Deborah Jacob

A Pioneering Woman Journalism

Revisado: 12-21-24

I remember and admired Connie Chung as a journalist. Her memoir reminds me of the difficulties women faced entering the work force in my generation. As a Chinese woman, her challenges were doubly difficult. Chung's honest reflections and wry sense of humor make this an interesting and entertaining memoir. True to form, her memoir is unique, organised and presented with well-placed asides and non-traditional structure. Her comments about Dan Rather are interesting too. I haven't read any memoir that has anything good to say about him. I highly recommend the audio version of this book with Chung's strong, mesmerising voice narrating her story.

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A creative, fun, thought-provoking memoir

Revisado: 12-03-24

Cher's story turned out to be one of my favorite memoirs. It's honest and unpretentious. She has an amazing ability to capture all of the complext characters around her. Always upbeat and never maudlin, she doesn't descend into anger or emotional reaxtions. Carefully she analyzes everyone and everything that happened in her life in a fair way, presenting their good, bad, ungly and quirky sides to make them feel more human and interesting. It's a fun read, with many points to consider. There's the usual ones found in any memoir: family, relationships, love, turst and success, but there are also many lessons on individuality and resilience. There's never a dull moment with Cher. The audio book is brilliant. Each chapter begins with Cher's voice narrating. Then another narrator that sounds like a younger Cher takes over. The contrast creates an interesting contrast.

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A Journalistic Treat

Revisado: 11-02-24

Scott Pelley knows how to tell a story, and to hear his thoughts about his most compelling stories in his own voice is a real treat. It's like having a front-row seat to a 60 Minutes marathon. This is a must-read for every aspiring journalist and any history buff. His thematic structure is engaging and thought-provoking. His tips on writing are priceless. This is one of my favorite books.

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From worms to AI

Revisado: 07-01-24

A fascinating, systematic look at intelligence from prehistoric life to current artificial intelligence, Max Solomon Bennett divides intelligence into five stages, which create the structure for the book. Scientific, yet highly readable for a general audience, Bennett offers a compelling look at how the past shapes the future as we debate the pros and cons of AI. The narrator for the audible.com version is superb, clear and engaging. I love the narrator's smooth, never jerky, voice and pacing of the story.

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The Brilliant life of Jean Rhys

Revisado: 08-19-23

Miranda Seymour captures Jean Rhys's complex personality, her volatile relationship with men, her struggle as an immigrant and writer like no one else. She does an admirable job in separating the person from the writer, a problem most people have when they read Rhys. Actor Diana Quick's narration is exciting, finely nuanced and riveting. Rhys is not an easy subject to write about, but Seymour makes readers feel like they are int he same room with Rhys.

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Disappointing on every level.

Revisado: 04-11-23

I know the effort it takes to write a book, and I rarely give a book a review this low, but this novel just didn't cut it or live up to the description that lured me to this book. The Bandit Queens has and incredulous plot that feels forced with its constant allusions to India's real bandit queen. There were ample opportunities to make readers believe this was a novel about women breaking with tradition and standing up for themselves, but it just races ahead with endless prattle that I found neither funny nor profound. She threw in a dog story, some threats and blackmail, none of which gripped me because I found the dialogue pedestrian and the characters unworthy of sympathy. I never got the feeling the author really knew India or could make it feel real to the reader or listener. The narrator's voice did not fit the book. It felt disconcerting not to have her voice telling a story about India. Her renditions of the dialogue felt forced and false. Can't say when last I felt so disappointed about a book.

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Author and Narrator Bring Caravaggio to Life

Revisado: 04-01-23

Andrew Graham-Dixon's biography is a riveting read that brings Caravaggio to life. I am always leery of biographies on people who have gaping holes in their background, but Graham-Dixon fills them admirably well by looking at the places and paintings that defined Caravaggio's life in those periods where little is known about him. Edoardo Ballerini's narration is mesmerising as usual. This is a magical read because of the author's superb ability to make readers feel like they know Caravaggio. I cried from the shere beauty of the ending, one of the best endings for a book I have read.

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A Reminder of the Power of Rhetoric

Revisado: 02-28-23

Cicero is one of the fascinating characters of ancient history -- not because of his military might, but because of his power of rhetoric. Harris makes the Roman orator come alive in a suspense-filled character-driven trilogy with more than its fair share of suspense -- even though we know the outcome of the policital events that surround Cicero. Meticulous researches enrich the setting. Equally important is Harris's treatment of Terentia, Cicero's wife, who emerges as a interesting, complex character in her own right. David Rintoui's narration is simply brilliant.

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Much More Than Victor Newman

Revisado: 02-28-23

After eye surgery, I was just looking for a light book to listen to on audible.com. Eric Braeden's autobiography read in Braeden's/Victor Newman's voice sounded like the perfect choice, but Braeden's autobiography surprised me. It's mesmerizing, entertaining, thought-provoking and full of surprises. Braeden purpose-driven life unfolds in his quest to make his parents happy. When his father died at a young age, Braeden has to redefine his world as a child. Braeden's story was especially meaningful to me because of his recollections of growing up in Nazi Germany. Growing up, my mom who grew up in Nazi Germany as a displaced immigrant told stories of people walking with wheelbarrows full of money to buy a loaf of bread and stories of my grandmother digging through farmers' harvested field for potatoes. To hear Braeden speak of these same events felt like a validation of my mom's stories. While the autobiography is clearly a chronicle of how he turned a soap opera role into an iconic character, it's also the story of how he used that character on a world stage to make important statements against prejudice. His most interesting conflict comes from reconciling himself with the fact his father belonged to the Nazi party because of Hiter's pre-Holocaust, economic policies. His story is a chilling reminder of how ordinary people get sucked into extremism and the difficulties -- if not impossibility -- of extracting themselves from turning political tides. This is an honest, witty, profound autobiography built on meaningful anecdotes that create a vivid picture of Braeden's life.

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Where the Air is Rare

Revisado: 02-12-23

I can't think of a single word I can write about this book that would capture its brilliance, uniqueness and beauty. Anything I say seems it will give something away and deprive the reader from the discovering what this novel is about. It is msemerizing, suspenseful, quirky, thought-provoking and deeply meaningful. I don't know about you, but it will haunt me in an important way for the rest of my life. I don't know how any writer can accomplish what Susanna Clarke did in this book. The audible narration is perfect.

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