Is writing this review work? Or is it leisure? Or maybe, as social scientist Dalton Conley suggests, it's “weisure”—a mixture of both. Conley's clever, neatly organized audiobook is about the disappearance of boundaries—for example, how we have merged our individualism into a Facebook "intravidualism," how we have combined investment and consumption, and how we have blended nonprofit and profit-making enterprises. (So, that's why PBS has so many commercials!) It all leads to the realization that we're so busy (basically, doing nothing) that we don't even realize that our lives are passing us by and that we have ceded our private values to a mass social autism. Christopher Lane brings empathy and a sense of calm to this remarkable sociological study. This is an audiobook that will have listeners questioning their own lives and the motives of the materialistic "value-added" society we’ve concocted.
Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
Duration: 7 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Buckley offers a reasonable proposal for a national service program without jail or criminal penalties. Narrator Lawrence reads with a slow and careful announcer's voice; one wishes Buckley were reading this one himself. Books on Tape does its usual quality job with formatting, packaging and tape-turning instructions. The reader repeats the last sentence at such times, so you're sure you haven't missed anything. Popular nonfiction collections will appreciate Gratitude, and the topic is likely to prove timely in the years ahead.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 5 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Kozol’s shocking exposé of inequities in the funding of our public schools contrasts white suburban schools with those serving black and Hispanic populations. Interviews with students, teachers, and school administrators add eloquent testimony to Kozol’s disturbing presentation of facts. Narration by Jack Winston is clear and brisk, but the pace is unrelenting, with little pause for transition between scenes or chapters. Winston’s cool, detached voice contrasts with Kozol’s impasssioned and outraged message. The sheer repetition and magnitude of Kozol’s damning evidence is numbing; the narration gives no relief. Powerful medicine, most easily taken in small doses. Music signalling tape changes is jarringly inappropriate.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 8 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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