Alan Daniels

Pitiful

Revisado: 02-11-25

If podcasts that are neither theologically deep nor practically informed—while being awkward and a little goofy (check out the theme song)—are your thing, then Bill Arnold’s effort here will please you. If you instead want meaningful insights and real food by which you can grow, you should pass on this one. This sounds and feels only like some guy wanted a show and now has one. The threadbare ideas trotted out here are not at all worth the trouble, time, and money spent.

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Putrid Gossip

Revisado: 12-07-24

A serious examination of Hollywood culture, including the relevant details of its wandering souls, could be sociologically meaningful. This is just drek. Save yourself the nausea and treat yourself to a meaningful, properly documented history of Tinseltown and its lonely stars. 🤮

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It Grabbed Me Then Let Me Go

Revisado: 02-01-24

I have always been interested in the food industry, grocery stores, and the like, and this book initially wowed me. Mr. Lorr is a great writer and, as author narrators go, he’s better than most (though he may want to give “panoply” a closer look, among a few other words). Nevertheless, my interest in hearing what he had to say started to fade about a third of the way through because he is not as focused as he needs to be on his main subject. Mr. Lorr’s inquisitive mind and descriptive capabilities seem to take him too far afield in some areas, like the trucking industry. The information he presents about it is important and could have its own book, but there’s just too much of it in this one. This imbalance becomes a pattern in other chapters. So, by the time I neared the end of the book, I found myself looking frequently at the chapter timers to see how much longer I had to go to be done—the surest sign of boredom.

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A Necessary Book

Revisado: 01-24-24

The perspective—backed by research and real-world evidence—this book offers needs an audience because people with ADD do not need just to be slapped with the label and given prescriptions to make them behave “normally.“ The creativity, insight, and particular abilities that come with ADD need to be given their fair share of respect. This work opens the way for that. Like many self-help books, there is an evenness in the way the information flows that, by the end, can leave a listener, wishing for more of a narrative arc. Yet, as a source of information and inspiration, this book should be a priority for anyone with ADD or any couple or family needing to come to terms with this perplexing and fascinating way so many live their lives.

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A Complete, Yet Concise Telling of Music’s Story

Revisado: 01-23-24

Beyond all the wonderful information this book provides, its greatest contribution may be the sheer respect one develops through it of music’s essential character and power. Whether it’s Beethoven or Beyoncé, Mr. Goodall persuasively explains how music has flowed throughout time doing the same work via innumerable composers and genres. This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to advance in an understanding of what it means to be a musician or simply to have a love of music in one’s life.

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It’s probably better to read this one.

Revisado: 01-14-24

I will admit that I didn’t quite finish this book because I reached a place where I couldn’t justify spending any more of my time listening to someone who is a better author than narrator. By the time I heard Ms. Shaw render “mores” as “morz” instead of môr′āz′, I decided to archive this title for good. It might seem petty to let this bother me that much, but I had been tolerating her over-voicing of the “I” in words like “organIzation” throughout the book and, more to the point, such mishandling of common words is but a small symptom of the larger problem: Authors who read their own work without possessing the talent and skill that are NECESSARY to express the full character of their texts. My complaint is not only about authors/narrators who fail to take just a moment to make sure they know how words are properly pronounced; it’s about the failure on the part of everyone involved in audiobook production to understand or sufficiently value how vital good phrasing, accent, and vocal timbre (and—to the narrator of Alex Ross’s “The Rest Is Noise”—this should be tăm′bər and not sound like the word shouted as a tree is falling) are in telling stories. I’m just going to have to sample books more carefully from now on because I’m tired of having to get past performance to get at ideas meaningfully.

And, lest anyone think this critique is just an indirect expression of anti-bi bias, I am bisexual. I need perspective like this book can provide, and it heartens me that there are researchers like Ms. Shaw doing this kind of work. Its importance, though, only highlights the need for excellence in everything done to bring it into the public mind and, on this front, this audio presentation fails, no matter how good-natured and earnest Ms. Shaw may sound.

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Surprisingly Tedious

Revisado: 01-12-24

Having read positive reviews of this book elsewhere before I chose it on Audible, I was steadily disappointed as I listened. I want always to give authors and the text the benefit of the doubt when I feel like I’m missing something, but this became harder to do the further I got into this particular text. Mr. Betancourt is clearly thoughtful, and he seems to be well read. Still, I wish this critique of pop culture were rooted more securely in something deeper than pop culture. In Slant Magazine’s glowing review of The Male Gazed, Richard Scott Larson appears to like this aspect of the book’s style, saying Mr. Betancourt’s writing is “incisive without being too academic about the scholarly theory undergirding his subject,”

Given this stark contrast and other differences between the favorable reviews and my experience, I’ve wondered if I am simply the wrong audience for this book or if I should have read it instead of listening to it. Unless an author is an actor or skilled presenter (someone who knows how to bring the character and meaning of text into a voicing of it), he/she/they should leave the reading to others. Richness and actual comprehension by listeners are often lost when audiobook producers assume—or budgets force them to hope—that no one could be better than an author at conveying that author’s work.

Whatever the reason for my inability to connect with this book or its presentation, I am more than disappointed: I am frustrated. I own one of the letters in LGBTQ, and—since the cover art alone provoked in me the complicated interplay of attraction and emotion Mr. Betancourt seeks to analyze—I thought I was going to relish, even cherish, listening. I hoped these ideas would help me in my own long quest to understand my sexuality (which is, I’ve learned, another way of saying “myself”). How could I, then, ever (much less often) have felt that Mr. Betancourt wasn’t really talking to me? Maybe I should go to a book store or a library, grab a copy of the book, get a tall glass of tea, and try again.

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Inspiring & Clarifying

Revisado: 12-30-23

This wonderfully long book made me less afraid to take my place in the world, to be in the place I’ve been given. Brava, Barbra, brava.

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A Necessary, Persuasive, Powerful Book

Revisado: 07-13-23

I'm aware that Elton John's musical career helped propel his AIDS foundation to global impact and importance, but what this intelligent, honest, and loving man has done in the fight against HIV/AIDS could alone distinguish his life as one of the more significant and influential of our times. The world history, personal stories, data, and perspective he candidly, yet forcefully presents in the ten chapters of this work are eye-opening and inspiring. When I'm done writing this review, I plan to donate to his foundation, and I will use whatever other resources I may have (my time, my voice) to insist to those I know and can influence that fighting stigma and acting in love toward all is the only way humanity can help assure itself of a brighter future, not solely through the defeat of AIDS, but in the defeat of all that spreads under the darkness of ignorance, apathy, and hatred. I could not recommend this book more highly. Though it is ten years old, its message is strikingly relevant today. I wish everyone would hear it and take it to heart.

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First the Movie, Now the Book 👏👏👏👏

Revisado: 03-27-23

Despite being a longtime fan of the movie, I had never experienced the book until this wonderful recording, and I’m every bit as enthralled by Benchley’s original work (and by Erik Steele’s faultless narration) as I was when I sat (repeatedly) in a theater in 1975.

If you’re like me, don’t assume you know the story as it was first told, and don’t let yourself believe that even the parts that match between movie and book will be anything less than tense or interesting. This is one of the best finds ever for me on Audible. I plan to listen again . . .

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