SPC
- 13
- reviews
- 9
- helpful votes
- 18
- ratings
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Greek Mythology Explained
- A Deeper Look at Classical Greek Lore and Myth
- By: Marios Christou, David Ramenah
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating take on classical Greek stories: Discover six classic Greek myths in this exciting retelling that paints both famous and lesser known characters in a whole new light. Follow the likes of Odysseus, Lamia, Bellerophon, Icarus, Medusa, and Artemis as their fates are revealed through bloody trials, gut-wrenching betrayals, sinister motives, and broken hearts.
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Adults only
- By Morgen La on 01-21-22
- Greek Mythology Explained
- A Deeper Look at Classical Greek Lore and Myth
- By: Marios Christou, David Ramenah
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
Simple, and brilliant idea
Reviewed: 04-12-24
I have read, and listened to numerous tellings of Greek myths, and after listening to Greek Myths Exaplained the only thing I cannot explain is why someone didn't think of it before.
The authors' technique of combining sources, filling in the gaps and injecting some recognizable modernity into characters made this like listening to these stories for the first time.
Hearing the inner voice of Medusa while the tale unfolds more slowly than the traditional version reinforces the tragedy and depth of her character and leads to a greater appreciation of the original stories.
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2 people found this helpful
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An Instance of the Fingerpost
- By: Iain Pears
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
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An utterly compelling historical mystery, in the tradition of Umberto Eco and John Fowles. The setting is England in the 1660s. Oliver Cromwell's short-lived republic is a thing of the past, and Charles II has been restored to the throne. At Oxford's New College, fellow Robert Grove is found dead under suspicious circumstances, and a young woman stands accused. We hear from four witnesses, only one of whom is telling the rather extraordinary truth. Who is it?
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Eviscerated rather than abridged
- By Lynn on 02-20-12
- An Instance of the Fingerpost
- By: Iain Pears
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
The biggest crime in the book is its editing
Reviewed: 04-12-24
I was recommended the book and did not pay enough attention that it was an abridged version when buying it. This does not bear any resemblance to the real book - I found myself wondering why so many people raved about it, until I realized the book had been butchered and I had wasted my time listening.
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Liquid Rules
- The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
- By: Mark Miodownik
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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We all know that without water we couldn't survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or the destructive power they hold? Set over the course of a flight from London to San Francisco, Liquid Rules offers listeners a fascinating tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves.
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Interesting book!
- By Wayne on 08-04-19
- Liquid Rules
- The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
- By: Mark Miodownik
- Narrated by: Michael Page
Bliss - witty, engaging and wonderful narration
Reviewed: 03-08-24
Material science doesn't generally scream hilarity, but the author's vehicles for narrative - an airplane journey, English social rules and heavy self-deprecation, package the fascinating history and chemistry of everyday things with enormous entertainment. I could have listened to this for 2 or 3 times as long.
A word about the narrator. I can't think of a better voice I have heard at audible. Michael Page could read the small print on a lease contract and it would be a joy. His performance enhances the book, this author and narrator are a perfect pairing.
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Double Cross
- The True Story of the D-Day Spies
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy.
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Are You Sure Ben Macintyre Wrote This?
- By Sheila Quaid on 08-01-12
- Double Cross
- The True Story of the D-Day Spies
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
Yet another Macintyre hit
Reviewed: 11-13-21
I have read or listened to most of his books, so by now there's not many surprises Ben Macintyre has for me. Double Cross is typically entertaining, detailed and in injected with humor. What does consistently surprise me, is his remarkable ability to deliver tension and suspense over an event everyone already knows the outcome. It builds much slower in this book than some of the others, there is a long, long, long period of setup before the pace and tension accelerate through the climactic pre-invasion period.
In addition, the details behind British Intelligence's spectacular success are astonishing and detailed. If you like Macintyre, or have an interest in intelligence operations before they became the industrialized, personality-less institutions of the Cold War and beyond, you will love this book.
Finally, is there any way to get John Lee to narrate every book at audible? The performance is perfect - never getting in the way, never adding too much - a great match for this book
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How To
- Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
- By: Randall Munroe
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.
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Bad Ideas So BAD They Are NEARLY Irresistable! 🤓
- By C. White on 09-03-19
- How To
- Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
- By: Randall Munroe
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
Absurd, scienctific and hillarious
Reviewed: 02-21-21
Brilliant performance and spectacular content. Just the chapter "How to cross a river" is worth the price of the book itself.
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What If?
- Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
- By: Randall Munroe
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent of the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there were a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?
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Hope You got an A in Math and Physics...
