Field Notes from a Pandemic
A Journey Through a World Suspended
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.40
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Ethan Lou
-
By:
-
Ethan Lou
About this listen
A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of 2020
In a book equal parts travelogue and pandemic guide, the journalist Ethan Lou examines the societal effects of COVID-19 and takes us on a mesmerizing journey around a world that will never be the same.
Visiting Beijing in January 2020 to see his dying grandfather, the Canadian journalist Ethan Lou unknowingly walks into a state under siege. In his journey out of China and - unwittingly - into other hot zones in Asia and Europe, he finds himself witnessing the very earliest stages of a virus that will forever change the world as we know it.
Lou argues that the coronavirus outbreak will have a far greater impact than SARS, for example, simply because China is now many more times integrated with the increasingly interconnected world. Over decades, globalization has crafted a world painfully sensitive and susceptible to shocks such as this pandemic. A crisis like it has thus been long overdue - and we have yet to see it unfold fully. In our integrated world, events that may previously be isolated now ripple farther and wider and in ways we do not expect and cannot foresee. We have not seen the worst, and if and when we outlast this pandemic, nothing will ever be the same. Decisions now - or indecisions - will shape and define the world for decades.
These ideas are fleshed out through the virus's spawning and how it spread, the unprecedented measures to contain it and an examination of past pandemics and other crises and how they shaped the world - and an argument for why this one's different. Lou shows how drastically the virus has transformed the world and charts the greater and more radical shifts to come. His ideas and arguments are framed around his unintentionally tumultuous journey around the world, whose path the virus seemed to follow until he landed safely in quarantine in a small town in Germany, where he was able to take stock and start telling his story.
©2020 Ethan Lou (P)2020 Penguin Random House CanadaListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Anthropocene Reviewed
- Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
- By: John Green
- Narrated by: John Green
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, best-selling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale - from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
-
-
unexpected
- By E. Collins on 05-18-21
By: John Green
-
Factfulness
- Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
- By: Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling
- Narrated by: Richard Harries
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of carrying only opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends - what percentage of the world's population live in poverty; why the world's population is increasing; how many girls finish school - we systematically get the answers wrong. In Factfulness, professor of international health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two longtime collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens.
-
-
Great Read not for Listening
- By carlos gomez on 06-01-18
By: Hans Rosling, and others
-
The Ministry for the Future
- A Novel
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
-
-
Great ideas, uneven narration
- By depthpsychologist on 12-09-20
-
After the Fall
- Being American in the World We've Made
- By: Ben Rhodes
- Narrated by: Ben Rhodes
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when democracy in the United States is endangered as never before, Ben Rhodes spent years traveling the world to understand why. He visited dozens of countries, meeting with politicians and activists confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that are tearing America apart. Along the way, he discusses the growing authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin, and his aggression toward Ukraine, with the foremost opposition leader in Russia.
-
-
A must read, won’t regret it!!
- By Jerrold S. Gertzman on 06-03-21
By: Ben Rhodes
-
Dishonesty Is the Second-Best Policy
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: David Mitchell
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Mitchell’s 2014 best seller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think - because everything’s got worse. We’ve gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from horsemeat in lasagne to Donald Trump in the White House, from Woolworths going under to all the other shops going under. It’s probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up.
-
-
Meant for UK listeners
- By Maggie May on 11-19-19
By: David Mitchell
-
Light and Shadow
- Memoirs of a Spy's Son
- By: Mark Colvin
- Narrated by: Mark Colvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Colvin is a broadcasting legend. He is the voice of ABC Radio’s leading current affairs program PM; he was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he’s one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere. Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy.
-
-
Probably of most interest to Australian readers
- By Robyn on 04-12-17
By: Mark Colvin
-
The Anthropocene Reviewed
- Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
- By: John Green
- Narrated by: John Green
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, best-selling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale - from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
-
-
unexpected
- By E. Collins on 05-18-21
By: John Green
-
Factfulness
- Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
- By: Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling
- Narrated by: Richard Harries
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of carrying only opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends - what percentage of the world's population live in poverty; why the world's population is increasing; how many girls finish school - we systematically get the answers wrong. In Factfulness, professor of international health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two longtime collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens.
