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Title: The Turning

Subtitle: Why the State of the Family Matters, and What the World Can Do About It

Author: Richard Eyre, Linda Eyre

Narrator: Benjamin Pacini

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-15-14

Publisher: Familius

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

It is easy to find alarming statistics on escalating violence, addiction, and economic inequality in developed countries and stubborn poverty in the third world. The fascinating question has to do with cause. New York Times number-one best-selling authors Richard and Linda Eyre's new audiobook The Turning: Why the State of the Family Matters and What the World Can Do About It contends that the social and economic challenges faced not only in the United States, but throughout the world, are the direct result of an unprecedented and widespread turning away from family. The negative effects of this turning are apparent in the youth of the world today:

The Turning uses research findings, statistics (like those listed above), and the Eyre's personal experiences at home and abroad to show that families are essential to the survival and success of civilization.

With the well-being of the world at risk, The Turning will move listeners in a way that will raise personal reflection, discussion, and action to return the family to its necessary position as the recognized and prioritized basic unit of society.

As Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat opened our eyes to the cause-and-effect aspects of the global economy, The Turning will open the eyes of listeners across the world to the means-and-ends connections between stable families and households and the world's.

Members Reviews:

Worth the listen!!

Great book!! It inspires one to want to improve family life, not just for oneself but for other families as well.

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Title: Chasing the American Dream

Subtitle: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes

Author: Mark Robert Rank, Thomas A. Hirschl, Kirk A. Foster

Narrator: Tristan Morris

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-10-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

The United States has been epitomized as a land of opportunity, where hard work and skill can bring personal success and economic well-being. The American Dream has captured the imagination of people from all walks of life, and to many, it represents the heart and soul of the country. But there is another, darker side to the bargain that America strikes with its people - it is the price we pay for our individual pursuit of the American Dream. That price can be found in the economic hardship present in the lives of millions of Americans. In Chasing the American Dream, leading social scientists Mark Robert Rank, Thomas A. Hirschl, and Kirk A. Foster provide a new and innovative look into a curious dynamic - the tension between the promise of economic opportunities and rewards and the amount of turmoil that Americans encounter in their quest for those rewards. The authors explore questions such as:

Combining personal interviews with dozens of Americans and a longitudinal study covering 40 years of income data, the authors tell the story of the American Dream and reveal a number of surprises. The risk of economic vulnerability has increased substantially over the past four decades, and the American Dream is becoming harder to reach and harder to keep. Yet for most Americans, the Dream lies not in wealth, but in economic security, pursuing one's passions, and looking toward the future. Chasing the American Dream provides us with a new understanding into the dynamics that shape our fortunes and a deeper insight into the importance of the American Dream for the future of the country.

Members Reviews:

These meaningful personal stories of lives in struggle and in privilege highlight and enhance the very good data used by the aut

Many write about the American Dream, but for Mark Rank and his co-authors, writing wasn't enough. To get to the true understanding of the Dream, they traversed the United States, talking with Americans from all rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, collecting their stories. And it is through their stories that this book takes life. In reading the book, we meet Matt, a minor league baseball player, Jim, an auto assembly worker, Rachel, an attorney and judge, and many more Americans working daily to achieve the Dream. These meaningful personal stories of lives in struggle and in privilege highlight and enhance the very good data used by the authors to demonstrate trends in all aspects of the Dream. While this book should be required reading for high school, college and graduate students, it is also perfect for a non-academic audience.

A well written thoughtful book of the USA income distribution problem

Rank and his team do a great job of giving you lots of data and some analysis. They make the case that in the USA, wealth is more concentrated it the hands of fewer people. But, they also point all that al groups have become wealthier. It's just that relatively the rick have become even richer. The poor and middle class became richer, so not so much so. The real issue is that Rank and team give us no way forward: taking from the rich and just giving to the poor will just cause class conflict and encourage the wealthy to leave the country (check out what is happening in France over this issue). A better way forward is to create more growth and competition: we did that twice before to great benefit.

