Emily
- 6
- reviews
- 1
- helpful vote
- 93
- ratings
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The Aphorisms of Kherishdar
- By: M. C. A. Hogarth
- Narrated by: Daniel Dorse
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
For the Ai-Naidar, a species of slim, gracile aliens, caste and tradition are not the shackles that imprison the spirit but the silences that make sense of the music of their lives. The Aphorisms of Kherishdar collects 25 short tales about what it is to have an Ai-Naidari soul: to find comfort in tradition, law and structure; to revere interdependence over individualism; to know one's place... to always have one.
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5 out of 5 stars
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New Territory
- By Cynthia B on 06-28-12
- The Aphorisms of Kherishdar
- By: M. C. A. Hogarth
- Narrated by: Daniel Dorse
Beautiful
Reviewed: 06-29-22
These stories are wonderful and the narrator is a treasure. I’ve been listening to this book as a comfort for years now after picking it nearly at random out of some Audible suggestions.
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A City Dreaming
- By: Daniel Polansky
- Narrated by: Eric Meyers
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 193
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4 out of 5 stars 180
M is a magician of modest wit, dim ability, and few scruples, who would prefer to spend his easy immortality drinking artisanal beer and making eyes at smiling women. Alas, in the infinite nexus of the universe that is New York City, equilibrium is no easy thing to maintain. Canal pirates, drug-induced divinities, pocket steam-punk universes, hipster zombies, ex-girlfriends, and the devil are all taken in easy stride.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Poor writing, cringe humor, offensive
- By Amazon Customer on 12-02-21
- A City Dreaming
- By: Daniel Polansky
- Narrated by: Eric Meyers
Charming?
Reviewed: 03-01-22
This is far more enjoyable than I expected, and I would’ve given it five stars but for the stark heteronormativity, the occasional gratuitous misogyny, and the slurs. They weren’t frequent, but also, just — heads up! They’re there. A lot of it can be attributed to M’s being one of those lovably terrible people types, I guess.
I still listened to the whole thing and parts were definitely really funny, plus some great worldbuilding!
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1 person found this helpful
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The Palace of Illusions
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,205
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 982
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 984
The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father's kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India.
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5 out of 5 stars
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timeless story
- By Richard on 03-15-08
- The Palace of Illusions
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
It’s been a long time since I read anything this beautiful.
Reviewed: 01-13-22
The narration was excellent. The story itself was lovely, funny, epic, terribly sad. The writing was so good I kept having to send people quotes. I’m immensely grateful that, in need of a random free audiobook, I picked this for its pretty cover art. I will think about this book for a long time.
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The Mad Sculptor
- The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder that Shook the Nation
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 427
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 384
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 384
Beekman Place, once one of the most exclusive addresses in Manhattan, had a curious way of making it into the tabloids in the 1930s: SKYSCRAPER SLAYER, BEAUTY SLAIN IN BATHTUB read the headlines. On Easter Sunday in 1937, the discovery of a grisly triple homicide at Beekman Place would rock the neighborhood yet again - and enthrall the nation. The young man who committed these murders would come to be known in the annals of American crime as the Mad Sculptor.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The Mad Sculptor
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 08-03-14
- The Mad Sculptor
- The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder that Shook the Nation
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
A great book!
Reviewed: 09-16-21
The other reviewers seem impatient, or maybe unused to stories that have to set up some background. Yes, the first stories in the beginning seem “disconnected,” but this is done so that once you’re in the middle of the real story, the author doesn’t have to derail for a whole chapter to explain why choosing this particular lawyer is such a big deal, or why the newspapers acted like they did, etc. The pacing is good, and the narration isn’t “dry” or without emotion, it’s just in that true-crime Serious™️ tone you get used to listening to a bunch of these books. I’ve read a few of Schechter’s other books and enjoyed this one quite a bit.
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American Monsters
- By: Adam Jortner, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Adam Jortner
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,565
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,394
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,383
Grab a flashlight and go monster-hunting in the safe company of Adam Jortner, award-winning professor of religion at Auburn University. You’ll encounter chilling tales of living houses, sentient plants, psychotic toys, brain-eating zombies, and otherworldly beings whose mere name is enough to drive people insane. Along the way, you’ll learn how monster stories change how Americans think and what Americans do, how they shape the history of our country, and what secrets about human nature these inhuman monsters can share.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great entertaining listen
- By lindsayb on 06-22-21
- American Monsters
- By: Adam Jortner, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Adam Jortner
Excellent analysis!
Reviewed: 07-08-21
Really insightful and enjoyable; sometimes these kinds of things make me roll my eyes, they can feel like they’re trying too hard or reaching for something that isn’t there, but this was GREAT. Reasonable, well-thought-out, spot-on. I loved it.
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Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
- And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
- By: Joshua Hammer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 454
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 414
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Story4 out of 5 stars 412
In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers.
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1 out of 5 stars
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It seemed like a good idea at the time
- By Jennifer A Greenhalgh on 08-10-16
- Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
- And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
- By: Joshua Hammer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
Weird reading emphasis and needed an editor badly.
Reviewed: 01-28-20
The narrator pauses and hitches in bizarre places.
While I found the main story interesting, I nearly could not get through this book for its fearmongering and disingenuous repeated attempt to divorce “sharia” from “fiqh,” as if one was meant to be “IslamIST law” and one a much higher, more proper, acceptable version. Sharia is Islamic law: all of it. The quote from the woman who tells the jihadis that “YOU are the ones who need to follow sharia!” actually... you know, MATTERS in that context, as she’s telling them they are egregiously misinterpreting their own religion.
Anyway, there’s a lot of vaguely racist imagery and phrasing in this book for a story that genuinely does not need cheap, awful tricks to drive home how terrifying it actually must have been. If you care about Islam or intellectual honesty, skip this book.
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