Discover the Top 100 Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

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: Great Masters: Mahler - His Life and Music

Author: The Great Courses

Narrator: Professor Robert Greenberg Ph.D. University of California Berkeley

Format: Original Recording

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-08-13

Publisher: The Great Courses

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 137 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

More than many other composers, Gustav Mahler's works are highly personal expressions of his inner world, a world of overwhelming alienation and loneliness - "thrice homeless," in his own words, "as a Bohemian in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, as a Jew throughout the world - everywhere an intruder, never welcomed."

Incredibly, Mahler was able to draw upon the diversity of this world that offered him no true home, as well as his often tortured inner world, to create rich and original music. It's a music whose power you will be able to appreciate fully after experiencing this eight-lecture exploration of the life and work of this titan of post-Romantic musical history, a complex, anxiety-bound visionary whose continual search for perfection and the answers to life's mysteries is profoundly reflected in his symphonies and songs.

You'll learn, through both lectures and musical excerpts, how his symphonies are vast repositories of his intellectual, emotional, and spiritual expression that made him the first exponent of Expressionism, the early 20th-century art movement that celebrates inner reality as the only reality - but explored by Mahler using the musical language of the century just ended. And you'll learn how Mahler's music is, ultimately, about himself: the lonely, isolated individual.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Members Reviews:

A Great Survey of Mahler's Life and Major Works

Good enough that my major complaint is I wish it were just longer. Professor Greenberg with his wit, knowledge, and charisma is able to draw a nice narrative arc through the life of Gustav Mahler. This course is broken into 8 lectures:

1. Introduction & Childhood

2. Mahler the Conductor

3. Early Songs and Symphony 1

4. The Wunderhorn Symphonies

5. Alma and Vienna

6. Family Life and Symphony 5

7. Symphony 7 & Das Lied von de Erde

8. Das Lied, Final Symphonies, & the End.

It all felt a bit too compressed for me. Perhaps I'm just spoiled because I've been listening also to his 30 Greatest Orchestral Works and each piece in that recording is given a whole lecture (45 minutes). I would have liked to see more time on each of his major symphonies and works AND not lose any of the actual history.

But really, that is my only major complaint. I would recommend for the serious listener to also go buy the major symphonies (from major labels and great conductors) and listen to them a couple times while listening to this course. I fell in love with Mahler's 5th & 9th before this course, but this course gave me a lot more of Mahler to love.

Another home run

This is the fourth of Greenberg's composer series that I have listened to, the others being on Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Bach. While Mahler is my least favorite composer of the four, I thought that these lectures were the best I've heard so far. Greenberg connects Mahler's life with his music in very compact chunks that made me want to hear more. As usual, Greenberg's lecture style is charming and amusing and he moves the lectures along at a good pace.

If only could it be longer

Such a course feels like an appetizer. I want to hear more now.

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: Voltaire and the Triumph of the Enlightenment

Author: The Great Courses

Narrator: Professor Alan Charles Kors

Format: Original Recording

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-08-13

Publisher: The Great Courses

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 132 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Discover why intellectuals and historians alike consider Voltaire to be one of the most intriguing, influential, and elusive thinkers of the modern world. Focusing on the deepest, most enduring aspects of Voltaire's work and thought, but never losing sight of the colorful, fascinating man himself, these 12 lectures sketch for you a vibrant, thought-provoking vision of Voltaire as "the father of the Enlightenment" and one of the great literary personalities of all time.

You'll follow this Enlightenment thinker's 84 astoundingly productive years and go inside not only his masterpiece, Candide, but the hundreds of other works in almost all the literary, philosophical, and polemical genres current in his day, and the more than 20,000 letters this prolific writer and thinker left behind.

