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Title: Dimestore

Subtitle: A Writer's Life

Author: Lee Smith

Narrator: Linda Stephens

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-22-16

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 79 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

In her first work of nonfiction, Lee Smith deploys the wit, wisdom, and graceful prose for which she is beloved to conjure her early days in the small coal town of Grundy, Virginia - and beyond.

For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For 45 years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story. Set deep in the rugged Appalachian Mountains, the Grundy of Lee Smith's youth was a place of coal miners, mountain music, and her daddy's dimestore. It was in that dimestore - listening to customers and inventing life histories for the store's dolls - that she began to learn the craft of storytelling. Even though she adored Grundy, Smith's formal education and travels took her far from Virginia, though her Appalachian upbringing never left her.

Dimestore's 15 essays are crushingly honest, always wise, and superbly entertaining. Smith has created both a moving, personal portrait and a broader meditation on embracing one's heritage. Hers is an inspiring story of the birth of a writer and a poignant look at a way of life that has all but vanished.

Critic Reviews:

"As [narrator Linda] Stephens shares Smith's collection of essays, which explore the indelible influence that the Appalachian region had on her imagination and creative life, listeners will begin to believe she IS the author. Bringing to life a forgotten world of local dime stores and a distinctive region with its own passions and eccentricities, Stephens casts a spell and breathes insight into Smith's candid observations..." (

AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Pronunciation matters!

I wish I had read this book in form rather than listening on Audible. The way the reader pronounces 'Appalachia' ruined it for me. It is clear the reader is not from the area she reads about...but this should have been caught by the author and editors. It is a sign of respect to pronounce a word as local tradition pronounces it. If you are from Southern Appalachia you will know what I mean. Pronunciation matters...ask Sharyn McCrumb who explains it well.

After hearing Appalachia pronounced .............

What made the experience of listening to Dimestore the most enjoyable?

...with a long A's four times consecutively I decided it was ignorance and not simple mispronunciation.Honestly Audible - this may be your single biggest production screw up ever. Do you have anybody editing ? Did Lee Smith hear this mistake before it was released ?

What did you like best about this story?

Lee Smith's writing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Little respect for the material - see above.

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

Yes, but I can't now.Probably will return it.

A disappointment

What would have made Dimestore better?

I don't really know. I am a huge fan of Lee Smith's books and I expected this book to be fascinating. I'm three-quarters of the way through it and I'm still waiting for it to get interesting.

What was most disappointing about Lee Smiths story?

I wish I had chosen to read, rather than listen to this book. For the life of me, I don't know why they didn't get a southerner to narrate it.

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Title: Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!

Subtitle: My Adventures in The Alice Cooper Group

Author: Dennis Dunaway, Chris Hodenfield

Narrator: Dennis Dunaway

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-08-16

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 48 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

As the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame says, "Before the world heard of KISS, the New York Dolls, Marilyn Manson, or Ozzy Osbourne, there was Alice Cooper, the original shock-rock band."

When Alice Cooper became the stuff of legend in the early '70s, their shows were monuments of fun and invention. Riding on a string of hits like "I'm 18" and "School's Out", they became America's highest-grossing act, producing four platinum albums and hitting number one on the US and UK charts with Billion Dollar Babies in 1973. Their utterly original performance style and look, known as shock rock, was swiftly copied by countless bands.

Dennis Dunaway, the bassist and cosongwriter for the band, tells a story just as over-the-top crazy as their (in)famous shows. As teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis Dunaway and lead singer Vince Furnier, who would later change his name to Alice Cooper, formed a hard-knuckles band that played prisons, cowboy bars, and teen clubs. Their journey took them from Hollywood to the ferocious Detroit music scene, along the way adding new dimensions of rock theater. From struggling for recognition to topping the charts, the Alice Cooper group was entertaining, outrageous, and one of a kind.

Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! is the riveting account of the band's creation in the '60s and strange glory in the '70s and the legendary characters they met along the way.

Members Reviews:

Thanks Dennis for Great Behind the Scenes Insight

As an Alice Cooper fan since I was a little kid, I learned a lot, especially about the early pre-Love it to Death days. I hope Mr. Dunaway reads this review because hearing you read this book makes me feel like I know you. Thanks for sharing all rhose sincere, heartfelt stories. Thanks Dennis

A Rock Bio That Should Be Blueprinted..So Lovely

Dennis Dunaway rocks it as reader and eyewitness to the greatest show on earth that also made your grandma want to faint. All your favorite albums are here. It is so great to hear the stories behind the creation of Halo of Flies, Black Juju, and the hits, too. You know we had a lot of them while we listened, and we hear about all their hijinks and fun on the road wirh the intonation of Dennis. Frankly, it helped having the book and audio after all those fun times. Come join the party.

Excellent. kept me interested all the way through.

This was a very engaging rock bio. A must for Alice Cooper(the band) fans and music fans alike.

Just WoW

Absolutely fantastic, hearing Dennis read this was such a special gift . Truly amazing.

An entirely WICKED book!

I love this book! I've read this book many times. I was around when this stuff all happened. I can remember some of it but I never understood all of this stuff. I like this so much I never feel like I'm wasting time when I read it!

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Title: Over the Top and Back - the Autobiography

Author: Sir Tom Jones

Narrator: Jonathan Pryce

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-24-15

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 138 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Tom Jones was born Thomas Jones Woodward in South Wales to a traditional coal-mining family. He began singing at an early age and landed his first record contract in 1964, winning a Grammy in 1965 for "It's Not Unusual". Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2006 for his services to music, his recordings have spanned the spectrum of musical styles over 60 years. He lives with his wife of 58 years, Melinda, in Wales and California. They have one son.

Members Reviews:

Surprise ... My Best Read Yet

What made the experience of listening to Over the Top and Back - the Autobiography the most enjoyable?

The self-effacing and non-pretentious nature of the writing is incredibly endearing. Tom Jones admits to his errors, but is humble in the life he's created. I wish all celebrities could keep his attitude. I was a fan before this; I'm a HUGE fan now.

I actually felt emotion in this listen. I laughed right out loud in parts, and felt the pain and pride in others.

Johnathan Pryce does a fantastic job narrating. He hits the accent and tempo dead-on ... you'd think you were listening to Tom Jones himself.

Really quite impressed.

Wasn't hugely a fan before, but I am now!

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure I've ever taken the time to write a review--maybe once for Colin Firth's masterful performance of Graham Greene's finest book,"The End of the Affair". But it would just be dishonest not to speak up about this book, which grabbed me right out of the gate and never loosened its grip. Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce supplied the proper linguistic rhythm and intonation I would have missed as an American reader. Not only did I often enjoy an actual laugh or exclaim aloud with wonder, Jones has that silver-tongued Welsh flair of story telling so personable that keeps you leaning forward. His writing voice is as distinctive and gripping as his vocal one. Frank, self-deprecating, funny, not unkind, calling himself out, it was unflaggingly engaging. Despite his mountain range of a voice and long-lived, many-faceted and rightly lauded musical career, this level of writing talent would tempt me to describe him: "Tom Jones, the author, who also sings." Thank you, Mr. Jones...Sir!

The Tom Jones we didn't know

Would you consider the audio edition of Over the Top and Back - the Autobiography to be better than the print version?

Johnathan Pryce's narration makes it seem as if Tom Jones himself is telling the story.

What about Jonathan Pryces performance did you like?

Wonderful voice he sounded like I imagine Tom Jones would sound if he were speaking.

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

I thought the book was extremely interesting. To be honest, I'm not a big Tom Jones fan. There are a few of his songs that I love and the rest...well, I can leave them. There is tremendous honesty in this story and he comes off quite funny in many places! I came away with great respect for Tom Jones, who apparently, despite his being seen as a sex symbol for decades, remains faithful to his wife to this today.

Any additional comments?

It was a great listen. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to find other narrations by Jonathan Pryce.

Very disappointing

What did you like best about Over the Top and Back - the Autobiography? What did you like least?

I was very disappointed in the limits of the story.

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Title: The Emperor of Sound

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Timbaland, Veronica Chambers

Narrator: William Harper

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-17-15

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 202 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

"The most important producer of the decade." (The New Yorker)

Timbaland is indisputably one of the most innovative music producers working today. The Grammy Awardwining producer, rapper, songwriter, and composer has collaborated with the mega-superstars of pop, rap, hip-hop, and R&B, from Jay Z to 50, Madonna to Justin, Nelly to Björk. His solo album Shock Value has sales tipped in the millions, and the video for his international chart-topping single "Apologize" has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.

The Emperor of Sound is an exclusive look at this talented artist and his extraordinary career. Here, as unexpected as much of what he creates, is an introspective memoir, revealing a modest and God-

fearing man with an intense appreciation for the creative process, a humility for his musical gifts, and a unique understanding of what he calls "the science of hearing."

