DC Music Lover

Another masterpiece from Thomas Savage

Revisado: 12-07-23

I adored this book. I first encountered Savage in his novel "The Power of the Dog"; I saw the movie when it came out a few years ago and didn't like it at all; too self-consciously artsy for my taste. But my bookclub chose to read the Savage novel on which the movie was based, and I was completely blown away by the beauty of the prose. This book, The Sheep Queen, was, if, anything, even better; the way Savage weaves together the various strands of the narrative into a coherent story is quite extraordinary, and George Guidall's narration is pitch-perfect, with absolutely brilliant pacing and timing. Plus, it's downright hilarious in many places. Simply wonderful. I've done something I've never done before, which is that as soon as I finished listening to this book I went back to the beginning and started over. Great stuff.

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Wonderful verse translation of a great work

Revisado: 06-02-20

Highly recommended! I know not one word of Russian, so I can't speak to how faithful/faithless Mary Hobson's translation might be (bearing in mind that Nabokov (and others) have said that the original is completely untranslateable), but to my ears it was an absolute delight, wonderfully brought to life by Neville Jason's reading. It gave me a taste for why this is considered one of the true masterpieces of Western literature.

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Perhaps over-detailed, but wonderful nonetheless

Revisado: 09-08-19

A terrific book, especially for anyone interested in either (a) NYC history and/or (b) the US during the "Gilded Age." Wallace has a slight tendency to go into more detail than is necessary, with long lists of the members of the Board of Directors of various corporations, the various founders of this or that benevolent society, etc., which is the only thing keeping this from being, for me, a 5-star treat. The story of New York City in these years is almost beyond comprehension - it goes from being a large and important city at the end of the 19th century to the capital of world finance, industry, commerce, musical entertainment, movie-making, manufacturing, . . . by 1919. Astonishing.

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Marvelous

Revisado: 06-17-19

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Olmsted's life was sublimely interesting; he spent considerable portions of his life as a "scientific farmer," a newspaper reporter, the author of "travelogues" chronicling his journeys through the American South and England in the early 1850s, the supervisor of mining operations at the Mariposa gold mine in Bear Valley CA, the founder and head of the US Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, . . . - while along the way inventing, almost single-handedly, the profession of landscape architecture in the United States, creating a series of true masterpieces (NYC's Central, Prospect, Morningside, and Riverside Parks, Boston's "Emerald Necklace" parks, the grounds of the US Capitol, the Stanford University campus, among many, many others). Martin's book is wonderfully well-constructed and he tells the story with verve, and I found it extraordinarily interesting from start to finish and, by the end, quite moving.

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Excellent [though concentration is required!]

Revisado: 12-07-18

A wonderful book. Rovelli writes like a poet, and Cumberbatch's narration is sensational. I can't say that I understood everything that he covers on my first listen, but I do feel like it brought me MUCH closer to understanding some very complicated physics, and I'm definitely going to go back to it a second time to see if I can pick up the rest of it ...

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A wonderful volume

Revisado: 12-06-18

I'm a poetry-lover, but for one reason or another Keats never grabbed me ... But this little volume was a real joy and made his language come alive, and it has definitely led me back to the poems for another look. Keats' poetry is, to my ear and eye, complicated, and requires attention and careful reading; hearing it read (and read spectacularly well here) really made it come alive. And the letters are truly spectacular - so beautifully written, so intelligent - and remarkable that they were written by a young man in his 20s. Highly recommended as introduction to Keats' work, and I also am fairly sure that Keats fans will love it as well.

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Wonderful

Revisado: 02-27-17

One of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. I had only the vaguest ideas about Grant's many accomplishments, or about what he was like as a person, as a general, as president, and as a man. This book was brilliantly put together; I learned an enormous amount about an absolutely fascinating person. Highly recommended.

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