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Lightning Rods
- Narrated by: Dushko Petrovich
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
"All I want is to be a success.That's all I ask." Joe fails to sell a single set of the Encyclopedia Britannica in six months. Then he fails to sell a single Electrolux and must eat hundreds of pieces of homemade pie, served up by his would-be customers who feel so sorry for him. Holed up in his trailer, Joe finds an outlet his for frustrations in a series of ingenious sexual fantasies, and at last strikes gold. His brain storm, Lightning Rods, Inc., will take Joe to the very top - and to the very heart of corporate insanity - with an outrageous solution to the spectre of sexual harassment in the modern office.
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At the age of 20, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him part of the city's working homeless with his toddler son.
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Very Good Story!
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You Lost Him at Hello
- From Dating to 'I Do': Secret Strategies from One of America’s Top Dating Coaches
- By: Jess McCann
- Narrated by: Julia Farhat
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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She used to make the same mistakes we've all made with men - until she realized that the winning formula to attracting the right guy lay in skills she already had. As a successful saleswoman, Jess has practiced the techniques in promoting a product, finding the right approach, making the pitch, and closing deal after deal. Once she started to apply these same techniques to the dating scene, her love life made a complete 180, and she found herself with more interested men than she knew what to do with.
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great book
- By Barbara on 04-24-13
By: Jess McCann
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Works Well with Others
- An Outsider's Guide to Shaking Hands, Shutting up, Handling Jerks, and Other Crucial Skills in Business That No One Ever Teaches You
- By: Ross McCammon
- Narrated by: Tom Taylorson
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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This is McCammon's honest, funny, and entertaining journey from impostor to authority - a story that begins with periods of debilitating workplace anxiety but leads to rich insights and practical advice from a guy who still remembers what it's like to feel entirely ill equipped for professional success.
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Amusing but really limited
- By Margaret on 11-24-15
By: Ross McCammon
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Faces of the Gone
- Carter Ross, Book 1
- By: Brad Parks
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- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot: That's the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner. Immediately dispatched to the scene, Carter learns that the four victims - an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama's boy - came from different parts of the city and didn't seem to know one another.
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Wish Brad Parks were more prolific!!!!
- By shelley on 02-16-18
By: Brad Parks
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I Shouldn't Be Telling You This
- Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know
- By: Kate White
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
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A witty, wise, straight-talking career guide for women, I Shouldn't Be Telling You This is the perfect book for the current economic climate, whether you're just starting out, re-entering the workforce after maternity leave, or simply looking for a career change; it contains essential tips and bold strategies from a gutsy innovator who helped increase Cosmo's circulation by half a million copies per month.
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AMAZING
- By valarie on 01-21-14
By: Kate White
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Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
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Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
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I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
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The Wizard of Ads
- Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires
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Story
With the knowledge of a seasoned business consultant and the warmth and wit of a natural storyteller, the Wizard will help you to multiply the effectiveness of your advertising, understand the tug-of-war between intellect and emotion, and more.
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If you have a hard time hearing don't waste your time
- By Michelle J on 01-09-17
By: Roy H. Williams
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The Door into Summer
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
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Overall
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Performance
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Dan Davis, an electronics engineer, had finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot that could do almost anything. Wild success was within reach, but then Dan's life was ruined. In a plot to steal his business, his greedy partner and greedier fiancée tricked him into taking the "long sleep": suspended animation for 30 years.
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classic
- By Greg on 04-05-09
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Ghosts of Manhattan
- A Novel
- By: Douglas Brunt
- Narrated by: George Newbern
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It’s 2005. Nick Farmer is a 35-year-old bond trader with Bear Stearns clearing seven figures a year. The novelty of a work-related nightlife centering on liquor, hookers, and cocaine has long since worn thin, though Nick remains keenly addicted to his annual bonus. But the lifestyle is taking a toll on his marriage and on him.
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Great Book
- By Melvin on 06-30-15
By: Douglas Brunt
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No Turning Back
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Overall
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Performance
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The word conquer has changed meaning for Bryan Anderson. As a U.S. army sergeant in Iraq, it meant taking down the enemy. After becoming Iraq’s fourth triple amputee from a roadside explosive, what he had to conquer got a bit more personal. On October 23, 2005, the moment Bryan looked down and realized he no longer had legs, he cracked a joke. It was a tragedy that could break many, but Bryan transformed it into something positive, something that propelled him forward.
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What Heroes are made of
- By Emmaus Dan on 08-03-17
By: Bryan Anderson, and others
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The Power of Being Yourself
- A Game Plan for Success by Putting Passion into Your Life and Work
- By: Joe Plumeri
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Overall
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Everyone imagines top CEOs as larger-than-life figures who do things no one else could. But deep down every good business leader is an everyman who combines vision and high energy with the ability to connect with all types of people and learn from them
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Go Play in Traffic!
- By Teri Gasper on 01-03-18
By: Joe Plumeri
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What listeners say about Lightning Rods
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Josh
- 11-11-11
Wild tale, enveloping reader
"Lightning rods" are women who have anonymous sex with men in their shared workplace, relieving the anxiety and tension that leads to sexual harassment lawsuits. Still on board? This is a deeply funny novel about salesmen and inventors, creativity and persuasion. Though it's nakedly perverse, it draws more from How to Win Friends and Influence People than The Story of O -- it's detailed but not exactly erotic. Our journey follows Joe, a sad-sack vacuum cleaner salesman who uses his idiosyncratic sexual fantasies to bootstrap his way to the top.
The reader is excellent, with a rich and steady tone that keeps you in the story. Especially interesting, given the subject matter, that a man is reading a novel written by a woman, but Petrovich doesn't oversell the material, which is a risk with such explicit sexual themes. I listen to this in my car, and now I'm late for stuff all the time -- lots of "driveway moments." More by this reader, please.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Bill
- 12-27-11
So great I had to write a review
Would you listen to Lightning Rods again? Why?
Well, mainly I'm writing this review to convince people that they should listen to Lightning Rods the first time...but yes, I would listen to it again because it was excellent satire, the kind where listening to it the second time you are likely to pick up on subtle aspects you missed the first time.
What other book might you compare Lightning Rods to and why?
Catch-22 and most of the books by Christopher Buckley -- the former because the depth and subtlety of the satire and the latter because this made me laugh out loud.
Which character – as performed by Dushko Petrovich – was your favorite?
Both Joe, and the
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes.
Any additional comments?
This is a masterpiece of satire -- better than anything that has come along since Catch-22. Buy it. Listen to it. This is the first time I've felt strongly enough about a book to take the time to write a review, and my first 5 star rating in 6+ years of listening to audio books (i.e. I'm not one of those annoying reviewers who rates everything 5 stars).
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3 people found this helpful
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- Dr. Dave
- 02-03-12
Very Enjoyable!
Where does Lightning Rods rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The story was fun and very entertaining. DeWeitt did a great job of making the absurd premise seem plausible and almost a good idea.
What about Dushko Petrovich’s performance did you like?
The performance was good. Petrovich has a bit of a Steven Wright quality that works very well with the story.
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2 people found this helpful
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- K. Johnston
- 11-05-22
Hilarious and poignant
A hilarious satire of modern American corporate culture. Dushko Petrovich’s deadpan narration captures the tone perfectly.
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- g
- 08-01-20
one of my all time favorites
Difficult to describe, I imagine it's a hate it or love it book. To me it was like witnessing the creation of a fantasy, from ideation to realizing it in every painstaking, delicious detail and discovering and solving all the puzzles in the process. I simply loved feeling like a participant to its creation.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dea
- 04-16-20
How can you make this premise boring?
The narrator has a distinct style some describe as "uninterested". I thought this might be a choice, to deliver some of the wacky ideas in this story in a Bill Murry-esque dead-pan tone. But rather than add to the humor of the story, I felt like I had to strain to listen. Was this part supposed to be funny? Was that part supposed to be sexy? Every line had a distanced, monotonous delivery.
I've listened through narrator's I didn't care for before when the story has engaged me enough. But there's nothing I found interesting about this main character or this world that made me want to follow his journey. I get that maybe we are not supposed to like him or maybe he's morally ambiguous, but his introduction is so soulless that book probably could have told the story without him at all!
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- Rockie
- 12-12-11
Stopped at the first chapter
I don't know what possessed me to purchase this book. It is awful. It might be better with a more enthused narrator. I'll never know, since I quit listening before the first chapter was over. From now on I'll know to give the books a trial listen before I buy.
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- Rory
- 01-12-12
Terrible, especially the narration
This book wasn???t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I don't recommend this audiobook for anyone. The book itself might be better, but seemed purile to me. That may have been increased by the narrator, who has a terrible style. The problem may be that he seems tone deaf, since a section in the book required singing... and it was terribly off key.
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- Sandra
- 12-31-11
Terrible... just terrible
I downloaded this book with an open mind, but was so bored by the main character and the plot that I couldn't keep listening. I put in a good 2 hours then tried to fast forward here and there hoping it would get better... it did not. It was just terrible... horrible...
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- Denise Kupiszewski
- 03-03-12
Saleman Seeks Buyer For His Sexual Fantasy
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
The story of a frustrated salesman who fantasizes of having anonymous sex with women through a wall, yet yearning to see their unaffected faces. He manages to sell the idea to a business, calling the women 'lightning rods' in order to provide top salesmen relationship-free, faceless sex through the wall of a handicap bathroom stall in order to reward their success with sexual release. What could make this a 4 or 5-star listening experience? A better story and an interested narrator.
What was most disappointing about Helen DeWitt’s story?
Most disappointing is the entire premise of Helen DeWitt's story. She misses the mark by miles if she intended this as a satire.
How could the performance have been better?
The narration is delivered in a monotone manner which not only helps illustrate the characters and storyline as flat and uninteresting, but also gives the listener the impression not even the narrator is interested in the story.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Lightning Rods?
If I could play editor, I would not have wasted resources on recording this book when there are thousands of better stories that would be far more entertaining and better written. I would have also not hired the narrator, or at least given him intravenous espresso to make him sound awake.
Any additional comments?
Lightning Rods is not an enjoyable read. At best, it is not even a satire. Sophomoric storyline that could only appeal to immature college frats, and a narration that makes one question the selection process of book narrators, are the main reasons I would not recommend this book to anyone.
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