Discover Most Popular Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Tiger, Tiger

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Margaux Fragoso

Narrator: Susan Bennett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-05-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 126 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

One summer day, Margaux Fragoso meets Peter Curran at the neighborhood swimming pool, and they begin to play. She is seven; he is 51. When Peter invites her and her mother to his house, the little girl finds a childs paradise of exotic pets and an elaborate backyard garden. Her mother, beset by mental illness and overwhelmed by caring for Margaux, is grateful for the attention Peter lavishes on her, and he creates an imaginative universe for her, much as Lewis Carroll did for his real-life Alice. In time, he insidiously takes on the role of Margauxs playmate, father, and lover. Charming and manipulative, Peter burrows into every aspect of Margauxs life and transforms her from a child fizzing with imagination and affection into a brainwashed young woman on the verge of suicide. But when she is 22, it is Peterill, and wracked with guiltwho kills himself, at the age of 66.

Told with lyricism, depth, and mesmerizing clarity, Tiger, Tiger vividly illustrates the healing power of memory and disclosure. This extraordinary memoir is an unprecedented glimpse into the psyche of a young girl in free fall and conveys to listenersincluding parents and survivors of abusejust how completely a pedophile enchants his victim and binds her to him.

Members Reviews:

Gripping, unflinching and very, very brave.

I applaud Margaux Fragoso for telling this harrowing, incredible and very sad true story. The content of this book is, at times, shocking and difficult to listen to but I'm glad to have experienced it. A beautiful book and listen. Thank you.

Riveting

Fragoso brings raw honesty to a horrific story. The poetic quality of her writing belies the pain, anger and suffering she recounts as survivor of child sexual abuse. While Fragoso's story is often sickening and difficult to listen to, this is a tale no parent should shy away from.

a weirdly loving diatribe against pervs.

if you've read any other reviews of this book, it has probably been brought to your attention that it is dense with reconstructed dialogue that strains the work's credibility as a memoir. this raises a lot of questions about the liberties which can be taken with this particular literary genre, but as an audiobook it creates a whole new set of concerns.

the voice characterizations provided by susan bennett do make for colorful listening, but if you would like an unsullied perspective on the controversy surrounding the author's narrative agenda and the question of how to balance one's sympathies between the memoir's subjects, it would probably be best to read the book in print or e-form first. this memoir comes across as an all-too-perfect novelization of all-too-perfectly-horrifying circumstances (although i am not calling into question the veracity of fragoso's experiences), and the vocal style in which it is read only exacerbates this. i kind of wish i could undo my listening of this book so i could actually read it tabula rasa.

in regard to the actual content, it's not quite the call for vigilance against pedophiles' tactics that a listener/reader might need to imagine it is in order to justify traversing its more uncomfortable passages. at many times the author seems narcissistically enamored with her child-self's psychological complexities and frequently paints the relationship with her abuser as a thing of demented but humane beauty that brings out the best in both of them.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Most Human Human

Subtitle: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive

Author: Brian Christian

Narrator: Brian Christian

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-11

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 472 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The Most Human Human is a provocative, exuberant, and profound exploration of the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human. Its starting point is the annual Turing Test, which pits artificial-intelligence programs against people to determine if computers can "think". Named for computer pioneer Alan Turing, the Turing Test convenes a panel of judges who pose questions - ranging anywhere from celebrity gossip to moral conundrums - to hidden contestants in an attempt to discern which is human and which is a computer. The machine that most often fools the panel wins the Most Human Computer Award. But there is also a prize, bizarre and intriguing, for the Most Human Human.

In 2008, the top AI program came short of passing the Turing Test by just one astonishing vote. In 2009, Brian Christian was chosen to participate, and he set out to make sure Homo sapiens would prevail.

The authors quest to be deemed more human than a computer opens a window onto our own nature. Interweaving modern phenomena like customer service chatbots and men using programmed dialogue to pick up women in bars with insights from fields as diverse as chess, psychiatry, and the law, Brian Christian examines the philosophical, biological, and moral issues raised by the Turing Test.

