Roe

Makes wine a window on the world

Reviewed: 05-25-18

Of the eight books I've read about wine in the past year, this is one of the three I'm keeping around. Veseth offers thought-provoking insight into our consumption patterns and the cultural meaning of wine. He contextualizes our oenophelia in economy, culture, and climate. It all adds up to exceptional value and significant distinction from other wine books on Audible--turning wine into a lens through which we can view a great many cultural, scientific, and economic developments.

If you enjoy thinking deeply about the world and you enjoy wine, this book is for you.

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Brown's Worst (Not terrible, but disappointing)

Reviewed: 09-14-17

Any additional comments?

As a diehard fan who has listened to each of Brown's audible releases 2-5 times, I'm deeply disappointed in Braving The Wilderness. It lacks the universality and the empathy of her earlier books--and in it, she seems to have lost perspective on her own position. I have no doubt that Brown's path of visionary leadership is a lonely one, and that the many rejections and judgments one faces in carving out an unusual career are often painful. It still stings to hear her complain about it without acknowledging the extraordinary platform, privilege, and power she now wields. Relatedly, rather than being rooted in the stories of ordinary people, this book seems to lean in to celebrity culture. I want stories about what successful belonging looks like for most of us--who will never see the kind of rewards which Viola Davis and Oprah and Brown herself, however deserving, have gotten for their courage.

*

As an activist, organizer, and aspiring grounded theorist, I grapple daily with the challenges of a polarized political environment. I fight to cultivate a humanizing discourse that doesn't exclude *anyone* from respect and dignity, while also creating emotional safety--for instance, emotional safety for beloved friends and colleagues who recently survived the terrorist attack in Charlottesville. This book offers almost nothing to help me in that struggle. It is for the converted--for those who need to rally their courage and gird up their loins to express moderate political opinions in public.

*

Bolstering moderation isn't a bad thing--in fact, it's a needed thing, and if Brown wants to use her platform to give that pep rally. . . I mean, I guess that's fine. Probably it's a good thing, and if her previous work hadn't set the bar so high, I might even like this book. However, it fails either to address the real dynamics of political polarization or to present the kind of rich and resonant theory I've come to love her for. To really address the dynamics of political polarization, she would have needed to address the structural roots of these behaviors and emotions--much as she does in "I thought it was just me," where she talks at length about developing critical awareness as a component of shame resilience. She would also need to get much deeper into the problem of emotional safety, which drives so many of the maladaptive "fitting in" behaviors that define extremist political cultures on both the right and the left, and dragging the rest of the country after them. That depth would also have added much to the resonance of the theory she presents.

*

This is a little shop talk, and I'm ill-qualified to offer it, but here it is: a Glazerian grounded theory is supposed to "work" and have "relevance." The theorist is to identify a core issue or basic social process--here, probably the process of coming to belong. A complete, saturated theory should "work the core"--it should articulate how people go about successfully solving the problem they have identified as most central (here, the absence of true belonging). While the theory Brown has offered may offer solutions for people who are very close to true belonging--who basically need some courage and some boundaries, and the understanding that belonging is never going to be as simple as fitting in--it does not "work" for people who experience a deep sense of threat and danger that prevents them from embracing those strategies. The theory she has offered does not "work" the core problem in the context where I think it matters most--among the folks who are driving political polarization in this country. This is especially difficult to accept given how repeatedly she contextualizes her own theory in the problem of political polarization.

*

It is frustrating to me that this looks like saturation to her, and suggests to me that she's had a bit of a bubble built up around her. Here's to hoping her next release is back up the the quality we've all come to expect. :)

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3 people found this helpful

cringe worthy mansplaining

Reviewed: 05-11-17

get this if you want to hear a young male winemaker talk over everyone all the time.
(Why, Blair; why?)

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4 people found this helpful

a heading

Reviewed: 03-08-17

Narrator: Learn to pronounce the names. Stop over-dramatizing. Read at a normal human speaking pace, instead of 40% slower.

Writer: WTF where do I even start.

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2 people found this helpful

if you read one book about Trump voters, read this

Reviewed: 02-21-17

Strangers in their own land offers the respectful and compassionate perspective we need if we are going to bridge our divides and have democracy together. Only by understanding and respecting each other can we negotiate the best possible compromise.

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2 people found this helpful

frustratingly one sided

Reviewed: 12-09-16

and I agree with him. This is not the place to look for nuances arguments from both sides. :/

Also, narrator's accents are so terrible.

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1 person found this helpful

petty.

Reviewed: 10-07-16

depressing that this is the only Eliot biography on audible. This writer isn't fleshing out Eliot's human side; she's imputing motives at every turn without giving references, and giving every act and word the last charitable imaginable interpretation. This is scarcely more nuanced than calling her a saint and leaving it there.

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