Discover the Best Sellers Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: Nazi Women

Subtitle: The Attraction of Evil

Author: Paul Roland

Narrator: Gabrielle Glaister

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-16

Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

After the failure of the Weimar Republic, the Nazis believed their mission was to "masculinize" life in Germany. Hermann Goering told women, "Take a pot, a dustpan and a broom, and marry a man", but many still became active participants in murder and mayhem. From the Reich Bride Schools through the Bund Deutscher Mädel and the bizarre Lebensborn Aryan breeding programme to the brothels of the Sicherheitsdienst, this book covers the lives of women in the Third Reich, concentrating on those who sought personal power and influence amid the chaos and death.

Members Reviews:

Answers a lot of questions about women in the third reich

If you ever wondered why women are attracted to the most evil of men? Look no further then nazi women. This is a must listen for anyone who wants to understand the psyche of human nature. Very good listen.

Documentary lovers will enjoy

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend to some of my friends that enjoy digging deeper into history.

If youve listened to books by Paul Roland before, how does this one compare?

First book I've read by this author.

Which character as performed by Gabrielle Glaister was your favorite?

NA

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, but it was still fascinating.

Any additional comments?

Narrator did a good job, but the author should have been more in-depth for a history examining this subject. The material the author presented was enriching.

Sensationalised Misleading Title

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The title should be 'Women During The Nazi Era'. Whilst there is accounts of some truly evil Women, there is also accounts of Women who were opposed to the Nazi regime who were definitely not attracted to Evil. Also a lot is written about Women who were partners to men before the Nazis rose to power, so they were not attracted to evil just men who became evil as their power grew.

What did you like best about this story?

I found the book interesting, emotional at times and liked the insight into how terrible it must have been for a lot of Women during that period. The story of the bravery of Women risking their lives to protest the deportation of their Jewish husbands at Rosenstrasse and actually succeeding in getting them back I found particularly uplifting.

What aspect of Gabrielle Glaisters performance might you have changed?

Whilst Gabrielle's voice was pleasant enough, she really needed to research how to pronounce German names as it became slightly annoying. Albert Speer is pronounced Shpeer not Spear and Reinhard Heydrich whose name changed every time, from hay-drick, to hay-drish, to hi-drish to finally correct as hi-drick!

Do you think Nazi Women needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not under the same title theme for sure.

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Title: The Last Goodnight

Subtitle: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure, and Betrayal

Author: Howard Blum

Narrator: Tristan Morris

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-12-16

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 97 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed Dark Invasion channels Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre in this riveting biography of Betty Pack, the dazzling American debutante who became an Allied spy during WWII and was hailed by OSS chief general "Wild Bill" Donovan as "the greatest unsung heroine of the war".

Betty Pack was charming, beautiful, and intelligent - and she knew it. As an agent for Britain's MI6 and then America's OSS during World War II, these qualities proved crucial to her success.

This is the remarkable story of this "Mata Hari from Minnesota" (Time) and the passions that ruled her tempestuous life - a life filled with dangerous liaisons and death-defying missions vital to the Allied victory.

For decades much of Betty's career working for MI6 and the OSS remained classified. Through access to recently unclassified files, Howard Blum discovers the truth about the attractive blond, codenamed "Cynthia", who seduced diplomats and military attachés across the globe in exchange for ciphers and secrets; cracked embassy safes to steal codes; and obtained the Polish notebooks that proved key to Alan Turing's success with Operation Ultra.

Beneath Betty's cool, professional determination, Blum reveals a troubled woman conflicted by the very traits that made her successful: her lack of deep emotional connections and her readiness to risk everything. The Last Goodnight is a mesmerizing, provocative, and moving portrait of an exceptional heroine whose undaunted courage helped to save the world.

Members Reviews:

Fascinating

This book tells the story of an American socialite who began to spy for the British before they even declared war on Germany in 1939. She was a complicated woman who did not hesitate to abandon both her children or to cheat on the British diplomat husband. At the same time, she used her beauty, charm and intelligence to help the British clandestinely in a cause she truly believed in, risking her life and willing to do anything to achieve her goal. Everything about this book is good. I had previously known about some of the wartime events referred to in this narrative but was surprised to learn that she had had a strong hand in helping the allies achieve success. I strongly recommend this book.

Hard to get into

The book is a biography compiled of interviews and letters making it difficult to connect with the characters.

Not worth reading

Monotone narration.

Author refers to characters sometimes as first name, sometimes last, sometimes nicknames-- very confusing.

