Marsha

Wide field of focus for the 500th Anniversary

Revisado: 11-13-17

My appreciation of people of focused courage was piqued by Eric Metaxas when his book on Bonhoeffer came out about 8 years ago. But, when I read that his biography of Luther would come out right before the 500th anniversary of Luther's Wittenberg call for debate, I pre-ordered the Audible book. and started listening the day it was available.
I've read other biographies of Luther, but this one described so well the context of his time, his culture,and his contemporaries. Luther's struggle to bring a meaningful perspective to the lonely, late-night question that each person asks, at least once, about his own relationship with God, resonated with my own experience. Metaxas presents Luther's ultimate conclusion that re-thinking the core message of God's Good News was worth the risk of confronting the Inquisition, and that if he was to be a martyr for the message, there were many facets of the message to thoughtfully present. And Luther presented, not only in large format sermons, and personal Bible study in one's own language, but also in guides written for family discussion and learning. Metaxas describes a man that used every day language (some words very common!) to celebrate people as God's loved creations.
I was also impressed that I was hearing the words read by the author.
AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

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great insight

Revisado: 08-20-17

Was a great listen for those interested in F1 beyond the glam. Technical insight and strategic philosophy make it worth the time.

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We listened to this as we drove through Euskadia

Revisado: 08-07-17

One of my fondest memories of our wandering travels was when we had this book as an audio companion in our rental car as we drove through the Basque areas. Kurlansky;s description of the people, the food and the history of the area was an enrichment I hadn't planned. I meant to listen to this book before we went on our 16 day driving trip, but I ended up packing this and bringing it along on our trip. My husband and I had a great education that helped bring context to the places we were driving through. Bayonne, San Sebastian, Getaria, Pamplona and Bilbao, places that were little pieces of our general understanding of history and literature through our lives became richer from listening to this book. And, the description of Guernica in the book that came as we were driving into Guernica made this indescribable. This may have not been a scholarly tome that some listeners were expecting, but our experience was wonderful, and has led us to a great appreciation of the people who culturally have always been in and from this area.

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We listened to this as we drove through Euskadia

Revisado: 08-07-17

One of my fondest memories of our wandering travels was when we had this book as an audio companion in our rental car as we drove through the Basque areas. Kurlansky;s description of the people, the food and the history of the area was an enrichment I hadn't planned. I meant to listen to this book before we went on our 16 day driving trip, but I ended up packing this and bringing it along on our trip. My husband and I had a great education that helped bring context to the places we were driving through. Bayonne, San Sebastian, Getaria, Pamplona and Bilbao, places that were little pieces of our general understanding of history and literature through our lives became richer from listening to this book. And, the description of Guernica in the book that came as we were driving into Guernica made this indescribable. This may have not been a scholarly tome that some listeners were expecting, but our experience was wonderful, and has led us to a great appreciation of the people who culturally have always been in and from this area.

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great book

Revisado: 09-02-15

Arturo weaves a fantastic story that will not let you stop listening. worth the time.

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Combining the disparate!

Revisado: 09-28-13

I just finished listening (for the second time) this book. I remember consuming the story when it came out in one big gulp the first time I read it, but this time I distinctly cherished each piece. The vast variety of characters (all well characterized by narrator Stephen Hoye) usually don't co-exist in the same book.This book, in its divided narratives, shows off the best of a Brooklyn young man and his American mother, the 1611 narrative of William Shakespeare's younger "cousin", and the lawyer-protagonist Olympic weight-lifter who is the Catholic son of a Jewish mobbed-up con man and his Nazi war bride. How do all of these disparate elements work together? Well.
I recommend the book because it is a thoughtfully done mystery that expresses well each main character's inner motivations for the interesting circumstances and mystery they find themselves in. It also throws in the history of Shakespeare, his work and a take on what might have been his life in 1610-1611. Well done!

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The Absent One Carries On

Revisado: 05-27-13

Like the previous book "The Keeper of Lost Causes", I really liked the characters and the story, BUT the narrator's version of Assad is JARRING. My take on him was that in the previous book he was from Syria, a more brooding, sophisticated and intelligent person accidently in a lower-level police janitor job, whose misunderstanding of the idioms of his new home makes his verbal outbursts humorous. Steven Pacey makes him sound like someone who is funny because he doesn't get it...a person who could not be effective on his own... not the same thing... I hope the new book has a narrator that doesn't distract the story and the interaction between Morck and by giving Assad a silly sounding dialogue...
I listen to it in spite of how it sounds, though...

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Ruins Include Thoughtful Review of Life's Choices

Revisado: 07-04-12

This story is set in one of the most beautiful areas I've visited, and, like the setting, describes characters and contexts that are at once well-known and the hidden paths, seemingly discovered by chance. The novel tells many stories about how an intricate matrix of crass and benevolent characters make life-choices by following the paths to "what they want" and "what is right", and the tension when those paths are not always in parallel. Even though the "players" have flaws and can cause pain for each other, each choice shines by expressing eventually some of the better parts of human life.
There are many examples of these choices, a small example is how Jess Walter describes the growth of one of the characters who has devoted himself to building a cantilevered tennis court along the beautiful Ligurian coast. He eventually discovers that unlike the photos he's seen of tennis (he's never played), every point in tennis includes a swing that misses.
The romance, for me, is more poignant because it optimistically allows some of the best parts of human love to be expressed not through a standard "happily-ever-after" resolution, and that life includes the harder, more complex, "what is right" choices.
The narrator Edoardo Ballerini brings a depth to the characters, Italian pronunciation, and even does a Welsh voice that you'd recognize. Well done!

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