Lightning Rods
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 $27.53
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Dushko Petrovich
-
By:
-
Helen DeWitt
About this listen
"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.
©2012 Helen DeWitt (P)2011 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
When We Cease to Understand the World
- By: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.
-
-
the true heir w.g. sebald
- By Thomas on 12-23-21
By: Benjamin Labatut, and others
-
The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
-
-
Worth the price, worth the time
- By Sam on 12-31-04
By: Homer
-
This Changes Everything
- Capitalism vs. the Climate
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies.
-
-
Didactic and preachy... and I agree with her
- By plau on 09-25-16
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Maniac
- By: Benjamin Labatut
- Narrated by: Gergo Danka, Eva Magyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
-
-
Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Benjamin Labatut
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
-
-
An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
-
When We Cease to Understand the World
- By: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.
-
-
the true heir w.g. sebald
- By Thomas on 12-23-21
By: Benjamin Labatut, and others
-
The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
-
-
Worth the price, worth the time
- By Sam on 12-31-04
By: Homer
-
This Changes Everything
- Capitalism vs. the Climate
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies.
-
-
Didactic and preachy... and I agree with her
- By plau on 09-25-16
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Maniac
- By: Benjamin Labatut
- Narrated by: Gergo Danka, Eva Magyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
-
-
Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Benjamin Labatut
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
-
-
An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
-
The Netanyahus
- An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family
- By: Joshua Cohen
- Narrated by: Joshua Cohen, David Duchovny, Ethan Herschenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Corbin College, not quite upstate New York, winter 1959-1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian—but not an historian of the Jews—is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction with nonfiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive comedy of blending, identity, and politics.
-
-
Phillip Roth would certainly listen!
- By Martin on 01-17-22
By: Joshua Cohen
-
Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place.
-
-
Outstanding thriller w/ exceptional character development
- By Bradley T. Collins on 04-21-23
By: Eleanor Catton
-
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones
- Narrated by: Beata Pozniak
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then, a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon, other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind....
-
-
Narrator - Authentic as it can get!
- By Chris on 09-03-19
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
-
The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: William Hope
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elegant, enigmatic Jay Gatsby yearns for his old love, the beautiful Daisy. But she is married to the insensitive if hugely successful Tom Buchanan, who won’t let her go despite having a mistress himself. In their wealthy haven, these beguiling lives are brought together by the innocent and entranced narrator, Nick – until their decadent deceits spill into violence and tragedy. Part morality tale, part fairy tale, The Great Gatsby is the consummate novel of the Jazz Age. Its tenderness and poetry make it one of the great works of the 20th century.
-
-
The Very Good Gatsby
- By Ian C Robertson on 04-16-13
-
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- A Lisbeth Salander Novel
- By: Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland - translator
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
-
-
A Classic Mystery with Wonderful Characters
- By Robert on 12-22-08
By: Stieg Larsson, and others
-
Red Sparrow
- A Novel
- By: Jason Matthews
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drafted against her will to become a "Sparrow" - a trained seductress in the service, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a first-tour CIA officer who handles the CIA's most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception, and inevitably, a forbidden spiral of carnal attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America's valuable mole in Moscow.
-
-
Sexy Saucy Spies
- By Mel on 06-13-13
By: Jason Matthews
-
Lapvona
- A Novel
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place.
-
-
uncomfortable
- By Stetson on 07-04-22
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
The Mountain in the Sea
- A Novel
- By: Ray Nayler
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them. The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.
-
-
Enjoyable and interesting
- By AudioReader on 10-10-22
By: Ray Nayler
-
The Host
- A Novel
- By: Stephenie Meyer
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 23 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. But Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.
-
-
Great story in a genre only touched upon before
- By Keith on 06-20-08
By: Stephenie Meyer
-
Beautiful Ruins
- By: Jess Walter
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
-
-
My mind wandered
- By Ella on 11-25-12
By: Jess Walter
-
The Goal
- A Process of Ongoing Improvement - 30th Anniversary Edition
- By: Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this intriguing business novel, which illustrates state-of-the-art economic theory, Alex Rogo is a UniCo plant manager whose factory and marriage are failing. To revitalize the plant, he follows piecemeal advice from an elusive former college professor who teaches, for example, that reduction in the efficiency of some plant operations may make the entire operation more productive. Alex's attempts to find the path to profitability and to engage his employees in the struggle involve the listener; and thankfully the authors' economic models.
-
-
The Goal - still relevant today
- By Wooden Nichols on 05-03-15
By: Eliyahu M. Goldratt, and others
-
Presumed Innocent
- By: Scott Turow
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rusty Sabich, family man and the number-two prosecutor of Kindle County, is handed an explosive case—the brutal murder of a woman who happens to be his former lover. A shocking turn of events suddenly transforms him from the accuser into the accused... and plunges him into a nightmare world where nothing seems real and no one can be PRESUMED INNOCENT.
-
-
Excellent Book, Gripping Entertainment!
- By Glen on 04-16-10
By: Scott Turow
Related to this topic
-
Often Wrong, Never in Doubt
- Unleash the Business Rebel Within
- By: Donny Deutsch, Peter Knobler
- Narrated by: Peter Knobler
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Often Wrong, Never in Doubt is an inspirational book from one of America's most colorful and exciting entrepreneurs. Donny Deutsch lays out the core principles that propelled him to create tremendous wealth, build a huge and influential business, and become a national personality.
-
-
Deutsch is cool!
- By Michael on 10-27-05
By: Donny Deutsch, and others
-
A Taste of Reality
- By: Kimberla Lawson Roby
- Narrated by: Tracey Leigh
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the surface, Anise seems to have it all: a successful career, a solid marriage, and good friends. But when she applies for a promotion at work, she loses out to a white colleague who isn't nearly as qualified for the job. However, the problem at work is only the beginning of Anise's troubles.
-
-
Great story! Issues still exist
- By dw on 06-25-15
-
Success Is for You
- Using Heart-Centered Power Principles for Lasting Abundance and Fulfillment
- By: David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D
- Narrated by: David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Success Is for You draws upon many concepts that fans of Dr. Hawkins will recognize and applies them to the world of business and the psychology of success. Expanding upon the illuminating discussion of the attractor patterns of success from Power vs. Force, this remarkable never-before-published book pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the successful mind. Success, according to Dr. Hawkins, is an attitude we inhabit rather than a goal we strive for.
-
-
Actually some new stuff for me...
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-17
-
Bait and Switch
- The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the world of the white-collar unemployed.
-
-
A terrible book - princess Barbara goes undercover
- By Peter on 11-07-05
-
Sam Walton
- Made in America
- By: John Huey, Sam Walton
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun cloth of America's heartland: Sam Walton, who parlayed a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world. The undisputed merchant king of the late 20th century, Sam never lost the common touch. Here, finally, inimitable words. Genuinely modest, but always sure of his ambitions and achievements. Sam shares his thinking in a candid, straight-from-the-shoulder style. In a story rich with anecdotes and the "rules of the road" of both Main Street and Wall Street, Sam Walton chronicles the inspiration, heart, and optimism that propelled him to lasso the American Dream.
-
-
Capitalism Is The Way
- By Nathan Ruff on 04-14-19
By: John Huey, and others
-
The Art of the Pimp
- One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money
- By: Dennis Hof
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dennis Hof, proprietor of the world-famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel and the P.T. Barnum of prostitution, charts his path to fame and infamy, while dispensing homespun wisdom about sex, sales, money, and how to live as the country's most recognizable pimp. In The Art of the Pimp, Dennis Hof offers a hilarious, insightful, behind-the-scenes look at life as the proprietor of The Moonlight Bunny Ranch, the world's most famous legal brothel, and recounts his chaotic life.
