Creek

Inclusive, respectful, and accessible.

Revisado: 04-18-24

Dr. Neff's book goes broad and deep. It's inclusive of a variety of experiences, while respectful of the multilayered complexity of any individual's experience.

I first read the Audible edition, and found it very accessible in audio form: not too list-y or diagram-filled to follow and absorb.

Nevertheless, I decided I wanted to have it on paper, also, to refer to and flip through. So I bought the hardcover edition. It's well-organized so it's easy to use as a handy reference, and small enough to keep on hand, in an emergency kit, say, so, double-handy!

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racist rubbish

Revisado: 03-27-24

dnf disgusted —seemed such a promising start but I was soon hearing of the British empire’s superior hygiene and that’s only a start

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Classic

Revisado: 05-01-23

A classic story, a beloved author, a strong narration— all that adds up to frequent listens.

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A dreamy bedtime story

Revisado: 03-17-21

If I'm already sleepy, this reading can guide me gently to sweet dreams. When I woke in the middle of the night and tried listening, however, I found I was too wakeful to be lulled, and the story was too intriguing to bore me.

As other reviewers have noted, there are several mispronunciations in this production. Candace Parker's narration still gets 4 of 5 stars for me. This is read as a bedtime story, so the cadence is meant to lull more than to engage and inform. The mispronunciations are jarring, yes, but that's also on the producer who ought to have caught and corrected the errors during recording. Parker's tones are so warm yet clear, I can't give her less than four stars. Audible producers, please, attend to pronunciations!

As noted, the story is intriguing. The concepts are engaging, and can lead to pleasantly wandering thoughts that melt into sweet dreams. If I listen while too wakeful, however, I am liable to sit up to sip wine and try again to grow dozy, while looking up photos of Fallingrocks, bios of Wright, quotes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, articles on Japanese architecture or on the natural history of Appalachia. So this interesting overlay of concepts can actually interfere with the goal of sleep, but I've enjoyed it so much, I don't want to deduct stars for that. Instead, I want to learn more, and make myself so familiar with all of the ideas that meet in this story, that they will be as comfortable and cozy as teddy bears--concepts to cuddle to sleep.

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Magical Negro Cripple Peons Save the Aristocracy

Revisado: 01-05-21

** spoiler alert **

There's so much to love about this book, I wish it weren't horrible. That it's absorbing, compelling, and well-written could probably also be said about Gone with the Wind. It can certainly be said about Mary Poppins. Like those books, The Murmur of Bees depends on lower class characters to save the asses of the privileged.

Nana Reja and Simonopio are not only Magical Peons, they're full-on Magical Negros. They come from nowhere, they have no family or friends of their own, and they devote their lives to the salvation of the ruling class--and they are notably darker than that ruling class. After the umpteenth mention of Francisco Junior's fair hair or Simonopio being dark and ugly and even disfigured, so a Magical Cripple to boot, I felt dirty continuing to read the book.

I did finish, because the prose was so beautiful, and I was hoping that Segovia would redeem herself. She did not. It ended as badly as it was building up to end. The poor little dark characters gave their all, the lighter and far wealthier lived to tell the tale, and the magical people live on only in legend, mysterious to the grave, and all used up.

Meanwhile, the poor little rich folks have to suffer the indignity of peasant revolts and land reforms. Land reform and social justice are represented by the villain of the piece, shiftless, lazy, greedy, and ultimately senselessly brutal.

You know what? Screw that noise. I want a book in which Nana Reja lives her own dreams for her own self, and her amazing abilities and strength are matched by her amazing empowerment and volition. I want a book in which Simonopio inherits the place he earned and lives to see his talents flourish and his children's children benefit from land reforms. I want a book in which that villain is not a villain, but has a reasonable issue with the vast inequity of the distribution of wealth in his country. And I want a book where the maid doesn't need the permission of her all-powerful employers to wed the manservant, so she doesn't have to wind up raped and murdered and her corpse hacked to bits.

I want the world and people of The Murmur of Bees, written by an author who doesn't have the romantic sensibilities of Margaret Mitchell.

Audio version gets 5 production stars for excellent reading, with understanding and feeling and beautiful accents.

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Story powerful, narration tolerable.

Revisado: 12-30-20

Another spellbinding tale in another brilliant series from Le Guin: fans of Earthsea might wish for more tales from that fantasy world, but fans of Le Guin will be delighted with this alternative fantasy, as fascinating and fully-realized, with as complex a society as in any world she ever built.

I can't take a star off overall because the story is so good, Voices is a 5-star novel classified as YA but as enjoyable for adults as the Earthsea books. I would not want to discourage anyone from listening and enjoying Voices despite the narrator's voice.

