PilatesGirl

Compelling story, very well written

Revisado: 07-16-24

We had just seen the Broadway musical based on this book, which I’d seen but not yet read. The show was so good that as soon as we got home I downloaded the audio book and was immediately hooked. The show cut a lot of material out of the book, by necessity, and cleaned it up considerably as far as the criminal activity was concerned, in order to make it suitable for general audiences. So it served as a kind of appetizer for the main course, this novel. The young and old Jacob as lead characters were the same in both, and the other main characters such as Marlena, Augie, and the owner were fleshed out. The brutality of the circus life in the context of the Great Depression and its grinding poverty, made the lives of everyone who worked for the circus that much grimmer and seemingly inescapable. I found it to be extremely atmospheric and almost hypnotic, a real page turner (if an audiobook can be one) that i didn’t want to end. I loved it even more than I loved the show, and that’s saying a lot.

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Worst narrator ever

Revisado: 05-26-24

Erik Larson is a favorite of mine, so I was eager to get this new book. I’ve read the others but due to recent eye problems need to rely on audiobooks, and this one has got to be in the top three of worst-narrated ones Audible has ever inflicted on an unsuspecting public. I’m not even sure it was just one reader, but the mumbling, extremely soft voice was such an irritant that I almost gave up before getting even halfway through. For God’s sake, Audible, hire professional actors who can speak and enunciate clearly!

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Fascinating insight into the creative process

Revisado: 03-17-24

After a slow start, the facts being presented began to outweigh the soft-spoken narrator’s almost monotone delivery and slowly but surely I was hooked. I love the theatre, musical theatre in particular, but know absolutely nothing about music so I found some of this difficult to follow (but enjoyable nonetheless). What came through loud and clear was the extraordinary talent of Mr. Hammerstein and the absolute joy he took in creating these wonderful musicals. He and his creative partners created magic, and I’ve been lucky enough to see modern revivals of many of them. While they may be old-fashioned, there’s a place for them on Broadway, just as there is for “Six” and other contemporary concept musicals. Rogers & Hammerstein were gods for a time, and their work remains divine (at least to me).

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Timely and meaningful

Revisado: 12-21-22

I’m so glad that John Meacham narrated his book himself. I love the sound of his voice - calm, soothing, deep - and have enjoyed seeing him on various MSNBC programs. He’s the perfect person to write a book about Lincoln, and his knowledge and insight were evident.

The horrifying mentality of wealthy southern whites is nothing new, and the twisted minds that could view a society based on slavery is both appalling and incomprehensible. And yet it continues to this day. I can’t help but think that Lincoln made a mistake and should’ve left Dixie’s secession alone. It would have sunk in the mire of its own making at some point, and avoided the deaths of half a million soldiers.

Lincoln was absolutely correct in viewing slavery as the abomination it was, but he was mistaken in believing that he could force those whose lavish lifestyles depended on it into giving that up and actually having to do their own work to earn their living.

In any case, this book was, as is always the case with Mr. Meacham, beautifully written, and this audio book is beautifully narrated as well. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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Illuminating & terrifying

Revisado: 11-12-22

This is an excellent dissection of the corpse that is the later Republican Party - I was a lot more oblivious back in the 1970s and 80s, but even so, I could sense that something wasn’t right.

Little did I realize how “not right” things were, but when I got interested in the Civil War (50+ books later) the parallels between the 1850s and now were patently obvious. The incomprehensible, twisted, bigoted mindset that basically tanked any hope for a “United States” has been there since well before that war, and the deliberate dumbing down of the citizenry over decades has created a malleable populace of sheep easily led over the cliff.

This is Germany in the 1930s all over again, and it’s appalling.

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Terrific book

Revisado: 10-14-22

I’ve read a lot of post mortems of the debacle that was the previous “administration,” but this one I didn’t want to end. Well-written, informative, engaging, sometimes amusing, evocative, and impossible to put down.

I started it shortly before testing positive for Covid, and this wonderful book helped get me through the Covid/Paxlovid blahs, something for which I will always be grateful.

I was familiar with Peter Baker - one of my favorite talking heads on MSNBC - but not Ms. Glasser, so it’s been a pleasure to “meet” her via this book. Their work here was very therapeutic, and for that I will be forever grateful. Looking forward to reading/listening to more of their work.

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A fun read

Revisado: 07-10-22

Having “known” Katy Tur for a few years via watching MSNBC, I was interested in finding out about her life (I love biographies) and was delighted to learn that this young “talking head” has a lively and effervescent personality that lurks behind the prim & proper demeanor required of TV news reporters on air.

Her parents were quite the pair of characters (not being from LA, I wasn’t familiar with them) and so it’s easy to see where she inherited her sparkle and her interest in broadcast news. I always like her on MSNBC, but now I suspect I’ll enjoy watching her even more. Thanks for sharing, Katy!

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Riveting Stories - needed better reader

Revisado: 06-26-22

I hated to see this book end. I’ve been a medical junkie - and have lived in NYC - my entire life, so this title really jumped out at me, and I’m so glad I “caught” it.

Dr. Manheimer is one of those caring, compassionate doctors you want to have for yourself, and it’s a real shame that he gave up treating patients (although I can certainly understand why). His writing is beautiful, evocative, and almost poetic and the stories he relates are powerful and haunting.

His fluency in Spanish and familiarity with the parts of the world so many of these patients came from made him perfect for this administrative job, though, and Bellevue Hospital was (is?) lucky to have him. His compassion and empathy for these people was wonderful and should serve as an inspiration for medical professionals everywhere, whatever their job description might be.

Having heaped all that praise on him, however, I do have to agree with other comments here that his flat, halting, monotone reading detracted from the audiobook. I wonder whether he did it himself because he felt so strongly about what he was saying that he didn’t trust anyone else to do these compelling stories justice, but a professional actor would have - and would have made it so much better.

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Beautifully written, poorly read

Revisado: 05-14-22

Listening to Mr. Meacham’s readings of the beginning & the end was a pleasure - he has a warm, soothing tone that makes even the delivery of bad news seem less so. Having said that, unfortunately I found the rest of the book difficult to listen to - the halting delivery drove me crazy & I almost stopped a number of times. Mr. Sanders sounded like someone reading something written in a language other than his own and its juxtaposition to Mr. Meacham’s readings made it all the more noticeable. Mr. Meacham has much to say, and he always says it so eloquently. This book deserved his voice, not someone else’s.

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Not what I had anticipated

Revisado: 05-01-22

I found this book to be fascinating, not as yet another dissection of the dumpster fire we just endured, but as a treatise on the social phenomena of prejudice (class/color/accent) that seems to endure no matter what efforts are made to try to educate people out of these attitudes.

I was aware of the fact that in the UK one’s accent was a dead giveaway of one’s place of birth and social caste, but I didn’t know how badly it affected people born in the “wrong” areas there. As an American, all I heard was the author’s British accent (and I’ve always loved accents) and wouldn’t have known that it branded her as being somehow lower on the pecking order in the UK. It makes sense, in a perverse way. When everyone is Caucasian, how else are you going to know who to look down on and ridicule?

The parallels between that experience and the problems with race in the US are both startling and self evident at the same time, and the enduring failure to eradicate this kind of mindless bigotry is depressing.
And “mindless” is definitely the word that applies to the former “president” and his minions and acolytes.

I doubt that I’d have had Dr. Hill’s self control and ability to put up with the vicious insanity hurled at her. Major respect ✊ to her for emerging intact.

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