Harald Bluetooth and Eric Bloodaxe may not sound like ambassadors of culture, but it is Arthur Herman's contention that these and other Vikings have been unfairly pigeonholed. Rejecting long-held assumptions is hot work, but narrator Kiff VandenHeuvel throws his back into it. An actor and even a comedian, he's transformed himself into a happy warrior, a fierce rhetorician. VandenHeuvel delivers this history as if it were the very Gospels the Norsemen burned. Sure, they slaughtered monks and took slaves, but their legacy, according to Herman, was ingenuity, the work ethic, and a faith in the impossible. If you want your assumptions shattered like--well like the peace and quiet of a raided city--then this is the audiobook for you. One caveat: If you should ever spot a dragon ship nosing your shoreline, drop that plough and run.
Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
Duration: 18 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780358536734
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Andoh gives a magnetic performance for fans of Wild Swans and anyone interested in learning about China.
British actress Adjoa Andoh’s robust, smooth voice elevates Chang’s follow-up to her bestselling 1991 book Wild Swans, resulting in an engrossing and thought-provoking listen. Chang chronicles her life after 1978, when she became a British citizen and began researching and writing about China and Mao Zedong. She reflects on China’s political shifts and on her mother’s guidance as Chang navigates a suspicious and sometimes hostile government. Andoh narrates the more academic passages with a measured pace. In more personal sections, such as Chang’s battle with breast cancer and her recollections of her father’s imprisonment, Andoh ups the emotion.
Andoh gives a magnetic performance for fans of Wild Swans and anyone interested in learning about China.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063480070
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2026
Highly engaging for a wide variety of listeners.
Four exceptional narrators unfailingly capture the full relevance of every sentence and broad idea in this epic audiobook. With this monumental economic and social history, the author traces the growth of capitalism’s decisive impact on human society, from 15th-century traders to the invention of money and the seemingly unstoppable power of capital markets today. Beckert describes capitalism’s fraught relationship with forced and paid labor as it changed with advances in agriculture, transportation, industry, and political trends. Despite the idealized dream of free markets under capitalism, Beckert shows how it flourished only with the cooperation of governments that enforced the social and economic order necessary for wealth accumulation.
Highly engaging for a wide variety of listeners.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2025
Duration: 42 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217163571
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2026
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