The Half Known Life
In Search of Paradise
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 $15.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Pico Iyer
-
By:
-
Pico Iyer
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, TIME MAGAZINE & MORE
“Masterful . . . A book of inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors . . . One of his very best.” —Washington Post
“Dazzling.” —Time Magazine, Best Books of 2023
From “one of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time” (Brain Pickings): a journey through competing ideas of paradise to see how we can live more peacefully in an ever more divided and distracted world.
Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it’s in our midst—or just across the ocean—if only we can find eyes to see it.
Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld – or can it be found in the here and now?
For almost fifty years Iyer has been roaming the world, mixing a global soul’s delight in observing cultures with a pilgrim’s readiness to be transformed. In this culminating work, he brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Art of Stillness
- Adventures in Going Nowhere
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Pico Iyer
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many have found richness in stillness and what - from Marcel Proust to Blaise Pascal to Phillipe Starck - they’ve gained there.
-
-
Nothing Special
- By Tyler on 01-14-18
By: Pico Iyer
-
The Snow Leopard
- By: Peter Matthiessen, Pico Iyer - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Matthiessen
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one.
-
-
Worth the wait
- By Robert on 04-13-14
By: Peter Matthiessen, and others
-
The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality.
-
-
The most ridiculous narration
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-24
By: William Egginton
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
Enchantment
- Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
- By: Katherine May
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet?
-
-
But what is she trying to say?
- By Kraig on 06-20-23
By: Katherine May
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
The Art of Stillness
- Adventures in Going Nowhere
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Pico Iyer
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many have found richness in stillness and what - from Marcel Proust to Blaise Pascal to Phillipe Starck - they’ve gained there.
-
-
Nothing Special
- By Tyler on 01-14-18
By: Pico Iyer
-
The Snow Leopard
- By: Peter Matthiessen, Pico Iyer - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Matthiessen
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one.
-
-
Worth the wait
- By Robert on 04-13-14
By: Peter Matthiessen, and others
-
The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality.
-
-
The most ridiculous narration
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-24
By: William Egginton
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
Enchantment
- Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
- By: Katherine May
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet?
-
-
But what is she trying to say?
- By Kraig on 06-20-23
By: Katherine May
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
I Can See Clearly Now
- By: Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
- Narrated by: Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many years, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s fans have wondered when he would write a memoir. Well, Wayne has finally done just that! However, he has written it in a way that only he can—with a remarkable take-home message for his longtime followers and new readers alike—and the result is an exciting new twist on the old format. Rather than a plain old memoir, Wayne has gathered together quantum-moment recollections.
-
-
Not seeing so clear
- By char on 03-27-14
-
Take Back the Magic
- Conversations with the Unseen World
- By: Perdita Finn
- Narrated by: Perdita Finn
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you could live in a world where the guidance of those who were gone was available, right at your very fingertips? It's possible, if we are open to it. Anyone can reclaim the forgotten guidance of the dead, and anyone can return to the realm of magic and miracles. In Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World, author, spiritual teacher, and co-founder of The Way of the Rose Perdita Finn reveals that life is beginningless, love is endless, and those who have passed don’t truly go anywhere when they die.
-
-
Join the therapy session
- By Ingrid Kellas on 10-16-23
By: Perdita Finn
-
The Journey Home
- By: Radhanath Swami
- Narrated by: Radhanath Swami
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Within this extraordinary memoir, Radhanath Swami weaves a colorful tapestry of adventure, mysticism, and love. Listeners follow Richard Slavin from the suburbs of Chicago to the caves of the Himalayas as he transforms from young seeker to renowned spiritual guide. The Journey Home is an intimate account of the steps to self-awareness and also a penetrating glimpse into the heart of mystic traditions and the challenges that all souls must face on the road to inner harmony and a union with the Divine.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julia on 01-28-21
By: Radhanath Swami
-
Five Lives Remembered
- By: Dolores Cannon
- Narrated by: Carol Morrison, Julia Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What do you do when you discover information that is before its time? What do you do when your curiosity takes you on an adventure that is so bizarre that there is nothing normal to relate to? This is what happened to Dolores Cannon in 1968, long before she began her career as a past-life hypnotherapist and regressionist. Travel back with us to that time when the words reincarnation, past-lives, regression, walk-ins, New Age were unknown to the general population.
