Brian in Lexington KY

Repetitive and unsurprising

Revisado: 03-18-25

Few of these tales contained much charm. The narrator does his best, though it’s odd that the narration is in an American accent and the ogres and other villains seem to be Cockney.

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Amazing performance!

Revisado: 01-28-25

Joe Jameson has an entertainingly distinct voice for every character—diverse men and women, various classes, various accents—that makes the book a tour de force of acting as well as a fun story. Alexis Hall is not afraid to make some characters and situations clownishly, Wodehousishly silly, but there's plenty of sincere emotional content as well.

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Hard to listen to

Revisado: 05-11-24

I made it through three chapters, but the reader’s delivery is too fast and too much of a monotone. The unvarying amount of rhythm and emphasis makes it too hard to grasp the point of each sentence.

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Iffy

Revisado: 08-05-23

The narrator, if human, seems to be imitating an annoying automated voice with questionable English pronunciation, horrendous, Spanish pronunciation, and occasional unnatural emphasis.

At least some of the material is lifted wholesale from other sources. I noticed a chunk of the entry on Santurce that was word for word taken from a blog post by Wandering Stu’s that was published years before this book existed.

This book might be helpful if you are determined to spend as little money as possible, but you will still have to spend hundreds of dollars for a rental car to reach the sites. It can be safely skipped if you have been looking at any travel sites that list or sort attractions by price; there’s not much here that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

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Thin

Revisado: 08-13-22

It’s more like “random Christmas song trivia” than “how to write a song.” Some of the interviews were valuable as pop culture artifacts, especially the ones related to “Santa Baby.” But many significant songs are breezed past or ignored while others (like some Britney Spears track) get unwarranted deep dives. So it’s hard to see who would be completely satisfied by this.

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A perfect performance; a perfect novel

Revisado: 07-28-22

The book is as enchanting as its setting. Ostensibly focused on a vacation in a sensually exhilarating Italian garden villa, it precisely unfolds every nuance of the interior lives of four distinctly different women. The action takes place entirely in the softening of the women’s expectations. The performance — given that the text is loaded with long interrupting asides like this one that might make it difficult for the performer to keep the subject aurally linked to the verb — succeeds marvelously.

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Quality level: 8th-grade term paper

Revisado: 07-05-22

This inexcusably brief and shallow book delivers a tiny fraction of what is found in the biographies by Arlo Nimmo (recommended) or Tony Sforza (also worth reading.) Little fresh insight is provided, large areas of interest are ignored while blips such as “One Meatball” receive inordinate attention. The performance is annoying, with the same falling cadence in every sentence, and mispronunciations such as “Diana Shore” and “Louis Pry-ma” and “Mounds, Minnesota.” Even diehard fans and completists can skip this one.

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Introduce yourself to Lucia

Revisado: 09-21-20

This book is the first in a series that has been beloved for a century now -- "Queen Lucia" appeared in 1920.

The books are English-village comic froth about which of the (mostly) well-to-do village neighbors is socially on top at any moment. It's usually Lucia. The third book (in which Lucia does not appear) introduces Miss Mapp, who becomes Lucia's primary challenger.

There is a world of light entertainment here, to be wallowed in over and over.

Miriam Margolyes is an excellent reader. This audiobook is unfortunately abridged. You can experience it as a quick sampler to decide if you're interested in reading the whole thing, or you can read the real book first and then enjoy hearing it come to life.

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Unsatisfying not to hear the whole thing

Revisado: 09-21-20

I admire Miriam Margolyes. She knows what's funny, and she lands the laughs, but she never seems like she's trying too hard and she never makes the production be all about her.

The book, of course, is a treasure, with wonderful episodes (Major Benjy's riding whip, Quaint Irene's satirical painting, Duchess Poppy). I do find that the Blue Birdie plot makes Susan too sadly pathetic for what is otherwise a romp.

The abridging here is not as egregious as in the other Lucia titles; even so, why abridge them at all? Such delightful material hasn't worn out its welcome after 3 hours, 49 minutes. This edition was a nice one-time manifestation of the book, but I would not return to it and I would not recommend it for anyone who hasn't read the full version.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Mixture of "satisfying" and "could be better"

Revisado: 09-21-20

There is nothing to complain about in Henry James text. It's a masterful deep dive into the psychological workings of its characters. During his time, few novelists had even attempted such minute dissection of people's every motive and fear and calculation and background and desire. If you want action, look elsewhere, because 90% of this story takes place among the thoughts of the characters.

The story may be familiar via the movie "The Heiress," which won an Oscar for Olivia de Havilland. Fans of the movie will be pleased by the book, although some climactic scenes's dialogue is less devastating in the book, possibly because we have plenty of time to be privy to the repercussions.

The performance by John McDonough is suitable--it's easy to imagine that this obviously mature male voice, with its patrician tones, is the voice of Henry James. On the other hand, the focus of the story is Catherine, who figures in most of the dialogue, so it's not ideal to hear her embodied in a thin, unconvincing falsetto. Aunt Lavinia speaks a lot as well, with similarly disappointing results (especially since there's far too little vocal acting of what is essentially a vaguely comic silly old woman). If I were to choose again, I would look for an edition read by a woman.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas