Chrissie's Books

Phew, this was a difficult book to digest in the audiobook format. Neither is it easy to digest in a paper book format. It is dense. It is detailed. Names and places and battles are thrown at you in rapid succession. You have to remember who is who, which corps is fighting where and its number, the title of each commander and more. You do not have time to stop and think and recall what was told to you minutes/pages or even hours/chapters before. You need more than a detailed map because you don’t have much time to spend looking at that map. What you need most of all is a good memory, a good knowledge of history and geographic knowledge before you even pick up the book. OR you can read this book to begin learning and accept that there will be parts that go over your head. That is what I did, and I enjoyed much of it, but I also spent time exasperated since there were sentences I had to think about and ponder before I understood their implications. I had to rewind and write notes and search on the internet.

Does this mean I regret reading it? My response is emphatically no.

Much of the book is set in Belgium and France. (It also covers the Eastern Prussian Front.) I have been to many of the towns, cities, citadels, squares, forests and rivers named. Knowing the history of what happened where I have walked is special to me. I am a bit unsure if it would mean as much to one who has not been there. If you have been in the Ardennes you immediately understand the difficulty of moving artillery around there. Having walked in Leuven, Dinant, Mons, Charleroi and Namur, to name a smattering, when you hear of the burning and sacking and murder of hostages, you more intimately understand. I believe my own experiences, rather than the writing made the events real.

It is important to know that this book is focused primarily on the military battles of the first month of the war. Why? Because what happened then set the course for the four years that followed. You might as well be told that the primary focus is military because that will not appeal to all. The start of World War One is all about the idiosyncrasies of generals. It is about a lack of communication. It is about men who have decided on a plan and from that they will not budge.

The narration by John Lee was fine, but he does not speak slowly and that might have made things a bit easier. Some say he speaks with a Scottish dialect. That is fine by me!

I will tell you why I liked this book. I now have the basics for how the war started. I appreciate knowing what has happened to the people living around me here in Belgium; I understand them better. I understand why they so quickly capitulated in the Second World War. Today there is so much squabbling going on between the Flemish and the French people of Belgium. It was wonderful to see how in the First World War they fought united, as one people, for their independence and very existence. I needed to learn of this.

Having read Mark Twain’s well researched book about the life of Joan of Arc, this book, An Army of Angels by Pamela Marcantel, just does not compare. Read Twain’s Joan of Arc instead. The manner in which Marcantel deals with mystical revelations does not work for me, but it may work for others who are very religious and can imagine speaking directly with God.

Phew, this was a difficult book to digest in the audiobook format. Neither is it easy to digest in a paper book format. It is dense. It is detailed. Names and places and battles are thrown at you in rapid succession. You have to remember who is who, which corps is fighting where and its number, the title of each commander and more. You do not have time to stop and think and recall what was told to you minutes/pages or even hours/chapters before. You need more than a detailed map because you don’t have much time to spend looking at that map. What you need most of all is a good memory, a good knowledge of history and geographic knowledge before you even pick up the book. OR you can read this book to begin learning and accept that there will be parts that go over your head. That is what I did, and I enjoyed much of it, but I also spent time exasperated since there were sentences I had to think about and ponder before I understood their implications. I had to rewind and write notes and search on the internet.

Does this mean I regret reading it? My response is emphatically no.

Much of the book is set in Belgium and France. (It also covers the Eastern Prussian Front.) I have been to many of the towns, cities, citadels, squares, forests and rivers named. Knowing the history of what happened where I have walked is special to me. I am a bit unsure if it would mean as much to one who has not been there. If you have been in the Ardennes you immediately understand the difficulty of moving artillery around there. Having walked in Leuven, Dinant, Mons, Charleroi and Namur, to name a smattering, when you hear of the burning and sacking and murder of hostages, you more intimately understand. I believe my own experiences, rather than the writing made the events real.

It is important to know that this book is focused primarily on the military battles of the first month of the war. Why? Because what happened then set the course for the four years that followed. You might as well be told that the primary focus is military because that will not appeal to all. The start of World War One is all about the idiosyncrasies of generals. It is about a lack of communication. It is about men who have decided on a plan and from that they will not budge.

The narration by John Lee was fine, but he does not speak slowly and that might have made things a bit easier. Some say he speaks with a Scottish dialect. That is fine by me!

