Larry

Everyone with an oar in the water on Afghanistan and Iraq ought to read this book. Anyone who wonders why central Europe is so titanically messed up needs to read this book. Anyone who wants to know why the world looks the way it does today needs to read this book. It is at times dry and full of endless asides, but all the detail leads towards understanding. Very worthwhile.

I would advise anyone interested in US history and freedom, as an ideal, to read listen to this entire series. Shelby Foote has done all of us a great service in making this huge, complex, sad and sanguinary period of history come to life and take on a coherence not found in many other books covering this material. I would recommend a good Civil war atlas to keep handy for reference so the geography doesn't overcome you. After you recover, I'd recommend The Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust, to understand the profound effect that the Civil War has had on this nation.

John Irving treats his characters with respect. This is not voyuerism or sniggering in an alley at outrageous behaviour, it is an honest, funny and human treatment of a life that needs to be met on its own terms. I love this author and Mr. Hickey does a great job with the material. This is a great an worthwhile listen.

Here is the human face of Chinese success. These girls are cast adrift in a Kafkaesque landscape of out of control croney capitalism and socialist sloganeering. Some of these girls have had no contact wtih the State in their entire lives. It sort of gives the lie to the all encompassing and omniscient State in China. There is a bomb ticking in China, but it is not the one everyone thinks it is. This is an important book and you should read it if you want to understand what is going on in China. Susan Ericksen give it a heartfelt and warm reading.

In a world of chaos and uncertainty, a small group of men formed a society that plumbed the deepest secrets of the known universe and discovered an underlying order that astonished and amazed them. Follow the stories of Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Leibniz as they wrestle with new and unfamiliar concepts and joint them in wonder as a toatlly different sort of universe emerges before their eyes. This is a very exciting read and Alan Sklar does it justice. I listended to it twice in a row.

You know what the book is about. You know how it ends. You know Charles Portis is a rustic, comic genius. Donna Tartt brings this book to life. The Coen brothers' movie is great, however, I'd listen to Donna Tartt read this book as soon as see the movie again. She is that good!

Robert Conquest fought a guerilla war against totalitatian communism in the halls of acedemia after the Second Word War. The academinc establishment was giving a free pass to monstrous regimes because they happened to seated on the correct side of the aisle. In the first edition this book was seen as blatantly slanted and misguided. His sources suspect. After the fall of the Soviet and access to the KGB material and other secret archives was available, Mr. Conquest was vindicated, but the event was marked by mostly silence from the left.

This is an updated edition, taking full advantage of all the material that came to ligtht when the KGB archives were opened. You owe it to yourself to read this book. Remember what can happen when you lose trust in your neighbors and the State holds all the cards. Remember what results when madmen are allowed free reign in the name of 'progress'.

This is a big book. It needs to be. The sheer scale of what happened is difficult to comprehend, even today.

Frederick Davidson gives a clear and crisp reading. I can hear Conquest's humanity come through. Nicely done!

After the HBO series everyone should know this. This is a great yarn! The characters are fully and completely developed. You care about these people. You understand their motivations. The sense of impending doom that hangs about the entire procedings lends a piquancy to their stories that is almost heartbreaking. You just feel that something... enormous, scary, inevitable... is about to happen and throw everything into chaos. The book is the first in a series, fine. It doesn't drop you on your head. The end feels right. A place to pause and reflect before continuing. Its a huge book, again, fine. It needs to be huge. There are a lot of moving pieces, many plots, much double dealing and wheels within wheels. It's daunting and embracing. The narration is first class. Roy Dotrice seems to be having the time of his life energizing this reading. Seriously, get this audio. It is superb. Just a couple of retraces, but no one is perfect.

Highschool level plot and dialogue. If that's the audience then, fine. The physics is Dysney, the story is bad Stephen King but the narration was well voiced and Jesse Bernstein carried the book.

Reminiscent of Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell. You need to pay attention to the dates because you're bounced around a bit. Erin Morgenstern builds a compelling world within a world and Jim Dale does a fantastic job of narration. He gives voice and character to the people populating the novel and went above and beyond expectations. Great listening. I may buy the book and read it in order to appreciate the timeline more fully. The ending was a bit of a comedown, but the high tension level throughout may have more to do with that feeling than any real shortcoming.

Lloyd James does a masterful job of capturing the argot of Luna. Wonderful performance. While some readers blandly read whats on the page, Lloyd James, chuckles, snorts and adds those verbal spacers that, while not written, are implied. Everything I could have wished for. Will listen multiple times for sure. I read this when it was first published and it is near and dear to my heart. Second only to Have Spacesuit Will Travel in Heinlein's lexicon.