Timbaland embraces and champions those who possess his same life-or-death passion for music: he reveals that it was Missy Elliott who steered him to own his confidence, that it was Aaliyah who inspired him to stretch his craft beyond boundaries, and that it was Justin Timberlake with whom he found an unprecedented creative chemistry, making "SexyBack" an instant classic. Timbaland also reflects on his growth and recent success in the entertainment business in his pivotal role as the executive music producer of the enormously popular television series Empire.

Written with a cinematic flair and abundant with illuminating anecdotes about some of today's most renowned musical icons, including his former classmate and collaborator Pharrell Williams, The Emperor of Sound is an engaging memoir of a life in the works, showcasing the brilliant inner workings of a true musical genius.

Members Reviews:

It's called a De-esser

Seriously. Waves makes some great plugins. Invest and kill the sibilance. It's like an explosion every time he says anything with an s in it. Otherwise I really enjoyed the story.

Kept Me Listening.

Great Story and stories. I loved the many waves of this book. Inspirational, Informative, and a must read for those seeking an inside look into the music industry. Thanks Big Brother for sharing yourself with us.

Moving

This book is a perfect reflection of not only music but life as a whole. It moved me to tears and inspired me to be better at the same time. God bless Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley. I recommend this book to anyone who maybe going thru a lot in life or just maybe feels rejected. This book is encouraging and it makes you feel right side by side with Tim.

Very well Written

I was expecting it to be good but this was very incredibly inspiring. Got through it in one sitting

definitely recommend. I only wish it was longer!

Amazing!!!

Very inspirational, and informative bio I've ever heard! it's great to hear his journey and what it took for him to get where he is!

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Title: John le Carré

Subtitle: The Biography

Author: Adam Sisman

Narrator: Michael Page

Format: Unabridged

Length: 25 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-03-15

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 108 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

In this definitive biography - blessed by John le Carré himself - Adam Sisman reveals the man behind the bestselling persona. In John le Carré, Sisman shines a spotlight on David Cornwell, an expert at hiding in plain sight - "born to lying," he wrote in 2002, "bred to it, trained to it by an industry that lies for a living, practiced in it as a novelist."

Of course, the pseudonym "John le Carré" has helped to keep the public at a distance. Sisman probes Cornwell's unusual upbringing, abandoned by his mother at the age of only five and raised by his con man father (when not in prison), and explores his background in British intelligence, as well as his struggle to become a writer, and his personal life. Sisman has benefited from unfettered access to le Carré's private archive, talked to the most important people in his life, and interviewed the man himself at length.

Who is John le Carré? Intriguing, thorough, and packed with entertaining detail, this biography will be a treat for the legions of le Carré fans.

Critic Reviews:

"Whether listeners are being taken through le Carré's publishing history or his relationship with his publishers, [narrator Michael] Page moves through the eight decades of Cornwell's life with the right balance of energy and erudition. An audiobook biography to savor." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

More, please, but hold the asparagus.

We listened to this marvelous book together every day. It is riveting, not only because of its subject but because it is so well written and so well narrated. We did laugh at some of the "researcher's" compulsion to include more than necessary. At one point we are told of a get together with friends and the author for some reason felt it necessary to describe the black asparagus that was served. Overall an excellent read.

too long!

did a detailed, interesting job covering the writing, release, and aftermath of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. I wish Sisman had done the same for Our Game and Single & Single but they are glossed over in a minute. And an inordinate amount of time was spent on jlc's father and childhood, which felt a but repetitive after five hours of it.

Very interesting

What made the experience of listening to John le Carré the most enjoyable?

The early parts of the book are fascinating, what a varied life. Later its a bit boring.

The writer who came in from the cold

Having read all 23 of John Le Carre's novels I was keen to learn more about the man I have spent so many hours with.

Mr Sisman has written an excellent biography. I had no idea JLC had experienced so much in life. From his con man father to getting a knife to his throat in Kenya. From his days in the secret service to his exile to Cornwall. It's all here. Fascinating.

Starting to put LeCarre in perspective

With a long and successful career writing as John Le Carre, the writer David Cornwell will surely be the subject of many biographies and much literary criticism as time passes. Susan's biography is an excellent start and will surely remain a key source. An enjoyable listen.

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Title: A Woman in Arabia

Subtitle: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert

Author: Gertrude Bell, Georgina Howell - introduction, Georgina Howell - editor

Narrator: Sian Thomas, Adjoa Andoh

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-15

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 25 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

A portrait in her own words of the female Lawrence of Arabia, the subject of the upcoming major motion picture Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis, and Robert Pattinson and directed by Werner Herzog.

