Darrell M.

Read me your dissertation, please!

Revisado: 03-02-24

The Culture of Knighthood in Medieval Romance is not up to the standards found in other Great Courses selections. To summarize, this is not how you teach someone.

The author sets the tone by meting out typical woke sentiments that do not add to any listener's understanding. Instead, my response is yawns and eye rolls. Then, I strapped myself in to listen to someone read the literature review portion of their PhD dissertation. Yawn.

In the end, I did not really learn much about the culture of knighthood. Was it because I was turned off and disengaged because of the introduction and distracted by my eye-rolling? Maybe.

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Do not recommend - worst ever

Revisado: 10-13-23

Notorious London is the worst Great Courses lecture series that I’ve ever listened to. It’s clear that the author holds a different worldview than me, but the content would be considered perverse by anyone of any faith. If you meet someone new and listen to them, after a short while, you start learning what is important to them. The logical man concludes, "This sounds like something this person really loves."

Paul Deslandes focuses on male homosexual sex throughout the lectures, even leading with praise of Oscar Wilde in the first lecture (“one of London’s most compelling personalities”). He goes on to talk about poop, rape, and disease. There is no redemption in any of the lectures. Certainly nothing lovely or praiseworthy. How about the notorious slave trade, followed by abolition efforts led by William Wilberforce? I find that a more compelling and worthwhile story for “Notorious London.”

Beyond the distasteful content, the audio experience gets sickening after a few minutes, and it goes on for hours. The author reads his own written lectures in an invariable cadence, which is all the more disturbing considering the content. It’s monotonously rhythmic and needs some ebb and flow. In today's world of technology, there are AI voices that are far more pleasing.

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Narrator made the experience better

Revisado: 03-19-23

Another well-done narration by Simon Vance. What a life, to read aloud all kinds of interesting works and be paid for it.

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Masterful narration

Revisado: 02-16-23

The narrator did a fantastic job with the subject matter. He effortlessly switched from English to Latin, Greek, French, German, etc..

Because of non-English parts, I found this audiobook best consumed concurrently with the Kindle version.

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Professional but not perfect

Revisado: 01-27-22

Andrew Scott did a great job with the narration. I think he expressed well the intended emotion.

The volume levels need equalizing, though. The transitions between shouts and whispers required active adjustment in my car. This is a post-production issue.

A brief musical transition between stories would have been nice. Since Audible Car Play does not show chapter titles, each short story runs into the next with no audio or visual transition. Often I had to pick up the phone and rewind the current chapter because I missed the transition.

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We are just a bag of chemicals

Revisado: 08-26-21

Written from a naturalist point of view, this is not book for parents, but perhaps wannabe psychoanalysts.

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Developing a habit of learning to love

Revisado: 12-24-20

As Henry counsels Catherine, Jane Austen counsels me. Northanger Abbey is a story of learning to navigate the complexities of emotion and develop the "habit of learning to love." Austen teaches us to read history alongside novels, weigh truth and fiction, and pay attention to both stated meaning and real motives. There are undercurrents in the subtleties of language.

I delight in countless hours of literature, but Austen warns that "eager consumption of fiction left [Catherine the heroine] in a land of delusions" (Lorraine Murphy, Hillsdale College). Northanger Abbey, whose brevity is akin to a sketched map compared to a full atlas, gives a bearing out of this land of delusion. It points both book lovers and casual readers in the right direction: begin with gratitude. I find hope in this truth of navigation (from Andy Stanley): your direction determines your destination.

Darrell McCauley
Bowditch Navigation

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Use a paper or eBook until you finish the prologue

Revisado: 05-26-20

Comment on the Recorded Books product, not story itself: beware that the prologue is read out of order. Listening only, it might seem like the author is using non-linear structure. While the whole story is a flashback or story within a story (so called framed narrative), the prologue was not intended to jump around. Fortunately, I was looking at the text while listening to the audio, so it was fast journey from confusion to mildly frustrated. I informed the publisher but received no reply.

As for the story, it reminds me of "the troubles of my heart have multiplied… See how my enemies have increased (Psalm 25:17,19)." Maybe written after Bathsheba? Hard to tell.

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Bad “typo” right at the climax of the story

Revisado: 05-25-20

In the next to last paragraph of the Audible version, there is a glaring “typo.” The narrator references Jennie, but I am pretty sure it should have referenced Jane. Is this like a paper town on a map, a fictitious town used by cartographers to catch copyright infringement? Probably not.

The things you discover when you listen to Audible while watching the Kindle.

The story was great. My one-star review is of the product.

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The bitter must come before the sweet

Revisado: 07-06-19

A classic book. A narrator with a great natural voice. The studio sound quality was descent. It's is not easy to find nice words (see other reviews), but the book did speak to my heart. "The bitter must come before the sweet" applies.

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