Love in the Time of Covid

A Memoir in 50 Essays

De: Ian Patrick

Narrado por: Michael Richard

Love in the Time of Covid is a memoir in fifty short essays written during the Covid era between 2020 and 2024. The essays describe the author's responses to media reports, debates, and public commentaries on a range of current affairs during the course of the pandemic. His primary focus is on the poisoning of social discourse during this period, when there was 'no love lost' in conflicts between adversarial parties.

©2025 Ian Patrick (P)2025 Ian Patrick

Very good, but I wish it also covered 2025

Because I bought a crime thriller some six or seven years ago I received a newsletter offering a complimentary code to get the audio version of this (non-crime thriller) book by the same author, and inviting me to review it if I wanted to, with no strings attached. Well, twenty minutes into it I liked it so much that I decided to buy the digital edition also, so that I could read and listen at the same time, and also check the videos that the author refers to. It's all really good, and the narrator's voice is very good, and the only reason I don't review it at five stars is that I think it stopped too soon. I would like to hear what the author says about Trump as president since he became president in 2025 (I think Trump is doing amazing things). Anyway, I agree with just about every thing the author says about the media. I don't watch those main media at all now, and get all my news from the internet, where there are different opinions and intelligent people who back up what they have to say instead of spouting their opinions in the face of facts that contradict what they say.

How the press takes sides

I read a book by this author four years ago so when I got a newsletter about this latest book I thought I'd try it, then I soon received an offer to get the audio version free because I had bought the digital one. I was strictly advised that if I reviewed, then I should do so completely freely. In other words, I suppose, they were telling me that I was not being bribed to write a positive review. They needn't have bothered - I never review to anyone's specifications.

I am really enjoying this writing (about half-way through), with nobody prompting me in any direction. I happen to agree with just about everything I'm reading in the book so far. And the narration is crisp and clear, so I'm feeling good about it as I listen along with reading.

UPDATE: FINAL THOUGHTS

Finished. The book is very good. Chapter 45, especially, is very enlightening; showing in detail, with lots of examples, how the press take sides and do everything they can to spin their chosen side of things. I think everyone should read this book: and cross-referencing to the videos and lectures and interviews by clicking on the digital text is very helpful.

The only thing, like other readers have said, is that I wish there was a chapter on Gaza and one on Ukraine, which both seem to me to be important omissions.

The real strength is in the factual detail

I read a police mystery by this writer 3 or 4 years ago and listened to the audio version. Maybe that's why I was sent a message to get a complementary audio-book voucher for this book. I prefer reading to listening so I also got the ebook and then I read while listening along. I'm glad I did because the ebook has fantastic links to videos and other sources which illustrate the writer's arguments. The narration was very good but the real strength of this book is the factual detail. It's a very good lesson in why we should be sceptical about what we read. Chapter 45 is a perfect example - it is clear that The Economist simply hates Trump and as a consequence their journalism is like a sniping undergraduate, misrepresenting everything and showing their political bias in virtually every sentence. What a lesson in biased reporting!

This changes my perspective

I read a few of the writer's previous books and received a code from the publisher for this complimentary audio, along with an advisory note to review it and criticise it any way I wanted. Well, it's a very thoroughly researched and wide-ranging survey of the arguments that took place in the last five years. These were arguments that upset me greatly as the world seemed to be so contradictory and in many ways hateful. These short essays put so much into perspective for me. I think it's wonderful.

Truly gripping, though not a police thriller

I got the e-book first and then got a complimentary code for the audio-book, which I've been listening to today: ALL day. It is truly gripping (but it's not a police thriller, for those who weren't aware). It seems to be a departure from the writer's normal focus.

But in some ways it IS a thriller. I couldn't wait to turn to the next chapter (they're all very short). He covers a lot of ground, from South Africa to the USA, from the UK to Australia. All of his focus is on what the press and especially the TV broadcasters and radio stations are saying about current affairs, and he shows how they manipulate facts and statistics and quotes and interviews to show the world as they want to see it instead of how it really is: from the deliberate editing of tv footage, by a major national broadcaster, to EXCLUDE a dagger in the hand of a young black (yes, that is an important detail) woman so that it looks like she is an innocent victim of a fatal shooting by a white (yes, that's an important detail) male cop. The woman in question was about to plunge a dagger into the chest of another person. So the editing changed the story from 'a heroic white cop shooting a would-be assassin' to a different story: 'once again a white cop shoots an innocent black victim'. What a shock it was to see the video of the truth (provided by the writer through a link in the e-book to the police body-cam footage).

There are many examples like this - from changing sentences, inserting words, twisting actual quotations, and many more - showing how the media have been guilty of presenting fake news. I found it all very educative, and I for one am going to be very wary from now on.

Brilliant

This has been a real pleasure to listen to. Honest, articulate, intriguing, and brilliantly researched. I listened to one of this author's books years ago and liked it very much but this was different experience (I'm not usually into memoirs). The examples of how the media mis-represented what was really happening are shocking. The author shows lots of examples and cross-references, so that it's never just his opinion but actually verifiable incidents of mis-representations that he provides. But there's also a lot of humour (I love the way he says his friend only listened to the news that was "kneaded" instead of what he had said he "needed"). The story of the doggie-poo in a bag was hilarious. The final paragraph of the whole book is really good.

Great vocals on an excellent book

I was taken by the preamble of this book, where the author says that during four decades of teaching in a university he doesn't remember ever losing a friend or damaging collegiality, or breaking a relationship, as the result of any argument about substance or form, disputes over evidence and interpretation, debates about style or tone or ideological position, in discussing things with staff and students. How very different, he says, things have become when we now burn buildings because we disagree about such things. This resonates with me, as someone who comes from a family of academics where we all say the same thing but we also say we are scared to say those things publicly for fear of retaliation. This writer is not scared to say these things, and he says them beautifully, with references to evidence every time. A great book to read in order to keep our minds open. (P.S. I got news of this book from a newsletter I signed up to after reading a crime thriller - I was a bit disappointed to see that it wasn't a crime thriller, but, hey ho, I still enjoyed it.).

Having Now listened to the audible version today, I'm even more impressed. What a great narrative voice the author contracted to do justice to his work.

This should be required reading and listening

I read the writer's crime books nearly ten years ago and was interested to see this new non-crime book. I bought the ebook and then received a code to get the audio, so read and listened at the same time. I enjoyed it a great deal. The analyses are very short and insightful, and I happen to agree with virtually all of them. The book should be required reading for anyone interested in global issues affecting civil discourse. The recent killing of Charlie Kirk demands that people on both sides return to respect for debate and civil argument. This book comes at the perfect time. I urge everyone to read it.