-
-
One of the best Past Life books of many I've read
- By Diana on 05-18-17
By: Dolores Cannon
-
American Ramble
- A Walk of Memory and Renewal
- By: Neil King
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neil King Jr.’s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th insurrection. Covid lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America’s divides. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer.
-
-
Had Potential Failed to Execute
- By L. Mortensen on 04-15-23
By: Neil King
-
In Love with the World
- A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying
- By: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Helen Tworkov
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 36 years old, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche was a rising star within his generation of Tibetan masters and the respected abbot of three monasteries. Then one night, telling no one, he slipped out of his monastery in India with the intention of spending the next four years on a wandering retreat, following the ancient practice of holy mendicants. His goal was to throw off his titles and roles in order to explore the deepest aspects of his being.
-
-
A great story cut short
- By Reader001 on 05-22-19
By: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, and others
-
The Geography of Bliss
- One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
- By: Eric Weiner
- Narrated by: Eric Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the listener from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness". This uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is.
-
-
Brew your coffee, get some cookies
- By Ben on 08-30-08
By: Eric Weiner
-
Travels
- By: Michael Crichton
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fueled by a powerful curiosity - and by a need to see, feel, and hear, firsthand and close-up - Michael Crichton's journeys have carried him into worlds diverse and compelling - swimming with mud sharks in Tahiti, tracking wild animals through the jungle of Rwanda. This is a record of those travels - an exhilarating quest across the familiar and exotic frontiers of the outer world, a determined odyssey into the unfathomable, spiritual depths of the inner world.
-
-
Pretty good, but takes a turn into left field...
- By Jeffrey D. on 06-28-18
By: Michael Crichton
-
The Secret Knowledge of Water
- There Are Two Easy Ways to Die in the Desert: Thirst and Drowning
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deserts are environments that can be inhospitable even to seasoned explorers. Craig Childs has spent years in the deserts of the American West, and his treks through arid lands in search of water reveal the natural world at its most extreme.
-
-
This book is fantastic
- By Jamesdcawley on 04-09-20
By: Craig Childs
-
The Innocents Abroad
- Or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 1867, Mark Twain set out for Europe and the Holy Land on the paddle steamer Quaker City. His enduring, no-nonsense guide for the first-time traveler also served as an antidote to the insufferably romantic travel books of the period.
-
-
Twain's Hidden Gem
- By Cynthia Franks on 05-08-12
By: Mark Twain
-
The Hidden School
- Return of the Peaceful Warrior
- By: Dan Millman
- Narrated by: Dan Millman
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the long-awaited, epic conclusion to the mega-best-selling Peaceful Warrior trilogy, with over three million copies in print, Dan Millman takes listeners on a spiritual saga based on his own experiences, traveling the world to uncover a mystery that reveals the link between everyday life and transcendent truths.
-
-
Fantastic journey!
- By Tamara E. Gerlach on 06-08-17
By: Dan Millman
-
A Pilgrimage to Eternity
- From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Timothy Egan
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity, exploring one of the biggest stories of our time: the collapse of religion in the world that it created. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.
-
-
Adventures while in quarantine! ❤️
- By Mandi Lee on 03-25-20
By: Timothy Egan
Critic reviews
“One of his very best… A work of spiritual evolution built around vivid, discernible images of real places by a master of description… A masterful merging of Iyer’s past and current concerns, a book of inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors.”—Washington Post
“This book combines the wisdom of a lifelong traveler with the insights of a dazzling range of spiritual traditions, sparking our enthusiasm for more adventures: both around the world and inside the soul.”—Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser
“In Iyer’s hands, the search for paradise, the way out of the ego, doubles as an internal journey… This elliptical odyssey, graced with occasional notes of light, finds itself by dwelling in the shadows… His book has the soft ring of a classic Buddhist meditation strategy: In order to understand the emptiness of the ego, one must first find the self as it appears.”–New York Times Book Review
Related to this topic
-
A Pilgrimage to Eternity
- From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Timothy Egan
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity, exploring one of the biggest stories of our time: the collapse of religion in the world that it created. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.
