After hearing Christine Gross-Loh's heartfelt reading of the foreword, Michael Puett's narration of the rest of the book sounds somewhat stiff. But his tone and articulation are clear, and his phrasing reveals sensitivity to the book's broad messages. This arresting book by an award-winning Harvard professor (Puett) and a scholar/journalist with a Ph.D. in Chinese philosophy (Gross-Loh) is loaded with relevant ideas. Starting with Confucius in 500 BCE, they take the philosophies of key Chinese writers and apply them to questions we grapple with today: Do we take the world as it is, or apply our patterns and intentions to it? Do we live for the present moment, or think ahead to the future? Is our society moving back to a polarized class-bound social structure, or will everyone have infinite potentials in their communities? The wisdom here will be provocative and paradigm-shifting for many listeners.
Pub Date: April 5, 2016
Duration: 5 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781442378094
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A steady, warm voice carries this journey of self-examination and spiritual stillness.
Justin Chien narrates Li’s memoir with authority and warmth, his measured cadence suited to the material. The audiobook follows the martial arts icon’s survival of a devastating tsunami and his gradual embrace of Buddhism, his own mortality, and purpose beyond fame. Chien shifts fluidly from the swagger of action movie stardom to a humbler, more contemplative register once the narrative turns reflective. His voice carries real weight during passages on impermanence, never overplaying the emotion and letting the gravity of the material speak for itself. Chien’s pace slows just enough for the ideas to settle, drawing listeners into a genuinely reflective experience.
A steady, warm voice carries this journey of self-examination and spiritual stillness.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 6 hrs, 37 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217021567
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2026
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.
Kevin R. Free’s voice is the perfect vehicle for this fascinating portrait of a remarkable group of artists, philosophers, abolitionists, and social reformers who all happened to live in Concord, Massachusetts in the 19th century. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott and her father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and many others called themselves transcendentalists and became the first truly American philosophical movement. With his genial delivery, Free is up to the task of narrating this complicated account of many intersecting lives; his inflections add character to the correspondence and inject life into the often formal writings the Circle left behind.
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs, 53 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668132777
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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