OYENTE

Gillian Culff

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Pageboy Audiolibro Por Elliot Page arte de portada

A Courageous Book That Will Save Lives

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-22-24

At turns frank and lyrical, this beautifully told memoir is an extraordinary act of courage and vulnerability. Given how many years it took Page to find the nerve to come out publicly, it seems remarkable that he also found the courage to face down his history and share it, moment by painful moment. In this no-holds-barred account, the Juno and Umbrella Academy actor bares his soul and reveals his struggles with the interpersonal awkwardness and discomfort that arose from deeply buried dysphoria and shame, eventually leading to his coming out, first as gay, and later, as trans. Page’s narration felt steady and confiding with moments of palpable emotion.

Page states at the beginning that he hopes telling his story will help other trans people feel less alone, and this is this book’s most important offering; it will undoubtedly save lives and probably already has. But it also helped me, a straight, middle-aged, cis-gender woman, better understand what it might feel like to be trapped in the wrong body and misgendered and second-guessed by the world.

One of the details that brought it home for me was how painful it was for Page to be forced to wear femmy clothing, not only in Hollywood films, but to promotional events as well. In part, this book stands as an indictment of the film industry’s entrenched homophobia and transphobia, which forced Page to make a “U-turn" along the way, backsliding deeper into the closet before eventually fighting his way out.

You can tell it’s painful for Page to describe the manipulation and lack of protection he suffered at the hands of his weak, emotionally stunted father, who turned a blind eye to the routine cruelty of Page’s stepmother. Though disappointed in his mother’s inability to accept either his sexual orientation or his gender identity when he comes out to her, Page remains patient and welcomes her eventual growth.

Though transgender youth experiencing dysphoria and fear of coming out are the most likely to benefit from this story, I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a story of human struggle for personal power and the freedom of self-definition and gender expression.

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These Precious Days Audiolibro Por Ann Patchett arte de portada

A Collection of Depth and Poignancy

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-13-23

What a treat to invite Ann Patchett's voice into my car and home! She made me feel as if she were sharing her essays with a valued friend.

Patchett reveals quite a bit about her personal life in these essays, which together constitute something of a memoir, though each one has been carefully crafted to stand on its own, and most, if not all, have already been published in esteemed journals. She's a master at bringing endings back around to where she started, but only after a nice ramble and in a nuanced and gentle way that provides a sense of natural completion. She's a true long-form writer in that she never rushes a story, always making sure it has space to breathe and grow and expand as much as it needs to.

The book starts out a bit lightly and builds momentum about midway through. I appreciated Patchett's personal musings and glimpses into her life in stories like "Flight Plan," "There Are No Children Here," "A Paper Ticket is Good for One Year," "The Nightstand," and "A Talk to the Association of Graduate School Deans in the Humanities." "Sisters" is a poignant look at the author's relationship with and love for her mother.

"Cover Stories" provided a look into the publication process and Patchett's growing confidence in her agency as an author.

As a writer myself I enjoyed Patchett's interjections in the title essay about how a story she was telling was changing as she was writing it, straying from her original intention onto a new and more compelling path. "These Precious Days," its "Part II" follow-up, and the epilogue that completes that story are, without a doubt, the most powerful and moving in the book.

It's hard to imagine what could occupy the space between the second and third of those, but "What the American Academy of Arts and Letters Taught Me About Death" offers an unexpectedly poignant way to bring the anthology to a close with a reflective moment.

I flew through the second half of this volume in a matter of a couple of days, and now I feel sad that Ann Patchett has "gone home," no longer visiting with me while I eat my breakfast. I guess I'll just have to go back and catch up on her recent fiction or listen to my favorites again.

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Yes Please Audiolibro Por Amy Poehler arte de portada

Funny But Haphazardly Structured

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-11-23

What I loved about this book:
This book was an enjoyable, easy listen. I appreciate Poehler's use of the audio format. Hearing her deliver her own jokes no doubt elevated my experience of the book, and I enjoyed hearing Seth Meyers chime in with his memories of their early friendship and Mike Schur's LOL funny contributions to the Parks and Rec chapter. The stories about Poehler's childhood were endearing, and she does a good job of bringing the reader back into that time and place. I'm a few years older than Poehler, so there I enjoyed the Gen X touchpoints--like the sleepovers with the Snoopy sleeping bags, how MTV blew us away, and the ways in which the lack of technology fostered more connection between people. I also appreciated her advice about the distinction between one's career and one's passion in the chapter titled, "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend." I loved the stories from her early years as a struggling improv actor in Chicago with all the then-unknown fellow comedians who would become famous alongside her. The stories behind SNL and Parks and Rec were satisfying and funny. I am glad that I now understand how she got to where she is in her career through steady hard work and dedication.

