Eugene

Insightful look at shame with balanced, well-considered advice

Revisado: 01-24-23

I’m really glad I listened to this. It’s a very insightful look at the many, sometimes subtle ways shame impacts life. It’s approach is very nuanced, encouraging us to understand shame (and related emotions like embarrassment, guilt, etc.) and use it to gain insight about ourselves, while avoiding toxic shame. The book also contains helpful exercises. There are no quick fixes here, but lots of suggestions for slowly developing a healthier relationship with shame over time. I know I’ll be reflecting on what this book says for a long time.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A wonderful, under-read book

Revisado: 08-21-19

This book follows a woman over the course of a summer as she visits a small town on the coast of Maine. She gets to know the townspeople, occasionally becoming involved in their affairs. She observes the natural beauty around her, And she reflects on the local way of life, and just on life. Over the course of the summer, you feel her falling in love with the place and it's inhabitants, and you can't help but fall in love too.

Listening to this was refreshing for my soul. It left me longing, like the narrator, for the simple joys of small town life. Flo Gibson did a great job narrating, as usual. This is particularly impressive because she had to convincingly portray the odd accent and speech patterns of 19th century Maine (which, by the way, are one of the many joys of the book).

Highly recommended to anyone looking for a quiet, meditative, pleasant experience.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Decent reading of a competent sci fi novel

Revisado: 05-23-19

If you're interested in experiencing the Foundation books, this is a good way to do it. How appealing this story is to you will be a matter of taste, but its unquestionably achieved "classic" status. And I can see why. The story does a pretty good job exploring some interesting "sci-fi" concepts. And it's paced well. It does its world building without getting too bogged down in jargon and lore, and there's usually some suspenseful thing happening to keep you interested in what will happen next. The several plot twists are handled well. They're surprising without feeling cheap. Considering that this was written in the 40s and 50s, I can see why it was a huge hit, and it's aged surprisingly well even after almost 70 years.

But personally I view this as a merely competent genre book, and I don't have any particular urge to finish this series. There are too many things that, though they may have been tolerable or even original at the time this was published, are now tired and tiresome cliches in lots of contemporary, mediocre sci-fi. I only have so much patience for the story frame of a tech-savvy know-it-all outsmarting everyone else, and this structure repeats itself over and over again in the novel. Most characters other than the main protagonist in each part are portrayed as borderline buffoons (though often with pretensions of genius). This is just one example of a general hokiness that I found grating. Characters don't speak naturally, they laboriously describe their thoughts and reasoning, often clumsily inserting bits of history or exposition. Most of the main characters have a preternatural ability to predict what all the other characters will do--even when those other characters are complete strangers from alien planets. The five or six protagonists are supposed to be different characters from different eras spanning 200 years, but they all blend together. They're all hardened pragmatists who hold their cards close to their chests and, apparently, have never had an experience of self-doubt or uncertainty. And indeed, their plans tend to go off without a hitch, despite seeming to depend on many uncontrollable factors. Finally, although I would not call the book shallow, Asimov just appears not to be interested in teasing social commentary, philosophical ruminations or human insights out of his stories--he just wants to advance the plot. And the plot is good! But I wanted more.

Regarding the narration, Scott Brick is a fitting choice for this book, though I don't mean that as a compliment. Brick's delivery, in my experience, tends to be melodramatic and lacking in nuance, and I found that to be the case here too. It's like Calculon from Futurama is reading the book to you, which is actually a good fit for this material, but not to my taste.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Oddly captivating

Revisado: 02-13-19

There's just something about this book that is hypnotic. The characters are so strange but for all their eccentricities seem like real people. They usually tell their stories in this forthright, vulnerable way that's disarming, but still you suspect they're lying and holding things back, and then too everything is mediated through the narrator, so there are multiple layers distorting the truth. Basically the whole thing is a series of conversations between really smart characters about random events from their lives. There's not much action to speak of, but the conversations are fascinating and there's always some subtext that adds tension or mystery or pathos to the conversation. You sense the characters testing each other all the time, subtly or not so subtly. I listened to this months ago but I'm still thinking about it and I'm sure I'll listen to it again (after I finish the series). The performance is perfect as well, and conveys the narrator's detachment and intelligence.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Always unique, usually quite good, sometimes meh

Revisado: 02-13-19

All of these stories are weird. I thought some were excellent, whether because they were wrenching and heartbreaking or humorous and dry, or mysterious and captivating--sometimes all at the same time! A couple of the stories I found tedious, but overall the quality is high, and the author's sheer inventiveness made me want to keep listening even when I wasn't engaged with the characters in a given story. I'd recommend these to anyone with who tolerates or better yet embraces the strange and original.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Fascinating stories