-
-
Great Read not for Listening
- By carlos gomez on 06-01-18
By: Hans Rosling, and others
-
The Ministry for the Future
- A Novel
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
-
-
Great ideas, uneven narration
- By depthpsychologist on 12-09-20
-
After the Fall
- Being American in the World We've Made
- By: Ben Rhodes
- Narrated by: Ben Rhodes
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when democracy in the United States is endangered as never before, Ben Rhodes spent years traveling the world to understand why. He visited dozens of countries, meeting with politicians and activists confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that are tearing America apart. Along the way, he discusses the growing authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin, and his aggression toward Ukraine, with the foremost opposition leader in Russia.
-
-
A must read, won’t regret it!!
- By Jerrold S. Gertzman on 06-03-21
By: Ben Rhodes
-
Dishonesty Is the Second-Best Policy
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: David Mitchell
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Mitchell’s 2014 best seller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think - because everything’s got worse. We’ve gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from horsemeat in lasagne to Donald Trump in the White House, from Woolworths going under to all the other shops going under. It’s probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up.
-
-
Meant for UK listeners
- By Maggie May on 11-19-19
By: David Mitchell
-
Light and Shadow
- Memoirs of a Spy's Son
- By: Mark Colvin
- Narrated by: Mark Colvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Colvin is a broadcasting legend. He is the voice of ABC Radio’s leading current affairs program PM; he was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he’s one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere. Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy.
-
-
Probably of most interest to Australian readers
- By Robyn on 04-12-17
By: Mark Colvin
-
We Are the Weather
- By: Jonathan Safran Foer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Safran Foer
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central global dilemma of our time in a surprising, deeply personal, and urgent new way. Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act on what we know.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Max Dennison on 12-09-19
-
Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days
- Discovering What Makes America Great and Why We Must Fight to Save It
- By: Larry Alex Taunton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A battle rages for the heart and soul of America. For one group, the idea of "American Exceptionalism" is dead. Some never tire of lecturing us about how out of step America is with the rest of the world and how the country needs to get with it. Worse, America, they say, is bad for the world. Its freedom and prosperity are merely historical accidents.
-
-
Still the greatest and spells out why
- By Donald L. Huxley on 01-10-21
-
The Good Immigrant
- 26 Writers Reflect on America
- By: Nikesh Shukla - editor, Chimene Suleyman - editor
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, full cast
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An urgent collection of essays by first- and second-generation immigrants, exploring what it's like to be othered in an increasingly divided America.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Kristie Smith on 11-06-19
By: Nikesh Shukla - editor, and others
-
The Retreat of Western Liberalism
- By: Edward Luce
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of liberal democracy - of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a terrifying symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society's economic losers, and complacency about our system's durability.
-
-
Interesting, but biased.
- By Megan Tilly on 12-18-17
By: Edward Luce
-
New York, New York, New York
- Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation
- By: Thomas Dyja
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy, Thomas Dyja - introduction
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dangerous, filthy, and falling apart, garbage piled on its streets and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble; New York’s terrifying, if liberating, state of nature in 1978 also made it the capital of American culture. Over the next thirty-plus years, though, it became a different place - kinder and meaner, richer and poorer, more like America and less like what it had always been.
-
-
OMG...right on 👍👍👍👍👍
- By howie wine on 04-04-21
By: Thomas Dyja
-
Socialism Sucks
- Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World
- By: Robert Lawson, Benjamin Powell
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The bastard step-child of Milton Friedman and Anthony Bourdain, Socialism Sucks is a bar crawl through former, current, and wannabe socialist countries around the world. Free-market economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell travel to countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Sweden to investigate the dangers and idiocies of socialism - while drinking a lot of beer.
-
-
I learned more than I anticipated in a 4 + hr book
- By J D Rossi on 08-06-19
By: Robert Lawson, and others
-
Adventure Capitalist
- The Ultimate Road Trip
- By: Jim Rogers
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the ultimate road trip. Legendary investor Jim Rogers and his fiancee travel to 116 countries in a custom-built, four-wheel-drive, bright yellow Mercedes. Over three years, they make their way through war zones, are guarded by military convoys, observe a 50-million-person pilgrimage, eat disgusting food, put the car on barges for transport between countries, and have their lives threatened at every turn.
