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Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Entire Life Story of a Genius Composer
- Great Biographies, Book 1
- Narrated by: Jerry Beebe
- Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
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Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Entire Life Story of a Genius Composer
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Publisher's summary
Ludwig van Beethoven, a genius composer, one of the most recognized and influential of all composers.
Ludwig van Beethoven is a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Classical music. Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe. Inside you’ll learn about:
- Background and early life
- Establishing his career in Vienna
- Musical maturity
- Loss of hearing
- Patronage
- Middle period
- Personal and family difficulties
- Late works
- Illness and death
- And much more!
At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20's his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life. Listen to the full Beethoven biography!
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Engaging, interesting, nice format
- By George on 07-04-22
By: Laura Tunbridge
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When Paris Sizzled
- The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends
- By: Mary McAuliffe
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
When Paris Sizzled vividly portrays the City of Light during the fabulous 1920s, les Annees folles, when Parisians emerged from the horrors of war to find that a new world greeted them - one that reverberated with the hard metallic clang of the assembly line, the roar of automobiles, and the beat of jazz. Mary McAuliffe traces a decade that saw seismic change on almost every front, from art and architecture to music, literature, fashion, entertainment, transportation, and, most notably, behavior.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Informative, but no sizzle
- By OzEnigma on 06-01-17
By: Mary McAuliffe
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Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Colm Toibin
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4 out of 5 stars 35
Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Eminently re-readable
- By Ellen-A on 01-02-19
By: Colm Toibin
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I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 332
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 289
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 287
Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
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Les Misérables: Translated by Julie Rose
- By: Victor Hugo, Julie Rose - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 60 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,551
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,164
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,177
One of the great classics of world literature and the inspiration for the most beloved stage musical of all time, Les Misérables is legendary author Victor Hugo’s masterpiece. This extraordinary English version by renowned translator Julie Rose captures all the majesty and brilliance of Hugo’s work. Here is the timeless story of the quintessential hunted man—Jean Valjean—and the injustices, violence, and social inequalities that torment him.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Book that Made Me a Better Person
- By Jeff Diamond on 03-29-13
By: Victor Hugo, and others
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,279
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,138
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,130
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 358
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 299
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 294
In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 484
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 303
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Story4 out of 5 stars 299
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
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Kierkegaard
- A Single Life
- By: Stephen Backhouse
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
An accessible, expert introduction to one of the greatest minds of 19th century. Whether you're completely new to him, or if you're already familiar with his work, Kierkegaard: A Single Life presents a fresh understanding of his life and thought. Kierkegaard was a brilliant and enigmatic loner whose ideas permeated culture, shaped modern Christianity, and influenced people as diverse as Franz Kafka and Martin Luther King Jr. Though few people today have read his work, that lack of familiarity with the real Kierkegaard is changing with this biography by scholar Stephen Backhouse.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great!
- By Will on 07-11-17
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Outlaw Marriages
- The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples
- By: Rodger Streitmatter
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
For more than a century before gay marriage became a hot-button political issue, same-sex unions flourished in America. Pairs of men and pairs of women joined together in committed unions, standing by each other "for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health" for periods of 30 or 40 - sometimes as many as 50 - years. In short, they loved and supported each other every bit as much as any husband and wife. In Outlaw Marriages, cultural historian Rodger Streitmatter reveals how some of these unions didn’t merely improve the quality of life for the two people involved but also enriched the American culture.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sames Sex Couples Through History
- By Susie on 12-11-12
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The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
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Rosalind Franklin
- A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Women in History)
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
Rosalind Franklin was what can only be called an overlooked genius. Although she was not fully credited for the feat at the time, her work led to major breakthroughs in our understanding of DNA. In fact, she took the first X-ray photo of DNA in all of its double helix glory. By the time her former colleagues were being showered with accolades for results they made at least partially based on her findings, Franklin would not be around to see it. Sadly, it’s believed that her use of X-ray equipment gave her terminal cancer, cutting her life short at age 37.
By: Hourly History
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Georgette Heyer
- Biography of a Bestseller
- By: Jennifer Kloester
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international best seller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's best-selling authors. Despite her enormous popularity, she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was 17 in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success, and 90 years later it has never been out of print.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Heyer as a person
- By Jerri C on 06-15-15
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Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 135
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 117
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
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A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
- 1599
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: James Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 142
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Note!--Abridged version
- By Scott on 01-05-16
By: James Shapiro
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The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 490
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 446
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
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4 out of 5 stars
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If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
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The Road to Monticello
- The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson
- By: Kevin J. Hayes
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 25 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Thomas Jefferson was an avid book-collector, a voracious reader, and a gifted writer - a man who prided himself on his knowledge of classical and modern languages and whose marginal annotations include quotations from Euripides, Herodotus, and Milton. And yet there has never been a literary life of our most literary president.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Very Boring Book
- By Greg on 05-13-14
By: Kevin J. Hayes
What listeners say about Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Entire Life Story of a Genius Composer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Miller
- 10-01-19
great one
A difficult time, a difficult life, a difficult man brilliantly woven into an enlightening and entertaining history. I bought into it all even though I understood little to none of the musicology but listening to his music has more meaning to me now and histories of the era have more perspective
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Odin
- 12-21-19
Informative and enjoyable
Unfortunately the narrator mispronounces many words, including fairly common English ones. This detracts from an otherwise informative and enjoyable experience.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Justin E. Huynh
- 10-28-19
Best informative.
An extremely thorough biography. Discusses at length the life and times and music of Beethoven.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robert A. Bryant
- 10-28-19
Excellent
Great concise history of Joseph Stalin. There are a few mistakes and some confusing sentences.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Asaly
- 10-01-19
Amazing
We love these books and they are so kid friendly! We homeschool and use them for music lessons. They are so colorful, full of great information, fun facts, timelines, a small, colorful quiz for fun, and jokes that my daughter loves.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- D. Jack Dunn
- 08-03-19
Would not recommend
The history is accurate. However, the narrator has no idea how to pronounce German names or words. He also does not know how to pronounce the names of musical instruments and terms. This is extremely distracting!
It also makes the narrator appear ignorant.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- cakeordeath
- 03-25-20
If you like hearing Wikipedia pages read aloud...
I was even looking for something to fall asleep to, but the information was so aggravatingly inconsequential that it kept me awake. If I had a time machine I would save the money and copy and paste his wikipedia page into google translate.
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1 person found this helpful