I will tell you why I liked this book. I now have the basics for how the war started. I appreciate knowing what has happened to the people living around me here in Belgium; I understand them better. I understand why they so quickly capitulated in the Second World War. Today there is so much squabbling going on between the Flemish and the French people of Belgium. It was wonderful to see how in the First World War they fought united, as one people, for their independence and very existence. I needed to learn of this.

Yes, I liked it, but if you stop and analyze what happens you over and over find things that just do not make sense! That wouldn't happen! That is unbelievable! If I give you examples, I am going to wreck the book for you. Here is just one example, (spoiler: there is no way that the Edward's Japanese lover could have lived in the suite with him on his first trip! )

Contemporary authors seem to think readers today no longer want a book that runs in chronological order. They all have to flip back and forth in time. Here we start in 2003 and then flip back first to the 50s and then to time periods closer and closer to 2003 when Edward is in his 70s. We learn retrospectively why he has become who he is. This flipping is not difficult to follow, but tell me, what is gained by this manner of writing?! Nothing as far as I can see.

Did I care for the characters? No, but they felt real. Edward is self-centered, egotistical and detached.

Do you get much history? No, even if some well-recognizable people (Churchill, Nehru) flash by! That Edward saw the American destruction of Japan (specifically Tokyo, Nagasaki and Hiroshima) with unforgiving eyes is not ever explained. He writes a book about it, but why he felt so moved is left unexplored. More could have been done with this theme.

What the book does excellently is beautifully draw for the reader the ambiance of a place - NY, London and Japan (around Tokyo). Mostly the latter two. Edward is Scottish. The Japanese characters feel Japanese. The American characters too. All the dialogs are perfect. Over and over I thought, "Yeah, that is exactly how a Japanese would talk to a foreigner." I have been there. I have also been to the places where the story is set, outside Tokyo. Everybody that goes to Japan will visit Kamakura and Hakone. On a crowded train near Hakone we were given painted toothpicks by a Japanese man. Given, they were a present from someone I did not know. You feel that the description of the places is genuine. However, I am a little unsure if my own memories make the lines more enjoyable for me than for a reader who has not been there..... How much have my own experiences added to the author's lines?

Japanese value beauty. This is an important theme of the book, and this is spot-on.

If you are curious about Japan or have been there, I think you will enjoy the book. I did.

One word about the narration by Nick Cheales - excellent! He perfectly captures different accents, Scottish, Japanese and American.

On completion, all I will add to that written below is that I adored the ending. This IS my favorite book by Hemingway. Hemingway has illuminated friendship and love in a beautiful and also honest manner. Note, this is a love story, a wonderful love story that rings true. Nothing false here. If other authors could write love stories like this, romance would be my favorite genre.

Although fiction, the book is in fact written about real people and real events, and it has an autobiographical basis. Check out Wiki when you have completed the book; no peaking before! I found Jake very attractive. I will include just one quote from Wiki: "In the novel, Hemingway presents his notion that the "Lost Generation", considered to have been decadent, dissolute and irretrievably damaged by World War I, was resilient and strong." When you finish the book you have glimpsed French and Spanish life in the 20s. You feel you have yourself vacationed in both France and Spain. Need a vacation? Read this book. I absolutely loved it.

*********************

I am nearing the end, and I am absolutely loving this. Yes, even the bullfighting fiesta. It goes on for seven days - rockets and dancing and music and crowds. And yes of course drinking. To remove that would be absurd! Me,I am the one to faint in a crowd and have done so at a 4th of July parade, so this fiesta should not be my kind of thing, but here, in this book, you see why it is so loved by the Spanish people. You, the reader, are part of their festivities and understand and f-e-e-l their excitement. Back away two steps and your inhibitions rise up, but while reading Hemingway's lines you are there in the middle, and it is glorious and frightful all rolled together. Hemingway shows the horrors of it too, so the reader gets a rounded view. Not all Spaniards love bullfighting, even back then in the twenties.

And a word about how antisemitism is portrayed. Yes, one of the characters is a Jew, and yes he is disliked, but really it is not for his religious beliefs. It has nothing to do with that. This book is about friends and all the currents that lie underneath a friendship - jealously, competition, disgust, petty annoyances, sharing, camaraderie and caring. Be honest, friendship is NOT so simple. Much of the antisemitism is pure bluster.