Boring

A Hero with a complex life

What did you love best about The Last Goodnight?

What a fascinating story, full of intrigue. As I was reading it was difficult not to alternate between loving and hating Ms. Pack. Read (or listen to) this book because it is an important, mostly untold story of the heroics that went on "behind the scenes" before and during WWII. It describes how people's lives were changed, guided, and sometimes destroyed by the bigger events altering their history.

Ms. Pack is a complicated woman. Some of her decisions and their consequences for those around her can anger the reader, but her life is a reminder we all have our flaws, and sometimes make turns others can judge on our path through life.

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Title: The Devil's Diary

Subtitle: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich

Author: Robert K. Wittman, David Kinney

Narrator: P. J. Ochlan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-16

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 76 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

This exploration of the private wartime diary of Alfred Rosenberg - Hitler's "chief philosopher" and architect of Nazi ideology - interweaves the story of its recent discovery with the revelation of its never-before-published contents, which are contextualized by the authors: The result is a unprecedented narrative of the Nazi rise to power, the Holocaust, and Hitler's postinvasion plans for Russia.

A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil's Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler's "chief social philosopher", Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich's genocidal crusade. It also chronicles the thrilling detective hunt for the diary, which disappeared after the Nuremburg Trials and remained lost for almost three quarters of a century, until Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent who founded the Bureau's Art Crimes Team, played an important role; he tells his story now for the first time.

The authors expertly and deftly contextualize hundreds of entries stretching from 1936 through 1944, in which the loyal Hitler advisor recounts internal meetings with the Fürher and his close associates, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler; describes the postinvasion occupation of the Soviet Union; considers the "solution" to the "Jewish question"; and discusses his overseeing of the mass seizure and cataloguing of books and artwork from homes, libraries, and museums across occupied Europe. An eyewitness to events, this narrative of Rosenberg's diary offers provocative and intimate insights into pivotal moments in the war and the notorious Nazi who laid the philosophical foundations of the Third Reich.

Members Reviews:

Fresh perspective on terrible events.

As described in the synopsis, Alfred Rosenberg's diary and experiences are at the heart of this book. It's familiar and horrible, of course, but the perspective is different and illuminating nonetheless. The book is very well written, deeply researched, and the story unfolds artfully as the personalities involved in the recovery of these documents creep off the pages. To me, the most interesting aspect comes with the story of Robert Kempner, who was among the prosecutorial team at the Nuremberg Trials. The tale of how Kempner got there, where he came from, and what he did later is a fascinating yarn, and it sets this book apart. Documents are so fragile, one appreciates all of the accidents and twists of fate that cause some to be preserved and some to disappear forever. If you like history, human perseverance, and a well told story, you will probably enjoy this book.

Worth your time

Very worth your time. Focuses on people you do not know and may never have heard about before.

Good insight

The story started slowing then gaining substance to the end. Very interesting and educative to listens to.

Very slow and dry.

I guess I was expecting more about the mind and inner workings of Nazis..

This was more of rambling 3rd person narrative.

I feel conned by this book.

What disappointed you about The Devil's Diary?

I was expecting full readinging from his diaries. What I got was a superficial reselling of the history of the nazis with a little commentary from Rosenberg.

What could Robert K.

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Title: Midnight in Broad Daylight

Subtitle: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

Author: Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-05-16

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 91 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country.

Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army. As the war raged on, Harry, one of the finest bilingual interpreters in the United States Army, island hopped across the Pacific, moving ever closer to the enemy and to his younger brothers. But before the Fukuharas would have to face each other in battle, the US detonated the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, gravely injuring tens of thousands of civilians, including members of their family. Alternating between the American and Japanese perspectives, Midnight in Broad Daylight captures the uncertainty and intensity of those charged with the fighting and provides a fresh look at the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

Critic Reviews:

"A beautifully rendered work wrought with enormous care and sense of compassionate dignity." (

Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

Interesting history

Any additional comments?

The reading is very amateurish, but the history and story are fascinating and make it worth suffering through the performance....though, I would caution the author not to use the word 'penchant' so often you start to wait for it. It is inexcusable to mispronounce a President's name and the reader should learn how Delano is pronounced correctly. In short, it is not great reading, and the writing is sometimes clumsy, but the story told is a valuable one.

A must listen

I absolutely loved this book. I learned so much while truly being entertained by fascinating real life accountings surrounding the WWII conflict between the United States and Japan. Being half Japanese, it's a wonder how I was not more aware of the some of the details regarding this. I truly believe that this should be required reading for high school students, especially in places like Hawaii where there is such a large Japanese populace.

