TDR85

Great insights into contemporary particle physics and cosmologywha

Revisado: 11-07-24

What I most liked about this book is that it went immediately into what has been going on recently in particle physics and cosmology. Background information was provided as needed. The level of detail and clarity of explanation I found excellent and the presentation, read by the author who is a particle physicist, exhilarating. This book is highly recommended.

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A Good Book about a Terrible Man

Revisado: 09-24-24

This is a very detailed account of the movements of Adolf Eichmann from the end of WW2 until his arrival in Israel in May 1960. There is also a brief synopsis of his life and his trial. Interlaced is what Eichmann did during the war, which was mostly to arrange the killing of jews with that noxious sadism and efficiency so peculiar to the Third Reich. There are also accounts of experiences of a couple of the witnesses which are horrific. A great part of the book deals with the realization of who Eichmann was within the SS - his rank was only Lt. Col. - the search for him and the superb Mossad operation to grab him and get him to Israel from Argentina. The narrator was well chosen. Occasionally a difficult listen because of the topic but always riveting.

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A brilliant analysis of American social history.

Revisado: 07-08-24

First off, this book is a pleasure to read. It is long but always stimulating and fascinating. The author powerfully supports his thesis both quantitatively and qualitatively. There are many appealing anecdotes. I came to admire the primarily Quaker folkways very much and had much trouble with the Virginian and southern backwoods folkways and their endemic violence and gross inequalities but can appreciate Hackett’s idea of American freedom being a mixture of all four traditions.

It is also a pleasure to listen to with the narrator using a pleasant neutral voice, except when voicing specific local dialects which are a part of the author’s many folkways.

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Superb Cultural History

Revisado: 02-23-24

There is little not to like in both the book and the narration. It is a fascinating look into renaissance humanism, church politics and a very old poem that threatened both. The rediscovery of Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things had a powerful impact on European society but Greenblatt cleverly and beautifully focuses on its rediscovery in the early 15th century. He also spends a chapter doing a close reading of the poem. I found the narration perfectly attuned to the material. Highly recommended.

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Excellent narrative history of American military command the audio narration was terrific.

Revisado: 11-27-23

The audio is terrific, an excellent narrator. The author provides superb characterization of the three Generals and their experiences during the war. I only wish there had been more in-depth analysis of military developments. But a worthy read for history buffs.

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Enlightening

Revisado: 10-13-23

Superb story. You realize that Crick and Watson did first rate work on the structure of dna but the most important experimental data came from Franklin. She and Gosling toiled in her lab, often arduously to get the pictures, and then Franklin would do further mathematical analysis to interpret the x-ray pictures, in a hostile environment, and in the end…well she died young, probably from her very researches. Markel is a terrific science writer and the audio narration was up to the task.

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Great Listening Experience

Revisado: 04-15-23

A survey of about 900 years of the Greek and Roman world. Fox gives his judgements transparently often focusing on key moments during this time. The fall of the Roman Republic was the highlight for me. One thing that stands out is how different the classical past was to our times, and often not in a good way, yet many yearn for it, or so I read.

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A Balanced Account of Empire

Revisado: 04-10-23

Other than getting used to the slightly jaded style of the narration this is a terrific book. Thematic but chronological it offers a relatively nonpartisan account of the British Empire. Unlike the Roman or Mongol Empires much of Britain’s just sort of happened but this did not mean there was a large benign element in its rule. The Settler colonies engaged in a savage conquest of local populations, introduced slavery on a grand scale in North America and at the very least followed policies of active intolerance of local populations. But there was far worse. Of course there was nuance in how ruler and ruled got along and Darwin explores that in detail.

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A Terrific Book on Recent History

Revisado: 03-20-23

It is a well written narrative history with a fair amount of analysis, often by the players themselves, of how the collapse of the Soviet Union made the nineties, for a time, one of seemingly great hope for international politics. Focusing primarily on German unification and Nato expansion the outstanding figure appears to have been German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. It also helped that the narration was excellent.

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A fun tale

Revisado: 03-10-23

This story grew on me. It just kept on getting better (as did the audio performers). A quirky contemporary romance with an excellent feel for NYC.

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