Becca

Trigger warning

Revisado: 10-28-20

Amazing and necessary book; readers should be advised that there are many graphic accounts of violence throughout the book in describing patient cases.

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Interesting LA history

Revisado: 11-13-18

Interesting, leftist urban history of Los Angeles. At times feels hyperbolic and sensationalized (ex comparing widespread joblessness to literal nuclear disaster) and this is exacerbated by the reader’s dramatic voice, which is reminiscent of the Preview Man. Nonetheless some really educational and revelatory reporting on the power levers operating in LA’s geography including global finance and local politics. Written in 1990, sections on the drug wars, urban development and Latin American asylum seekers directly foreshadow current major political issues.

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Please record the rest of this series!

Revisado: 10-29-18

This was a fascinating, expansive book on 1950s California that has something for every type of historical interest: cultural, political, environmental, legal, etc. At times almost too detailed but incredibly informative and engaging. Mostly focuses on Los Angeles and San Francisco. Though it’s centered on the 1950s it touches on many other themes and larger national questions in the first half of the 20th century.

I would LOVE to hear the rest of Kevin Starr’s California Dreams series on audible. They are so interesting and still so relevant but far too dense for me to finish in hard copy.

This reader used voices when reading from quoted sources and it was cringe-inducing at best (Richard Nixon impersonation) and offensive at worst (accents describable as racial caricature). Definitely totally distracting and awful.

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Interesting

Revisado: 10-01-18

I loved this book! Tbh I just listened to it because I wanted to improve my productivity, but it actually had genuinely fascinating case studies throughout. Particularly liked the sections on how businesses predict and try to manipulate or create habits. Good small talk fodder 8-)

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Fantastic

Revisado: 06-20-18

This book blew my fucking mind!!!! LA native, listened to this while making paintings of la, from my studio in a in a historic section of the city. Riveting, fascinating book, didn’t want it to end!!!! Narrator was excellent as well. Thank you!!!

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Reader John Mayer is a genius

Revisado: 06-08-18

This book contained a ton of genuinely useful information but I especially appreciated the reader’s entertaining, dare I say occasionally deadpan performance in outlining these important principles of business, power and communication. Bravo! Will look forward to applying these lessons in my work and personal life.

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Helpful but slow

Revisado: 01-26-17

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Maybe -- there are interesting ideas in it but they're framed within bigger sociological studies, and it seems like the authors needed to define their terms very explicitly in each study. That can get repetitive and dull to listen to; if I were reading it I would skim these. Seems most useful for academics.

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excellent

Revisado: 01-08-17

Would you consider the audio edition of The Age of Reagan to be better than the print version?

Yes, I think this book would have been much too dense for me to have realistically had the time or the will to power through it in print, but actively looked forward to listening to it while driving or doing other work.

Any additional comments?

Excellent book, very comprehensive history of American presidents and the cultural/political movements that accompanied them, as well as the way that each president either set the stage for Reagan or how he set the stage for them. I'm 27 years old so I inherited many direct byproducts of his presidency, but ironically always learned the least about him in school, likely since he was in office in the relatively recent past -- this was very informative and helped me understand the current context, and news events from my childhood, better. Entertaining and listenable. Recommend!

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