-
-
if you love the sex industry then yell love this
- By Amazon Customer on 11-28-17
By: Dennis Hof
-
Often Wrong, Never in Doubt
- Unleash the Business Rebel Within
- By: Donny Deutsch, Peter Knobler
- Narrated by: Peter Knobler
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Often Wrong, Never in Doubt is an inspirational book from one of America's most colorful and exciting entrepreneurs. Donny Deutsch lays out the core principles that propelled him to create tremendous wealth, build a huge and influential business, and become a national personality.
-
-
Deutsch is cool!
- By Michael on 10-27-05
By: Donny Deutsch, and others
-
A Taste of Reality
- By: Kimberla Lawson Roby
- Narrated by: Tracey Leigh
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the surface, Anise seems to have it all: a successful career, a solid marriage, and good friends. But when she applies for a promotion at work, she loses out to a white colleague who isn't nearly as qualified for the job. However, the problem at work is only the beginning of Anise's troubles.
-
-
Great story! Issues still exist
- By dw on 06-25-15
-
Success Is for You
- Using Heart-Centered Power Principles for Lasting Abundance and Fulfillment
- By: David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D
- Narrated by: David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Success Is for You draws upon many concepts that fans of Dr. Hawkins will recognize and applies them to the world of business and the psychology of success. Expanding upon the illuminating discussion of the attractor patterns of success from Power vs. Force, this remarkable never-before-published book pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the successful mind. Success, according to Dr. Hawkins, is an attitude we inhabit rather than a goal we strive for.
-
-
Actually some new stuff for me...
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-17
-
Bait and Switch
- The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the world of the white-collar unemployed.
-
-
A terrible book - princess Barbara goes undercover
- By Peter on 11-07-05
-
Sam Walton
- Made in America
- By: John Huey, Sam Walton
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun cloth of America's heartland: Sam Walton, who parlayed a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world. The undisputed merchant king of the late 20th century, Sam never lost the common touch. Here, finally, inimitable words. Genuinely modest, but always sure of his ambitions and achievements. Sam shares his thinking in a candid, straight-from-the-shoulder style. In a story rich with anecdotes and the "rules of the road" of both Main Street and Wall Street, Sam Walton chronicles the inspiration, heart, and optimism that propelled him to lasso the American Dream.
-
-
Capitalism Is The Way
- By Nathan Ruff on 04-14-19
By: John Huey, and others
-
The Art of the Pimp
- One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money
- By: Dennis Hof
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dennis Hof, proprietor of the world-famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel and the P.T. Barnum of prostitution, charts his path to fame and infamy, while dispensing homespun wisdom about sex, sales, money, and how to live as the country's most recognizable pimp. In The Art of the Pimp, Dennis Hof offers a hilarious, insightful, behind-the-scenes look at life as the proprietor of The Moonlight Bunny Ranch, the world's most famous legal brothel, and recounts his chaotic life.
-
-
if you love the sex industry then yell love this
- By Amazon Customer on 11-28-17
By: Dennis Hof
-
And When She Was Good
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Linda Emond
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who seldom attracts attention. In her suburb, she's just a mom, the young widow with the forgettable job, who somehow never misses a soccer game. In the state capital, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record. But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford the hourly fee. For more than a decade, Heloise believed she was safe, managing to keep up this rigidly compartmentalized life. But her secret life is under siege. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide.
-
-
And When She Was Bad...
- By Carole T. on 08-18-12
By: Laura Lippman
-
The Pursuit of Happyness (Abridged)
- By: Chris Gardner
- Narrated by: Andre Blake
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Very Good Story!
- By Lito Da Critic on 06-02-06
By: Chris Gardner
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
great book
- By Barbara on 04-24-13
By: Jess McCann
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Amusing but really limited
- By Margaret on 11-24-15
By: Ross McCammon
-
Faces of the Gone
- Carter Ross, Book 1
- By: Brad Parks
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Wish Brad Parks were more prolific!!!!
- By shelley on 02-16-18
By: Brad Parks
-
I Shouldn't Be Telling You This
- Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know
- By: Kate White
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
AMAZING
- By valarie on 01-21-14
By: Kate White
-
Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
-
The Wizard of Ads
- Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires
- By: Roy H. Williams
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
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.
-
-
If you have a hard time hearing don't waste your time
- By Michelle J on 01-09-17
By: Roy H. Williams
-
The Door into Summer
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
classic
- By Greg on 04-05-09
-
Ghosts of Manhattan
- A Novel
- By: Douglas Brunt
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Great Book
- By Melvin on 06-30-15
By: Douglas Brunt
-
No Turning Back
- One Man's Inspiring True Story of Courage, Determination, and Hope
- By: Bryan Anderson, David Mack, Gary Sinise - foreward
- Narrated by: Bryan Anderson, Gary Sinise - foreward
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
What Heroes are made of
- By Emmaus Dan on 08-03-17
By: Bryan Anderson, and others
-
The Power of Being Yourself
- A Game Plan for Success by Putting Passion into Your Life and Work
- By: Joe Plumeri
- Narrated by: Joe Plumeri, Joseph A. Califano Jr.
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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
-
-
Go Play in Traffic!
- By Teri Gasper on 01-03-18
By: Joe Plumeri
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Some Trick
- Thirteen Stories
- By: Helen DeWitt
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Emily Sutton-Smith, James Langton, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a listener as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success.
-
-
Down the Rabbit Hole
- By Billye Kay on 02-15-20
By: Helen DeWitt
-
The English Understand Wool
- Storybook ND Series
- By: Helen DeWitt
- Narrated by: Lucy Raynor
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge’s, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests.
By: Helen DeWitt
-
Then We Came to the End
- By: Joshua Ferris
- Narrated by: Deanna Hurst
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best. The characters in Then We Came to an End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks.
-
-
Hilarious in book form, not so much for audio...
- By Jas on 01-07-09
By: Joshua Ferris
-
The Savage Detectives
- A Novel
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez, Armando Durán
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño has been called the García Marquez of his generation. The Savage Detectives is a hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico. It is the first of Bolaño's two giant works, with 2666, to be translated into English and is already being hailed as a masterpiece.
-
-
Bolaño Poetic Gyre
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-14
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
Gilead
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Otto Mellies
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Auf dem Sterbebett schreibt John Ames einen Brief an seinen siebenjährigen Sohn. Dem Kind will er alles erklären: Die Einsicht, mit der man das eigene Leben auf einen Schlag begreift, den Trost, der in einer einzelnen Berührung liegen kann, und den Ort, der sein Ende beschließt: Gilead, die kleine Stadt unter dem unermesslichen Himmel des Westens, leicht wie Staub und so schwer wie die Welt.
-
The Sellout
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant.
-
-
Appreciated it, but didn't like it
- By Eugenia on 04-14-16
By: Paul Beatty
-
Some Trick
- Thirteen Stories
- By: Helen DeWitt
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Emily Sutton-Smith, James Langton, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a listener as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success.
-
-
Down the Rabbit Hole
- By Billye Kay on 02-15-20
By: Helen DeWitt
-
The English Understand Wool
- Storybook ND Series
- By: Helen DeWitt
- Narrated by: Lucy Raynor
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge’s, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests.
By: Helen DeWitt
-
Then We Came to the End
- By: Joshua Ferris
- Narrated by: Deanna Hurst
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best. The characters in Then We Came to an End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks.
-
-
Hilarious in book form, not so much for audio...
- By Jas on 01-07-09
By: Joshua Ferris
-
The Savage Detectives
- A Novel
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez, Armando Durán
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño has been called the García Marquez of his generation. The Savage Detectives is a hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico. It is the first of Bolaño's two giant works, with 2666, to be translated into English and is already being hailed as a masterpiece.