- By Rod on 09-13-14
- What If?
- Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
- By: Randall Munroe
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
Brilliant entertainment
Reviewed: 02-19-21
I really couldn't put it down. Superbly narrated and, marvelously witty. If you have any passing interest in science, math, or a sense of humor you'll love it. I usually think narration can at best not get in the way, but Mr Wheaton's reading compliments the material perfectly. The only down side is that the book has to end, could listen to these stories for weeks.
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Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
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Those Who Dared, Won!
- By Matthew on 10-07-16
- Rogue Heroes
- The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
Superb narrative of the SAS's origins
Reviewed: 12-24-20
The performance is exceptional, perhaps the best I have listened to. Macintyre's wit, pacing and detail drive the story like a ride you do not want to get off. I had great difficulty putting it down, something I used to feel from some books but never an audio book.
Macintyre is aided by the history. The story of the SAS and its cast of characters would be rejected if it were fiction. These people are witty, absurd, dangerous, sometimes psychopathically violent but possessed qualities of bravery and endurance I cannot even fathom. Yet through all their feats, the author manages to extract the soldiers' human qualities and frailties. Their flaws, their fear and impediments which make the accomplishments even more remarkable. Macintyre's use of historic action reports in all their understatement provides deeper insight into the men who fought not for glory or recognition, but because it was the right thing to do.
In the background there is the constant doubt whether the unit would exist from one month to the next. Through attrition and failures, or more likely the crushing weight of incompetent army bureaucracy, the unit's constant companions are personal loss and enormous good fortune.
The combination of the people, history and Macintyre's writing make this a remarkable book.
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The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
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John Lee is GREAT!
- By David on 09-21-18
- The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
Brilliantly written and narrated thriller
Reviewed: 12-13-20
It's almost impossible to make history read like a thriller, but McIntyre has done a remarkable job. I found myself unable to turn it off, despite knowing what happens.
Making history as intense and exciting as a Forsyth or Le Carre novel is an incredible and rare achievement. If you have any interest in the Cold War, espionage or human drama you will enjoy this magnificent work.
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Top of the Rock
- Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV
- By: Warren Littlefield, T. R. Pearson
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Warren Littlefield was the NBC President of Entertainment who oversaw the Peacock Network’s rise from also-ran to a division that generated a billion dollars in profits. In this fast-paced and exceptionally entertaining oral history, Littlefield and NBC luminaries including Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Kelsey Grammer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Julianna Marguiles, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wylie, Debra Messing, Jack Welch, Jimmy Burrows, Helen Hunt, and Dick Wolf vividly recapture the incredible era of Must See TV.
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Nostalgic Look at NBC in the 90's
- By Jill on 10-10-12
- Top of the Rock
- Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV
- By: Warren Littlefield, T. R. Pearson
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
Inside Stories and Nineties Nostalgia
Reviewed: 07-14-20
Great story, excellent performance by Balaban.
It's really a series of interviews from a vast cast of the people who made the most successful TV lineup in history. It can occasionally be jarring going from one person to another, but overall the progression is easy to follow and the collection of anecdotes and opinions are entertaining.
I enjoyed the narrative construction, the progression through the years and the collection of good fortune and great decisions which made the last era of network television so interesting.
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July 1914: Countdown to War
- By: Sean McMeekin
- Narrated by: Steve Coulter
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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When a Serbian-backed assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, the world seemed unmoved. Even Ferdinand’s own uncle, Franz Josef I, was notably ambivalent about the death of the Hapsburg heir, saying simply, "It is God’s will." Certainly, there was nothing to suggest that the episode would lead to conflictmuch less a world war of such massive and horrific proportions that it would fundamentally reshape the course of human events.
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Great Book, Narrator Isn't the Best though
- By Richard Valdez on 08-31-13
- July 1914: Countdown to War
- By: Sean McMeekin
- Narrated by: Steve Coulter
Modern research and conclusions of an old topic
Reviewed: 04-14-20
Who was to blame for WW1? In a refreshingly balanced book, McMeekin does a fine job unravelling the events of July 1914 and provides enough facts to blame everyone. The degrees of blame are left to the reader, along with the blend of incompetence and malevolence. Should be mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in the subject, and a perfect antidote for McMillan and Hastings's retreads on the blank check and Kaiser's personality disorders.
Not overly long, but it is intense and I found myself re-playing sections multiple times. It helps to have a grasp of the protagonists and the sequence of events beforehand. There are many, and the book isn't gentle - definitely not the best book to use as an introduction to the topic, but rather an excellent work to destroy existing preconceptions on the 20th century's defining moments.
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3 people found this helpful