R. Kravitz
- 5
- reviews
- 41
- helpful votes
- 43
- ratings
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The Symphonies of Beethoven
- By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert Greenberg
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 527
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 472
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Story5 out of 5 stars 466
Ludwig van Beethoven is justifiably acclaimed as one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music-a genius once characterized as a "Titan, wrestling with the gods." There is no better way for you to understand the full impact of that description than to not only listen to all nine of his magnificent symphonies, but to do so with a full understanding of what this great composer was saying and the circumstances that drove him up to and beyond what had once been considered the limits of musical expression.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Great Course with a Great Caveat
- By Eloquent on 01-13-14
- The Symphonies of Beethoven
- By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert Greenberg
Ode to joy
Reviewed: 06-03-23
There’s nothing like these lectures. The fullest possible engagement with the music he loves and enlivens for us
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The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage
- Book of Dust, Volume 1
- By: Philip Pullman
- Narrated by: Michael Sheen
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,621
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,085
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,049
Renowned storyteller Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of Lyra Belacqua and His Dark Materials for a thrilling and epic adventure in which daemons, alethiometers, and the Magisterium all play parts.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disturbing differences from print text
- By Damon D. Hickey on 10-24-17
- The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage
- Book of Dust, Volume 1
- By: Philip Pullman
- Narrated by: Michael Sheen
Magical read of a magical ride
Reviewed: 01-23-18
Richard Kravitz
For fans of the Pullman trilogy, His Dark Materials, this is a worthy successor. The book loses its way a bit when the heroic trio descend into a full magical world, but the brilliance of the narrator, Michael Sheen, makes even that artery detour thrilling.
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1 person found this helpful
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A Horse Walks into a Bar
- By: David Grossman, Jessica Cohen
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 230
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 210
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Story4 out of 5 stars 211
In a little dive in a small Israeli city, Dov Greenstein, a comedian a bit past his prime, is doing a night of stand-up. In the audience is a district court justice, Avishai Lazar, whom Dov knew as a boy, along with a few others who remember Dov as the awkward, scrawny kid who walked on his hands to confound the neighborhood bullies. Gradually, teetering between hilarity and hysteria, Dov's patter becomes a kind of memoir, taking us back into the terrors of his childhood.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An extraordinary experience
- By Judith on 07-28-17
- A Horse Walks into a Bar
- By: David Grossman, Jessica Cohen
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Agonizingly, achingly moving
Reviewed: 06-26-17
A stand up comedian trying to make sense of death, from holocaust, to personal, a story of Jews, of Israel, of humanity. One wants to look away, to leave, but try to stay.
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2 people found this helpful
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The Plot Against America
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Ron Silver
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,522
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,160
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,150
In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history. In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected president. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Life is imitating Roth's art
- By Matthew on 08-04-16
- The Plot Against America
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Ron Silver
Extraordinary
Reviewed: 02-01-17
This is a masterpiece, ranging from grand history to the intimacies of family life, from the most dire circumstance to the outrageously funny, as in the best Shakespearean history plays.
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26 people found this helpful
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Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 29 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 157
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 126
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 124
Joyce’s experimental masterpiece set a new standard for modernist fiction, pushing the English language past all previous thresholds in its quest to capture a day in the life of an Everyman in turn-of-the-century Dublin. Obliquely borrowing characters and situations from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce takes us on an internal odyssey along the current of thoughts, impressions, and experiences that make up the adventure of living an average day.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Pure Joyce
- By sleiii on 05-27-11
- Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: John Lee
Marathon Man
Reviewed: 03-03-14
Would you listen to Ulysses again? Why?
This is a once in a lifetime experience -- I would never be able to sit down and read the book, but hearing the voices, those Irish voices, internal and external, as the history of the world filters through the events and consciousness of a single day in Dublin, expands the sense of what is possible in language. Younger and older language artists, Daedalus and Bloom, survive debauchery and humiliation, contemplating, absorbing, reacting to the death of a mother, the infidelity of a wife, the centrifugal and centripetal forces from home. Obscurity and arcaneness to a modern reader melt away in the wash and ocean of mesmerizing sound and language.
What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I heard John Lee read Orhan Pahmuk's Snow and couldn't place his exotic sounding accent which seemed perfect for that book. But to hear him read Ulysses is to know that this is what he was born to do, that Irish voice, that Irish soul.
Any additional comments?
This is a mammoth undertaking.
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12 people found this helpful