I love nonfiction books that weave a (true) story into the fabric of the historical events. This is one of the best!

Remarkable story

Mostly good. A few issues with the spin of the story. Calling relocation camps concentration camps is clearly meant to add drama and to link the American experience to the German experience. Who ever heard of anyone joining the Army from a concentration camp? And saying it was so hot they were offered sodium chloride tablets seems a way to make salt tablets sound more serious. This penchant to put a spin on the story detracts from the authenticity of the story. But The Harry story is definitely worth reading. He, and a lot of other people were uprooted by that unnecessary war. It was good to see him win.

great story

my grandparents were interned in minidoka. this story really helped fill in the timeline. it was really interesting hearing about life in Japan and how the war affected their family.

Great true story about Japanese Americans in WWII.

After reading so much about Europe and WWII, it's great to learn about the Pacific theatre especially through the eyes of a Japanese American family.

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Title: Bush Killing Reagan

Subtitle: The Bush-Hinckley Conspiracy Bill O'Reilly Won't Tell About

Author: Niles Mercado

Narrator: Rebecca Roberts

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-28-15

Publisher: Level Press

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

George Bush, Sr. had the most to gain from President Reagan's death. To hide or conceal his involvement in the assassination attempt, George Bush would have had to either suppress or lie about his close ties with the shooter and the second gunman hiding on the roof. The story of Bush Killing Reagan is so depraved that it is no wonder the story has never been told before!

Members Reviews:

Conspiracy theorists will love this...

Great lead in to Bill O's "killing Reagan". Presented with lots of background links to more information. The conspiracy continues!

Short and definitely not mainstream....

.......but it makes more sense than the mainstream. I have puzzled about John Hinckley ever since the event happened. Just made no sense to me from the beginning. Then I recently read (before this one) O'Reilly's "Killing Reagan". I can understand why O'Reilly (for personal gain) followed the Hinckley sham. But he made no sense of it either. I must note that I also never understood why Reagan chose GHWBush as his VP. A man of Reagan's stature tapping a slithery snake like HW was puzzling back then. Now I have a pretty good idea why he did. But he did not know how dangerous that choice was. Thank God the assassination attempt failed. I would highly recommend this!!!! Fascinating!!! And far more believable than what passes for the truth.

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Title: Crete 1941

Subtitle: The Battle and the Resistance

Author: Antony Beevor

Narrator: James Langton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-17-15

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 33 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The best-selling author of Stalingrad and D-Day vividly reconstructs the epic WWII struggle for Crete - reissued with a new introduction.

Nazi Germany expected its airborne attack on Crete in 1941 to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. Little did they know that the British, using Ultra intercepts, had already laid a careful trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle around.

Prize-winning historian and best-selling author Antony Beevor lends his gift for storytelling to this important conflict, showing not only how the situation turned bad for Allied forces but also how ferocious Cretan freedom fighters mounted a heroic resistance. Originally published in 1991, Crete 1941 is a breathtaking account of a momentous battle of World War II.

Members Reviews:

Engrossing

Anthony Beevor has a distinct writing style of blending the operational aspects with human interest stories. Beevor was a regular in the 11th Hussars of the British Army. His book on Stalingrad won many prizes including the Wolfson History Prize.

This book about Crete is divided into three parts. The first part is Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece by German and Italian forces and the subsequent evacuation of the Allied forces to Crete. The second part is the largest taking up half of the book; it covers the invasion of Crete by the Germans and the evacuation of the Allied forces to Egypt. The third and last part is the organized resistance movement on Crete after the Allied defeat.

The British should have won; they had the Ultra intercepts and knew the Germans plans, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle to a lost. Beevor as a former soldier writes with a soldiers eye and a historians insight. The author dissects the leadership of both sides illuminating their achievements and follies. In particular he found fault with the New Zealand, General Freyberg, in command of Crete.

The book does not cover new information but the writing is excellent. He shows the confusion of the high command and the bravery of soldiers of both sides. James Langton does a good job narrating the book.

A modern classic of military history

Beevor's account is the definitive story of the Battle, the Occupation and the immediate aftermath. His account of the Resistance is, of necessity, sporadic and unfocused. The simple fact is that we don't know substance of many of the most famous incidents. People were unsure of what happened a half hour after the fact. Very few participants had any reason to tell the truth and there were always, every single time, fundamentally conflicting narratives. These conflicting stories came into existence immediately after the events and only became more entrenched and more contradictory as time passed. There was heroic resistance and there was accommodation and there was collaboration. The details are lost forever.