-
-
Adventures while in quarantine! ❤️
- By Mandi Lee on 03-25-20
By: Timothy Egan
-
The Amur River
- Between Russia and China
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the 10th longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles, it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on Earth.
-
-
Bleak
- By Amazon Customer on 11-03-21
By: Colin Thubron
-
On the Plain of Snakes
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A 40-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico.
-
-
A pedantic, poorly narrated, 20 hour lecture
- By Birdshot on 11-16-19
By: Paul Theroux
-
Desert Notebooks
- A Road Map for the End of Time
- By: Ben Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, Desert Notebooks offers a vital and necessary chronicle of our past and our present - perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Elizabeth Rush - that’s unflinching, urgent, and yet timeless and profound.
-
-
Not about the desert, Not about Joshua Tree
- By Steve on 07-12-20
By: Ben Ehrenreich
-
The Journey Home
- By: Radhanath Swami
- Narrated by: Radhanath Swami
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Within this extraordinary memoir, Radhanath Swami weaves a colorful tapestry of adventure, mysticism, and love. Listeners follow Richard Slavin from the suburbs of Chicago to the caves of the Himalayas as he transforms from young seeker to renowned spiritual guide. The Journey Home is an intimate account of the steps to self-awareness and also a penetrating glimpse into the heart of mystic traditions and the challenges that all souls must face on the road to inner harmony and a union with the Divine.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julia on 01-28-21
By: Radhanath Swami
-
One Blade of Grass
- Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir
- By: Henry Shukman
- Narrated by: Henry Shukman
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of how a meditation practice gave Henry Shukman a context for integrating a sudden spiritual awakening into his life and how his depression and anxiety were gradually healed through this practice. In sharing how he grew into a Zen teacher, Shukman demystifies Zen training, casting its profound insights in simple, lucid language. Along the way, One Blade of Grass guides listeners on a journey of their own, into the hidden treasures that contemplative practice can reveal to any of us.
-
-
Boring
- By Elvis on 09-10-20
By: Henry Shukman
-
A Pilgrimage to Eternity
- From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Timothy Egan
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity, exploring one of the biggest stories of our time: the collapse of religion in the world that it created. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.
-
-
Adventures while in quarantine! ❤️
- By Mandi Lee on 03-25-20
By: Timothy Egan
-
The Amur River
- Between Russia and China
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the 10th longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles, it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on Earth.
-
-
Bleak
- By Amazon Customer on 11-03-21
By: Colin Thubron
-
On the Plain of Snakes
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A 40-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico.
-
-
A pedantic, poorly narrated, 20 hour lecture
- By Birdshot on 11-16-19
By: Paul Theroux
-
Desert Notebooks
- A Road Map for the End of Time
- By: Ben Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, Desert Notebooks offers a vital and necessary chronicle of our past and our present - perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Elizabeth Rush - that’s unflinching, urgent, and yet timeless and profound.
-
-
Not about the desert, Not about Joshua Tree
- By Steve on 07-12-20
By: Ben Ehrenreich
-
The Journey Home
- By: Radhanath Swami
- Narrated by: Radhanath Swami
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Within this extraordinary memoir, Radhanath Swami weaves a colorful tapestry of adventure, mysticism, and love. Listeners follow Richard Slavin from the suburbs of Chicago to the caves of the Himalayas as he transforms from young seeker to renowned spiritual guide. The Journey Home is an intimate account of the steps to self-awareness and also a penetrating glimpse into the heart of mystic traditions and the challenges that all souls must face on the road to inner harmony and a union with the Divine.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julia on 01-28-21
By: Radhanath Swami
-
One Blade of Grass
- Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir
- By: Henry Shukman
- Narrated by: Henry Shukman
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of how a meditation practice gave Henry Shukman a context for integrating a sudden spiritual awakening into his life and how his depression and anxiety were gradually healed through this practice. In sharing how he grew into a Zen teacher, Shukman demystifies Zen training, casting its profound insights in simple, lucid language. Along the way, One Blade of Grass guides listeners on a journey of their own, into the hidden treasures that contemplative practice can reveal to any of us.
