James Moore

The only gripe I have with the book is that the author reads it instead of a professional reader. He's not bad, but not a professional, which something with as many facts and details like this could use to make a little more audibly engaging.

Otherwise, though, it's an EXCELLENT book about the history of Islam, talking about why the Islamic world both has very good reason to hate us, and why we're largely in a "damned if you do/damned if you don't" position. It's an impressively even-handed account of how we've gotten to where we are; he does a great job of acting as an appoligist for the Islamic world for an audience of Westerners. The news coming out of Iraq makes a LOT more sense now.

I've been listening for about 2 months now, and there have been a number of programs that have been really boring and a complete waste of time. However, sometimes it has material that's such an incredible gem -- so awesome -- that not only makes up for the tedium in the rest, but keeps me coming back. The inconsistency of the quality is frustrating, but in general it's well worth the investment.