Graeber's morose, uncongenial book about putative pirate "kingdoms" in Madagascar in the late 1600s and early 1700s meets with a comparably uncomfortable audio rendering by Roger Davis. Davis's pacing and pronunciation are good, and he correctly expresses the text's meanings. He understands and gives convincing shading to the author's opinions. But his voice is harsh, and his dynamics wander. Words are emphasized with irregular excessiveness--as if a random pattern of force has been applied to make the delivery seem more energetic. The resulting performance has a halting, jumpy feel. Combined with the text's dislocated narrative, the story is often lost to Graeber's attempts to piece together the historical record. The result is a frustrating disjointed experience of an unconvincing and muddled history.
Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
Duration: 5 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250883544
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
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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