OYENTE

Debby Weaver

  • 28
  • opiniones
  • 4
  • votos útiles
  • 30
  • calificaciones

Spoiler Alert

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-01-24

I hate when someone gives away a book in the reviews, so the title of this review is your warning. This is a genre that I'm slowly coming to appreciate. While this is a sweet simple tale involving a very twisted family, it's not gory or so convoluted that you have to be a bloody genius or note taker to keep up with it.
I've known some people like the lead, who get so hyper focused on part of their life, that the rest can easily slip away if they don't have at least one solid person in their corner. I'll admit to jumping to the conclusion the writer wanted us to, about the husband and the sister. But when the truth comes out, I really wish that had been correct and not what was really going on. When all those business emails disappear, I knew the friend was behind it, but not the reason why. That was a twist I hadn't even imagined!!
As for the lead characters dumpster fire of a mother, I know many will not believe that someone could or would do the things she's done. Unless you've had your life affected by a narcissist, especially one with so devoted an enabler as her father, you have NO IDEA the levels they will go to. Even if it takes years, they will wait patiently, like Machiavelli... and her "friend".
There are two twists I didn't see coming. The "reason" for the friends betrayal and the out come of the revelation about her brothers death.

This book may be to simple for seasoned mystery readers but I say Well Done!

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Differences

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
1 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-22-24

The story was good. I listened to them one after another by their publication dates before I started leaving reviews. I'm not sure if this is the correct book or not for this critique, but it really doesn't matter as this is a problem with all books that are performed in an accent or a language that is not the readers natural tongue. The one thing that just drove me INSANE is how the speaker read the word Ensign. it is pronounced En-sin, NOT En-SIgn, even though it's spelled that way. The British pronounce the word lLieutenant vastly different than Americans do, but not the rank of Ensign. This is not just the fault of the performer, but of the person doing the editing, to not catch this.

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Wasn't going to read

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-22-24

the LJG books until I read this one. There was enough here to draw my mind.

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Wrong vocal

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
1 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-22-24

choices for some of the characters. I know this is a Lord Gray book, but the voice for Jamie is horrible. Quinn the Irishman has a better voice,
I know that some of these are meant to fill in for the Outlander books, but this one was just inane with plot holes you could dive a semi through.

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Deeply disappointed

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
1 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-11-24

As someone who is training to be a storyteller, I was looking forward to hearing some new tales. I firmly believe that unless it's an autobiography, or the writer has a trained voice, they should never perform their own works. While her voice is very soothing, it is also very monotonous and flat. I couldn't tell when she'd finished the first story and started the next one.
I'm hoping this was a free one in my Library and not one I paid for.

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Teaching Moments

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-09-23

I had only a vague notion of who this man was, until I finally sat down and binge watched POSE. I started watching it mostly because of him and I have to say that the show was incredible,! Even if you've not spent much time around gay men, you could see that Pray was more Billy than character. When I saw this book come across my list AND that Billy was narrating, I used the last credits I had to snap it up. I'm so very glad that I did!!!
Not many books in this genre have the nerve to be their authentic self. He tells it like it is and if you have a problem with him or the way he lives his life, then that's on you. He's too busy living his best and well deserved life to worry about the haters.
I have spent the last half of my life getting to know people in the gay community and my life is richer for it.
If you want to even begin understanding what he's gone through, even in some small part, and you are a hetero person, try going to a gay bar or group. Try walking in where you're the odd one out and making friends with someone of the opposite sex. One of my greatest joys in the last 30 years is to have an old Leather Daddy tell me that I was the first woman in over 40 years that he felt like he could not only talk to, but trust as well.
There were parts of this book that made me feel uncomfortable. Not with what, or how he was saying something, but with how I was feeling. about what he said.That is why I titled this review Teachable Moments.
Mr. Porter, as one telli it all and shame the devil person to another, I salute you!

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Love Barbara but hate this book

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-09-23

Lots of information about such a great lady, but I had to wonder while listening to this, does the author even like Barbra Streisand?
As for the narrator, once I got used to her nasally scratchy voice I could concentrate on the information. That is when I wasn't jerked out of the flow of the book by the numerous words that were mispronounced. Many times the flow of a sentence was all wrong. It's like listening to a singer take a deep breath in the middle of a very long note. Quite jarring on its own, but when you add a mispronounced word, it's like the note went sharp.
Save your money for one of her recordings.

