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Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 24 hrs and 55 mins
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gah!
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- Unabridged
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From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh, and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense. Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve - pushing 30 and eager to sidestep a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher - decides to go AWOL. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future.
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Graham Greene
- By Foxhuntingman on 02-26-16
By: Lawrence Osborne
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Dreaming of Jupiter
- By: Ted Simon
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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When Ted Simon rode 64,000 miles round the world on his 500c Triumph Tiger, he inspired thousands of motorcyclists to begin their own adventures, including Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who chronicled their travels in Long Way Round. Nearly 30 years later, Ted Simon took to the road again to retrace the epic journey he made in his 40s. He meets up with old friends and acquaintances, revisits old landmarks and locations, and rediscovers himself, as well as the world, along the way.
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Amazing book, Amazing Man
- By Roxanna on 08-16-18
By: Ted Simon
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China Road
- A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- By: Rob Gifford
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
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An Outstanding Book on China
- By Sarda on 08-13-07
By: Rob Gifford
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River Town
- Two Years on the Yangtze
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
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In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident.
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Peter Berkrot Again?
- By Abstraction on 07-10-11
By: Peter Hessler
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Indonesia, Etc.
- Exploring the Improbable Nation
- By: Elizabeth Pisani
- Narrated by: Jan Cramer
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Bewitched by Indonesia for twenty-five years, Elizabeth Pisani recently traveled 26,000 miles around the archipelago in search of the links that bind this impossibly disparate nation. Fearless and funny, Pisani shares her deck space with pigs and cows, bunks down in a sulfurous volcano, and takes tea with a corpse. Along the way, she observes Big Men with child brides, debates corruption and cannibalism, and ponders "sticky" traditions that cannot be erased.
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Bill Bryson channels Margaret Mead
- By John S. on 09-01-14
By: Elizabeth Pisani
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Three Cups of Tea
- One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations
- By: Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.
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A Fraud
- By Sara on 02-23-16
By: Greg Mortenson, and others
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Fast Times in Palestine
- A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland
- By: Pamela J. Olson
- Narrated by: Julia Farhat
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Pamela Olson, a small town girl from eastern Oklahoma, had what she always wanted: a physics degree from Stanford University. But instead of feeling excited for what came next, she felt consumed by dread and confusion. This irresistible memoir chronicles her journey from aimless ex-bartender to Ramallah-based journalist and foreign press coordinator for a Palestinian presidential candidate.
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Palestine from the Inside—and Out
- By Susie on 11-04-13
By: Pamela J. Olson
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Black Dog of Fate
- A Memoir
- By: Peter Balakian
- Narrated by: Peter Balakian
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia. He was immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced: the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians.
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Great book!
- By Lm on 06-27-13
By: Peter Balakian
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A pedantic, poorly narrated, 20 hour lecture
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A writer accepts a job as a manager of a low-rent hotel in Hawaii. He acts as a witness to the hotel's cast of characters, chronicling their stories and ultimately regaining his will to write.
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Now in his sixties, big-wave surfer Joe Sharkey has passed his prime and is losing his “stoke.” The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still idolize the Shark, but his sponsors are looking elsewhere. One night, while driving home from a bar after one too many, Joe accidentally kills a stranger near Waimea, a tragedy that sends his life out of control. As the repercussions of the accident spiral ever wider, Joe's devoted girlfriend, Olive, throws herself into uncovering the dead man’s identity and helping Joe find vitality and refuge in the waves again.
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Really enjoyable and surprising novel.
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Inspirational
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Cal has always lived in the shadow of his manipulative and domineering brother, Frank, who was doted upon by their mother and beloved by the girls in their small New England hometown—including Cal’s own girlfriends. In an attempt to escape Frank’s intrusive presence, Cal pursues a different kind of freedom in the world’s wild spaces, prospecting for gold and precious minerals everywhere from the heat of the desert at the Mexican border to the Alaskan chill, to central Africa, and Colombian mines where he will meet the love of his life, Vida.
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Always a great listen.
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By: Paul Theroux
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The Naked Don't Fear the Water
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In this extraordinary book, an acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.
