Shakespeare Scholar

If you think this will never happen again…

Revisado: 05-27-24

…listen to this outstanding Audiobook while following along in the printed paperback. Then ask yourself what happened to the notes that Trump grabbed out of the interpreter’s hands after his private meeting with Putin in Helsinki those many years ago. The United States is a republic, and it’s also a democracy, and everyone eligible to vote should be clear that the person leading our country is doing it for the sake of preserving our democracy and guiding our republic toward bettering the lives of all our citizens, not for ego or personal gain.

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Appropriately mannered delivery

Revisado: 03-24-24

This recording is fastidious to the point of being fey, with academic-style pauses before quotes from the poems and letters of Elizabeth Bishop, which will be the interest of those listening to this recording, as much as the story of the poet herself, who assumed that people like to listen to poetry and like having it read to them, and so wrote readable poetry. In the best of all possible worlds, see the words on the page as you listen to this outstanding biography that tells the whole story of one of this nation’s two or three greatest poets of any time or gender. Tactfully hidden underneath the actualities of this historical portrait is the truth about the starvation level of existence faced by anyone driven to be a poet: you had better be a trust-fund baby, or be willing to teach all your life, or live in a foreign country, where the cost of living is so low that any income can be stretched until you come under the. wing of a great protector like Lota de Macedo Soares. This is an outstanding, honest story of a person who lived with eyes wide open in a world with a lot to see and feel, and never blinked or flinched. I’ve already used the would “outstanding” once or twice, so just be patient and listen

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It truly was inspiring to hear the actual voice of the man who wrote so many of the spy tales I’ve enjoyed over the years.

Revisado: 02-04-24

Cornwell’s “wise old man” persona is ideal for the stories he’s narration— one can’t tell fiction from living fact.

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Vivid performances of intriguing, unfamiliar cases 🔈

Revisado: 09-22-23

Wonderful performances worth listening to over and over. Following the trail of an elderly woman invited hither and yon to solve terrifying, often life-threatening problems of almost, the listener is invited to contemplate the scams, psychodramas, and other imbroglios that Miss Marple must negotiate.

Think of them as safe-havens from the relentlessly catastrophic news of our times. Imagine….

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Parables within the mysteries

Revisado: 08-26-23

Welcome to a world in which a ranking member of the idle rich cares enough to solve crimes perpetrated by experts in all the deadly sins. Wonderful performances by great actors, to be played over and over to catch all the vocal nuances and plot twists.

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As if they were written last week, and yet capture the post-Empire atmosphere

Revisado: 06-25-23

A collection that reflects the writer’s profound exploration of the British psyche and historical situation in “former times” (the 20th century), made even more profound and interesting through readings by some of Britain’s greatest actors. Not one of these stories seems dated or irrelevant to the human condition in our times. Expect to go back and play the entire book all over again.

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Reread in light of the Stormy Daniels hush money case in NYC

Revisado: 04-06-23

This book must be read. Its articulateness and detail are unmatched in political memoirs, which our great democracy excels in producing. The chief thing we should remember, above all, after reading this book, is that publication—even writing—such a book, in many countries, is against the law. Another reason to read (or re-read) this book is to disabuse oneself of the notion that what is narrated here can never happen again—and to be aware of the consequences if another autocratic personality with more knowledge of government becomes the candidate.

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Every person living in the United States should read

Revisado: 12-04-22

A riveting text with endless examples of how the Constitution uniquely protects ALL Americans and, by its words, creates a government that, however invisible its beneficial effects may be, prevents mismanagement and misappropriation by those in power while also enhancing the lives of all its citizens, from the most to the least powerful.

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St. Pete, drugs, sharks…

Revisado: 10-28-22

Fleming must have thought American readers would be interested in his take on American crime…and the Audible producers settled for a British narrator who can’t do Black or Southern White American accents. Live and learn to let die…

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Fresh as if it had been written now, not 70 years ago

Revisado: 10-27-22

Dan Stevens’ narration is flawless — spectacular acting, with extraordinary shifts between characters— and helps the listener get over the apparently anticlimactic ending Ian Fleming wrote, which shows James Bond’s “coming of age” when he leaves behind political ambivalence and becomes a Double 0, willing to kill for his country’s safety. I’m sure somewhere in the vilifications and paeans written about Fleming’s work, the parallels between this novel and British literature’s most famous play are explored, but it’s worth noting that with this work begins Fleming’s use of baccarat as THE game, in which kings, queens, jacks, and aces are mere fillers for the real players, the numbers. Casino Royale is above all a great example of Ian Fleming famously having trouble with endings, other than to do the right thing and let the hero live. All of this skeletal, liminal structure becomes clear, if you choose, listening to this landmark in the history of British stories about spies.

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