Joseph

Some helpful general information. I would have to say that a good deal of the information provided here was common sense. There was also quite a bit of information and tactics that were very unrealistic. The communication or engagement examples seemed exaggerated and not life-real to me, and certainly not applicable to most peoples everyday lives. The focus seemed to be on helping extroverts and type-A personalities listen to those around them better. I have the opposite personality, so I felt the author was not always talking to me.
I have no doubt that Mark is an incredible counselor and hostage negotiator, but I was looking more for an everyday guide to communicating better and more efficiently with those people that I manage in my small non-CEO world.
With that said, I do plan to go back over my notes and try to apply some of his strategies in "better listening" with my work & family life. Maybe I should listen to the book again, and be a better listener. Not a terrible listen, just not my favorite.

A couple of OK sections on Plants that actually had a story behind them and there relationship with spirits, but for the most part, I found this to be very boring. It was like listening to someone read out of a dictionary. My book downloaded into hundreds of chapters - each a very short (just a few minutes) definition of the plant, botanical classification, and how to make a drink with it. I can Google plants too. I was hoping for more botanical history and fun, informative plant/spirits trivia, not a hundred plant definitions & drink recipes.
At the risk of sounding too critical, I did not care for the narration. Her loooong pronunciation of vowels and emotion in her voice was more suited for a Romance Novel.
Overall, I did not care for this book.

I just wanted to learn more about Richard Nixon, his presidency and the history of the United States during that era. This was a very boring and overly detailed account of Nixon's political life, with so many details that provide little to no educational substance. Maybe better suited for a Political Science grad-student, than someone interested in political/presidential history. This is not a historical account of the Nixon years nor is it a biography.

A little disappointed considering the topic and all of the great reviews.
Good book for his close friends and family members who can appreciate all of the detailed conversations he had with various people he interacted with over the years, as well as, all of the details about his many jobs in the military.
I was looking for more of a historical - non fiction - novel type of book about his air combat missions, the pilots that served with him, and the role of air combat in WWII & Vietnam. These topics were barely covered as the author details Robin Olds' life from college through 30 years of military service and all the many jobs he held. I might have enjoyed an abridged version.
With that said, Robin Olds was an amazing fighter pilot and our military needs more soldiers like him and David Hackworth. Search Robin Olds on YouTube for reenactment videos of his air combat missions against MIG fighters.
Narration was superb.

I really enjoyed this book because I learned a lot about many cars, the people behind their creation and what impact they had on society. I don't consider myself a huge car enthusiast (although, I do own a restored sports car from the 60's), but there wasn't a single car in this book that I didn't enjoy reading about. It is amazing how cars can define a culture, make or break an economy, and even have an effect on our political system. The only bad thing about this audio-book, is that there are no pictures. I was constantly looking these cars up on-line to see what they looked like. I'm sure this would be a great coffee table book because I'm guessing it has some great pictures.

This book is great. I love history, and I have a profound respect for those who have fought to defend our freedom. This is a story of survival, adventure, perseverance, and service. It reads like a great novel, but unfortunately it is a true story about the horrors of war. Many American POW's survived a living hell under Japanese captivity, if they were lucky to survive at all, and returning to civilian life was no easy matter.
I think it is a responsibility of all Americans to have an understanding of the death, torture and inconvenience that millions of our service men & women have endured. This book puts a name & face to the suffering of war and the challenges of coming home.
You will not want to put this book down. It is interesting & exciting to the very end. You will not walk away from it without a great appreciation and understanding of what it means to sacrifice.

This was a fun book. Well researched, well written and well delivered. It includes a little bit of my three favorite subjects...science, history & food. Well, kind of food, you can't have food without fixed nitrogen. I first became interested in fixed nitrogen & Haber's invention after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. Michael Pollan referred to it briefly, and I was surprised that I did not know much about an invention that changed the world in so many ways.
This book provides a history of the men involved with fixed nitrogen, the company's that they worked for that brought it to market, how they did it and the consequences of their creation.
Again, this is a fun, interesting read. You do not need a science or history background to enjoy this book. If you are just looking for a book on a different subject than you usually listen to, and you want to learn something new, check this out. I think you will enjoy it.

Well, concise means a lot of information in few words, and that's what this book is. For a book this short to cover the entire Middle East, multiple nations, and it's rich history, you get a concise overview of the Middle East. Many chapters (or sections) that cover just a little bit of information about a particular subject. It reads like a High School text book, an introduction to Middle East History. If you are looking for a very general overview of this part of the world before you dive into a book about The Ottoman Empire, Arab/Israeli conflict, or western influence in the Middle East, this will work. You won't learn a lot about anything, but you will learn a little about everything (in the Middle East). Enjoy.

This is not 18 hours of the Influenza. Like many good reads "listens' related to history, you will learn about that era. Barry touches on WWI, The Red Cross, Woodrow Wilson, early development of physician education/hospital research, and several people that played a part in medical research. My only critique would be that some of the biographies got a little dry, so the book had some drawn-out parts. Also,the epidemic hit several cities in very similar fashion, so as each was described I felt as if I were listening to the same story told again. Overall, I thought it was rich in information and well read by Brick.

This seemed like an "abridged" reading. Chapters were short and leaving me hungry for more information. I also felt the book lacked direction. It took a long time to even get to the Great Decision. I couldn't tell if this was a book about the early Founding Fathers, the debate between Republicans & Federalists, the Court's history or a biography of Marshal. It probably should have been all of the above in a longer book. It is also frustrating when statements are mentioned, both correctly and incorrectly, in different chapters. For example: Marshal was referred to as both the 3rd and 4th Chief Justice & The number of ballots needed in the Jefferson/Burr decision was referred to as both 35 and 36.
Narration was a bit slow, but very clear enjoyable listen.
All in all, I enjoyed the book. A great part of judicial history that has not been given enough attention. Characters were well researched. I like any book that I walk away from learning something.

Wow, that was absolutely horrible. For some reason I thought this was going to be a book about beer. After all, the title is "A Barstool Professional's Guide to Beer". I always liked George (Norm) from Cheers, and I love beer, so I was eager to learn about beer (history, brewing, types, manufacturing etc.) from someone who I thought had gone to "school" on the vast & rich history of beer, I was wrong.

This is a long, dragged out story about all of the stupid things George did while growing up. He tells stories of drinking as a kid, drinking in high school, drinking in college, getting arrested, and buying a keg for his son. These stories are neither unique or all that interesting. More importantly, this is NOT a "Barstool Professional's Guide to Beer".

This is the first audio book that I have not been able to finish. Needless to say, I cannot recommend this book.