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Life & Works - Giuseppe Verdi
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Freddie Jones, Elaine Claxton, David Timson, Steve Hodson, Charlie Simpson
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
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Life & Works - Giuseppe Verdi
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Editorial Reviews
Jeremy Siepmann presents a biography of Verdi with the added dimension of his operatic music, played in small doses to punctuate the narrative. Since the playing of the pieces takes place during the biographical period in which they were written, Siepmann creates a robust composer's portrait. The British author performs the third-person narration, while male and female voices take speaking parts reading letters to and from Verdi. Although the chatty missives lack luster, the actors shout and whisper them as though lines from the great Bard himself. If the listener is not an opera fan, the talented voices and singers in this performance could create one.
Publisher's summary
With the possible exception of Mozart, Verdi is the most popular opera composer who ever lived. Quite early in his career his tunes were being cranked out by barrel organs throughout Europe and were well known to many who may never even have heard his name. But the complex man behind them remains elusive and puzzling.
In this portrait-in-sound, Jeremy Siepmann and a group of distinguished actors take an in-depth look behind the popular image of a man who was, and perhaps remains, the most enduring national hero in Italian history and a colossus in the history of music itself.
Here, Verdi comes alive through an utterly committed portrayal by Freddie Jones. The composer’s larger-than-life personality, with all its self-indulgent outbursts and irresistible expressions of artistic genius, is here conveyed in a unique and touching way. We can follow his path, as exemplary passages of music are smoothly intermingled with spoken text. Jeremy Siepmann’s narration is enthralling and detailed, and the character behind this most fervently Italian music is fascinating to discover.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Comprehensive and Concise
- By Cristina on 01-05-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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The Life and Works of Bach
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, John Shrapnel, Trevor Nichols, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Although now beloved and revered by millions as the greatest composer who ever lived, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was best known in his lifetime as an organist, and was eclipsed in fame as a composer by two of his twenty children. For the last twenty-seven years of his life he was a schoolteacher and choir director whose duties extended to meal supervision and dormitory inspection. Yet throughout his career he composed a vast body of music which is amongst the most joyful, dancing and enrapturing ever written.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A good introduction to Bach's Life and Work
- By Dr on 01-10-15
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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The Life and Works of Beethoven
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Bob Peck, Neville Jason, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors’ readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, both vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man’s music is more universal; few men’s lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one - his modest height - he was a giant. The great bonus of this audio-biography is that the development of Beethoven’s music can be heard in the context of his life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I'm a Believer
- By Syd Young on 10-20-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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The Life and Works of Franz Liszt
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Neville Jason, David Timson, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 14
The life of Franz Liszt was as daring and spectacular as his music. Famed throughout Europe as the greatest pianist of the nineteenth century, he was one of the most original and prophetic composers who ever lived. Beautiful in youth, glowering in age, his high-profile love affairs were the talk of the town wherever he went and his generosity to young musicians was legendary. In this account of his epic life, actors’ readings combine with plentiful musical excerpts to paint a living portrait of a highly complex man.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Liszt
- By laurie dahlstrom on 08-20-23
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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Life & Works - Johannes Brahms
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Jasper Britton, Karen Archer, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Brahms is one of the best loved yet most controversial of all the Romantics. Almost uniquely, his works have never suffered the slightest period of eclipse. Profoundly emotional yet governed by an iron discipline, the music, like the man, is a fascinating, entertaining, often deeply moving blend of opposites. He had a gift for friendship and a capacity for love far beyond the ordinary, yet no man could be ruder or more hurtful.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Yvonne Angel on 11-03-21
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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Life & Works - Franz Schubert
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Tom George, Peter Yapp, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
The life of Franz Schubert has been a gift to romantically inclined biographers: the beautiful, brilliant, modest boy who sprang to fully fledged genius at the age of sixteen; the quintessential ‘artist in a garret’, entirely consumed by his art and living a hand-to-mouth existence in Vienna (home of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven); the gentle, cheerful, convivial young man who prized friendship almost as highly as music itself; the unworldly poet from whom great music poured like water from a fountain; the unrecognized master who died almost penniless at the age of 31.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very well done
- By Jeffrey Keimer on 09-16-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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The Life and Works of Tchaikovsky
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Malcolm Sinclair, Karen Archer, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of all time. His melodies are known to many people who may never have heard his name. They crop up on mobile telephones, alarm clocks and answering machines as often as on records and concert programs. Like his music, the man himself was widely loved, but his inner life was fraught with sufferings, confusions and a deep vein of self-doubt. The drama of his emotional life is vividly reflected in his music, letters and diaries, all of which play a major part in this intimate portrait-in-sound.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Comprehensive and Concise
- By Cristina on 01-05-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
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Trace of Doubt
- By: Samantha Weinberg
- Narrated by: Samantha Weinberg
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
In the summer of 1985, a brilliant young British DNA scientist Helena Greenwood is found murdered in her front garden in a quiet suburb in California. The police believe they know the killer’s identity but there’s no evidence against him, and the only thing linking him to the crime is the fact he’d been charged with sexually assaulting Helena just a few months previously.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Why this case?
- By AshleyLizbeth87 on 11-30-23
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Sorry for Your Loss
- By: Michael Cruz Kayne
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 829
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 789
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 787
A sidesplitting, heartrending look at life—and death. This powerfully personal production, recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, cuts through the platitudes, directly reaching out to anyone who has ever experienced loss—or will. So...everyone.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must Listen for the Grieving
- By Chris on 09-25-23
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Something Ain't Right
- By: Roger Stringer, Zachary Stringer
- Narrated by: Roger Stringer, Zachary Stringer
- Length: 1 hr and 53 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 810
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 775
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Story5 out of 5 stars 775
Roger Stringer grew up in rural Mississippi, hunting and eating everything from deer to rabbits. When he had two sons, Zac and Justin, he gave them guns and took them to the woods as well. Then one day when the boys were home alone, he got a call from Zac that Justin had been shot. What follows is an intimate and gripping memoir about the shooting’s aftermath. The story moves between the perspectives of Roger and Zac as they take us through their journey of betrayal, redemption, and ultimately confrontation with a company that had kept its corruption a secret for decades.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Journey for Truth
- By samsararose on 05-19-23
By: Roger Stringer, and others
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Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 211,735
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 191,634
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Story5 out of 5 stars 190,662
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
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The Debutante
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 969
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 782
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 779
Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,012
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,010
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking listeners into the mind of Bankman-Fried.
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1 out of 5 stars
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really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
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Trace of Doubt
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- Narrated by: Samantha Weinberg
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
In the summer of 1985, a brilliant young British DNA scientist Helena Greenwood is found murdered in her front garden in a quiet suburb in California. The police believe they know the killer’s identity but there’s no evidence against him, and the only thing linking him to the crime is the fact he’d been charged with sexually assaulting Helena just a few months previously.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Why this case?
- By AshleyLizbeth87 on 11-30-23
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Sorry for Your Loss
- By: Michael Cruz Kayne
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 829
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 789
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 787
A sidesplitting, heartrending look at life—and death. This powerfully personal production, recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, cuts through the platitudes, directly reaching out to anyone who has ever experienced loss—or will. So...everyone.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must Listen for the Grieving
- By Chris on 09-25-23
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- By: Roger Stringer, Zachary Stringer
- Narrated by: Roger Stringer, Zachary Stringer
- Length: 1 hr and 53 mins
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 810
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 775
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Story5 out of 5 stars 775
Roger Stringer grew up in rural Mississippi, hunting and eating everything from deer to rabbits. When he had two sons, Zac and Justin, he gave them guns and took them to the woods as well. Then one day when the boys were home alone, he got a call from Zac that Justin had been shot. What follows is an intimate and gripping memoir about the shooting’s aftermath. The story moves between the perspectives of Roger and Zac as they take us through their journey of betrayal, redemption, and ultimately confrontation with a company that had kept its corruption a secret for decades.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Journey for Truth
- By samsararose on 05-19-23
By: Roger Stringer, and others
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Born a Crime
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- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 211,735
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 191,634
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Story5 out of 5 stars 190,662
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
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The Debutante
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 969
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 782
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 779
Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Going Infinite
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,012
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,010
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking listeners into the mind of Bankman-Fried.
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1 out of 5 stars
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really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
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Elvis and Me
- By: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
- Narrated by: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,310
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,055
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,048