William Hurt does a marvelous job with the narration, but it is not perfect. Tut, tut, tut, what do you mean, William? Shame on you! Not every line is perfect! (For clarity - I AM being sarcastic.) The French and American voices are perfect. I mean perfect! Dialogs between different friends succeed in that you know exactly who is speaking. Even if a female voice or the Scottish and German dialects could be improved, you still easily know who is who! And the pacing and strength of the lines describing scenery, the mountains, the fields, the color of the sky are wonderful too. Perfect narration? No. Very good? Yes! And this book is not easy to narrate.


**********************

I have just begun, but I am sucking up the atmosphere of Paris in the 20s. All are plastered - that is, some Americans and French and Italians and Greeks. I am listening to a narration by the w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l William Hurt. There is no way I could imagine the lines spoken with all these different accents as well as Hurt narrates them. Sooo perfect, particularly the French and American, the others accents give an amusing contrast! The mood of that time and place, Paris and expatriates and booze and bars, 1924, is delightfully portrayed. I don't mind the macho lines at all. They make me laugh and giggle. Sooooooo Hemingway!!!! Good stuff.

And I am not a boozer, but this I enjoy. You can live vicariously through books ...... without yourself having a hangover the next day!

Please let my enjoyment continue.

I know this book contains misogyny, homophobia, and some antisemitism too, but a good author can handle difficult themes well. Oh yeah, yucky bullfighting too. We will see how I feel at the end.

I think this will be my favorite book by Hemingway!

I finished the audiobook version, narrated by Jonathan Aris, two days ago. I had to in fact listen to the ending three times; the details were confusing - which kind of annoyed me! I do think I understand the message that was being imparted by the final scene. Anyway, what I most enjoyed about this book was its imagery. You feel as though you are in Paris. The Parisians are acting like Parisians. You perceive the streets, the sounds and sights and smells. Well, not really the smells, because the stench of Paris in 1785 is not the way it smells today. The area around the "Cemetery of Les Innocents", given its mass graves and the decomposing bodies, had not the fragrance of a floral garden! All the bones and bodies were to be excavated and moved elsewhere! This is a fictional story about this project.

For those "nutters" like me who want to know the historical details, here are the facts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Innocents_Cemetery

So what I really liked about this book was being in Paris again, but if you haven't been in Paris you maybe will not feel yourself there again.... that is a possibility. Maybe this is a book for those of us who do know Paris and want to make a trip back!

This book not only depicts the physical aspects of Paris in the 1780s but also its "philosophical trends" - Voltaire and Descartes and the Age of the Enlightenment, Le Siècle des Lumières. The message of the book is related to whether its main character, Jean Baptiste Barrat, does or does not become a modern man, in the sense of the new philosophy of the time. So the book is not only about the cemetery but also about ordinary people living in the time of the Enlightenment.

Maybe the events are a bit unbelievable, but I don't read a book for its plot. I prefer character studies and depictions of a time and place. Nevertheless, three stars is my rating. I enjoyed myself while I was there, engulfed in Paris of those years, but what exactly did I get from my reading? I felt the author was trying to leave a message with the confusing ending. That I could have done without. It's a bit trite. I believe Miller wants it said that Barrat had grown and was a wiser man even if the retreat looked as though he was following the same path. Why was he changed? Through his own choices and actions or through a medical event that happened to him, nothing he did himself? To understand what I am saying here you have to read the book!

The narrator does know French; it was a relief to hear French spoken with correct pronunciation.

I haven’t read a book this good in years!

I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn’t enjoy this book.

This is a book about a man, John Adams, but it is also much, much more. It is a book about American Independence, the American Revolution and all the Founding Fathers, the seven most important being George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, George Madison and Benjamin Franklin. The book follows all the events from the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution, through the presidencies of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Madison, James Monroe and finally John Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president!
This is a book about people, each very different in character, but the author brings each one of them to life. I adore learning about people. I loved the book for this reason alone. You understand how the individuals think, what they feared, what they loved, what made each one special. You understand their differences. It is the little details that will make you LOVE this book. John Adams, this guy wrote volumes in the margins of his books. Jefferson loved his books too, but rarely did he write in them. The relationship between these two men is extraordinary. John Adams relationship with his wife Abigail is extraordinary too!

I love how it taught me history, and it was never ever boring. I don’t read books about politics, but this book is definitely about politics, and I adored it! I normally avoid books on politics because I find them confusing. Why? Because for me politics doesn’t follow the rules of logic. A party claims they stand for a given set of principles, but then the politicians do not follow these principles. The result is that I get confused. A central theme is, and particularly John Adams presidency and the following election where he sought his second term but lost it to Jefferson, was a battle of politics, and yet I understood exactly what was happening. This book is clear, informative and presents a balanced view of all the prime players.

John Adams by David McCullough is stupendous. I cannot help but compare it with Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, which I recently read and loved, but Isaacson’s book doesn’t come near to McCullough’s. John Adams wrote letters to all his contemporaries, to newspapers, public officials, friends and his dear wife Abigail. He kept diaries. John Adams was opinionated. Jefferson and Franklin were close-mouthed! After his presidency, when he was much older, Adams wrote copious letters to his dear friend and previous arch-enemy, Jefferson. Adams is the person to follow if you are interested in learning about American Independence, American life in the colonies during the 1700s and about France and England and Holland too, about the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. It is all here and it is all interesting.

Every page has quotes. Don’t assume that this makes the book dry and difficult to read. The opposite is true! You learn about the peculiarities of all the important Founding Fathers. Jefferson bought and bought and bought. He couldn’t stop buying. It is the way the author depicts these small idiosyncrasies that will make you laugh out loud! Jefferson lists all that he buys, but the funniest is that the columns and columns of purchased items are never added up. Never. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, fifty years after the Declaration of Independence!!!!! Guess which one was wealthy then! I REALLY love this book and I want you to understand that this is the book to choose if you have any curiosity about any of the Founding Fathers, about American Independence or about life in Europe during the 1700s and early 1800s.

Have I convinced you to choose this book? Here is another reason why! The descriptions of the people, places and events are vivid! When the British ships are set to attack at Staten Island you see them in the sun and you feel the imminent threat. At Washington's inauguration he travels in a canary yellow carriage pulled by white horses. I am skipping all over the place, I know, but the descriptive quality of the lines is perfect throughout the entire book. I personally adored the depiction of French, English and Dutch mores. I adored how family problems are described so you laugh. Charles, one of Adams’ sons, had some difficulties in Harvard and almost got thrown out. Yes, they were running around naked. But wait, you will cry too when you learn of his final fate. “Moral” and so very devoted to his wife as Adams is, you should hear his conversation with the French women! “Instincts” will show us what to do, he replies to a tricky question about men and women’s sexual behavior! :0) This reply is just so perfect; it is so “Adamsee”! And Hamilton, oh what he does! I could wring his neck!

All the details are amusing, engaging, thorough, and accurate. When I compare Isaacson’s versus McCullough’s portrait of Benjamin Franklin, I feel that McCullough’s is superior. His is unbiased and clear-sighted. An author may not “fall in love” with the character being portrayed; impartiality is essential. So here is my advice: read John Adams first! The two are similar, but this one is superior. Read Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Lifeafterwards if you then still want a little bit more about Franklin’s scientific inventions. Nelson Runger is the narrator of both of the audiobooks. Yes, he slurps and seems to need to swallow his saliva repeatedly, but there is less of that in McCullough’s book. His French pronunciation could definitely be improved, but otherwise the narration is fine. Don’t shy away from either audiobook for these reasons. The narration’s speed and clarity is fine, and that is what is most important.

I really did enjoy Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, but I absolutely loved John Adams! And I think I sort of have a crush on John Adams, even with his faults! What a man! What a time! What writing!

Although the author expresses herself well, the book needs editing. Too many events are thrown in in an unclear fashion. The author’s family is large and I could not keep everyone straight, other than the author’s mother’s seven half-siblings, at least when they were identified with their given name. A “mother” is spoken of and you wonder is that the author’s mother or her mother’s mother or…..which mother?!  There are wives and cousins and friends and enemies galore. Few had the same opinion about a given event. The whole story becomes confusing, and it is unclear what information is reliable. Squabbles and drinking influence everyone’s story. And yet, in any family, don’t we all have different versions of the given events?