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Title: The Nuremberg Trials

Subtitle: The Nazis and Their Crimes Against Humanity

Author: Paul Roland

Narrator: Dugald Bruce Lockhart

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-10-15

Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The Nuremberg Trials were the most important criminal proceedings ever held. They established the principle that individuals will always be held responsible for their actions under international law, and brought closure to World War II, allowing the reconstruction of Europe to begin.

Members Reviews:

Justice is served

Very interesting reading,it shows that no one is above the law,the German war machine had it's day in Court and justice was served,it shows the barbaric and criminal side of those involved. It's a must read if you want to understand the reality of what happened to Germany during those dark days of war.

More of an overview.

The scope of this book is vast. It covers the process of how the trails were developed until they are finished and sentences handed out. Some sections were more detailed than others and for this reason alone I have rated only 3 stars. The writing was good. The subject matter interesting; however, there were some sections that read more like the opening rather than a complete section. In particular was the section on the psychological profile of each prisoners. This was my main interest and thus my disappointment. On the upside this book does a great job explaining how the trails developed and were carried out. I am glad a I read the book, but it as not exactly what I was hoping learn.

clear easy to read look at famous trial.

This is a clear succinct description of the Nuremberg trials of major Nazi war criminals. It explains the details well and also looks at the prosecutors and the political situation. It doesn't get too bogged down with some of the judgements and just has highlights of some parts making it pretty easy to understand and take in. overall a good book and explanation of the trials.

Passable attempt to capture the highlights

A decent overview of the trials but I feel it skips a great deal of the detail and really does not strike me as having been written by anyone with a great deal of expertise in the subject at hand. Using phrases such as the "banality of evil" which was coined to describe Eichman for another defendant struck me askew as did some of the descriptions of events which seemed sensationalized.

Five Stars

Good in it helps to remember just how horrible the 3rd Reich actually was.

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Title: The Ottoman Endgame

Subtitle: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908-1923

Author: Sean McMeekin

Narrator: Richard Poe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-13-15

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 82 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

An astonishing retelling of 20th-century history from the Ottoman perspective, delivering profound new insights into World War I and the contemporary Middle East.

Between 1911 and 1922, a series of wars would engulf the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, in which the central conflict, of course, was World War I - a story we think we know well. As Sean McMeekin shows us in this revelatory new history of what he calls the "wars of the Ottoman succession", we know far less than we think. The Ottoman Endgame brings to light the entire strategic narrative that led to an unstable new order in postwar Middle East - much of which is still felt today. The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East draws from McMeekin's years of groundbreaking research in newly opened Ottoman and Russian archives. With great storytelling flair, McMeekin makes new the epic stories we know from the Ottoman front, from Gallipoli to the exploits of Lawrence in Arabia, and introduces a vast range of new stories to Western listeners. His accounts of the lead-up to World War I and the Ottoman Empire's central role in the war itself offers an entirely new and deeper vision of the conflict. Harnessing not only Ottoman and Russian but also British, German, French, American, and Austro-Hungarian sources, the result is a truly pioneering work of scholarship that gives full justice to a multitiered war involving many belligerents.

McMeekin also brilliantly reconceives our inherited Anglo-French understanding of the war's outcome and the collapse of the empire that followed. The book chronicles the emergence of modern Turkey and the carve up of the rest of the Ottoman Empire as it has never been told before, offering a new perspective on such issues as the ethno-religious bloodletting and forced population transfers that attended the breakup of empire, the Balfour Declaration, the toppling of the caliphate, and the partition of Iraq and Syria - bringing the contemporary consequences into clear focus.

Every so often, a work of history completely reshapes our understanding of a subject of enormous historical and contemporary importance. The Ottoman Endgame is such a book, an instantly definitive and thrilling example of narrative history as high art.

Members Reviews:

WWI from a different perspective

I've listened to a lot of WWI related books over the years so maybe I'm a bit overloaded and that isreflected in my rating. There's a lot about the Ottoman Empire and what has become the modern nation of Turkey that may be new to some, but there wasn't enough new to me to rate higher. The most intriguing aspect was the way some critical events of the war were perceived from the Ottoman point of view. I also appreciated the latter few hours providing detail on the rise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"The Making of the Modern Middle East" seems an overplayed description.

