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Conquerors
- How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 381
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 341
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 343
Conquerors tells the almost forgotten story of how Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India, and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Conquerors
- By peter on 12-18-15
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The Last Day
- Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
- By: Nicholas Shrady
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4 out of 5 stars 21
Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Read this book, skip this listen
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-19
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All the Names
- By: Jose Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa (translator)
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4 out of 5 stars 72
Senhor Jose is a low-grade clerk in the city's Central Registry, where the living and the dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in anything beyond the certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and death that are his daily routine. But one day, when he comes across the records of an anonymous young woman, something happens to him.
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5 out of 5 stars
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effortless abstract conections
- By ron on 02-20-12
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Baltasar and Blimunda
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Tamir
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 25
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 26
From the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, a "brilliant...enchanting novel" (New York Times Book Review) of romance, deceit, religion, and magic set in 18th-century Portugal at the height of the Inquisition.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Devastating narration
- By Deladier on 01-13-13
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The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4 out of 5 stars 41
The year: 1936. Europe dances while an invidious dictator establishes himself in Portugal. The city: Lisbon-gray, colorless, chimerical. Ricardo Reis, a doctor and poet, has just come home after sixteen years in Brazil.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A great novelist deserves a competent reader!
- By Prof. Neil Larsen on 11-26-13
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The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4 out of 5 stars 87
A brilliant skeptic, Jose Saramago envisions the life of Jesus Christ and the story of his Passion as things of this earth: A child crying, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. His idea of the Holy Family reflects the real complexities of any family, and, as only Saramago can, he imagines them with tinges of vision, dream, and omen.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narration Robbed my Listening Experience
- By Kindle Customer on 09-11-12
-
Conquerors
- How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 381
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 341
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 343
Conquerors tells the almost forgotten story of how Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India, and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Conquerors
- By peter on 12-18-15
-
The Last Day
- Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
- By: Nicholas Shrady
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 21
Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Read this book, skip this listen
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-19
-
All the Names
- By: Jose Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa (translator)
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
Senhor Jose is a low-grade clerk in the city's Central Registry, where the living and the dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in anything beyond the certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and death that are his daily routine. But one day, when he comes across the records of an anonymous young woman, something happens to him.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
effortless abstract conections
- By ron on 02-20-12
-
Baltasar and Blimunda
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Tamir
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 26
From the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, a "brilliant...enchanting novel" (New York Times Book Review) of romance, deceit, religion, and magic set in 18th-century Portugal at the height of the Inquisition.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Devastating narration
- By Deladier on 01-13-13
-
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
The year: 1936. Europe dances while an invidious dictator establishes himself in Portugal. The city: Lisbon-gray, colorless, chimerical. Ricardo Reis, a doctor and poet, has just come home after sixteen years in Brazil.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A great novelist deserves a competent reader!
- By Prof. Neil Larsen on 11-26-13
-
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 87
A brilliant skeptic, Jose Saramago envisions the life of Jesus Christ and the story of his Passion as things of this earth: A child crying, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. His idea of the Holy Family reflects the real complexities of any family, and, as only Saramago can, he imagines them with tinges of vision, dream, and omen.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narration Robbed my Listening Experience
- By Kindle Customer on 09-11-12
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Lisbon
- War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939–1945
- By: Neill Lochery
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4 out of 5 stars 92
Throughout the Second World War, Lisbon was at the very center of the world’s attention and was the only European city in which both the Allies and the Axis powers openly operated. Portugal was frantically trying to hold on to its self-proclaimed wartime neutrality but in reality was increasingly caught in the middle of the economic, and naval, wars between the Allies and the Nazis. The story is not, however, a conventional tale of World War II in that barely a shot was fired or a bomb dropped. Instead, it is a gripping tale of intrigue, betrayal, opportunism, and double-dealing....
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4 out of 5 stars
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Expostiion of Little Known Story
- By Lynn on 06-16-12
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The Stone Raft
- By: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Narrated by: Eli Carter
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4 out of 5 stars 18
What if, one day, Europe was to crack along the length of the Pyrenees, separating the Iberian peninsula? In Saramago's lovely fable, the new island is sent spinning, like a great stone raft, towards the Azores. While the authorities panic and tourists and investors flee, three men, two women and a dog are drawn together by portents that burden them with a bemusing sense of responsibility.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Slow, difficult listen
- By Kelly on 03-28-12
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The Real History of Secret Societies
- By: Professor Richard B. Spence, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor Richard B. Spence
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
Welcome to The Real History of Secret Societies, a historical look at the true-life groups which, if you believe the myths, are the unspoken power behind some of the world’s major turning points, from controlling the British crown to holding back the electric car and keeping Martians and Atlantis under wraps. Prepare yourself. In this course brought to you in partnership with HISTORY®, you will be visiting some of history’s deepest rabbit-holes, across centuries and continents, in search of secret societies in all their varieties.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Terrific outline of secret societies in history
- By B. Hayes on 08-18-19
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The Master and Margarita
- By: Mikhail Bulgakov
- Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,646
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,424
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,426
The Devil comes to Moscow, but he isn't all bad; Pontius Pilate sentences a charismatic leader to his death, but yearns for redemption; and a writer tries to destroy his greatest tale, but discovers that manuscripts don't burn. Multi-layered and entrancing, blending sharp satire with glorious fantasy, The Master and Margarita is ceaselessly inventive and profoundly moving. In its imaginative freedom and raising of eternal human concerns, it is one of the world's great novels.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Satisfying Satanic Satire
- By Jacob on 12-06-11
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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- By: Thomas S. Kuhn
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 816
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 560
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Story4 out of 5 stars 547
A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Important - not only for science
- By Mirek on 07-05-09
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Blindness
- By: Jose Saramago
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 968
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 694
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A city is hit by a sudden and strange epidemic of "white blindness", which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there social conventions quickly crumble and the struggle for survival brings out the worst in people.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Dark
- By Cora Judd on 08-27-08
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The Book of Disquiet
- By: Fernando Pessoa
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
Assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the author’s death, The Book of Disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prose-poetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. Credited to Pessoa’s alter ego, Bernardo Soares, who chronicles his contemplations in this so-called "factless" autobiography, the work is a journey of one man’s soul and, by extension, of all human souls that allow their minds and hearts to roam far and free.
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5 out of 5 stars
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a vitally important, and beautiful work
- By Jason Rosenblum on 04-03-19
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The Glass Bead Game
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 21 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 519
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 396
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Story4 out of 5 stars 405
Set in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, which has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of Mankind's Best Books
- By D. Raynal on 10-30-12
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Open Veins of Latin America
- Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
- By: Eduardo Galeano, Isabel Allende (Foreward)
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 695
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 531
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 522
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Crucial Read/Listen for Readers of History
- By Mary on 08-29-12
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The Elephant’s Journey
- By: Jose Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa (translator)
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 36
In 1551, King Joo III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon. In Jose Saramago's remarkable and imaginative retelling, Solomon and his keeper, Subhro, begin in dismal conditions, forgotten in a corner of the palace grounds.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Portuguese
- By Bibliophile1963 on 01-17-17
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Doxology
- A Novel
- By: Nell Zink
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Pam, Daniel, and Joe might be the worst punk band on the Lower East Side. Struggling to scrape together enough cash and musical talent to make it, they are waylaid by surprising arrivals - a daughter for Pam and Daniel, a solo hit single for Joe. As the ‘90s wane, the three friends share in one another’s successes, working together to elevate Joe’s superstardom and raise baby Flora. On September 11, 2001, the city’s unfathomable devastation coincides with a shattering personal loss for the trio. In the aftermath, Flora comes of age, navigating a charged political landscape.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extraordinary
- By David on 08-31-19
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The Power and the Glory
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 337
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4 out of 5 stars 294
Graham Greene explores corruption and atonement in this penetrating novel set in 1930s Mexico during the era of Communist religious persecutions. As revolutionaries determine to stamp out the evils of the church through violence, the last Roman Catholic priest is on the lam, hunted by a police lieutenant. Despite his own sense of worthlessness—he is a heavy drinker and has fathered an illegitimate child—he is determined to continue to function as a priest until captured.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Hard to hear
- By Vladimir Shklovsky on 05-07-13
Publisher's Summary
"If proofreaders were given their freedom and did not have their hands and feet tied by a mass of prohibitions more binding than the penal code, they would soon transform the face of the world, establish the kingdom of universal happiness, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the famished, peace to those who live in turmoil, joy to the sorrowful... for they would be able to do all these things simply by changing the words...." The power of the word is evident in Portuguese author José Saramago's novel, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. His protagonist, a proofreader named Raimundo Silva, adds a key word to a history of Portugal and thus rewrites not only the past, but also his own life.
Brilliantly translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero, The History of the Siege of Lisbon is a meditation on the differences between historiography, historical fiction, and "stories inserted into history". The novel is really two stories in one: the reimagined history of the 1147 siege of Lisbon that Raimundo feels compelled to write and the story of Raimundo's life, including his unexpected love affair with the editor, Maria Sara. In Saramago's masterful hands, the strands of this complex tale weave together to create a satisfying whole.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- TiffanyD
- 08-06-18
Not for those who love a plot-driven novel
I want to love Saramago as much as I love Portugal. But his novels are so thin on plot that I struggle. This is my second attempt (Balthazar and Blimunda was my first) and I just can't do it. The rambling, the lack of chapters, the run-on sentences...I know this is about me and my preferences, but there you have it. If you love a novel with plot, consider finding a different Nobel Prize winner or a different Portuguese author.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful