![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World
Author: Victoria Finlay
Narrator: Carla Kissane
Published: Tantor, 2022 (2021)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 530
Total Page Count: 486,240
Text Number: 1721
Read Because:
Review: Part mosaic history of various fabrics, part grief memoir following the death of the author's parents. The "patchwork" framework does a lot of heavy lifting for the fabrics history, because it doesn't feel complete - but doesn't feel meant to be. Instead, each section is a deep-dive anecdote that mixes human interest and historical research. It's lively and diverse and doesn't get bogged down by the impossible task of trying to exhaust such a complex subject. The grief sections ... I find that I respond well to grief memoirs with an auxiliary focus. Too much straight grief is too focused for me, too raw and too navel-gazey; auxiliary content gives me necessary breathing room to work through the feelings such memoirs elicit. So I liked this: it's very readable, and I found it both interesting and productive.
Title: A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
Author: Emma Southon
Narrator: Sophie Ward
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2021 (2020)
Rating: 1 of 5
Page Count: 160 of 350
Total Page Count: 494,125
Text Number: 1759
Read Because: sometimes when browsing "anything morbid nonfiction on audio as long as I don't have to sit on hold" you do run into some duds; audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: DNF at 45%. I do care about the subject; but humor is Southon's primary or even exclusive vehicle, and it's repetitive, distracting, and straight up obnoxious.
Title: Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy
Author: Colin Dickey
Narrator: Will Damron
Published: Books on Tape, 2023
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 370
Total Page Count: 495,745
Text Number: 1768
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is just a long-form take on some theses that made it into The Unidentified, and the short versions presented there already sold me, so reading this feels like nodding along to the same concepts presented with beefier supporting evidence. I can't argue that, but it never gave me an 'a ha!' moment. I still liked and appreciated it, and respect Dickey's willingness to make the social commentary/modern applicability very loud. This wants to sit alongside a Folding Ideas video for a larger macro/micro historical/present-day comparison.
Author: Victoria Finlay
Narrator: Carla Kissane
Published: Tantor, 2022 (2021)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 530
Total Page Count: 486,240
Text Number: 1721
Read Because:
Review: Part mosaic history of various fabrics, part grief memoir following the death of the author's parents. The "patchwork" framework does a lot of heavy lifting for the fabrics history, because it doesn't feel complete - but doesn't feel meant to be. Instead, each section is a deep-dive anecdote that mixes human interest and historical research. It's lively and diverse and doesn't get bogged down by the impossible task of trying to exhaust such a complex subject. The grief sections ... I find that I respond well to grief memoirs with an auxiliary focus. Too much straight grief is too focused for me, too raw and too navel-gazey; auxiliary content gives me necessary breathing room to work through the feelings such memoirs elicit. So I liked this: it's very readable, and I found it both interesting and productive.
Title: A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
Author: Emma Southon
Narrator: Sophie Ward
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2021 (2020)
Rating: 1 of 5
Page Count: 160 of 350
Total Page Count: 494,125
Text Number: 1759
Read Because: sometimes when browsing "anything morbid nonfiction on audio as long as I don't have to sit on hold" you do run into some duds; audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: DNF at 45%. I do care about the subject; but humor is Southon's primary or even exclusive vehicle, and it's repetitive, distracting, and straight up obnoxious.
Title: Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy
Author: Colin Dickey
Narrator: Will Damron
Published: Books on Tape, 2023
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 370
Total Page Count: 495,745
Text Number: 1768
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is just a long-form take on some theses that made it into The Unidentified, and the short versions presented there already sold me, so reading this feels like nodding along to the same concepts presented with beefier supporting evidence. I can't argue that, but it never gave me an 'a ha!' moment. I still liked and appreciated it, and respect Dickey's willingness to make the social commentary/modern applicability very loud. This wants to sit alongside a Folding Ideas video for a larger macro/micro historical/present-day comparison.
