Mtlnative

Great accurate narration

Revisado: 12-05-24

Finally a Quebecois actor to narrate! He was great!! Oh and the story was very good too. I toggled between Audible and Kindle and both apps kept track so well. I would listen in the car and then open Kindle later in the evening and voila, I was at the right spot! Really excellent all around

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Mind and spirit expanding

Revisado: 09-01-24

I liked so much of what Chittister and Williams said about the way we in the West misunderstand things so that we blame and fear instead of look to what we can learn. I did few that I wished I could underline and highlight what was said but at least I can go back and relisten.

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Lesley Manville’s narration is icing on the cake

Revisado: 01-18-24

I loved the book but I loved Manville’s narration more. She was perfect for my vision of the characters, especially Joyce. I am looking forward to the next in the series!

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Wonderful

Revisado: 05-14-23

I really enjoyed the stories (because there is more than one), the quiet wisdom. I found the Jamaican accent the narrator used for the character Neo wasn’t quite “on” and that detracted a bit from the story. But overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Very good

Revisado: 04-07-22

I liked that they brought the subject of meditation down to a layperson’s level: it’s not mysterious, it’s something we probably already do but just not consciously and we should do more of it.

My only quibble, and that’s probably because I am a Boomer and they are Gen Z, is that they speak so fast in a prediction that is about slowing down and being more thoughtful. I liked them but just found the pace a bit frenetic.

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I loved the book the narration not so much

Revisado: 09-30-20

I read this book years and years ago, decades actually. I am at a point in my life where I thought "I need to go back and be reminded." I wasn't disappointed, Goldhor Lerner's counsel is as good as ever. The narration on the other hand was like being read to. Literally, it was as if Lerner had the book propped up in front of her and she was reading page after page. And she wrote it! I would have hoped she could have injected a bit more verve into it. Still she is a wise and excellent therapist, just not a good narrator.

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The first COVID novel I've read

Revisado: 09-07-20

A young woman turns up at a 70 year old man's house in Bondi Beach at 8 p.m., claiming to be his granddaughter, the daughter of the son he had given up for adoption many years ago. It's at the start of COVID, just before lockdown began but after businesses had started to close. She says she has nowhere to go and Don, a lonely widower whose daughter lives a couple of hours away--and has a busy life where she rarely visits him--welcomes the girl in. Now, I am almost 70 myself and I don't think I would let a long-lost relative in, especially as Don takes her at face value, doesn't ask to see any proof that she is who she says she is. So that was the first thing I thought but, then, in mysteries/thrillers, people often do risky things. And as the days go by, the girl, Morgan, seems to Don to be a godsend. Friendly, full of great ideas for getting through the lockdown--yes, lockdown begins--he thinks she's wonderful. Danielle, his daughter, doesn't agree with him. She realizes, though, that Morgan is filling a role that she, with her busy life, has almost abandoned. But IS Morgan who she says she is? That's the main theme of the book, COVID, parent-child relationships, adoption, and the pros and perils of social media are minor themes. Well fleshed out however.

I truly enjoyed listening to the story and I especially enjoyed the narration. Aimee Horne is Australian, her accent bringing back memories of my Aussie relatives. She also is very good at changing voices and, at one point, when she is narrating a phone conversation, she is able to mimic what it's like hearing someone on the phone as opposed to face-to-face.
One quibble I have, and this could be because I can’t go back on an audiobook to check my memories of what I read, is the continuity of just how old Don’s son was and how old Don was when he was born. I thought at one point in the book it said that Don’s son was born in 1968 but at the end it says that he was born in 1973. And, if Don just turned 70 and it’s 2020—the book confirms that it is—then he would have been 23 when the son was born. He wouldn’t have been in high school. The girl was 16, it seems quite an age gap, larger than my impression had been throughout the book. As well, Danielle says at one point that her father was in high school in the 1970s. He would have actually been in high school in the 1960s; I believe Australian students finish high school at 18. These late-in-the-story facts meant I had to re-think a lot about Don and made me wonder if the author hadn’t accidentally messed up on her dates.

My other quibble is that I wish the book hadn’t ended quite so quickly. There was a big twist, then a kind of very short denouement where some of the past is explained and then, that’s it. The same about COVID, COVID virtually over in the book. However, I can understand that the author would have been writing right at the start of COVID so I can’t really judge her on what COVID has turned out to be. I think it’s a good effort and, as a suspense story, I truly did enjoy it and would recommend it for a long car journey or, if you are like me, on long walks with the dog.

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Wonderful mystery set in early Victorian times

Revisado: 08-22-20

This was an excellent Victorian mystery/thriller. I listened to it on Audible and spent a good part of a Saturday afternoon powering through the last two hours as I was thoroughly hooked on the story.

Laetitia Rodd is the 50-something widow of an archdeacon in London in 1851. Although this is the first book in the series, the book makes reference to her previous Miss Marple-like abilities to ferret out secrets and scandals. She works in conjunction with her brother, who is a defense barrister. The story begins with an inquiry as to the suitability of a young widow to marry a rich young man. The story quickly becomes much more complicated than that, there are murders and a kidnapping.

I like the way that Saunders portrays the early Victorian era--grimy, difficult for the poor and especially for women. But there is also an air of gentleness over the book because of the character of Mrs. Rodd. She is indeed very much like Miss Marple, determined to root out truth but sympathetic to people's weaknesses and especially, as I said, to the plight of women who are unlucky enough to love the wrong person. The book is I believe a cut above many so-called "cozy" mysteries although the Victorian sensibilities may grate on some modern readers. Saunders does occasionally get a bit "flowery" in her descriptions but it suits the era in which she has set her novel. There are elements of Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Agnes Grey. Readers who enjoy Victoriana might well try this book.

The reader was very good voicing the female characters but the male characters weren't as good. Still, her reading in no way detracted from the story. And I especially liked her voicing of Laetitia herself.

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Mesmerizing!

Revisado: 08-18-20

I don’t know which I was more drawn into, Didion’s recounting of her husband and daughter’s illness and death or Vanessa Redgrave s reading. Both complemented each other and made the story, the experience, well, magical. Not in a “happy” magic way of course but more in the way that magic happens through communication. I felt my own losses so beautifully expressed and for an hour and a half was transported.

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