Adam

Great Book with Narration Issues

Revisado: 09-28-24

The good part is first. The text of the book is fascinating and well organized. I learned a lot and encourage others to explore it.

And now the bad part… My goodness, I only made it the end through long struggle sessions (pun intended). The narration is delivered in a repetitive and mechanical fashion. I frequently wondered if it was AI. Nearly every sentence is delivered with this cadence - “Medium medium high. Low low medium. Low low even lower.” This odd sing-song style hampers extended sessions and makes you long for better.

I don’t blame the narrator. I blame the producer and/or director of this production who could have and should have worked with him to deliver with greater variety. Making it to the end is a true slog. I encourage everyone to at least explore this book in text form as it is an impressive work of scholarship.

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Helpful Guide for the Rest of Us

Revisado: 06-27-23

When you press play, you will likely think, “Did I just burn through a credit for several hours of New Age-y music packaged as a book?” I hear you but there’s a reason that reveals itself. Like me, you likely aren’t an ascended master or amazing meditation practitioner. You can’t perfectly envision chakras let alone remember all of them. But if you’ve felt loss and/or give too much of yourself to others, you may need help addressing this damage and this “book” helps focus on the heart, occasionally with a subtle use of a heartbeat. If it doesn’t work for you in this capacity, it will at least help bring blood pressure to a comfortable level.

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The Audience Doesn’t Matter

Revisado: 10-12-22

The tone of this book is bizarre. Carina isn’t trying to persuade. There is no show and tell. She might as well be talking to herself, marveling at her own vocabulary. There is no point and counterpoint of authentic versus inauthentic femininity and how lopsided the portrayal is across literature, film, and television. Instead it’s an endless parade of “this is bad and this is bad…” chapter after chapter, hour after hour. And her writing shows no interest in us, the reader or listener. The narrator does her best with what’s here, which was quite a feat. Good job, Amy.

We would like to learn, to be persuaded, and to have examples ready if someone were to ask about the topic. My Women in Film teacher engaged me in a spirited discussion over Ridley being a true action hero or merely gaining power as a surrogate mother for Newt. It was fun. This book wasn’t. Prepare yourself for a Goth equivalent of life being terrible in all aspects, particularly for women, real and fictional.

Last dig - I came for the Stepford Wives. The horror of your trusted loved one trading the real you for an artificial and idealized version is incredible. Not so for Carina. In so many words, she indicates second-wave feminists dismissed it and so will she. And yet, she did not feel so above it slip it into her title. She tricked a credit out of me. I hope I can save you this fate.

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New Hits Here. Not Repackaged Hits.

Revisado: 06-19-22

Dr. Ehrman always presents fully researched material in an accessible and entertaining manner. That said, some of his books and even pieces in his Great Courses are repackaged. Despite the high quality, you’ve heard it before. Like a seasoned rock star phoning in an easy crowd pleaser, you can be entertained and annoyed listening to it. Not so here. Dr. Ehrman dug deep, analyzing scribal whims and cross pollination between Greek and Roman myths with the rapidly expanding early church. The only minor negatives are the narrator’s pronunciation of select words and the occasional miss of textual irony. I can tell Dr. Ehrman is winking so to speak but the narration didn’t amplify it. Nevertheless, this is well worth the credit.

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Amazing Economist Writer vs Fast Tech

Revisado: 02-09-22

Jon Fasman is a great writer but also has a great voice. If you’ve heard his regular features on podcasts from The Economist, his absence narrating his book is perpetually odd. Perhaps his schedule didn’t allow it? Jason Culp does a fine job but it’s like watching an actor substitute for another in the same role.

While thought provoking, the subject matter itself doesn’t age well, particularly in light of Oakland “re-funding” the police (not that I disagree). Even tech in China is only partially covered. Relatively recent articles in The Economist opined on community watchers in the country’s east watching banks of cameras for minor infractions (e.g. littering). It’s not here, sadly. This audiobook is good but is only held from great in narration and the exceptionally quick development of technology against the lethargic pace of publishing.

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A Ho-Hum Tangled Web

Revisado: 05-01-21

Powerful people abusing children and the public trust? In the 80s when the Franklin Credit Union scandal emerged, that was unthinkable. Given recent events, it’s very plausible. Sadly, the presentation undercuts the many sordid details. The narration drones with odd intonations as if the author is reading his book for the first time. There’s no slow burn as each dirty onion layer reveals another. Rather, it’s a robotic spewing of fact one, heresay two, assumption three... We should care about Johnny Gosh and the many sad kids detailed. Instead, we gut through every minute so we can mark this tome as finished in our libraries.

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What is the desired global population?

Revisado: 04-07-21

That’s the real question that strangely goes unanswered in this interesting deep dive into demographics. The authors spend too much time on immigration, which addresses one country’s population while ignoring the shrinking global population (which is why we’re here). They also undercut the benefits of immigration with a dig at their negligible fertility impact (i.e. an immigrant’s 2.1 addition to a 1.7 society - big whoop). It’s rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as the globe consistently shrinks overall. This strangely long series of chapters wastes time castigating uncaring societies while dodging the real concern. How many people can our planet support with innovation potential and environmental protection in balance? I still don’t know at the book’s end. Should you get this book? It’s engaging and topical. Sure... if you have a credit burning in your pocket.

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Good but Missing Audio from Game

Revisado: 10-25-20

This is a focused and compact retelling of the video game with a few interesting diversions into Amanda’s backstory. Sadly, it loses a star due to the absence of the awesome game and film music, the easily added vocal adjustments for the Working Joes, and Ellen Ripley’s message to her daughter as recorded in the game. Perhaps a legal hurdle to make happen but the emotional impact is reduced without it.

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A challenging analysis at last

Revisado: 08-19-20

Prof. Ehrman is fantastic. His Great Courses are particularly good, which led me to this title. He has written the impossible - a book for believers that tackles many passages they skip, which is a faith workout, and validation for those who do not follow Abrahamic religions. The reasons I don’t give my usual five stars to his book are twofold. First, he falls into the trap of selective passage use to bolster his points while simultaneously (rightly) castigating believers for the same thing. Second, for the Abrahamic God to exist as written for him, there can be no faith because we would all know and see. There would be no suffering of any kind (e.g. sweating in a gym). We would all be immortal and perfectly chiseled specimens who never try to do anything because it would all come easy. Sounds like a Twilight Zone hell to me.

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"They" are out there (but not as many as inferred)

Revisado: 05-20-20

WallBuilders and David Barton's books, which Katherine Stewart covers, influenced my childhood. I even had Abeka VHS tapes and books for science while homeschooling so I'm O.G. in the Power Worshipper world. Her descriptions are accurate but... you are led to believe there is an enormous religious influence on our government institutions. Influence? Yes. Enormous? Maybe in their minds. Imagine a loud minority within the larger religious world. They create a ruckus and do influence politicians but their influence is limited. The majority of religious Americans are unaware of these players and would not subscribe to their imagined theocracy. So be aware but don't fret...much.

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