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Title: The Lucky Ones

Subtitle: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America

Author: Mae M. Ngai

Narrator: Angela Lin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

If you're Irish American or African American or Eastern European Jewish American, there's a rich literature to give you a sense of your family's arrival-in-America story. Until now, that hasn't been the case for Chinese Americans. From noted historian Mae Ngai, The Lucky Ones uncovers the three-generational saga of the Tape family. It's a sweeping story centered on patriarch Jeu Dips' (Joseph Tapes') self-invention as an immigration broker in post-gold rush, racially explosive San Francisco, and the extraordinary rise it enables. Ngai's portrayal of the Tapes as the first of a brand-new social type - middle-class Chinese Americans, with touring cars, hunting dogs, and society weddings to broadcast it - will astonish.

Again and again, Tape family history illuminates American history. Seven-year-old Mamie Tape attempts to integrate California schools, resulting in the landmark 1885 Tape v. Hurley case. The family's intimate involvement in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair reveals how the Chinese American culture brokers essentially invented Chinatown (and so Chinese culture) for American audiences. Finally, Mae Ngai reveals aspects - timely, haunting, and hopeful - of the lasting legacy of the immigrant experience for all Americans.

Critic Reviews:

"The Lucky Ones is nothing short of a revelation. It insists that we rethink and enlarge our ideas about American immigration. The Tape family story has the texture and the range of great fiction. Mae Ngai has accomplished the admirable task of providing us with a wealth of historical material, while creating a narrative that pulls us thrillingly along in its wake." (Mary Gordon, author of Final Payments and Circling My Mother)

"Ngai fashions a terrifically readable, compelling work about the little-known middle-class in the Chinese immigrant experience." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

not the panoramic epic I expected

One day I'd like to listen or read a book that effectively educated me about the history of Chinese Americans, or at least entertained me about a fascinating family. This book promises more than it delivers.

While the Tape family has a few moments of interest (most notably the court case requiring that San Francisco educate its Chinese American children), for the most part, this family wasn't ultimately that interesting. There must be many other Chinese clans that would have provided better material.

The fundamental theme in the entire book is that Chinese Americans were systematically discriminated against in the late 19th and early 20th century. This is an extremely important point. However, by the umpteenth prosaic example of how this affected the Tapes and there contemporaries, the impact has lost its edge..

In the end, I think that choosing a different family would have been better, or perhaps by using more than one family, the author could have mined this topic more effectively.

This book is not an epic, but I am sure there is epic material out there regarding the terrible trials and heroic triumphs of the Chinese in America.

On a separate note, I think the narrator is rather dry. I do appreciate the dual pronunciation of the Chinese names, but for the most part, she is kind of dull.

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Title: Known and Unknown

Author: Donald Rumsfeld

Narrator: Donald Rumsfeld

Format: Abridged

Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-08-11

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 23 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Members Reviews:

A great recount of modern history!

I thought this was a great recount of modern and most recent history, buy a first hand account from Donald Rumsfeld. This insight and perspective is very insightful and informative.

Excellent

Great book whether you agree or not. Interesting times in history. Definitely a keeper romped on for others to read.

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Title: Predestined to Reign

Subtitle: For Such a Time as This

Author: Crystal McDaniel

Narrator: Shawna Windom

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-20-10

Publisher: Tate Publishing

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Author Crystal McDaniel was born into a troubled home. Growing up in a family that struggled with alcoholism, joblessness, homelessness, and abuse, she was set up for disaster. But as he always does, God had something else in mind.

Follow Crystal McDaniel's vividly retold story as she candidly relates both the good and the bad experiences of her life. She is more than willing to tell listeners of her poor choices, hoping to inspire others to avoid falls, break their addictions, and leave their destructive cycles behind.

She focuses on the narrative of Esther, the everyday girl whom God destined for greatness, to elaborate on how God used similar miracles to show her the true way.

With no holds barred, Crystal displays her weaknesses and triumphs in a down-to-earth style that is as enticing as it is uncommon. Follow her as she openly discusses her entanglement with marijuana, entrenchment in club life, and how she broke free from abusive relationship cyclesall through the grace of God. With a strong desire to display God as the breaker of vicious cycles, she adamantly and unapologetically examines every aspect of his grace and power in her life. With his divine leading, she received a full scholarship through college, an eye-opening chance to study abroad, and many miraculous relationships.

Although God's hand allowed her to become entangled in the devices of Satan, he never allowed her to be wholly taken and destroyed. She, like you, has been Predestined to Reign.

Members Reviews:

Painfully bad writing and reading

How this book made it to publishing is beyond me. Poor writing, editing, and use of diction. The reader was horrible too. Every swallow was heard and not edited out. Words were mispronounced.

Thankfully the author was saved, but not after an astonishing number of trips and falls. Incredibly poor decision making and life choices. Overall a painful listen on many levels.

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Title: Desert Queen

Subtitle: The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates

Author: Susanna De Vries

Narrator: Beverley Dunn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-02-10

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In the 1890s, when a woman's role was seen as marrying well and raising a family, Daisy Bates reinvented herself from humble governess to heiress-traveller and 'woman of science'. She would become one of the best-known and most controversial ethnologists in history, and one of the first people to put Aboriginal culture on the map. Born into tough circumstances, Daisy's prospects were dim; her father an alcoholic bootmaker, her mother dying of consumption when Daisy was only four years old. Through sheer strength of will, young Daisy overcame her miserable start, and in 1883 she migrated to Australia with a boatload of orphans, passing herself off as an heiress who taught for fun. Marriage followed first with the young Breaker Morant, then bigamously with two other husbands. For decades she led a double life. But who was the real Daisy Bates? While other biographies have presented her as a saint, historian Susanna de Vries gives readers a more complex portrait of the 'Queen of the Never Never'.

Editorial Reviews:

Susanna De Vries presents a complicated portrayal of Australia's beloved Daisy Bates. Born in Ireland to an alcoholic father and a mother who died from tuberculosis, Bates immigrated to Australia and gained notoriety for her ethnographic work with the Aborigines. But De Vries provokes controversy by looking into Bates' scandalous love life, starting with presumed misconduct that led to suicide while she was a governess in Ireland, and documenting her many marriages. Despite the more unsavory aspects of Bates' life, Beverley Dunn performs with a posh, stern strength that commands respect for one of Australia's most influential women.

Members Reviews:

very repetitive

The story skipped around and often repeated material. Daisy must have been an interesting character but this treatment did not do her justice.

A remarkable woman

My sister highly recommended this to me and although we rarely agree about books or films, I thought I'd give it a try as I'd never heard of Daisy Bates although it seems she is well know in Australia. She was a remarkable woman who went out to Australia from Ireland and reinvented herself and her family history, taking 5 years off her age in the process. Failing in her ambition to marry into the new money in Australian cattle farming and after 3 marriages, all illegal one way or another, she became the first anthropologist to live among and record the language and culture of the aborigines. She also helped to nurse them through the disastrous effects of the white man's diseases and campaigned for aboriginal women in particular, all the time wearing her old fashioned Edwardian dress of high collar and long skirts in the heat of the outback. For a variety of reasons, some of her own making, some because she was a woman and without a formal education, she did not receive any recognition for her work until late in life when she was at best eccentric and at worst suffering from dementia.

So a potentially a fascinating story. However it was a frustrating listen, party because of the shortcomings of the book, partly because of the reader and I could never work out which. The reader has very clipped tones and a measured, rigid style with an exaggerated inflection which does nothing to help the story along and becomes very irritating.

