Cherith Cutestory

More of a long-winded memoir

Revisado: 02-14-24

It's painful trying to extract meaning from this book. It's hours and hours of narrating the author's outdoors activities. It's like a memoir that goes on forever. I think the whole point could've been said in a couple of paragraphs.

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Dear authors, PLEASE don't narrate your own books!

Revisado: 10-11-23

Listen, this is a valuable book, but the author needs to know something: just because you *can* narrate your own book, doesn't mean you *should*.

The author's narration is EXCRUCIATING. Nearly the whole audiobook is vocal fry (the lowest voice register where there's no air, find examples online). His speed varies between normal and way too fast. Lots of parts are unclear. The narration keeps discouraging you from listening. I had to replay many parts because of the bad narration.

Authors, please give your book to professional narrators. This is a painful experience that hurt a great book.

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Oh my God, this is excruciating

Revisado: 08-24-23

First problem: Author rambles on and on and on without ever getting to the point. Book reads more like a lengthy autobiography than a book with a clear message. He keeps talking about his jobs and thoughts and aspirations and quitting job X and getting job Y in unbearable detail. He should've explicitly stated the exact point of each chapter, lessons learned, advice he gives us, instead all we get is chapter after chapter of him between great jobs and not being happy about it, ok, so what is it that you're trying to say exactly? I'm sure there are lessons there but the author is unable to articulate them early and clearly.

Second problem: just because you can narrate your own book, doesn't mean you should. Author's voice is not good or strong enough to narrate an audiobook, he should've left this to the professional narrators.

Overall a painful experience and a book that should've simply been published as a short article.

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Gross smelly dog is inescapable

Revisado: 06-14-22

I tried to enjoy this because I'm very interested in portrayal of PTSD but the author strangely persisted in graphic, revolting descriptions of a dog and stink and its drool. Disgusting. I soldiered on thinking it was just in the beginning but the author keeps adding those nauseating descriptions over and over again every few scenes. Stopped after that and will never go back.

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Captivating book, and very well written

Revisado: 04-29-22

One thing I came out with after listening to this book is how good a writer Ross Douthat is. His style is unique and captivating, though at times that may veer off into the too-abstract and make understanding slightly challenging. Still, I'm impressed with his skill with words.

The book is immensely pleasurable, and full of fascinating observations on the state of the Western world today, where it may be headed, what it's going through, and what options appear on the horizon. What does it mean when the Pentagon releases what it claims to be possible UFOs? Will it turn to Islam as the final savior from the abyss of malaise, dread and confusion? Why are there so many manifestations of fatigue and decadence in our civilization that we still don't see clearly, and just blithely dismiss? How is the rise of China and Africa going to affect the political, cultural and religious characters of Western society? And other fascinating topics.

Douthat's observations are original and enjoyable to think about. His thoughts are meaningful and make a lot of sense, you will find it impossible to stop listening/reading, and will continue till the end thanks to his originality and entertaining writing style (oh and great narration too). What a pleasure this book is.

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Unbearable voice

Revisado: 10-28-21

The content is profound, but one of the narrators (who plays the role of the pupil being taught by the philosopher) has the voice of a pubescent 13 year old snapping at his mom. Unbearable and kept me from completing the book.

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Who the hell is talking?

Revisado: 05-24-21

Good book but very confusing, because you have no clue who's talking. Someone recounts a story and you don't know if it's supposed to be Friedman or a producer or an old bandmate. Before anyone starts talking, they should say who's uttering the words.

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Sheer venom.

Revisado: 01-14-21

- A few parts are good. The first couple of chapters, and the chapter Tiredness and The Feeling That the Story Has Run out, those had some interesting parts i.e. when the author speaks about culture, history and identity. The parts about the role of religion and the effect of Christianity's slow death in Europe are good.

- But when he tries to diagnose threats to culture, they are invariably Islamophobic, biased and exaggerated. He combs the news looking for any instances of Muslim migrants doing anything bad, and he exaggerates those cases as if they are the norm rather than the exception.

- Author unashamedly endorsed Slovakian prime minister's statement, "Islam has no place in Slovakia".

- In one of the low points of the book, he quotes insane Zionist and Islamophobe Daniel Pipes.

- He only mentions Judaism positively, he never mentions Israeli war crimes or pre-Israel Zionist terrorism committed by Haganah and other Jewish groups.

- He's pinning his hopes on Muslims abandoning the Quran to "defang and wound" Islam.

- The author is homosexual, so he tries to find stories of homosexuals being attacked by Muslims, but when he mourns Christianity's death in Europe, never mentions the violence inflicted on homosexuals by the church.

- He mentions several polls where Europeans are purportedly anti-Islamic, and he supports those polls. Then when one of those polls was shown to have anti-Jewish and anti-Buddhist answers, he was surprised. What he's saying: the right thing is to hate Muslims, but it's WEIRD that anyone would hate any other group!

Bottomline: could've been great, but Douglas Murray hates Islam and Muslims and wants you to hate them too. Like every other racist or antisemite or xenophobe, he too thinks his hatred and bigotry are based on facts and reason.

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Just get to the point already

Revisado: 11-29-20

About half this book is descriptions of people, settings, behaviors, and objects. Why would I care what Mr. X looks like or how Mrs. Y talks or how Mr. Z drinks his coffee or how Ms. K prefers paper to plastic? The title promises something that the content doesn't deliver. It looked more like a writing class (e.g. "how to describe things for your novel").

The amount of descriptive filler is mind-boggling, almost all of it unnecessary and boring.

I couldn't continue, the author took forever to get to the point, if ever there is one.

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Should be called "The Animal Brain"

Revisado: 11-29-20

1) The book relies a lot on experiments on animals, not humans. The author then extrapolates heavily, presenting many hypotheses based on this, which IMO is worthless. We're humans, not animals. Experiments on monkeys and rodents won't help me understand the human female brain. These stretches of the imagination waste your time and add nothing to your knowledge.

2) Too much science jargon. Why would most people care about the scientific names of all these hormones and compounds in the body that the author keeps listing?

3) Author has a beautiful voice but not necessarily right for an audiobook, It often veers into a somewhat vocal fry territory.

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