Annoying Christian hypocricy but also humour

Negatives first - because you may decide not to listen as a result:
- The story is quite sickening in that it is unquestionably white, outdated, old fashioned, full of hypocritical Anglican Christianity and fake angst.
- To ring true socialy this book should be set before WWW2, not in the age of social media.
- The brand of Christianity, and associated prayer (talking to God) in this book is extremely self seeking and complacent. Jim Kraus seems to go out of his way to avoid bringing this book into the modern world and addressing the vast heartbreaks therein. (The billions of deaths of innocent children/people because selfish so-called Christians who do nothing, or too little, to oppose wars, prevent famines, ensure that people in poorer countries have access to the medicines, toilets, clean water & etc.)
- Never mind all those Christians who do very little or nothing about horrifying issue of climate change and the decimation the environment with huge numbers of innocent species becoming extinct every year. This, when Americans and Europeans from Christian countries are 90+% responsible for global warming and environmental degradation.
- On these levels, this is a very lazy and complacent book, which could have been so great if it had addressed, or at the very least, recognised the need to address, these issues.
- Jim Kraus' buttoned up protagonist is not totally convincing as a widow woman. A man can never quite 'get' a woman's veiw of relationships and the world and that shows in this work.
- Various derogatory, and sometimes biggoted, points of view are expressed or hinted at throughout the book.

Positives, that may make it worth listening to for you:
- Aside from the massive question mark about Christian hypocricy, the book's concept makes for an interesting and often enjoyable read.
- This well written book, which seems to be designed to be read aloud, is narrated beautifully by Donna Postel.
- It is funny and utilises a lovely gentle, quirky sense of humour.
- Every story that includes a dog automatically gets one 'star' from me.

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The Dog That Talked to God

It was a really touching story, very well performed . It made me feel very emotional and difficult to put down. I loved the ending.

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Nice enough if you don’t mind a bit of chat about god

Cute story but if you’re anti- religion don’t bother - it really does talk about God a lot. Loved the dog voice

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A very warm and gentle story.

I chose this book for something lighter and funnier than my usual read and I was not disappointed. But it is also a very touching story and at times I found it quite moving.
My only complaint is that there were too many irrelevant asides or anicdotes which seemed unnecessary especially at the beginning and earlier part of the book.
Once the story gets going and keeps to the story it held my attention completley and became absolutely believable that this dog talked!!

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2 people found this helpful

Really sweet and a bit different.

Made me cry twice. But then I talk to my animals and see the spiritual nature of that bond. Loved rufus xx

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Amazing story of dog and God .

I really enjoyed the closeness and love shown between dog and God , it was read with passion.

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Thoughtful and cute

A lady loses her husband and son in an accident and buys a Shnauzer pup to keep her company. It could have played out daft and comical that she could speak to the dog, but it didn't ,for some reason it worked and the two had a lovely relationship.

A lot of the time you smiled at the dog's words as you can imagine him or any other dog thinking that; but you were also questioning quite deep issues. I could associate with her anger at losing her family and being resentful of people telling her that God had a plan. It seemed like that plan was unimaginably hard to take, I felt like that when my Uncle died.

Give it a go, I think you'll like it.

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5 people found this helpful

Dull and dogmatic

I was hoping for a witty, easy-listen. But this is a dull, unimaginative and uninspiring story. It is depressingly predictable and the single moral that the narrative continually loos back to is “Good Christian people are good and all others are bad”. If that floats your boat, you’ll love it.

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awful

awful narration, tedious story, gave up after a couple of hours, main character was possibly the worst ....bet she'd have voted trump.

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A good start, but ran out of steam.

Would you try another book written by Jim Kraus or narrated by Donna Postel?

No, unless the reviews were very good.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The first two thirds were good story writing. Colour, mood, description, involvement, revelling in the characters and plot. Then it turned into 'get to the end' asap. I felt emotionally short changed and saddened at the lack of colour and depth. So I would like a more consistent story and a good revelling ending! please! If not just 'tweet' the story.

Have you listened to any of Donna Postel’s other performances? How does this one compare?

no

Do you think The Dog That Talked to God needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No thank you. Too upsetting first time round. Not unless the author can keep the level of literary quality to the end.

Any additional comments?

as above.

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3 people found this helpful