Anonymous

wonderful storytelling and stories

Reviewed: 31-12-2020

with trepidation every book lover goes through the classics. faulkner is not someone we read in australian skools so most of us not interested in amaericana probably dont visit his works. i listened to this after becoming obsessed with the korean movie burning and finding out it was loosely referencing barn burning. glad that happened as faulkners writing is a revelation. the storytelling and production is phenomenal. this is on par with dickens and i know i'll want to physically read his work as the writing is something that grabs you in and transports you to another time and place.

david sedaris' best of

Reviewed: 21-12-2020

self chosen these are interesting what david finds to be his best stories. great to revisit a wide range, some tragedy lots of comedy and all of it intimate

another interesting historical non fiction

Reviewed: 04-12-2020

from king of aus radio. i dont think this is quite as engaging as his icelandic or constantinople entries. admittedly prague and czech arent as interesting topics for me compared to the other 2 locations. there's a bit less magic and mystery to the pragmatic laconic people and to be brutally honest i think slippery dick might have taken this project on for a 2 month holiday. i am being harsh and if you are a fan of fiddlers this is unmissable and enjoyable. most chapters aar eengaging and illuminating, couple of dull ones though. can't wait to see what else he churns out. would love to see you tackle a fictional tale if your reading these idiotic words richy.

the oldest 2 stories - important but not exciting

Reviewed: 27-11-2020

these prototype stories might be appreciated by someone more well read than me. i could see glimpses of future stories like 7 samurai but it seems like the more modern tales trump the classic. im not into Shakespeare neither; perhaps my attentions span isn't what it should be to appreciate these epics. i much more appreciated the illiad but it did feel like the middle droned on and on. maybe when I'm 80 I'll be able to appreciate them but that's 50 years away. the narrator is a bit monotone for me.

1 person found this helpful

bizarre classic

Reviewed: 11-10-2020

I knew of this story for ages and being a huge fan of horror knew i would get to it eventually. its a bizarre story of a victorian workaholic man turning inti a giant insect.. he and family are for the most part nonplussed and adjust to the situation with resentment. i think its a poltical allegory though not sure. its well written and its survival as an important story could be a fluke. its a good story and sticks with you but im not sure its a classic.

great australian historical fiction

Reviewed: 07-10-2020

a fictional story of one of the first settlers, william, during the early 1800's. following his tale from the thames to the hawksbury. superficially the protagonist is everything you want in a lead character until he commits a terrible act against the indigenous population. it's a great snap shot of a fiction that would have a thread of truth through so many of the first white settlers. this tickled my historical and racial curiousity bones.

2 people found this helpful

light on the historical facts heavy on drama

Reviewed: 04-10-2020

I'm not heartless but I wasn't grabbed by the story. I put the book down for a couple of weeks before picking it back up and got confused which character was which. it's a story about a slave struggling to acheive freedom in americas south. i was hoping for a story about how the rail lines were dug. the engineers behind them. historical facts. tnt and pickaxes. my fault for not reading the blurb before downloading.

boring

Reviewed: 01-09-2020

this is a book about the virus behind the pandemic. I was hoping for a book about the socioeconomic consequences. how countries and people reacted and recovered. this book glosses over that in a couple sentences and the other 2 hours are about what species of animals can have what class of virus etc. closer to a year 12 biology report than a history book.

wonderful for tina fey fans

Reviewed: 25-08-2020

tina feys book is 20% autobiographical. 40% how to be a working mother in your 40's and 40% jokes tacked onto the ends of sentences so nothing is too serious. It's 5 hours of tina fey hilarity and my only critiscm is that I wanted it to go longer and wishing for tina to get serious once in a while. There are serious points, but they're covered by punchlines she spits out a bit too quick and quiet. i also came away glad I was born a man. dont know if that's a good thing

2 people found this helpful

self indulgent memoir

Reviewed: 02-07-2020

being australian i hadn't heard much about john bolton beyond a few mentions on planet america. i wish before i started reading I should have googled him and found out he's a bit of a war mongering nut job. in the context of trumps administration that makes him one of the more stable genuises. This isnt much of a tell all of trumps embarrassing viewpoints and decisions (though there are more than a few). its more of an opportunity for bolton to assert his crazy diplomatic and military views unchallenged in a self serving manner. he uses phrases like intellectually lazy re his critics. and harps on about his ethical standards and how willing he was to resign again and again. just as bad as trump really in terms of not wanting to be seen as the dumpee than the dumper.

13 people found this helpful