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Title: Betjeman's Cornwall

Author: John Betjeman

Narrator: Geoffrey Palmer, Kenneth Cranham, Simon Russell Beale

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

John Betjeman first fell in love with Cornwall during his childhood holidays and continued to return to it yearly until his death. It inspired some of his best poems and most evocative prose. The Cornish cliffs and beaches, modest churches and formidable sea have the power to stir him which only first love possesses. Opening with two long passages from his verse autobiography, Summoned by Bells, this collection then alternates between poems and prose.

Members Reviews:

A delightful window on a changing world.

Any additional comments?

Wonderful observations and thoughts on a disappearing traditional Cornish way of life and landscape from the master. Beautifully and sensitively read, especially from Geoffrey Palmer who, in my humble opinion is a perfect reader, who reads with feeling and zeal.

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Title: Cheerful Money

Subtitle: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor

Author: Tad Friend

Narrator: William Dufris

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Tad Friend's family is nothing if not illustrious: his father was president of Swarthmore College, and at Smith his mother came in second in a poetry contest judged by W. H. Auden -- to Sylvia Plath. For centuries, Wasps like his ancestors dominated American life. But then, in the '60s, their fortunes began to fall. As a young man, Friend noticed that his family tree, for all its glories, was full of alcoholics, depressives, and reckless eccentrics. Yet his identity had already been shaped by the family's age-old traditions and expectations. Part memoir, part family history, and part cultural study of the long swoon of the American Wasp, Cheerful Money is a captivating examination of a cultural crack-up and a man trying to escape its wreckage.

Critic Reviews:

"With its WASPish brew of aunts, alcoholics, and dashed promise (not to mention an assortment of Inkys, Wassas, Lettys, Goggys, and Hannys), Cheerful Money goes down like a bitter-sweet late-summer cocktail made with a jigger of Cheever and a splash of Wodehouse." (Graydon Carter )

Funny and enlightening. (BookPage)

Members Reviews:

Funny and Candid

I see why some reviewers couldn't relate to or saw this book as a series of home movies. For me, those home movies were more like my own. Plus, I love home movies in general. I too partially grew up in Swarthmore and later on the Mainline. Although my application was rejected from the Shipley school. To apply, I even gave up my only chance to go to Europe and went to Shipley summer school, to improve my chances of getting in. I saw much of Tad's family in my own WASP family. It's nice to know I wasn't the only one on the Mainline being criticized and ostracized by inadequate table manners - using a knife instead of bread to push my food and lack of ability to take a proper mouthful (meanwhile my two other siblings were getting laid and stoned).

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Title: Watkin Tench's 1788

Author: Tim Flannery (editor)

Narrator: Grant Cartwright

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-10

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 20 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Tench, a humble captain-lieutenant of the marines, arrived on the First Fleet, and with his characteristic understanding, humanity, and eye for detail, recorded the first four years of European settlement. This is a classic, lovingly edited and introduced by Tim Flannery, author of the best-selling The Future Eaters, Throwim Way Leg, and The Weather Makers.

Critic Reviews:

"Not to have read Watkin Tench is not to know early Australia. An eye that noticed everything, a young man's verve, a sly wit, an elegant prose style - all brought to bear on an unimagined place and a very strange micro-society. This is the most readable classic of early Australian history." (Robert Hughes)

"Tench will always remain the classic contemporary witness of our beginnings." (Les Murray)

"Tench's work is a stunning time machine." (Chloe Hooper)

Members Reviews:

A true classic

This is a must-read for those intrigued by the issues of creating a society from scratch. These are the diaries of one of the 800 soldiers taking part in the task of 11 small ships transporting 722 convicts (17 child convicts included) from England to Australia (8 months). What a scenario! Immediately upon landing they had to create shelter, establish food sources in a totally alien climate and soils as wells as deal with the immediately subjugated Indigenous people -- not to mention controlling the convicts. All this was effected with the minimal support from England who at one stage sent out more convicts rather than materials, and who became preoccupied with going to war.

