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Fascinating story of an amazing woman

Revisado: 09-05-24

I couldn't stop listening to this one. The narrator is excellent and the story of Catherine better than a novel. In terms of historical veracity, I suspect the book is quite good, but it is revisionist history absolving the queen from some of the horrors of the French wars of religion.

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Fabulous reader, boring main character

Revisado: 07-07-24

The narrator switched seamlessly between accents, and was a delight to listen to. However, no amount of detailed description could rescue the story from the fact that Cal was a flat, one-dimensional character.

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I couldn't finish it

Revisado: 04-17-24

I was very much looking forward to this book--I preordered it and was excited about listening to it. However, it was a disappointment. The tone is rather preachy, as opposed to being inspiring or enlightening. There appears to be no organization--topics come and go for no apparent reason. Looking at reviews of the printed/Kindle versions, I see that there are no chapters, which means that one is hearing free form "now I'm thinking about." That was a mistake. I made it through 4 hours and can't face another 8.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Fabulous information about a little known period

Revisado: 07-19-23

I’m astounded that I knew nothing about the quite fascinating Merovingian period before—a real eye opener. Well worth listening to for those interested in overlooked female heroes.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Excellent light fiction

Revisado: 07-14-23

Sucker is a throughly enjoyable bit of timely escapist writing. While the plot tracks the Theranos debacle, Hornsby manages enough deft twists to keep the book both original and entertaining. The Audible narration is tone perfect for the somewhat obnoxious first person voice. Definitely a fun read/listen.

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This book doesn't know what it wants to be

Revisado: 05-18-23

While viewing history from another perspective is usually a valuable exercise, putting on your ideological blinkers and seeing only what you want to see is not. Cooney, somewhat late in her career, has discovered that the world is biased in favor of the rich and powerful, who have a tendency to lie and cheat to maintain their position. Who knew? Her response is to announce that the “patriarchy” is behind all the evils of the world and that particularly egregious examples can be found in the five pharaohs she discusses. Their careers are tied to current events and policies that Cooney finds objectionable through very tenuous comparisons to modern figures. Supporting data for her various claims are almost entirely lacking.

As a full disclosure, I’m a left-leaning feminist, and I had no patience with this book. A rant against the system can be a fine thing, but The Good Kings works neither as a plea for a more just society nor as a history of ancient Egypt.

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Very good book, painful reading style

Revisado: 05-14-23

This is a very thorough history of English from the reign of Charles I to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and will be of special interest to those who have read Robert Harris' novel "Act of Oblivion." It is especially good at describing how the upheavals of the 17th century affected different social classes.
So yes, I very much recommend the book, but people might want to consider the print version. As another reviewer has noted, the reading is painfully slow (setting the listening speed to 1.2 helps with that), and just about every sentence is read with the same stress and intonation.

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Fascinating

Revisado: 08-23-22

Excellent narration and much more than the title suggests. I consider this course a well-done survey of US cultural and social trends.

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Chinese names completely incomprehensible

Revisado: 06-27-22

I listened to the entire book because I admire Jonathan Spence's scholarship, but it was hard going. Unlike some reviewers, I didn't mind the narrator's very British accent, but I would like to throw a fit about the pronunciation of the Chinese names and terms. Unless the listener already has a good grasp of modern Chinese history, it is impossible to know who is being spoken about. What one essentially hears is Garble Garble Garble from Garble Garble province did something or other. This is not communication and it doesn't help people learn about China. At a bare minimum, narrators should spend an hour or so becoming acquainted with the phonetic system of any language that will frequently appear in the book being read.

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Really interesting

Revisado: 09-03-20

Well delivered fascinating lectures. I learned a great deal. I recommend this for anyone interested in the period.

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