-
-
Boring
- By Elvis on 09-10-20
By: Henry Shukman
-
The Innocents Abroad
- Or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 1867, Mark Twain set out for Europe and the Holy Land on the paddle steamer Quaker City. His enduring, no-nonsense guide for the first-time traveler also served as an antidote to the insufferably romantic travel books of the period.
-
-
Twain's Hidden Gem
- By Cynthia Franks on 05-08-12
By: Mark Twain
-
The Fracture Zone
- A Return to the Balkans
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist and author Simon Winchester takes readers on a personal tour of the Balkans. Combining history and interviews with the people who live there, Winchester offers a fascinating glimpse into the complex issues at work in this chaotic region. Unrest in the Balkans has gone on for centuries. A seasoned reporter, Winchester visited the region twenty years ago. When Kosovo reached crisis level in 1997, Winchester thought a return visit to the beleaguered area would help to make sense out of the awful violence.
-
-
Loved this-Great combo:Story and History Explained
- By Jeremy on 07-10-14
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Seven Storey Mountain
- By: Thomas Merton
- Narrated by: Sidney Lanier
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Seven Storey Mountain is the extraordinary spiritual testament of Thomas Merton (1915-1968), a man who experienced life to its fullest in the world before entering a Trappist monastery. By the end of his life, he had become one of the 20th century's best-known and beloved Christian voices. This autobiography deals...not with what happens to a man, but what happens inside his soul.
-
-
Letter to Audible
- By Victoria A. McCargar on 08-06-17
By: Thomas Merton
-
My Father's Paradise
- A Son's Search For His Family's Past
- By: Ariel Sabar
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a remote corner of the world, forgotten for nearly 3,000 years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born.
-
-
Great story, poorly narrated
- By Oren Kessler on 09-10-24
By: Ariel Sabar
-
Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All
- A New Zealand Story
- By: Christina Thompson
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is the story of the cultural collision between Westerners and the Maoris of New Zealand, told partly as a history of the complex and bloody period of contact between Europeans and the Maoris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and partly as the story of Christina Thompson's marriage to a Maori man.
-
-
a beautiful story
- By Pumpkin99 on 12-24-22
-
China Road
- A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- By: Rob Gifford
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
-
-
An Outstanding Book on China
- By Sarda on 08-13-07
By: Rob Gifford
-
Shadow of the Silk Road
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across Northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road. Travelling 7,000 miles in eight months, he traces the passage not only of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions.
-
-
prose meets poetry
- By Paul on 11-05-07
By: Colin Thubron
-
Tracking Bodhidharma
- A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture
- By: Andy Ferguson
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, has, with the passing of time, been magnified to the scale of myth, turning history into the stuff of legend. Known as the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma brought Zen from South India into China in 500 CE, changing the country forever. In Tracking Bodhidharma, Andrew Ferguson recreates the path of Bodhidharma, traveling through China to the places where the First Patriarch lived and taught. This sacred trail takes Ferguson deep into ancient China.
-
-
a personal narrative of his trip through China
- By Craig Stepanek on 10-11-21
By: Andy Ferguson
-
The Souls of China
- The Return of Religion After Mao
- By: Ian Johnson
- Narrated by: Ian Johnson
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Souls of China tells the story of one of the world's great spiritual revivals. Following a century of violent antireligious campaigns, China is now filled with new temples, churches, and mosques - as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty - over what it means to be Chinese and how to live an ethical life in a country that discarded traditional morality a century ago and is searching for new guideposts.
-
-
expository but boring
- By Laurent V. on 05-07-18
By: Ian Johnson
-
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
- A Memoir
- By: Ai Weiwei, Allan H. Barr - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nation’s most celebrated poet, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as “Little Siberia,” where Ai Qing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warhol and the artworks of Marcel Duchamp.
-
-
This book changed my life
- By Johnny Nopolis on 08-16-22
By: Ai Weiwei, and others
-
Kingdom by the Sea
- A Journey Around the Coast of Britian
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: Ron Keith
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American-born Paul Theroux had lived in England for 11 years when he realized he'd explored dozens of exotic locations without discovering anything about his adopted home. So, with a knapsack on his back, he set out to explore by walking and by short train trips. The result is a witty, observant and often acerbic look at an ever eccentric assortments of Brits in all shapes and sizes.
-
-
Casting creates utter confusion
- By Susan on 09-01-09
By: Paul Theroux
-
Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms
- Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East
- By: Gerard Russell
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities.
-
-
Increase your understanding of the Middle East
- By Shaun on 03-17-15
By: Gerard Russell
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Art of Stillness
- Adventures in Going Nowhere
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Pico Iyer
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many have found richness in stillness and what - from Marcel Proust to Blaise Pascal to Phillipe Starck - they’ve gained there.
-
-
Nothing Special
- By Tyler on 01-14-18
By: Pico Iyer
-
Aflame
- Learning from Silence
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Pico Iyer
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He’s not a Christian—or a member of any religious group—but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way. In Aflame, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery.
By: Pico Iyer
-
The Lady and the Monk
- Four Seasons in Kyoto
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Pico Iyer decided to go to Kyoto and live in a monastery, he did so to learn about Zen Buddhism from the inside, to get to know Kyoto, one of the loveliest old cities in the world, and to find out something about Japanese culture today—not the world of businessmen and production lines, but the traditional world of changing seasons and the silence of temples, of the images woven through literature, of the lunar Japan that still lives on behind the rising sun of geopolitical power.
-
-
Informative, Poetic, Engaging
- By Duane on 04-26-15
By: Pico Iyer
-
The Snow Leopard
- By: Peter Matthiessen, Pico Iyer - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Matthiessen
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one.
-
-
Worth the wait
- By Robert on 04-13-14
By: Peter Matthiessen, and others
-
Y/N
- A Novel
- By: Esther Yi
- Narrated by: Greta Jung
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s as if her life only began once Moon appeared in it. The desultory copywriting work, the boyfriend, and the want of anything not-Moon quickly fall away when she beholds the idol in concert, where Moon dances as if his movements are creating their own gravitational field; on live streams, as fans from around the world comment in dozens of languages; even on skincare products endorsed by the wildly popular Korean boy band, of which Moon is the youngest, most luminous member. Seized by ineffable desire, our unnamed narrator begins writing Y/N fanfic.
-
-
Well written, just a bad plot
- By hairdyingismyfavouritehobby on 03-16-24
By: Esther Yi
-
The Gifts of Reading
- By: Alice Pung, Robert Macfarlane, William Boyd, and others
- Narrated by: Frank Laverty, Gabrielle Glaister, Laila Pyne, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this cornucopia of an anthology, you will find essays by some of the world's most beloved novelists, nonfiction writers, essayists and poets. You will see books taking flight in flocks, migrating around the world, landing in people's hearts and changing them for a day or a year or a lifetime. You will see books sparking wonder or anger; throwing open windows into other languages, other cultures, other minds; causing people to fall in love or to fight for what is right.
By: Alice Pung, and others
-
The Art of Stillness
- Adventures in Going Nowhere
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Pico Iyer
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many have found richness in stillness and what - from Marcel Proust to Blaise Pascal to Phillipe Starck - they’ve gained there.
-
-
Nothing Special
- By Tyler on 01-14-18
By: Pico Iyer
-
Aflame
- Learning from Silence
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Pico Iyer
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He’s not a Christian—or a member of any religious group—but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way. In Aflame, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery.
By: Pico Iyer
-
The Lady and the Monk
- Four Seasons in Kyoto
- By: Pico Iyer
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Pico Iyer decided to go to Kyoto and live in a monastery, he did so to learn about Zen Buddhism from the inside, to get to know Kyoto, one of the loveliest old cities in the world, and to find out something about Japanese culture today—not the world of businessmen and production lines, but the traditional world of changing seasons and the silence of temples, of the images woven through literature, of the lunar Japan that still lives on behind the rising sun of geopolitical power.
-
-
Informative, Poetic, Engaging
- By Duane on 04-26-15
By: Pico Iyer
-
The Snow Leopard
- By: Peter Matthiessen, Pico Iyer - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Matthiessen
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one.