Watkin Tench's diaries record his observations. What is so extraordinary about them, is that aspects read as if they were written today: Australia still hasn't really worked out an appropriate relationship with the greatly disadvantaged indigenous people; the British colonists imposed their own culture of housing and food source and today the environment, dominated by British land clearing and plant and animal pests, continues to impede this invasion. There are familiar themes around issues of law and order and social cohesion.

Tench was clear minded and compassionate (within the context of his culture) and wrote elegantly and succinctly. Professor Tim Flannery, the editor, is highly regarded Australian environmental commentator.

The tone of the reader is appropriate (though I think this was definitely one for John Lee) but it is poorly produced and deserved much better.

This book, enjoyable in itself, has resonances for other countries during the era of European invasion which planted the seeds of our modern world.

A Dry subject made interesting

This was Australian history narrated in the voice of the author giving such concise details, it was easy to visualise what was happening in the earliest days. The Britishness of his oh so correct phrasing narrated oh so correctly made it a pleasure to listen to. I have always been in awe of the first settlers of my vast, arid country who survived incredible hardships in this upside down country compared to their lush and crowded own. The cultural shock is immense to this day but is such a contrast to the rest of the world and still emerging. Well worth a visit.

essential listening for every Australian.

should be part of the school curiculum for every Australian child. every Australian should study this account of European settlement.

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Title: Rescue Ink

Subtitle: How Ten Guys Saved Countless Dogs and Cats, Twelve Horses, Five Pigs, One Duck, and a Few Turtles

Author: Rescue Ink, Denise Flaim

Narrator: Tom Weiner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-17-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Though Joe Panz, Johnny O, Batso, Big Ant, G, Angel, Des, and Eric initially met and formed their friendship at tattoo and motorcycle conventions, they soon learned that they shared another passion: animals. It turned out that each had been rescuing troubled animals on their own for years. Together they decided to form Rescue Ink to combat the problem of animal abuse on a bigger scale. Working from tip-offs from concerned neighbors and anonymous sources, they have rescued countess animals, including a dog-napped bulldog named Clara and 180 cats and kittens from the home of a hoarder. In between rescues, they've protested the barbaric practices of a New Jersey horse slaughterhouse, participated in Puppy Mill Awareness Day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and visited schools to educate children about animal kindness.

©2009 Rescue Ink Publications; (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"Flaim ably blends colorful profiles of the individual members...with journalistic accounts of their interventions with 'trappers, torturers, and garden-variety dirtbags'....The all-volunteer group's commitment inspires and endears." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Awesome Book

Really appreciate this book. We've always had dog's so obviously we love them all. Right now I'm restricted to two & they're precious. I appreciate the dedication this group has to helping as many animals as possible & growing they're resources & volunteers. Also. The stories are woven in & out along with the back stories of each of the members of the group. The information about how to search for a lost pet, searching for your next forever companion & not supporting the puppy mills or pet stores. Ready for the next edition & more stories! Thank you for everything y'all do.

Rescue Ink - A rescue organization like no other

Anyone who has concern and compassion for animals that have been subjected to abuse, abandonment or neglect, this book is a must read for you. This book not only covers amazing animal rescue stories, but also provides many helpful resources on how to report abuse, best places for obtaining your companion animal (rescues, shelters and breeders vs. pet stores), health issues to look out for, where to seek help in the event of a lost or stolen pet or how to prevent the situation occurriing in the first place, how to help animals by volunteering to walk or train shelter dogs so that they become more adoptable, make your own dog a model citizen and teaching others about respect and responsibility of pet ownership. This book, coupled along with the tv show, shows the remarkable work that Rescue Ink does. I wish there was a group of guys like them in Canada. I found the book very interesting reading.

A New Direction in Rescue

Probably everyone who would read a book about rescue already likes animals and supports this kind of work. So, if the rating of this book was to reflect only how readers support animal rescue, the rating would be five stars. This book is a nice complement to those who like the T.V. show. By the nature of the type of rescue done by this group, the rescues are mostly slightly to more disturbing situations. The book was a little gritty in that regard so not all happy and hopeful situations were portrayed.

