You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
interesting subject matter but the writing is extremely repetitive. could cut about half the length and say the same thing, without so much meandering. i found the author’s self absorption, lack of emotional intelligence, tendency toward melodrama, and overuse of imagery to be very tedious. he seemed to finally almost hit his stride near the end when he began to discuss meeting his grandfather and finally gaining perspective as to what he had really been searching for, but never quite got there or packed the emotional punch i’d hoped for.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
There was a lot to wade through here, but the brief sparkling moments where the author’s insights lined up with clear self-awareness were, though few and far between, exquisite. I wish he’d done a bit more with his conversations with the accordion elders, but I also understand that those conversations were truly for him, and not “us.”
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I might have preferred reading rather than listening to this one. I think I hoped for a broader sweep re. the history of migration and the accordion. To me, the book felt like mostly the author's personal reflections on a complicated family history, his own relationship with the accordion and music, and the challenges of growing up dealing with poverty, racism, and a feeling of being between cultures. None of those are uninteresting, of course. It was just a bit more personal memoir and a bit less learning about other stuff than I was looking for at the time. And if you prefer to to take your darkness leavened by some joy or hope, I didn't find a lot here, except a sweet message to his son at the end.
Interesting premise but falls flat in a few dimensions. The story is untethered and it’s never established who we’re hearing from and why we should care.
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident
Minor: Drug use, Misogyny, Racism, Colonisation
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
This book went in so many unexpected directions. I enjoyed hearing about accordion specialists across the world, but the discussion of Michoacán and the challenges to go and see Indigenous family members was the part of the book that completely enthralled me. There are so few who travel in those spaces and can describe them and I appreciated the attention to history, struggle, and familiarity.