Marie C.

Flat Narration, Great Story

Revisado: 08-22-21

It has to be difficult to narrate the nuances of a book on top of voicing the characters. This great collection of stories loses much in the uneven, flat narration. This is my first book with this narrator and she does the book no justice. These are LOVELY stories, full of joy, romance, fun. But I couldn't finish them. For example, Carla Kelly's story has a full complement of wonderful characters, young to old, adult to child. It is set in 19th c Plymouth England in a Naval family. I had to speed up the narration to keep it from sounding like she was reading thru water. There was some attempt at British accents, but they weren't consistent, more pronounced at points, barely present at others. The children's voicing bordered on shrill and was distracting.

Perhaps the narration would be better in a different book. Maybe not. But it fell flat in this book.

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Get the Print Edition!

Revisado: 04-07-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Valley Forge is an iconic story and location, and it merits a better overall treatment. If you buy this, get the print edition, but do not make it your main source for the history of Valley Forge.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The Narrator.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator did not take the time to learn how to pronounce a number or personal and place names central to the Valley Forge story. He utterly mangles 'Schuykill', and 'VonSteuben', for example. Since the encampment at Valley Forge was hard by the Schuykill, and VonSteuben central to molding the Continentals into a unified force, they're two massive blunders. There's no way to explain the mangling phonetically, but it is so bad, so distracting that I couldn't finish the book. Going to look over a print edition and see if it's worth buying. This one is an offense to historical ears.

Was Valley Forge worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

Remind narrators that any words outside of their cultural or geographical comfort zone should be double checked. The utter mispronunciation of important terms, personal and place names is an embarrassing mistake, and pure laziness on the part of the narrator and producer.

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Amazing story of an amazing event

Revisado: 04-21-16

Where does Washington's Crossing rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

David Hackett Fischer's 'Washington's Crossing' may be the best narrative treatment of this pivotal event in American history.

What did you like best about this story?

Fischer gives us hard history, researched, footnoted, annotated in a compelling narrative. If you've seen the print version it's very size is daunting. The audible book and it's skillful narration weaves Fischer's varied stands into one compelling story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I could have finished this in one sitting, I would have. And I might've tried, if Audible's Windows based programs had the ability to speed up the narration!

Any additional comments?

Even if you've read other books on The Crossing or about Washington, read one more: read this one.

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Riveting, Compelling, Heartbreaking, Amazing

Revisado: 02-21-14

Would you listen to Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker again? Why?
Yes - Elizabeth Keckly's story is riveting, amazing - and true. Until reading Chiavarini, did not know that 'Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker' is rooted the story of an amazing women in one of the United States' darkest times.

What other book might you compare Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker to and why?
Twelve Years a Slave.

What does Christina Moore bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Christina Moore articulates each character effectively, narrating Chiavarini's Elizabeth Keckly with dignity and drama. Her firm tone and wonderful pace made made the story one I could not put down, and I walked and drove worked with this story in my ear, unwilling to let it go until story's end.

If you could rename Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, what would you call it?
Needle in the Whitehouse

Any additional comments?
'Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker' inspired me to my next read, Elizabeth Keckley's own memoir.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Not worth a credit or the time.

Revisado: 02-01-13

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Ms Hubbard claims to have written this to combine a love of history and Christmas. It would have been better to have combined it with a little more research as well. In addition to being predictable and mellowdramatic, Ms Hubbard's story makes several historical errors regarding how women campfollowers lived and worked with the Continental Army. She also infers that there were a number of women whose primary source of support was prostitution. While prostitution was present, it was not something that officers tolerated, or turned a blind eye towards. Even a short story deserves accuracy

In addition the narrator falls into an annoying faux bass voice when she reads male voices. It was distracting and a little creepy.

Can't recommend this at all. Tried to give it half a star, but had to give it one.

Has A Christmas Crossing: Women in the Revolutionary War turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Would you be willing to try another one of Bobbin Beam’s performances?

No

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

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