Allison Hamm
- 5
- reviews
- 1
- helpful vote
- 14
- ratings
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Wanderlust
- A History of Walking
- By: Rebecca Solnit
- Narrated by: Liisa Ivary
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 376
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 317
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Story4 out of 5 stars 318
Drawing together many histories - of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores - Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Walking as politics
- By Jason V on 06-04-18
- Wanderlust
- A History of Walking
- By: Rebecca Solnit
- Narrated by: Liisa Ivary
Lovely Book (wish I’d read it)
Reviewed: 01-06-25
I love Rebecca Solnit and was thrilled that there was an audio version of this book available since I likely wouldn’t have been able to find the time to read it anytime soon. Unfortunately, the narrator’s performance was a huge detractor. Her tone through the entire book is best described as dour, I’m glad I was able to experience the book, but probably wouldn’t have purchased it if I’d known how dreary the narration would be.
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How to Winter
- Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days
- By: Kari Leibowitz PhD
- Narrated by: Kari Leibowitz PhD
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Psychologist and winter expert Kari Leibowitz’s galvanizing HOW TO WINTER uses mindset science to help listeners embrace winter as a season to be enjoyed, not endured—and in turn, learn powerful lessons that can impact our mental wellbeing throughout the year. Kari Leibowitz moved above the Arctic Circle—where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter—expecting to research the season’s negative effects on mental health, only to find that inhabitants actually looked forward to it with delight and enthusiasm.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Transformational
- By Christina on 03-26-25
- How to Winter
- Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days
- By: Kari Leibowitz PhD
- Narrated by: Kari Leibowitz PhD
Great thesis.
Reviewed: 12-29-24
The overall idea of this book is great: winter is what you make of it. Five stars! We can all use the reminder to stop complaining, get creative, and find the good in any experience.
But the book itself felt like it should have been an article (maybe was?) that got stretched out into book length, making it repetitive and way too long. I usually prefer audiobooks performed by the author, but I found myself zoning out and bored. Maybe these criticisms are both personal failings, but this one wasn’t for me.
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The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 121
Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The most ridiculous narration
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-24
- The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
Fantastic book; Ridiculous narration
Reviewed: 06-06-24
This book is so good that I endured the whole ridiculous performance of the narrator. Interesting, well written, and utterly compelling; highly recommend.
Now. About that narration. Every sentence is read as though it’s a movie trailor, complete with inappropriate emphases in places that distract from the meaning of the sentence, mispronounced words (what professional voice actor doesn’t bother to look up “Junta” or “Pinochet”?!), occasional affectations of a British accent, and long run-ons for no apparent reason. It’s as if the narrator was simply enamored with the sound of his own voice and forgot he was trying to convey intelligible meaning through his reading. As one reviewer said, it’s embarrassing to listen to.
That’s how good the book is, though, that I made it through the audio version nonetheless.
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On Confidence
- By: The School of Life, Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Alain de Botton
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 189
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 156
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
We spend vast amounts of time acquiring confidence in narrow technical fields: quadratic equations or bioengineering; economics or pole vaulting. But we overlook the primordial need to acquire a more free-ranging variety of confidence - one that can serve us across a range of tasks: speaking to strangers at parties, asking someone to marry us, suggesting a fellow passenger turn down their music, changing the world. This is a guidebook to confidence, why we lack it and how we can acquire more of it in our lives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Poignant and timeless
- By Graceny Jimenez on 08-15-20
- On Confidence
- By: The School of Life, Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Alain de Botton
Favorite this
Reviewed: 09-18-21
This book is an exquisite relief from either the shrinking of insecurity or false bravado of a “name it and claim it” kind of confidence. In both content and performance, it offers a substantive and galvanizing perspective of what confidence really is, and why it matters in living a fulfilled and wholesome life. Listen to it every month.
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1 person found this helpful
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Sex at Dawn
- How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships
- By: Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson, Jonathan Davis, Christopher Ryan (Preface)
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,779
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,263
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,236
Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science - as well as religious and cultural institutions - has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing....
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2 out of 5 stars
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Strawmen and Ad Hominems
- By Carolyn on 09-18-12
- Sex at Dawn
- How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships
- By: Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson, Jonathan Davis, Christopher Ryan (Preface)
Meh.
Reviewed: 03-03-20
I’ve had this book on my list for a long time, and was thrilled to finally get to listen to it. Sadly, it was a disappointment. The content of the argument is plausible enough, but presented in an unnecessarily snarky and unsupported way — it is, after all, another reconstruction akin to the reigning scholarly reconstructions it is so keen to dismantle. The performance was in an exquisitely boring, standard audiobook style. So, so, boring.
TL; DR: read a few reviews of the book online and you’ve got the gist. There’s not much more to it than that.
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