What I didn't love about this book:
The structure of this book was confusing to me. I would have preferred a straight chronological structure to this thematic approach that lost me in the listening. Her inclusion of the voices of Carol Burnett, Sir Patrick Stewart, and Kathleen Turner to read chapter titles seemed gimmicky and pointless. It felt like a bait and switch to me, since none of them figures into her story or converses with her about it. She includes a chapter about drugs, in which she comes out and admonishes the reader not to drive drunk or use hard drugs and includes a few funny stories about her own dabblings with drugs and alcohol. Why? What is the point of this chapter, since addiction and/or codependency don't seem to be themes in her life? Was there some strategic point behind it?

Yes, but:
I loved Poehler's stories about her friendships and collegial relationships, and her shout-outs to all the people she loves were at times endearing, though at other times I wondered if she might be hoping to win points with people or had simply promised to mention them. This book came out before the accusations against Louis C.K., and in several places she praises him and expresses gratitude for his friendship. Interestingly, she devotes an entire chapter of the book to the gross things men do to women that women should not have to tolerate, so one might wonder why it's 2023, and she still has made no statement disavowing his behavior masturbating in front of aspiring young women comedians as unacceptable--especially since one of them said it so traumatized her that she decided not to become a comedian after all? It's pretty hard listening to this book so long after the fact, hearing her sing his praises, and then being unable to find anything online to bring her feelings about him up to date.

The ending:
Though I enjoyed the writing in the final chapter, and it made me laugh, I didn't appreciate the decision to end the book with a live performance. It was as if Poehler didn't feel confident in the book standing on its own, without including the sound of people laughing at her jokes. It seemed like a way of making sure we got that she's funny. And it seems contrived and gratuitous to end the book with applause for her performance, especially since it follows her thanking the listener.

Overall:
I'd say the good outweighs the bad in this book, and it was enjoyable and worth the time. But be prepared for an uneven, somewhat bumpy ride.

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M Train Audiolibro Por Patti Smith arte de portada

A Book About Nothing and Everything

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-01-23

I read this book in the print edition when it first came out in 2015 and loved it. A few years later, Year of the Monkey was released, and I listened to it on Audible. I could see how that book took the ideas Smith was working with in M Train and ran with them, amplifying the role of dreams and imagination. I loved her narration of that book so much I vowed to return to M Train and experience it as an audiobook as well.

Listening to this book was everything I hoped. I'm once again captivated by Smith's quirky South Jersey pronunciations, her deep, flat intonation, and her deadpan humor. In a world filled with posturing influencers, it's refreshing to spend time in the presence of a music and literary icon who retains a sense of herself as an everyday human, absent of pretense.

In Smith's written catalog, M Train serves as a bridge between the focused, straightforward memoir narrative of Just Kids and the more experimental narrative of Year of the Monkey.

In M Train, Smith lets the reader into her private inner world of dreams, thoughts, and imagination. We learn about the books she is reading and her thoughts about them. We follow along with her through languorous days of writing in her moleskin notebook at her regular table in her favorite Greenwich Village cafe and musing over TV detective stories, accompany her on her travels--including a hilariously ill-fated talk at the very strange Continental Drift Club--and observe a truly bizarre encounter with chess legend Bobby Fischer and his bodyguard.

Along the way, Smith repeatedly mourns the regularly occurring losses of objects--some inconsequential and others of deep personal significance--which serve as a lens for life's big losses, principally that of her beloved husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith and her brother, who died in close succession. We are along for the ride as she falls under the spell of a new love: a ramshackle cottage on Rockaway Beach.

