Michael J Canning

Not just good, Once in a lifetime good.

Revisado: 01-20-20

The definitive story of Golden State Killer, the former police officer and Vietnam vet ,who raped or killed 60+ including those that he was sworn to protect.- written by a one of a kind author and investigator.

McNamara didn’t live long enough to see the police finally arrest the GSK - aka Original Nightstalker, Visalia Ransacker, East Area Rapist - but her passion for the case set the forces in motion that would end with this most sick and evil of monsters

There are several awesome books out on the GSK. This is the best and the book to read first.

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Excellent book about that horrific October in 2002

Revisado: 01-20-20

This is the best account of the Beltway Snipers anywhere, The book faithfully and effectively captures the horror and fear and creepiness of this very particular and awful time in the U.S. Capital.

I live in the DC region, then and now. I remember those weeks of running across underpasses, and I remember tarps hanging over gas station pumps.. And Jesus, do I remember the press conference, the “white box truck” and Chief Moose.

One hand, listening to the is book is like reliving the events themselves. It paints a vivid picture, and for anyone who lived through that time it will be a trip down suppressed memory lane. But the book is even more than that. The book tells the story of the terror in a level of detail, particularly as it relates to Malvo and Muhammed, that we simply did not know at the time, and that has never really been probed at this level of detail. For example, I never realized that Malvo was spotted at crime scenes and press conferences, or that the killers had been taunting the police in the way that they were.

This was one of the most purely evil acts, and “Call Me God” is a definitive account and analysis. It’s an excellent listen and well worth the credit.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Putin & Polonium; Oligarchs & FSB Assassins; Oh My

Revisado: 01-09-20

From Russia with Blood ranks alongside "Red Notice" and "New Tsar" as one of the very best books about Putin’s Russia that’s available on Audible. The information provided about the FSB's targeted assassination program is limited and incomplete, naturally, but it’s nevertheless easily the most fulsome discussion of this chilling phenomenon that I have come across in any open-source work of nonfiction. The book also delights through rigorous and riveting treatment of Boris Berezovsky, the quintessential O.G. of Russian Oligarchs, his complex relationship with Putin, and the circumstances of his exile in the UK. Other oligarchs - Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Khodorkovsky – make appearances, but the book is primarily concerned with Berezovsky, and the circle of exiles in his Russian and U.K. orbits, including Badri Patarkatsishvili and Alexander Litvinenko.

More broadly, the book does a great job of showing how and why the U.K. became a refuge for many oligarchs and exiles during the 2000s. It also does a reasonably good job of explaining the broad strokes of how the oligarchs made (stole) fortunes in the 1990s, in cahoots with the security services, Russian mafia, and Yeltsin-era politicians.

Other highlights include: (1) a detailed analysis of the Moscow Apartment bombings in 1999, Moscow theater hostage crisis of 2002, and Beslan school siege of 2004; (2) a revealing window into the relationship between British MI-6 and the U.S. intelligence community; (3) a great recounting of how Berezovsky and other oligarchs, while ensconced at Davos with others of the Global elite, organized a Western style campaign to reelect Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and; (4) a scathing assessment of certain Western leaders, such as British PM Tony Blair, and the intellectual gymnastics they engaged in during the 2000’s in order to avoid acknowledging or confronting the realities of Putin’s activities – the degree to which these Western leaders repeatedly saw what they wanted to see, as opposed to what the evidence suggested.

The author does a nice job of distinguishing the characters and making it easy to envision them in your mind’s eye – introducing them and their personalities and reputations at a manageable pace, and making the narrative relatively easy to follow. The narrator does a great job with the accents, and even if they are not perfect they help differentiate character and help the narrative flow smoothly.

I listened to the book at every opportunity and straight through over the course of 4-5 days. It is well-worth the credit for any reader, and a must-have for anyone interested in the subject matter.

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esto le resultó útil a 16 personas

Very timely, detailed, enjoyable

Revisado: 05-03-19

This is a first cut at explaining the race of the 115th Congress and the first half of Trump’s presidency and Trump’s Washington. As an observer of Congress and politics I enjoyed the book and learned many interesting factoids and tidbits. It is far from a definitive or even completely coherent history - but the authors don’t claim it as such. As contemporaneous reporting mixed with gossip and spin - it’s perfect. Unlike other reviewers I enjoyed the author’s narration.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Excellent listen & definitive account

Revisado: 06-30-18

The definitive account of a massive fraud perpetrated by Theranos and it’s leadership team — as well as the extraordinary lengths to which the company and its bare-knuckled attorneys went to try to prevent the fraud from being discovered - recounted by the journalist who pulled on the strings that unraveled the whole disgusting enterprise. I finished it in 4-5 days and would recommend to anyone who is interested in Silicon Valley, venture capital, the perils of private securities offerings, and the limits of the “fake it till you make it” mantra that is pervasive (but not confined to) Silicon Valley and the startup culture.

Elizabeth Holmes is clearly a sociopath - the book never quite figures her out, but that much is clear - but my impression from the book (and my own anecdotal experiences) is that Holmes is not as unique as we might like to believe. We will see in time. But it is hard to read this book and not come away with the impression that a big part of the reason the Theranos story ends with Holmes under federal indictment for fraud is that she made the mistake of perpetrating that fraud in the highly regulated industry of human laboratory testing, Had she sought to “disrupt” a more mundane industry - anything that wasn’t literally “life and death” - I suspect there is good chance she would have gotten away with it. For his part, the illustrious David Boise also comes across looking at best like a tarnished super-lawyer at worst like a terrible human being who went to (suspiciously) great lengths to abet Holmes and her fraud. Kudos to Carreyrou for telling this story and to the WSJ for publishing it. Well worth the credit.

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esto le resultó útil a 64 personas

Great book, but NOT 37-hours great.

Revisado: 08-22-16

Where does The Making of the Atomic Bomb rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is an detailed and sometimes excllent book. However, at 37-hours, it must be evaluated against an especially high bar -- in the audio format the difference between a 15 hour history and a 35+ hour history is a chasm - and by that measure I think the book somewhat comes up short. The book does not warrant comparison to Shirer's Rise and Fall. The writer covers a panoply of characters, but unlike Shirer, he did not personally know the men and women whose story he tells, must less scrupulously observe them as comgemporariess over decades.

I make a point to raise Shirer in this review because it was the explicit comparison to Rise and Fall in the publishers summary that spurred me to get the book. This comparison is off base.

I enjoyed this book. However, it is too long and not quite engrossing enough to listen to in an audiobook format.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Making of the Atomic Bomb?

Yes

Have you listened to any of Holter Graham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was very solid.

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Oligarchs, Operatives, Explosives & Intrigue!

Revisado: 07-26-16

Excellent book. I had some reservations as I have read a fair bit in this area (for an American) and felt I would already be familiar with the narrative. I need not have been concerned. The book is a great addition to the limited literature dealing with this period in Russia and much more than just a rehashing of previously reported facts.

Mezrich takes the reader back into Russia at is was during Yeltsin and early Putin years by telling the story through the experiences of the oligarchs that dominated the country's politics during this time -- their origins, personalities, rivalries, agendas, and public vs. private selves. The story he tells is a rich and three dimensional one, and generally the author nails it, grabbing the reader from the opening chapter (which begins in the clouds of smoke following a failed assignation attempt in Moscow) and never really letting up. The scope is historical rather then contemporary, but the ark of this narrative told by Mezrich is unfolding even in 2016, so the information is the book remains relevant today. The book is full of interesting information, but by its conclusion the reader is left with a lot to think about and at least as many questions than answers. Exactly as it should be in my view.

The time flew by and I would have welcomed additional chapters.

Well worth the credit!

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Like listening to the Cliffs Notes version

Revisado: 04-12-15

I was disappointed with this course. I found it a superficial and unsatisfying listen. There were a few really excellent and perceptive lectures, but that was more the exception than the rule. I don't think the shortcomings are Fagan's, but more due to the format, which consists of lectures that average about 20 min each, and don't allow for much analysis. Even Fagan seems frustrated by this - constantly reminding listener of and apologizing for the many things that he will not have time to mention on the course.

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esto le resultó útil a 45 personas

Gutsy, chilling and important.

Revisado: 02-28-15

Browder paints a portrait of modern Russia through his own very personal story.

The first half of his book is interesting but drags ever so slightly. It recounts Browder's rise, at Solomon Brother and then as a fund manager focusing on the country in the aftermath of the fall of the USSR. It describes his dealing with the Oligarchs of that era, and ascension to become as the country's largest foreign portfolio investor by the late 1990s/early 2000s.

In its second half, the book pivots from international business biography to political and criminal intrigue. Here, in riveting terms, Browder recounts how in the late 2000s a cabal of shadowy apparatchiks from the Russian FSB and interior ministry, acting with the backing up the State, stole hundreds of millions by falsifying tax refunds fraudulently procured on behalf of one of his companies. It explains the methods employed and names to people responsible, and describes how he was blamed, intimidated, exiled him from the country, and ultimately shows how and why one of his attorneys, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered. By the end of the book, it is 2015 and Browder is living in Britain in very real fear for his life.

Taken at face value, Browder's story affirms the very worst fears about what the Russian state has become two decades after the collapse of communism. Taken at face value, in my opinion, Mr. Browder has every reason to be fearful for his life.

The best thing about the book is that Mr. Browder does not flinch in telling his story. He does not pull any punches. By directly addressing the Putin regime - by naming names, connecting the dots, detailing the tactics employed by the Russian state to obfuscate the truth and discredit its opponents, and showing the astonishing and cynical depth of the regime's contempt for the rule of law and international norms - Mr. Browder places himself alongside the likes of a very small group of gutsy writers (Anna Politkovskaya comes to mind) who have sought to pull back the curtain on the ugly truth of the New Russia.

The main reason I give the book 4-stars instead of 5-stars is that it is (through no fault of the author's) highly specific and personal, focused almost entirely around Mr. Browder and his experiences in Russia. It does not offer many new, concrete insights beyond those that Browder experienced personally. The result is many of the most intriguing and seemingly consequential mysteries from the New Russia - the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings; the 2003 jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky; the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the assasination of journalist Anna Politivsaya - are dealt with superficially if at all.

Nonetheless, Mr. Browder's story is by itself sufficiently remarkable to render this book a valuable contribution to the (conspicuously small) body of literature offering real insight into the modern Russian kleptocracy. Kudos to him for having the courage to tell his story, and the story of Sergei Magnitsky. Well worth the credit.

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esto le resultó útil a 91 personas

Israeli Intelligence through Iraeli Eyes

Revisado: 12-30-14

The best thing about the book are the stories. They are all interesting and several are excellent. The way the book is organized prevents the authors from developing characters, however, and the book sometimes fails to place stories in their correct political / security context. However, the book's high-tempo, and the excellent access the authors appear to have to the participants, more than compensates for these limitations. My biggest knock is that the book is self-congratulatory, and at times the author's own political agenda seems to the surface. The authors offer little depth, and few strategic insights, though they provide enough detail, action, and clandestine nuggets to almost overcome that problem.

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