Cynthia

While the World was on Fire

Revisado: 04-19-25

I’m mostly a non-fiction reader, but my book club is reading the Resistance Girls series. At first I was annoyed by Lili Hamilton, the spoiled daughter of Madeline de Dragoncourt (a WWI resistance fighter from “In Picardy’s Fields”) who overly-dramatically dumped her best friend Ian right before they were to announce their engagement. I came close to setting aside the book.

Not finishing would have deprived me from a well plotted and well told story that I won’t forget, and a character who grew into bravery and likability. There were political twists in a part of Europe that I’d never even thought of going through WWII. Lili did unexpected things. The fiction gave me a first person perspective that doesn’t happen with non-fiction, unless it’s memoir. The last few chapters were such a pull that I stayed up late one night to finish the book.

I am critical of the artificial voice narrating the series. The voice is pleasant, but there are some jarring mistakes. “Ian” was pronounced half a dozen ways - and there should be a difference in the way polish and Polish are pronounced. But - I wouldn’t have had time to read the series in text, so not so great audio better than no Audio at all.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Grabbed Me

Revisado: 04-15-25

This is the fourth book in Hannah Byron’s Resistance Girls series. It had me careening from dread to hope to admiration and horror and empathy, sometimes all in the same chapter.

Esther Weiss, the adored daughter of a venerable Viennese Jewish family, was carefully raised to become a cultured upper class wife. Underneath the veneer, she was surprisingly quick to anger, incredibly athletic, and had a growing feeling of existential dread. She was months away from marrying Carl Bernstein when the Anschluss happened, turning Australia into part of Nazi Germany.

I’m American, and what was happening in Scandinavia in WWII is glossed over in schools, probably because the US Military wasn’t involved in battles there. I learned a lot with this book, and I plan on learning more.

While I LOVE the book, the narration was not great. It’s an automated voice, and it can be horribly inconsistent. After 4 books in the series I’ve gotten used to it, but there are jarring mispronunciations that sometimes yank me out of the story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

WWI - The Mothers of the Resistance

Revisado: 04-04-25

I belong to a women’s book club that’s reading Hannah Byron’s Resistance Girls series this year, but because of work and a commute, I didn’t have time to read the first two books. I was thrilled when the Audible versions were released in time for the March meeting. I promptly listened to Book 3 “The Parisian Spy” (we all liked it, especially the way it made WWII Paris a real place) and then I started at the beginning with “In Picardy’s Fields.”

Picardy is set in WWI France. A very young surgeon Agnès is mentored by an American physician Alan Bell. They run a surgical hospital in a château, converted into wartime use. I like the way the author discusses the medical procedures in use in 1918, and the inevitable loss of life caused by infection (antibiotics were discovered a decade later). Madeline, a member of the aristocratic family who has lived in the château for centuries, is an ambulance diver who helps wrest control of the hospital away from the Germans who occupied it towards the end of the war.

There were several shocking turns in the book, and I liked that it wasn’t predictable. I did get my little heart unexpectedly broken early on.

There was a monkey in the book that I found distracting, but it wasn’t so off putting it made me stop the listen.

The narration - well, it’s an automated voice. It’s a pleasant voice, but there are issues. It’s inconsistent in pronouncing names, and Agnès was one of them. And sometimes, it just says the wrong word - once it was the word whole, but read with an ‘r’ where the ‘l’ is. That misspeak yanked me right out of the story and back to my real life.

I’m off to the next listen, “The Diamond Courier.”

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

La Résistance

Revisado: 03-21-25

I belong to a Woman Veterans on line book club, and ‘The Parisian Spy’ was the March pick. The January pick was ‘In Picardy’s Fields’ and February was ‘The Diamond Courier’. I hadn’t been able to find the time to read-read any of them but Audible suddenly released them all last week, in time for me to get the listen in before my meeting. I was glad at first and thrilled by the end of the book.

Océane Bell is a French American student studying medicine at the Sorbonne. The circumstances that bought her to a Europe on the brink of a world war were quite interesting and gave her motivations that were compelling. She often did unexpected things, and was rarely a cliché.

Hannah Byron weaves in actual locations and historical figures into the story with ease. There’s the fictional artist Jean-Jacques Riveau, called Rémix, Océane’s boyfriend, who knows real French painters. Byron describes the actual Paris SS counterintelligence (Sicherheitsdienst) headquarters at 84 Rue Foch and creates the fictional Dieter von Stein, who appears to have been based on the actual Hans Josef Kieffer, as its evil head. Byron doesn’t give an overview of the place, she describes it only from the point of view of her characters. Her narrative doesn’t intrude; it encourages learning more.

That brings me to the Audible narration. It’s an artificial voice, and while it is pleasant, there were some jarring misreads - using the word genealogist for gynecologist will sure pull you out of a story about a doctor real fast. I don’t speak German, but the French in the narrative - ouch. I didn’t know there were so many ways to pronounce The Seine, or for that matter, Océane or her nickname, Océ. I got used to it and stopped noticing it after a while, and the story and the characters were worth riding it out. I do hope the author’s publishers find their way to giving this book the top notch Audible performance it deserves. Bahni Turpin or XE Sands would be great for this.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Accident (Excellent) Audible Listen

Revisado: 01-01-24

I’ve lived in Los Angeles since 1986, but I’m not a Guns & Roses fan. Yes, I recognize and like a few of their songs but my innate dislike of crowds means no clubs and I’m sure not going to an arena. I never bought a ‘GNR’ album either, although “Paradise City” (1987) is on my Spotify run list. It’s got the right beats per minute for my tempo.

That means I’m not sure how or why Duff McKagan’s audible “It’s So Easy (and Other Lies)” (2012) ended up in my Audible library, but there it was. I give every Audible that comes my way a chance, and it took a good five minutes before I was hooked.

McKagan’s Los Angeles in the 1980’s was the dirty, lost and mournfully lyrical version of Sunset Strip and the junkies and whores on Franklin. His 2012 version of the San Fernando Valley, mostly bland and inoffensive except for the Very Well Off rock musician who was advised to Buy A House.

McKagan’s story of addiction and sobriety is fascinating. I did not know it was possible to drink as much as he was drinking and still be alive. At one point, it was 10+ bottles at a time. He’s sober now, but that was a journey longer than any miles he traveled on tour.

So, highly recommend this audible. The 3 on performance? Well, I really like an author narration.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I Really Wanted to Hate This, But . . .

Revisado: 01-01-24

When I heard about this book, there was no way I was going buy it. Liz Cheney? Wasn’t she that ultra- conservative, ultra-powerful, right wing congress person that somehow got on the wrong side of Trump and decided to go out in a blaze of glory? Somehow, supposedly insulated in my California blue bubble, I managed to buy into TFG’s narrative without even knowing I’d heard it.

“Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning” (2023) is Liz Cheney’s story of her unwavering commitment to her oath to uphold the constitution. She, like other representatives, was a physical target of insurrectionists on Jan 6, 2021. Unlike so many other politicians who folded when it became apparent that the former president still had political power, Cheney stood her ground. She served on the January 6 Commission and tried to uncover what happened on that Dark Day for Democracy. She paid with her seat in congress, but not with her soul.

Cheney’s insight into the workings of the January 6 Commission is both deeply detailed in its operation, but expansive in its current and historical context. That makes for a fascinating listen.

Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, is an important part of her political and moral heritage, and in the book. Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney were the architects of the January 3, 2021 letter signed by all living Secretaries of Defense, telling the now former president that he had lost the election and needed to commit to a peaceful transition in power. The description of how that happened is alone worth the book.

Cheney is an excellent narrator. She showed that in the January 6 hearings.

Will I vote for her should she run for national office? I don’t know, and I’m sure not a Republican. Will I listen to her if she does run? Sure, she’s got courage and that deserves attention and respect.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

More than I Expected

Revisado: 01-01-24

I thought this was just going to be an explanation of the techniques the citizen investigators or “sleuths” used to identify participants in the January 6th uprising. I wondered how it could be so long, but it has so much more.

The author focused on a number of participants who were not and still are not well known; how they got involved in the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement; who identified them, and how; and what has happened to the participants at trial, or if they pleaded guilty. There’s a lengthy epilogue/update that is well worth the listen.

I expected a political slant that just was not there. Instead, I got an understanding of how average Americans - or in some cases, very wealthy Americans - got caught up in the movement. I also learned how posting too much on Facebook and instagram gave more than a few away, whether it was by boasting or just wearing the same jewelry in photos taken at the Capitol.

The FBI sure didn’t come across as being agile or particularly adept. They really needed the sleuths help.

Ryan J. Reilly, the author, narrated the book. I enjoyed the narration and the way he used tone of voice to convey opinions that weren’t written.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Nevertheless, She Persisted

Revisado: 09-15-18

I am not Stephen King’s Number 1 Fan - that’s a title that belongs to Annie Wilkes of “Misery” (1987) so adeptly played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 movie. I have, however, been a Constant Reader since the summer I was 13, when in one week of late nights and heat lightning, I discovered “Carrie” (1974), “The Shining” (1977) and “Night Shift” (1978). I’ll read anything he’s written and watch most movies, although I think most of his work is best adapted as a miniseries.

I don’t know Owen King’s work as well, but Stephen does well with co-writers - “The Talisman” (1984) with Peter Straub was wonderful, so I was looking forward to listening to “Sleeping Beauties” (2018).

It’s more than a 25 hour listen and it is 736 pages in print. There’s an Easter egg on the Audible - an recorded interview with both Mr. Kings - so it’s a lot for your Audible credit.

The town “Sleeping Beauties” was set in - Dooling - was vividly imagined. On Audible, it’s pronounced ‘dueling’ which gives it a whole different meaning. I ended up with a very detailed mental map of the Dooling Correctional Facility and the town that it supported and that supported it. I could even feel the weather.

