Alan

The Title Should Be: "The Heterosexual Male Brain"

Revisado: 08-07-24

There are several scenes in this book in which the author, Dr. Louann Brizendine recounts how she reassured mothers worried about their boys' rambunctiousness that they were perfectly normal.

What then, would she have told my mother had she consulted her in the late 1950s and early 1960s about her little boy who did not roughhouse, was well behaved and did not get his clothes dirty, threw away his cap guns, spent recess walking around the playground chatting with his friends, earned one Cub Scout merit badge for being able to sew on a button, boil an egg and iron a handkerchief and another for his beautifully displayed butterfly collection and put on runway shows on the dining room table with his Barbie doll, all before he was ten? What would she have advised my mother if she'd told her my classmates had sung me off the school bus one day with the chant "Davey, baby, little lady"?

That little boy was me,

I do not recognize myself as a boy or as a teen in this book. I had to put it down due to the emotional impact of realizing just how, well, abnormal I was and am by the standards of Dr, Brizendine's world. When I resume listening, I am sure I will find that as an adult my hormones have failed me once again.

Luckily, I have an explanation for what can only be called deviance in this highly normative - or should I say heteronormative - book. If you hadn't guessed by now, I am gay. Only within the past decade have I learned how worried my sister and her best friend were when I was little because I was so very, very gay. And this was midcentury Caracas, Venezuela. I am convinced my mother, an American expat, sent me to the British School there because she knew that the little boys at the American school - almost all of whom doubtless fit the description of the boys in this book - would have teased me mercilessly.

Look, this is the 21st century, It is irresponsible for a physician/scientist to write a book that attributes male behavior and male ways of thinking to the effects of hormones without at least acknowledging that not all infants, boys, teen and men are like the extremely stereotypical straight males described in this book. I never spent a moment thinking about female bodies when in the grips of my adolescent testosterone surge. Doubtless, science has far to go in explaining why some men like me, my husband and millions of other Americans are attracted to the same sex and do not engage in stereotypical male behavior, Dr. Brizendine can't be expected to tell a story about the gay male brain if the details are not yet known. What she must do is make it very clear that this book is not the definitive guide to understanding how all men and boys think, that some men and boys do not exhibit stereotypical male ways of thinking and behaving, and that that's perfectly OK.

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Atrocious Pronunciation

Revisado: 12-24-23

I thought that suspending disbelief was only required when reading works of fiction. I was wrong.

The author makes a weighty biographical revelation in the preface: "It's quite challenging to perfectly describe Madrid from the eyes of somebody who's lived here my entire life . . ." Mind you, the first one and one-half minutes of this book are spent extolling the perfection of the Total Guide brand: "We do whatever it takes to make sure we have you covered." The reader is assured that the Total Guide people talk to friends and friends of friends to make sure they've gotten it right.

A mere one minute and forty eight seconds into Chapter 1, the narrator destroys the author's credibility and breaches Total Guide's quality guarantee. That is when he informs us that it is believed that Madrid was founded by Mohamed I of Córdoba, who buit a small castle where - wait for it - the Pah-lah-CEE-oh REEL stands today. That's right. Pah-lah-CEE-oh REEL. Total Guide expects readers to believe that someone who has lived in Madrid their entire life would pronounce the name of one of the most important historical sites in the city like an American who has absolutely no knowledge of Spanish pronunciation.

I wouldn't be writing this had the mangling of the Spanish language been an isolated occurrence, Sadly, readers who are sufficiently well educated to be familiar with the majestic sound of the Spanish language will endure serial mispronunciations in this reading of the book that is pitched as "the comprehensive traveling guide for all your traveling needs." It is a sad day when the readers and producers of travel audio books decide that travelers do not need to hear the correct native pronunciation of the names of local attractions.

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Ruined by Narrator's Eccentric Performance

Revisado: 12-23-20

It's incorrect to call Frederick Davidson a mere narrator. He is a performer whose eccentric cadence, anachronistic drawl, preposterously elongated vowels and unnecessary pauses chop this work of weighty prose into a seemingly infinite series of verses. Davidson's droning verses destroy the continuity of the author's argument, causing one to forget what came before and numbing one's interest in what comes next.

Davidson is the sole exception to my longstanding preference for readers from the UK. His is like a satirist's take on the accent of the literary set in 1930s London.

I'm unable to render judgment on the quality of the author's research, analysis and conclusions because I couldn't bear the though of listening to Frederick Davidson for another 22 hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds.

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Warning: Published in 1892

Revisado: 05-30-19

I was excited to come across this title, because I've wanted to hear a good history of the Byzantine Empire for a long time.

I saw that the recording had a May, 2019, release date. Good. I listened to the reader long enough to decide I would enjoy his voice. I was sold.

It was only after I'd bought the book and begun listening to it for content (as opposed to the quality of the reader's voice) that I detected a decidedly archaic tone to the prose. When was the last time a historian used the phrase "ere long" in a text unironically?

Now, I will read Shakespeare in the original Elizabethan English because only there are his words fully alive and beautiful. I have read the works of some 16th and 17th century Spanish chroniclers in Spanish because only that way can I hope to experience their worlds. However, there's no reason I can think of that the convoluted prose in this old work would make the extra effort of following it worthwhile

In any case, I had to abandon it within minutes of starting it.

Secondly, I have to assume that archaeological discoveries in the past 127 years have made part of the text obsolete. And, while history is not my field, I have to assume that there have been noteworthy advances in the scholarship of the Byzantine Empire since 1892 that would also make the work obsolete.

I submit that when a text is well over a century old but is not so universally known that the title denotes its age, simply posting the release date in the summary is deceptive.

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DISSAPOINTING

Revisado: 08-23-14

What did you like best about Mr. Mercedes? What did you like least?

Best: nothing.Least: None of King's masterful dialogue, inventive descriptions or memorable characters. Plodding plot never got off the ground. No magic, figuratively or literally. An imaginary world that offers the reader no reason to linger.

What could Stephen King have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

After finishing Mr. Mercedes, he could have reread his best work, compared it to this one, then either revised Mr.Mercedes or withdrawn it from publication.

Did Mr. Mercedes inspire you to do anything?

Wait a while and read the reviews before buying King's next book. No longer an automatic buy.

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Reader Ruined the Book

Revisado: 09-07-13

My greatest objection to the book is the reader's dreadful performance. In my opinion, his reading was entirely mechanical. What small changes there were in the reader's tone and inflection came at regular intervals, like expansion joints in a highway, regardless of the content or meaning of the text. It was like watching the same 15-second video clip over, and over, and over again. The reading obliterated the nuances of Chomsky's text and obscured Chomsky's subtle arguments. Moreover, the reader's voice was not pleasant to my ears.

Unless you are a news junkie and policy wonk, the issues Chomsky discusses are terribly dated. The middle years of the last decade and the 2008 American presidential elections seem as distant as the 1850s.

In a fawning foreword, the writer strangely chooses to portray Chomsky as a sort of intellectual track star, a man on fast forward who meets deadlines, churns out articles and gives speeches like a champion athlete setting a new world record. I'm less interested the Chomsky's gee-whiz quotient than I am in his ideas and arguments and, more importantly, the changes - if any - they've wrought in the real world.

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Too Much Dialogue

Revisado: 03-09-13

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The novel suffered from an excess of dialogue. I was dying to get to the action! I grew so bored with the talk, talk, talk, that I gave up on the book before anything happened.

Has Gauntlgrym turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, the works of Marion Zimmer Bradley show that it is possible to write compelling fantasy set in the past.

Which character – as performed by Victor Bevine – was your favorite?

I didn't even try to identify any of the chacters.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Gauntlgrym?

I couldn't tell you - were there scenes?

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Rushed Reading Ruins Text

Revisado: 11-15-12

Would you try another book from BN Publishing and/or Jason McCoy?

Not enough information to form an opinion.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Alcoholics Anonymous - Big Book - Original Edition?

In print, each page is memorable because of the many insights into the disease and the path to recovery.

What didn’t you like about Jason McCoy’s performance?

Mr. McCoy's performance of the text was terrible. His mile-a-minute performance spoiled what is one of the most important books in modern times. A slower and more nuanced reading would have allowed me to reflect upon what was being said.

What character would you cut from Alcoholics Anonymous - Big Book - Original Edition?

Not applicable.

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Too Short a Pause Between Poems

Revisado: 01-25-12

What would have made Great Poets better?

The pauses between the poems were too short. One had no time to reflect on the poem before the next began. In some cases, one poem followed the previous one so rapidly that it wasn't clear whether I was listening to the continuation of a poem or a new poem. This made the listening confusing.

So Great Poets would have been better if there had been more silence between one poem and the next.

I realize I might be able to use the

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

Would you be willing to try another one of Teresa Gallagher’s performances?

Yes.

What character would you cut from Great Poets?

N/A

Any additional comments?

Teresa Gallagher is a skilled narrator and she has the perfect sweet voice and intonation for poetry by Emily Dickinson. The fault lies entirely with the producers and not with Teresa Gallagher.

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Don't Bother

Revisado: 05-24-11

An incomprehensible waste of time. Some imaginary worlds are best left in the author's head.

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