-
-
New Perspective
- By Dan on 08-27-04
By: Jim Rogers
-
The Cubans
- Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times
- By: Anthony DePalma
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Anthony DePalma
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cubans today, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the Castro regime, are hesitantly embracing the future. In his new book, Anthony DePalma, a veteran reporter with years of experience in Cuba, focuses on a neighborhood across the harbor from Old Havana to dramatize the optimism as well as the enormous challenges that Cubans face: a moving snapshot of Cuba with all its contradictions as the new regime opens the gate to the capitalism that Fidel railed against for so long.
-
-
Enlightening and eye-opening
- By Amee Arledge on 07-21-22
By: Anthony DePalma
-
The Address Book
- What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
- By: Deirdre Mask
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity. When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.
-
-
Simply OK
- By CJFLA on 07-18-20
By: Deirdre Mask
-
Discontent and Its Civilizations
- Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London
- By: Mohsin Hamid
- Narrated by: Mohsin Hamid
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mohsin Hamid's brilliant, moving, and extraordinarily clever novels have not only made him an international best seller, they have earned him a reputation as a "master critic of the modern global condition" ( Foreign Policy). His stories are at once timeless and of-the-moment, and his themes are universal: love, language, ambition, power, corruption, religion, family, identity. Here, he explores this terrain from a different angle in essays that deftly counterpoise the personal and the political.
-
-
Thought-Provoking Essays by Mohsin Hamid
- By Huffie on 04-10-21
By: Mohsin Hamid
-
Renaissance Nation
- How the Pope's Children Rewrote the Rules for Ireland
- By: David McWilliams
- Narrated by: David McWilliams
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four decades, bookended by the Pope’s visits to Ireland in September 1979 and August 2018, Ireland has become one of the wealthiest and most progressive nations in the world. Characteristically brilliant and timely, Renaissance Nation is a thrilling account of Ireland’s vertiginous rise and a timely exploration of its conflicted present, where stark decisions await the next generation of would-be revolutionaries.
-
-
An analysis for posterity
- By Diarmuid McSweeney on 09-04-24
By: David McWilliams
-
Preventable
- The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response
- By: Andy Slavitt
- Narrated by: Bradley Whitford
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From former head of Obamacare Andy Slavitt, Preventable is the definitive inside account of the United States' failed response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Slavitt chronicles what he saw and how much could have been prevented - an unflinching investigation of the cultural, political, and economic drivers that led to unnecessary loss of life.
-
-
Right, Left, or Center.... every American needs to read this book
- By Family account on 06-19-21
By: Andy Slavitt
Critic reviews
"Lou's book represents one clear statement about who we are in the face of crisis and where we're going.... Lou's accessible writing about a heavy topic, combined with his fascinating mind and understated humour, leaves the reader wanting more." (Quill and Quire)
"[A] fulsome travelogue through the history and politics of pandemics ... a worthwhile read ... [this] thoroughly researched, accessible exposition offers an understanding of how to reduce deaths and mitigate societal damage from pandemics." (Winnipeg Free Press)
"Little details and personal touches draw the reader in.... Yet underneath the colour and detail are sharp analyses ... Lou's weaving of analyses with personal anecdotes and introspective observation reads effortlessly and is the book's chief merit." (Asian Review of Book)
Related to this topic
-
Three Tigers, One Mountain
- A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan, and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other. In his latest entertaining and thought-provoking narrative travelogue, Michael Booth sets out to discover how deep, really, the enmity is between these three "tiger" nations and what prevents them from making peace.
-
-
Not much new here if you are already familiar
- By Neil Richert on 07-13-20
By: Michael Booth
-
This Land Is Our Land
- An Immigrant's Manifesto
- By: Suketu Mehta
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A timely argument for why the US and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention and a literary polemic of the highest order.