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Title: 1944

Subtitle: FDR and the Year That Changed History

Author: Jay Winik

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-22-15

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 206 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

New York Times best-selling author Jay Winik brings to life in gripping detail the year 1944, which determined the outcome of World War II and put more pressure than any other on an ailing yet determined President Roosevelt.

It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did or that it would even end well. Nineteen forty-four was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler's waning power. Instead it saved those democracies - but with a fateful cost. Now, in a superbly told story, Jay Winik, the acclaimed author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval, captures the epic images and extraordinary history as never before.

1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his reelection, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris and the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But on the way, millions of more lives were still at stake as President Roosevelt was exposed to mounting evidence of the most grotesque crime in history, the Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews.

Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an all but dying Roosevelt, whose rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret. Here then, as with D-Day, was a momentous decision for the president. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Was a rescue even possible? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world's reach, including the liberation of Europe, one challenge - saving Europe's Jews - seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt's grasp.

Members Reviews:

ISIS Is amateur

Not wishing to minimize the senseless atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, but they are amateurs compared to the Nazis. Winik, with unrestrained detail chronicles the years of moral depravity of the German and Nazi people toward all who did not fit their definition of correctness. What lessons can we learn from history in closing our response to the evils of genocide? The US has and is guilty. Winik, without specifically proclaiming it, would call a halt to isolation from our moral responsibility to the value of human life. Winik's seamless weaving of so many threads of our recent history into a cohesive, illuminated picture is revelatory. I am so much better informed than I was even having personally lived through the entire epoch. Born in 1930 I was too involved in personal naval gazing to ever perceiving of a personal responsibility to be involved in attempting to effect change--for which I repent. Read the book and ask what your response should be--you may be surprised.

Stimulating

I believe that Jay Winik is attempting to claim that FDR failed the Jews or at least could have done more to save them from the Holocaust. Winik claims that FDR chose inaction time after time about stopping Hitlers Final Solution. Winik thought that FDR could have rallied the country in his fire side chats and that he could have dealt with the anti-Semitism in his own cabinet. Winik does spend time discussing FDRs health in 1944. Winik claims FDR missed his own Emancipation Proclamation Moment by not stopping the holocaust.

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Title: Symphony for the City of the Dead

Subtitle: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

Author: M. T. Anderson

Narrator: M. T. Anderson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-22-15

Publisher: Candlewick on Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 150 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history - almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943-1944. More than a million citizens perished. Survivors recall corpses littering the frozen streets, their relatives having neither the means nor the strength to bury them. Residents burned books, furniture, and floorboards to keep warm; they ate family pets and - eventually - one another to stay alive.

Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens - the Leningrad Symphony, which came to occupy a surprising place of prominence in the eventual Allied victory.

This is the true story of a city under siege: the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds. It is also a look at the power - and layered meaning - of music in beleaguered lives. Symphony for the City of the Dead is a masterwork thrillingly told and impeccably researched by National Book Award-winning author M. T. Anderson.

Members Reviews:

An Eye-Opening, Emotional Tale

Before beginning this audio book, I was only minimally familiar with classical music and had even less knowledge about the history of Russia under Communist rule. Therefore, much of the information in this book was new to me. I was both horrified and inspired by this account of life in Stalinist Russia, especially during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, and amazed by Shastakovich himself. Kudos to M. T. Anderson for clear and flowing prose and for his fine performance of it. His pronunciation of Russian names and places seemed spot on, but I don't speak Russian so I'm only guessing. I also appreciated hearing snatches of Shastakovich's music, even though Anderson's description of it was so good that the written word would have been sufficient to get a feel for it.

I highly recommend this audio book, whether you're a classical music lover or not, a history buff or not. I was neither and it has changed my life.

This book blew me away

Would you listen to Symphony for the City of the Dead again? Why?

I'll have to wait a while until I listen to this again, just because it is so intense. I had to carry tissues while I listened because the tears kept coming, both from sorrow and joy. I usually avoid books read by the author, but MT Anderson did a fantastic job.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The people of Leningrad who inexplicably survived the siege really formed the backbone of the story. Anderson provided a balanced portrayal of the good, the bad and the ugly of ordinary people struggling through unimaginable horror.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The emotional denouement was the performance of the 7th symphony in a starving Leningrad still under siege. People who had been eating wallpaper paste for months found the grace to be moved by a piece of music.

Any additional comments?

This is the kind of book you force on people, begging them to read it just so you can discuss it with somebody. It's technically a young adult book, but I'm middle aged and never found it simplistic.