-
-
Bolaño Poetic Gyre
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-14
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
Gilead
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Otto Mellies
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Auf dem Sterbebett schreibt John Ames einen Brief an seinen siebenjährigen Sohn. Dem Kind will er alles erklären: Die Einsicht, mit der man das eigene Leben auf einen Schlag begreift, den Trost, der in einer einzelnen Berührung liegen kann, und den Ort, der sein Ende beschließt: Gilead, die kleine Stadt unter dem unermesslichen Himmel des Westens, leicht wie Staub und so schwer wie die Welt.
-
The Sellout
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant.
-
-
Appreciated it, but didn't like it
- By Eugenia on 04-14-16
By: Paul Beatty
-
2666
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: John Lee, Armando Durán, G. Valmont Thomas, and others
- Length: 39 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa - a fictional Juárez - on the U.S.-Mexico border.
-
-
The Best Book I Read or Listened to in 2009
- By William on 01-05-10
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
The Employees
- A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century
- By: Olga Ravn
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Funny and doom-drenched, The Employees chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids.
-
-
I think this was a story?
- By Jordan on 07-02-23
By: Olga Ravn
-
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- By: Junot Diaz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Staci Snell
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA.
-
-
Wondrous Book!!!
- By Robert on 06-22-12
By: Junot Diaz
-
Random Family
- Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
- By: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her extraordinary best seller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses listeners in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances - Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George; and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar - Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies.
-
-
Speechless
- By Amazon Customer on 09-02-19
-
Private Citizens
- By: Tony Tulathimutte
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story's four whip-smart narrators - idealistic Cory, Internet-lurking Will, awkward Henrik, and vicious Linda - are torn between fixing the world and cannibalizing it. In boisterous prose that ricochets between humor and pain, the four estranged friends stagger through the Bay Area's maze of tech startups, protestors, gentrifiers, karaoke bars, house parties, and cultish self-help seminars, washing up in each other's lives once again.
-
-
Too dour and cynical.
- By Zanriel on 01-18-17
-
The Corrections
- A Novel
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century--a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
-
-
"Grandly Entertaining"? Really?
- By Georgia Burns on 10-08-13
By: Jonathan Franzen
-
We the Animals
- By: Justin Torres
- Narrated by: Frankie J. Alvarez
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times.
-
-
I want my credit back!
- By Van Gilder on 09-02-11
By: Justin Torres
-
The Other Name
- Septology I-II
- By: Jon Fosse, Damion Searls - translator
- Narrated by: Kyle Snyder
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Other Name follows the lives of two men living close to each other on the west coast of Norway. The year is coming to a close and Asle, an aging painter and widower, is reminiscing about his life. He lives alone, his only friends being his neighbor, Åsleik, a bachelor and traditional Norwegian fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in Bjørgvin, a couple hours drive south of Dylgja, where he lives. There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter. He and the narrator are doppelgangers—two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life.
-
-
Ear worms galore
- By ET on 10-10-23
By: Jon Fosse, and others
-
Secondhand Time
- The Last of the Soviets
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Bela Shayevich - translator
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Mark Bramhall, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing "a new kind of literary genre", describing her work as "a history of emotions - a history of the soul". Alexievich's distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.
-
-
The Heart, Soul & Iron Fist Of Russia
- By Sara on 02-22-17
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
The Known World
- By: Edward P. Jones
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor, William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful white man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart.
-
-
A meandering audiobook...
- By Daniel on 09-03-04
By: Edward P. Jones
-
Wolf Hall
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political powerEngland in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn.
-
-
Divorced, beheaded, died...
- By Tim on 09-30-11
By: Hilary Mantel
-
10:04
- By: Ben Lerner
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success, has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and has been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child, despite his dating a rising star in the visual arts. In a New York of increasingly frequent super storms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water.
-
-
A novel worth reading
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 01-29-15
By: Ben Lerner
What listeners say about Lightning Rods
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful