NYCShopper

Useful overview of colonial Canada. But...

Revisado: 07-26-19

Well... If I were to guess, I would say the book was written by someone who is not a native English speaker. There are incorrect and endlessly repeated use of terms like: nonetheless, notwithstanding, on the opposite. Clearly there was no editor involved in the publication of this work.

On the plus side, the book does give a concise and coherent history of the European colonization of Canada that, from what I can tell, is essentially correct. This was very helpful for me as a first read about Canadian history. Now I will delve into better texts.

The book's sub-title notwithstanding (😉), there is almost nothing about the history afterwards, save mention of Canada's official adoption of multi-culturalism as a core value. The discussion of contemporary Canadian culture is largely uninformative and not so coherent, and the inclusion of an overview of Canadian tourist sites is just bizarre. It feels like the section on modern-day Canada was hastily written and tacked on to be able to say the book is contemporary.

I hate to say it, but this was an amateur effort.

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Brilliant work, superb reader

Revisado: 06-01-18

This is an incredible, moving work of tremendous imagination that uses acid sarcasm and a sense of the absurd -- often simultaneously hilarious and tragic -- to delve into the psychic damage wrought by generations of slavery, followed by the ensuing generations of persistent racism. More broadly, it satirizes America's divisions and subdivisions of race, ethnicity, religion; the fragility of community in face of gentrification; the veneer of desegregation; how the trauma of racism is handed down through generations; and the struggle to figure out one's sense of self within the Black community and larger society. The characters that Mr. Beatty has created here are crackling smart, unique and extraordinary. If you're open to it, The Sellout will leave with you with a lot to think about.

Beyond the deep insight this story gives into the Black experience, as an American descended not too distantly from Eastern European Jews, I really connected with the dark, absurdist humor and the struggles--sometimes overt, sometimes subconscious--with finding a sense of who one is both as a Jew and in the larger society, the notion of self-hatred in that context, and the often deeply funny ways we judge each other.

The reader, Prentice Onayemi, deserves special note for what has to be called a brilliant performance. The book is written in first person, in the voice of a super-smart, multi-dimensional, complex and unusual character, and Mr. Onayemi inhabits the role completely. He is engaging and energetic, and manages the difficult balance of breaking your heart while you're laughing.

It may be that the audio book is the preferred way to approach this text. I've read many reader reviews calling this book a hard slog that needs to be read in short bursts. I had the exact opposite experience: I was drawn into the story completely, followed easily and listened to the whole book in the course of a day.

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Starts strong, but devolves into partisan rant.

Revisado: 12-11-16

While this book is overtly an "answer" to perceived "left wing" recountings of U.S. history, the account up through the end of the 19th century is broad an informative. Yes, there is a point of view--an interpretation of US history from the perspective of the contemporary hard right--but there's a real attempt at presenting history of the evolution of American politics and society. But starting at the Civil War, the narrative gradually starts to move away from a recounting history, per se, toward more and more critiques of centrist and left wing economic, social and political ideas, and less and less history. By the time it reaches the 1980s and nineties, there's barely a pretense left. Instead, there's a selection of events, cherry-picked to provide a soap-box for elevating the right and dismissing the center and left, with unsupported pronouncements abounding (one of my faves: racism ended in the ninties!), until the final two chapters which are really nothing more than rants. It's disappointing. As a liberal, I was hoping for a well-supported conservative take on history, to better understand the point of view. The first half of the book does that; the second is about as factually informative as a Sean Hannity broadcast -- which is to say, not much.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Illuminating

Revisado: 05-14-16

If you could sum up As If an Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution in three words, what would they be?

A book that digs behind the stories and myths we learned in school.

What did you like best about this story?

It humanizes history, clears away the idealizing nonsense, and really helps you understand Boston's part in sparking the American Revolution.

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A monumental achievement.

Revisado: 05-14-16

Where does A History of the Twentieth Century rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Certainly among the tops. World history is covered year by year, and recounts many of the most significant events and cultural milestones from across the globe. If you like history, this is a terrific work. The reader is excellent.

I have a couple of criticisms specific to the audiobook production:-- It's hard to keep track of what year is being covered, which is a real issue given that the book deals with 100 years. This wouldn't be a problem in the print version, but it's a very distracting issue in the audio version. I'm constantly rewinding to find the year mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. a task complicated by the fact that audio chapters don't correspond to book chapters, and there's no labeling in the audible chapter list. It's aggravating, and adds a lot of unnecessary time. I wish there some sort of reminder added in along the way, e.g., "Also in 1923..."

[BTW, I am always annoyed by the lack of chapter labeling in audiobooks, but one rarely contends with 100 chapters.]. Often the transition from one story to the next is too quick, so from time to time, you'll be part way into the next event before you realize you've moved from one country to another. Given that the reader's pace is very well modulated, I suspect that this was a time-shaving editing decision.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The author, for having the talent and patience to successfully make sense of 100 years of world history.

What about John Curless’s performance did you like?

Clear, with a really good sense of what to highlight emotionally.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Massive wars, revolutionary technologies, a world communicating for the first time in history... here's the story of the century that changed humankind.

Any additional comments?

It's hard to think of another source that covers so much in such a concise and understandable way.

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Important work that reads like an adventure story

Revisado: 05-14-16

Would you listen to Lawrence in Arabia again? Why?

Yes, I might. This is an intelligent, absorbing, sometimes thrilling, book that would be just as interesting a second or third time around. Also, I'd go through again to reinforce the details of the history it covers. This is a terrific book, but the title is slightly misleading -- Lawrence is one of five pivotal characters from different countries, all criss-crossing the MIddle East before and during WWI. Lawrence is the "marquis name" in this group of mid-level operators, whose stories reach up and down chains of command in the spheres politics and diplomacy, mutinational business, miltiary, revolution and tribal life, from the Arabian deserts to the corridors of power in Europe and the United States. t's a very successful way of giving tangible narrative shape to a complicated global story. Anderson reveal the roots of WWI--the preposterous decisions that led to nearly 20 million dead and a roughly equal number of wounded. The book sheds light on how the war was fough (for instance, Lawrence's accurate predictions that Galipoli would be a bloodbath with little to show for it), and tells about the major decisions and back-room power grabs that led to establishment of the modern Middle Eastern nations.

What does Malcolm Hillgartner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I listened to this about a year and a half ago, so my memory isn't fresh about specifics of the performance. Here's what I recall: the reading is clear and easy to listen to for long stretches of time, and doesn't distract from the story (isn't it sad that you remember the bad readers more vividly than the good?). It was really absorbing, and I remember a lot from the book. What more can you ask from a reader?

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Five men set out to make their mark, and found themselves at the epicenter of the greatest cataclysm the world had ever seen.

Any additional comments?

This s a a uniquely rich and fascinating recounting of a part of history that isn't much emphasized in American education or news reporting, but that has deep tentacles in today's world events. If what's going on in the Middle East today makes no sense to you, get this book.

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