MARCH 2014
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
Just
out is THE COUNTERFEIT AGENT by Alex Berenson,
a timely suspense novel about Iranian nuclear terrorism,
and the games played within the CIA. It all begins
when a "test package" of radioactive content
is sent via ship to America from Dubai. Veteran
narrator George Guidall reads. And Guidall
also reads Robin Cook's latest, a new novel that plays
on our high tech obsession with smart phones. CELL
postulates, of all things, a phone that is as smart
as a surgeon. Called iDoc, this phone can not only
diagnose you, but also treat you using nanotechnology
and genomics (Cook's last book was NANO.) With such
a phone, would you need a doctor anymore? (Or as the
movie HER features a "Siri" type artificial
intelligence in your cell, would you need a real girlfriend?)
Of course things go very wrong in beta testing.
After
all, it's depressing to imagine that soon no one will
need anyone for anything.
With
drones and robots on the way, we're almost there,
as it is!
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The
Audie award nominees have been announced. Looking
over the list, I've picked a few of my favs, below.
For the full list go to the press releases section
of the Audio Publishers Association website.
*
World on a String by John Pizzarelli
and Joseph Cosgriff, narrated by the authors
* Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan,
narrated by Jonathan Davis
* Matilda by Roald Dahl, narrated
by Kate Winslet
* The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, narrated by Simon Vance
* The Good House by Ann Leary, narrated
by Mary Beth Hurt
* Someone Could Get Hurt by Drew
Magary, narrated by the author
* The Son by Philipp Meyer, narrated
by Will Patton, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Sheperd, and Clifton
Collins, Jr.
* William Shakespeare's Star Wars
by Ian Doescher, narrated by a full cast
* Unleashed by David Rosenfelt, narrated
by Grover Gardner
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Turning
to non-fiction, let's examine two controversial new
books written by scholars for major publishers. According
to the book THE CRASH OF 2016 by Thom Hartman,
read by Dan Woren, the repeat of
1929 did not end in 2008, but will come in full force
in two years. This inevitability, he says, began with
"the madness of 1981," when Reagan ushered
in the age of deregulation and the rape of the middle
class by deeply lowering tax rates for the richest
Americans. Hartman shows that every time the upper
progressive rates have been below 50% in the past,
the economy has bubbled and either fully or partially
collapsed. It's what the Royalists (the super rich
with political ties) want, however: to shake the tree
and force the foolish to perish by falling out of
it. Our age of free trade, which began with Reagan
and continued with Clinton and the Bush presidencies,
has also resulted in a total reversal of manufacturing
fortunes, in which America (pre-Reagan) was importing
the most raw materials and exporting the most finished
products...and is now exporting the most raw materials
and importing the most finished products (purchased
at massive deficits.) Fifty thousand manufacturing
jobs have been lost in America yearly ever since Reagan
took office, while the profit percentage of the Royalists
has been going up in a parallel line, due to investments
overseas (where they exploit slave labor.) Meanwhile,
deficits during the Reagan administration exceeded
all previous presidents combined, (before Clinton
bought into lax regulations, and Bush accelerated
it.) So now it's time to pay the piper. Is Obama to
blame, too? Yes, according to Hartman, who says even
Obama has been opted by the Royalists to bankrupt
the middle class, and notes that CEOs didn't used
to be given stock options, back when their earnings
were merely 30 times the average worker's, and they
were accountable to employees. Now they don't need
to care about employees or customers or anyone else,
because they can collect 300 times average earnings
plus millions in bonuses and stock options. Ominously,
Hartman ends by talking about what we can (and will)
do AFTER the crash (to save America), as though stopping
the crash itself is now too late. |
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Finally,
why do Mormons, Jews, Chinese Americans, plus Indian
and Nigerian immigrants outperform entrenched minorities,
and even the majority of whites? According to authors
(and Yale Law professors) Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld
it's because they are outsiders, and so don't feel entitled
to special treatment due to perceived inferiority or
the inculcated baggage of fairness politics. In fact,
what they feel is not that they are inferior or even
just equal, but superior. THE TRIPLE PACKAGE
outlines three major traits and misconceptions,
the first fallacy being that we are taught to believe
no ethnic group is superior to another in any way. Not
true, say the authors. Each group has their own traits
and history in relation to others, and so their approach
to life is different. These approaches vary, and have
a direct bearing on success due to one's individual
perceptions, (most specifically attitude and the work
ethic.) Ironically, the second misconception (that feeling
good about oneself is the key to success) is also untrue,
since these most successful groups actually feel insecure…and
that they need to prove themselves. Finally, American
culture has for decades taught us to demand instant
gratification, and to seek (and flaunt) self indulgence
(often to make up for feeling inferior.) But this is
the opposite of what motivates the most successful people.
What they possess is discipline, patience, and impulse
control. They are not angry: they actually believe they
will win, but only if they reject stereotypes, and work
hard. Learn who has all three of these package traits
most, the authors say, and you will discover the highly
successful groups listed above. A controversial but
thought provoking take on achievement and success, as
narrated by the clearly delineated voice of
actor Jonathan Todd Ross, this audiobook shows
(with groundbreaking original research) that our cultural
pursuit of the fast buck is resulting in mass debt and
future misery, and that legally leveling the playing
field doesn't matter if the players are too lazy to
excel on that field. The authors also show the downsides
of basing success solely upon money (ie. greed), and
include commentary on how to profit from the three rules
before letting them go to pursue one's own individuality.
(Of course what we do as individuals is what matters,
and dividing into groups leads to war and conflicts
as well as competition. "Nationalism is the measles
of humanity" --Einstein) Rubenfeld is an expert
on constitutional law, while Chua is Asian, and an expert
on free market Democracy. She was named by Time magazine
as one of the top 100 most influential people in the
world. |
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