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Nat

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Enhanced my trip to Amsterdam

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-13-23

I listened to this book both before and after my trip to Amsterdam. It would have been great just for all the information in it, but it is so well written too!

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This is not a review

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-09-23

I want to give numerical ratings for my own future reference, but Audible requires that I write words too.

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9 people found this helpful

Useful new concepts, well presented

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-10-21

One big point of the book is that the brain is not fooled by vitamin-enriched grains, corn-fed livestock, or artificial sweeteners. Instead, the brain activates panic-like responses when food eaten does not match the sensory information indicates. This "panic-like response" is my paraphrase of findings from study after study in the book, well-explained by examples and analogies from our everyday experiences. The author puts together a central thesis about how modern food's manipulation of micronutrients, flavor, and mouthfeel sends conflicting signals to the brain, ultimately resulting in obesity. The arguments are logical, guided step-by-step in the book. The book is wrapped in an anecdote about Goethe's travels in Italy, and the author's observations about modern Italy's obsession with good food, and exhibits great writing throughout. All of the new concepts in here motivated me to listen to it in a single day!

Shout out to the narrator for being clear, not mispronouncing anything, and for not trying to impress us with some ridiculous Italian accent when reading Italian city and food names. We've all heard narrators who have done that, right?? Anyway, I recommend the book and the narrator.

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14 people found this helpful

poorly narrated and condescending

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-22-21

These two authors made quite a positive impression on me when I listened to them in an episode of the James Altucher Show podcast. I immediately purchased this audiobook, only to have to return it after about an hour of audio.

The first problem is the narration. The authors would benefit from some training in mixing up their intonations to better match the text. It just sounds like they are reading paragraph after paragraph, trying to just plow through the material. A big conclusive paragraph shouldn't sound exactly the same as explaining some minutia of the brain.

Secondly, the authors assume the reader has hit rock bottom and has little self esteem. Hey, some of us just want to go from 70% of potential to >95%. We're not starting from a place that we're ashamed of. Please don't talk down to us as if we are.

I also suspect that this book was only lightly edited. Instead of the usual partnership between writer(s) and editor who work together to produce a book of great ideas told well, we get a list of ideas that neither flow nor work together to form a theme.

Perhaps the book gets better after the first hour. I hope so. For now, I'll call the hour a sunk cost and move on.

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4 people found this helpful

Great overview of Fauci’s career

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-14-20

I knew that Anthony Fauci has been respected for decades, and I finally know why. His work in the eighties was not just incremental, but groundbreaking. This program did an excellent job of explaining Dr. Fauci’s scientific & process breakthroughs.

While the narrator is superb, with obvious decades-developed knowledge on the topic, the narration has many pauses so long that I thought the Audible app had crashed.

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The Apollo Program in Historical Context

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-19-19

One Giant Leap explains the hows and whys of the Apollo program, and the whys are what makes the story coherent and compelling. Fishman starts with the context of what the Soviets were accomplishing in the late 1950s, and how that affected attitudes in the US. Next we get President Kennedy's evolving thoughts on whether the US should even try to compete with the Soviets, eventually deciding that "If we can beat the Soviets to the moon, we should," and finally the well-known declaration about landing a man on the moon before the decade is out.

Next comes the hard part, figuring out how to get to the moon, and developing the technology to get there. Again, Fishman puts the situation in context, noting the state of technology in the late fifties & early sixties. Even integrated circuits were new. Space suits, rockets, the lunar lander, and the 1 cubic foot computer were all fascinating chapters in the book. I loved hearing all these details of the decade-long program where so many pieces had to come together to get the success of Apollo 11.

This is not a biography of astronauts, but rather a biography of the Apollo mission, with historical context to make every point clear and comprehensible. The narration was excellent--clear and enjoyable to listen to. I loved this book and hope you will too.

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16 people found this helpful

Practical Chapters, Then Familiar Theoretical Ones

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-26-17

I enjoyed the background on minimalism and the 55 + 15 practical tips for getting rid of possessions, along with the assurances that people will not regret the reduction. This part of the book makes an excellent companion to "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kando.

The book then descends in yet another book about flow, mirror neurons, and islands inhabited by centenarians, complete with Einstein and Gandhi quotes. However, this part isn’t too long, though — this is just a 4.5 hour book after all.

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2 people found this helpful

10/10 would recommend

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-03-16

I loved this course! I used it for studying for my AP European History class, and it was insanely helpful.

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9 people found this helpful

I Will Teach You to Be Rich Audiobook By Ramit Sethi cover art

Excellent personal finance book, if that's new to you

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-22-16

The book is a personal finance book that guides the reader into saving, spending & investing habits, along with salary negotiation, which will likely make you rich over the long term. The target audience is single 20-somethings who have not yet read a personal finance book. Most material reads like a "best of" compilation of existing personal finance materials out there, though there are specifics (such as websites to visit) and bits of original material that put this book at the top of my list of recommendations for a personal finance book. It's an enjoyable listen too because the author is such a good narrator.

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Brilliant Explanations

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-04-16

I love it when I find a book that explains new concepts like this one. These books are few and far between. However, Life on the Edge stands out for the quality of its explanations of both the new quantum biological phenomena and the long-known quantum phenomena that I supposedly learned in college.

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2 people found this helpful