Meaningful Relationships by Carol Ann Lloyd

How to Build Meaningful Relationships Through Conversation by Carol Ann Lloyd, The Great Courses

REVIEW: 3 / 5 stars

How to Build Meaningful Relationships Through Conversation is a series of 10 self-help lectures produced by The Great Courses, published by Audible, and performed by professional communications coach Carol Ann Lloyd. A truncated version of this could be given as a TED Talk, and that is kind of how it sounded.

This gets its value from its applicability to our daily lives, regardless of our age or employment status. I learned some helpful things to keep in mind during my own professional and personal communications. Bonding experiences with coworkers, peers, and networking events are really important. Certain pertinent topics include: understanding different styles of speech, managing technology in modern conversations, and having clear goals that you want accomplished as a result of a conversation before beginning.

One of the great things about The Great Courses is that listeners get to hear from the experts themselves. However, one of the very downsides to The Great Courses can be the fact that the experts give their own talks. This might not be so apparent if watching a video, but when a sore speaker delivers an audio-only performance, it can really sour the experience. I know it’s not something that Lloyd can really change, but I HAD to dock 1 star from my review because her voice was just so annoying. For a speaking coach, she has such a whiny way of speaking! I almost couldn’t stand it. This would be a lot better as a mini-book rather than an audio production.

One of my favorite parts of this its references to Shakespeare. He is a master storyteller and an excellent author to use for examples of conversation, because as a playwright, most of his renowned work involves characters speaking to one another. Lloyd’s “real life” examples are all conglomerate cases with white-washed white suburbia names, which is boring and offensive, so those were unpleasant for me, and as such I had to dock another star.

Either way, this is OK to listen to for some advice on how to have better conversations with others, especially for workplace professional settings. Wish I could get that annoying voice out of my head, though, so definitely only listen to once.

The Science of Sci-Fi by Erin Macdonald

The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel by Erin Macdonald, The Great Courses

REVIEW: 4 / 5 stars

This collection of 10 lectures about science commonly found in science fiction is great for any fan of classic and current sci-fi media, especially movies, television shows, and video games.

Scientific concepts discussed include, but are not limited to:
– warp speed, interstellar travel, time travel, black holes, gravitational waves, solar sails, space and time dilations, and quantum physics.

Science fiction references include, but are not limited to, examples from:
– Interstellar, Star Trek: Original Series, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Discovery, X-Files, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Bioshock, and Portal.

Professor Erin Macdonald, astrophysicist and science communicator, is the speaker of this series of The Great Courses lectures. She does a good job of explaining scientific topics, both general and more complicated. Her joy at these interesting topics and sci-fi examples is a pleasure to listen to.

The only thing I didn’t like was that Macdonald kind of talks down to her audience in the first one or two lessons. She says, “Don’t worry, hang in there, I’m getting to the sci-fi part soon” multiple times, as though she’s addressing a bunch of idiots who can’t follow a 30min scientific discussion. Someone who listens to this should WANT to know about the science behind their favorite sci-fi franchises. Macdonald speaks mostly to people who spend more time at COMICCON than reading a book, which I found annoying, but oh well.

Overall, though, this was fun to listen to. Kind of like a long form podcast. Macdonald speaks well and carries audiences through her lectures. I was pleasantly surprised that more recently released examples, such as those from “Star Trek: Discovery”, were mentioned. I would recommend to all those interested. I would have personally enjoyed more science and less sci-fi discussion, but maybe that’s just me.

The Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

The Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen, an Audible Original

REVIEW: 2 / 5 stars

This nearly 2 hour Audible Original audio performance is an investigative journalistic piece in which Anne Helen Petersen interviews 4 people about their experiences and how they dealt with burnout. I appreciated that Petersen spoke to two men and two women, and each had very different employment obligations to give different perspectives on the same topic.

The best part of this is the discussion on social media personas and how self-marketing strategies dictate people be funny, witty, happy, and relevant online all the time. This can be quite taxiing on the emotional well being, to have expectations of “always being on” even for recreational activities.

Even though there are some good nuggets in this, it doesn’t really educate the audience on the scope of what’s being discussed or offer any sort of conclusion. Petersen assumes that burnout only applies to millennials, and doesn’t recognize the difficulty of older generations trying to keep up with those who grew up with social media technology.

There are some scattered pieces of advice on how to manage burnout, but this piece doesn’t seem like it would significantly help someone actually experiencing burnout. Even more so, Petersen does not explicitly explain this supposed “crisis”, so this doesn’t seem like it would be useful to anyone who isn’t already aware of what burnout is and how it affects people. As such, it is extremely difficult to determine who this is supposed to be FOR. I won’t be recommending it to anyone.

The Golden Orchard by Flora Ahn

The Golden Orchard by Flora Ahn

REVIEW: 5 / 5 stars

The Golden Orchard is a novel in which heart, family, food, friendship, and time travel are in abundance. This audio book is only 5 hr 15 min long, so I wasn’t expecting a very profound story, and thus was pleasantly surprised at the depth that this goes into. I definitely recommend to all those who might be interested in this.

Although this table is categorized as suitable for those nine years and older, the quality to which this is written makes it applicable to adult listeners as well. The subject matter includes middle school group projects and classroom crushes, but it also deals with grief, loss, determinism, neglect, and Alzeimers Disease. The family dynamics are so believable, and I loved how the protagonist becomes more mature as she learns how to navigate the “friend-Maya” and “family-Maya” parts of herself.

I really appreciated how food, home cooking, and family histories were all woven together here. My upbringing is Sicilian Italian and Cantonese Chinese, so food is imperative to our self identity as a social unit. From the book description, I didn’t get that the main characters are South Korean, but maybe someone more familiar with the culture would pick up on “Halmunee” being Grandmother in Korean. Most of my prior knowledge of Korean literature comes from The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I really appreciated the primarily Korean cast in this.

Overall, this is a lovely read with great world building and solid heart. The messages this conveys are sound advice for us all, not just children. This is the best Audible Original I have experienced all year so far, and it is not one I will soon forget.

Caffeine by Michael Pollan

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan

REVIEW: 3 / 5 stars

This is fine, mainly because it is so applicable to literally everyone who drinks coffee. While this is marketed as discussing caffeine in general, soda is barely mentioned and tea is only discussed in how it relates to and contrasts from coffee. In addition, at only 2 hours long, it is difficult to go into any aspect of this discussion in any sort of meaningful depth.

Michael Pollan is known for his popular The Omnivores Dilemma work, so I can see Audible just letting him talk about whatever he wanted to. I liked the mentions of how coffee has been used in history, English literature and culture, as well as the global socio-economics and politics surrounding the trade routes and consumption of coffee. This is one of the free February Audible Originals for members, so I didn’t really lose anything by listening to this.

Basically, this was interesting to listen to, and I did learn some fun facts about coffee. But if caffeine is as important to Western society as Pollan claims, then this topic warrants a much longer treatment than 2 hours. This is a fine listen, but nothing super special.

Alone with the Stars by David R. Gillham

Alone with the Stars by David R. Gillham

REVIEW: 3 / 5 stars

This is an audio production of an alternative historical fiction young adult story set in the 1930s and 40s. One of the February free-for-members Audible Originals, Alone with the Stars is about a girl named Lizzie who uses her father’s radio antennas to pick up SOS signals from Amelia Earhart’s crashed plane. Lizzie tries to convince her local Coast Guard’s office to redirect the search for Amelia Earhart’s aircraft to where she picked up the SOS signals.

This is a cute premise for a story, and definitely of appeal to fans of Amelia Earhart’s legacy. It is wrong to expect too much from a less-than 3 hour audio production, but I wish there had been more action in this than there was. I loved all the parts with Amelia Earhart herself, and wish we had spent more time with her. If this had been split 50/50 between Amelia’s and Lizzie’s stories, I think there could have been some insightful parallels made.

Instead, listeners spend most of their time with Lizzie, and she has a lot of thoughts but doesn’t get a lot of things done. Her father is really supportive, but the Coast Guard commander is an asshole. The narrative voice in the Coast Guard scenes just feels way too modern for me. It feels like David Gillham couldn’t make up his mind whether to truly alter history in this fictional work, or to write a truthful historical work. Either way, this is fine to listen to, but it could have been a lot better.