The characters were well created, carefully considered, and there wasn’t a trope among them. Evie, the mysterious stranger who holds the key to so much destruction, is fascinating. I think she might be a cousin of “Rose Madder” (1995). The woman sheriff and warden are the kind of people you trust and respect, and there’s no condescension in any work they do and no stereotyped descriptions.

However, there were so many characters - particularly among the women inmate characters - that I mixed them up. Several times, I found myself bewildered by the reintroduction of someone I didn’t remember.

Maybe it wouldn’t have happened if I had listened to the book straight through, but I didn’t. “Sleeping Beauties” didn’t hold my interest steadily, so I Interrupted it for other books. The premise was interesting - what if every woman went to sleep and couldn’t be woken up? - but the plot involved too much suspension of disbelief, even for someone who’s been suspending disbelief and enjoying Stephen King’s books for decades.

The performance by Marin Ireland was something else, though. It was so well narrated that I wondered if it had been written with her in mind. It is entirely possible - the book started out life as a teleplay.

The book was dedicated to Sandra Bland, a young Black woman who committed suicide in jail shortly after being arrested without a good reason.

The title of this review is a quote from the book, which is itself a quote from the 2017 US Senate censure of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

[If this review helped, please press YES Thanks.]

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

War is Controlled Violence

Revisado: 09-15-18

“There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men.”

Yes, this is the book that the 1997 Paul Verhoeven film “Starship Troopers” is (very loosely) based on. The major characters have the same names. There’s Mobile Infantryman Johnny Rico, Pilot Cadet Carmen Ibanez, and MI Platoon Leader Lt. Jean Rasczak. The enemy is still Arachnids, and Bugs are a relentless killing machine, driven by a hive mind. The mission is to find the bug brain.

However, Robert Heinlien’s book “Starship Troopers” (1959) is not fantasy SciFi with sculpted 20 somethings on a jaunt to save Earth.

I haven’t been able to confirm that it’s actually on the reading list for West Point or any other service academy, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was. It’s a huge bundle of combat command theory and best practices wrapped into lively military science fiction. Some of the theories and techniques Mr. Heinlein explored more than half a century ago were well established then and are still in use now. I’m an enlisted military veteran and recognize what he describes.

Mr. Heinlein’s insights into unit cohesion are presented in a way that a young officer candidate without any real military experience is going to understand them. (No, officer candidates - don’t go around punching each other out in training, and no, flogging soldiers isn’t acceptable anymore, no matter what kind of disciplinary example it sets.)

Parts of the book are jarring for other reasons. In real life, Mr. Heinlein was a proponent of both nuclear energy and nuclear arms. At one point, the book has a brief discussion about how the inhabitants of another planet are disadvantaged because they are not exposed to radiation and do not have genetic mutations. That was disconcerting.

The narration sounded a little older than the characters, but it was a good listen.

The title of the review is a quote from the book.

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

The person you hire when the heroes fail

Revisado: 08-09-18

“I’m the person you hire when the heroes have already come home in body bags.” -MH

Ii like to listen to Audible books when I am hiking and trail running. I got 25 miles in (with a net elevation gain of 3,967 feet) listening to Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Trail of Lightning” (2018). In two days. When the average temperature was 96 degrees, and the air was thick with smoke from the worst California wildfires in recorded history.

I’m tired, slightly dehydrated, 3 pounds lighter, and as happy as I can be knowing that I’m going to have to wait another year for the next book in The Sixth World Series, “Storm of Locusts” (2019). What’s even more extraordinary? Audible was my second trip with Monsterslayer Maggie Hoskie; the gorgeous, ethereal Healer Kai Arviso and his grandfather Tah; the trickster Coyote (Ma’li); and the immortal monsterslayer Neizgháni, The print edition was released several months before the Audible, and “Trail of Lightning” was so well reviewed I just couldn’t wait. The Audible did not disappoint, and the cover art for the print edition is so gorgeous I’m happy to have both.

The book starts, “The monster has been here . . . I can also smell the child he’s stolen.” What a chilling way to begin a story. Who - or what - is the monster? And who made the monster? Who is the child, who are her parents, who are her clans? Who has what clan powers?

Coyote is always present, preening and dressed in Western finer. He cajoles, diverts, amuses - and as always, tricks and lies.

Coyote’s adversary is Maggie Hoskie, the protege of Neizgháni. Mags (as Kai calls her) has clan powers that make her a warrior. She’s a killer with a conscience, horrified by what she thinks people think of her because of her abilities. Mags is fully armed and as adept with knives as guns. She’s fierce and unforgettable.

A few weeks before I listened to “Trail of Lightning” I happened to take a trip to Dinétah. I was able to geographically set the locations of The Sixth World. It’s serenely, austerely beautiful now, with soaring red gold mesas; and a sere island refuge after the New Madrid fault and the Big Water created a new coast and a new country in the book.

I thought Tanis Parenteau was a wonderful narrator, but to be fair - I’m not Diné (Navajo) and I don’t speak that language. Ms. Parenteau is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Canada. The Navajo seemed natural in the narration, not forced.

The title of the review is a modified quote from the book.

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thank you.]

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 186 personas