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The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars
- A Neuropsychologist's Odyssey Through Consciousness
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 11 hrs
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Publisher's summary
When celebrated neuropsychologist Paul Broks' wife died of cancer, it sparked a journey of grief and reflection that traced a lifelong attempt to understand how the brain gives rise to the soul. The result of that journey is a gorgeous, evocative meditation on fate, death, consciousness, and what it means to be human.
The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars weaves a scientist’s understanding of the mind - its logic, its nuance, how we think about what makes a person - with a poet’s approach to humanity, that crucial and ever-elusive why. It’s a story that unfolds through the centuries, along the path of humankind’s constant quest to discover what makes us human, and the answers that consistently slip out of our grasp. It’s modern medicine and psychology and ancient tales; history and myth combined; fiction and the stranger truth.
But, most importantly, it’s Broks’ story, grounded in his own most fascinating cases as a clinician - patients with brain injuries that revealed something fundamental about the link between the raw stuff of our bodies and brains and the ineffable selves we take for who we are. Tracing a loose arc of loss, acceptance, and renewal, he unfolds striking, imaginative stories of everything from Schopenhauer to the Greek philosophers to jazz guitarist Pat Martino in order to sketch a multifaceted view of humanness that is as heartbreaking at it is affirming.
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Critic reviews
“The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars is a work of extraordinary insight and imagination. Broks is a 21st century Dante of the human psyche, guiding us on a journey full of surprise, erudition, and wit.” (David George Haskell, author of The Forest Unseen and The Songs of Trees)
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“In a style sometimes reminiscent of The Last Lecture, Broks blends wonder with pessimistic hope. He adumbrates that there is something unbelievable, perhaps even magical, in the 'absurdity' of consciousness and related phenomena, and he thrills to the precarious individuality of our imaginings. [The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars is] a unique addition to the realm of popular brain science.” (Kirkus Reviews)
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I needed this book. thanks Doctor.
- By Anonymous User on 08-08-18
By: Leo Galland M.D.
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Finding Your Way in a Wild New World
- Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want
- By: Martha Beck
- Narrated by: Heather Henderson
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Many people feel called to help others and change the world, but they just don’t know how to fulfill their potential. They have the creativity and passion, but often get lost, not knowing how to direct their energies. Now, popular life coach Martha Beck shows how readers can find their calling in service and healing - while realizing their destiny. With a sparkling, compassionate, and often irreverent style, Beck draws from a combination of ancient wisdom and modern science to help readers consciously embrace vital skills that may be embedded in our DNA and are now made accessible again.
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Wow! This is a fun book!
- By m on 08-25-12
By: Martha Beck
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Golf in the Kingdom
- By: Michael Murphy
- Narrated by: John Hannah
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Hailed as a classic when it first appeared in 1972, Michael Murphy's novel combines an amiable Zen mysticism with what many consider the very mystical - and sometimes downright frustrating - sport of golf. At its center is the charming guru of the Scottish links, Shivas Irons, whose instruction is as pertinent in life as it is on the course. After a long wait, this shamanic golf pro reappeared for the follow-up novel, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons.
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If it were on cassette tape, my copy would have be
- By DT N. on 06-06-19
By: Michael Murphy
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Walking
- One Step at a Time
- By: Erling Kagge, Becky L. Crook - translator
- Narrated by: Atli Gunnarsson
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A lyrical account of an activity that is essential for our sanity, equilibrium, and well-being, from the author of Silence.
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A delightful and essential book
- By Yogans on 05-02-19
By: Erling Kagge, and others
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Levels of Life
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Julian Barnes
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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'You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed...' Julian Barnes's new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as 'an unparalleled magus of the heart'. This book confirms that opinion.
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Every love story is a potential grief story.
- By Darwin8u on 09-27-16
By: Julian Barnes
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The Trip to Echo Spring
- On Writers and Drinking
- By: Olivia Laing
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work and lives of six of America's finest writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. All six of these men were alcoholics, and the subject of drinking surfaces in some of their finest work, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to A Moveable Feast.
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Great Narration!!!!!! Great story about 20 Century make writer who suffer with alcoholism. If you like this topic and want more
- By Pamela Abbey on 04-25-21
By: Olivia Laing
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Time Travel
- A History
- By: James Gleick
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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James Gleick's story begins at the turn of the 20th century, with the young H. G. Wells writing and rewriting the fantastic tale that became his first book, an international sensation: The Time Machine. A host of forces were converging to transmute the human understanding of time, some philosophical and some technological - the electric telegraph, the steam railroad, the discovery of buried civilizations, and the perfection of clocks.
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Fiction gives us Truth by connecting the dots
- By Gary on 04-21-17
By: James Gleick
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The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
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Humour and understandability.
- By Chris B on 09-08-24
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
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Worker in the Light
- Unlock Your Five Senses and Liberate Your Limitless Potential
- By: George Noory, William J. Birnes
- Narrated by: George Noory
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
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George R. Noory is the host of America's top late-night talk show, Coast to Coast AM, broadcast to nearly 500 radio stations in the United States and Canada. Noory truly believes that there are forces, both good and evil, at work on Earth and beyond. Fueled by a transcending experience at a very young age, he's turned his life into an investigation of the possibilities and influences of such forces, and how we can use them to enhance our lives.
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Almost as good as Coast to Coast AM.
- By Sharri Lorraine on 12-06-12
By: George Noory, and others
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Fury
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Salman Rushdie
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
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surprisingly good
- By David on 11-21-07
By: Salman Rushdie
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Manhood for Amateurs
- The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Chabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as a father, Chabon's memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, are like a theme played by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.