One central definition of human has been a "being that could reason". If computers can reason, what does that mean for the special place we reserve for humanity?

Critic Reviews:

"This book will surely change the way readers think about their conversations." (Booklist)

"A heady exploration of the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and human nature. Christian's examination of the way machines are forcing us to appreciate what it means to be human leads him to explore everything from poetry, chess and existentialism[and] offers an overview of the history of AI." (Kirkus Reviews)

"This is a strange, fertile, and sometimes beautiful book. It has been said that man creates images of himself, then comes to resemble the images. Something like this seems to be going on with the computer. Brian Christian writes with a rare combination of what Pascal took to be two contrary mindsets: the spirit of geometry and the spirit of finesse. He takes both the deep limitations and halting progress of artificial intelligence as an occasion for thinking about the most human activity - the art of conversation." (Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft)

Members Reviews:

A Wedding of Computer Science and Philosophy

Brian Christian has wed computer science and philosophy in The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us about What it Means to be Alive. From this book I have received new insights from Artificial Intelligence, interpersonal communication, and simple conversation. This book links computers and computer science to group and individual identity which will shift the readers thinking certainly. Parenthetically, if you are planning to read Stephen Bakers Final Jeopardy: Man vs Machine and the Quest to Know Everything you might want to read this book first. If you have completed that book, put Christians book on your reading list immediately. Well written, informative, and entertaining.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Known and Unknown

Author: Donald Rumsfeld

Narrator: Donald Rumsfeld

Format: Unabridged

Length: 30 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-08-11

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 485 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Like Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown pulls no punches. With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history: his experiences growing up during the Depression and World War II, his time as a Naval aviator; his service in Congress starting at age 30; his cabinet-level positions in the Nixon and Ford White Houses; his assignments in the Reagan administration; and his years as a successful business executive in the private sector.

Rumsfeld addresses the challenges and controversies of his illustrious career, from the unseating of the entrenched House Republican leader in 1965, to helping the Ford administration steer the country away from Watergate and Vietnam, to bruising battles over transforming the military for the 21st century, to the war in Iraq, to confronting abuse at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Along the way, he offers his plainspoken, first-hand views and often humorous and surprising anecdotes about some of the world's best-known figures, from Margaret Thatcher to Saddam Hussein, from Henry Kissinger to Colin Powell, from Elvis Presley to Dick Cheney, and each American president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush.

Rumsfeld relies not only on his memory but also on previously unreleased and recently declassified documents. Thousands of pages of documents not yet seen by the public will be made available on an accompanying website.

Known and Unknown delivers both a fascinating narrative for today's listeners and an unprecedented resource for tomorrow's historians.

Donald Rumsfeld is donating his proceeds from sales of Known and Unknown to military charities supported by the Rumsfeld Foundation.

Members Reviews:

Inside view of five decades in politics

Rumsfeld is such a polarizing figure in American politics, that I know it will be tempting for some to rate this book on whether they agree or disagree with his views. Set that aside. Whether one agrees or disagrees, it's simply a riveting look at the world of politics from an insider's point of view. Rumsfeld does a great job of reading his own material, so much so that it really feels more like listening to a storyteller in the old fashioned sense. Enjoyed it tremendously.

Known and Unknown

I have never been a fan of Rumsfeld but this is an excellent book that covers a great deal of our history for the last several decades. You get no sense that he is rewriting history to make himself and the Bush administration look better but you realize if they could have been this open at the time, they would not have lost support like they did. Sadly the necessities of war often do not allow that openness when it is needed.

No ax grinding or score settling. Just what appears to be a very honest assessment of the history he was part of.

Rumsfeld is an excellent narrator on this. He does a better job than some of the professionals on other books I have listened to.

Highly Informative about US Government Work

I listened to ALL 4 parts of this engaging narrative that was written by a master speech writer, analyst and a politician. I learn more than I expected from a book about military matters.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Cross and the Switchblade

Author: David Wilkerson

Narrator: Paul Michael

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-17-11

Publisher: christianaudio.com

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 264 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The astonishing true story of Wilkerson's outreach to New York teens trapped by drugs and gangs.

Gang-fighters! Drug addicts. Teenage runaways and prostitutes! The toughest and most hopeless kids that New York's ghettos had to offer. Then a young preacher from the Pennsylvania hills arrived on their turf and began preaching a message of renewal, miracles, and God's love. This is one of the century's great true stories. Over 14 million copies in print!

Members Reviews:

hope when there is no hope

A very inspiring true account of many set free by the power of the Holy Spirit when there is no earthly hope. And how God can lead those who follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to reach those who they seemingly have nothing in common with.

This book will impact your heart and soul!

Not only is the content of the book excellent but the reader does an amazing job in his delivery. I highly recommend this book and it will impact your heart.

Amazing and inspirational true story!!

I couldn't hardly wait to keep listening to this story! It was moving, inspirational, and lit a fire inside of me! Thank you thank you!!

This what it means to live as Christian

The book is a fine example of what it means when God says "Not by power or by might, but by my spirit."

Very Enjoyable Listen You Won't Be Disappointed

Any additional comments?

A great book, very good narration with very touching stories to go with it. You will not be disappointed in this book. Heartfelt funny and uplifting. I could have listened to this book in one sitting. Great way to spend your time.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Some Girls

Subtitle: My Life in a Harem

Author: Jillian Lauren

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-16-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 299 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A jaw-dropping story of how a girl from the suburbs ends up in a prince's harem, and emerges from the secret Xanadu both richer and wiser.

At 18, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition. The "casting director" told her that a rich businessman in Singapore would pay pretty American girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties.

Soon, Jillian was on a plane to Borneo, where she would spend the next 18 months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei, leaving behind her gritty East Village apartment for a palace with rugs laced with gold and trading her band of artist friends for a coterie of backstabbing beauties.

More than just a sexy read set in an exotic land, Some Girls is also the story of how a rebellious teen found herself - and the courage to meet her birth mother and eventually adopt a baby boy.

Critic Reviews:

"Lauren... is a deft storyteller, imparting equal parts poignant reflection and wisdom into her enlightening book. A gritty, melancholy memoir leavened by the author's amiable, engrossing narrative tenor." (Kirkus Reviews)

"While the surprising and exotic subject matter is sure to pique interest, Laurens graceful, introspective prose lifts her unusual memoir far above the level of mere titillation." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Eat, Pray, Love for "naughty" girls

Intriguing story, well told. My favorite kind of book is nonfiction that reads like a novel, and this fits that bill beautifully. I compare Jillian Lauren's memoir to Elizabeth Gilbert's because in both cases there is a lot of introspection and what you might call excessive navel-gazing (to some extent this is what good memoirs are supposed to do). Both are about gutsy, adventurous women, and both women are exceptionally good writers. Personally, I can relate to the Some Girls story of a young woman's foray into the world of high-class sex trade than Gilbert's story of a year of celibate meditation. Kudos to Lauren for her courage. She presents the complexities of her experience both in the sex trade in New York and in a Harem in Brunei in a way that makes the gray areas stand out - the temptation for many people would be to either glamorize this experience or render it all 100% evil.

Boring, Pretentious Book

Some people earn the right to write about something just because they were there, where the action took place. Imagine a book from a Chilean miner who was trapped in the mine pit. I would buy it.

But it takes at least some talent and honesty in order to tell a good story, even if you are a first hand witness. Lauren has neither.

First of all, maybe 30% of the book is about the "harem". The rest is about a vain, self-absorbed, pretentious girl trying to convince us that she is great because of her inner qualities (not true), and not because she is pretty and guys want to have sex with her (true).

We don't need a spoilers alert, because nothing happens. The Prince has a compound with a mansion and several cottages (small houses) around a swimming pool. He uses an agent who enrolls prostitutes to live there for some months at a time and leave with a lot of money. The only thing they do is to have a sort of karaoke party every night at the mansion. The Prince comes and stays for half an hour, picks up a girl and leaves.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Triumph

Subtitle: Life after the Cult - a Survivor's Lessons

Author: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer

Narrator: Ann Marie Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-04-10

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 207 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The author of The New York Times best seller Escape returns with a moving and inspirational tale of her life after she heroically fled the cult she'd been raised in, her hard-won new identity and happiness, and her determination to win justice for the crimes committed against her family.

In 2003, Carolyn Jessop, 35, a lifelong member of the extremist Mormon sect the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), gathered up her eight children, including her profoundly disabled four-year-old son, and escaped in the middle of the night to freedom. Jessop detailed the story of her harrowing flight and the shocking conditions that sparked it in her 2007 memoir, Escape. Reveling in her newfound identity as a best-selling author, a devoted mom, and a loving companion to the wonderful man in her life, Jessop thought she had put her past firmly behind her.

Then, on April 3, 2008, it came roaring back. On that date, the state of Texas staged a surprise raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a sprawling, 1,700-acre compound near Eldorado, Texas, to which the jailed FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs had relocated his sects most worthy members three years earlier.

The ranch was being run by Merril Jessop, Carolyn's ex-husband and one of the cult's most powerful leaders.

In Triumph, Jessop tells the real, and even more harrowing, story behind the raid and sets the public straight on much of the damaging misinformation that flooded the media in its aftermath. She recounts the setbacks (the tragic decision of the Supreme Court of Texas to allow the children in state custody to return to their parents) as well as the successes (the fact that evidence seized in the raid is the basis for the string of criminal trials of FLDS leaders that began in October 2009 and will continue throughout 2010), all while weaving in details of her own life since the publication of her first book.

Members Reviews:

Helped me to look at the raid differently.

I listened to Carolyn's first book "Escaped" and was fascinated. I wasn't sure this book would have that much new info, but decided to take the chance. I'm glad I did, as it made me look at the whole raid that took place on the FDLS community in 2008 differently. I remember reading about it, watching it on the news, watching the Oprah show where she interviewed the woman. At the time I thought, I wouldn't personally choose to live that way, but those woman seem to be happy with their choice, so they have that right.. But after listening to this book I realize that the woman of this community are "trained" to say and do the "right" thing, and what we saw on tv was just the result of years of brainwashing these woman experienced. After listening to this book, I'm disappointed that the children were eventually returned to this life style without more being offered to the mothers as a way out.

The first part of the book is about the raid, the 2nd part is more of an update as to what has happened in Carolyn's life and her childrens life after their escape. There's quite a bit of info about her oldest daughter, Betty, too, and about her return to the FDLS..

Ann Marie Lee narrates the book and does a great job.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Flight to Heaven

Subtitle: A Plane Crash...a Lone Survivor...a Journey to Heaven - and Back

Author: Dale Black

Narrator: Dale Black

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-01-10

Publisher: Oasis Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 144 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The flight to heaven changed Dale's life, and now he allows it to be told in hopes of encouraging others with this wondrous experience.

Members Reviews:

Great Story of Recovery and Faith

Dale Black's story of his recovery from a terrible airplane crash is in itself inspirational. He fights through the rehabilitation and the experts telling him a full recovery is not possible.

Dale fully believes he went to heaven, and credits his Christian faith for getting him through. Dale narrates the story himself, and, although he is not a great narrator, his sincerity absolutely comes through. I would have preferred if the book had been organized differently (it bounces back and forth between events happening years later and the story of the crash and his recovery), but that's simply a matter of preference. Overall, it is a fascinating and inspirational book.

Listeners should be aware that this book is very evangelical. If that is not your cup of tea, this book is not for you.

Amazing!

Dale Black's heart & sincerity are amazing. His story gives us so much hope that eternity with Jesus, will be wonderful.

Disappointing

What would have made Flight to Heaven better?

More about heaven

What was most disappointing about Dale Blacks story?