-
-
Worth the wait
- By Robert on 04-13-14
By: Peter Matthiessen, and others
-
Y/N
- A Novel
- By: Esther Yi
- Narrated by: Greta Jung
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s as if her life only began once Moon appeared in it. The desultory copywriting work, the boyfriend, and the want of anything not-Moon quickly fall away when she beholds the idol in concert, where Moon dances as if his movements are creating their own gravitational field; on live streams, as fans from around the world comment in dozens of languages; even on skincare products endorsed by the wildly popular Korean boy band, of which Moon is the youngest, most luminous member. Seized by ineffable desire, our unnamed narrator begins writing Y/N fanfic.
-
-
Well written, just a bad plot
- By hairdyingismyfavouritehobby on 03-16-24
By: Esther Yi
-
The Gifts of Reading
- By: Alice Pung, Robert Macfarlane, William Boyd, and others
- Narrated by: Frank Laverty, Gabrielle Glaister, Laila Pyne, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this cornucopia of an anthology, you will find essays by some of the world's most beloved novelists, nonfiction writers, essayists and poets. You will see books taking flight in flocks, migrating around the world, landing in people's hearts and changing them for a day or a year or a lifetime. You will see books sparking wonder or anger; throwing open windows into other languages, other cultures, other minds; causing people to fall in love or to fight for what is right.
By: Alice Pung, and others
-
Humanly Possible
- Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humanism is an expansive tradition of thought that places shared humanity, cultural vibrancy, and moral responsibility at the center of our lives. For centuries, this worldview has inspired people to make their choices by principles of freethinking, intellectual inquiry, fellow feeling, and optimism. In this sweeping new history, Sarah Bakewell, herself a lifelong humanist, illuminates the very personal, individual, and, well, human matter of humanism and takes listeners on a grand intellectual adventure.
-
-
A glimmer of hope
- By RAY MONTECALVO on 04-14-23
By: Sarah Bakewell
-
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs
- A Journey Through the Deep State
- By: Kerry Howley
- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who are you? You are data about data. You are a map of connections—a culmination of everything you have ever posted, searched, emailed, liked, and followed. In this groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction, Kerry Howley investigates the curious implications of living in the age of the indelible. Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs tells the true story of intelligence specialist Reality Winner, a lone young woman who stuffs a state secret under her skirt and trusts the wrong people to help.
-
-
Really good - But Too Much Focus on Reality Winner
- By Kindle Customer on 07-14-23
By: Kerry Howley
-
The Gate
- By: Natsume Soseki, Pico Iyer - introduction, William F. Sibley - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A humble clerk and his loving wife scrape out a quiet existence on the margins of Tokyo. Resigned, following years of exile and misfortune, to the bitter consequences of having married without their families' consent, and unable to have children of their own, Sosuke and Oyone find the delicate equilibrium of their household upset by a new obligation to meet the educational expenses of Sosuke's brash younger brother. While an unlikely new friendship appears to offer a way out of this bind, it also soon threatens to dredge up a past that could once again force them to flee the capital.
By: Natsume Soseki, and others
-
Our Migrant Souls
- A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”
- By: Héctor Tobar
- Narrated by: André Santana
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people.
-
-
Plays in the idea of “we are the victims.”
- By Luis F. Ruiz on 02-15-24
By: Héctor Tobar
-
Victory City
- A Novel
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world.
-
-
Rushdie never fails to engage.
- By Tom on 02-23-23
By: Salman Rushdie
-
The Half-Known Life
- What Matters Most When You're Running Out of Time
- By: Ryan Lindner
- Narrated by: Derek Shetterly
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I'm going down now", I said to a young woman a few seconds before the darkness-my first cardiac arrest. As I returned to work as a behavioral coach, it became maddening to hear about all-consuming, everyday problems and misguided priorities while I fought to merely remain conscious. The Half-Known Life challenges conventional thinking of success, identity, and personal change. Most often, truly profound change happens following events that shake someone to their core-a car accident, death of a family member, or cardiac arrest that pulls them into a moment of clarity.
-
-
Great book
- By KN on 10-26-22
By: Ryan Lindner
-
The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality.
