Justin
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The Demon of Unrest
- A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
- De: Erik Larson
- Narrado por: Will Patton, Erik Larson
- Duración: 17 h y 18 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 2,698
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 2,465
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 2,465
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vividly Told History of the Start of the Civil War
- De WLC en 05-01-24
- The Demon of Unrest
- A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
- De: Erik Larson
- Narrado por: Will Patton, Erik Larson
Into the Mind of A Deadly and Perverse Pride.
Revisado: 06-07-24
It’s always astounding to me when I think about the malleable nature of ‘reality’. What is reality, other than something we just all decide to agree on? Time only has meaning to us, it means nothing on Jupiter unless we were to go there wearing a watch along with the mental mental construct of it. Money is nothing but a paper!cloth hybrid with printing on it yet we all decide it’s a treasure worth stressing over and in some instances killing over.
I was reminded of this as this brilliant book took me into the mindset of the people of the south in the mid 1800s. Their beliefs and ‘reality’ were terrible and absurd, severely lacking in humility and humanity, yet these ideas were what they all decided was ‘real’ for their own benefit. So deeply did they choose to believe these cruel and audacious thoughts that when questioned, rage and indignation vibrated within, pinking their faces. So deeply were they desperate to believe, that like a thorny parasite they dug in harder and deeper and became lethal to dislodge.
By the end of the book their diaries reveal their crumbled pride and suicidal disgust not at themselves but still at those who proved them wrong. And the hatred has perpetuated through all of the descending generations and is still burrowed in the skin of the United States, again threatening insurrection and bloody constraint.
It’s a cautionary tale that is wonderfully well told and although as stark a warning as it could possibly be, will not move the needle a blip to the obstinately childish malcontents we still have to deal with today.
The book is a truly great journey into the history and the minds that nearly ruined the United States and into those that are trying to do it again.
Hopefully we can find a less lethal solution this time.
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The Greatest Knight
- The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind Five English Thrones
- De: Thomas Asbridge
- Narrado por: Derek Perkins
- Duración: 14 h y 29 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 916
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 821
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 813
In The Greatest Knight, renowned historian Thomas Asbridge draws upon the thirteenth-century biography and an array of other contemporary evidence to present a compelling account of William Marshal's life and times. Asbridge charts the unparalleled rise to prominence of a man bound to a code of honor yet driven by unquenchable ambition.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Biography of a Legend
- De Troy en 04-02-15
- The Greatest Knight
- The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind Five English Thrones
- De: Thomas Asbridge
- Narrado por: Derek Perkins
The Greatest Knight
Revisado: 07-17-23
William Marshal has long been my historical idol, so much so that I named my son after him.
This is the best history of the best knight there has ever been. A thorough, fair, and exciting history.
And the reader is fine, sample him and see.
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Explorers of the Nile
- The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure
- De: Tim Jeal
- Narrado por: Clive Chafer
- Duración: 14 h y 58 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 55
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Narración:4 out of 5 stars 47
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 48
From award-winning author Tim Jeal comes a vivid examination of the six larger-than-life men and one extraordinary woman who set out to find the source of the White Nile in the 19th century.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Story Flawed
- De The Mays-Dickens Family en 05-12-12
- Explorers of the Nile
- The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure
- De: Tim Jeal
- Narrado por: Clive Chafer
Thorough, but Burton Fans Beware
Revisado: 02-28-23
All in all a great history of the exploration of the Nile. I found this very interesting and I soon became used to the narrator’s voice, which at first called attention to itself.
My only criticism, and for me it’s a big one, is the author’s clear bias against Sir Richard Burton. I think his treatment of other explorers is fairly even handed but it feels to me as if the author wanted to stand out from other bios on Burton by blatantly bashing him all along the way. I think this is unfair, and a I’ll confess that I am a great fan of Burton, because all of these explorers had done and wrote things that would be extremely frowned-upon now some 175 years later. I freely admit that Burton’s views and conduct at times define him as someone that I wouldn’t really want to hang out with for long. I’m a very different kind of person. But those traits stood well in his culture and time in the mid 19th century. I stand in awe of the man because of all that he accomplished and what he had the courage to do. I can remove myself from the equation of weighing the man’s soul against my own, something this author seems to not be able to do.
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A Christmas Carol
- De: Charles Dickens, R.D. Carstairs
- Narrado por: Sir Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Cranham, Roger Allam, y otros
- Duración: 3 h y 31 m
- Grabación Original
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General5 out of 5 stars 995
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 869
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Historia5 out of 5 stars 861
Charles Dickens' ghostly tale of sour and stingy miser Ebenezer Scrooge has captivated readers, listeners and audiences for over 150 years. This Christmas, Audible Studios brings this story to life in an audio drama featuring an all-star cast.
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1 out of 5 stars
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truly insulting edition by audible.....
- De John Glemby en 09-30-20
Awesome
Revisado: 12-16-22
This is an absolutely perfect interpretation. Incredible adaptation and a stellar cast.
What a gift to us all.
I listen to this several times every December.
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People Who Eat Darkness
- The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up
- De: Richard Lloyd Parry
- Narrado por: Simon Vance
- Duración: 13 h y 8 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 2,992
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 2,670
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 2,677
Lucie Blackman - tall, blond, 21 years old - stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000 and disappeared. The following winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. The seven months in between had seen a massive search for the missing girl involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, and Lucie’s desperate but bitterly divided parents. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult or snatched by human traffickers? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? And what did her work as a hostess in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo really involve?
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is the audiobook against I rate all others.
- De El_Ron en 03-08-13
- People Who Eat Darkness
- The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up
- De: Richard Lloyd Parry
- Narrado por: Simon Vance
Dark and sad.
Revisado: 07-28-22
This book is very interesting but quite dark and ultimately so sad.
However, if this is your genre of entertainment I think you’ll likely really enjoy it. Particularly because of this exceptional reader. I’ve listened to several of his audiobooks, he’s amazing.
I was attracted to this book because of my fascination for Japan and its culture and was not disappointed. I’ve worked in Tokyo and Osaka for nearly ten years with wonderful experiences. This gives me a more complete perspective.
Only three stars because it quite depressed me.
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The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America
- De: Nigel Cliff
- Narrado por: Nick Sullivan
- Duración: 10 h y 51 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 16
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 13
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 13
One of the bloodiest incidents in New York's history, the so-called Astor Place Riot of May 10, 1849, was ignited by a long-simmering grudge match between the two leading Shakespearean actors of the age. Despite its unlikely origins, though, there was nothing remotely quaint about this pivotal moment in history - the unprecedented shooting by American soldiers of dozens of their fellow citizens, leading directly to the arming of American police forces. The Shakespeare Riots recounts the story of this momentous night, its two larger-than-life protagonists, and the various fuels for violence.
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4 out of 5 stars
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History I Can Get Behind
- De Anthony Robertson en 06-25-16
- The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America
- De: Nigel Cliff
- Narrado por: Nick Sullivan
Fantastic True Story!
Revisado: 03-10-19
Two households of Shakespeare.
Both alike in zealotry.
In young Manhattan do they play their scene.
When ultimately, barely civil players made rarely civil hands unclean.
Here is the true life story of two leading Shakespearean actors in the 1840s, and how their rising trajectories brought them together. First as fast friends and ultimately as a rivalry so bitter that it led to a riot among their supporters that was so impassioned and deadly, that it left hundreds wounded and upwards of thirty people dead in the streets of Manhattan.
Over Shakespeare?
It would seem so. However this was ultimately a contention of class against class, dressed in tragedian costume. At this time, the poorer classes, gangs, and immigrants of the Bowery and Five Points Area (see Scorsese’s film ‘Gangs of New York’) lived in very close proximity to the upper classes. So the tensions were already in the air. The higher classes and Anglophiles preferred the traditional style of Shakespeare presentation of English actor William McCready, while the other group cheered for American born actor Edwin Forrest’s boisterous, unconventional, common-man approach.
The newspapers of the time had much to do with roiling the passions that led to the conflict, and this book helps us understand clearly how theater was experienced at that time. It’s hard to imagine in our well-behaved era, just how we would have been able to put up with the yelling and throwing of all manner of objects (like spoiled vegetables and in one instance, half of a sheep carcass) To the stage, but this book really does a great job of taking us there.
Everybody knew Shakespeare then, all classes, and he was revered in all corners of that gilded, gaslit age. Illiterate cowboys, railroad magnates, poor river barge pilots, frontiersmen, and New York bankers. He was everywhere and for everyone. So, bewilderingly, this one thing that they all had in common became the catalyst for a riot of destruction and death.
Shakespeare could have brought them together if this struggle was truly about Shakespeare.
Alas...
It was really about the divisions of nationalism and the bruising elbows of class against class.
A fantastic read for social scientists, fans of New York history, and lovers of Shakespeare.
A fantastic listen as well, Nick Sullivan is perfect.
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