Loud and Clear

By: Anna Quindlen

Narrated by: Kathe Mazur

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winner Anna Quindlen offers wisdom, opinions, insights, and reflections about current events and modern life in this provocative and inspiring book.

With her trademark insight and her special ability to convey the impact public events have on ordinary lives, Anna Quindlen here combines commentary on American society and the world at large with reflections on being a woman, a writer, and a mother.

In these pieces, first written for Newsweek and The New York Times, Loud and Clear takes on topics ranging from social change to raising children, from the political and emotional aftermath of September 11 to personal values, from the impact on individuals of global events to the growth that can be gained by spending summer days staring into the middle distance. Grounding the public in the private, connecting people to each other and to the greater world, Quindlen encourages us to develop authentic lives, even as she serves as a catalyst for political and social change.

©2004 Anna Quindlen (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A tour de force for our time, [Loud and Clear] is equally as compelling as a look at public events as it is a reflection on being a woman and on motherhood.”—The Sunday Oklahoman

“The works that Quindlen has chosen to include here are frequently touching . . . often eloquent . . . but they all exemplify her gift as a writer—commenting on the little things in life in a way that speaks to many people.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“With deft writing, Anna Quindlen captures the societal blips that shape a culture.”—The Miami Herald

“These razor-sharp musings will open avenues of debate and discussion long after the book is closed. Quindlen is at the top of her game when she turns her eagle eye on the tiny threads that make up the fiber of domestic life. . . . Quindlen’s columns speak for themselves, loud and clear.”—Publishers Weekly

“She is a master of blending the personal and the political and finding the humanity in an often inhumane world. . . . The type of pundit you want to have whispering in your ear when you get into a philosophical discussion at a dinner party. She always comes up with cogent, reasoned arguments.”—Tacoma News Tribune

Book Came Through Loud & Clear

Loud and Clear was, at its base, a good book. Quindlen writes about being a mother, a working mother, living in New York, being a writer, and a host of other modern conditions.

The reader was well suited for this book (I actually had to re-check the narrator name because I thought Quindlen may have read it herself!). She presented the material as if it were her own and gave it a cool personality.

Meh. Just her opinions

I usually like essays by Anna Quindlen but these are very simplistic, similar to a conversation I might have with friends. The essays are not personal to her life story but rather, are her opinions on politics, current events, etc. Even though I share her political leanings, there was nothing interesting here.