The Space Race by Colin Brake et al.

The Space Race by Colin Brake, Patrick Chapman, Richard Hollingham, Richard Kurti, Sue Nelson, Helen Quigley, and Andrew Mark Sewell

REVIEW: 4 / 5 stars

The Space Race is an audio documentary-drama series production of the era during which twelve American astronauts went to the moon (1969 – 1972), released in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first human moon landing. This includes narration of some historical facts, excerpts of command recordings or interviews from the time period, as well as speculative scenes acted out to try and give this production more flavor and originality.

This is fun to listen to, does not take too long, and I definitely recommend to lifelong fans of space exploration.

As advertised in the book description, this work “features conversations with Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Sergei Krikalev, Tim Peake, and numerous key players at mission control. This Audible Original takes you behind the scenes to see how these exciting adventures in outer space came to be.” The strongest parts are when this work explains the history of the Space Race and includes sections of interviews with people who were really there, especially never-before-heard audio and inputs from important, yet underrepresented, figures.

The weakest parts of this audio production are when the content deviates from the facts of what really occurred during this crucial period in man’s history. The scenes within aircraft where actors portray conversations between astronauts etc., for which we have no official record of, are so fake and unbelievable. The writing and acting of these scenes are so bad. I just do not see what they bring to the table other than to just take up airtime and give Audible Originals copyright permissions for the “original content” of this documentary-drama piece.

All of the “drama” bits should have been cut, and this would have been much better served as a straight no-nonsense nonfiction discussion of history, science, and technology. As it has been released, I can only give this 4 stars. I expected better.

OVERALL:
This is a great listen for super space exploration fans, especially those excited for plans for new operations to the moon and Mars. I really liked the interviews with people who lived during the Space Race and were either astronauts themselves or worked on the ground crew team. Having real recordings from the COMS were also really powerful in explaining key moments of this important and inspiring history. However, I did not like the narrator’s voice and some of the reenactments were significantly overacted and therefore silly. I thought this would have been stronger if it stuck to what had actually happened, though the final chapter about possible futures was thought provoking. This is fun to listen to, but not the best product about the Space Race.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

REVIEW: 5 / 5 stars

This is such a heartfelt and relate-able classic American tale. While race isn’t really discussed and there aren’t extremely diverse characters featured, class differences, helping others, and not marrying someone for their money are all central to this book’s themes. The content and reading level is suitable for high school age and older, though I appreciate certain scenes more now since getting married, and I’ll be sure to read this again after having my own children.

Little Women is a novel that centers around the family dynamics of the March girls–Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth–and how they grow up through their interactions with each other, their parents, friends, neighbors, and potential suitors. I find this refreshing to come back to every couple of years because, as a young American woman, I relate to this deeply. I am one of four children, recently married, and there is great advice in here from Mrs. March and others on how to be a good neighbor and generous human being while also taking care of your own family.

I listened to the Audible Originals audio book version with the third party omniscient narrator voiced by Laura Dern, and a full cast with different actors for each character. Meg’s voice was a little annoying and Marmi sounded a lot older than she’s written, but most voices were spot-on, especially Laurie, Amy, and Bahr. This was very pleasant to listen to, and I recommend this version to any fan of Louisa May Alcott.

I give this book 5 stars because I enjoy it so much and these characters hold a special place in my heart, like those in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series. So, while I may be biased, I recognize that there are issues with this book. For one, most of the first half of the book takes place during the Civil War, but sociopolitical upheaval and consequences of that war are not discussed at all. I know that the war is not the focus of the story, but both Mr. March and John serve on the side of the Union, and their experiences or after effects are never mentioned.

Little Women was originally published in two parts, and sometimes it does feel like two books because there is a slight tonal shift as the girls get married off (or die). Meg simply disappears for a while after she gets married, Jo doesn’t write anything of interest for over a year, and while I love the Professor, I wish there had been more lead-in for their romantic relationship.

There are some extremely well written scenes, like when Amy confronts Laurie about his laziness while they are in Europe together. Prof. Bahr is such a delight, so I LOVE all his scenes. While this isn’t perfect, it is a poignant and relevant American classic piece of literature.

