 

You no longer follow W. N.

You will no longer see updates from this user when they write new reviews, or suggestions based on their library or recommendations.

You can re-follow a user if you change your mind.

OK

You now follow W. N.

You will receive updates from this user when they write new reviews, or suggestions based on their library or recommendations.

You can unfollow a user if you change your mind.

OK

W. N.

Will-N-LA

Los Angeles | Member Since 2014

10
HELPFUL VOTES
  • 5 reviews
  • 653 ratings
  • 0 titles in library
  • 8 purchased in 2015
FOLLOWING
0
FOLLOWERS
0

  • The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor

    • UNABRIDGED (22 hrs and 17 mins)
    • By Jake Tapper
    • Narrated By Rob Shapiro
    Overall
    (446)
    Performance
    (398)
    Story
    (399)

    At 6:00 a.m. on the morning of October 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating was viciously attacked by Taliban insurgents. The 53 U.S. troops, having been stationed at the bottom of three steep mountains, were severely outmanned by nearly 400 Taliban fighters. Though the Americans ultimately prevailed, their casualties made it one of the war's deadliest battles for U.S. forces. And after more than three years in that dangerous and vulnerable valley a mere 14 miles from the Pakistan border, the U.S. abandoned and bombed the camp.

    Ryan says: "Good, could have been great."
    "Builds slowing, devestating in the end"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story
    Any additional comments?

    The first of three parts seemed repetitious, predictable (it is). The more personal information we learn about a soldier, the more we know he's going to be killed or injured in short order. (It's like the movie cliche where the guy shows a picture of his girlfriend, talks about what he's going to do after the war....) This is a flaw. I almost stopped listening, but.... Second part, a bit more of the same, but there's a build up of my commitment to these soldiers.

    By the third part, when the inevitable attack finally came, the only reason I'd pause might be to punch a politician or general.

    3 of 4 people found this review helpful
  • The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't

    • UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 43 mins)
    • By Nate Silver
    • Narrated By Mike Chamberlain
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (1356)
    Performance
    (1133)
    Story
    (1132)

    Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair’s breadth, and became a national sensation as a blogger - all by the time he was 30. The New York Times now publishes FiveThirtyEight.com, where Silver is one of the nation’s most influential political forecasters. Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data.

    Scott Fabel says: "Learn About Statistics Without All The Math"
    "Rehash, grating reader, nothing new"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story
    How did the narrator detract from the book?

    Annoying voice, nasal, harsh, almost painful. I get the eager nerdiness idea, this is too much.


    Any additional comments?

    I agree with reviewers who called it a rehash, recommending Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis. I usually enjoy these sort of books, I'll read anything by Lewis, Gladwell, Taleb, Khaneman, Airely, etc... and I've listened to weaker books with a few good ideas even poorly written, I'll even bite on the lesser, copycat books, OK. If Silver knows something new it's not here. Either he's holding back for the next couple of books (I doubt it) or he doesn't have anything new. It's like his pre-Presidential articles in the New York Times-a storm of sources, obvious conclusion and a little Statistics 101.

    Initially I was skeptical of the claim of his predicting ability, but I was open to learning more. I gave it a chance. I'm halfway through and haven't heard much of anything new or interesting. I don't know if I can finish listening.

    0 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe

    • UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 27 mins)
    • By Roger Penrose
    • Narrated By Bruce Mann
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (71)
    Performance
    (49)
    Story
    (49)

    From the best-selling author of The Emperor’s New Mind and The Road to Reality, a groundbreaking book that provides new views on three of cosmology’s most profound questions: What, if anything, came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? What is its ultimate future?

    Darkcoffee says: "Difficult, Awe-inducing and Fascinating"
    "No PDF, difficult to follow"
    Overall

    The narrator instructs the listener to refer to the PDF, clearly indicating that it should be included. This is a chronic problem with Audible Books, reference to a pdf, but none available. With this book, it makes it impossible to follow. It's like reading an 18th century math book, tedious, impossible to follow.
    If you're interested, get a paper copy, I know more about the ideas in this book from reading a press report than after an hour of listening. Big disappointment.

    5 of 11 people found this review helpful
  • Red Star over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left

    • UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 19 mins)
    • By Ronald Radosh, Allis Radosh
    • Narrated By Jeff Riggenbach
    Overall
    (17)
    Performance
    (11)
    Story
    (11)

    Until now, Hollywood's political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the nightmare of the Red Scare and how it victimized political innocents. But Ronald and Allis Radosh tell for the first time the “backstory” behind this myth. They show how the Soviet Comintern targeted the film capital in the late 1920s, taking us inside the cells and discussion groups that Communist Party members formed, the guilds and unions they tried to take over, and the studios they aimed to influence.

    Jim says: "It Gets Better as it Goes Along"
    "Important History well told story"
    Overall

    Dalton Trumbo wrote that the HUAC committee and the actions of the Communist Party USA created only victims. The Radoshes have here a well researched well told history about a minor but significant period of US history.
    Well read, a little slow getting started, Red Star Over Hollywood establishes the main characters, then follows them through the years to the present.
    I think if one has a favorite or hero from the Blacklist period---read this. If anyone thinks they know who the villains were--read this.
    If I have a criticism, it's the one I have about most books about this subject. For the studio artists and workers, some Communist and some not, none famous, who were in the 1945 Warner Brothers Strike, the blacklist never ended. They never worked in the movie business again.
    Good book. Worth reading.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

    • ABRIDGED (3 hrs and 53 mins)
    • By Timothy Ferriss
    • Narrated By Zach McLarty
    Overall
    (1035)
    Performance
    (599)
    Story
    (603)

    Is it possible to Reach your genetic potential in 6 months? Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better? Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing? Yes, and much more.

    Joshua says: "I knew this was abridged, but......."
    "Abridged disappointment"
    Overall

    I hate abridged books--I???m a big Tim Ferriss fan. I don???t know if I???d personally do what he recommends, but I do know I want to read about it.

    When I bought this, I didn???t realize this was abridged. Listening to it, I just thought it was full of holes, until at the very end of the audiobook--almost the very last 5 seconds of the book it announces ???abridged.??? So I missed the fine print
    Why do unabridged books announce it in their titles, but bowdlerized books don???t?
    I wish there was an Audible choice that would announce in 36 point type--???ABRIDGED???.
    Read the book. What I listened to was interesting, weird, inspiring, and full of so much detail, it???s better to read this in print.

    1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Cancel

Thank You

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.
http://www.audible.com/listener/A1NDKOP4QR8VWR?asin=B009QFB2UM&ref_=pd_r_p1_2_prfl
www.audible.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2015-06
70235
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:IJ7CHWOP5FK4FSW4IML7IYKWHOK4ZE2C
<urn:uuid:3db09fb6-d26a-45cc-913d-11455f3ac755>
2015-01-28T12:17:18Z
72.21.211.97
sha1:K4RJ2IDKTOYRDINWR226CEA543JC3N2O
<urn:uuid:31454377-2f70-442d-bb49-a95d5a2a41e2>
http://www.audible.com/listener/A1NDKOP4QR8VWR?asin=B009QFB2UM&ref_=pd_r_p1_2_prfl
length
response
<urn:uuid:cf4c4c71-6320-468a-bea0-09d315622d73>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-06
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for January 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf