Steve
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Crusade
- The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 24 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout the Gulf War of 1991, unprecedented restrictions on the media’s access to the battlefield kept the true story of that brief, brutal conflict from being told. Now, after two years of intensive research, Rick Atkinson has written what will surely come to be recognized as the definitive chronicle of the war.
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A very decent account of the gulf war
- By Lyle Wincentsen on 08-12-13
- Crusade
- The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
Worst reader I’ve ever heard
Reviewed: 05-08-23
The reading of this book was terrible. The reader miss pronounced so many words it was hard to count. There were also in numerous pauses making listening difficult. This book should be re-recorded.
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The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
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Never achieves lift off
- By Richard Bruno on 10-01-18
- The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
A book about anxiety
Reviewed: 12-10-19
Ultimately, this is a book about anxiety -- how it manifests, what it feels like, and how to cope with it (pharmaceuticals). There is a veneer of alt-history (meteor destroys east coast -- space program must move as fast as possible) to give the story some structure and the main character something to do (occasionally). If you came here looking for a book about anxiety, this book likely speaks to you. A large percentage of the book is devoted to how the main character experiences and deals with her anxiety. However, I came here for an alternate history of the space program with a healthy dose of science-fiction added for good measure. I didn't get that. The opening scene dealing with the escape from the meteor strike is compelling and well written. But the rest of the book virtually ignores the space race and the effects of the meteor strike on the fate of the world. An accelerated space race told from the perspective of a woman mathematician working as a "computer" who eventually becomes an astronaut could have been fantastic. This book just didn't work for me.
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Tangled Vines
- Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California
- By: Frances Dinkelspiel
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million, making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson, a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks.
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I was put off by the readers absolute lack of know
- By SEP on 05-16-16
- Tangled Vines
- Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California
- By: Frances Dinkelspiel
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
Amazingly Bad Narrator
Reviewed: 03-16-19
Ms. Pearlman tried her hardest to ruin a pretty good book. The story and the history of the California wine industry are generally well written, informative, and interesting. As a wine geek, it was pretty clear to me that the author, Ms. Dinkelspiel isn't a wine expert. At one point, she muses that a traveler from 19th century Bordeaux, France would be reminded of home by Southern California. Having grown up in Los Angeles and visited Bordeaux, I can safely say that they are absolutely nothing alike. But this is a minor quibble. The author has clearly done her research and provides a version of California history that I'd never heard before.
The narrator, however, works extremely hard to destroy the book. Ms. Pearlman mispronounces EVERY SINGLE WORD with a French (most wine terminology), Spanish (most place names in California), or Italian origin. Other reviewers commented on the mispronunciations so I was looking for them. I figured no one could live and be educated in the United States and not have at least some ability to pronounce French and Spanish names/words -- they're so ubiquitous. But Ms. Pearlman proved me wrong! If you want to listen to this book be prepared to grind your teeth. All winery names, all wine terms, all grape varietals, all California place names, many proper names, and many other random words will be mispronounced. Of the fifty or so times the word "sommelier" is mentioned she accidentally pronounces it correctly twice. The gaffe that really angered me was "chaparral". Almost drove the car off the road when I heard "chap-erl".
Ultimately listening to this book was an unpleasant experience. This recording should be deleted and the book should be re-narrated.
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