House of Lies

How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time

By: Martin Kihn

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

In the best-selling tradition of Liar's Poker comes a devastatingly accurate and darkly hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the wonderful world of management consulting.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Please note: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2005 Martin Kihn (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Sexist

Exceedingly sexist and insulting to women. I expected more from the "so called" Harvard graduate.

great read!

I actually bought this book because I saw the show. The book certainly has stronger ties to reality, of course, which I found refreshing. I think this book May give some insight to someone considering a career in consulting, but I wouldn't consider it to be a "how-to" guide.

Great performance, I think the narrator did justice to the characters within, and presented things like footnotes, definitions and even the appendix in a way that was easy to follow on audio, which many seem to struggle doing.

overall definitely recommend for its irreverent take on a fabled career path!

Hilarious

The book is a remarkable and hilarious summary of a consulting lifestyle. Absolutely brilliant performance and a very insightful story. The best thing about this audiobook is how it is able to convey the atmosphere of a consulting! Loved the book.

Surprisingly Entertaining!

Despite some negative reviews I read on other sites, I downloaded this book with lower expectations however this book turned into a nice little surprise.

At times, especially at the beginning, I found the author’s story-telling style a bit frustrating, specifically I found it lacking context and I struggled to understand. But once I got passed it (used to it?) this book was a thoroughly enjoyable ‘listen’. At times, I was laughing out loud at the author’s stories.

Although I have never worked as a consultant, I have worked with and hired them in my career and I found it easy to relate and understand the author’s stories as he poked fun at his industry – everything from his McKinsey interview (this was priceless) to his consultancy engagement with the tire manufacturer.

He pretty much confirmed my suspicions of consultants when defined “low-hanging fruit” as the things that the client could do themselves but are usually too lazy to do it on their own. He definitely nailed that one!

This is my first audio book narrated by Johnny Heller. He too has an interesting narrative style, sounding a bit old-school but his style worked well with this book and I am going to search out other titles that he narrates.

I recommend this book - not just to those who hire consultants or thinking about being a consultant but to anyone looking for a lighter entertaining ‘read’.

Please note that while the Audible release date is January 2012, this book was actually published (in print) in 2005, which makes it 7 years old now. As a result, the references the author makes in the book are at times, a bit dated.


Michael

Funny and thoughtful listen

Would you consider the audio edition of House of Lies to be better than the print version?

I think the narrator did an excellent job, specially by making the main character Martin Kihn slightly dead-pan and a little depressed.

Would you recommend House of Lies to your friends? Why or why not?

It's funny and thoughtful. I am sure it dramatizes up Management Consultancy. It is absolutely worth a listen. I finished it in just a few days.

What does Johnny Heller bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Did an amazing job on this one.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me chuckle and nod my head in agreement many times

ironic! fantastic!

It is funny sometimes, I laughed a lot with the different scenarios in which the consultants live their job

Funny and really accurate of his perception of the consulting industry

As a governmental consultant with over 25 years of experience consulting with businesses, I laughed hysterically at some of the similarities between the author’s consulting industry and the governmental procurement consulting industry.

Not Bad!

Not what I expected, in terms of prose. but Marty seems to have done it.

A little too close to home

Some of the references might be out of date a little, but otherwise, it’s still a bull’s-eye. In a lot of ways, I was hoping for some thing that was closer to the showtime show, instead of some thing that might actually be an actual description of consulting.