What was Voltaire's world like? Who and what influenced him? What questions and dilemmas did he ponder? What evils did he struggle against? What reforms did he advocate? What made him laugh and cry, or write a book like Candide, which is at once so funny and so sad? And what is his place in the history of the Western mind? The answers to these and other questions can be found right here in this illuminating lecture series. If you're unfamiliar with Voltaire and his works, prepare to meet one of Western literature's defining writers. And if you already have some familiarity with the man, prepare to discover even more insights into why he still matters after all these years.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Members Reviews:

Enlightenment ideas still relevant today

This was one of my favorite Great Courses. I wasnt expecting to like it as much as I did. My only real exposure to Voltaire before this was reading Candide in high school. The professor has such passion for the topic, and manages to pass it on to the listener. I felt I learned so much about not just Voltaire but the times he lived in, especially about the forces in French society that led to the revolution, and the figures of the Enlightenment that continue to impact us today.

I thought Prof. Kors was one of the best professors in the Great Courses series -- I always looked forward to listening to him.

I also thought this one was perfect on audio. I never had any confusion because this wasnt in video form. And I find I make much more progress on Great Courses that are in audio since Im not tethered to the TV. That said, anyone new to the Great Courses should realize that they sound like a professor lecturing (which is what it is) and not like a narrator reading an audiobook. I actually find that more engaging, but I realize some listeners prefer a smooth narration, rather than someone lecturing from a podium.

outstanding. clear and illustrative!!! I'm spanish

outstanding.

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: Great Masters: Shostakovich - His Life and Music

Author: The Great Courses

Narrator: Professor Robert Greenberg

Format: Original Recording

Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-08-13

Publisher: The Great Courses

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 157 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Dmitri Shostakovich is without a doubt one of the central composers of the 20th century. His symphonies and string quartets are mainstays of the repertoire. But Shostakovich is also a figure whose story raises challenging and exciting issues that go far beyond music: they touch on questions of conscience, the moral role of the artist, the plight of humanity in the face of total war and mass oppression, and the inner life of history's bloodiest century. And though he was not without flaws, he was a faithful witness to the survival of the human spirit under totalitarianism.

And now you can discover the extraordinary life, times, and music of Shostakovich in a probing series of eight lectures from an acclaimed conductor, teacher, and music historian. Drawing on both the flood of declassified documents from the Soviet Union that began in 1991 and Shostakovich's own extraordinarily frank posthumous reminiscences, Professor Greenberg shows how Shostakovich, who, in the words of a friend, "did not want to rot in a prison or a graveyard" was still unwilling to become a docile instrument of the Soviet regime.

You'll learn how what he would not say publicly in words, he instead said through his music - messages from a buried life of his experiences during the terror of Stalin, the Nazi destruction of his country, postwar reconstruction, and the arms race.

In work after work, often composed under crushing difficulty and anxiety, you'll hear how he used a brilliant arsenal of ironic conceits, musical quotes from un-Soviet sources such as American jazz or Jewish klezmer tunes, and other techniques to assert the integrity of his art in the face of totalitarian oppression, and to pay, as he said, "homage to the dead."

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Members Reviews:

Living the Great Terror

Prof Greenberg brings us through the life of this great composer against the backdrop of Stalin's regime during the purges before and after WW2. It is an unforgettable tour de force of music and history that makes you cringe and maybe even cry. Set in context, this body of work is a microcosm of the horror, and yet beautiful too. We stand in awe of what it took to bring art out of this turmoil that was the USSR when just surviving was a risk. Listening to this series is will bring it to life, amazing!

Superb Course: Greenberg on Speed

I have had a very hit-and-miss experience with Greenberg's courses. His opera appreciation course is excellent. His Wagner course abysmal. This course is very good and packed with exactly what I want from a course like this.

I have listened to and seen live performances of Shostakovich's music but never much cared for his modernist style. His music seemed confused and convoluted to me. Of course, discordance was all the rage after the turn of the century so I have for years just taken Shostakovich as "not for me".

This set of lectures does what great teaching ought to do. It opened my mind to a new experience and instilled an enthusiasm to go deeper. That's what I like about the really great courses. They encourage me to go well beyond what is presented.

Dr. Greenberg perfectly balances biography with explanation of the music through stories and music samples.