Life in South Africa is also thrown in, with some brief sections on Nelson Mandela and a few other political figures, but what is the purpose of this book? Is it to relate how historical events affect families? No, I don’t think so. Is it the author’s attempt to understand her mother and her own family? She says that is why she is writing it, but then why does she say she will return but doesn’t?

Or is this simply someone writing a memoir about their family? Ahhhh, this will make an exciting book! I’ve got a story to tell. Everyone nowadays wants to write their own memoir. The basic story here is about a dysfunctional family, about alcoholism and sexual child abuse, and yes, the events are shocking. My guess is that the author needed to work through her own loss of her mother after her death.  That IS reasonable, and it IS great to hear of her mother’s strength of character, but I see this as a personal story, not one that I can empathize with. Maybe that is my fault rather than the author’s, but that is how I reacted! Maybe the author through writing the book reached closure, but do you write a book and publish it when you are doing this for yourself? I, the reader, am left confused and without closure. This book will perhaps be more appreciated by one who has dealt with child abuse and alcoholism in their own family…… for them, this may be a helpful book.

In the audiobook the author reads her own book, and she does this very well. She has a British accent, since her Mom had her after she had immigrated to England. England was her home if never really her mother’s. It is interesting:  kids should realize their parents have had a whole life before they ever arrived on the scene and often we know very little about that previous life. Do we ask and do our parents tell us?

I did like this book, but it should have been better organized, made less confusing and cleaned up a bit, so for me it ended up just being OK. Often, but not always, I did like how she strung together her words. How an author writes is important to me. Some authors have such a talent and others just don’t. I do think I would try another book by this author.

Very good. I really enjoyed this book. Exciting, and it teaches you about Eva Péron, the facts and the myth surrounding her life and death. Why is she so loved by Argentine people? I find this much more interesting than all the books written about Argentina’s Dirty War (1976-1983), which followed. The book is based on true facts, or so we are told when the book begins.

Life on the pampas is described through some of the book’s characters. You see and experience Buenos Aires too. You travel to Italy and France and Spain and you feel how these places are all different. The details are right. It all feels real.

And what happens is exciting. I have to repeat that. This is a thriller, and even I completely understood what was going on! That alone is amazing. I will not shy away from political thrillers – at least those based on true facts – again. They don’t have to be confusing; this book proves that.

The audiobook narration by David de Vries is, however, so-so……. OK, his narration does get you excited and he in no way wrecks the story, but when he impersonates women, well, this could be improved! But there is another problem with the audiobook. It does NOT include the author’s note found in the paper version. This very much annoyed me. For this I am removing one star. I went onto Wiki to see what I could find: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Per%C3%B3n#Death).
Unfortunately this does not clarify all of the questions that arise as you read the book. I need to know to what extent the CIA played a role in what happened to Evita’s body after her death. I need to know if the information about the Swiss bank account is fact or fiction. Other questions remain too. Wiki says she really is buried in Buenos Aires’ La Recoleta Cemetery….

Had there been a good author’s note, I would have given the book four stars! I totally enjoyed what I learned and the action was so very exciting. I promise you, you will not regret reading this if you are interested in Eva Péron! When you have completed the book, do read the link above. I am glad I read this book by Gregory Widen rather than Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez. An explanation for this will also be found in the link above.

Look at this beautiful Golden Spruce: https://www.google.be/search?q=golden+spruce&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=b0I7Utm0HtCShgfE0oHIAg&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1318&bih=653&dpr=1.2#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=7PWFLQ8SzlyplM%3A%3BeoQ_5rnoCPH1eM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftest.goldenspruce.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2013%252F02%252Fgolden-spruce.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.goldenspruce.com%252Fabout_us%252F%3B1067%3B1600

ETA: Check out National Geographic's article on the Haida (Vol 172, NO.1, July 1987)

Anyone interested in forest conservation should read this book. It is informative and clear. You will learn about the timber industry. Maybe that sounds dry, but the book is in no way dry. Why? That is because the author couples it with a true event concerning the chopping down of the tree shown above and the disappearance of the man who chopped it down, Grant Hadwin in January 1997. Why did he do it? Was it right to do it? The latter has certainly been debated! And is he still alive? To top it all off, this magnificent tree was an essential part of the Haida culture. The Haida are a First Nation tribe living primarily on coastal British Colombia, Canada, many on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). Their culture and traditions are also covered in this book. All of these different topics are interwoven and engagingly told.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. He did a great job. He never puts you to sleep. Both the text and the narration are engaging.

