CM Slosson

2 books read for LibriVox

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The Jew of Malta Christopher Marlowe
You get a viciously funny, morally rotten theatrical ride through Barabas’s schemes, where everyone’s greed and hypocrisy keep feeding his ingenuity. The play is bluntly antisemitic in places, so it needs some historical distance, but its black comedy and gleeful distrust of piety still feel startlingly alive.
Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt non-fiction
Roosevelt cataloguing birds and piranhas is pleasant enough, but the book turns quietly harrowing once the River of Doubt starts eating canoes and he's running a fever, still writing calmly. If you like old expedition accounts with real teeth, this earns its slow stretches.

2 books read for LibriVox

filter sort

The Jew of Malta Christopher Marlowe
You get a viciously funny, morally rotten theatrical ride through Barabas’s schemes, where everyone’s greed and hypocrisy keep feeding his ingenuity. The play is bluntly antisemitic in places, so it needs some historical distance, but its black comedy and gleeful distrust of piety still feel startlingly alive.
Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt non-fiction
Roosevelt cataloguing birds and piranhas is pleasant enough, but the book turns quietly harrowing once the River of Doubt starts eating canoes and he's running a fever, still writing calmly. If you like old expedition accounts with real teeth, this earns its slow stretches.