Melanie Martinez's performance gets one star, and that's being generous. From the first I was irked by her golly-gee tone of voice, but I stuck with the audiobook because it's a novel I love. I hope others will listen, and enjoy.

This narration of Voices is flat in terms of voices. You'll not be able to tell one character's lines from another's if you don't pay close attention. Despite that flatness, it's not all flat in tone, but maybe it would be better if it were more nearly so. The modulations of Martinez's voice rise and fall in random sing-song, disregarding the meaning of the words.

Nevertheless, every now and then, I would be swept up by the story in spite of the narration. And then, every now and then, a nuance of tone would jerk me back into awareness of the narration, and a very unpleasant awareness it was. For example, Martinez pronounced the word, "raped," like a narrator of Peter Rabbit saying, "cabbages."

I would have let that go, glad just to be able to re-read the story in audio format--if not the best reading, at least a reading. At least the narrator's pronunciation was clear and accurate--almost always. Then she said, "calvary," when she meant "cavalry." I thought I'd misheard and went back to check. Nope, sure enough, she'd said "calvary," but of course it could have been a mistake.

Nope. She didn't know the difference between CALVARY and CAVALRY. She said it wrong again, and again, clearly and distinctly, every time the word was used, until I wished the word had not been used, at all, and "mounted troops," or "legions on horseback," or any other term were written instead. This is not just toe-may-toe vs toe-mah-toe; cavalry and calvary are completely different.

The listener who knows the difference is pulled out of the story once again, made cringingly conscious of the reader and her entirely inappropriate voice. It's an error the producer should have caught and corrected, but it's also an error a professional narrator ought not to have made in the first place, and it calls attention once again to a voice unworthy of Voices.

Rape is not a bunny's tummy ache and violent death is not the loss of brass buttons. There are brief but dark glimpses of violence and tragedy in this story, and there are passages of transcendent joy. The whole of Voices deserves narration by a voice with intelligent emotional range and accurate pronunciation.

Much blame is to be placed on the producer, who ought to have cast a better reader and caught and corrected errors. I hope a future production of Voices will improve on this attempt. And I hope Martinez will get plenty of work reading the complete Beatrix Potter, but never another Le Guin.

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Technical Difficulty

Revisado: 04-07-20

An otherwise charming book is marred by seriously uneven levels. A narrator recorded at a whisper, even when the listener cranks up his sections , is hard to understand.

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What a great idea. How poorly realized.

Revisado: 02-13-19

What a great idea. How poorly realized.

A sequel to Oliver Twist could be great.
It would take effort to research the Victorian era's speech and more.
It would take effort to solidify a clear understanding of the characters as written by Dickens.
It would take effort to imagine and create the characters as they've matured.
It would take effort to plot a story that's believable and consistent.
Evidently, it would even take effort to avoid antisemitism.
F for effort.

B for performance, including production. I was listening to actors who did their best with the script as written, and they were well-recorded. The sound effects did not always serve to clarify confusing moments but this was pretty well done, considering the writing.

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Frankenstein meets American Gods in Old New York

Revisado: 11-13-18

Frankenstein meets American Gods in Old New York, with Mediterranean Magic. That might sound like a strange stretch, but I found the result both intricately-woven and finely-focused.

It's more multicultural than Frankenstein, more historic and with tighter focus than American Gods, and it's a huge tale of vastness, but through just two lead characters and a couple of strong supporting actors, The Golem and the Jinni weaves a wondrous path through similar questions, about soul, and life, and culture, and creativity, and home, and love, and what we're doing here.

This one is a keeper, to read and re-read. It became an immediate favorite: one of the really special books that I've already re-read twice. One of the extra-special books that I've emailed my sisters about, barely able to wait until I finished before I recommended it.

#MiddleEastern
#MagicalRealism
#HistoricalFiction
#EpicAdventure
#FriendshipAndLove
#Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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A Zombie Story with Brains

Revisado: 11-13-18

This zombie story has brains. The story lines are well thought out: the adventure story of seeking safety from the Hungries, and the sci-fi mystery story of seeking the source of infection, and all the interwoven storylines of character relationships, are smart and thoughtful.

This is good fem lit too. If this novel becomes a movie, film streaming services will recommend it to me in the category of Gritty Dramas with Strong Female Leads. Women and a young girl, heroic and villainous and equivocally human (humanly equivocal?) carry the bulk of the action.

And there is plenty of action. But, like I said, plenty of thought. Not all the brains are fodder. The story gave me food for thought.

#MadScience
#ZombieApocalypse
#PostApocalypticHope
#StrongWomen
#Brains

#Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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