Revisado: 02-13-19

These are fascinating stories for those interested in pre-WW2 Germany (and who isn't?). And they're also just fascinating stories about a rootless but likeable young man in a weird-bordering-surreal time and place in history. I recommend them. The performer deserves extra praise for convincingly rendering so many characters of different ages, genders and nationalities.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Classic stories, impressive production

Revisado: 02-13-18

The quality of this production is really impressive. Instead of one narrator reading the stories, it's a whole cast of actors inhabiting the various characters, and all of them do excellent work. The sound effects and music are also very well done, and add an enjoyable layer of atmosphere to the stories.

The stories themselves are classics. I don't believe they have any great depth but they are high quality children's literature and a worthy listen. I was a bit disappointed that more stories from the Jungle Book are not included (only select stories featuring Mowgli). And, although the stories go in chronological order and proceed coherently, there are some small continuity issues that bugged me (e.g., certain characters who aren't formally introduced but just pop up out of nowhere). It's not a major issue, but it got me to thinking what might have been if the producers had included the whole Jungle Book instead of just selected stories. (It's not too late, producers!)

I enjoyed this production as an adult, but I would especially recommend it to families, as the different voices and sound effects may draw in children that aren't quite ready for a pure audiobook experience. Although the stories are mostly appropriate for children, they do include some violence and death, though these portions are not described in a graphic way--so be aware of that if your kids are particularly young or sensitive.

Overall, a wonderful production!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Great historical overview with a military focus

Revisado: 02-06-18

This is a very good historical overview of the Civil War at a "medium" level of complexity. It assumes a general understanding of the history of the war and the prominent people involved in it, which is good because this frees up the professor to spend more time talking about things you wouldn't necessarily have learned in, say, a high school history class. I learned a lot! The professor is fantastic--very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, with a clear speaking voice and a very well-organized presentation.

Although I whole-heartedly recommend the course, I wish it had spent more time exploring history before and after the war. There is only one lecture on the causes of the war, and there are NO lectures on reconstruction or the historical aftermath of the war. There are also no lectures about Lincoln, and surprisingly little discussion about Lincoln generally. The professor does a great job of describing the personalities of dozens of people with prominent roles in the war--which was great!--but never really gives Lincoln this personalized treatment. Perhaps he assumes everyone is already familiar with him. In sum, this course is overwhelmingly focused on the war itself and not so much on how it fits in with the rest of American history.

Also, this course is very focused on the military side of the war--i.e., which armies moved where and when, play-by-plays of various battles, etc. I'd say this military aspect takes up 60-70 percent of the course. A very broad range of other topics are covered as well, including political, social and economic aspects of the war, but the military aspects get more time than everything else combined. So, if military history isn't your jam, you might want to look elsewhere.

In sum, although I would have preferred a slightly different emphasis in terms of time spent on various topics, this is a fabulous and wide-ranging course and I fully recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the topic of the Civil War.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

A surprisingly funny coming of age story

Revisado: 01-24-18

I love this book. It follows a young boy with a cold, overbearing father and loving but profoundly misguided mother on his journey from youth to adulthood. The story is told from the point of view of an old family friend, and the events are therefore filtered through the perceptions and prejudices of this iconoclastic and opinionated character, who fills the text with biting, hilarious asides about the other characters and the society in which they live. He's my favorite part about the whole book, and there are many other very well-drawn characters too. But the story is also interesting on a plot level and on the level of a social critique, which is nearly as applicable today as I imagine it was when this book was written. I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy classic novels. If you don't enjoy stories told at a leisurely pace in an old fashioned (but always elegant) style then this won't be your cup of tea.

Also, the narration in this audio edition is spot on. Frederick Davidson does an excellent job enacting the sneering, condescending but utterly likable narrator.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

An all-time favorite

Revisado: 01-24-18

I can't say much about George Saunders that hasn't already been said, but I can verify that his praise is well earned. These stories are original to the point of quirkiness, laugh-out-loud funny, satirical, and profoundly sad--all together and at the same time. Saunders is very skilled at making you care about his hapless, flawed characters, so when they experience joy and hope or, more often, disappointment, humiliation and defeat, you deeply empathize with them. There are also a bunch of fascinating, sometimes tragic, sometimes fun science fiction elements to these stories, which I really enjoyed.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for hilarious, tragic, deeply moving stories from a very original voice.

Oh, and Saunders does an excellent job narrating his own writing. Somehow his voice really fits the characters, which I mean as a compliment, but which he might consider an insult.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña