-
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
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 $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
We spend most of our waking lives at work - in occupations often chosen by our unthinking 16-year-old selves. And yet we rarely ask ourselves how we got there or what it might mean for us. Equally intrigued by work's pleasures and its pains, Alain de Botton heads into the office, the factory, the fishing fleet, and the logistics centre, ears and eyes open to the beauty, interest, and sheer strangeness of the modern workplace. Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? What is its meaning? And why do we daily exhaust not only ourselves but also the planet?
Characteristically lucid, witty, and inventive, Alain de Botton's 'song for occupations' is a celebration and exploration of an aspect of life which is all too often ignored and yet as central to us as our love lives.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Religion for Atheists
- A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world.
-
-
Disappointing, Erroneous, Implausible
- By Douglas C. Bates on 11-02-12
By: Alain de Botton
-
How Proust Can Change Your Life
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For anyone who ever wondered what Marcel Proust had in mind when he wrote the one-and-a-quarter-million words of In Search of Lost Time (while bedridden no less), Alain de Botton has the answer. For, in this stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply into Proust’s life and work - his fiction, letter, and conversations – and distils from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually helpful.
-
-
A nice petite primer on Proust
- By Darwin8u on 02-20-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
On Confidence
- By: The School of Life, Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Alain de Botton
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We spend vast amounts of time acquiring confidence in narrow technical fields: quadratic equations or bioengineering; economics or pole vaulting. But we overlook the primordial need to acquire a more free-ranging variety of confidence - one that can serve us across a range of tasks: speaking to strangers at parties, asking someone to marry us, suggesting a fellow passenger turn down their music, changing the world. This is a guidebook to confidence, why we lack it and how we can acquire more of it in our lives.
-
-
Poignant and timeless
- By Graceny Jimenez on 08-15-20
By: The School of Life, and others
-
How to Think More About Sex
- The School of Life
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We don't think too much about sex; we're merely thinking about it in the wrong way. So asserts Alain de Botton in this rigorous and supremely honest book designed to help us navigate the intimate and exciting—yet often confusing and difficult—experience that is sex. Few of us tend to feel we're entirely normal when it comes to sex, and what we're supposed to be feeling rarely matches up with the reality. This book argues that twenty-first-century sex is ultimately fated to be a balancing act between love and desire, and adventure and commitment.
-
-
How to Think About Sex as Only Sex
- By Richard on 02-26-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
Essays in Love
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: James Wilby
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Essays in Love is a stunningly original love story. Taking in Aristotle, Wittgenstein, history, religion and Groucho Marx, Alain de Botton charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak.
-
-
Every relationship you've ever analyzed
- By Maria L. Lantin on 05-07-12
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Architecture of Happiness
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the great, but often unmentioned, causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of chairs, walls, buildings, and streets that surround us. And yet, a concern for architecture is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. Alain de Botton starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be, and argues that it is architecture's task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.
-
-
Many elegant words used for a simple topic.
- By Spirit on 08-15-17
By: Alain de Botton
-
Religion for Atheists
- A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world.
-
-
Disappointing, Erroneous, Implausible
- By Douglas C. Bates on 11-02-12
By: Alain de Botton
-
How Proust Can Change Your Life
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For anyone who ever wondered what Marcel Proust had in mind when he wrote the one-and-a-quarter-million words of In Search of Lost Time (while bedridden no less), Alain de Botton has the answer. For, in this stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply into Proust’s life and work - his fiction, letter, and conversations – and distils from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually helpful.
-
-
A nice petite primer on Proust
- By Darwin8u on 02-20-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
On Confidence
- By: The School of Life, Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Alain de Botton
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We spend vast amounts of time acquiring confidence in narrow technical fields: quadratic equations or bioengineering; economics or pole vaulting. But we overlook the primordial need to acquire a more free-ranging variety of confidence - one that can serve us across a range of tasks: speaking to strangers at parties, asking someone to marry us, suggesting a fellow passenger turn down their music, changing the world. This is a guidebook to confidence, why we lack it and how we can acquire more of it in our lives.
-
-
Poignant and timeless
- By Graceny Jimenez on 08-15-20
By: The School of Life, and others
-
How to Think More About Sex
- The School of Life
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We don't think too much about sex; we're merely thinking about it in the wrong way. So asserts Alain de Botton in this rigorous and supremely honest book designed to help us navigate the intimate and exciting—yet often confusing and difficult—experience that is sex. Few of us tend to feel we're entirely normal when it comes to sex, and what we're supposed to be feeling rarely matches up with the reality. This book argues that twenty-first-century sex is ultimately fated to be a balancing act between love and desire, and adventure and commitment.
-
-
How to Think About Sex as Only Sex
- By Richard on 02-26-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
Essays in Love
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: James Wilby
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Essays in Love is a stunningly original love story. Taking in Aristotle, Wittgenstein, history, religion and Groucho Marx, Alain de Botton charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak.
-
-
Every relationship you've ever analyzed
- By Maria L. Lantin on 05-07-12
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Architecture of Happiness
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the great, but often unmentioned, causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of chairs, walls, buildings, and streets that surround us. And yet, a concern for architecture is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. Alain de Botton starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be, and argues that it is architecture's task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.
-
-
Many elegant words used for a simple topic.
- By Spirit on 08-15-17
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Consolations of Philosophy
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alain de Botton has performed a stunning feat: He has transformed arcane philosophy into something accessible and entertaining, useful and kind. Drawing on the work of six of the world's most brilliant thinkers, de Botton has arranged a panoply of wisdom to guide us through our most common problems.
-
-
Cheering, empathic, helpful
- By Austin on 11-11-09
By: Alain de Botton
-
A Therapeutic Journey: Lessons from The School of Life
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Charlie Anson
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Therapeutic Journey follows the arc from mental crisis and collapse, to convalescence and recovery. Written with kindness, knowledge and sympathy, it is both a practical guide and a source of consolation and companionship in what might be some of our loneliest, most anguished moments.
-
-
Deep, intelligent, compassionate
- By Terri Myers on 12-23-23
By: Alain de Botton
-
The News
- A User's Manual
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The news is everywhere. We can’t stop constantly checking it on our computer screens, but what is this doing to our minds? We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives.
-
-
Quit the news
- By Bett Bollhoefer on 05-16-15
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Course of Love
- A Novel
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all know the headiness and excitement of the early days of love. But what comes after? In Edinburgh a couple, Rabih and Kirsten, fall in love. They get married, they have children—but no long-term relationship is as simple as "happily ever after". The Course of Love is a novel that explores what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain love, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence.
-
-
Amazing, much needed retooling of the expectations and realities of Love
- By Lydia on 07-04-16
By: Alain de Botton
-
Determined
- A Science of Life Without Free Will
- By: Robert M. Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do.
-
-
Abridged - no Appendix!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-23
-
The Evolution of Desire
- By: David M. Buss
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If we all want love, why is there so much conflict in our most cherished relationships? To answer this question we must look into our evolutionary past, argues prominent psychologist David M. Buss. Based one of the largest studies of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from 37 cultures worldwide, The Evolution of Desire is the first work to present a unified theory of human mating behavior.
-
-
Highly naive look on the nature of women
- By Xavier on 12-10-18
By: David M. Buss
-
The School of Life
- An Emotional Education
- By: The School of Life
- Narrated by: Alain de Botton, Charlie Anson
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emotional intelligence affects every aspect of the way we live, from romantic to professional relationships, from our inner resilience to our social success. It is arguably the single most important skill for surviving the twenty-first century. But what does it really mean? One decade ago, Alain de Botton founded The School of Life, an institute dedicated to understanding and improving our emotional intelligence. Now he presents the gathered wisdom of those ten years in a wide-ranging and innovative compendium of emotional intelligence that forms an introduction to The School of Life.
-
-
The school of life needs to be in schools.
- By Angela pope on 02-03-23
-
The Devil in the White City
- Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds.
-
-
A Rich Read!
- By D on 09-18-03
By: Erik Larson
-
How to Overcome Your Childhood
- How to Raise Contented, Interesting, and Resilient Children
- By: The School of Life
- Narrated by: Sonya Cullingford
- Length: 2 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When trying to deal with our current troubles and anxieties, it can be deeply irritating to be asked to consider our childhoods. They happened so long ago; we can probably barely remember, let alone relate to, the little person we once were. But one of the most powerful explanations for why we may, as adults, be struggling, is that we were denied the opportunity to fully be ourselves in our earliest years. This book is a guide to better understanding our younger selves in order to shape who we wish to be in the future.
-
-
An essential read.
- By Anonymous User on 12-03-23
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Oryx and Crake
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly?
-
-
Brilliant Science Fiction
- By Michael on 05-20-03
By: Margaret Atwood
-
What They Forgot to Teach You at School
- Essential Emotional Lessons Needed to Thrive
- By: The School of Life
- Narrated by: Sonya Cullingford
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We probably went to school for what felt like a very long time. We probably took care with our homework. Along the way we surely learned intriguing things about equations, the erosion of glaciers, the history of the Middle Ages, and the tenses of foreign languages. But why, despite all the lessons we sat through, were we never taught the really important things that dominate and trouble our lives: who to start a relationship with, how to trust people, how to understand one’s psyche, how to move on from sorrow or betrayal, and how to cope with anxiety and shame?
-
-
Wonderful
- By Anonymous User on 07-18-21
Related to this topic
-
The Art of Travel
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aside from love, few actvities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.
-
-
Dull, suggestions for better alternatives
- By J. Natael on 08-07-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Road from Coorain
- By: Jill Ker Conway
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1930s, Jill Ker's parents bought a sheep farm on the western plains of New South Wales. In 1944, they lost nearly everything when a drought hit. Forced to leave Coorain, 11-year-old Jill and her mother settled in Sydney where Jill struggled to find a place for herself among Sydney's elite. Her story, both a chronicle of life in the Australian outback and the odyssey of a brilliant woman fighting the constraints of her time, offers a loving view of Australia.
-
-
So glad I (finally) listened to my aunt
- By T. on 07-12-13
By: Jill Ker Conway
-
The Road to Little Dribbling
- Adventures of an American in Britain
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and rental car and on foot, to see what has changed—and what hasn’t.
-
-
No Bryson?? Alas, another disappointed fan
- By Rick on 01-25-16
By: Bill Bryson
-
Train
- Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World - from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new audiobook he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again. From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil.
-
-
The world history of trains up to the present
- By matthew on 03-06-14
By: Tom Zoellner
-
Small Data
- The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends
- By: Martin Lindstrom
- Narrated by: Ricco Fajardo
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Lindstrom, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, harnesses the power of "small data" in his quest to discover the next big thing. Hired by the world's leading brands to find out what makes their customers tick, Martin Lindstrom spends 300 nights a year in strangers' homes, carefully observing every detail in order to uncover their hidden desires and, ultimately, the clues to a multimillion-dollar product.
-
-
Fascinating!!
- By Fact addict on 03-08-16
By: Martin Lindstrom
-
Full Circle
- A Pacific Journey with Michael Palin
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the hugely popular and successful Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to Pole, Michael Palin set off to meet another challenge: an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the world's largest ocean, the Pacific.
-
-
Excellent, per usual
- By Enroute8 on 06-03-07
By: Michael Palin
-
The Art of Travel
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aside from love, few actvities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.
-
-
Dull, suggestions for better alternatives
- By J. Natael on 08-07-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
The Road from Coorain
- By: Jill Ker Conway
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1930s, Jill Ker's parents bought a sheep farm on the western plains of New South Wales. In 1944, they lost nearly everything when a drought hit. Forced to leave Coorain, 11-year-old Jill and her mother settled in Sydney where Jill struggled to find a place for herself among Sydney's elite. Her story, both a chronicle of life in the Australian outback and the odyssey of a brilliant woman fighting the constraints of her time, offers a loving view of Australia.
-
-
So glad I (finally) listened to my aunt
- By T. on 07-12-13
By: Jill Ker Conway
-
The Road to Little Dribbling
- Adventures of an American in Britain
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and rental car and on foot, to see what has changed—and what hasn’t.
-
-
No Bryson?? Alas, another disappointed fan
- By Rick on 01-25-16
By: Bill Bryson
-
Train
- Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World - from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new audiobook he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again. From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil.
-
-
The world history of trains up to the present
- By matthew on 03-06-14
By: Tom Zoellner
-
Small Data
- The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends
- By: Martin Lindstrom
- Narrated by: Ricco Fajardo
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Lindstrom, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, harnesses the power of "small data" in his quest to discover the next big thing. Hired by the world's leading brands to find out what makes their customers tick, Martin Lindstrom spends 300 nights a year in strangers' homes, carefully observing every detail in order to uncover their hidden desires and, ultimately, the clues to a multimillion-dollar product.
-
-
Fascinating!!
- By Fact addict on 03-08-16
By: Martin Lindstrom
-
Full Circle
- A Pacific Journey with Michael Palin
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the hugely popular and successful Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to Pole, Michael Palin set off to meet another challenge: an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the world's largest ocean, the Pacific.
-
-
Excellent, per usual
- By Enroute8 on 06-03-07
By: Michael Palin
-
Turner
- The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J. M. W. Turner
- By: Franny Moyle
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. M. W. Turner is one of the most important figures in Western art, and his visionary work paved the way for a revolution in landscape painting. Over the course of his lifetime, Turner strove to liberate painting from an antiquated system of patronage. Bringing a new level of expression and color to his canvases, he paved the way for the modern artist.
-
-
Balanced biography of a complex artist
- By Thomas S. on 05-05-17
By: Franny Moyle
-
The Dark Flood Rises
- A Novel
- By: Dame Margaret Drabble
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Francesca Stubbs has a very full life. A highly regarded expert on housing for the elderly who is herself getting on in age, she drives restlessly round England. Amid the professional conferences she attends, she fits in visits to old friends, brings home-cooked dinners to her ex-husband, texts her son, who is grieving over the sudden death of his girlfriend, and drops in on her daughter, a quirky young woman who lives in a floodplain in the West Country.
-
-
Life Observed By An Exceptional Writer
- By Sara on 03-22-17
-
The Devil in the White City
- Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds.
-
-
A Rich Read!
- By D on 09-18-03
By: Erik Larson
-
Surviving Ireland
- By: Colm Tobin
- Narrated by: Colm Tobin
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's exhausting being Irish. The constant self-flagellation is enough to put anybody off their breakfast. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Is it the postcolonial overhang following centuries of oppression at the hands of a litany of foreign invaders? Or is it collective guilt for sending Westlife out into the wider world? In Surviving Ireland, acclaimed comedy writer Colm Tobin takes the listener by the hand for a satirical romp through modern Irish life.
-
-
very fun
- By Rick on 06-12-19
By: Colm Tobin
-
Almost French
- By: Sarah Turnbull
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After backpacking her way around Europe journalist Sarah Turnbull is ready to embark on one last adventure before heading home to Sydney. A chance meeting with a charming Frenchman in Bucharest changes her travel plans forever. Acting on impulse, she agrees to visit Fredric in Paris for a week. Put a very French Frenchman together with a strong-willed Australian girl and the result is some spectacular - and often hilarious - cultural clashes.
-
-
Almost Terrific
- By Elizabeth on 02-05-13
By: Sarah Turnbull
-
Essays of E. B. White
- By: E. B. White
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Legendary author and essayist E. B. White writes, "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Covering a large number of subjects, this classic collection features 31 of White's most memorable essays.
-
-
E.B. White writes honestly, fearlessly and clearly
- By Bonny on 09-03-17
By: E. B. White
-
Time Pieces
- A Dublin Memoir
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As much about the life of the city as it is about a life lived, sometimes, in the city, John Banville's "quasi-memoir" is as layered, emotionally rich, witty, and unexpected as any of his novels. Born and bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, Banville saw the city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat, the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived.
-
-
‘loved it!
- By SandyK on 02-24-24
By: John Banville
-
Hong Kong
- By: Jan Morris
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hong Kong is the world’s most exciting city, at once fascinating and exasperating, a tangle of contradictions. It is a dazzling amalgam of conspicuous consumption and primitive poverty, the most architecturally incongruous yet undeniably beautiful urban panorama of all. Through firsthand reportage, world-renowned travel writer Jan Morris takes us through the crowded streets of this enigmatic city, offering the most insightful and comprehensive study of Hong Kong thus far. She reviews Hong Kong’s early days as a British opium port controlled by pirates, cutthroats, and scoundrel tycoons, and looks ahead to the city’s future.
-
-
An interesting but mild disappointment
- By Jeanette Finan on 06-11-14
By: Jan Morris
-
Chinese Rules
- Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China
- By: Tim Clissold
- Narrated by: Stephen Critchlow
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Exploring key episodes in that nation's long political, military, and cultural history, Clissold outlines five Chinese Rules, which anyone can deploy in on-the-ground situations with modern Chinese counterparts. These Chinese rules will enable foreigners not only to cooperate with China but also to compete with it on its own terms.
-
-
Two books in one, one excellent one boring
- By Ed Sander on 09-08-17
By: Tim Clissold
-
The Man Who Loved China
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire.
-
-
turn your watch back 70 years
- By Andy on 05-22-08
By: Simon Winchester
-
Land Rover
- The Story of the Car That Conquered the World
- By: Ben Fogle
- Narrated by: Rupert Farley
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As quintessentially British as a plate of fish and chips or a British bulldog, the boxy, utilitarian Land Rover Defender has become an iconic part of what it is to be British. It is said that for more than half the world's population, the first car they ever saw was a Land Rover Defender. It mirrors many of our national traits, stiff upper-lipped and slightly eccentric.
-
-
Amazing! Great sub-stories
- By Daniel Caballero on 04-30-24
By: Ben Fogle
-
American Eclipse
- A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World
- By: David Baron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the scorching summer of 1878, with the Gilded Age in its infancy, three tenacious and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a rare total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another - an adventuresome female astronomer - fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light the world through his revelations.
-
-
Just OK.
- By Melanie A Hwalek on 09-18-17
By: David Baron