Through the voice of a dream cowboy--who reappears throughout the book--Smith implies from the outset that this is a book about nothing, and on the surface, perhaps it is. But underneath all the "nothing"--the inner musings, dreams, cups of coffee, journal scribbles and long subway rides to the beach--there's something deep and abiding, something rich and meaningful, a self-reflective soul conducting her life with full awareness, alive to each moment.

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Unlost Audiolibro Por Gail Muller arte de portada

An Unflinching Memoir of Perseverance & Self-love

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-14-23

This book grabbed me unawares and pulled me right in from the first words. With unflinching vulnerability and authenticity, Gail Muller unfolds a story of meeting herself--in all of her flawed humanness--while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Not all authors can narrate their own story, but Muller does a brilliant job, not only narrating, but acting the voices of herself and the characters she meets along the trail. Though her impressions of various American accents are pretty terrible, as an American, I found her attempts to impersonate her friends and the various hostel owners and "trail angels" she met along the way--along with her very British pronunciation of words like "Maryland"--entertaining. She laughs at herself throughout the book, so I imagine she wouldn't mind my inward chuckles.

I was already impressed at her determination to carry on through months of hiking as an answer to lifelong chronic pain, but her perseverance in the face of a bad foot injury left me astonished. I'm an avid day hiker, and I can't imagine hiking 20-30 miles per day for months on end, even on a fit and healthy body. But after years of being beaten down by chronic pain? I can't even imagine the chutzpah it takes to even attempt something like this, much less achieve the completion of it. And her recounting of hiking on her badly injured foot made me cringe at the pain she endured and pushed through.

Her stories of camaraderie and mutual support along the trail are inspiring, entertaining, and heart-warming, while the bracingly honest account of her on-again, off-again relationship with an immature, ambivalent male hiker who treats her poorly will resonate with anyone who has been untrue to themselves in exchange for the validation of another, something Muller acknowledges without apology.

In the end, this isn't even so much a book about friendship overcoming physical obstacles as it is an examination of meeting yourself, examining your brokenness and darkest shadow parts, and emerging into self-love and acceptance.

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Grateful and Blessed Audiolibro Por Smokey Robinson arte de portada

Endearing and Fascinating!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-27-23

I love this series, and Smokey's Words & Music has to be the best one I've listened to. He's so endearing. You can just feel how friendly and down-to-earth he is. He's generous with his admiration for others and seems authentically amazed at every one of his own achievements. Despite some serious hardship in his life, he sees himself and his life as blessed. I loved learning about his childhood, growing up in a neighborhood filled with future stars like Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin, writing songs when he was a mere child, and launching his career as a teenager. It was fascinating to learn the history of Motown through his eyes. I hadn't realized he'd written songs for so many people and brought so many artists into Motown. I think every artist considering recording an Audible Words & Music should listen to this one before they do because it is the most perfect example I've heard of all this series can be.

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Talking as Fast as I Can Audiolibro Por Lauren Graham arte de portada

Pretty Unsatisfying

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-24-23

To be fair, I came to this book with more of an interest in getting the inside story on the making of Gilmore Girls than Lauren Graham herself. So I should state outright that I skipped most of the beginning of the book and read just the two, surprisingly short chapters on GG and the reboot. If they had been fantastic, I would have given this book a stellar review, despite having skipped so much of it. But they just weren't.

Graham apparently didn't keep any sort of diary during the seven years of the original show, and she clearly didn't remember much about her time on it. So, her approach to describing those years consisted in rewatching the show, and then giving the reader a quick redux of what she thought were the most interesting things about each season in retrospect--a decidedly sparse overview. Mostly, she noted the fashions or cultural references the show is known for, and how funny these sound now, looking back. Yeah, Lauren, we know. We watched it. That's whey we're reading your book. There were a few moments when she remembered something specific or indicated that she had disagreed with the writers' decisions about certain plot developments--yes! This was what I came for! I found it frustrating when she said how much appreciated certain guest stars, but didn't think to mention the character they played. Fans will of course know the names of the actors who played the leading and even supporting roles, but we can't be expected to know the name of every guest star or actor whose character's arc was short.

Her description of the follow-up series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, was much more interesting, because this time around she had kept a diary, which jogged her memory. But let's face it, that series was pretty bad, and it seemed like Graham took great pains to avoid saying anything too controversial or provocative about it. Like, for instance, why was Melissa McCarthy not in the series at all until a short cameo appearance at the end? The implication Graham left the reader with was that the producers somehow forgot to invite all of the principal actors to be in the new series. I find it hard to believe they simply forgot about Sooki, one of the most important and engaging characters in the original series. There's a story there, and Graham tiptoes around it.

