reader mother

took while 2 get n2, but worth staying thru

Revisado: 03-04-25

I am a 60+ yr old former art major/art history lover; I have been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art once decades ago; I usually prefer authors to read their own work, however, this author's voice seemed forced/contrived & was a distraction early on; my initial impression was that the author was a bit arrogant, however, he was very open & honest about his thoughts & experiences & observations; by the end, I was endeared to him personally & appreciated his unique, thoughtful, educated, intellectual approach to the vast collection & the peek at his long tenure on the inside

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well written interesting painful history

Revisado: 02-15-25

an avid Audible listener, I noticed this book as I was familiar with Stewart O'Nan from having much enjoyed his Emily Maxwell trio in hard copy; this book seemed a logical next read on the heels of the very good West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, which took place in the same time period, featured exotic animals, & mentioned both zoos & circuses; I had a vague memory of the circus fire from having read Henry Ringling North's Circus Kings (published 1960) sometime in the 1990s; I was raised in a family that went to the circus; my maternal grandfather never ran away with it but got sawdust in his shoes in his youth, & long after he was an adult & successful entrepreneur, nurtured a soft spot for the glamour circus represented to a poor country boy born in 1899; they explored all over the US as car travel made the country more accessible; the entire state of FL was always a draw; they regularly visited Ringling's Sarasota Winter Quarters & knew personally some of the iconic characters associated with the organization in its heyday; this was part of my now 89 year old mother's childhood; as little girls, she & I were both taken to the Ringling circus when it visited our Birmingham, AL hometown; I am sad to see it from the eyes of an adult & know animal management was often suspect, but thankful to have seen it through the innocent eyes of a child, & to have taken my own elementary age daughter before the classic show ceased to exist; the 1952 Oscar winning star studded movie "The Greatest Show on Earth" portrays it well; Mr O'Nan did exhaustive research & gave a fair honest account of facts, myth, theories, etc; he took readers back to a hot summer weekday in a US city during WW2, to an event that quickly changed from fun escape to horror for victims & those managing the aftermath; I was riveted to read every detail & appreciated the in depth presentation of a complex topic; I appreciated his citing of many sources, sorting fact & fiction, raw forensics, & handling the subject as an episode of routine news in a sea of many disasters over the years in our huge country, as well as a very personal experience for those involved; though many have never heard of this event, have moved well beyond it, & may not be intrigued by it, I found it interesting that 80 years later, it is still remembered by a dwindling circle of survivors & makes the local news on its anniversary

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humorous & heartrending tale of mother/child/aging

Revisado: 02-15-25

this book caught my eye when it popped up on Audible as something I might like, partly because I had been touched by George Hodgman's Bettyville when I read it in 2017; that author was like this one in that they both left successful careers & big city life in NY to go to places of much slower pace & different vibe to care for elderly mothers; I am 63 & my mom is thankfully doing OK on her own at 89 but I wish I still lived 20 minutes from her instead of 6 hours away as she could use more company & assistance; more & more I see my contemporaries caught in webs of multigenerational family; like everything, this has its pros & cons, but people live longer & longer & spread out further & have children later, & cost of living continually increases ... ; adults who have reached "empty nest"/senior citizen status themselves & could be coasting through retirement, may be closely parenting young adult children, & caring for both grandchildren & elderly parents, some while continuing full time careers; this is one thing if the parties live close, but quite another if there is significant travel to get between home base & where services are needed; the reality is very different when $ is not a concern vs when it is tight; I applaud the honesty & humor of the thoughts & emotions of the author as she finds her way on an unexpected life detour; it is both stifling & a blessing to be in a period between focusing primarily on one's own life & providing service to others/ as is often the case, the servant is as blessed as the one served; our roots do matter; I did not appreciate the frequent use of 4 letter words beginning with S & F, & southern Protestant church/religion/Christianity bashing, but did understand the culture clash being portrayed & that the author was sorting things out during the course of her journey; I was greatly touched by the tender detailed story & glad I listened to it; though there are many excellent narrator performances, I always appreciate author's reading their own works as Jo Maeder did; God really does know what He is doing &, like the song says, has the whole world in His hands

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fantastic

Revisado: 07-16-24

this book could be the text for an entire college course on this interesting person & the time she lived as well as continued popularity as times change - history/sociology & human nature/her written works/the individual herself/mystery as a written genre/relationship between author & material/the world of writing/...