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Great story, horrible narration
- By AB on 02-25-22
By: Matthieu Aikins
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Around the World in 80 Trains
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Overall
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Story
When Monisha Rajesh announced plans to circumnavigate the globe in 80 train journeys, she was met with wide-eyed disbelief. But it wasn’t long before she was carefully plotting a route that would cover 45,000 miles - almost twice the circumference of the earth - coasting along the world’s most remarkable railways; from the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet’s Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Packing up her rucksack - and her fiancé, Jem, Monisha embarks on an unforgettable adventure.
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Surprisingly negative
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Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan became free of the Soviet Union in 1991. But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world. Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the listener on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.
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Travels with Myself and Another
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"Martha Gellhorn was so fearless in a male way, and yet utterly capable of making men melt," writes New Yorker literary editor Bill Buford. As a journalist, Gellhorn covered every military conflict from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. She also bewitched Eleanor Roosevelt's secret love and enraptured Ernest Hemingway with her courage as they dodged shell fire together.
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Annoying but actually very honest
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Shadow of the Silk Road
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Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across Northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road. Travelling 7,000 miles in eight months, he traces the passage not only of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions.
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prose meets poetry
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Travels in Siberia
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Ian Frazier trains his eye for unforgettable detail on Siberia, that vast expanse of Asiatic Russia. He explores many aspects of this storied, often grim region. He writes about the geography, the resources, the native peoples, the history, the 40-below midwinter afternoons, the bugs. The book brims with Mongols, half-crazed Orthodox archpriests, fur seekers, ambassadors of the czar bound for Peking, tea caravans, German scientists, American prospectors, intrepid English nurses, and prisoners and exiles of every kind....
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I Loved This Book
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A Long Time Dead
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D.I. Duncan McAdam is dispatched home to the Misty Isle. A body has been found buried in a remote location on the Waternish peninsula. Well-preserved in the peat, Isla Matheson—missing for the better part of two decades—is revealed to a shocked island community. A teenage runaway is dead...and no one is talking.
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Perfect setting for a murder mystery
- By Colorado Cowgirl on 12-01-23
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Mother, Nature
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- By: Jedidiah Jenkins
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When his mother, Barbara, turns seventy, Jedidiah Jenkins is reminded of a sobering truth: Our parents won’t live forever. For years, he and Barbara have talked about taking a trip together, just the two of them. They disagree about politics, about God, about the project of society—disagreements that hurt. But they love thrift stores, they love eating at diners, they love true crime, and they love each other. Jedidiah wants to step into Barbara’s world and get to know her in a way that occasional visits haven’t allowed.
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A roadmap to a peaceful heart
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What listeners say about Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- roger w patton
- 07-22-09
ghost train to the eastern star
I've always considered Paul Theroux my travel mentor since I hitch hiked half the world at 18. For anyone who has dreamed of revisiting the world they visited more then thirty years ago Ghost Train is a delight. I've read all of Theroux's fiction and non-fiction and this is one of his best non-fiction books. I think Theroux has mellowed a bit. He is not the curmudgeon of Dark Star Safari or other recent non-fiction. I love his observations of people he meets, especially his train companions. The portrait of his Burmese guide and his generosity towards him will always be indelibly etched in my mind. I fantasize that in some far away place I might meet him on a train.(although one should be wary of what he might say about the encounter later in a book) I also appreciated the sense that as one gets older travel is more challenging, but with life's experiences we view the world's people with more compassion and the governments more cynically.
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27 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Lisa
- 02-07-11
Engrossing but kind of depressing
Good value in the vast distance and many cultures and nations covered, and the many hours of densely packed details he puts in, so if you want to be taken on a very long and detailed journey from Europe to Japan, it's the book to get. By the end though, the overall feeling was a bit depressive and jaded and the impression of nearly all the societies he visited was on the negative side - most of the population he encountered seemed to be either poor, desperate, drunk, grubby, corrupt or willing to do anything for a buck, which of course may well be true but was a fairly humourless theme. And his focus on talking to and about prostitutes wherever he went was starting to tip the balance from general interest to slightly uncomfortable obsession towards the end. Overall, quite engrossing and informative but not very optimistic about that part of the world - which is a pretty big chunk of the world - and I'd have to say ultimately no "feel good" in fact a bit of a "feel bad" experience.