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Title: The Impulse Society

Subtitle: America in the Age of Instant Gratification

Author: Paul Roberts

Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-02-14

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

In every facet of postindustrial society - the way we eat, the way we communicate and entertain, the way we work, the way we court lovers and raise children, educate and govern - technology and affluence now let us reach our goals with a speed and efficiency unimaginable even a generation ago. But the result, Paul Roberts warns, is not all milk, honey, and gold. Companies now reflexively maximize short-term gain at the expense of long-term success. Politicians resort with ever-greater speed to nasty campaign tactics, and can count on their damaging claims to spread before the facts catch up with them. Consumers engage in serial over-indulgence in a self-tailored bubble. And the costs are substantial: financial volatility, health epidemics, environmental exhaustion and political paralysis, to say nothing of a growing, gnawing dissatisfaction.

Over 30 years ago, Christopher Lasch published his landmark book, The Culture of Narcissism, which struck a chord and became a runaway best seller. Laschs analysis was largely cultural, but the real story has always been an economic one, and the conditions that led to increasing selfishness and the breakdown of society have only gotten worse. Paul Robert digs down to the economic roots of the problem, shows how it has metastisized to affect every facet of our lives and our ability to navigate the future. In clear, cogent prose that mixes illuminating analysis and vibrant reporting, Roberts not only tells the fascinating story of how the impulse society came to be, but shows how, perhaps, a healthier society may still be possible.

Editorial Reviews:

Editors Select, September 2014 - Despite being a millennial or member of "Generation Me", I was still aware of the dangers of our culture's dependency on near-instant fulfillment (I'll let this app count my calories!). But the greatness of Paul Roberts' The Impulse Society is that it shows - using the latest in psychological, political and economic research - how our pursuit for short-term gratification is symptomatic of a larger socioeconomic problem in which myopic corporations look for the fastest returns, and political leaders opt for the quick fix instead of tackling issues that foster true progress. As a result, our self-identities have all but merged with the marketplace. Edoardo Ballerini's steady narration brings this eye-opener together with Roberts issuing a final call to action that makes The Impulse Society a must-listen.

Critic Reviews:

In The Impulse Society, Paul Roberts has written a passionate, keenly observant argument that modern life has become rewired around indulgence. This is a book that taps into a sense that we're all adrift -- and finds that technological, economic, and social change has caused us to lose the community that had anchored us. A society that tries to give (and sell) each of us everything we want, Roberts writes, is a society nobody wants. Roberts harkens back to the greatest critics of American individualism - Tocqueville, Dewey, Nisbet, Lasch, Putnam - and finds a call for community as urgent as ever. (Evan Soltas, economics columnist, Bloomberg View)

Paul Roberts has written eloquently on very big topics before--but maybe never quite as eloquently, on quite as central a predicament.

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Title: Maximizing Obamacare

Subtitle: Your Prescription for Understanding America's New Health Care System

Author: Robert Welk

Narrator: Dave Wright

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-26-14

Publisher: Medicare & Medicaid Planning Services

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

The nation's top "Obamacare" insurance agent, Robert Welk, has authored Maximizing Obamacare to help you finally understand exactly what you need to do to avoid the vast majority of problems people experienced during open enrollment. The need for this audiobook is underscored by a recent revelation from the federal government that almost one-fourth of those enrolled have incorrectly reported their income. The government is so concerned they have hired a third party to find those enrollees so that the situation can be corrected immediately! If you would like to minimize the stress of the last open enrollment, understand how to maximize the subsidies retroactively, and avoid having to pay back large amounts of money, then this is the step-by-step explanation you have been looking for.

Unlike most audiobooks on the subject, this audiobook is written for the consumer as a user's guide. Robert Welk is someone who has had so much success in helping clients overcome the challenges and maximize the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, that he was recognized in a televised award ceremony with the state's governor and one of the authors of the legislation. Do yourself a favor and put the philosophical and partisan arguments aside for a moment, so that you can begin to understand how to make the mechanics of this complex law work in your favor.

Members Reviews:

Clarity in a nutshell

I have been trying to follow the ACA law. With all the media and political hype, it is convoluted at best. Mr.Welk breaks it down for the consumer. His well thought out flow and copious examples make this book a must have when trying to navigate the system.

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Title: Alexanderplatz, Berlin

Author: Georg Diez, Steve Anderson (translator)

Narrator: Christopher Lane

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-12-14

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 1.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

Alexanderplatz has long survived as the symbol of a city burdened by its ruinous past. In 2012, twenty-year-old Jonny K. was beaten to death on this infamous Berlin square - and Germany's first multicultural murder brought another shock to a country thats seen its share. Before the trial, the question of guilt already had an ideological slant: Was Alexanderplatz itself to blame? Was the socialist architecture? The brutality of capitalism?

Georg Diez pursues the mystery of Alexanderplatz in a narrative at once contentious and sincere. He portrays a city shaking free of the cultural pathos that defined it, even as its citizens wrestle with the legacies of Hitler and an East German regime that isolated the square before the Berlin Wall fell.

In imaginative prose, Diez describes a historical icon unleashed in modern Germany, fueled by unbridled enterprise and consumerism. Along the way, he takes the status quo to task and unveils a provocative view of the German capital in a troubled era.

Members Reviews:

For serious Berlin lovers only

I am an idiot and I bought this thinking it was Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin, not Alexanderplatz, Berlin by Georg Diez. I was about a third of the way through when I realized my mistake. Diez actually references Döblin's book and he does not care for it.

This isn't really a story--just a novella-length essay about post-Nazi and post-Soviet Berlin. Frankly, Berlin doesn't hold much mystique for me. I've never been and it's not high on my list of places to go. So I'm probably not the right audience for the work. And there is one whole chapter where the author just starts listing brand names and then makes a comment about capitalism. After 3 minutes I wondered how much longer he could keep up the recitation of brands. It turns out for a total of around 10 minutes. If you do listen, save yourself some time and set it to double speed.

I was not a fan of this one.

not a story

What disappointed you about Alexanderplatz, Berlin?

This is a description of a square in Berlin naming every business that is or was there. It made me realize all the name brands are there and I think the author regrets the city isn't more than it is or could have been. Doesn't make me want to visit--ever.

What do you think your next listen will be?

The girl on the Train

Which character as performed by Christopher Lane was your favorite?

This was not about characters unless you count Alexanderplatz a character.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

Any additional comments?

I mistakenly thought there was a story involved.

Alexanderplatz never had a soul to sell

What did you like most about Alexanderplatz, Berlin?

This seems to be the theme of this monograph. It's dystopian, wonderfully opinionated and the translation bubbles along like water trhough rapids. The topic is Platz as a petri-dish. Once a thieves nest, it became, largely inert in the communist era, and now it is bursting with globalisation.

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Title: Hitler Went to Heaven

Author: David Dunning

Narrator: Brad Langer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-20-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

If ever there was a book that could sprout arms, grow hands, slap you in the face, and then follow it up with a kiss...this is it. Education, religion, money, gay sex, and fat doctors are all stripped naked and exposed for what they are. However, as quickly as the book turns on you and points out your hugely ignorant methods of thinking, it grows a heart. It lets you know that it's all good. The world is a beautiful place. People are capable of the extraordinary, and maybe the old saying is true: All we need is love.

Members Reviews:

FUN read for FANS

Author is great. This book is fine but expected more. It's a great gift for any fans of the Dunning-Kruger Principle. Expected more about that.

Good read

Good, quick, easy read with a positive philosophy.

Short and "sweet"

I liked this book a lot because it made a lot of great points in only a few pages. Some things are no brainers in life that we seem to ignore and this book drives those points home without killing them to death.

In your face.

An in-your-face rant on humankind's shortcomings including when we may be accepting self-defeating criticisms, limitations, religious dogma and various presumptions as fact. The author challenges the reader to see beyond any artificially imposed, sometimes irrational limitations they may be carrying (and the author presumes the reader is carrying some). However, the author is not nihilistic and advocates replacing dogma and presumptions that may hinder a healthy life and interpersonal relationships with a love-based approach. The book encourages wonder, appreciation, critical thinking, recognizing our inherent mutuality and enjoying life. Some of the author's positions seem contradictory with others, however, "Hitler went to Heaven" shines a flashlight into what may be some of the dark, dusty corners in our lives and in doing so is thought provoking, a good conversation starter. Someone who's thoughts or feelings around their own life and spirituality are a little fragile may find the author's style too abrasive.

Love it!

Hilarious, thoughtful and bold. He makes a strong argument for everything he says. I recommend it to anyone with an open mind and a sense of humor.

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Title: How Racism Takes Place

Author: George Lipsitz

Narrator: Pete Ferrand

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-09-14

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

White identity in the United States is place bound, asserts George Lipsitz in How Racism Takes Place. An influential scholar in American and racial studies, Lipsitz contends that racism persists because a network of practices skew opportunities and life chances along racial lines. That is, these practices assign people of different races to different spaces and therefore allow grossly unequal access to education, employment, transportation, and shelter. Revealing how seemingly race-neutral urban sites contain hidden racial assumptions and imperatives, Lipsitz examines the ways in which urban space and social experience are racialized and emphasizes that aggrieved communities do not passively acquiesce to racism. He recognizes the people and communities that have re-imagined segregated spaces in expressive culture as places for congregation. How Racism Takes Place not only exposes the degree to which this white spatial imagining structures our society but also celebrates the black artists and activists who struggle to create a just and decent society.

Critic Reviews:

"This book strengthens Lipsitz's position as one of the major contributors to theoretical and historical works on race.... In powerful and compelling writing, Lipsitz examines the problems...and provides insights into the broad context and multiple factors that shape the ways race continues to work in society." (Journal of American History)

"Highly Recommended." (Choice)

Members Reviews:

Enlightening!

The author calls for a fight against the American tradition of toothless legislation against race based policies that devastate black lives in America.

Important and Compelling Argument

The book is thoroughly researched, detailed and discussed, but read in a near - robotic monotone.

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Title: For Discrimination

Subtitle: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

Author: Randall Kennedy

Narrator: Randall Kennedy

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-14-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

In the wake of the Supreme Courts recent decision regarding Fisher v. University of Texas, For Discrimination is at once the definitive reckoning with one of Americas most explosively contentious and divisive issues and a principled work of advocacy for clearly defined justice. What, precisely, is affirmative action, and why is it fiercely championed by some and just as fiercely denounced by others? Does it signify a boon or a stigma? Or is it simply reverse discrimination? What are its benefits and costs to American society? What are the exact indicia determining who should or should not be accorded affirmative action? When should affirmative action end, if it must? Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School professor and author of such critically acclaimed and provocative books as Race, Crime, and the Law and the national best seller Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, gives us a concise, gimlet-eyed, and deeply personal conspectus of the policy, refusing to shy away from the myriad complexities of an issue that continues to bedevil American race relations.

With pellucid reasoning, Kennedy accounts for the slipperiness of the term affirmative action as it has been appropriated by ideologues of every stripe; delves into the complex and surprising legal history of the policy; coolly analyzes key arguments pro and con advanced by the left and right, including the so-called color-blind, race-neutral challenge; critiques the impact of Supreme Court decisions on higher education; and ponders the future of affirmative action.

Members Reviews:

Outlining the Pro- AA Arguments and Announcing Them To Be Correct

This would be a decent primer on affirmative action for someone relatively unfamiliar with the issues, and who wanted to hear mostly the talking points of affirmative action supporters. It does acknowledge the counter-arguments, but this is often a bit cursory and -- worse -- usually dismisses them by proclamation (just announcing that the arguments are wrong or that he doesn't find them compelling). It's left-leaning, of course, but not quite as maddeningly so as I'd feared. Way too much time and text is dedicated to historic quotations extolling the virtues of affirmative action in flowery language. Overall, it's high on rhetoric and low on facts and analysis. If you're already familiar with the affirmative action debates, the book won't be very interesting -- except in the sense that Kennedy is an interesting and sort of famous guy. (I got the "Audible" version, which he narrates himself). This biggest disappointment is that I got few, if any, new insights.

Biased but a must-read !

Most interesting and clear presentation even though I happen to disagree with the author. On the whole slightly biased but should make some readers comfortable about positive discrimination.

A must-read for anyone interested in the affirmative action debate in the United States and elsewhere

This is by far the best history and analysis of affirmative action in the United States that I've read. It presents a very detailed history of the policies, as well as presenting a very fair, measured account of the different sides of the debate, and the evolution of those positions over the past 60 years.

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Title: Cities Are Good for You

Subtitle: The Genius of the Metropolis

Author: Leo Hollis

Narrator: Stephen Bel Davies

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-21-14

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

Cities are where the twenty-first century is really going to happen. Already at the beginning of the century, we became 50% urban as a global population, and by 2050 we're going to be up to 70% urban. So cities could either be our coffin or our ark.

Leo Hollis presents evidence that cities can deliver a better life and a better world in the future. From exploring what slime mold can tell us about traffic flow, to looking at how traditional civic power structures are being overturned by Twitter, to investigating how cities all over the world are tackling climate change, population growth, poverty, shifting work patterns and the maintenance of the fragile trust of their citizens, Cities Are Good for You offers a new perspective on the city.

Combining anecdote, scientific studies, historical portraits, first-hand interviews and observations of some of the most exciting world cities, Hollis upends long-held assumptions with new questions: Where do cities come from? Can we build a city from scratch? Does living in the city make you happier or fitter? Is the metropolis of the future female? What is the relationship between cities and creativity? And are slums really all that bad?

Cities Are Good for You introduces us to dreamers, planners, revolutionaries, writers, scientists, architects, slum-dwellers and kings. Ranging globally and through time in search of answers--from the archive to the laboratory, from City Hall to the architect's desk--it is above all driven by the idea that cities are for people and by people.

Members Reviews:

Great Book, Shame About the Reading...

What did you like best about this story?

Really good perspective on urbanism with regard to technology, environment, and society generally, in Europe the US and the global south. Good examples, good narrative arc to the book and each section made it very interesting.

How could the performance have been better?

Am afraid that the performance lets down the book. The constant mispronouncing, misreading and mis-emphasising (?) does undermine the authority of the writing.

Any additional comments?

This is a good book but would benefit hugely from a better reader such as Lisa Coleman or Jonathan Keeble.

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Title: For the Wounded Soul

Subtitle: The Deep Wounds Tell the Tale of These Real, Chilling and Compelling Short Stories of Individuals that Experienced Unusual...Rape, Addiction and More. (Volume 1)

Author: Cheryline P. Lawson

Narrator: Ronald Clarkson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-21-14

Publisher: OnCourse, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Publisher's Summary:

Read these compelling, interesting and true short stories of various individuals who went through chilling experiences such as rape, conviction, addiction, infidelity, incest, abuse, death of a loved one and other unusual childhood events. These stories are intended to educate, expose, encourage and motivate others who have similar experiences that changed their past and their present. Each chapter has a different story, but in the end, all are connected because of the impact of the event in their lives.

Members Reviews:

Very touching

Very touching and emotional. I really got into the book and found the writer having the fantastic ability to let you dive in.

Could be a gift for a family or friend

It has been a long time since I have read such refreshing truth. The author was honest, specific and delivered the truth in a no-nonsense manner. The people in the stories came alive on the pages. That is ingenuous. It took my breath away. At every page turn, my eye was popping out of my head; wondering what was going to happen next and hoping for the best. The author tells a very interesting story about her life as well. She went through so much and yet still around to tell how she came out of it and how it made her life better. She talked about her purpose in life and how she was trying to evade it for years. This is definitely what she was born to do because she has done it in incredible style and with such confidence. This is one of the best books of 2011. If you don't already have it, be sure to get it and buy one as a gift for a family or friend. They will certainly thank you.

A collection of thought provoking stories

There are some books that you read, put down, and walk away from. They never really touch your soul. And then there are those other books...the ones that touch you, leave their mark, and make you think and feel. You will never quite be the same again. This is how For the Wounded Soul is.

I read the novel, not expecting much, thinking that the short stories would be the perfect length distraction before bedtime. Instead, I felt compelled to read the book from cover to cover in a night. I recognized myself in too many of the stories, a collection of situations that have left people wounded...like being raped, or being cheated on, being the other woman, losing a loved one. Too often these are subjects that are simply off limits, that no one wants to talk about. And yet Lawson points out that the only way to truly heal is to discuss these painful subjects that are like a raw wound. After reading this, not only do I believe her, but I feel that I need to make a change to improve my life.