I loved the depth of it, & the examination of the subject matter from so many angles, & the comparison of various published works & actual life/historical events

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well researched & very interesting, though a lot

Revisado: 05-09-24

I think this book would be excellent as part of a college course in a variety of areas - society, history, anthropology, England, interior design, etc It was well researched & performed, as well as interesting, but was hard to stay engaged with over the long haul; I am one who listens to audio books to hear a story told & for entertainment, even though I often choose non fiction subject matter; though I lost interest to some extent before I finished, i still recommend it to readers who choose wisely & if this matches what they seek

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honest heartwarming memoir

Revisado: 05-21-22

a touching & interesting behind the scenes look at 1950s - 1970s rural Ireland & bustling New York City; very honest assessment of life of Kennedy employees & intimate family dynamics of America's "royal family"; at beginning of recording, narrator seemed to being trying too hard to do the accents, & sometimes mixed up the Kathy/Jackie transitions, but it evened out nicely for most of the book

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necessary element for serious WWII/Nazi student

Revisado: 04-29-21

this narrator performs well, however, his voice is annoying & distracting to me; thankfully, not enough that I abandon listening when he is reading, but I have heard him do more than one performance, & just feel his voice is too heavy, though the accent may be appropriate; he sounds like the actor who plays the brother on Everybody Loves Raymond -Brad Garrett (Bradley Henry Gerstenfeld)

having consumed undreds of hours of listening & hard copy reading on the vast category of WWII, including The Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich, I can knowledgeably say this book is key to tying together the many parts of the huge area of study/interest; I was aware of questionable "medical" management of Hitler, & of Goering's regular use of drugs for legitimate reasons gone awry, but had NO idea of the massive routine production, experimentation, & implementation of it as a strategy for dealing with reality/tasks before the German civilian population, the military, & high leadership, all of it based on detailed documentation; it adds a whole new level of understanding to the course of things; the author does an excellent job of tying in what was going on with the drug culture to what was going on with the war & various individuals, giving tidbits, where available, about the post war lives of those who survived

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peaceful neighbor for sure

Revisado: 03-10-21

I am a huge fan of Mr Rogers, both as a child who viewed him in the late 60s/early 70s, & as a parent of a now college age child. Like him, I am a Christian, & have long admired his television ministry & life walk from that standpoint. I was disappointed to learn of some of his religious beliefs that seem not to be quite in line with what I think the Bible says, however, each of us has the right to our own opinion, & each of our relationships with God is private, between Creator & created human. The book was quite interesting to me as i had no idea how ahead of & in tune with his times Mr Rogers was with the messages he packaged into his childrens program. The book shows correlations between Mr Rogers' personal life & world events & his programming. There was much more thought & depth than I ever knew. The narrator had a pleasant voice, but was clearly trying to sound as much like Mr Rogers talking as possible. Since it was NOT Mr Rogers himself, this was annoying to hear. I considered not listening to the whole thing, but am glad I did. Mr Rogers was a gift to our world.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

an absolute pleasure

Revisado: 03-10-21

I chose for my Audible library as I have consumed hundreds of hours of a variety of topics of WWII. This was a Holocaust survivor story for sure, but such an exciting uplifting one given where this young man ended up (now an old fellow!) (I will give away no details). I wish he could have read it/been his own narrator since the book is written in the 1st person. The reader sounded like actor Brad Garrett, who played the brother on Everybody Loves Raymond. I have listened to Mr Greenfield on video. He does not sound like that, which detracted from my listening experience. I wish I had had the opportunity to meet & work with Maximilian Gruenfeld. He seems like a joy.

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wish it had gone deeper

Revisado: 02-10-21

I am a Christian & an avid student of WWII. I have NO problem with blatant presentation of the gospel for the furthering of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, however, this book disappointed me somewhat. It seemed more interested in attracting a reader based on the title & the WWII hook, with the intent of presenting the gospel with a goal of salvation of unbelievers/those on the fence. Again, far be it for me to oppose anything that stands in the way of bringing people to God, but I wanted the book to take me deeper than it did into the beliefs/backgrounds/practices of the Nazi movement. I have read Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich & listened to hundreds of hours of WWII material. There was not much here that went beyond what I have been exposed to in other works. A lot was author thoughts, more than documented info. It could have gone into religious backgrounds of individual Nazi leaders, not just Hitler, & discussed the mystical practices of the Nazis & how they twisted the church & the politics to their purposes; maybe lots of that is just not documented, & can only be surmized at this point; it's worth a listen, but is not likely to end up at the top of ones list of favorites, key sources, or recommended works. I wish Dietrich Bonhoeffer had survived to write on this area of interest.

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