This will continue to be read and treasured for generations to come. I’m inspired to read Little Men and Jo’s Boys someday.

You Can Thank Me Later by Kelly Harms

You Can Thank Me Later: A Novella by Kelly Harms

REVIEW: 4 / 5 stars

HAPPY PI DAY!! (which is tomorrow, March 14th, 2020)

This is a well written little novella focusing on the Dickenson family dynamics over the course of three or four Thanksgiving holidays. I rented this in preparation for this year’s Pi Day, and while there aren’t too many scenes that actually focus on pie, I am still really glad I read this. At just over 3 hours long, this is a good audio production to have on in the background while doing other things, such as laboring over your own cooking.

I think there is a good balance between discussions of holiday themes and plot lines about the characters’ problems. It was really interesting having the protagonist and narrator be a chef herself, which isn’t something I see a lot in fiction writing, so her take on holiday food preparations is refreshing. Soph’s disfunctional relationships do get a bit old at times, so the middle drags a little bit when the audience clearly understands that Soph needs to deal with her own issues and move on instead of other people’s problems, and it takes a while for Soph to come to that realization. It isn’t such a problem in a shorter work like this, so I think this story works really well as a novella.

I liked this, it is memorable, and applicable to many people’s lives today. Themes that are dealt with include:

• family dynamics, grief, loss, romantic relationships, growing up, motherhood, siblings, friendships, terminal illness, divorce, widowerhood, local law enforcement, and reconciliation.

It took me a bit to understand who was related to whom, etc. but once I got the hang of it I grew fond of these characters. I recommend to those who may be intrigued; I was pleasantly surprised.

Interview with the Robot by Lee Bacon

Interview with the Robot by Lee Bacon

REVIEW: 4 / 5 stars

Interview with the Robot is an audio performance of a science fiction young adult story. The narrative structure has this advanced artificial intelligence housed in a biomechanical robot named Eve speaking to a social worker (because Eve appears to be a 12 year old girl) in a police station after being caught shop lifting. The story is told through the framework of the social worker asking Eve questions, and Eve giving us her backstory bit by bit to fill in the gaps.

Some things that I really look for in YA sci-fi are:

(1) is the futuristic technology believable based on the way the world is set up, and

(2) does the narrator properly explain how things are supposed to work in the world.

Futuristic “magic” instead of tech and the author being vague about what the heck is going on is lazy and just bad writing. I want to be trusted as a reader to be able to enter, understand, and enjoy the author’s world. Lee Bacon does this really well in Interview with the Robot, even with less than 4 hours run-time. It was hard to stop listening!

Bacon crafts the balance between exposition, action, and dialogue quite well. I loved how this really took the time to show how long and complicated creating a robot that could pass as a human would really take. Developing the core technology is key to the story: educating the AI, building the skeleton, developing the synthetic skin and muscles, and even coding the artificial pupils to dilate based on changes in light! I think the shocking reveal, climax, and resolution were all surprising yet believable, and therefore enjoyable to experience.

As much as I liked this in the moment, however, I only rate this 4 stars for a few reasons. I thought there were a few moments, especially in the first third of the story, where the dialogue is unbelievable in order to explicitly explain what is going on in the environment. For example, something like:

“Oh no, the robot arm is touching me! These things are all over the place, and they’re really grabby!”

This problem is much worse in William Gibson’s Alien III audio performance, but I still found it annoying here. Emory’s character does get better later on, but he is really annoying at the beginning. And finally, while David’s lab is impressive, he seems to be able to pursue whatever questions he wants with unlimited funding and no oversight, which is pure FANTASY haha. It would have made more sense if he was making other robots for a university or to sell commercially in addition to his top secret side projects. What do his employees work on after Eve gets her body? No one seems to be recording her progress or taking data when she is running down the hallways bumping into people testing her motor skills.

Overall, I really liked this and have already recommended it to people. This is the best written YA sci-fi story I have read in a while. Definitely a good read for those who like AI and robot stories, even those who might not usually like YA books. I loved the messages about family, too. ❤ ❤ ❤