Grant

Ken Robinson has done the education world a huge favor by writing this book. He deftly outlines the reasons and ways that education has to change. The sooner we do it, the better. Reading the Element made me glad both of my children attend untraditional, progressive schools that live by the basic tenets of Robinson's philosophy. Great teachers everywhere will agree.

The Dark Tower Series has grabbed me and is holding my attention quite well at this point. I really care about the characters. I really want to walk along with them on their journey along the path of the beam. This story is right out of Peckinpaw and Kurasawa. With a King-like bent. I'm all in.

Time travel. Parallel dimensions. Space ships. Battles with explosions on decks six through 12. Love. Humor. Characters I care about when they die. Characters I care about when they come back to life. And a Wil Wheaton Narration. More. I must have more!

Everyone in this country needs to read or listen to this essay. Whether they agree or not, it's so full of information and reason that it forms a necessary jumping off point for debate and communal understanding.

The best thing about this book by Ester Perel is that you get real insight into how different people in relationships see their partners and their roles. You get to hear how they approach sex and intimacy and love and how the three things are almost never the same to any two people. This book is a little short on solutions. (I guess that, as a therapist, Perel believes the solution, ultimately, is therapy. Although she does not say as much.) But, overall, this piece is an engrossing and worthwhile glimpse into the minds and lives of people who find that love and lust aren't always in synch. As a narrator, Perel's strong but infinitely listenable Belgian accent and tone are, simply, pitch perfect.

Run away. As fast as you can. There's nothing here worth consuming. In a word: unlistenble.

Unique and wonderful and wry and fun and scary and odd and perfectly crafted (And very well read by Stanley Tucci.)

A lot of good information about inequality and how we got to our current unsustainable economic state. The insights here are also covered just as well in other books by Robert Reich, Joseph Stiglitz and Michael Sandel. Still, this kind of information cannot be conveyed too often or in too many formats.

I travel on business a lot. I stay in hotels over 150 nights a year. This book was not only entertaining and a pleasure to listen to (Thomsky is a natural reader/actor/performer), it gave me some real insight and tips for how I should approach my stays in hotels. Funny as hell. Full of interesting stories. And the author experienced something of a dramatic arc from beginning to end. Very well done.

I know this is episode one of a series, but the problem I had with it was that I was not left with any reason or desire to move to episode two.Scalzi is good (although he always seems to be better when read by Wil Wheaton for some reason). But here, I wasn't grabbed. Maybe I should have started with "Old Man's War" which has been in my wish list for a few months. Maybe I'll give episode two a try. Maybe it will grow on me. But I'm not sure that a 13-piece serial really works in audiobook format.

The world is changing. And the revolution of how people create, manufacture and design is a big part of it. This movement alone could bring manufacturing back to the US in a big way. I think everyone who is getting out of college in the next four years should read this (and other books written by Anderson) to fully understand how the business and creative world is changing.