Elaine

I hardly knew anything about Humboldt. This book gave me new appreciation for the genius of the man. Now, wherever I go, I see things named after him-- and rightly so. A great education in a very enjoyable format.

I'd knew Virginia Woolf mainly by reputation and knew I should read her. I was right. She has a message for today's women and despite the time that has passed, it is still relevant. This was a perfect book for listening. The narrator was clear and the book was informative. Listening to it was the perfect way to approach Woolf.

My most memorable phrase is that women need support in order to achieve and that only comes with the ability to earn a living.

Definitely a great book. An in depth view of a complex man. I enjoyed listening to it and it kept my attention throughout. I highly recommend it.

Since I was heading to the Galapagos Islands, I thought some additional perspectives on Darwinism would be informative. The Selfish Gene is about natural selection but it goes about it with too many statistical examples. Darwin said it better!

I did learn from the book and have a new view of the reason for my body, but it was too difficult to listen to this book and follow it.

Mark Twain never could write an autobiography. As he says, he writes about what interests him--and it obviously is not his own life. Comments about others come easy to Twain but the reader has to dig to get a view of Twain's life. The sections from his daughter Susie, who died young, do give some continuity to this scholarly book. Mainly, it is incidents, thoughts, anecdotes and opinions that Twain puts down in any order and in any way he wants. Luckily, even his random thoughts are interesting. Don't come to this expecting to understand Twain's life. It is more a slice of life seen from Twain's twinkling eyes.

The most disappointing part is that I came away not having a real sense of his life.

The narrator was excellent.

This is a good book and one I am glad I listened to. It is basic history, told with some exciting moments. It is not the stuff that inspires making it into a movie, but is worth the knowing and the time if you are at all interested in history.

I hesitated to order this book since it was so long. But it was well worth the time. The author has made Cleopatra real for me. Using historical facts, she weaves a completely believable woman who loved, lost and, in the end, triumphed in her own way. I spent many hours listening to the book, which is beautifully presented.

A completely enjoyable and engaging look at history from the distaff side. I came away more an admirer of Abigail Adams than before. A great way to learn history.