Brittany

Had to Stop Reading, Not her Best

Revisado: 09-09-24

Let me preface this by saying that I used to be a staunch finish-the-book-at-all-costs person, because anything else felt like quitting. I've only recently really learned to embrace the fact that life is short and not all books are worth it in the end.

I've previously read The Enchanted April and Elizabeth and her German Garden by von Arnim and I loved both so I jumped on this. However, the beginning was painfully slow and the main male character not likable at all. He progressively got harder and harder to handle, but finally the true crux of the plot introduced itself.....and I lost even more interest than ever. I fully understand that this was written in a very specific time period, so things like a 40 year old man marrying a girl of 18 wasn't out of place, but that's doesn't mean I want to read about it. While intellectually I get exactly what von Arnim was trying to set up, what with the main lady's obnoxious beaux being so much younger than her...still. I gave up. It didn't seem worth the hours when I have so many other audiobooks to listen to.

Really glad this was free and I didn't spend a credit on it. Maybe someday I'll try it again, but I kind of doubt it.

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Incredible!

Revisado: 09-09-24

I can't say how utterly astounded I am by Andrew J. Robinson, for not only how he wrote this incredibly compelling account of Garak's life, but also how he performed it so impeccably!

I, like many others, was rather disappointed with the ending of DS9 and where it left Garak in particular. I've been trying to get my hands on this book for years, but with it being out of print the few on the market were upwards of $125! When I heard this audiobook was on it's way, with Robinson no less, I jumped on it immediately.

Even if you only like Garak marginally, if you love character studies, this book is for you!

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Not Amazing, but Pretty Good

Revisado: 09-09-24

There were certain moments where the performance seems overly theatrical and I couldn't NOT hear how frequently the narrator was gasping for breath...but otherwise, it was performed well.

The story itself was hard to get a handle on at first, simply because you're coming to know who all the individuals are. My one big complaint, and something I'd like to warn other potential readers about, is that there is a VERY, VERY upsetting segment about a dog being brutally murdered for food. I understand this is nonfiction and it is a part of what really happened, but jeez! This is why I wish all books had an official trigger warning page, indicating what pages to skip, because there are just some things people don't want to expose themselves to.

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A Long Term Plan for Those Who Qualify

Revisado: 04-05-24

This book was clearly edited to cater to the lowest common denominator. I wish it had included more science to support its claims so that the book was a healthy 50/50 between science and self-help, but it's more like...20/80. Not what I was really looking for.

The book introduces a plan to help regulate the nervous system at "every" level. The plan is very long and involved and while some of it is very helpful in terms of small things you can introduce into daily life that are beneficial, a lot of the plan is dependent on first completing an entire stage before proceeding. Some elements of the plan are flat out too vague to put into practice and are difficult to translate into specifics for your life (the section on spirituality and kinship was just...awful). This is what comes from trying to write for literally everyone.

And though I'm very pleased to find that the beginning of the book had introduction and discussion on what an HSP (highly sensitive person) is, the book utterly failed to properly define what it considered to be CLEAR dysregulation of the nervous system and not simply something else...like anxiety. Or a physical chronic illness like endometriosis or POTS, etc. It basically said anything, literally anything about your life or physical state, could cause dysregulation. Well, great. But for those with chronic illness, a lot of this book may be a waste of time.

Lastly, the book is highly repetitive in many places and the author really should have tried to some up with a synonym for the word 'dysregulation' because if I have to hear it one more time I might scream.

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Ups and Downs

Revisado: 04-05-24

A collection of short stories is always likely to have some that are better than others and this is definitely true here. Though Lois the Witch is often mentioned when referring to Gaskell's short stories (at least I've found) It was one of my least favorite. This and the Poor Clare were down right boring, which is astonishing to say considering the latter has the murder of a poor innocent dog.

My favorite stories were The Old Nurse's Story and The Grey Woman.

The performance was good and though I found some accents a little annoying to listen to this was definitely not the fault of the narrator.

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Surface Level Sex Talk

Revisado: 02-19-24

This is not, as it might appear from the title, an anthropological look at the history of courtship ritual. What it is, is a surface skimming of the recent history of sex in the UK and America.

As the subtitle does suggest, it starts with the Regency period, however, this appears to be a marketing ploy and nothing more, as the author fails to tie in the significance of the idea of marrying for love at originated at this period and how that it was only through this that the world was able to progress into what we see today (...eventually).

There's very little focus on courting and much more time devoted to discussing if people were having sex, whether they were admitting it or not, and where and how they were having sex. This, mixed with a narration style that seemed to only want a laugh out of you, coupled with slang that is occasionally not even defined, makes the whole topic sound very cheap and not one meant for either historical or social analysis. While the author does include LGBT specifics in the discussion, the locations are limited to the two countries only.

The performance was fine, so long as the author spoke with her normal voice. However, whenever she quoted anyone, her attempt to playact was terrible. Her American accent is particularly horrendous and it actually made this audiobook difficult to finish.

If all you're looking for is a brief perusal of history through a sexual lens, go for it. If you want a deep dive into the history or just want the focus on actual courtship and not sex, give this a hard pass.

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The Before Times

Revisado: 02-14-24

An essential read for the die-hard Tolkien fans, I have the paperback and got about a quarter of the way through before life intervened. Going back, I had difficulty remembering what had already been established, so I thought started afresh with an audio version might better assist me in getting through it.

Not only did I prefer this in audio (because I could listen while cleaning and doing chores, thus making me less guilty) I actually think that Tolkien may have preferred it this way. The professor was really into the spoken word and oral history of folktales so I think any audio version of his work would have been JRR approved!

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A Performance More than A Story

Revisado: 02-14-24

This performance, at a convention I believe, is one of those meta looks into both Trek and the world as it really is. It's short, fun, and just plain awesome to hear Spock give Q sh*t.

I wish this had been more of a novel than just a stage performance, but that's just me being picky.

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C'mon, it's Jimmy Doohan!

Revisado: 02-14-24

I took off two full stars for the 'Story' specific rating, just because this recording is an abridgment of the novel. However, I was willing to purchase it anyway because, well, James Doohan of course!

He's wonderful, as always, and though I think the now tried-and-true Trek voice actor Robert Petkoff does some better impressions of certain cast members than Doohan, there's just no getting around how talented and emotional this reading is!

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Air and Space History MUST

Revisado: 02-14-24

The book is so much more thorough than the movie, of course! The fact that it's read by Dennis Quaid at a later age than when he starred in the film is a little odd, but fun none the less.

I very much enjoyed this audiobook for it's content and performance, though some of the chapters are quite a bit long (I always prefer a larger number of shorter chapters because I HATE pausing in the middle and sometimes you just have to when the chapter is like an hour and a half).

My biggest complaint about the content of the book is a couple of instances of really over the top, graphic, sexist descriptions of women as literal sex objects. Quaid's performance didn't help the disgust I felt either, it's really shudder inducing. These women are the faceless fangirls of fighter jocks and the author never dares to use such language when referring to the pilot's wives. They, at least, are described as people. Considering this book was written in 1979, it's not totally surprising that the author thought this was acceptable...kind of wish these snippets had been edited out however.

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