His story became repetitive and boring. Seemed he was bragging about his accomplishments and faith.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

OK

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

NO,,,,,some sharing of the faith and miracles would have been good, But blow by blow descriptions of his life became very boring.

Any additional comments?

Would not recommend.......I put it on fast speed and tried to get some of the good nuggets and there were some, but came close to giving up completely.

Very good book.

Where does Flight to Heaven rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

The book is read by the author. I thought it was easy to follow along and he kept your interest.

What did you like best about this story?

He described what heaven was like and how he had changed after the crash.

Have you listened to any of the narrators other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The only survivor of a horrific plane crash, Dale was hovering between life and death when he had a wondrous experience of heaven. What he saw, what he heard, and what he learned there continues to ripple through his life and touch others.

Against all odds, Dale miraculously recovered from his injuries and learned to fly again.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book to others. A remarkable story.

Very inspirational, emotional and humbling

I must be honest .. I was looking for a book about heaven, but what I found in this book is so much more. Yes, he talks about heaven almost in the middle of the book. but thats a very small part of the story. The fact that God used the crash to change his and many more lives is the real story. Dale Black inspired me to have the conversation with others about the state of their souls. I loved this book and having the author read the book was perfect. The emotion in his voice were so real. You will not be dissapointed with this book.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Scent of the Missing

Subtitle: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog

Author: Susannah Charleson

Narrator: Susannah Charleson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-14-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 377 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Susannah Charleson was so impressed by the newspaper photo of an exhausted handler and his search-and-rescue dog that she decided to train a dog of her own. A dog lover and pilot with search experience herself, Charleson got Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever, who from the start, exhibited a unique aptitude for search-and-rescue work. But the puppys willfulness challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years.

Scent of the Missing is the story of Susannah and Puzzles adventures and the complex relationship they forge as they help in the pursuit and recovery of people who have fallen prey to crime, misadventure, or catastrophe: a missing teenager, an Alzheimers patient wandering in the cold, signs of the crew amid the debris of the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

Critic Reviews:

Riveting.All dog lovers should read this book. (Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human)

In this celebration of the human-animal bond, a fascinating woman has written eloquently about her fascinating colleague, Puzzle. I loved this book. (Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs)

Members Reviews:

Fascinating

This was one of those books I couldn't wait to get back to every time I had to stop listening. I was sad when I had reached the end. This is definitely one I'll listen to again.

Excellent!

This story was great. I really appreciated the perspective from the inside. I respect all trainers, handlers, and of course, the rescue animals. I love the bond that forms. Very happy to have listened to this story.

Hurray! A dog book by someone who has DOGS

After reading several of the latest dog books from authors drawing conclusions about dogs based on living with ONE dog, this book by Susannah Charleson was a breath of fresh air. Charleson has not only trained and worked with Search & Rescue dogs, she has lived with many dogs and many breeds of dogs and worked with animal rescue groups as well. In addition to actually knowing dogs, Charleson doesn't make sweeping conclusions about dogs or their people. Scent of the Missing has a very accurate subtitle, "Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog". Although Charleson discusses her SAR work outside of her work with her own dog Puzzle and SAR work in general, SotM is very much a personal memoir about one woman and one dog and their personal and professional relationship.

Charleson had some professional writing experience prior to writing this book and apparently had done some voice over work in the past also, but I still had some trepidation about a book written without a co-author or ghost writer AND an audio book with author as narrator. I have rarely liked authors as narrator except for Neil Gaiman, but Susannah Charleson is good. She's a competent writer - the book is interesting, well organized, funny, and touching - and, I really liked her narration. She has a pleasant voice and you can hear the emotional investment she had in the story; it added a lot of energy and warmth to the telling. If you are looking for detailed information about High Visibility SAR work (like September 11th or Hurricane Katrina), this isn't it. But if you are interested in a good primer on how both people and dogs get into SAR work and what that life is like, this would be a great place to start.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Pacific

Author: Hugh Ambrose

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Format: Unabridged

Length: 23 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-04-10

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 403 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this companion to the HBO miniseries - executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman - Hugh Ambrose reveals the intertwined odysseys of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot during World War II.

Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan. From the debacle in Bataan, to the miracle at Midway and the relentless vortex of Guadalcanal, their solemn oaths to their country later led one to the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot and the others to the coral strongholds of Peleliu, the black terraces of Iwo Jima, and the killing fields of Okinawa, until at last the survivors enjoyed a triumphant, yet uneasy, return home.

In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of the five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor that were pinned on three of them came at a shocking price - a price paid in full by all.

Members Reviews:

Big let down

I have 59 Audiobooks in my library, many of which

dealing with the Marines and battles in this book. Having finished listening to it yesterday, "The Pacific" is without a doubt the most confusing and poorly narrated of all.

Great story - poor narration

The narration of this book misses on many counts. The reader's monotone voice hides the emotion that should be the center of this tale. There is no clear organization of the telling, chapters flow together like a runon sentence.

I believe another reader would make this story come alive.

So Vivid It Left Me Breathless

In the forward the author makes it clear that this book has a different approach from other approaches to narrating history. This is not a comprehensive book about the war in the Pacific in its entirety. Nor is it a detailed account of a particular battle. Its not the experience of one person. Instead it is the intertwined story of five men collectively they experienced many of the wars vast trials.

I found the narration to be clear and straightforward. It does not need a great deal of inflection the writing is so vivid it stands on its own. In part one I found myself breathing hard as I listened to what it was like to be a dive bomber pilot rolling into a seventy degree dive raining down on a Japanese carrier at the battle of Midway. I felt revolted at the recount of enduring a Japanese POW camp on The Philippians. When I heard the detailed incredible struggle of John Basalones machine gun battle on Guadalcanal I was speechless. It just keeps going on and on I was amazed.

A few warnings will make sure you enjoy this book. First, I did initially find it confusing when the narrator switches from story to story. I relaxed and told myself the confusion was part of my own vicarious experience. About one third of the way through I was familiar enough with the stories to make that issue go away.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Last American Man

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert

Narrator: Patricia Kalember

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-03-09

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 180 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of 17, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature.

To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel about how our men should be, but rarely are.

Members Reviews:

Glad to Get to Know my Neighbor

I haven't read anything else by Elizabeth Gilbert, but she made a great first impression here. I live in Boone, North Carolina, and my land sits just above Eustace Conway's place. Though I'd heard about him, I'd never met him. I bought this book because he drove up on his motorcycle the other day and struck up a conversation with me. He's intriguing, really present, curious, and unassuming. The last was the only thing that remained surprising after reading the book, and it was only a half hour conversation, so I wouldn't profess to know him.

He wanted to see my chickens, I offered him a fig tree in the spring, and we talked about asparagus. We also talked about solar heating, a green house I built, and he offered to show me how to do some blacksmithing, which I'll gladly take him up on. The whole encounter made me really think about modern interactions, or our lack thereof. Nobody's ever just walked up to my house, introduced themselves, and started a pleasant conversation with me. A sane person, who wasn't selling something. It's never happened to me before, and it got me thinking about how isolated we've become.

I'd never thought about it, but when I was younger, I recall talking with strangers more. In a waiting room, a line, on a subway or plane . . . . Now, I'm generally listening to a book or something in my own personal bubble. I like that time, don't get me wrong, but it's a major shift in how we interact with others I hadn't really noticed. Private in public space--kind of shutting other people out. I don't even welcome most interactions with strangers anymore, as I have better ways to pass the time on my phone. But I wonder if I'm getting lazy. Missing out on experiences like this one.

I had no idea about the fascinating things he's done in his life, only that he's a well-known guy in the area, and that he owns and runs the Turtle Island Preserve. Obviously, the book was even more interesting having just met him, and knowing the places and many of the people discussed in the book, but I think I would have found it just as interesting had this not been the case.

He's had some extraordinary adventures and his many accomplishments are something beyond impressive, but what I really liked most about this book was the treatment of his faults and issues, and his painful relationship with his dad.