I pulled out a map of the northwestern coastline of British Colombia, the Charlotte Islands and the Hecate Strait. When you hear of the virulence of this stretch of water you are drawn to find it and place it on a map.

What makes this book good is how it covers an exciting, true event, history and conservation.

Definitely worth reading, but do NOT listen to the audiobook narrated by the author. She is a good author, but not a good narrator. Dreary, let me just leave it at that......

The writing reflects that she is trained as a journalist. However, the book is rather unstructured and reads as a group of different stories. Story after story of different Muslim women's experiences in the Middle East in the early 90s. Even if it isn't totally up-to-date you have to understand the past to understand the present.

I liked how the author distinguishes between different sources for current Islamic beliefs - the Koran, the Hadith and cultural practices.

I was upset by the double standard so often evoked in the stories.

The author clearly attacks the misogyny central to many Islamic beliefs...... She is a converted Jew. I was a teeny bit uncomfortable sometimes worrying to what extent her statements were completely objective. She did usually balance different views against each other, but I could hear through her intonation her own personal view on a subject. (Bad narration!)

Very interesting, but not a book where you engage yourself in the lives of the people mentioned.

Through A House in the Sky you vicariously experience being a hostage.

Please start by carefully reading the GR book description. It is accurate and to the point:

"The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace.

As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—“the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.

Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives “wife lessons” from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.

Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity.

**********************************

What can I add? The book is both well written and well laid out. What the author lived through is not sensationalized and I admire Amanda Lindhout for that. The book is co-authored by Sara Corbett. Together the two have written a very, very good book. It is not an easy book to read. By starting with Amanda's troubled family circumstances the reader grasps where she is coming from and why she makes the choices she makes. Some are extremely foolish, but don't we all?

460 days, that is how long she was held hostage. I cannot describe as well as the author does herself her h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e experience. Everything goes from bad to worse. Yes, she is raped, repeatedly! And tortured. You might as well know that before you start. But absolutely none of the events are described in a sensational manner. She describes all with grace. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Islamic fundamentalists do this to her. This made me very, very mad. I am mad at all that is done in the name of religion. I am not willing to point a finger at Islam. Historically people of all religions under a guise of sweet words do the unforgivable. Some people did help Amanda. I am primarily thinking in this case of one wonderful Somali woman. I have to hang on to what that one woman did to not lose all faith in humankind. I recommend this book very highly. It needs to be read.

I really enjoyed the audiobook narration by Amanda, the one who lived through these events. OK, I have not met her in person but at least I have heard her voice. It is not pretentious. She has learned from her mistakes and gone forward with such amazing strength. I admire her tremendously.

I was using a map from National Geographic while I listened to this. Both Amanda and I love that magazine!

As a classic of travel literature this is good. In 1935 Ella Maillart traveled predominantly by donkey, horse, camel and her own two feet from Peking, at that time under Japanese control, to Srinagar, Kashmir. This took seven months. She traveled with Peter Fleming - yes, the very brother of Ian Fleming who of course wrote the James Bond books. Peter and Ella were very different in character, beyond the fact that she was Swiss and he British. Each has written their own book. News From Tartary is Peter's. It was in fact Ella who agree to let Peter accompany her on her trip; she points this out very clearly in the book! She travels on parts of the Silk Road. She encounters Japanese, Chinese, Turkic people, Tibetans and Mongols. She travels across the Tibetan plateau, through Xinjiang (a part of Turkestan) and over the Himalayas. Turkestan covers present-day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Turkestan was not politically stable, there being conflicting Japanese, Chinese, Russian and British interests. What she did was an immense accomplishment!

From just this you understand the woman’s stamina, resourcefulness and determination.

Nevertheless I would not classify Ella as a talented writer. She does relate the facts clearly and adds historical information about the area and the political instability. There are notes, an index and a map. A large portion of the content is concerned with the difficulties of the travel arrangements rather than a depiction of the lands she traveled through. This wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. It still remains an interesting piece of travel literature.

OK, I have to explode!!!

