JUNE
2016
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
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Seems
like everyone is on the run these “daze”
from something. Usually it’s facing facts they’d
rather avoid in their race to future happiness (marriage,
money, vacations, “security.”) Unfortunately,
we live in a messy world where things just don’t
turn out the way we expect. In WHAT SHOULD WE
BE WORRIED ABOUT, edited by John Brockman,
one author suggests that the ego and consciousness are
two different things in the sense that the law of logic
“differences in degree constitute differences
in kind” apply to the mystery and its implications
for the future of humanity (and understanding machine
intelligence.) The idea that plants may have consciousness
seems bizarre, but it doesn’t mean that plants
feel pain (not having a nervous system), it means that
there is a base structure for the passage of information
(life), and this may constitute consciousness in a way
we haven’t considered. Scientists are still struggling
to understand consciousness, with ego being largely
illusion, but that doesn’t mean the answer will
never be found. Imagine if we did understand. Imagine
if an alien actually did land in Washington, like the
movies portray. It would not be anything like we imagine
now. It takes creativity, and thinking
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“outside
the box” to arrive at progress, as is so eloquently
shown in THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY,
reviewed earlier. Once new progress is made, however,
perhaps then a quantum computer able to mimic the human
brain will result. Or not. No one knows for sure. For
now. What is so fascinating about science and discovery
is that we haven’t reached the end. There are
many more things we don’t know now that future
generations will marvel at, just like we marvel now
at how the world was prior to the birth of Steve Jobs,
an individual who was relentless and often cruel in
his pursuit of perfection. The audiobook is narrated
by multiple voice actors, and some of the authors, who
give their bios at the beginning of each segment. |
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A powerfully written firsthand account of the human
costs of conflict, THE MIRROR TEST
asks that we as a nation look in the mirror and address
hard questions about America’s wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the
ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the State
Department. The US government sent him to some of the
most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return
home, traveling the country to pay respect to the killed
and wounded, he asked himself: How and when will these
wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized?
What lessons can we learn from them? Questions with
no quick answers, but perhaps ones that might lead to
a shared reckoning worthy of the sacrifices of those,
troops and civilians alike, whose lives have been changed
by more than a decade and a half of war. With a novelist’s
eye, Weston takes us from Twenty Nine Palms in California
to Fallujah in Iraq, Khost to Helmand in Afghanistan,
Maryland to Colorado, Wyoming to New York City, as well
as to out-of-the-way places in Iowa and Texas. We meet
generals, corporals and captains, senators and ambassadors,
NATO allies, Iraqi truck drivers, city councils, imams
and mullahs, Afghan schoolteachers, madrassa and college
students, former Taliban fighters and ex–Guantanamo
Prison detainees, a torture victim, SEAL and Delta Force
teams, and many Marines. The overall frame for the book,
from which the title is taken, centers on soldiers who
have received a grievous wound to the face. There is
a moment during their recovery when they must look upon
their reconstructed appearance for the first time. This
is known as “the mirror test.” Here, like
grains of sand, Weston gathers these voices and stories—Iraqi,
Afghan, and American—and polishes them into a
sheet of glass, one he offers to us as a national mirror.
What Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie did for
Vietnam, The Mirror Test does for Iraq and Afghanistan.
An unflinching and deep examination of the interplay
between warfare and diplomacy, it is an essential book—a
crucial look at America now, how it is viewed in the
world, and how the nation views itself. John Kael Weston
represented the United States for over a decade as a
State Department official. Washington acknowledged his
multi-year work in Fallujah with Marines by awarding
him one of its highest honors, the Secretary of State’s
Medal for Heroism. He narrates the audiobook with an
unvarnished honesty full with sober reflection, the
tone devastating in its believability. |
No one in current memory grabs the attention of Donald
Trump. Using lessons gleaned from Muhammad Ali, Donald
is the “verbal jab” equivalent: floating
like a butterfly, stinging like a bee. In THE
TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP author Michael D’Antonio
details the history of the man from birth, including
his father’s story, his influences, his rise to
power, his women, his love of sports (particularly boxing
and wrestling), and the Art of the Deal. D’Antonio,
a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, spares nothing
in his examination of Trump’s empire. As such,
it is a must read (or must hear) for anyone considering
voting for him or not. Echoing studies in psychology
quoted in another new book THE POWER PARADOX,
D’Antonio endeavors to explain
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how
we came to this point, where a proud, self-proclaimed
narcissist is running (and dominating) as a Presidential
candidate. Trump is an enigma to many on the fence,
and is a master at grabbing headlines. But when listeners
hear the history and the mindset, it all begins to fall
into focus. Trump views public life as a struggle for
dominance and control, and for “winning”
against all opponents. When someone throws a punch,
he punches back, just like a fighter in the ring. There
is no “right” or “wrong,” it’s
just “business.” On the many occasions where
he has contradicted himself, that’s “all
part of the game.” For example, he once said about
Bill Clinton during his administration, “talk
about scandals with women, if I ever ran for office,
I’d have him beat there.” Yet he recently
criticized Bill for being a philanderer. “The
rich,” says Dachner Keltner in The Power Paradox,
“invariably assign blame to others while they
themselves feel no guilt for committing the same things.”
