Gracious

Strange but interesting

Reviewed: 28-12-2019

I wanted a book from a culture other than my own. These stories are quirky and enigmatic, and certainly different from Charles Dickens or Jane Austen or anything like that, so they fit the bill quite well. Alas, my enjoyment was spoiled by the awful narration. Whether he was reading the intro to a story, or a bio of the author, or dialogue, his voice never varied. Throughout this entire thing his voice was whiney and miserable sounding. I really don't think he did justice to any of the authors' works. I'll be avoiding him in the future.

Very Human

Reviewed: 30-11-2019

Plenty to think about. Presented in a very approachable way, with dignity and compassion, and a laugh every now and again. If you buy this book you won't be disappointed.

good narrator

Reviewed: 13-11-2019

The only good thing about this story was the narrator. It's a string of unbelievable fantasies. Very difficult to relate to. The narrator was the only reason I stuck with it.

Incredible book

Reviewed: 01-11-2019

This book is a very valuable resource for people who spend more than an hour or two on line each day. I bought it because I wanted to know about trolls. Since so many of them are really horrible people, and I know Ginger's life was deeply affected by them; and researching for it, then writing it, left her totally washed out; I hesitated and hesitated before I got stuck in. But surprisingly, the book is not as traumatic to read as I thought it might be. In fact it was a page turner, and quite entertaining in places. And a very good narrator rounded it off nicely. Yep. Buy this book. You'll be glad you did. You'll be quoting it to your friends for years to come.

1 person found this helpful

An education well-delivered

Reviewed: 24-10-2019

So special when an author like Trevor Noah reads his own work. Such an astonishing talent for mimicry. Nelson Mandela, an Afrikaan policeman, a white South African nurse, his mother. He nails the lot. I understand South African culture a lot more now. You won't regret buying this book.

Engrossing

Reviewed: 01-08-2019

Kind of unleavened but funny in a very Manchester way. So personal and extraordinarily honest and generous. Couldn't put it down. I will buy more of hers if I can, especially if she reads it herself.

Nice

Reviewed: 15-07-2019

It made me yearn for the days when refugees in Australia were treated humanely, and could come and go as they pleased at the Migrant Reception Centres, as they were called back then, before the razor wire arrived and unauthorised arrivals started to be locked up for years, for profit. The humane treatment of the Bonegilla girls was probably why good friendships formed and survived. Good narration.

2 people found this helpful

What a treasure!

Reviewed: 12-07-2019

Long before podcasts, before websites where you can sometimes track things down, and definitely before the ABC was forced into repeating programs four times every week, I remember hearing a few episodes of this. I remember how interesting it was, but at that time in my life I never managed to lock the program time slot into my schedule, and I was sorry when I found it had finished and I had missed almost all of it. So it was with great delight when I found I could have the entire lot of it in my library.

This is a body of work that Tim Bowden should be well proud of. It's a massive effort. These are the voices of people who lived through Australia's occupation / administration of PNG, and they all paint a vivid picture of life as it was at that time, through the best part of the 20th century. 30-40 years after some of the events being described you can still hear the emotion in these voices. Some people were terribly disturbed by what they saw, and you can hear their pain. Despite the bare-faced racism of some of the contributors it's a real treasure. I even heard the voice of someone I used to work with in 1976!

God knows what I'm going to listen to next. It's a hard act to follow.

A political story

Reviewed: 09-06-2019

I'm quite glad I bothered with this. It was worth the trouble.

This was dismissed as a cult, but capitalism has to dismiss and denigrate it's shocking failures, and it's media moguls will always oblige. If people had more meaning and dignity in their lives they wouldn't have followed a shyster like Jim Jones to their deaths. That's what they were looking for, a meaningful and happy life, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I know this was a freebie, but if it had been bundled into one file it would have been a lot easier to listen to, and Audible could probably sell it for a couple of dollars. As it was I had to download it into itunes so it would play in sequence, which was a bit tedious, but it was a freebie so I'm not really complaining.

A confused but clearly political story

Reviewed: 09-06-2019

Jim Jones may have been mad, bad or just confused, but the people who followed him to their deaths were already victims of - or at least disenchanted with - a brutal society that sees human beings as mere cogs in the wheels of plunder and profit.