All in all, this was a sometimes entertaining, sometimes interesting, but overall, not terribly satisfying listen.

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The Creative Act Audiolibro Por Rick Rubin arte de portada

Best for those New to Creative/Spiritual Practice

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-24-23

I came to this book by way of a podcast interview with Rubin that made me buy it on the spot. I really like him; in the interview, I found him compelling. This book has a lot of good wisdom to impart, with a number of big lightbulb moments that I wrote down. The problem is, that wisdom is interwoven with a lot of advice that will be patently obvious to anyone who has already been living a creative life or teaching others in the realm of the arts. Additionally, Rubin's quiet, soporific narration is difficult to stay focused on, especially when driving, which is when I normally listen to books. If the flashes of brilliance appear when you're in the car, you have to either pull over to the side of the road to jot them down or go back and listen again later. The problem with the latter approach is also an overall problem with the structure of the book. The chapters are so short and multitudinous that it's hard to go back and find something you liked and then find your place again, unless you are able to note down the exact time stamp. This many-short-chapters approach also makes listening feel interminable. I had trouble sticking with it, and completing it felt like an achievement. I enjoyed certain chapters and came away with new insights, but hearing him talk about these ideas in an interview is far more interesting to me than hearing him narrate them in a way that feels too much like reading and not enough like communicating. I think I would have enjoyed it more in the print version.

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When Breath Becomes Air Audiolibro Por Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese - foreword arte de portada

Exquisite and Poignant

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-24-23

SPOILER ALERT: Paul Kalanithi's story was well-documented in the news, especially the New York Times. If you missed the story and don't want the end spoiled for you, I suggest you skip reviews altogether and just listen to the book.

***

Wow. What a book. This is the sort of story I normally would avoid reading for fear of it being depressing. Instead, I felt uplifted by Paul Kalanithi's most intimate musings about life and death. I appreciated the way he delved into the conundrum of what makes a good life and how to plan when you don't know how much time you have, but you know your time is limited.

Sunil Malhotra's nuanced and compassionate narration is phenomenal. While so many narrators read a book with little to no expression, Malhotra is an accomplished voice actor. He must have spent a good deal of time, not just reading the book, but learning everything he could about Kalanithi. At times, I have been offended by male narrators whose voicings of female characters come off as send-ups. But Malhotra does justice to the women depicted in this memoir.

I do feel this book should come with a trigger warning. I was unprepared for the section about how medical students and instructors treat the human remains entrusted to their care. Having donated my mother's remains at her behest, I was horrified imagining some of the callous and even violent treatment described. There are also a lot of detailed descriptions of brain and spinal surgery, so if you don't have the stomach for scalpels slicing through flesh and descriptions of inner organs and bodily fluids, you might be uncomfortable or need to skip sections. And of course, the book is about facing cancer, some of the most brutal side effects of chemotherapy, and, ultimately, death and dying. I might not recommend this book to someone going through cancer treatment or who has just lost a loved one to cancer and is experiencing deep grief. Maybe wait a bit.

I recommend this book for readers who appreciate a poignant true story and for anyone who values diving into the deepest, most important questions about responding to our calling, the choices we make about how we live, what gives humans our sense of identity, and how to craft a satisfying and fulfilling life, especially when you know your time is limited.

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Please Tell My Brothers Audiolibro Por Jeff Tweedy arte de portada

Not Even a Wilco Fan, and I Loved It!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-21-23

Let me be clear about my review title; it's not that I dislike Wilco in any way. I like them quite a bit. I just haven't gotten that deep into their music. And still, I fully enjoyed this audiobook. Tweedy is an engaging host for a trip through his life and music. His musical and creative journey is inextricably intertwined with his personal journey through addiction and his relationships with his wife, family, collaborators, and friends. I appreciated how open and vulnerable he is on all of these topics. He comes across as authentically humble, owning his mistakes without romanticizing or glossing over them. Listening to this made me want to listen to more of Tweedy's music and see him perform live. And I just might listen to this audiobook again sometime.

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