OYENTE

Dr.J.A.P.

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The Tycoons Audiolibro Por Charles R. Morris arte de portada

Deeply disorganized but full of important info

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-30-24

A book in desperate need of an editor, that said, if I were teaching a class on the history of American industry I might assign it. Firstly there's the title, which is misleading, as while the book covers those 4 big guys, it's not actually ABOUT them. They are 4 among a slew of individuals he presents who all deeply impacted how business was done in the US from the civil war through the 1980's. He explains how we went from a hot mess at the end of the civil war to the most productive country on the planet in the course of about 30 years, outpacing England who at the time had been the most productive; it's the same sort of "industrial economic miracle" first the Japanese and then the Koreans laid claim to starting in the 1970's. And he also points out some of the reasons we fell behind. At the end of the book he talks about the rise of professional managers, the guys who get paid huge bucks to manage industries they know almost nothing about based on having MBA's from places like Harvard or the kellogg business school, and how the Japanese rubbed our faces in all of that.

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Vanderbilt Audiolibro Por Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe arte de portada

Anderson Cooper has some issues with his family

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-27-24

The most surprising thing about this audible is that you'd EXPECT Anderson Cooper would be a good reader, but he isn't. He comes across as either monotone or angry, I'm not sure which.

That said, having read numerous books about his family at this point, I don't agree with some of his interpretations. They seem to me colored by his own issues with his family and the money (which by the time his mother died had been spent on frivolities). He's right when he said to his mom that learning not to spend is equal to earning. The woman was a multimillionaire and managed to spend her way to the point where he had to use his newscaster money to support her because she simple would not stop buying stuff to make herself feel better. Don't like his take on Alba for instance, I think there are other ways to interpret her motivations for her actions than his which are pretty harsh. For instance, a duchess, even if her husband dies or she divorces him, continues to be duchess (the same way it doesn't matter if the Royals take away a title, society continues to treat former royals as though they're still royal), so Alba may have been via marriage imbuing into her daughter status that could empower her in a time when women didn't even have the vote let alone any economic control of their own lives.

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The Glitter and the Gold Audiolibro Por Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan arte de portada

Her Autobiography, in her own words

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-24-24

Firstly, the reader is a bit of an odd choice, her "british" accent sounds scottish and her American isn't. I think it would have been MUCH better with a better reader.

That said, if you're interested in Consuelo Vanderbilt (The American Duchess) than this is required reading. There's another novel based on her on Audible that rips word for word who segments of this book, and if the autobiography is to be believed distorts who sections of the woman's story, placing way more emphasis on her love life than her achievements. In fact that book gives the impression of a kind of stupid if well meaning woman, while this one shows how accomplished and well read she was.

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American Duchess Audiolibro Por Karen Harper arte de portada

BADLY written, medromatic

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-21-24

The intro chapter is SO incredibly badly written that it might send you running, but if you slog past it the writing improves a bit... but this is not a good book, not by a long shot. The writing is so bad it makes Twilight look like classic literature. That said, Consuelo had a compelling life story which the author pretty much sticks to so that in itself saves the book somewhat, and it's only about 8 hours so you can stagger through -- and you'll learn about her life and the various other famous people who were in her social circle, like Winston Churchill (who she was related to by marriage).

For those drawn to this by the HBO show the gilded age, yes the Russel's daughter is partially based on Consuelo. There's another audible book with a similar title that is an autobiography written by Consuelo herself and introduced by her granddaughter. Read that as well ... if you do so right after reading this one you find that this author lifted almost word for word bits from the book Consuelo wrote about herself...

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The First Tycoon Audiolibro Por T.J. Stiles arte de portada

How Vanderbilt helped create modern America

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-20-24

Loved it. Had no idea how impactful his life was. He came from nothing (really from nothing, not like Trump or Musk or Jobs all of whom came from affluence and privilege), had little education but became a legend. He helped change how the constitution controls interstate commerce when he was barely old enough to go to college (something he never did, didn't even complete high school -- and considered himself almost illiterate). He started out with a single ship and ended up controlling a huge chunk of the nations shipping, but then during the Civil war (after helping to ensure that Union gold made it from SF to NYC rather than being stolen by the forces of the Confederacy) changed his focus almost by accident to trains -- which he ended up becoming the dominate voice for in the same way he had shipping. Called the great consolidator, he -- like most billionaires -- never set out or cared all that much about getting rich, so much as he was about being able to control his own businesses without his competitors getting in his way. If they annoyed him, he took them over, but it was never about building what ultimately became the first major corporation. Every time he took over a company he didn't strip it for parts in order to get rich like these funds do today, NO, he took them over, made them more efficient and profitable and yet more affordable for the customers than they'd ever been, and with the profits went on to take over the next thing...

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The Shelters of Stone Audiolibro Por Jean M. Auel arte de portada

Ayela gets to know her hubby's people

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-17-24

Having read the whole series.... book 1 ROCKED, book 2 was not bad... book 3 was cheesy.... book 4 was a bore, book 5 however seems to be getting back on track and is on par with book 2. Ms. Auel has this nasty habit of repeating everything so much that you have the feeling its to compensate for lack of inspiration. Lady, if we've gotten to book 5 all we need is a reminder (think flat heads) you don't have to tell us everything all over again, and DEFINITELY not more than once per book. That and between book 2 and this book, the sex scenes were coming on so hard and fast that you had the feeling it was because she couldn't think of anything better to write. Thankfully, while we do get the occasional sex scene in this book, we also get the "jondaler made love to ayla for all the rest of that night." rather than 15 pages of blow by grunt detail.

I once was bitching about this on facebook and it turned out a friend of mine who is a struggling author has met Auel at writers conferences, and according to the author, she didn't even want to have to write the lick by sniff sex scenes, but her publisher didn't think the books would sell as well without them. I'm guessing her publishers were men.

Instead, in this book, Ms auel is at least ATTEMPTING to integrate detail reviews into the story line rather than simply dumping paragraphs from previous books on us yet again, and has begun developing some new characters... although the repetitive nature of some of those with previous characters is a little annoying.

Clearly, while a much better effort than her last two, this book is NOT on par with Clan of Cave Bear, although fans of Alya will be placated.

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The Land of Painted Caves Audiolibro Por Jean M. Auel arte de portada

Yes we know they allowed you into the caves...

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-17-24

In this book Auel seems to have forgotten that her job is to entertain and instruct, and in THAT order. As a result, it starts out with mind numbingly boring descriptions on the life of primitive man -- all of which is just theory that was accepted back when she wrote the book but most of which has been debunked by now. In addition, Auel appears to have spent a lot of time studying the painted caves of France -- as in the government actually allowed her in which they rarely do anymore (just too many humans in the caves on a daily basis BREATHING was proving destructive to the paintings, so now they limit it to a handful of humans at a time and you have to prove you have a valid scientific reason for being there), and insists of giving us an inch by inch description of all of them (on the rationalization that Ayla is touring them as part of her training as a religious leader).

However, not all is lost if you follow my suggestions...

1) do not buy it unless you're flush, borrow it from the library or from a friend, cause seriously, one read on this one is probably enough -- and I say this as someone who has re-read the series at least 5 times.

2) I promise you, at about the 40% mark, it gets better. It's almost as though Auel asked a friend to read what she had written so far, and they sat her down and said, "Honey, this book sucks rocks." At about 40%, so like 300 pages in, Auel actually starts doing some serious story telling and the books gets better, with some really good action scenes starting at about the 55% point.

3) Be ready to skim! You know how in previous books you found yourself skimming past yet another porn scene? Well be prepared to skim past:

--- detailed descriptions of things like how a water bag is constructed that go on for over 5 pages -- this is not Ayla inventing something new like in previous books, but rather, reading these parts is a bit like reading the technical manual for a DVD player from cover to cover, including the technical specifications -- and about as exciting

--- Ayla and friends touring yet another cave, read the first one, skip the rest. (with the caveat that, if you recently saw Herzog's 3D documentary, 'The Cave of Forgotten Dreams' which is actually a tour of one of the best caves, Ayla visits that cave at about the 60% mark, and the descriptions are the best, in part because you can visualize what Auel is describing having seen most of it yourself. If you remember in the movie there is one place where human prints are on the cave floor with animal prints near it? Auel implies that the prints are Ayla and wolf, which is amusing).

--- discussions about things like the symbolic meaning of colors that go on for pages that will be appealing to only the most died in the wool new ager. (I say this as a PhD in cultural anthropology with an undergraduate major in fine art)


--- the song of the mother (which is a badly written poem) is repeated so often you'll have it memorized if you don't skip it

4) As her fans know Auel has a horrible tendency to repeat herself. This book is written in three segments, and repeats not just previous books, but things she's already said in the book, as though she assumes you've already forgotten it. The only thing is that if you're the sort of person who pays attention to detail, you realize she's contradicting herself a lot of the time. This happens so often that you want to throw your hands up in frustration.

5) as many other reviewers -- the ones who bothered to read to the end, have said, the ending of this book is not satisfying. She essentially 'repeats' the whole drama thing where Ayla and Jondolar are convinced the other doesn't love them anymore... sob rinse repeat, only this time with addition of a freaked out 5 year old child who can't understand whats going on with her parents. Its all pretty pathetic -- to the point where I found myself yelling at the book, "STOP WHINING!!!"

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Wicked Audiolibro Por Gregory Maguire arte de portada

NOT either of the movies, be warned

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-17-24

How they got from this book to the musical version I don't know. This book is kind of a major downer and by the end I was having to slog through to get to the end... it really was an unpleasant ending. If you want to experience the story of an unloved but highly intelligent girl who spirals into an almost psychotic case of paranoia read on... but don't expect happy upbeat tapping feet, because there are none. Even the central premise of this book is radically different from the theatrical show, let alone the movie they just made. Glinda does not get her friend on broom, and don't both moon after the same boy. In fact there's very little in terms of story line that parallels between the book and show.

One thing that did amuse me was multiple little details that show the author was british and not american, no american refers to dessert as pudding for instance... and one thing that confuses americans even more is that Cambridge and Oxford are small CITIES within which are multiple colleges (in fact the major industry of the cities is education) ... but if you get into any of them you tend to describe yourself as having gone to either Cambridge or Oxford rather than the name of the college you got accepted by. Hence when the girls go to the city in Oz where there are multiple colleges and the author describes how one isn't as good as another but they might share professors for various classes, that's what's going on.

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Crazy Rich Asians Audiolibro Por Kevin Kwan arte de portada

NOT exactly like the movie

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-09-24

The famous mahjong scene doesn't happen in this book... nor in any of them... and that's just the start of how this book is different from the movie. That said, it's an entertaining read. Strongly suggest it.

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Rich People Problems Audiolibro Por Kevin Kwan arte de portada

kept having to force myself to keep going

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-09-24

This book wavers between entertaining and just plain annoying. I kept having to force myself to keep going. Rachel is a minor character in this book, and the focus is on Nicky's family who are at their worst as the grandma is on her last legs. I find this the weakest book in the trilogy but it does tie up loose ends, even Rachel's best friend finally finds her guy (in a throw away scene shoved in almost like an afterthought). But for the fact that it ties up story lines, I'd not suggest it.

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