It is also a trait of the narcissist to refer to themselves
in the third person, as when a basketball player like
Lebron James (quoted in the audiobook “The Narcissist
Next Door”) says, “You know, I wanted to
do what was best for Lebron James, and whatever Lebron
James has to do to make him happy.” (‘Him?’
He’s speaking!) Trump has done this too, frequently
on stage, besides liking the title “The Donald.”
Personally, Trump (and other very rich people) may refer
to their blue blood roots (as Trump has done) to imply
that they are racially and intellectually above the
“riff raff.” Obviously this is a controversial
book with stats that many will dispute. But Trump disputes
most science, including global warming, since it has
implications to business profits and pollution. Who
is right? That’s for you to decide. D’Antonio
ends the book by genuinely praising Trump for his accomplishments,
yet also saying that in a society and culture that values
wealth and fame, he is what we deserve (following the
famous quote, “voters get what they deserve.”)
He notes that no one, not even many far more wealthy
than he, has been able to capitalize on his fortune
and fame as has Trump. Enigma, because although he is
fair and rewarding to those he perceives on his side,
cross him or join the “opposing team” and
he will do or say anything to defeat and humiliate you.
Welcome to the sport of politics. It’s a winner-take-all
cage fight to the death. Audiobook is narrated by Eric
Pollins, a voiceover artist and TV/Movie actor whose
tone is always spot-on. |
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THE
INVENTION OF SCIENCE by David Wootton explores
the origins of critical thinking and the concept of
discovery. The very idea of discovering something new
was, surprisingly, little known to sailors and politicians
prior to Columbus. It is hard to imagine now exactly
how, due to superstition and religious dogma, so very
few people in the “dark ages” and beyond
conceived—much less experimented—with elements
of the natural world, with mathematics, or with abstract
concepts. Historian David Wootton, a professor at the
University of York, has here explained how it really
was, and what has come to be since. The Scientific Revolution
was the greatest revolution, he says, because it transformed
mankind (or much of it, anyway) from willful ignorance
into a better understanding of our relationship with
nature. Galileo, Copernicus, Brahe, Newton, Einstein:
these men (among others) paved the way, not just to
our current technology, but to the very concept of facts,
theories, progress, and explanations. Abstract thought
was one of the tools used, along with geometry, that
led to physics, as Einstein said, “My pen and
I are greater than I alone.” This audiobook, read
by actor James Langton, is a fascinating overview that
gives the listener perspective on why science is important,
and how it has infinite reach. |
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June
is Audiobook Month, and in fiction there are
several interesting new releases making headlines in
the audiobook world. David Baldacci’s THE
LAST MILE in CD format is the first I’ve
seen that also includes an Mp3-CD disk for quick iPhone
or iPod download. (I have interviewed Baldacci, and
once recommended to his publisher that they do this,
but it has taken years to see it happen…and whether
I had anything to do with it is unknown. Perhaps they
will follow another suggestion and include the movie
version of books which went to film on the flip side
as DVD?) As a judge in the Audie awards again, I was
pleased to see that THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by
Paula Hawkins, read by three different actors, won Audiobook
of the Year. It will be a movie in October. MARINE
ONE by TopGun alum James W. Huston, is read
by the excellent Joe Barrett. (Huston died this year.)
And Daniel Silva’s THE ENGLISH SPY is
another Audie winner read by that most prolific of voice
actors, George Guidall. (He won for Best Male Narrator.
I met him at the Audie Awards once, a privilege since
this man is a pioneer of the industry, having voiced
no less than 1100 books!) On June 7 a new release of
one of my fav mystery authors, Lawrence Block, is also
a Guidall narration, titled HOPE TO DIE.
And please check out my ebook THE WORLD’S
FIRST TRILLIONAIRE, a satire that includes
excerpts from three of my own novels. |
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