Gertrude Bell was leaning in 100 years before Sheryl Sandberg. One of the great woman adventurers of the 20th century, she turned her back on Victorian society to study at Oxford and travel the world and became the chief architect of British policy in the Middle East after World War I. Mountaineer, archaeologist, Arabist, writer, poet, linguist, and spy, she dedicated her life to championing the Arab cause and was instrumental in drawing the borders that define today's Middle East.

As she wrote in one of her letters, "It's a bore being a woman when you are in Arabia." Forthright and spirited, opinionated and playful, and deeply instructive about the Arab world, this volume brings together Bell's letters, military dispatches, diary entries, and travel writings to offer an intimate look at a woman who shaped nations.

For more than 65 years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Listeners trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Members Reviews:

Raw historiography of a spectacular heroine

Driven very much by the narrative told straight out of her own letters, Miss Bell is allowed to tell her own story much like she might have done in the autobiography she never wrote. I found this is a very interesting approach, and it's certainly very well performed with one narrator-voice and another speaking the words of Gertrude herself.

A Rivoting Piece of Work

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of Gertrude Bells life story. Highley recommended for anyone interested in the Middle East

Magnificent

Vivid snapshot, through her own writings, of the architect of the modern Middle East. Gertrude Bell comet-vectored through her unparalleled life, formidably brilliant, steely brave, passionate for expanding the breadth of human accomplishment.

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Title: Hemingway in Love

Subtitle: His Own Story

Author: A. E. Hotchner

Narrator: Steve Marvel, Gabrielle de Cuir, Alex Hyde-White, Joan Baker, Susan Hanfield

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-20-15

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 67 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

In June of 1961, A. E. Hotchner visited an old friend in the psychiatric ward of St. Mary's Hospital. It would be the last time they spoke: a few weeks later, Ernest Hemingway was released home, where he took his own life. Their final conversation was also the final installment in a story whose telling Hemingway had spread over nearly a decade.

In characteristically pragmatic terms, Hemingway divulged to Hotchner the details of the affair that destroyed his first marriage: the truth of his romantic life in Paris and how he lost Hadley, the real part of each literary woman he'd later create and the great love he spent the rest of his life seeking. And he told of the mischief that made him a legend: of impotence cured in a house of God; of a plane crash in the African bush, from which he stumbled with a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin in hand; of F. Scott Fitzgerald dispensing romantic advice; of midnight champagne with Josephine Baker; of adventure, human error, and life after lost love. This is Hemingway as few have known him: humble, thoughtful, and full of regret.

To protect the feelings of Ernest's wife, Mary - also a close friend - Hotch kept the conversations to himself for decades. Now he tells the story as Hemingway told it to him. Hemingway in Love puts you in the room with the master as he remembers the definitive years that set the course for the rest of his life and dogged him until the end of his days.

Members Reviews:

Very pleased!!

I really enjoyed this entire audio book! This was a very enticing story and very well narrated!

Papa Made me Cry

This is a beautifully told story by Hotchner. The notes he kept are not cold pressed, but reveal an author with torn love and regret and an open friendship. This makes a wonderful companion to A Moveable Feast, which has been updated in recent years with additional writing on Hemingway's first love that goes along with the last few chapters in this memoir and speaks movingly to loss, love, and regret.

Ah, the toils of love

It's nice to know that even a legend is susceptible to the scourge of love. Well told and constructed, I was fully engaged until the end.

Love love this

Love this look into his life and love for Hadley A side of Earnest seldom wrote about

Profoundly entertaining

This is absolutely a must read/listen for any Hemingway fan. Wonderful insight into Hemingway's art, mind and heart.

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Title: Limonov

Subtitle: The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia

Author: Emmanuel Carrère, John Lambert - translator

Narrator: Vikas Adam

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-06-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 13 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

This is how Emmanuel Carrère, the magnetic journalist, novelist, filmmaker, and chameleon, describes his subject: "Limonov is not a fictional character. There. I know him. He has been a young punk in Ukraine, the idol of the Soviet underground; a bum, then a multimillionaire's butler in Manhattan; a fashionable writer in Paris; a lost soldier in the Balkans; and now, in the fantastic shambles of postcommunism, the elderly but charismatic leader of a party of young desperadoes. He sees himself as a hero; you might call him a scumbag: I suspend my judgment on the matter. It's a dangerous life, an ambiguous life: a real adventure novel. It is also, I believe, a life that says something. Not just about him, Limonov, not just about Russia, but about all our history since the end of the Second World War."

So Eduard Limonov isn't fictional - but he might as well be. This pseudobiography isn't a novel, but it appears like one: from Limonov's grim childhood to his desperate, comical, ultimately successful attempts to gain the respect of Russia's literary intellectual elite; to his immigration to New York then to Paris; to his return to the motherland. Limonov could be seen as a charming picaresque. But it could also be seen as a troubling counternarrative of the second half of the 20th century, one that reveals a violence, an anarchy, a brutality that the stories we tell ourselves about progress tend to conceal.

Members Reviews:

Three Stars

So so

To be totally honest I haven't read all of this ...

To be totally honest I haven't read all of this yet. I'm just excited that Amazon actually had it. This is the only book about Liminov I've been able to find in English anywhere. Read it and find out about one of the most strange and interesting people you've never heard of!

Five Stars

Very insightful

Welll wtitten and historically very interesting .

Very well written but a difficult character - hard to love. Rather sexy at times

Five Stars

Disturbing yet compelling.

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Title: Trumbo

Subtitle: A Biography of the Oscar-Winning Screenwriter Who Broke the Hollywood Blacklist

Author: Bruce Cook

Narrator: Luke Daniels

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-08-15

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 166 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

A central figure in the Hollywood Ten and one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood history, two of Trumbo's screenplays earned Oscars (Roman Holiday and The Brave Ones) while he was blacklisted and unable to receive public credit for his work. Trumbo was also the author of Johnny Got His Gun, winner of the National Book Award and one of the most powerful antiwar novels ever published. He epitomized the spirit of American capitalism, yet he went to jail refusing to talk about his membership in the Communist party.

As a result of his relentless fight for political freedom and the right to work for those blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee beginning in 1947, he ended the blacklist era in 1960 by earning proper screen credit for his work on the blockbuster films Exodus and Spartacus. An extraordinarily complex character, he was, as author Bruce Cook states, "an exemplar of a certain set of American virtues: toughness, independence and persistence". Dalton Trumbo was the central figure in the Hollywood Ten, the blacklisted and jailed screenwriters. One of several hundred writers, directors, producers and actors who were deprived of the opportunity to work in the motion picture industry from 1947 to 1960, he was the first to see his name on the screen again. When that happened, it was Exodus, one of the year's biggest movies.

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Hannah Arendt

Subtitle: A Life in Dark Times

Author: Anne C. Heller

Narrator: Laural Merlington

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-15

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 42 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Hannah Arendt, one of the most gifted and provocative voices of her era, was a polarizing cultural theorist - extolled by her peers as a visionary and denounced by others as a fraud. Born in Prussia to assimilated Jewish parents, she escaped from Hitler's Germany in 1933 and became best known for her critique of the world's response to the evils of World War II.

A woman of many contradictions, Arendt learned to write in English only at the age of 36, and yet her first book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, single-handedly altered the way generations of Americans and Europeans viewed fascism and genocide. Her most famous - and most divisive - work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, brought fierce controversy that continues to this day, exacerbated by the posthumous discovery that she had been the lover of the great romantic philosopher and Nazi sympathizer Martin Heidegger.

In this fast-paced, comprehensive biography, Anne Heller tracks the source of Arendt's apparent contradictions and her greatest achievements, from a tumultuous childhood to her arrival as what she called a "conscious pariah" - one of those few people in every time and place who don't "lose confidence in ourselves if society does not approve us" and will not "pay any price" to win acceptance.

Members Reviews:

Arendt's Life and Work

The life and the work of Hannah Arendt appears interwoven in this short book. Anne Heller refers the main events of Arendt's life and discuss some of her most important books. Giving context to "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and "The Origins of Totalitarianism", the author provides useful tools to comprehend it. Arendt's ideas, in many aspects beyond the time in which they were exposed, emerge in a comprehensive way in this introductory work.

Good overview of Arendt and biographer

Book says much about a woman whose ideas are embedded in thinking. educated men

Also, a compliment to the biographer. I did not have to believe everything but now have a correct essence.

An inspiration for thoughtfulness

A wonderful look at the life and mind of an independent thinker, of which we have too few in our time.

Moving overview of a great thinker

Does justice to the complexities without getting lost in obscurity. A well told story /narrative.