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
An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.
Author Hale presents the case of his young cousin Haley's disappearance on Cave Mountain in 2001 and the ensuing search and rescue operation, the largest in Arkansas history. Hale connects this with the murder of 3-year-old Bethany by a small and isolated religious sect decades earlier on the same mountain. Narrating these two stories in a low, slightly gruff tone, Hale weaves together family anecdotes, Ozark lore, local and broader history, and Christian theology. While the two cases are intriguing, the work lacks focus and contains extraneous details.
An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 9 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063398153
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026
Once again, Pollan makes the unknown make sense.
Pollan is a favorite with listeners, and rightly so. He may not possess a silken or practiced voice, and he’d be nobody’s first choice to narrate Proust, but few author-narrators are as engaging or as effectively bonded to their narrative. Pollan here explores one of the most fundamental of questions: What is consciousness? This leads him to other questions. Where exactly is consciousness located? What other species possess it? Pollan takes his listener on a journey through theories and research sites, each rendered with his signature economy and precision. Some sections may require relistening, but the difficulties lie in the subject matter, not the prose. That couldn’t be clearer or more illuminating.
Once again, Pollan makes the unknown make sense.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217282159
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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