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Terrible
- By Ken on 10-14-09
By: Michael Chabon
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10:04
- By: Ben Lerner
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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A novel worth reading
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 01-29-15
By: Ben Lerner
What listeners say about The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- 11104
- 10-13-18
What a beautiful book
As much poetry as science, this is a meditation on consciousness by a cognitive psychologist whose wife died of cancer in her 50s. It draws on his clinical experience, research (his and many others'), storytelling, dreams and possibly hallucinations, and much Greek mythology. Philosophy (the author rips up Cartesian dualism) and the history of science are in the mix. One of the most enjoyable books I have come across in a while and highly recommended.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Gary
- 07-13-18
Meaning is where you find it
Does life have meaning if we die? The Being of the now that leads to consciousness is it the ‘hard problem’? Is there a ‘self’ over time, does the question even make sense or is the ship of Theseus not a paradox. Is my partner a Zombie with 15% probability as the author implies with a vignette? All of these kinds of questions are standard neuroscience ponderings, but they are told with finesse and nuance within this story and are always highly entertaining and at times laugh out loud funny.
The author starts the book with a quote from Albert Einstein on how a friend dying before Einstein really doesn’t matter because time is just an illusion and all that has happened and all that will happen has already happened within the block universe (you do believe in cause and effect? Or do you lean with Heraclites and we never cross the same river and all is ‘becoming’ not being?). Time is an illusion but it does not mean that consciousness is an illusion, as the author will say that for something to be an illusion it must be within the consciousness and if there is not consciousness there could be no illusion. Delusions are different, the author will say, a delusion is to know with certainty something about reality to be true but is not true. Certainty is the enemy of growth and stifles the discovery of meaning.
The author suggests that the origins of a thought that led to the awareness of the self could be as Jaynes speculates in the pseudoscientific ‘The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind’ with his schizophrenic explanation for self awareness and explaining the universality of a God, or the more elegant theory of Antonio Damasio with the more believable path way that involves homeostasis and entropy (the author mentioned one of Damsio’s book, but I would recommend this one ‘The Strange Order of Things’). The author will let the astute reader decide for themselves which theory is more credible.
Sometimes one must go down to a deep dark well in order to see the stars as Thales of Miletus did, ‘the darker the night, the brighter the stars’ and the more we can understand and the more meaning we find. As the author was reflecting on his life, he had realized that he had never applied his psychological expertise onto himself. Sometimes, it takes an event from the outside before one can reflect and understand the meaningful.
I’m fairly certain that the Wall Street Journal review that led me to this book used the word ‘nihilist’ to describe the author. That was an unfortunate use of the word. The author of this book is smart enough to not outsource his meaning to any book or unfounded authority or belief in fairy tales that aren’t supported by reason or rational thought. The author refutes the myth of Sisyphus and Camus’ only question of philosophy ‘should we kill ourselves’. That author points out that Camus does muddle the response, but the author knows that our meaning must lie within ourselves not outside of us. The real ‘absurdity’ that Camus alludes to is that we all know that we will die one day with certainty but we all act as if we won’t.
Nihilism ultimately means that there is no meaning in life and the author clearly knows that there is while not appealing to fairy tales for his support. Everyone has the option to search for what is true, what is ethically good and what is deserving of their time, and the author is using all the tools at his disposal in order to ‘awaken us from our dogmatic slumber’ and will make the reader think about problems in terms they almost certainly had never thought about previously. Sometimes, as illustrated with the author’s story, the ring of our deceased spouse that shows up out of the blue as a picture of the spouse falls from the closet, the event itself has no further meaning than the event itself. We impute purpose and meaning when the universe is just being itself and there is no reason beyond itself, pernicious teleology haunts us more than ghosts ever will.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Parker
- 08-09-18
Deeply philosophical work by a gifted neuroscientist
This audiobook is wonderfully written, enjoyably performed and extremely worth diving into. The narrative is intertwined with parables and real-life scenarios, all of which drive at consciousness and the workings that go along with it: life, death, the mind, god, anger, passion, drinking, doubt, etc. what constitutes our “being” and how often do we reflect genuinely on our lives? We should. More and more.
You WILL not regret it. I am about to order a physical copy for my library; absolutely will be returning to this again and again.
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5 people found this helpful
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- robert
- 02-14-19
Like a Symphony
Paul Broks writes in symphonic style .He combines the stages of his grief reaction , over the loss of his beloved wife ,with his interest in Greek mythology , modern physics and his professional expertise in neuroscience , especially consciousness theory. In the audible version , I felt as though I was conversing with him directly. . He develops each theme in a sonata form manner but repeats their development as a recursive rondo .He thoroughly covers his grief although it’s never really over.The other topics are moving targets . I would like to discuss with him the relationship between the Big Bang and Quantum Entanglement and good vibrations. Also I would like to discuss Tononi's Phi, AI ,gated semiconductors and threshold voltages, integrated circuits and emergence as they relate to the 6 layer cerebral cortex.Yet finally, it is a beautiful and moving book . Like a symphony , it should be listened to start to finish.REM
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2 people found this helpful
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- JVW
- 01-14-20
Misleading
The book is mostly a collection of stories that come across as disjointed, exacerbated by the fact that the audiobook doesn’t clearly identify when one story ends and another begins. I was prepared to give the book three stars because the prose was pleasant enough and it gave plenty to stimulate thought and reflection. But then came the story “The Consciousness Club.” It turns out everything about this story is pure fabrication, though it seems to be presented as true. To be fair, the author does warn us in the prologue, “Fact sits alongside fiction. Science tangles with myth.” However, I found it difficult to determine what type of story was being told in some cases. Even after discovering the nature of this particular story I was determined to finish the book, but as I listened to the next two stories I found myself unable to focus due to a nagging sense of betrayal. Maybe I’ll pick it up again someday, but for now I have to reject is as dishonest and a purveyor pseudoscience.
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2 people found this helpful