Adrienne I.

Climate change, aborigines grossly misrepresented

Revisado: 04-15-23

I enjoyed the narration very much. I wouldn't have minded at all if the reader had said "eideen" instead of "eighteen" but he was softening his pleasant accent, I'm sure. Hey Audible, why not include a musical rendition of Waltzing Matilda?

Hardly ever does Blainey recognize that the "aborigines" are really many varied, distinct groups of peoples each with their own language and culture. And to say, at the end, that the suffering of a few aborigines meant that many other millions of people elsewhere benefitted from Australia's food and other exports was the height of imperial conceit.

Moreover, to equate our current fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis to the "climate change" of the retreating ice age is completely unfounded and a grossly inaccurate and dangerous comparison.

Even though it was told through a hard-core capitalist's point of view, the history was well-written, with a nice balance of vignettes and statistics.

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Into the weeds

Revisado: 07-15-22

I adored Ann Richards and enjoyed being reminded of the goings on in her day, but thought the book bogged down with a bit too much political detail and name-dropping. It might have been the reader, but the narrative flow was a bit jerky and seemed to lack smooth transitions and a story arc. And for a book about Texas, the reader mispronounced more than a few Texas names: Luckenbach, Bexar, etc. And after a long bit about Waco history, the book, unless I missed it, failed to say where the name came from.

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beautiful poetic language, fascinating topic

Revisado: 10-24-19

Macfarlane’s book is beautifully written with very poetic language. The topic of the underground world is fascinating. I had not thought much about it. It makes me want to explore what I think is a cave on our property. I just finished reading Overstory by Richard Powers and the two books complement each other nicely.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Well-written, well-narrated account of this gruesome history

Revisado: 08-13-19

This important book deftly recounts the brutal murders of the Osage people for their lucrative head rights. I hope this book helps spread the word about this dark time in American history. Tiny complaint: “snake-infested swamp” implies that snakes don’t belong in their own wetlands habitat.

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Mad about bears!

Revisado: 05-20-19

This book was expertly narrated by Eilidh McCormick, with good character voices. I loved her Scots accent. The only glitch I heard was that sacred choral composer Arvo Pärt’s last name is usually pronounced Pear-t, like the fruit, not Part.

The book itself was utterly absorbing and a wonderful narrative experience for a tree-hugger like me living vicariously through Callis. It was a very vivid narration of wilderness experiences and the author is not afraid of discussing habitat loss and climate change as critical problems worth immediate attention. The topic, architecture, and narrative threads were compelling and credible. A few very tiny questions: why is a non-religious person like Callis listening to the music of Arvo Pärt? How can Callis have heard owl wing beats when owls have a special adaptation to fly silently? Why did Diana and Frances unfriended Callis on social media when she did? Why does the narrative sometimes jumps forward; is there a new section in the text not represented by the narrator?

Congratulations to Mandy Haggith on an excellent book! Please add more of her books to Audible!

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interesting read

Revisado: 05-10-19

I don’t usually read science fiction, but enjoyed this book pretty well. It was very well narrated by Campbell Scott. Maybe I missed the explanation, but there were a couple of loose plot ends that left me a bit confused. The jumbled chronology didn’t bother me. I liked how the cause of the societal transformation that occurred became clear only bit by bit throughout the length of the book. I wish Crake and Oryx’s characters had been as fully developed as Jimmy/Snowman. Too bad the scientists were lumped in with the capitalists as ethically challenged.

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