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8 people found this helpful
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Story
- victoria
- 08-14-11
Not that great
Largely a fan of Mr. Theroux and his style of writing but after 20 hours I had to stop. The book began well and even advanced well but became long and laborious - toward the end seemingly sex trade orientated. Even my husband who listens haphazardly as he's in and out of the room said "wow, that book tanked."
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5 people found this helpful
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- maida smith
- 02-05-13
Great audio adventure
Where does Ghost Train to the Eastern Star rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Pretty High. I have a hard time reviewing the books I do not love.
What did you like best about this story?
The main character had so much understanding of people.
Have you listened to any of John McDonough’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Yes,,,He is my favorite narrator. I have listened to most of what he has done and I loved Grand and Glorious Physician. The other story of Luke in the Bible. McDonaugh just is the characters to me. I also loved his Mitford Series and could not listen to the prequeal because it was not him.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I think his time in Viet Nam was amazing.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Robert
- 05-29-17
Not the Great Railway Bazaar
Disappointed. Author was melancholic throughout and seemed to move from one episode of dull ranting to another. If you are expecting an impressive sequel to the Great Railway Bazaar, skip and look elsewhere.
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2 people found this helpful
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Story
- Kalvin
- 01-11-13
Ghost Train would bore even the dead!
What disappointed you about Ghost Train to the Eastern Star?
I am trying to find words to describe how bad this book was. I am at a loss. The book started off nicely, but once Mr. Theroux left Europe, it became a trudging misery. All it was a long drawn out pompous pondefication about child prostitution, bashing of christian missionaries, bashing of President Bush, bashing of other authors. It was murderous to get through this book.
For all his pompous "horror" of child prostitution, he certainly was able to find it, over and over and over.
The last part is only 7 hours long but it took literally 3 months to get through. Honestly, if I could have gnawed off my own ears, I would have. If this book was any more boring it would be required reading in 8th grade!
Has Ghost Train to the Eastern Star turned you off from other books in this genre?
No, not the genre. But you would never get me to read Paul Theroux again. Not for $1,000,000.00, not if you had a gun to my head, not if you were waterboarding me with lava!
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
No, the narration dragged on right along with the story.
What character would you cut from Ghost Train to the Eastern Star?
Paul Theroux.
Any additional comments?
Stay away... stay far far away!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Broderic Martin Sparks
- 05-11-22
Be Ready for a Long Ride
A lot of readers complained about the book's fascination with sex workers, but I found this to be one of the most important and honest aspects of the narrative. To not write so openly and honestly about the sex trade would have been a disservice to the readers, to Paul himself, and to those working in the field all throughout Asia. Yes, it's not easy to listen to talk of pedophilia, but it's of the upmost importance for westerners to be aware that travelers from the US and Europe are fueling a portion of this trade and that as a travel community, we need to hold these people accountable.
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- Linda Eskin
- 09-02-19
An education, cleverly disguised as an adventure
First, this is a sequel, of sorts. It can stand on it's own, but I recommend that you first listen to his earlier book, "The Great Railway Bazaar." Both are excellent. Mellow, vivid, honest, human... You will feel as though you've seen these places and met the people. Along the way Theroux discusses the geography, culture, history, and politics of the places he's traveling through. (If those subjects were taught through such engaging narrative in school I might have remembered some of them.)
I'll definitely be listening to both again soon, and some of his other books as well.
A practical tip: Listen while you are doing mindless tasks (folding laundry, doing dishes, pulling weeds, recovering from a cold, ...). You will find yourself visualizing the scenes described, and it's easy to ignore what's going on around you. I'm about to head off on a scenic road trip and will *not* be listening to these on the way.
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- Noam
- 04-11-14
A great follow up to the first
I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Railway Bazaar, and so I decided to take this one on too.
I was afraid that this wouldn't live up, but it really did.
Paul's writing is excellent, and he's still an avid traveler; the fact that he had to change course from the original route made it all the more interesting as he was able to reach new places that he hadn't before.
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- Inez
- 10-22-19
DO YOU LIKE IT MILD, HOT OR COLD?
As usual, I loved the book and already plan on listening to it a second time. From mild England and Europe all the way to
hot Sir Linka and north through cold Japan and across frozen Siberia. What could be better than sitting in your easy chair in a comfortable room at home and enjoying a Paul Theroux adventure?
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