deborah

This is a well narrated audiobook of murder, forensics, and the incredible power and resources of yellow journalism in NYC at the turn of the 20th century. Pulitzer and Hearst battle to scoop each other in a grisly murder of a mutilated German-American. Forensic and courtroom procedures are described in stark contrast to today's format. The story swirls around collusion between the police and reporters, the handling of evidence, the subject of abortion, the conditions of the Tombs jail, the consolidation of the five boroughs into one municipality, and the apex of yellow journalism where news is made, not reported. Great story, especially if you're from NYC.

Unlike most of the popular nonfiction books books on the potato famine, Kelly intertwines the anecdotal with the political, social, and economic policies that exacerbated a European crisis into what seemed like an attempted Irish genocide. Data is explicit, and should be accompanied by the printed or ebook to review the notes and bibliography. Its well enunciated by the Irish Doyle, and the perfect length.

One of the best I heard recently.

As a Floridian, graduate student in History, and someone with common sense, this hour long recitation about the massacre of Native Americans in the Orlando area by white settlers is poorly researched, poorly narrated, and ridiculous. No, Native Americans did not live in perfect harmony in a paradise, and no, white settlers were not blood lusting for the death of their neighbors.

The truth is always somewhere in the middle, and Parks' attempts to depict the extremes of the cultural spectrum expose his lack of historical research and nuance. The narration was horrible, as if Parks' got his son to read, tripping over punctuation and running sentences together. I should have known when he pronounced the first section Pre-Face!

Preston and Child must have known this series was running thin. Aside from an interesting plot line in Brazil, the other pieces seem to wrap up too cleanly and quickly. For the first time, I was able to figure out the last four hours before I heard them.

If you've listened to the entire series, this audio book won't have you wishing for another. Even the authors sound like they've had enough. As usual, narration was excellent.

For those who are intrigued by the Titanic tragedy, the author looks at the lives of the survivors, rich and poor, and details the facts of their lives after the sinking. Wilson was careful not to infer broadly that everything was attributable to the sinking, but like survivors of 9/11, people's lives were changed.

A quick, lively listen, though in future, British narrators should ask Americans how to pronounce our city and state names. A minor glitch, but a great audiobook!

Twice as long as Follett's "Pillars of the Earth," this epic is twice as long, with less developed characters leading to many moments of incredulity.Where the sequel succeeds is in fleshing out the social and political changes in the wake of the Plague, the politics of the kingdom and its priories, and the rise of the mercantile class in 14th century England. As a European History major, I found these parts interesting, but for others, the epic may feel overly long, and Follett's side trips into soap opera detract from the historical fiction, which is based on actual events in the middle ages. The narration is EXCELLENT.

Fast moving story about the weeks following the sinking of the Titanic, through Senate hearings, yellow journalism, class warfare, all told through the eyes of a servant who finds wonder in the New World. Worh the credit.

It took fifteen minutes for the author to answer the title's question...you lie to everyone. The other thirty minutes is an endless interview with the author.

As a native New Yorker, the only milestones the book noted of which I was unaware was the first part on the Dutch settlers and their English counterparts. Every other touchstone on the book (the Draft Riots, Tammany Hall, the 1888 Blizzard, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the 1929 Stock Market Crash, the 1977 near-bankruptcy of the city) were all familiar.

Focusing on one, blueblood familiy line also left other groups, important to the texture of the city, out of the picture entirely. Blacks had been in New York since the 17th century, both free and slave, yet we know nothing of their experiences during the years beside the Draft Riots; no mention of the the Great Migration nor the Harlem Renaissance. The same may be said of the Latin immigration. Puerto Ricans are regarded as slum-dwelling, gang bangers, and no mention of the Caribbean or Dominican immigration. Yet, there was plenty of story on Italian and Irish immigrants.

This audiobook is a waste of money for some, but for others, it touches on the main points of history all New Yorkers learned in 6th grade History class. It became a waste of time after the second part. Don't spend your money on it.

This book will stay with me for years. Terrorists explode a nuke, setting off an Electro Magnetic Pulse over the US, which knocks out all communications, electronics, and vehicles. The next year focuses on one small mountain community in western NC and how they survive disease, famine, water shortages, anarchy, alliances with neighboring cities, and painful decisions that must be made to maintain security and resources for their families.

Buy this audiobook and take note of the preparations we all can make to prepare for such an event. It spends much of its dialogue focusing on "this is America, how can this happen", which sounds very much like a neo-con 'American Exceptionalism' mantra, but besides that, it's back to human nature, medieval style.

Well written book, excellently narrated.

If you can get past the racists rantings that make up the first 90 minutes of the audiobook, you'll find the story not worth the effort.