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 Life and Operas of Verdi

Author: The Great Courses

Narrator: Professor Robert Greenberg

Format: Original Recording

Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-08-13

Publisher: The Great Courses

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 112 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

The Italians have a word for the sense of dazzling beauty produced by effortless mastery: sprezzatura. And perhaps no cultural form associated with Italy is as steeped in the love of sprezzatura as opera, a genre the Italians invented. No composer has embodied the ideal of sprezzatura as magnificently as Giuseppe Verdi, the gruff, self-described "farmer" from the Po Valley who gave us 28 operas and remains to this day the most popular composer in the genre's 400-year-old history. His operas are produced more than those of any other composer, and one source claims that his La Traviata (1853) has been staged live somewhere around the world every evening for the past 100 years!

This series of 32 lectures from one of music's most acclaimed teachers combines biography with a variety of musical excerpts to reveal the treasures of creativity that account for this popularity. It explores in depth and detail both the famous and not-so-famous Verdi operas, as well as his one great concert work, the Requiem Mass of 1874; his early songs; and his very last composition, a setting of the Stabat Mater. You trace his development from a more or less conventional composer of operas in the traditional Italian bel canto (beautifully sung) style to a creator of truly innovative musical dramas in which the power of music to intensify and explore human emotion is exploited to the fullest degree.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Members Reviews:

Viva Verdi!

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

An excellent review of an amazing man

What other book might you compare The Life and Operas of Verdi to and why?

How to Listen to and Understand Great Operas, Operas of Wagner

Which character as performed by Professor Robert Greenberg was your favorite?

Excellent review of Verdi

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

From Italy with Love

Any additional comments?

Prof. Greenberg does and excellent job with these courses. I signed up for Audible 19 months ago and have listened almost exclusively to his courses. Having just finished Verdi, I have listened to all of his courses. It took over 13 days worth of listening according to the Audible clock. My appreciation for music and its composers has been greatly enhanced by listening to Prof. Greenberg's courses. I highly recommend listening to his courses.

The Life and Operas of Verdi

I came late to an appreciation of opera, and found this course to be a fantastic adjunct to my growing knowledge. Sometimes I think the professor was a bit snarky and tried too hard to be funny, but that is merely a quibble. He provided an amazing amount of detail about Verdi's life, and much valuable information about the major operas. I did think he dwelt too long on Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, but that is quite understandable, since it was a radical departure for Verdi (whose operas tended toward the tragic). Now I want to go visit Buzetto and see Verdi's home, and I can hardly wait until June, when La Traviata will be performed at Masada.

Informative and Interesting Course

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

Overall I would recommend it with reservations. The Italian and Latin pronunciation of Professor Greenberg is atrocious.

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 Masked Rider

Subtitle: Cycling in West Africa

Author: Neil Peart

Narrator: Brian Sutherland

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-07-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 52 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Dysentery, drunken soldiers, and corrupt officials provide the background for Neil Peart's physical and spiritual cycling journey through West Africa.

The prolific drummer for the rock band Rush travels through African villages, both large and small, and relates his story through journal entries and tales of adventure, while simultaneously addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels. Literary and artistic sidekicks such as Aristotle, Dante, and Van Gogh join Peart and his cycling companions, reminding the listener that this is not just another travel book - it is a story of both external and introspective discovery and adventure.

Members Reviews:

wonderfully done

Where does The Masked Rider rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

One of the best I have listen to. Brian Sutherland does a great job of catching Neil Peart's expressiveness with his reading.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The narrator.

Have you listened to any of Brian Sutherlands other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listen to Brian's work on other Neil Peart books and he does a great job.

Downbeat and Disappointed in Cameroon

Most helpful thing I have to say - if you're looking for a great book about travelling through Africa on two wheels - get Sam Manicom's "Into Africa".

My summary of Masked Rider - he didn't enjoy the trip, didn't like Cameroon or it's inhabitants, didn't like his travelling companions. And didn't even manage to get some humour out of it.

Whatever the opposite of inspiring is, this book was it for me.

