Chris Corsini

Not Bad

Reviewed: 02-10-25

This is a fine entry to the literature on the subject of the Eastern Front before and during the Second World War. I do think the 4.8 stars it currently has on Audible is a bit aggressive, though. It's a bit choppy start to finish without the tightest narrative structure that makes books like this appealing to non-academics. I read some of the professional reviews of the print addition online and they note - I believe correctly - that too little time is spent on the interactions between the big players on the bloody stage. The author addresses this in his postscript to the new edition (which he reads himself) and you can decide if you buy his reasoning, but I really didn't, I finished this book thinking that the definitive narrative of the Bloodlands has yet to be written, but this was a fine step in that direction.

That said, I enjoyed the book and don't regret listening to it. However, if you want an in-depth treatment about the Ukrainian Famine, Anne Applebaum's Red Famine (available on Audible) is the way to go. Her treatment of the post-war reorganization of Eastern Europe (Iron Curtain) picks up towards the end of this book and is also worth a listen since it involved many of the same character and themes.

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Great Addition to the Canon

Reviewed: 11-27-24

Sir Max does a great job here laying down twenty five hours on the most impactful actor in the greatest struggle in human history. You have a lot to pick from in the World War II historiography and this is a worthy stop on the way.

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Worth a listen

Reviewed: 11-08-24

Dan Jones is a master of popular history and his books on the Plantagenets and the War of the Roses are excellent entries, especially for Americans like me who didn’t learn these stories in school. This book is intended to bridge the gap between those two book. The first ends with the death of Richard II and the first starts with (if memory serves) the early days of Henry VI. Henry V, one of England’s most enduring monarchs, is mostly absent from the tale and Jones makes up for it here. He rightly says from the beginning that the tale isn’t a trilogy - this book is not of the scope of the other two. He calls it a triptych, which is a fair description. As a bridge between the two stories this book is fine, even really good. But it suffers from what all popular biographies of the era suffer from - lack of sources. Jones still weaves a good narrative, especially in the second half, but it’s a step off Jone’s other works. Still, by no means a waste of your time.

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2 people found this helpful

Good companion to his other books

Reviewed: 09-20-24

I’ve listened to Richard Evans’ trilogy on the Third Reich (as well as many other books on that era) and this is a fine companion to those. You’ll hear some overlap with many other books but the study itself good and worth a listen.

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Very Good

Reviewed: 09-14-24

Yes, the narrator’s German pronunciation is pretty terrible. But this is a great book and well worth your time. I did not find it very hard to suffer through the narrator to enjoy the narrative.

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Great story, questionable narration

Reviewed: 08-23-24

This was my first listen by David Grann and I thought he did a great job. It’s a compelling story well-told. Like a lot of other listeners, I had a big problem with the narrator. He had a great voice but it seemed like he phoned it in a bit. The pacing was very poor to the point of confusing the narrative. His dramatic emphasis was all over the place which, again, confused the narrative. In his interview on the book’s page he talked about liking to do British accents, but never attempted one here. Perhaps because all the characters were British and it would have been a lot of work to do a British accent for all the speaking parts and an American accent for the exposition, but the solution to that would have been to use a British narrator. The narrator seems like a great guy in the video and he does have a great voice, but this was, in my opinion, a miss for him and it detracted from my enjoyment of an otherwise enjoyable book.

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Really Excellent

Reviewed: 08-20-24

Atkinson’s Liberation trilogy is awesome and worthy of the praise and awards it’s received, but in some way this trilogy is more important. The corpus of books on the Second World War is massive, but a lot of the books written on our revolution aren’t very accessible, at least in my view. This book is the best entry point for the conflict I’ve ever come across, and it’s not close. Highly recommend.

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Not bad, but not his best work

Reviewed: 08-12-24

You can read the background on why Dickens wrote this book and why it's different then the rest of his canon online. The bottom line is that this is a good book but nowhere near Dicken's best. I'm working my way through this free audible Dickens series and this one was the least engaging, though there are a few classic characters and Dickensian set pieces that will get you through and keep you amused. If you're like me and trying to get through Dickens' whole catalogue, this isn't a bad stop, but for anyone else, the rest have all been better for me so far.

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So Good

Reviewed: 08-12-24

I've spent a lot of my adult life active in state and local politics and this has to be one of the best ground level political memoirs I've ever listened to. Rory Stewart catches the immortal themes of frustration and futility in politics and does it in a clever and engaging way. I'm familiar with UK politics, but you do not have to be to capture the wisdom in this book. Stewart reads the book himself which is an added bonus.

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Worth A Listen

Reviewed: 08-12-24

I worked at a video store when the movie that is based on this book came out but I never bothered to watch it. After a recent trip to Gloucester, MA, I decided to finally read the book (and watch the movie), and I wasn't disappointed. Junger took a big risk here - we know almost nothing about the Andrea Gail's journey prior to her sinking - but he wove a narrative that made the most of every fact he had. In the post-book interview he notes that he wrote this around the same time Jon Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air, and they are both worthy entries into the genre and essentially jump started the market for this kind of book. Not knowing what actually happened during the last hours of the Andrea Gail's life does sting a little (we know way more about the Everest expedition that is the topic of Into Thin Air), but still well worth your time.

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