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Interestingly Disappointing

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-09-23

I was very excited to see this book for sale in the library, until I started listening to it. Don't get me wrong, there are many good things in the book. I learned a lot about his personal life and as the mother of a son who's an actor, voice over artist, writer, producer and director, I can't thank him enough for all that Sundance means.
As for the writing in this book, I found the ending rather abrupt and unsettling. I'm not one who wants to know only the good or bad about someone. it's that middle ground where truth really lies and this book misses that mark by just a hair or two.
As for the narrator he did a great job, in the beginning, of changing his vocals when reading a quote from Redford. The first time, I had to rewind to make sure it wasn't Redford, but as the book progresses he loses it more and more. By the end, you can't tell the difference. I'm not sure which disappointed me more, the way the ending was written or how it was performed. it's like the narrator didn't know the book was ending and you can almost hear the surprise in his voice. I actually had to look at my phone to see if it had quit for some reason, but no, that WAS how he chose to voice the end. Very frustrating.
I dithered between giving a score of 3 or 4, because there are some real good things about this book, but the ending and the way it was read makes me give it a solid 3.

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Popcorn for the mind

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-17-23

I chose this book a few months ago. I just now found time for it after listening to a 15 book series that strained my brain by the end. I needed something light and easy and this book was perfect.
The characters are sweet and charming and the author weaves just enough of a thread between them all that you almost want to start a family tree for them to see who's related to whom.
I have parents and other family members in Violet's age range and some of the attitudes written about ring true. However, there are a few things that bothered me. In the entire story, she seems to flit from man to man as soon as she gets positive attention. Sometimes it seems to be just months instead of a year or more, like between Johnny and Sam. Other than being ripped from the men she loves, she seems to face no real consequences for her actions or choices. Yes, she became a battered wife, but that was, in the beginning, a choice she made to stay. You don't marry a man who doesn't want kids, if you have one you gave up. Full disclosure can keep so many people from making a bad choice. Yes, giving up her baby is bad, but at that time, the stigma of being an unwed mother is much worse. She could have chosen to stay and proved to Sam's parents that the baby was his. Not to break up a marriage, but to gain some support from them for the baby's welfare. Who knows where the story might have gone from there? What kind of women Violet and her daughter might have become as they grew up together. I'm sorry, but Violet's long lost and much searched for daughter, just showing up and being so quickly accepted, raised my hackles. Not once did anyone question the birth certificate, (which can be faked) not even the cop or the lawyer!
I do have to agree with some of the reviews, the southern accents are horrible! I live in TX, but have family all over the south. There is a distinct difference between Arkansas and Georgia, Florida and Alabama, etc. These all had pretty much the same accent. It's kind of like the line in Mrs. Doubtfire where she's asked where in England she's from, because her accent is kind of muddled. Same thing here, plus I always hate it when a part is voiced by someone of the opposite sex. My son is a VOA and I understand the costs involved. I just think that if there are more than 2 characters of each sex, they should be ready by that sex. I have a 5 octave singing range but I would never attempt to voice anything male unless it's a child.

The ending was a bit rushed and some of the relationships hurried, but all in all, not a bad piece of fluff to listen to at the beach or on a road trip. I used it to help me relax and fall asleep.

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Boring at it's best

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-31-23

The reader's voice was pleasant and was the only thing that made this book even halfway tolerable. If reading guest book lists, cook's lists and society columns constitutes the whole of history for this building and family, then count me out. I felt like I was almost being read the scene details from a day of shooting Downton Abbey. I stopped listening when they got to Egypt for the second time (I think. That's how boring this book is. I can't remember how many times they went) because I just couldn't stand it anymore. Michener added minutiae detail of sand, soil, flora and fauna to his books because they eventually played a role in the story he was telling. Not this book. Not at all! I was listening to this to fall asleep, but I would get so irritated by all the things that didn't matter, that it had the opposite reaction!

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