Life Lessons Through Diversity

Interesting story about the villages in Cameroon and insight on a journey through a Third World country without having to be there and experience the hardship on your own. Neil does a great job putting you there with him on the bicycle, interacting with the others on the tour and of course the typical wisdom that he possesses continues to help extrapolate the lessons from the books he reads on the trip and just basically dealing with others on a month long journey. Really enjoyed the book, I have always been a fan of his drumming but as I grow older realize more of the similarities that I have other than just music.

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 Real Jane Austen

Subtitle: A Life in Small Things

Author: Paula Byrne

Narrator: Kate Reading

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-07-13

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 60 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things offers a startlingly original look at the revered writer through a variety of key moments, scenes, and objects in her life and work. Going beyond previous traditional biographies which have traced Austen's daily life from Steventon to Bath to Chawton to Winchester, Paula Byrne's portrait - organized thematically and drawn from the most up-to-date scholarship and unexplored sources - explores the lives of Austen's extended family, friends, and acquaintances.

Through their absorbing stories, we view Austen on a much wider stage and discover unexpected aspects of her life and character. Byrne transports us to different worlds - the East Indies and revolutionary Paris - and different events - from a high-society scandal to a petty case of shoplifting, She follows Austen on her extensive travels, setting her in contexts both global and English, urban and rural, political and historical, social and domestic - wider perspectives of vital and still underestimated importance to her creative life.

Literary scholarship has revealed that letters and tokens in Austens novels often signal key turning points in the unfolding narrative. This groundbreaking biography explores Jane's own story following the same principle. As Byrne reveals, small things in the writer's world - a scrap of paper, a simple gold chain, an ivory miniature, a bathing machine - hold significance in her emotional and artistic development.

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things introduces us to a woman deeply immersed in the world around her, yet far ahead of her time in her independence and ambition; to an author who was an astute commentator on human nature and the foibles of her own age. Rich and compelling, it is a fresh, insightful, and often surprising portrait of an artist and a vivid evocation of the complex world that shaped her.

Members Reviews:

For fans of Austen, Regency England

Absolutely loved this book. The author weaves in historical events, places, objects, existing correspondence to/from/about Austen, and quotes from Austen's writing to give a fascinating view of Jane Austen and her world. It's well written and Kate Reading's narration is, as always, wonderful.

Understanding what could have informeher writing

A lot of the biographies didn't make sense. Her writings are not at all uninformed of "the stormy sisterhood" of the passions as the Bronte (I think ) criticism states. This work follows logical and detailed paths to discover what in her life would have given her such depth of knowledge.

A very enjoyable and personal biography

A long book, but still interesting. It brings a unique and detail oriented view of Jane Austen and her life and writings.

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: Jenni Rivera

Subtitle: The Incredible Story of a Warrior Butterfly

Author: Leila Cobo

Narrator: Alma Cuervo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-24-13

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 26 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Like a blazing shooting star, Jenni Rivera lit up the lives of millions of people, yet the sky swept her away before her time.

A complete, entertaining, and objective biography. Written by one of the countrys leading experts in Latin music.

Jenni Rivera was the top-selling artist within the Regional Mexican music genre. With a weekly radio show, her own reality show, a makeup and clothing line, and her own foundation, she was at the height of her career and life. Everything she had conquered, with blood, sweat, tears, and smiles, happened, as she said, with God leading her by the hand. However her life, her dreams, and the joy she shared with so many came to a tragic end just before dawn on December 9, 2012.

In Jenni Rivera: The Incredible Story of a Warrior Butterfly, Leila Cobo - pianist, TV host, and Executive Director for Latino content and programming at Billboard - brings us Jenni Riveras intimate and moving biography, reflecting on the party girl, the elegant woman, the great diva, the friend, the mother, and the grandmother. Discover the humble beginnings of Jennis life and career, as well as the emotional and sometimes turbulent moments that defined her persona and spirit. Like a candle blown out before her time, we not only lost the Unforgettable One, the Queen of Queens, the Warrior Butterfly, we also lost a brave woman who fearlessly faced lifes ups and downs to attain the happiness she so fervently wanted for herself and her family. With Jennis departure, we celebrate a shining legacy that will forever reverberate within every note of her voice.

Members Reviews:

I love Jenny

I absolutely loved it. Jenny was absolutely a caterpillar who turned into being a beautiful strong butterfly.

Very amazed!

There is a lot of detail given of her life in this book. It's worth minute of your time.

IfU Don't know herThisBook explains her beginning

I liked the book but I though this book was unbreakable so I returned it. It gave me more insight of her life since I don't follow news or watched her cable episodes.

great book. well developed story

this is jennys life well summarized. its not sbout the writter but about jenni.

She is truly the Mexican American pride

She is family! I love her and met her before fame and after fame she never forgot me! we are family!

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: Istanbul

Subtitle: Memories and the City

Author: Orhan Pamuk

Narrator: John Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-09-13

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 100 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the worlds great cities, by its foremost writer. Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy - or hüzün - that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters - both Turkish and foreign - who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyces Dublin and Borges Buenos Aires, Pamuks Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

Critic Reviews:

"Delightful, profound, marvelously original.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." (The Washington Post Book World)

"Far from a conventional appreciation of the city's natural and architectural splendors, Istanbul tells of an invisible melancholy and the way it acts on an imaginative young man, aggrieving him but pricking his creativity." (The New York Times)

"Brilliant...Pamuk insistently discribes [a] dizzingly gorgeous, historically vibrant metropolis." (Newsday)

Members Reviews:

travel that never leaves home

Orphan has got to be the most popular author in Turkey right now. His books are piled up everywhere.It was hard for me to relate to his spoon fed life, but the story of his first love was poignant and his decision to become a writer even though his parents had him enrolled to be an architect was also very interesting. The book jumps all over the place chronologically and there is an awful lot about French writers who came to sum up Istanbul after only very short visits. Orhan describes the city as black and white and melancholy. These seem to be right on point and I tried to look at some of the dilapidated buildings that sit often nearby the fantastic mosques that are ubiquitous here. There are lots of small neighborhoods with steep winding streets to explore. The place is surrounded by sea and teems with vitality.This was really a biography and we learn about Orhan's childhood and sibling rivalries and a great deal about his personal life. I wonder what a book exploring places like Anatolia would read like. In the end, Istanbul appears different than other cities. There is a reverence for the past, but there is the same desperate passion to get rich quickly that every city seems to exude in it's hollow pursuit of money that really lies at its heart.

Streets of Istanbul

Interesting insight to the son of a rich man and how impacted his life as a boy, artist and writer. The history of Istanbul emerging from an Ottoman Empire into a Turkish city that become an international stopping place from all over the world. Sitting on the peninsula that joins Asia with Europe. The Muslim religion is evident in all the historic Mosques and buildings that are a staple of the vistas seen in the city.

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: Catch a Fire

Subtitle: The Life of Bob Marley

Author: Timothy White

Narrator: Peter Macon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-28-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 48 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

This is the classic biography of reggae legend Bob Marley, updated and revised for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. Bob Marley left an indelible mark on modern music, both as a reggae pioneer and as an enduring cultural icon.

Catch a Fire, now a classic rock biography, delves into the life of this man, the leader of a musical and spiritual revolution that continues today. The book chronicles Marleys life and career, as well as the milieu that shaped his spiritual and political beliefs. Under the supervision of the authors widow and with the collaboration of a Marley expert, this fourth edition contains a wealth of new material, including many revisions made by the author before his untimely death.

This new edition, factually updated throughout, chronicles Marleys legacy in recent years, as well as the ongoing controversy over the possibility that Marleys remains might be exhumed from Nine Mile, Jamaica, and reburied in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where hundreds of Rastafarians live. Fascinating inside information about the intrigues of the reggae music business, the dramatic rise of Marleys musical offspring, the complex legal struggles surrounding the Marley estate, and a sweeping social history of modern Jamaica, as well as the Rastafarian religion, also make up this expanded edition.

Critic Reviews:

A gripping biography. I enjoyed it immensely. (James A. Michener, #1

New York Timesbestselling author)

Probably the finest biography ever written about a popular musician. (

San FranciscoChronicle)

White has a deep appreciation for reggaes immediacy, hypnotic power, and contradictionsAn exhaustively researched labor of love.ChicagoSun-Times

Members Reviews:

Missed the mark....

I feel badly giving this book a poor review just because the writer put so much passion into it (per the introduction). However, this book missed the mark in so many ways. The picture the author tried to paint especially in the beginning of the book is so inaccurate. I am not sure how thorough his research was but you can tell nuances of the way of life - the practices, lifestyle, day to day language, etc. was way off. The researcher either did not understand what was told to him or just plainly made up things that had nothing to do with Marley's early life. He would reference palettes for beds - the poorest people in Jamaica do not sleep on palettes. Back then the poorest people slept on proper mattresses filled with processed coconut coir. People didn't have clans in Jamaica, nor used that term. Parents would tell their children about Blackheart Man but that was because it was not unusual for little children as young as three years old to walk in clusters to school or Sunday school and this was a way to get them to avoid strangers. The concept of the Blackheart Man was not steeped in mysticism, as White presented it. Marley being psychic - never heard of that before. There were just many words and phrases and depictions of life that I know to be inaccurate and it made me wonder about others "facts" in the book. The narrator could have at least gotten with a Jamaican person to find out how some of the patois words were pronounced. The accent of course was off but I am not that picky as I know many narrators seldomly capture many unfamiliar accents well.

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: Dream More

Subtitle: Celebrate the Dreamer in You

Author: Dolly Parton

Narrator: Dolly Parton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-28-12

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 138 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Finalist, Personal Development, 2014

The legendary Dolly Parton shares for the first time her deeply held philosophy of life and her heartfelt hopes for everyone. Based on the hugely popular commencement speech Dolly Parton gave at the University of Tennessee that became a sensation, Dream More is a deeper and richer exploration of the personal philosophy she has forged over the course of her astonishing career as a singer, songwriter, performer, and philanthropist.

Using her speech as a jumping-off point, Parton explores the four great hopes she urges us to embrace: Dream more, learn more, care more, and be more. She culls examples of these values from her own life as illustrations, from growing up poor in the hills of eastern Tennessee to her experiences as the iconic performer she has become today.

Written by one of the cultural legends of our time, Dream More is a poignant and uplifting anthem for all who want to take charge of their lives and forge a future on their own terms.

Members Reviews:

Dolly Does It Again!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Dream More to be better than the print version?

The audio edition is absolutely flawless and indispensable. Dolly Parton is the narrator so not only do you get to hear Dolly's story but you get to hear her words the way that ONLY she can deliver them. If you know anything about Dolly Parton, you know that she is an inspiration and and entertainer. She laughs, she jokes and she even SINGS on this edition. Now, you KNOW she ain't gonna be singing in the hardcover edition! (Ya, I said ain't).

What other book might you compare Dream More to and why?

This book is along the line of Dolly Parton's first book, "Dolly". She speaks to how her life inspired her to be who she is today. The difference is that Dolly uses this opportunity to help you get more from your life and move forward into YOUR future dreaming big and working to make those dreams come true.

Which character as performed by Dolly Parton was your favorite?

Dolly (performed by...well...Dolly).

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

The book definitely made me laugh and cry. Wait til you hear Dolly talk about how she wants to die. Yah, she really does. I laughed out loud in public. There were also many moments that struck home, made me think hard about my life and ultimately made me cry.

Any additional comments?

If you're reading this review because you're trying to decide if you want this book, let me make it easy for you....YOU DO.

Happy Collection of Dolly'sWisdom w/Joyful lyrics

I have been a fan since I was a child. I would wake up at 6 a.m. just to hear her sing "Love is like a Butterfly" on our black and white tv. I love books read by the author as it comes across as more real... okay maybe be not completely real in that I like to imagine it is like a friend speaking to you. This book is a happy little book, speckled with colorful tales and even some song snippets. I think any fan of Dolly would enjoy this book. There is some down to earth wisdom, motivational and positive attitude tips, beyond merely tales of Dolly from her life. The last section is a collection of some of her best quips that one may have heard her say (or read in periodical publications).

This is not a tell all collection of underside of the entertainment industry.