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 ...
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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.

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.
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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.

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.

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."

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.

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

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

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.)

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.

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.

More fantasy than science fiction. Returned without listening to.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."