-
-
The most ridiculous narration
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-24
By: William Egginton
-
Clear
- A Novel
- By: Carys Davies
- Narrated by: Russ Bain
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
-
-
Stunning narrative and performance
- By Art Librarian on 07-01-24
By: Carys Davies
-
No Cure for Being Human
- (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
- By: Kate Bowler
- Narrated by: Kate Bowler
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s hard to give up on the feeling that the life you really want is just out of reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. Everyone wants to believe that they are headed toward good, better, best. But what happens when the life you hoped for is put on hold indefinitely?
-
-
I Can’t Listen Anymore
- By Laurie on 10-01-21
By: Kate Bowler
-
Help, Thanks, Wow
- The Three Essential Prayers
- By: Anne Lamott
- Narrated by: Anne Lamott
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Listeners of all ages have followed and cherished Anne Lamott’s funny and perceptive writing about her own faith through decades of trial and error. And in her new audiobook, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals. It is these three prayers - asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us - that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward.
-
-
Great writer, not a great voice.
- By Kindle Customer on 08-22-20
By: Anne Lamott
-
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- A Memoir
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes.
-
-
Beautiful, relatable, profound
- By Betty Blue on 04-16-23
By: Maggie Smith
-
How to Say Babylon
- A Memoir
- By: Safiya Sinclair
- Narrated by: Safiya Sinclair
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and a militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with the ever-present threat of the corrupting evils of the Western world outside their home, and worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure. For him, a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.
-
-
Beautifully written. Powerful story.
- By Brenda Barbour on 10-22-23
By: Safiya Sinclair
What listeners say about The Half Known Life
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kiley Jack
- 06-22-23
Beautiful
I loved this book so much!! There were definitely some slow parts and so think maybe part of it was the narration, but this book was gorgeous. I loved all the descriptions and the premise. One of my favorites I’ve listened to this year.
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
- MeowKat
- 02-27-23
Worth it.
I throughly enjoyed this thought provoking journey. I heard an interview with the author on NPR and was not disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chipper
- 02-01-24
Fantastic Book
Beautifully written and read. Like taking a trip around the world with a wise spiritual guide.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lilia
- 12-14-23
A chill book, easy to read, good to pass the time
..." The more i bumped around Sri Lanka the more i began to wonder whether real faith might have less to do with the conviction that everything will turn out alright, than with the simple confidence that something makes sense, even when everything goes wrong".
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Phyllis Guthrie
- 12-25-23
A Guide to Find Paradise
Pico Iyer has a way of sharing his spiritual travels like none other. His discovery of paradise, oh my. Grateful for his insight.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TMI
- 01-21-23
Beautiful and smart
The author is an excellent reader, and his observations stay with me. He mixes it up: sharp and gentle.
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
- Zeljko Z.
- 02-21-23
It is a Fantastic Book
Pico does excellent job in showing us beauty of everyday life. His narration moves vertically in time horizontally in locations. No matter where he is Pico is “at home” and we as readers become immersed in his world. He is truly global citizen showing us that personal experience is most valuable.
Zeljko Zic
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
- AASchuster
- 06-06-23
Beautifully captured
If you've never visited the places that Pico Iyer writes about it may be difficult to follow. However, if you've been there and have experienced these places, he is the master at describing them. His chapter on Varanasi is absolutely spot-on. India is mind-blowing and he managed to piece it apart and put it in back into words in such a thoughtful manner. I'm so happy that someone goes to the trouble, puts up with the discomfort and seeks out experiences that teach, stretch and make our minds grow.
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
- Jane
- 10-29-23
Unusual Travelogue
Hearing this description was like going there myself— enjoyed the author’s enthusiastic perspective and respect for the people he encountered.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vas Sladek
- 01-17-23
Best travel writer alive today!
I own most of Pico Iyer's books and I have yet to be disappointed by one. He's the best travel writer alive. Having him on audio is a thrill; he could read me a restaurant menu and I'd still love it. This book takes you on a world tour and it asks a lot of interesting questions.
For example, if life is very controlled in North Korea, does humanity eventually shine through?
There is a distinct religious, spiritual angle to this book but it's still a fantastic ride through many places in the world. You learn details about several places you could never get from a travel guide.
Pico Iyer is required reading for people interested in the world and in travel. I wish he could publish one book per month.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful