PishPash

Not very well produced at all.

Reviewed: 06-12-23

I found this book difficult to follow. I feel it would have made for a much better TV series, in light of it's focus. The PDF that accompanies the audiobook is quite poor. If listening on your phone you can't zoom into the images, in addition to which it doesn't remember where you got to. The images are quite badly indexed too!

Production quality is notably poor, quite clearly not done in a studio, as far as I can tell. The sound quality isn't particularly great, in addition to which there is noise, most often on account of apparent desk and mic knocks.

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3 people found this helpful

An addendum to the first book

Reviewed: 06-11-23

Her naration is excellent, however, the book doesn't ring out quite as well as her first book did. It's good, but only because I get a sense of comfort out of listening to Miriam, particularly following the first book, which was great, aside from the political diatribe. This book has a little of that too, a few preachy moments, but ah well!

I think the book's title may have set my expectations in an unhelpful way, as its not nearly as full of "oh Miriam!" tales as the first book was. In many ways it feels like segments cut from the original, and the through line isn't as clear, pulling together a number of themed anecdotes for the most part.

I do recommend it if you liked the first book, however, it's not quite so good. Well written, but not nearly as funny.

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Give it time

Reviewed: 15-10-23

it's actually very good, but needs a little time to warm up to. I quite enjoyed most of what was reflected in here, though admittedly found the here and there approach behind the narrative hard to adapt to. Ultimately, once you take a little time to get to know Bernie the books comes over quite well in the end.

I will say though, as much as i like John Lee, he's not a great fit for this particular book. He exaggerates elements of the narrative in ways that feel at bit much sometimes, and just sound too far away from Bernie himself. No issues with his performance, just not the right book for him in my view.

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I'm annoyed it's only half a story

Reviewed: 05-11-22

It would seem to be a part 1 of 2. Least I think so. He makes reference to most things, but mainly hones in on his early years right up until Python. I really enjoyed this, "I'm sorry I'll say that again," loved this, and would be really very happy indeed if a part 2 emerged. (that quotation, paraphrased, is a repeated a lot in the book, I'm not sure if it's meant to be there, and left in by accident in the editing, when John realised he needed to re record something).

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A great autobiography

Reviewed: 06-08-22

I loved almost every word uttered in this audiobook. There was a moment towards the end where Miriam got a little heavy handed with her political views, a notably dry portion of the overall story, however that aside it was a wonderfully frank account of all things Miriam. In some way it may have made covid and lockdown somewhat worth having, as without it we'd have been without this, not that I mean to be flippant about covid, I suppose it's just one of the few good things that came out of it!

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I loved it, but wish it was bigger.

Reviewed: 22-07-22

I really loved this, especially listening to Martha Wainwright reading it herself. Much sadder than I expected, and surprised me in lots of ways. Anyway, if you know who she is, it's well worth a listen or a read, in my opinion!

My only gripe comes from a deep wish for me to hear more commentary about her songs, not loads, but a bit, just a bit more, about the albums I love so deeply. There's additional context given with respect to most of them, her albums, but I would have liked to have heard a little more about those moments.

In any case, it's cuttingly frank, not in a harmful way, just unashamedly honest, and paints a picture of her life so far in a way I didn't expect. I wonder if she may go on to writing something else, about herself, someone else, or something else - I'd certainly be interested. Very much liked her approach to writing this!

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Quite balanced

Reviewed: 13-07-22

Presents the whole story, one side looking rather more ridiculous on account of the evidence that clearly supports this particular narrative in 4 key areas - Gay, Woman, Race, and Trans. Some degree of outward compassion towards Trans people, while also looking at a much bigger picture, from an evidence based perspective that generally goes by, and rather dangerously, unconsiderd by extreems at both sides.

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Step away from the echo chamber

Reviewed: 24-06-22

This is good. Decent place to go for a reset, in light of the current idealogical programme of extremist brainwashing a lot have succumned to, seemingly invested in developing a culture of self flagellation rather more than self reflection and natural progression.

I've rated the performance down a bit, I suppose because it seems a little dry, though mostly good!

Generally speaking this book critisises the radical left for what it's missing, when it comes to proselytising with respects their views towards inequality, and the demonisation of ALL things western. It's balanced, a wider view, with consideration to the bigger picture the noisy left (leftist folk, not referring to traditionally liberal minded people) seem quite blind to.

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it's good, a lovely idea but...

Reviewed: 27-10-21

I'm not all that sure about Carey Mulligan's narration. It was certainly competent, however seemed a little flat. That does however work as far as Nora's character goes, but then again it's not a first person narrative. It's not bad though, far from it.

The idea at the base of this is really nice, but it's all rather predictable - I'm sorry to say that, but it ended exactly how I wanted it to, and in the only way it could, or should, as far as I'm concerned, will leave it there, which made me feel it could have been a point more effectively driven home in a smaller book. Some of the flitting around can get a little dull, for it to go exactly where you expect it to. some very nice moments, but I really think it would have been far stronger in a more condensed version of itself.

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Just doesn't go anywhere

Reviewed: 05-09-21

The performance is great but, like a good actor with a bad script, is quite limited. Peter Kenny's pronounciations keep driving me mad, but then I have come with love from the games, and I still can't stand the accent used here for Geralt. That aside this is another rather episodic affair, more of an overarching story in this case, but not a lot different to the first two books. The chapter length annoyed me a little bit, just 7 in the whole book. I guess I like these things broken down a bit more.

It's really little more than back story, no major events here, just a little life in the week of a Witcher and companions, with nothing remarkable occuring. Chapter 7, the last one, is nothing more than several chucks of conversation between key female characters - just learning, and moaning! 2hrs of natter, and little more. Okay so it sets up characters somewhat, but otherwise went nowhere.

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2 people found this helpful