Josef

A spectacular family odyssey

Revisado: 02-26-19

Truly a journey in space and time. I listened to this while in Vienna, and history came alive around me as I did. It is a remarkably well-told story. The family history of the author, his pursuit of that very same history and the winds of change in generations of European macro politics are beautifully spun together.

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Halarious anti-hero.

Revisado: 02-12-17

Flashman is a cynical, cowardice, racist bully - the kind of man who we secretly do not hate entirely because we are not sure how to convincingly hold the position of total lack of admiration for such men. To his credit, he is a most talented polyglot, horseman, and womaniser, and his adventures in the midst of major macro political events of the 19th century takes the reader laughing though history's I'll-lit side-allies. There, the story's anti-hero upholds the British empire by running from its enemies, sleeping with the maximum possible amount of women, and more often than not manages to wriggle himself out of the absurd kinds of trouble he repeatedly finds himself in. Hilariously written. Excellent stuff.

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Historic and personal testimony: A one-month joint biography of Capa, the USSR, and Steinbeck.

Revisado: 10-30-16

This rare and direct travel journal is at the same time a revealing documentation of parts of Soviet life in 1947, and a portrait of the not frictionless relationship between two of the 20th century's great narrators. The audiobook obviously lacks Capa's pictures, but interesting details from the Soviet society come through humorously but also with petty and compassion in the many anecdotes of Steinbeck's travel journal. The tension between these two travellers, who find themselves in a closeness enforced on them by the unyielding difficulties of travel in the post-war USSR, eventually start to resemble the bickering between old lovers, and listeners with a general interest in Soviet history or a specific interest in slash, would greatly appreciate this very personal testimony from within the beginning of the Cold War.

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True classic in its genre.

Revisado: 03-09-16

Got the tip from Paul Krugman. I saw a video where he explained how Asimov inspired him to peruse history through economics.

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Raw historiography of a spectacular heroine

Revisado: 01-07-16

Driven very much by the narrative told straight out of her own letters, Miss Bell is allowed to tell her own story much like she might have done in the autobiography she never wrote. I found this is a very interesting approach, and it's certainly very well performed with one narrator-voice and another speaking the words of Gertrude herself.

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