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Title: To Hell and Back

Author: Susanna De Vries

Narrator: Shane Nagle

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-09-09

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Sydney Loch's experiences in the war shaped his life afterwards. With his wife, Joice, he went on to work in refugee camps in Poland and Palestine and his many subsequent book set in war-torn countries reflected his humanitarian beliefs.

In To Hell and Back historians Susanna and Jake de Vries have recovered and edited Sydney's book for a new generation of readers and listeners and have written a biography of his remarkable life.

Editorial Reviews:

With To Hell and Back, historians Susanna and Jake De Vries shed new light on Sydney Loch, author of the acclaimed The Straits Impregnable, a firsthand account of the horrors he endured as a soldier in Gallipoli originally released in 1917 but pulled from the shelves shortly thereafter by military censors due to its raw, unflattering depiction of the bloody conflict.

Shane Nagles inviting tone and distinguished performance does justice both to De Vris revelatory biography of Loch, and the original text of Straits, which is included in full in this must-listen for military history buffs.

Members Reviews:

Engaging Account of an Artillery Runner

Sydney Loch was a runner in an artillery brigade, and so was necessarily out on the edges of the action most of the time. Unlike a soldier in the infantry, Sydney Loch's unit and role meant he had few frontline experiences with any close mates, so his account is somewhat detached compared to those of a typical infantry digger. His role, though, meant he had frequent contact with officers, as well as awareness of media reports and information describing the broader theatre. This makes for an interesting, and quite engaging, account of a Gallipoli eyewitness who is able to articulate what he sees in a context that wouldn't normally be available to a soldier on the frontline.

The full presentation of To Hell and Back is somewhat compromised by the inclusion of a biography of Sydney Loch that seems to concentrate excessively on his romantic exploits and is altogether much less interesting than Loch's own writing. The narration, while conveying a broad range of characters quite well, occasionally irritates with too much moisture on the palate.

For Sydney Loch's own account (and with a moisture-less narration), I would have given it 5-stars for its entertaining and engaging narrative. Despite not being a "typical digger's story", it is none-the-less still a worthwhile account of Gallipoli and one worth listening to.

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Title: Emma's War

Subtitle: A True Story

Author: Deborah Scroggins

Narrator: Kate Reading

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-17-07

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The adventurous young British relief worker Emma McCune came to Sudan determined to make a difference. She became a near legend in the bullet-scarred, famine-ridden country, but her eventual marriage to a rebel warlord made international headlines and spelled disastrous consequences for her ideals.

©2002 Deborah Scroggins; (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Members Reviews:

A history of modern times

This is an excellent book about the history of the Sudan. The many complexities that have influenced the politics of the area, which is not limited to just Sudan, but extends to Ethiopia, Somalia, and even Syria and Iraq, are explained in a very conversational style. I had not read this book when I was working with MSF in South Sudan. But reading it now helps me understand, at least a little bit, what I was seeing. The human suffering that can take place at the whim of a warlord is hard to understand from a distance.

The book nearly brings us to the present day and is able to tie together the many aspects of Africa, including colonialism, radical Islamism, tribal warring, famine, and even the politics of oil.

If I were to suggest one thing to the author, that would be to include maps of the area. Having been there had a pretty good idea of where things were, but to other readers, I think that it would be very helpful in understanding the area.

A "must read" for those who would like to know the behind-the-scenes story about the warring in ...

A "must read" for those who would like to know the behind-the-scenes story about the warring in Sudan. Exceptionally written.

To Keep

I have read this book before but I wanted a copy for a friend. It was good to get a hard back copy to keep. A fascinating story for those considering "Aid Work"

Fascinating, complex, compelling

Fascinating account of a Western aid worker's plunge into the messy world of war-torn Sudan in the 90s. Very well-written and captures the complexities at play.

Love has no color

Emma was a flambuoyant woman who loved the dangerous. Her committment to her man gives new meaning to "Stand by your Man.