D. B. Williams

Masterful

Revisado: 12-09-22

I am an older doctor who learned a great deal from this audiobook. I greatly admire not only the author’s breadth of knowledge, but the engaging way in which he conveys it. The narrator sounded convincingly as though he had written the book (except for a couple of pronunciations I would have changed - pedant that I am). I unreservedly recommend this book to both the professional and lay audiences.

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In a world of fake news, this is what we need.

Revisado: 07-05-22

Extraordinary story - much more gripping than fiction, and a glimpse into worlds few of us will ever experience. A must read/listen. (But read/listen to Red Notice first).

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Why authors should NOT read their own work

Revisado: 06-17-22

This is a fascinating (and complex) story. Tom Burgis has written a really interesting book. Someone should have told him he is NOT a good narrator. I spent the entire time trying to cope with his idiosyncratic reading, sometimes missing vital information, and being CONSTANTLY irritated. Why? Well, imagine being the passenger in a car on a straight, flat road with the driver constantly and unnecessarily switching between accelerator and brake. That's how Tom narrates: fast - slow - fast - slow .... loud - whisper - loud - whisper. GOOD narrators do this to emphasise points and assist understanding. Tom does it for some other reason - and thereby makes it MORE difficult to understand. And have you heard of 'vocal fry'? That's when somone stops projecting their voice - giving it a 'rasping', less distinct quality - and thereby making it harder to identify the articulation. Tom seems to think this makes him sound more interesting and mysterious. Interesting? Yes. Mysterious? YES - you can't understand what he's saying! Have I finished giving free advice? No. Tom seems (to me, a non-Russian speaker) to speak Russian - he certainly sounds confident pronouncing Russian names. BUT he does it FAST, often combined with VOCAL FRY - with the result that most of my non-Russian-speaking colleagues have no idea what he just said. I suspect this would have been a GREAT listen if Tom had put his ego to one side and paid a good narrator. There! I've finished venting all the spleen that built up over 11 hours of listening to Tom's book - and reinforced my advice to the vast majority of authors - get a professional narrator to read your work - there are good reasons most authors do so.

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Amazing! Drop Everything and LISTEN!!

Revisado: 05-11-22

I couldn't recommend this book more. It's finance, it's politics, it's history and it's personal - hauntingly personal. You need to listen to this book to understand what's happening in the world, and you need to listen to it to know how truly courageous and selfless the best humans can be. I've already started to buy copies for family and friends - don't wait for me to get around to you, because it may take a while. Just download it and listen.

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Honesty, Humanity and Compassion

Revisado: 12-06-21

This is an extraordinary book. As a semi-retired Neurologist I can tell you that Dr Mannix's book could only be written by someone with a rare combination of clinical skill, humility, honesty, humanity and compassion. I was by turns amused, amazed, inspired and brought to tears as I listened to the stories of ordinary (and some extraordinary) people confronting their imminent death. I learned much as a clinician from listening to this book, but I think I learned even more as a human being concerning ways of reflecting on, and valuing the certain knowledge that we will all die at some (currently unknown) future time. I believe Dr Mannix will convince any open-minded person of the value of that reflection and learning. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and have already begun giving copies to those I care about.

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Interesting book, irritating performance.

Revisado: 10-27-17

I enjoyed the substance of the book, and appreciated some ideas that had not previously been 'front and centre' in my thinking. Specifically, the idea that animals create 'niches' for themselves, modifying the environment in a way that feeds back as selection pressure on future generations, particularly as the human 'niche' expanded to include toolmaking, language, domestication of the food supply, and eventually cities. The narrator was extremely irritating - he often uses a staccato presentation that separates words into separate units, providing (often) unwarranted emphasis. In addition, he tends to commence sentences loudly, and then trail off at the end into a soft, muffled, poorly projected articulation of what is often the crux of the thought, leaving you struggling to understand the point of the sentence or paragraph. I often lost the thread of the story as I took time to realise he had said 'beads' and not 'bees', or 'Balinese' and not 'Bolognese', or 'forager' and not 'forger'. In the end I spent far too much time being irritated, trying to decipher the narrator's performance, and too little time concentrating on the author's thoughts.

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Archetypal Hero

Revisado: 05-21-17

For an Australian with only modest knowledge of US history, I have found that Lincoln's stature cast the humble Ulysses S Grant into the shadows. This book is an outstanding corrective, patiently erasing the caricature of a struggling shopkeeper with alcohol problems who rose to great heights. Grant's greatness lay firstly in his integrity, humility and empathy, but found its greatest expression in his vision, decisive leadership and tenacity. He is a man who might have found satisfaction in becoming Mayor of Galena, but was propelled by circumstance into a grand arena that provided the occasion for him to exercise all his talents, and allowed him to serve his country mightily. This is an extraordinary story, compellingly told, and superbly narrated. I could not recommend it highly enough.

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Life can only be understood in retrospect ....

Revisado: 06-10-13

This is an extraordinary story, compellingly told from different perspectives - from the victims of an anthrax 'accident' at a secret laboratory, to a well-informed scientist defecting to the West, to Reagan and Gorbachev's private thoughts as they struggled to understand each other's beliefs, motives and ultimate goals. Living through this period of history simply provided the signpost events that were public knowledge at the time - and little or nothing of the context in which those events were set, or the secrets that are required to truly make sense of what was happening. David Hoffman does an extraordinary job in weaving multiple historical strands into a grand tapestry. The fears that we common people harboured about nuclear annihilation, or chemical or biological devastation were well placed, and if not for some well-intentioned people on both sides of the divide, and a lot of luck, those fears might well have been realised. It places the current fears concerning weapons proliferation in the Middle East - particularly in Iran - into stark relief. It also emphasises the absolute necessity of open, honest dialogue, and accurate knowledge in dealing with belligerent states. Bob Walter does a superb job of narration, and convinced me of his command of Russian pronunciation. Highly recommended.

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What we thought we knew, but didn't.

Revisado: 05-14-13

I've asked numerous friends their belief about what caused the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, and all answered 'the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki'. Paul Ham provides convincing evidence that the first (and fortunately only) use of atomic weapons in war had almost no influence on the surrender decision taken by the doomed government in Japan. Encircled, and economically strangled by naval blockade, its major cities razed by systematic fire-bombing, Japan chose to surrender to the US and its allies to avoid invasion by the Russians who surged across the Manchurian border only days after the devastation of Hiroshima, but before the significance of that event had even begun to be understood. Ham arrives at this point after providing the detailed political, military and scientific context in which it occurred. He is a superb historian and skilled narrator, who has changed my view of the end of WWII with this marvellous book. I could not recommend it more highly.

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More than Informative....

Revisado: 09-15-12

James Gleick has clearly not been idle since writing his introduction to chaos theory. I enjoyed this book enormously - I've listened to it twice, am listening to it a third time, and I've also purchased it as an e-book. Not because I didn't understand it the first time - although there are still ideas (like the notion of qubits) that I struggle with - but simply because the ideas he writes about are so important, and have such manifold ramifications. I'm impressed by Gleick's scholarship, the clarity and aptness of his writing, and the sheer breadth of the subject he has tackled. I found sections of the book literally inspiring. Other reviewers commented on aspects of the book which are impossible to render efficiently in audio format (tables, lists of numbers, etc), but these are minor issues set against the overall achievement. All praise to Rob Shapiro's narration - with the single exception of pronouncing 'era' so similarly to 'error' that it sounds like .... an error (at least to this Australian :-) ). I agree it's not a book for everyone, but it is a book for everyone who has even the slightest interest in any aspect of this topic. No matter what your expertise (I am a clinical neurologist), aspects of the book will be fresh, novel, unexpected, or wonderfully informative.

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