The Shadow of the Wind

While I did not want to quit altogether, there were times that I wished I were listening to something else, I guess most particularly when Daniel doesn’t come to the aid of Beatrize. And then his meddling has the woman killed. The ends do get wrapped up in the end, I guess, perhaps too much so. A lot of surprising twists, especially around the character of the author. Anyway, much of seemed just plain silly. An attempt to be Davinci Code for books set in post war Barcelona complete with steamy sex and incest and some truly evil characters.

Author: Zafon, Carlos Ruiz

Date Published: 1995

Length: 18 hr 8 min

Narrator: Davis, Johnathan

The Greco Roman Moralists

I didn’t think I would care much for these, but I got into the lectures on the philosophers of roman antiquity. Especially moving to me were the lectures on Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch. The emphasis is on stoicism, and philosophy as a way of life, emphasizing self control. Epictetus, Rufous Musonius, Dio Chrosotom, Philo and the other Jews, and even Marcus Aurelius left me a bit mystified and cold. Johnson makes it clear that philosophy was not about abstruse ideas but about the attitude toward life to know what could be changed and what could not, and about the formation of habits and character--character is habits formed over a long period of time. Philosophy is about choice.

Author: Johnson, Luke Timothy

Date Published: 

Length: 12 hr 10 min

Narrator: Johnson, Luke Timothy

The Looming Tower

Wright tries to explain the rise of bin Laden and the Moslem Brotherhood and their joining forces before the attacks of 9-11. He goes back to Qutb’s visit to America and Greeley in 1947 and the brutality that accompanied the repression and death of Qutb. He describes in detail the background and development of al Zawahiri and bin Laden but also the growing obsession of their thoughts first in Afghanistan then Sudan, leading to the bombings in Kenya, the USS Cole, and eventually the World Trade Center. He also makes clear the turning of their thoughts of excommunicating everyone who disagrees. Really scary was the failure of American intelligence and lack of cooperation between the CIA, FBI and NSA. The story of John O’Neill was especially ironic and poignant.

Author: Wright, Lawrence

Date Published: 2007

Length: 19hr 17 min

Narrator: Sklar, Alan