Flash Count Diary

Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life

By: Darcey Steinke

Narrated by: Darcey Steinke

Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

“Many days I believe menopause is the new (if long overdue) frontier for the most compelling and necessary philosophy; Darcey Steinke is already there, blazing the way. This elegant, wise, fascinating, deeply moving book is an instant classic. I’m about to buy it for everyone I know.” (Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts)

This program is read by the author.

A brave, brilliant, and unprecedented examination of menopause.

Menopause hit Darcey Steinke hard. First came hot flashes. Then insomnia. Then depression. As she struggled to understand what was happening to her, she slammed up against a culture of silence and sexism. Some books promoted hormone replacement therapy. Others encouraged accepting the coming crone. Beyond that, there was little that offered a path to understanding menopause in a complex, spiritual, and intellectually engaged way. She felt lost until she encountered a scientific fact that had escaped her through the early stages of dealing with this life change: The only two creatures on earth that go through menopause, she discovered, are human women and female killer whales.

Her fascination with this fact became the starting point for Flash Count Diary, a powerful exploration into aspects of menopause that have rarely been written about, including the changing gender landscape that reduced levels of hormones brings, the actualities of transforming desires, and the realities of prejudice against older women. Steinke learned that in the 17th-century women who had hot flashes in front of others could be accused of being witches, that the model of Marcel Duchamp's famous Étant donnés was a post-reproductive woman, and that seeing whales in the wild can lead to orcagasms.

Flash Count Diary takes listeners from Brooklyn to the red light district in Amsterdam, and finally to a watery encounter with a wild killer-whale matriarch in Washington State’s Salish Sea. Flash Count Diary will change the way you think about menopause. It’s a deeply feminist audiobook, honest about the intimations of mortality that menopause signals but also an argument for the ascendency, beauty, and power of the post-reproductive years in women’s lives.

©2019 Darcey Steinke (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Although depressing I loved it

I’m obsessed with the topic of perimenopause & menopause and can’t stand how little honest, empathic and on the other side hopeful & reassuring & even encouraging information is out there. The hard part about this book is the comparison to whales but it’s just honest & informative. Thank you for bringing awareness to the plight of women our age and the whales. ❤️

Please redo the recording.

I am interested in menopause. So I am interested in reading/listening to this book. I find the quality of the writing is good.
However I am finding the audio recording painful to listen to. The author has a horribly whiny voice. You get hat she is suffering, but she infuses the entire reading with that same tone. Uggggg it makes the listening very unpleasant.

This book is why actors need to record the books.

Hard to listen, whining voice. So hoped for more. Don't have room for another complaining voice in my head

It was fine.

I was hoping for a slightly more scientific account of menopause. This felt specific to the author, and thus often unrelatable. My main issue though was that the narrator was very hard to listen to. She speaks in a monotone, and often slurs words, and pauses in distracting and confusing ways. I was shocked to find that the reader was the author, because I would have expected a much more natural and expressive read. Would not recommend.

Profound; Full of Feral and Tender Truths

Every peri and post menopausal woman will relate deeply to this book. Every person (male or female) who loves whales or mourns the degradation of our natural world will find it compelling.
And if you are female, love nature, mourn connection and wonder about the value of a post reproductive life, this book may change your trajectory. Profound, deeply personal and full of feral and tender truths.

Poor Narration

I found the narration of this book, with hesitations where hesitations did not belong, and a staccato delivery confusing at times and unenjoyable to listen to.

Now I’m obsessed with whales

This book is phenomenal! You won’t regret it. Even if you’re years away from menopause or not female, it’s amazing

a needed work

Darcy Steinke's interview with Dawn Serra on the Sex Gets Real podcast brought me here. The world needs voices on menopause. This book fired up my rage on our society's glorification of youth and lack of scientific research into women's bodies and bodies that experience menopause.

In reading through previous reviews, the overwhelming critique of Darcy's voice and speech patterns was a sadly predictable and misogynist response that I see on most anything involving a woman's audible voice in public space. She has idiosyncrasies, and once I confronted and overcame my own internalized sexism against my initial reaction, I looked forward to her voice as a deeper insight into her psyche, values, and implorations to the reader-listener. I encourage others to do the same.

Whaaaat?

I thought this book might be insightful or funny from the title. Not! WAY too descriptive. You get lost. No idea what info was to be imparted.

Depressing

Menopause is tough enough without this depressingly whiny book. And the nasally, depressing, reader only makes it worse. I couldn't get past chapter 2.