Lucy b
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Just Kids
- De: Patti Smith
- Narrado por: Patti Smith
- Duración: 9 h y 50 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 5,191
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 4,554
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 4,527
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Darkly Self Centered & Narrow View
- De Sara en 10-05-15
- Just Kids
- De: Patti Smith
- Narrado por: Patti Smith
Finding Home: A Reflection on Art, Freedom, and Devotion
Revisado: 03-10-25
Just Kids is more than a memoir—it’s an homage to Robert Mapplethorpe, told with a love that is both fierce and tender. Patti Smith doesn’t just recount their story; she preserves his spirit, capturing his ambition, contradictions, and beauty with reverence. Even as their relationship evolved—from lovers to artistic soulmates—there was never bitterness, only an unbreakable creative bond.
Beyond its personal story, *Just Kids* is a love letter to artistic freedom and exploration. Smith captures what it means to be young and hungry in a city that thrives on art, risk, and reinvention. As someone who grew up with low-income artist parents deeply involved in NYC’s downtown arts scene, I felt at home in its pages—seen and represented in a way I don’t often experience in books. Even though I didn’t live through that exact era, her vivid storytelling made it easy to imagine the raw energy of the time, the feeling of possibility that pulsed through every late-night conversation, every cheap rented loft, every moment of discovery.
Unlike Herbie Hancock’s *Possibilities*, which often felt controlled and distant, *Just Kids* is raw and immersive. Smith doesn’t filter or withhold; she lets us into her world with complete trust. Where Hancock mostly tells his story through achievements and milestones, Smith tells hers through feeling, through relationships, through the *experience* of becoming an artist. And crucially, while *Possibilities* subtly reinforces the exclusion of women in creative spaces, *Just Kids* shows what it means for a woman to carve out space for herself in an era and a scene dominated by men.
Reading this book made me reflect on the people who have shaped my own creative life—the ones I’ve grown with, struggled with, been inspired by, and lost. It reminded me that art isn’t just about output; it’s about the people who walk with us through our artistic journeys, the ones who leave imprints on us long after they’re gone.
In the end, *Just Kids* isn’t just a story about Patti and Robert—it’s a meditation on devotion, on art as survival, and on love that transcends time.
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Herbie Hancock: Possibilities
- De: Herbie Hancock, Lisa Dickey
- Narrado por: Herbie Hancock
- Duración: 12 h y 33 m
- Versión completa
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General5 out of 5 stars 636
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 568
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Historia5 out of 5 stars 565
Hancock discusses his musical influences, colorful behind-the-scenes stories, his long and happy marriage, and how Buddhism inspires him creatively and personally. Honest, enlightening, and as electrifyingly vital as the man who wrote it, Herbie Hancock promises to be an invaluable contribution to jazz literature and a must-read for fans and music lovers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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High Marks All Round
- De Joyce en 06-21-15
- Herbie Hancock: Possibilities
- De: Herbie Hancock, Lisa Dickey
- Narrado por: Herbie Hancock
“Possibilities” or Limitations? Inspires but Holds Back
Revisado: 03-10-25
As a lifelong admirer of Herbie Hancock, I went into Possibilities hoping for deep insight into his creative process, personal evolution, and the world of jazz from his perspective. In many ways, the book delivered—hearing about his conversations with Miles Davis, his approach to music, and his reflections on addiction was fascinating. I especially enjoyed following along with his discography as I read, experiencing each album with his commentary in mind. Listening to the audiobook, narrated in his own voice, added an extra layer of intimacy to the experience.
But despite its strengths, *Possibilities* left me with a lingering disappointment. As a female musician, I found it hard to “dream myself in” to his stories. Women in his life appear primarily in roles of support (his wife, Gig), regret (his sister, whom he actively discouraged from pursuing music), or posthumous admiration (a late friend from the Mwambashi band). Unlike his male peers, they are never positioned as creative equals. While he reveres Joni Mitchell, she’s an outlier—already canonized in music history and coming from outside the male-dominated jazz world. The book subtly reinforces the idea that jazz, at least in Hancock’s experience, was a space for men.
The sexism in *Possibilities* isn’t overt—it’s woven into the fabric of the narrative, in what Hancock chooses to reflect on (or not reflect on). His sister’s story is particularly telling: while he expresses regret for not supporting her, he ultimately justifies it by implying she wasn’t “good enough,” without ever questioning the structural barriers women faced in jazz. There’s no deeper reckoning with *why* he didn’t believe in her or whether his perception was shaped by the male-dominated world around him. Similarly, while he honors his wife’s sacrifices, his appreciation feels more about how she supported *him* rather than who she was as a person with her own dreams and ambitions.
Beyond the gender dynamics, I also felt Hancock held back in ways that dulled the book’s impact. Whether it was his musical thinking—almost as if he didn’t want to reveal his secrets—or the more vulnerable aspects of his identity, there was a surface-level quality that kept me at a distance. He reflects on his struggles, but never fully dives into the contradictions of his life the way, for example, Patti Smith does in *Just Kids*. The book feels curated, controlled, and at times, too polished to be as inspiring as it could have been.
That said, *Possibilities* is still worth reading for jazz musicians and fans. Hancock is a genius, and his reflections on his albums, influences, and artistic evolution are valuable. But while I took inspiration from parts of the book, I also came away with disappointment—both in him as a role model and in the way women in jazz remain sidelined, even in the stories told by those who claim to push boundaries.
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Known and Strange Things
- Essays
- De: Teju Cole
- Narrado por: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Duración: 12 h y 44 m
- Versión completa
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General5 out of 5 stars 2
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 2
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Historia5 out of 5 stars 2
With this collection of more than 50 pieces on politics, photography, travel, history, and literature, Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today’s most powerful and original voices. Moment after moment, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people, and historical moments, taking in subjects from Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald to Instagram, Barack Obama, and Boko Haram.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful!
- De Lucy b en 02-25-25
- Known and Strange Things
- Essays
- De: Teju Cole
- Narrado por: Peter Jay Fernandez
Beautiful!
Revisado: 02-25-25
Beautifully written and narrated! I just finished reading it and I feel like I only scratched the surface. So dense with ideas and references, and the prose feels like a big hug. As a creative person and an outsider, this book made me feel at home. I will be going back to it in the future, a for inspiration.
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