fourflowers
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A Fenland Garden
- Creating a Haven for People, Plants and Wildlife in the Lincolnshire Fens
- By: Francis Pryor
- Narrated by: Francis Pryor
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 3
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
A Fenland Garden is the story of the creation of a garden in a complex and fragile English landscape—the Fens of southern Lincolnshire—by a writer who has a very particular relationship with landscape and the soil, thanks to his distinguished career as an archaeologist and discoverer of some of England's earliest field systems. It describes the imagining, planning and building of a garden in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile place, and the challenges, setbacks and joys these processes entail.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Love of landscape and how to embrace the environment that sustains you
- By Julia Wickens on 31-12-23
- A Fenland Garden
- Creating a Haven for People, Plants and Wildlife in the Lincolnshire Fens
- By: Francis Pryor
- Narrated by: Francis Pryor
Disappointing
Reviewed: 26-10-23
This book did not lend itself well to audio narration because plans of the garden would be needed to follow the development of the two gardens over time. The order of the individual descriptions of events, places or developments seemed to be jumbled and in an illogical order, back and forth in time and place spoiled the flow of the text, even allowing repetition of events/stories to creep in.
Added to that, the narrator did not pause between paragraphs which was irritating - you could be listening to how the herons were feeding on the fish in the pond then, without any pause, hear about the types of roses in the garden.
I really enjoyed Francis Pryor's other books on Audible but this one is not in the same league as them.
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This Audiobook Will Send You to Sleep
- By: Professor K. McCoy, Dr Hardwick
- Narrated by: Bruce Alexander
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Story4 out of 5 stars 176
Random House presents This Audiobook Will Send You to Sleep by Professor K. McCoy and Dr Hardwick, read by Bruce Alexander. Sleep smarter. This Audiobook Will Send You to Sleep makes no claims to be fun or interesting. It is an audiobook you can listen to in full confidence that you will find absolutely nothing to stimulate your brain. An audiobook, like no other, that will afford you much sleep and copious amounts of pointless knowledge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unexpectedly effective
- By Suzanne on 27-05-18
- This Audiobook Will Send You to Sleep
- By: Professor K. McCoy, Dr Hardwick
- Narrated by: Bruce Alexander
An amazing listen
Reviewed: 03-12-18
This book really does work! It is a compilation of greatly differing topics which have obviously been carefully chosen to lull the mind into a restful state while you listen. I use my audible timer to switch off the book after (say) 30 minutes but it doesn't matter if you sleep through any of the book because you can just resume where it stopped without any problem of continuity.
The best book I ever bought!
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1 person found this helpful
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Hard Times
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 905
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 775
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 772
Despite the title, Dickens's portrayal of early industrial society is less relentlessly grim than that in novels by contemporaries such as Elizabeth Gaskell or Charles Kingsley. Hard Times weaves the tale of Thomas Gradgrind, a hard-headed politician who raises his children Louisa and Tom without love and to have no empathy, their lives completely devoid of beauty, culture, or imagination. Only after a series of crises does their father realise that the manner in which he raised his children has ruined their lives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic book - wonderfully read
- By Lipsticklula on 21-07-06
- Hard Times
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
Brilliant narration
Reviewed: 02-11-17
A good yarn whose characters were expertly brought to life by Martin Jarvis, the narrator. Highly recommended.
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A Passion for Nature
- The Life of John Muir
- By: Donald Worster
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11
"I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer," John Muir wrote. "Civilization and fever and all the morbidness that has been hooted at me has not dimmed my glacial eye, and I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness. My own special self is nothing". In Donald Worster's magisterial biography, John Muir's "special self" is fully explored as is his extraordinary ability, then and now, to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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When one tugs at a single thing in nature,
- By Wras on 26-01-16
- A Passion for Nature
- The Life of John Muir
- By: Donald Worster
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
Doubtful accuracy for Scottish history
Reviewed: 26-10-17
I felt that the author had taken his references for Scottish history from an American story book rather than from accurate accounts or source references giving a jaundiced view of events. Also the word "Scotch" rather than Scottish or Scots throughout the book grated on me - isn't Scotch the drink and Scots the people?. But hey, I'm only half Scottish so what do I know!
An account of an interesting man who led an interesting life made up for these flaws though.
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Assassin's Fate
- Fitz and the Fool, Book 3
- By: Robin Hobb
- Narrated by: Avita Jay, David Thorpe
- Length: 45 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,198
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,099
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,094
Prince FitzChivalry Farseer's daughter, Bee, was violently abducted from Withywoods by Servants of the Four in their search for the Unexpected Son, foretold to wield great power. With Fitz in pursuit, the Servants fled through a Skill-pillar, leaving no trace. It seems certain that they and their young hostage have perished in the Skill-river. Clerres, where White Prophets were trained by the Servants to set the world on a better path, has been corrupted by greed. Fitz is determined to reach the city and take vengeance on the Four.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not having the same male narrator is SO jarring.
- By H L O'Doherty on 18-05-17
- Assassin's Fate
- Fitz and the Fool, Book 3
- By: Robin Hobb
- Narrated by: Avita Jay, David Thorpe
Unsympathetic narration by David Thorpe
Reviewed: 08-09-17
Would you listen to Assassin's Fate again? Why?
A great final book to the series but I wouldn't listen to this again, I'd read the book.
What didn’t you like about Avita Jay and David Thorpe ’s performance?
The male narrator not only mispronounced LIVE as LIV all through the book but made the female characters sound like pantomime dames. He also managed to spit out the majority of Fitz's sentences in such a confrontational manner that he changed the relationships between the characters markedly from those that Robin Hobb had built up over the whole series. Shame. Read the book instead
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Hitch-22
- A Memoir
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Christopher Hitchens
- Length: 17 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,514
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,246
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,238
In this long-awaited and candid memoir, Hitchens re-traces the footsteps of his life to date, from his childhood in Portsmouth, with his adoring, tragic mother and reserved Naval officer father; to his life in Washington DC, the base from which from he would launch fierce attacks on tyranny of all kinds. Along the way, he recalls the girls, boys and booze; the friendships and the feuds; the grand struggles and lost causes; and the mistakes and misgivings that have characterised his life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Honest but difficult listening
- By Penny on 18-06-16
- Hitch-22
- A Memoir
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Christopher Hitchens
Spoiled by the narration
Reviewed: 12-05-17
Would you consider the audio edition of Hitch-22 to be better than the print version?
I think the print version must undoubtedly be better than this audiobook.
What didn’t you like about Christopher Hitchens’s performance?
The change of volume and intonation of his voice within every sentence.
Any additional comments?
I had to abandon listening to this book less than a quarter of the way through because of the narration. Christopher Hitchins not only lowered his voice at the end of each sentence but also with every phrase in that sentence so that I was constantly having to rewind to discover the words that he had swallowed. This lead to a disjointed flow of the narration for me and I would advise anyone thinking of buying this audiobook to listen to the sample first.
I have ordered the print version from my local library. Shame.
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