I am sick to death of hearing how many times so and so had sex with so and so and how many time he "came" on Nov 16 and Nov 18 and Nov 30 and Dec 6.... Even literature and authors are described in sexual terms. Oh, he is fagot and he is a queer and he is nymph and he is a fairy.... There is no depiction of how one feels when sex is satisfying. The speaker is seventeen and so darn ingenuous. I DO remember how sex fixated one could be at this age but this is going just too far. I have been listening to about five hours of this crap.

Now I do know that this book is about how different people view Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima - Visceral Realist poets. So when am I going to get another person's point of view, so I can leave this guy's, the one I have been listening to for five hours?

I am no prude. This is just plain boring. Line after line on the length of X's and W's and Y's comparative cock measurements really does not enthuse me. Is this going to change?

Sigh. Look, I have been told this is good. When will it improve? I hesitate to dump it when so many hours remain. When are we going to leave Mexico and visit other countries? When will something significant happen? This is boring.

Somebody please tell me this is not going to continue in this fashion.

I gave up - after listening to 7 hours of 27. Why? Primarily because it is terribly boring. The language is crude, but that is not why I dumped it. I got nothing from this book. That is why I dumped it.

If you insist on reading it I advise you to choose the paper version. The audiobook is narrated by two: Eddie Lopez and Amando Durán. What they say is clear and I have no complaints with the Spanish, BUT one cannot hear from the intonation if the speaker is a woman or a man. Neither can you tell from the text because the characters rarely introduce themselves. Many different characters speak, each using the first person narrative. Confusing! If they chose to use two narrators, why didn't they at least make one female and one male? I always ended up figuring out who was speaking, so I could keep the story straight, but the effort demanded was not worth what the book gave me in content - nothing.

If you are curious to understand what Visceral Realism is read this:
http://tklein39.hubpages.com/hub/Visceral-Realism-A-New-Literary-Movement

One more word - I believe this book is trying to say that man's immortality is achieved through our interactions with others. Is that so amazing?

Interesting and engaging. Here the theme is the violence and fear that permeated all Colombian life in the 80s and 90s when the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar held sway. Who wasn't affected? How did this play out in the lives of Colombians, children and adults?

Fear. This is a book about fear. It is about secrets. What is it like to discover your father is not who you thought he was? It is about how all families were caught up in the violence of those times. Arguments between husband and wife are pitch-perfect. It is about how the life of the country seeps into the lives of two families and irrevocably changes them.

Good writing that grabs you. You never feel that the text is translated.

It is interesting to see the role the Peace Corps plays in the events. I am wondering to what extent this is true and I wish there had been an author's note to clarify the veracity of the events.

Mike Vendetti does the narration of the audiobook. Yeah, it was good.

I actually enjoyed listening to this. It was OK, but......

This is one of those books definitely improved by its narration, very well done by Sile Bermingham! Great Irish brogue, and the different women all sound unique. Still, when you look at the book as a whole, you are left rather flat. What does it give you? A "cute" telling of the Irish immigrant story in NYC. Not the early immigrants, but the ones that came in the 60s. Family life and friendship between workmates. What was the sandhog experience like? The job of the sandhog, digging the tunnels for the water pipes of NYC, that too. Half of the book is about the life of Irish gypsies, the "walking people" and life in rural Ireland. Sister relationships, and aging, serious accidents and who exactly is the true mother, the birth mother or the one who raises a child? All of this is covered - some parts flow better than others, but all these different parts are patchy. There is humor and sadness. The poignant end could have been improved. Was the part about Alzheimer's really necessary? You start in 2007, flip back to the past and then go forward to 2007. The book was OK, and certainly very well narrated.

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I have chosen to read this book for two reasons. First of all I really liked Mary Beth Keane's Fever, so I have to read another by this talented author. Secondly, when I listened to the sample of this book by the author I both loved the narration by Sile Bermingham, with her wonderful Irish tone, and discovered it begins with a section about NYC sandhogs. Sandhogs is a term used for the Irish, Italian and West Indian immigrants that first dug the tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn. So.... I think illogically that the book may be similar to Colum McCann's This Side of Brightness, also about sandhogs! I loved that book, except for its stupid ending. I know this is all rather illogical; I will not get a a continuation of McCann's book, but still it might be good.