Lynn

Smithie Approved!

Revisado: 03-01-24

A beautiful and inspiring memoir. I am honored to have been present at her inauguration as President of Smith College and to have her signature on my degree from the same institution. We love you Ruth!

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Historic story worthy of being shared

Revisado: 01-10-24

Very much appreciated all of the factual information leading up to and including the Bear River massacre.

However, the narrator mispronounced so many words - both tribal and English - to make the historical telling feel inaccurate and told from a strides yet disconnected perspective. If this is a person’s first encounter with tribal people and regional place names, they will be misled into thinking the pronunciations offered here are correct when they are not.

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Lame

Revisado: 12-31-22

As a Native person that resides on a reservation, I’m always interested in books written by and about Native people. Mystery/thrillers aren’t my usual book picks but I leaned towards this one with the hope that the representation of Native people and reservation life would be credible. In some ways it was but in others it was just more stereotypes and drama to add to the the pile.

I shook my head at so many junctures - and not just at those about Natives and reservations - and laughed out loud at others. Some parts are so bad, they really were laughable.

The factual parts were good and I always appreciate when Native content is shared to wider audiences.

I did appreciate the narrator - an indigenous Canadian. He had a nice voice and captured the cadence of reservation residents. His pronunciation of Lakota words were off but a good effort.

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Real Experiences, Poorly Narrated

Revisado: 03-20-22

Residential Indian Boarding Schools in Canada and the US stole children, their futures, their families, their communities. The impacts reverberate today. The book tells the story of 5 such individuals, residential school survivors, and how they cope following their experiences in an honest and compassionate way.

The narration here, though, is poor. The reader fails to capture the spirits and nature of the characters. A Canadian/First Nations narrator would have added credibility. An E for Effort for the Boriquen narrator but it missed the mark for me.

As another reviewer wrote, read the book yourself. Use your voice to give the characters voice. It’ll make a better story.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Beautiful

Revisado: 10-31-20

Beautiful story of a young girl coming into her own and living her truth. Written by a Native author, the representation of Ojibwe life is authentic. Ojibwe words and cultural understandings enhance the authenticity.

The narrator did a fine job, although paced a little slow for my liking. My constant comment about books with Native content narrated by nonNatives is that they need to learn the proper pronunciation of indigenous words and their meanings. It is very frustrating to hear repeated mispronunciations and intonations that do not match the word meaning. Miigwetch is “thank you” but is repeatedly intoned as if to mean “I’m sorry.”

Overall, the narration did not take away from the story itself, which is lovely.

~Lynn (Shoshone/Paiute/Chippewa (Ojibwe)/Cree

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esto le resultó útil a 13 personas

Beautiful and Tragic

Revisado: 08-06-20

I love books with strong female protagonists. This book not only had a female main character but most of the other characters were also female owing to the circumstances of the story.

The narration was beautiful and compelling. An excellent listen.

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Cultural Appropriation

Revisado: 08-06-20

This book was recommended to me by someone who LOVES Siddhartha. They have read it over and over again. After hearing so much about this book, I dove in. The story itself is good and I enjoyed the narration. However, like every prudent reader with Google in 2020 should do, I looked into the background of the story and author Hermann Hesse.

Hermann Hesse came from a family of German missionaries in India. He is German, not Indian. He was raised Christian, not Buddhist. As a youth, he lived for some time in India which was extremely impactful to him and, long story short, wrote Siddartha. The book is a work of fiction.

I would hope that everyone who has referred to this book as "life-changing," my friend included, realizes that this is a German man's interpretation of Indian culture and spirituality. I think there is a word for that...

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Pachinko

Revisado: 08-06-20

I enjoyed the book and learned a lot about the contemporary political histories of Korea and Japan and those who left Korea to start life elsewhere, The reader/listener gets an insiders look at the complexities of religion, race and class in pre- and post-war Japan.

While I liked the narration, it is disappointing to know that she did not pronounce all of the Korean and Japanese words correctly. I would definitely take heed of the reviews given by Korean and Japanese reviewers regarding authenticity (or lack thereof).

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One Native Woman’s Perspective

Revisado: 07-28-20

As a Native woman, this book has been on my radar for years. I was very interested based on the title alone and the notoriety of the author’s last name. I was sorely disappointed.

Mary Crow Dog, while admirable in her role and actions in AIM, comes off as trite and stereotypical. Her portrayals of Native men and Native women is condescending and rude. Her references to white people as “honkies” and police as “pigs” is out of line. That being said, there are some wonderful parts of the book, such the first had accounts of Wounded Knee and relationship with Anna Mae Aquash.

A big issue for me was the narrator. Her mispronunciations of Lakota words and their awkward intonations, probably due to not understanding what certain words meant, were grating. I believe the narration may have also played into my dislike for Mary. I had to stop the book multiple times and almost quit altogether simply because the narration was so poor. Audible really needs to hire Native people to narrate books like Lakota Woman.

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More than just cats

Revisado: 07-21-20

I enjoyed the information about the Florida Panther, especially the inclusion of the relationship of the cats with the indigenous people of the area. What I didn’t enjoy as much were the personal and political portrayals is individuals involved in the modern era. The author’s frequent use of unnecessary descriptions of people and their personal attributes took away from the story. The part about the cats was cool though.

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