) should conduct themselves, apparently without much regard for their own widely varying circumstances. As Robin puts it, "At the heart of Justice Thomas’s jurisprudence, then, is a belief that the market is effective and politics is pointless." That's actually a relatively tame notion of Robin's and there's much more; please read reviews such as those in the NYT and NR for far better analyses.

Thomas' life story is in some ways compelling and his views are important in the debate on race, but AFAIC, it's a shame that someone with such a bleak and severe outlook on race, law, and society is sitting on our Supreme Court. Though I'm not entirely sold on Robin's views, this book is engaging, informative and very readable (or listenable) given the sometimes complex subject matter.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Epic bio; make sure to read Moses' response

Revisado: 05-13-19

I listened to all 150 hours or so of Caro's LBJ bios and, still waiting for his last installment, I turned to Moses. It was a fascinating story but some of the minutiae about NY parks and roads were a little more detailed than I would have liked. Amazing that Caro had to cut a great deal from his first submission to the publisher to get to this point. Still, I'm sure others would have wanted more detail, and in any case, it's a great book for the reasons already stated over and over in these reviews

Also, I highly recommend reading Moses' response to the bio and Caro's short reply. (Google it.) Moses' defense makes some points but he more so tends to confirm Caro's assertions about him in an unintentionally humorous way, albeit a little sad given Moses' advanced years and how far he had fallen.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Start Part Two at Chapter 5 with 39:53 remaining

Revisado: 04-02-19

Caro's work is phenomenal throughout and his description of LBJ's manipulation of the Senate is fascinating, but the audio version is tainted by sloppy editing. And Audible's charging three credits for its poor work is just shoddy.

If you're trying to find where to start after listening to the first audio "volume," in my version Chapter 5 with 39:53 remaining takes up where "volume" one ends. Good luck.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 14 personas

Great book // Ask Audible for two credits

Revisado: 01-26-19

For those rightly upset that this book costs three credits, I emailed Audible pointing this out and they gave me two credits so I could get the full book by using only one credit. Note that the first CSR didn't understand the problem so I emailed them a link to the Kindle version showing that this is only a single book.

For all the reasons stated in the reviews, I've enjoyed the entire series so much and hope the last installment comes soon.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Good overview of US history w/ insights on race

Revisado: 10-18-18

Regarding the narration, at first I really liked it. She is enthusiastic about her subject and she reminded me of some of my better college profs. But she does have a flinty voice and when she quoted others, she was too forceful and sudden and it was at times even startling. It started grating on me about halfway through, especially when I was wearing headphones. That said, I do not like many of the professional book narrators and prefer someone with a natural voice.

As to the book, it is a sweeping history, so as a one-volume work, it couldn't cover much in detail. As such, there may not be a lot new to people who already pretty knowledgeable in US history. Her overarching themes about slavery and race through our history were certainly worthwhile, though.

My biggest complaint is that the print version contains many good photos and illustrations, which are not available for download to the audio buyers. IMO, there's no excuse for this omission.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Looking forward to final volume

Revisado: 08-06-18

I've enjoyed Caro's LBJ series. Though lengthy, it's not overly detailed and rarely drags. I'm really looking forward to the final volume of this series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña