Mr.Wonderful, in yellow vest, questioning punk kid

The Mr.Wonderful ©
Review of
Audio Books
Skeletons of the Zahara / Alexander Hamilton Unabriged CD-Books
Designed for
Internet Explorer

Medium Text  1024x768
One new photo every day ... I promise
Listening to:
The Teaching Company's
The Great Courses
click to view course

Argumentation:
The Study of
Effective Reasoning

Taught by:
Professor David Zarefsky,
Northwestern University

"Reasoning, tested by doubt, is argumentation. We do it, hear it, and judge it every day. We do it in our own minds, and we do it with others. What is effective reasoning? And how can it be done persuasively? These questions have been asked for thousands of years—yet some of the best thinking on reasoning and argumentation is very new and represents a break from the past. ... "

Archives of MW
Audio Book Reviews
*

Review of Audio Books, Page  2

* Note that the higher the page number is, the more recently heard were the audio books. Page 1, this page, will always list the most recent audio books I have and am listening to.


MW Reviews:

Review of Books

More MW Books:

Bedstand Books
Unread Library of MW


Other MW Pages:

Arizona Politics
Current Events
Dr.Malamud's Blog
National Politics
Photos

HOME


Title
Rental Date
Author
Read by:
Rating
Comments
Buy
Bottom of Page
cd info

America's Secret War:
Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle
Between America and Its Enemies


Jan 16, 2007
George Friedman
Brian Emerson
Excellent

At first I imagined author George Friedman (founder of Stratfor, "one of the world's most respected private global intelligence firms") was simply another Bush-basher. However, as I listened further I discovered he pretty much excoriates all branches of government and both political parties. In probably the most even-handed treatment of the current War on Terror, America's Secret War travels from Afghanistan to Iraq and beyond. In his accounting of the Afghanistan campaign, I learned of a skywriting B-52 Stratofortress ...
more

Yes


CD


Book

Door into Summer
Click Read More/Renticon

The Door into Summer


Jan 2, 2007
Robert A. Heinlein
Patrick Lawlor
Good

I find it perplexing and sometimes distressing at how sci-fi writers, in attempting to divine the future, sometime get so close and  so far away. This story, written in the mid-1950s, once again predicts robots doing all our chores ... and cigarettes that light by waving them in the air. Dan Davis, the protagonist, invents household robots and is immediately double-crossed by his love interest and his partner and thrown into a thirty year sleep, awakening in the year 2000 where he attempts time travel. The Door into Summer is another good Heinlein yarn. He never disappoints. Patrick Lawlor, handling all the voices does an excellent job at the microphone, always adding to the impact of the tale and never once detracting. The ending, written in what I'm sure was meant to be construed as mid-20th Century romantic love, will cause many resident's of the actual 21st Century to cringe.

No
Undercover Economist
Click Read More/Renticon

The Undercover Economist:
Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich,
the Poor Are Poor-And Why You
Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car


Dec 23, 2006
Tim Harford
Robert Ian Mackenzie (English)
Good & Awful

Tim Harford, writer for the left-of-Hillary & Bill, Great Britain-based Financial Times  does a bang up job explaining why store-branded products have ugly labels, how Starbucks has remained so competitive in a very crowded market and (until Carfax which did not come into common usage until after publication) why you can never buy a decent used car. But then, he transitions from economic principles to governmental social engineering via economics in the areas of air pollution and health care. Rather than insisting, as our Washington D.C. politicians did, i.e., that automakers produce (now) virtually pollution-free vehicles, he recommends charging drivers for every mile they travel, which would severely restrict their freedom of movement and would also install Big Brother firmly in the passenger seat.
more

No
China Inc. Read More/Renticon

China Inc.


Dec 18, 2006
Ted C. Fishman
Alan Sklar
Good

China Inc. details how the massive population of China is being trained, educated and encouraged to basically take over the world. Author Fishman puts forward a compelling case that all countries, except France, need to be deeply concerned about China's continued movement and seemingly inevitable dominance in all areas of human endeavor, especially commerce. While Mr.Fishman's solutions for America, one being to pour even more billions of dollars into our failed public education system are insane, I cannot argue with his painting of the Chinese industrial behemoth as crushing virtually all competitors. Not as insanely and overtly anti-American as The World is Flat China Inc. does, perhaps necessarily, gloss over the myriad of internal problems faced by the governing Communist regime.

No
Mere Christianity
Dec 7, 2006
C.S. Lewis
Geoffrey Howard (English)
Good

Mere Christianity is how the iconic Christian apologist (former atheist and creator of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) Clive Staples Lewis explains Christianity. Codified from a series of radio broadcasts during WWII, the printed book Mere Christianity today ranks an astonishing #693 in online sales at barnesandnoble.com. (J.D. Salinger's 1951 Catcher in the Rye tallies a respectable 1,493 on the same list.) A work much better read and re-read as one labors through some fairly complex passages and concepts than listened to, author C.S. Lewis covers virtually all of the questions swirling around the head of someone contemplating Christianity as one's raison de vie. Shocking for the 1940s, this Christian mentions masturbation, homosexuality, abortion and divorce.

No
Mercury: Planet Novel #4
Nov 17, 2006
Ben Bova
Stefan Rudnicki, Arte Johnson, & Moira Quirk
Excellent

Yes, the story is occasionally read by that  Arte Johnson from Laugh-In,  however you will strain your eardrums to recognize his voice, for not once does he say, "Very Interesting."


Mercury, is another wonderful science fiction tale written by Ben Bova and given life, especially, by the richly timbered voice of Stefan Rudnicki. Those of you who went to public school in the 1960s may recall the mellifluous voice of the narrater of the Walt Disney science movies we'd watch on days our teacher's were too hung-over to teach. That's what memories Mr.Rudnicki's voice brings back. Readers might be concerned that the Ben Bova penned Jupiter and Mercury are part of a continuing story, but they are not, as each stands on its own.
No
Losing bin Laden
Nov 9, 2006
Richard Miniter
Alan Sklar
Excellent

No
Language of God:
A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Nov 2, 2006
Francis S. Collins
Francis S. Collins
Awful

A professional should have been hired to read the book. A fine story if you can believe in a 'creation' that covered five billion years. I cannot, and do not.
I sent back the remaining CDs without listening to them.

No
Hawkes Harbor
Oct 23, 2006
S.E. Hinton
Dick Hill
Excellent

Interesting and exciting 'vampire-story' made absolutely entrancing by the incredible voice work of Dick Hill. I bought the book after hearing the audio.

Yes


CD


Book

Jupiter
Sept 29, 2006
Ben Bova
David Warner
Christian Noble
Excellent

Yes

CD
Book

Market Forces
Sept 1, 2006
Richard K. Morgan
Todd McLaren (English)
Excellent

Remarkable voice-work by Todd McLaren. The phrases composed by author Morgan are so melodic they will be ringing in my ears for years.

Yes

CD
Book

Brotherhood of Heroes:
The Marines at Peleliu, 1944
The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War

Aug 18, 2006
Bill Sloan, Patrick Lawlor
Patrick Girard Lawlor
Good

The sacrifices of our WWII servicemen cannot be repaid and will remain a testament to freedom for all the ages. (Yes, it sounds corny, but it is so true.)

No
Humanoids
and With Folded Hands
Aug 5, 2006
Jack Williamson
Stefan Rudnicki
Excellent

A wonderful science fiction story of androids, created to serve mankind, attempt to conquer the universe, following man from planet to planet. Unexpected and twisted ending.

Yes

CD
Book
(Not Available)

Spy at the Heart
of the Third Reich:
The Extraordinary Life of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy of World War II
July 19, 2006
Lucas Delattre
Michael Prichard
Good

No
Murdering Mr. Lincoln:
A New Detection of the 19th Century's Most Famous Crime
June 28, 2006
Charles Higham
Dan Cashman
Good

No
Double Star

June 13, 2006
Robert A. Heinlein
Lloyd James
Good

No
The Kite Runner

Kite Runner


May 9, 2006
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini
Excellent

Good choice of having the author read his own autobiography. Plus not many people could even begin to pronounce the many Farsi words correctly. Because of the incredible sadness and violence in Kite Runner it is a hard book to listen to. This book chronicles the unbelievably cruel, vicious and nonsensical actions IslamoFascists perpetrate when in total control. And why, if not for the sake of our own immediate family, but for the sake of all Humankind, they must be killed. Each and every one of them. All of them. Immediately. I only finished Kite Runner because I could listen to it instead of reading it. Many of the highly unlikely situations in the book remind me of the (mostly false) memoirs of Augusten Burroughs and James Frey. However, in Khaled Hosseini's biography virtually everyone and anyone who could throw doubt on his tale is dead.

Yes

CD
Book

Planets

May 4, 2006
Dava Sobel
Lorna Raver
Good

No
Defying Hitler

April 19, 2006
Sebastain Haffner translated by: Oliver Pretzel
Robert Whitfield
Good

No
All Things Bright & Beautiful

March 29, 2006
James Herriot
Christopher Timothy
Excellent

No
Scattered Suns

March 15, 2006
Kevin J. Anderson
David Colacci
Awful

More fantasy than science fiction. Returned without listening to.

No
Electric Universe
(Abridged)
March 2, 2006
David Bodanis
Adam Levy
Good

No
Raft

Feb 28, 2006
Robert Trumbell
Tom Parker
Excellent

No
Map that Changed the World:
William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
Feb 16, 2006
Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester
Good

Winner of the most-boring audio book of 2006. Only my intense quest for knowledge kept me listening.

No
Blood, Money and Power: 
How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K.
ISBN13: 9780963784629

Blood, Money & Power:
How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K.


Jan 19, 2006
Barr McClellan
Barr McClellan
Excellent

Written by a former attorney at the law firm that handled all of Lyndon Baines Johnson's legal work, Barr McClellan (father of Scott McClellan) recounts the intricate plot that ended in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Since after the Civil War Texas politics have been as crooked as a 'straightened out' wire clothes hanger and I believe this rendering is the closest to what actually occurred that we can possibly know. The listening requires a keen ear and the occasional push-and-hold of the reverse arrow on the CD player, but for us who lived through this murder, the extra attention will be well spent. And yes, while he was there, Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed not only "a patsy", but a poor shot as well.

Yes

CD
Book

Pirate Coast
Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805
Dec 19, 2005
Richard Zacks
Raymond Todd
Excellent

This book is especially enlightening considering today's Islam versus 'The West' conflict. It chronicals that Christians and Muslims have always been at war with each other. In this telling, Christians can see how they fare when Muslims have the upper hand. Make no doubt about it, nothing has changed in the attitude of Muslim rulers. The Marine Hymn recites: "From the shores of Tripoli ..." This 1805 mission to Tripoli, is what those words are about.

No
The Consciousness Plague

Dec 3, 2005
Paul Levinson
Mark Shanahan
Good

No
The World is Flat:
A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
Oct 25, 2005
Thomas L. Friedman
Oliver Wyman
Awful

In this Bush-bashing book, supposed errors made by the Bush administration are clearly, distinctly and loudly labeled, however, when it comes to commonly accepted and sometimes catastrophic mistakes made by any Democratic administration, these mistakes are rarely assigned blame and then only by the vague, curt and quick, generic: "the administration" or "the Congress". After listening to five CDs of how America is going down the toilet and how India, China and other Third World absolute shitholes are blessed with harder working, better educated and far more sophisticated citizens than any  American's ever  were and after hearing "This is another example of the world flattening ..." for the thirty-third time, I mailed the remaining ten discs back without listening to them. After pushing the written version of World is Flat to the top ten sales rankings for months, I cannot imagine many purchasers, other than the James Carville/Lanny Davis-type-Foaming-at-the-Mouth-Hate-America Liberals, ever finished it.


As a matter of fact World is Flat reader, Oliver Wyman, does the radio commercials for the supplement LycoMato® and every time I hear his sing-song voice come bounding out of my dashboard, I cringe.
Slaughterhouse-Five:
Or, the Children's Crusade,
A Duty-Dance with Death

Oct 28, 2005
Kurt Vonnegut
Ethan Hawke
Excellent

Kurt Vonnegut deserves all the kudos he has received for this exquisite work. Although many perceive it as an anti-war book, I did not come away with that feeling at all.

Yes

CD Book

From a Buick 8

From a Buick 8


Dec 3, 2005
Stephen King
Fred Sanders, Bruce Davison, Becky Ann Baker, Peter Gerety, James Rebhorn, and Stephen Tobolowsky
Excellent

A wonderful, wonderful book, that I have a feeling was much better listened to than read. Brought to life by numerous skilled voice actors, this more science fiction than horror story Stephen King creation was truly delightful.

Yes

CD
Book

Brave New World

Sept 26, 2005
Aldous Huxley
Michael York
Good

Michael York, as expected does an excellent job of voicing this prescient work.

From the Publisher: "Aldous Huxley's tour de force Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a 'utopian' future - where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthesized to passively serve a ruling order ... it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment."

No
The Great Gatsby

Sept 8, 2005
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tim Robbins
Excellent

The first of its kind: a bad-guy-is-good-guy drama. Once you read The Great Gatsby you will understand why it was so ground-breaking and begin to recall the endless number of other-titled books, movies and plays it spawned.

Yes

CD Book

Men in Black:
How the Supreme Court is Destroying America
Aug 18, 2005
Mark R. Levin
Introduction: Rush Limbaugh. Read by: Jeff Riggenbach
Good

No
Anthem

Aug 13, 2005
Ayn Rand
Paul Meier or Christopher Lane
Good

From the Publisher: "Ayn Rand’s classic tale of a future dark age of the great “We”—a world that deprives individuals of name, independence, and values—anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged."

No
Inventing a Nation:
Washington, Adams and Jefferson
Aug 8, 2005
Gore Vidal
Paul Hecht
Awful

Gore Vidal's trademark negativism is fine when it is bound within a novel, but when writing about this great nation, a nation that has allowed a homosexual like him to become wealthier than most Kennedy's (when in many other nations he would have been murdered ... can anyone say 'Muslim Nation'?) Gore Vidal's cynicism about the founding of these United States quickly became too much for this reader. I returned the remaining CDs without listening to them.

No
Truman
(abridged)
Aug 2, 2005
David McCullough
David McCullough
Good

No
Founding Brothers

Jul 7, 2005
Joseph J. Ellis
Nelson Runger
Good

No
The Great Divorce

Jun 27, 2005
C. S. Lewis
Robert Whitfield
Good

From the Publisher: "C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil."

No
Adams Vs. Jefferson:
The Tumultuous Election of 1800
Jun 8, 2005
John E. Ferling
Jack Garrett
Good

No
His Excellency: George Washington

His Excellency: George Washington


May 9, 2005
Joseph J. Ellis
Nelson Runger
Excellent

If you wonder why the United States exists, read the life of this great man. I don't mean to be glib about it, but Patrick Tillman by turning away from fame and fortune and knowingly stepping into harm's way and then killed in battle by friendly fire, is the type of sacrifices George Washington and many, many others made for us to create and sustain this incredibly fortunate nation. However, make no mistake, George Washington was indeed 'The Founding Father' of these unbelievably blessed people. I can think of only one man (also a general) who given the same dominance and position in time, might have accomplished what George Washington did. This book will also put an end to the 'common-knowledge' fact that George Washington was a deist, rather than a Christian.

Yes

CD Book

Citizen Soldiers:
The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 to May 7, 1945
May 9, 2005
Stephen E. Ambrose
Cotter Smith
Excellent

From the Publisher: " ... Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there. He recreates the experiences of the individuals who fought the battles, the women who served, and the Germans who fought against us."

Yes

CD Book

Top of Page