sneha
this is probably the best audiobook I have consumed, ever. Goddamn Mr Macintyre, I adore you.
While part 1 was long and tiring to go through, I really enjoyed the pace it picked up in part 2 and part 3 felt like a fast-paced thriller. this book made a very busy work week bearable.
The extraordinary story of Oleg Gordievsky and his remarkable sacrifice for an ideology he held dear was inspiring. My heart reaches out to Leyla for all her loss and troubles. Despite everything Oleg might have done for his family and nations, his decisions truly hurt her and she never had much of a say in it. The story was written with empathy and respect. Truly a wonderful ride.
Also, Aimes go fck yourself you treacherous twat.
Ah, this was really refreshing.
A self-bettering book that does not drag the info forever but tells you exactly why it is beneficial and how you can do it right now. When Bailey says this is a “meditation retreat” he meant it. Chris really uses the audio format to puncture the narration with short meditation sessions to get you acquainted with the subject matter. his science-backed claims coupled with real-life anecdotes drills the argument. I found myself rewinding and jotting down notes on my app which was a first for any audiobook. worth your time and effort, plus it's a free book with an audible subscription. <3 Makes me want to pick and read more Chris Bailey!
this felt like an AI writer compiled all cop story cliches and wrote a book. no real person or relatively experienced writer could come up with this. my 4 y/o friends' crayon sketch animals have more layers than the characters in this book. this is just James Patterson's cash grab and I don't feel good about it. if it wasn't a free audible book I would have never consumed it. very very disappointing, ugh.
Up until the last episode, my only complaint with this series was it felt too self-indulgent for the authors and parts of it felt repetitive. In my opinion, any work on a true crime that the author/creator is not directly involved in should focus on the victims and their stories rather than the obsessive self indulgence of “how i effected me” narrative. For the first 50% of the book, it felt the story was more “my days in uni”, “my experience with the English” and so on. Also, w/o much context, there was a lot of emphasis on defending or searching for the “what” on behalf of the murderer. I understand that cases are never black and white but it felt the author was really trying to find an explanation for the crime.
In the second half, the valid points made about the impact of homophobia and the need to protect the elderly is overshadowed by the casual revelation of an actual crime. [spoiler] I do not like or understand the non-chalet way with which pedo/abuse of young boys was dusted off. The author or the interviewee had no right to explain their thoughts on “oh he did that, it was shady but it's not that bad”. are you kidding me?! excusing a grown man's sexually veiled approach to underage young boys in his school is not “pent up homophobia” or product of “loneliness”. For all the criticism of society and church for their treatment of LGTBQ+ members, excusing abuse of power and making young boys uncomfortable by saying “he was gay and lonely in the 80s” is awful for the community and the movement. He was a predator and it does not matter “how far he went”. He is a grown man who should have known better and if the students voiced their opinion of feeling uncomfortable once, that should be more than enough reason to back off forever. This part really irked me. The author or anyone else, do not get to pass a judgement on how wrong or right his actions were, they won't be dealing with the trauma of his actions. And the way this was used as a segway for the author to again talk about “her guilt” just did not make sense. Whose story are you telling? The victim and elderly abuse or your guilt? Until the 7th chapter, I was moderately enjoying it. But the last episode really pissed me off. Side note: I usually enjoy the production and sound engineering on audible originals but the audio for the interviewee was very muffled in this one.
oohhh i had so much fun listening to this. didn't know Canada had such eccentric hesut cases. not only where the stories curated very well, the experts input were aligned with the theme and entertaining. the sound production on this was chef's kiss
I literally did not realise how i finished it so fast.
This felt like a really long essay with separate but interlinked section. I'm glad the author and editor chose this length and it felt very concise and intentional. I did find the last 30% a bit repetitive. I like the premise of the book (that's why I even begin reading it) but i wish the examples and case studies could have been less global north centric. Listen, i could be wrong here but it felt that the author, after writing Bloodlands had a ton of info on Stalin and Hitler regimes. He found that the 2016 American climate showed certain early signs of it and used those observations to call out the traits of a would-be tyrannical state. Now I understand this move, and it also makes sense. As a historian you've spend years reading up stuff and it doesn't need to be used in only onebplace. But (and it this a big but) if your premise is to show the tell tale signs of fascism and tyrannical rule shouldn't it go beyond just two countries?
This book pulls examples predominantly from Russia and WW2 Germany. And while it address America for most parts, he could have used the growing rise of right wing fascism from countries in South American, African and Asian continent for there are plenty. The Russian and German rule and their implications are already widely known. But wouldn't it make more sense to use lesser known and more subtle states that have this tyranny to hint at cautionary signs?
as a true crime junkie, I knew of this story and how advances in DNA was used in solving the horrible crimes by a trash bag human being. this was a very well done series, felt more like a podcast than an audiobook but it was comprehensive. the product one was tasteful - not too dramatic but attention to detail was nice. this vilified the evil man & celebrated the case solvers and survivors (as true crime rightfully should!).
as someone who consumes a frightening amount of true crime, the tone and intention really matter. are you doing it for the shock factor? are you going to drone on and on about “how smart the killer was” or are you doing to talk about the impact on society, how the victims were failed by institutions, how survivors coped and how hard work and better structures can help solve (or) prevent such needless violence. the tone and intention for this series were quite well done, it was super thorough. there were parts when the survivor's descriptions really got to me (but trigger warnings were stated at the beginning of every chapter so good on them). this was not an easy listen but in the end, I am glad the survivors are living a life w/o fear and all those hours of hard work paid off and that the old shitbag is in jail fck off joseph.
this one is for paul and Michelle and all the brave strong men and women who lived a rich full life despite the horrors. for the legends in law enforcement who solved this after 40 years. and to all the other dirtbags who escaped their crimes in the 60s and 70s, they are coming for you losers.
the book makes you realised how fcked the routines for “classical masters” were. the amount of booze and cigars and whut not. one key takeaway was, popular to the current hustle culture messaging – you don't need to wake up super early to be “successful” or “creative”. this book also shares story that reinforce the idea of “working deligently day in day out” >> “random bursts of creative genuis” love that!
update: 24 hours after I declared I could not finish the book and that I give up trying to - I did just that :3 turns out, the key event happens just after I quit the book. and this cold gloomy town became even worse. I won't rate this because of how stressful and infuriating the central theme was. The aftermath felt so real, ugh, I can't even. Toxic masculinity and bad behaviour from “winners” are enabled by a society, we know. this book breaks that down so bloody well. I liked the weird ending, now I'm done with this book.
22nd September:
that's it. I am DNF-ing this. I cannot go through this book anymore.
This is the first DNF of this year. I am almost 40% through, and there is not a single character I give a damn about. The setting feels so grey and sad. I am sure it's intentional, but I don't like this book's energy.
This is not a criticism of the writing or the story (or the narration). I am sure they are all great; I love Backman's work. But I feel like this book, right now, is not for me. It's a classic case of it's not you, it's me . Maybe another time, another place, I would enjoy this. Returned this book to get Secret History, lol.
[ I consumed the audible series for the book so reviews are based on that ]
the amount of unnecessary misogyny and sexists BS really annoyed the fck out of me. i understand it's a “product of its time” but it was really unnecessary and so forced? I wanted to like it but just couldn't. also the narration for audible original was all over the place and not a pleasant experience. what could have been a lovely series was tainted.
