Womble

Increase narrator speed for easier listening to this brilliant book!

Reviewed: 12-04-2024

Panksepp’s work is groundbreaking and more people should read this! As others have said the narrator isn’t the easiest to listen to, but I found that increasing the playing speed (you can do this easily in the app) made it flow better and was then much easier to listen to. Also if you find earlier chapters a bit heavy going, or if you get stuck, just skip ahead to the chapters on the different emotions. Valuable information here for understanding oneself, other people and also other mammals.

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Brilliant version of this classic story

Reviewed: 21-12-2023

I’m glad I discovered that there is a version of this read by Jennifer Saunders! She does a brilliant job of bringing all the characters to life.

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Great storyteller

Reviewed: 15-11-2023

The things I loved most about this book were the great stories and the updated notes at the end of each chapter. The updates showed that Mark Rashid has continued to learn and grow as a horse person throughout his life, and in so doing he has become kinder and fairer to the horses. He really shows his learning process from a beginner as a child through to an experienced trainer, being taught lessons by the old man and a range of troubled horses. I especially liked how he updated things to emphasise the importance of checking for pain and health problems, tack fit, and listening to what the horse is trying to tell you. Though many of us start out learning some less than ideal techniques for training and riding, I hope that these days more and more people are embracing the idea of listening to their horses. I’m curious to read his more recent work to see what his training is like these days. Some of the stories may be upsetting for people sensitive to animal suffering, and the last chapter involves death and euthanasia. This is an engaging listen with some interesting reflections, even for those of us who don’t use training methods such as those described (or not anymore, anyway.)

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Good stuff

Reviewed: 09-02-2023

I wasn’t sure if I should get this, as I’m not really the target audience, but I enjoy Maria Bamford’s comedy so I gave it a go. It was a fun listen and served as a good pep talk to get me moving on some creative stuff. It’s only short, so it’ll be easy to pop back on again in future if I need a reminder (because I will.)

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1 person found this helpful

So glad I got this

Reviewed: 09-02-2023

I got a lot more than I expected from this book. Generally I avoid books where grief is one of the main subjects, but her humour, honesty, insight and gentle way of speaking helped me to reflect on some things that I really needed to think about. I am sure I will listen again in future.

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Relatable, funny, reassuring

Reviewed: 10-01-2023

Popping this book in my list of things to engage with when I’m in need of self care. Thank you Mark Watson!

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Exceeded expectations - fun audio adaptations

Reviewed: 09-12-2022

I’m always wary of adaptations, but some of these were great fun. Mansfield Park and Emma in this collection are now among my favourites of any of the adaptations I’ve seen or heard. Northanger Abbey is always a joy, and despite feeling protective of Persuasion (I can’t bring myself to watch the newest adaptation, considering the bit in the trailer where Anne Elliot puts food on her face to be a warning for me to steer clear!) I enjoyed this version enough to listen to it all in one day.

Something is always changed from the original novel in this sort of thing, but the changes were done pretty well so they didn’t throw me out of the story too much. Every dramatic adaptation adds dialogue in certain key moments where the novels don’t have any, so I can’t criticise that approach here. Some of the actors’ performances were fabulous (some hilarious!) though there were also occasional moments with slightly dodgy pronunciation or emphasis. Overall though I’m glad I listened to these, I found myself laughing out loud more often than I usually do when listening to the audiobooks, and I think my lowered expectations helped, as I was pleasantly surprised. I’d half expected to delete it from my library and listen to my much loved audiobooks read by Juliet Stevenson instead, but happily I didn’t think of stopping once I had got going. I’m sure I’ll listen to them again one day when I need an escape.

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Incredibly reassuring book

Reviewed: 20-11-2022

Great to know I’m not alone, and great to have this book to turn to in difficult times! Many subtly brilliant things about this book, it’s short but effective.

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Fun, but with odd glitch

Reviewed: 08-08-2022

The narrator’s intro is great for setting expectations - this was an early experimental (if that’s the right word for it?) piece, that was “finished” at a much later time. It’s very different to Austen’s more well-known stories. It’s mostly a short and fun listen, but some voices aren’t quite right (American pronunciation is ok, but some had odd ways of speaking) and there was an odd glitch in chapter 5 where it skipped ahead.

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Thank you for making this available in audio!

Reviewed: 07-12-2021

Great information from an experienced dog trainer who gives examples from real life dogs. Includes good explanations of how to actually carry out the training process. The narrator must be a professional audiobook narrator, not a dog trainer, as she occasionally says something a little oddly (eg. Desensitisation is said as “desense-itation a few times.) It’s not a problem though, she has a nice voice and this was easy to listen to otherwise. I’m so glad this is available as an audiobook, and that I can bookmark/clip certain sections for a quick refresher “pep talk” if I need it.

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