Julie

The myth versus the look

Revisado: 01-13-24

Dolly is authentically herself and said self is expressed through her clothing and costumes. For as over the top as her display is, her kindness, generosity of spirit, intelligence, hard working, persistent and beautiful self shine forth. The look is as integral to her as everything else. It's her and reminds her of her strength and it informs the audience and the world that the star has arrived. She is an inspiration to me as a woman to be unapologetically me and she serves to remind the human in me to be less judgemental of humanity and love each person for themselves. Ironically, all of this came through a simple discussion of her evolving looks over the decades. Plain and simple, Dolly is just good.
As for narration, this is set up as an interview between Dolly and her Archivist niece. in so many interviews with Dolly, I always leave wanting a little more, I always have more questions for her. This may be some of her allure, plus she doesn't really see herself as anything other than herself. Her niece and archivist asks good questions and gets Dolly rolling. but I think there is a lot between the lines that get left unsaid, but I don't know that that's a bad thing. Her niece shuffles back and forth trying to do a serious interview and then breaking some of the scripted sound to speaking with her in a lovely personal way. Once again this didn't feel like a bad thing, it felt real and I really appreciate that. If you are looking for something more highly polished, maybe read the book. Personally, though, I love listening to memoirs narrated by the person themselves and I like the interview format.

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Heard him on NPR

Revisado: 07-02-22

We came into this with a cursory knowledge of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. As a family, teenagers and parents, we listened to this on vacation car drive and Dave is a fantastic narrator and seems like a really genuine human. My teenagers are getting into grunge and 90s music (yes it's back in style for that crowd) and their middle aged parents were reliving our youth a little, so together we were able to share moments. He seems like such a humble and kind person, he is every bit a fan boy and his roots (our roots) show. As an artist and teacher I appreciate what he has to say about his mom, the teaching profession and his artistic process and my husband is a writer and really appreciated his narrative writing style. There are parts of the narration that have wide holes, I'm thinking that instead of saying something negative, he made the choice not to and I really appreciate the restraint he chooses to show. Overall excellent.
Just a word,y husband and I don't really care about cuss words, they are part of Dave's regular speech, as they are mine as well. If you are a person offered by this, this is not for you or if you are a person uncomfortable about this with your kids, be aware. My kids thought it was funny hearing someone cuss as much as their mom on regular speech.

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excellent story and narration

Revisado: 06-17-22

I normally don't read fiction, I normally don't like anything but memoirs and self help on my audible. I picked it out, because I've encountered the author in my daughter's children's picture books from 16 years ago and I was really curious.
Spoilers below, for those of you who hate spoilers.


So, I really enjoyed both the story and the narration. Both are excellent. Each character is unique and sometimes annoying and over the top. I did find that sometimes I would assume the character would over react to a misstatement from another character, but often the characters showed grace and forgiveness to the others. I wonder if the teens were a little over written, I am the mother of two teen agers and I teach teenagers, but maybe not. They are all very separate and nuanced and as the story brings them together they find their inner strength by rebuilding their relationships. I think that's something many of us need to work on and this story is certainly an extreme example of this.
The narrator gets into the characters and acts each one out. I didn't have to keep things sorted out because each person had a unique sound. There may have been a couple of mess ups but 95% of it felt spot on. I really usually don't like male narrators creating female voices, but I didn't Mons this narrator creating male voices, she has a pretty broad repertoire and I didn't get hung up on hating something where I couldn't listen to the story. My teenagers didn't even mind listening to the story in the car.
so even though there are some quirks, as is often the case in life. I feel strongly that this is a five star story and narration and I think it's a great way to have spent 11+ hours.

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astrophysics in a nutshell

Revisado: 07-09-21

I love listening to Neil. He has a fantastic voice that draws me in, much like Bob Ross and Levar Burton. Having been a fan of Cosmos, this feels like a concise recap of that show. I am an artist and I love that Neil speaks about science as an art to some degree and as a mom of a child who wants to pursue astrophysics, I feel like I need a small working knowledge so that I can follow along her passion.

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Sarcastic, Strong and Spot On

Revisado: 09-26-20

I couldn't listen to this with my family around, my 12 year old son and husband are progressive feminists but this was a little angrier than I wanted to have around them at this point.
Erin punctuates her points with a sarcastic, funny quip that didn't necessarily resonate with me personally, but they would with me if I was more urban and less Midwestern, however so many other areas. high heals, dress codes, womens health made me so angry and I totally identify with it.
I do want to note that I teach high school and my daughter is a high schooler and I see STEAM at this level being more inclusive. My daughter wants to pursue a STEAM profession and I hope her black belt will put the nix on anyone who gives her crap.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Devastating.

Revisado: 06-03-19

Had to keep listening, couldn't stop. I needed to know that this child turned adult would find a way through. Saw some of my story in here, saw bits and pieces of my students stories in this memoir.

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Good Story

Revisado: 11-27-18

Compelling, Sad, Beautiful. This story had the feel of a contemporary To Kill A Mockingbird, but told from Tom Robinson's point of view.

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Fills gaping holes left by Potter and Outlander

Revisado: 06-03-16

Enjoyable. Felt long, but that's good. I was reading and listening my way thru this book, so the characters sounded different in my head, but that's okay. 4 stars because it's pretty darn good, but when measured against Potter and Outlander, the writing quality isn't quite there, yet. I will definitely read/listen to the rest of the series and will be able to better judge this statement, as they are amazing as a collective whole.

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