-
-
Greatly informative. wonderful narrated
- By ADEDZWA Dooyum Sartor on 06-29-19
By: Suketu Mehta
-
The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
-
-
Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
-
The Shanghai Free Taxi
- Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China
- By: Frank Langfitt
- Narrated by: Frank Langfitt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service - offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation - to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer", a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
-
-
Too political
- By dah551 on 06-26-19
By: Frank Langfitt
-
Wuhan Diary
- Dispatches from a Quarantined City
- By: Fang Fang, Michael Berry - translator
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 25, 2020, after the central government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang began publishing an online diary. In the days and weeks that followed, Fang Fang’s nightly postings gave voice to the fears, frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of her fellow citizens, reflecting on the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of the internet as both community lifeline and source of misinformation, and most tragically, the lives of neighbors and friends taken by the deadly virus.
-
-
In-depth look at life under quarantine
- By Yan Chen on 06-18-20
By: Fang Fang, and others
-
The Great Successor
- The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un
- By: Anna Fifield
- Narrated by: Olivia Mackenzie-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anna Fifield reconstructs Kim's past and present with exclusive access to sources near him and brings her unique understanding to explain the dynastic mission of the Kim family in North Korea. The archaic notion of despotic family rule matches the almost medieval hardship the country has suffered under the Kims. Few people thought that a young, untested, unhealthy, Swiss-educated basketball fanatic could hold together a country that should have fallen apart years ago. But Kim Jong Un has not just survived, he has thrived.
-
-
Great book
- By WPD on 06-26-19
By: Anna Fifield
-
Three Tigers, One Mountain
- A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan, and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other. In his latest entertaining and thought-provoking narrative travelogue, Michael Booth sets out to discover how deep, really, the enmity is between these three "tiger" nations and what prevents them from making peace.
-
-
Not much new here if you are already familiar
- By Neil Richert on 07-13-20
By: Michael Booth
-
This Land Is Our Land
- An Immigrant's Manifesto
- By: Suketu Mehta
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A timely argument for why the US and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention and a literary polemic of the highest order.
-
-
Greatly informative. wonderful narrated
- By ADEDZWA Dooyum Sartor on 06-29-19
By: Suketu Mehta
-
The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
-
-
Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
-
The Shanghai Free Taxi
- Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China
- By: Frank Langfitt
- Narrated by: Frank Langfitt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service - offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation - to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer", a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
-
-
Too political
- By dah551 on 06-26-19
By: Frank Langfitt
-
Wuhan Diary
- Dispatches from a Quarantined City
- By: Fang Fang, Michael Berry - translator
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 25, 2020, after the central government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang began publishing an online diary. In the days and weeks that followed, Fang Fang’s nightly postings gave voice to the fears, frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of her fellow citizens, reflecting on the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of the internet as both community lifeline and source of misinformation, and most tragically, the lives of neighbors and friends taken by the deadly virus.
-
-
In-depth look at life under quarantine
- By Yan Chen on 06-18-20
By: Fang Fang, and others
-
The Great Successor
- The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un
- By: Anna Fifield
- Narrated by: Olivia Mackenzie-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anna Fifield reconstructs Kim's past and present with exclusive access to sources near him and brings her unique understanding to explain the dynastic mission of the Kim family in North Korea. The archaic notion of despotic family rule matches the almost medieval hardship the country has suffered under the Kims. Few people thought that a young, untested, unhealthy, Swiss-educated basketball fanatic could hold together a country that should have fallen apart years ago. But Kim Jong Un has not just survived, he has thrived.
-
-
Great book
- By WPD on 06-26-19
By: Anna Fifield
-
The Rebel and the Kingdom
- The True Story of the Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime
- By: Bradley Hope
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Korean escapees to safety. The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo—to instead live boldly by his principles.
-
-
Phenomenal true story
- By NYCdogmomma on 11-13-22
By: Bradley Hope
-
Bending Adversity
- Japan and the Art of Survival
- By: David Pilling
- Narrated by: Tim Andes Pabon
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Bending Adversity, Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.
-
-
Good book, but terribly read
- By Kallan Resnick on 10-24-14
By: David Pilling
-
Revolt
- The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization
- By: Nadav Eyal
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Revolt is an eloquent and provocative challenge to the prevailing wisdom about the rise of nationalism and populism. With a vibrant and informed voice, Nadav Eyal illustrates how modern globalization is not sustainable. He contends that the collapse of the current world order is not so much about the imbalance between technological achievement and social progress or the breakdown of liberal democracy as it is about a passion to upend and destroy power structures that have become hollow, corrupt, or simply unresponsive to urgent needs.
-
-
Good observations, very politically biased.
- By P. Bradley on 11-29-23
By: Nadav Eyal
-
The Buried
- An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Hessler
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawn by a fascination with Egypt's rich history and culture, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo in 2011. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, and visit the legendary archaeological digs of Upper Egypt. After his years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him Egypt would be a much quieter place. But not long before he arrived, the Egyptian Arab Spring had begun, and now the country was in chaos.
-
-
A Fascinating, Funny, and Moving Account of Egypt
- By Jefferson on 07-23-19
By: Peter Hessler
-
Until Proven Safe
- The History and Future of Quarantine
- By: Nicola Twilley, Geoff Manaugh
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quarantine is our most powerful response to uncertainty: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside us will be revealed. It is also one of our most dangerous, operating through an assumption of guilt. In quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space - from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC.
-
-
Excellent writing, timely and informative
- By MSE on 07-24-21
By: Nicola Twilley, and others
-
Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds
- Ebola and the Ravages of History
- By: Paul Farmer
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2014, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea suffered the worst epidemic of Ebola in history. The brutal virus spread rapidly through a clinical desert, where basic health-care facilities were few and far between. Causing severe loss of life and economic disruption, the Ebola crisis was a major tragedy of modern medicine. But why did it happen, and what can we learn from it?
-
-
CRITICAL LISTENING for 2020!
- By Vin on 11-17-20
By: Paul Farmer
-
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
- A Memoir
- By: Ai Weiwei, Allan H. Barr - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nation’s most celebrated poet, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as “Little Siberia,” where Ai Qing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warhol and the artworks of Marcel Duchamp.
-
-
This book changed my life
- By Johnny Nopolis on 08-16-22
By: Ai Weiwei, and others
-
The Cubans
- Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times
- By: Anthony DePalma
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Anthony DePalma
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cubans today, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the Castro regime, are hesitantly embracing the future. In his new book, Anthony DePalma, a veteran reporter with years of experience in Cuba, focuses on a neighborhood across the harbor from Old Havana to dramatize the optimism as well as the enormous challenges that Cubans face: a moving snapshot of Cuba with all its contradictions as the new regime opens the gate to the capitalism that Fidel railed against for so long.
-
-
Enlightening and eye-opening
- By Amee Arledge on 07-21-22
By: Anthony DePalma
-
The Address Book
- What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
- By: Deirdre Mask
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity. When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.
-
-
Simply OK
- By CJFLA on 07-18-20
By: Deirdre Mask
-
Socialism Sucks
- Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World
- By: Robert Lawson, Benjamin Powell
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The bastard step-child of Milton Friedman and Anthony Bourdain, Socialism Sucks is a bar crawl through former, current, and wannabe socialist countries around the world. Free-market economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell travel to countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Sweden to investigate the dangers and idiocies of socialism - while drinking a lot of beer.
-
-
I learned more than I anticipated in a 4 + hr book
- By J D Rossi on 08-06-19
By: Robert Lawson, and others
-
India
- A Portrait
- By: Patrick French
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories to explain a larger national narrative. Melding on-the-ground reports with a deep knowledge of history, French exposes the cultural foundations of India’s political, economic and social complexities.
-
-
An Epic Book by Award-Winning Author
- By morton on 10-31-11
By: Patrick French
-
In Putin's Footsteps
- Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones
- By: Nina Khrushcheva, Jeffrey Tayler
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With exclusive insider status as Nikita Khrushchev’s great grand-daughter, and an ex-pat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1993, Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on Earth through their recreation of Vladimir Putin’s fabled New Year’s Eve speech planned across all 11 time zones.
-
-
Up to date assessment of Russia in 2019
- By Joseph C. Wilson on 04-10-19
By: Nina Khrushcheva, and others