Christine K.
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This Great Hemisphere
- A Novel
- De: Mateo Askaripour
- Narrado por: Emana Rachelle
- Duración: 15 h y 18 m
- Versión completa
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Historia
Welcome to the Northwestern Hemisphere, 2529. An equally exciting and terrifying world born from the ashes of our own, where almost half of people are born invisible, and thus relegated to second-class citizenship. Sweetmint, a young invisible woman, has done everything right her entire life, from excelling in school to landing a highly sought-after apprenticeship with a mysterious, powerful inventor.
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Thin Metaphor and Poor Use of Central Conceit (Invisibility)
- De Christine K. en 08-27-24
- This Great Hemisphere
- A Novel
- De: Mateo Askaripour
- Narrado por: Emana Rachelle
Thin Metaphor and Poor Use of Central Conceit (Invisibility)
Revisado: 08-27-24
I had to force myself to finish this one. The world-building was shallow, and the central conceit — that half of the world’s population was now invisible — was barely functional as a plot device. The author kept finding new ways to nullify the invisibility (lens implants that can see heat, mandatory painting of the skin, etc.), while at the same time writing as though his characters could see each other with no problem. There was lots of eye contact, and looking each other up and down, and waving hello, and noticing expressions or posture, that should have been impossible. Equally aggravating and unexplained, this post-climate-disaster world has no animals, insects, or seasons, and the main character has never seen a flower. And yet - they live in a forest and their diet consists mainly of gardened herbs, root vegetables, and squash varieties. How do these grow without their pollinators and flowers? Finally, the metaphor for the oppression of minorities in the West was painfully obvious. There was little nuance to either the oppressors or the oppressed; the social construct felt one-dimensional, as though the author (who is a person of color) had once read about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement in a history book instead of living his own experience. Skip it.
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Seams Deadly
- Measure Twice Sewing Mystery, Book 1
- De: Maggie Bailey
- Narrado por: Allyson Johnson
- Duración: 7 h y 12 m
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Historia
Lydia Barnes is excited for a fresh start when she moves to the quaint mountain town of Peridot, Georgia. Her friend, Fran, offers her a job at the Measure Twice fabric store and even sets her up on a date with the handsome Brandon Ivey, who also happens to be Lydia’s new next-door neighbor. Finally, things are looking up. But after a disaster first date that ends with a fist bump instead of a kiss, Lydia doesn’t think her night can get any worse. She’s soon proven wrong when she later stumbles upon Brandon’s dead body.
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Expressive vocabulary
- De Tom en 02-13-24
- Seams Deadly
- Measure Twice Sewing Mystery, Book 1
- De: Maggie Bailey
- Narrado por: Allyson Johnson
Cliche with overblown narration
Revisado: 09-14-23
As a sewist, I wanted to love this book. The pattern references feel clunky and ill-researched — the author suggests pattern modifications that make no sense (cuffs on a shirt with no sleeves?), or has the main character wear size-limited patterns with “no mods!” that wouldn’t fit her 5’5, 200-lb frame in the largest size available. As someone in the military, I found her military details poorly researched. And as someone from a small town, it’s clear the author hasn’t spent much time in one. For the town square to have the number of shops she shoehorned in there, it would have to take up three blocks. And all the tight-knit townspeople apparently have collective amnesia that one character used to be married to their high school sweetheart, a spouse no one knew existed. Finally, one character’s wild swings in demeanor are brushed away with little explanation beyond “stress”.
The narrator makes every character sound like Francis Underwood in House of Cards, a caricature of aristocratic Southern speech.
Overall, unless cozy mysteries are just really your jam, I’d say skip it.
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The Wizard's Butler
- The Wizard's Butler, Book 1
- De: Nathan Lowell
- Narrado por: Tom Taylorson
- Duración: 12 h y 10 m
- Versión completa
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For five grand a month and a million-dollar chaser, Roger Mulligan didn't care how crazy the old geezer was. All he had to do was keep Joseph Perry Shackleford alive and keep him from squandering the estate for a year. But they didn't tell him about the pixies.
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I LOVED this book!
- De Kristin Butner en 04-24-21
- The Wizard's Butler
- The Wizard's Butler, Book 1
- De: Nathan Lowell
- Narrado por: Tom Taylorson
Utterly mundane “Rich Uncle” inheritance drama
Revisado: 07-19-23
Complete disappointment. Magic has literally nothing to do with the plot - yes, several characters are “wizards”, but they do nothing more with their magic than open doors, read minds, and light joints. You could remove magic completely and the plot would remain identical - money-grubbing niece comes for her elderly and possibly senile uncle’s estate.
Sexist and racist microaggressions run throughout the book. The story opens with the main character ogling the chest of the woman trying to hire him. Every female character’s body is commented on. The magical pendant at the center of the drama turns out to be a “cursed Native American artifact” from the “trickster god” Kokopelli, who “no one living” knows anything about anymore. Racist bollocks.
And annoyingly, there are seeming plot points that just go….nowhere. A warehouse fire is a non-event. A maybe-spy neighbor who makes daily appearances suddenly fades out of the plot. A hugely built-up search for an alternate heir leads to no decisions. Even the climax (how will they deal with the pendant?) reaches a laughably simple conclusion.
Save your money.
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The Shadow of the Wind
- De: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- Narrado por: Jonathan Davis
- Duración: 18 h y 5 m
- Versión completa
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Barcelona, 1945: Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his 11th birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.
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Have the book handy
- De Rebecca en 07-17-05
- The Shadow of the Wind
- De: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- Narrado por: Jonathan Davis
Sexist, Racist; Poor Narration
Revisado: 03-09-20
The recording: The reader uses a thick Castilian pronunciation for all Spanish words and names throughout. He also, egregiously, uses that same pronunciation for all Catalan words. In a book that is partly meant to be a love song to Barcelona, this complete failure to acknowledge the Catalan history and spirit of the city severely undermines the narration. If you are from Barcelona or have spent any time there, this will cheapen the audiobook significantly for you. The tuneless piano soundtrack that accompanies poignant moments (composed by the author) doesn’t help.
The story: there is a disturbing sexism embedded in this story. Nearly every female character is grossly sexualized, regardless of age (child or elderly), and these characters internalize blame for their abusers’ actions in a consistent manor that suggests the author truly views women as objects and is not just using the lewd or abusive actions of male characters to develop a plot point. Homophobia and anti-Semitism casually dot the story as well, as though these prejudices offer an acceptable way to explain the world.
Narratively, the story has major faults, most especially long, tiresome passages of exposition by characters who could not possibly know about what they are describing. The parallels between the narrator, Daniel, and the protagonist, Julian, are blatant and clumsy. Finally, there are two major plot points, an early relationship of Daniel’s and a revelation about Julian’s relationship to his long-lost love, that ultimately lead nowhere. They take up pages and pages but do not advance true plot in any way, nor factor into the final ending.
This book clearly lacked a good editor willing to say “no”. Spend your time and money on something else.
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