Reviews by Richard

I decided to let some time pass before writing a review because once the euphoria of quitting had passed I wanted to make sure I could still say for sure that I am a reformed non-smoker, and I can.
I had been a continuous smoker for 27 years and was smoking between 40 - 50 cigarettes a day. I could find every reason to justify spending £90 a week on a habit I only admitted to myself I wanted to break. Though I had the continuous smokers cough and though my bank balance suffered badly neither of those factors were my final straw. I was due to spend a weekend on a retreat where smoking was not permitted and I didn't want to spend my time sneaking off to have one and lying to people. This audiobook did the trick and I can truthfully say that I look back at the few days after I extinguished my last fag as there being nothing more than moments of "emptiness" as a lifetimes addiction was leaving my body. I feel now totally liberated and I am enjoying having more money and my cough has gone. This is permanent. Give it a try and hope you find the same freedom.

I was drawn to this as I really enjoyed the superb BBC series that arose from this book and I was looking for more of the details. I enjoy really long audio books as I do a lot of driving in my job and its great to get lost in them, but for some reason this one was a bit of a slog. It shouldn't have been because Andrew Marr does a fine job of charting the history of the world and the narration is excellent. With such a topic the scope of the task reminded me of Bill Bryson's book 'A short History of Nearly Everything', and this I think is where I found the problem. The book is informative, and there are real moments of interest but because of the nature of the subject we never hang around long enough before moving on. Bill Bryson has a wonderful way of making the mundane fascinating and I wished for a some of his style and humour to apply here, The bottom line is I found it informative but just not entertaining enough for my liking, though I see I'm in the minority here. .

I brought this book about three years ago but only writing my review now as I believe time was a true test. I initially brought this as two close friends raved about it and curiosity led me to give it a listen. I was quite angry at the underlying message of this book - that you, and you alone, are responsible for what happens in your life, and all external interactions are a result of you attracting that to yourself. Others have highlighted what this implies for the sick and disabled. Of course this book has a great defence mechanism, that should you find fault with it then your not practicing the 'Secret' correctly; No I didn't, but my friends and many others did and did it deliver the life changing guarantees if offered? No in the slightest.

The only thing I can commend it for is that it probably will put you in a positive frame of mind for a while. If so then good, use that to DO things to get on with life but don't expect the universe to give you everything, its busy enough without tending to greed.

At just over two hours this is a concise collection of essays which originally were published in Vanity Fair. Those familiar with Hitchen's work will hear in his words the intellect, humour and detail that he brought to all his earlier work, and it is a testament to the man that he writes about his cancer and approaching death so honestly. There is no last minute conversion here, and so even though the voice is now silent his beliefs live on. I found this very moving and it brought home what a lose the world has suffered.

I have quite a collection of books downloaded now from Audible and this is certainly one of, if not, my favourite listen so far. Its not an easy listen by any means, as it details the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Randy Shilts covers the story from every angle to the point where it reads like a detective novel. Everyone is a player in the grand scheme from the scientist, politicians, business owners and the gay community itself. The human story is told throughout too and its saddening to hear key players contracting the disease. The social history was a reminder of my own past.

As an audio book I have to point out that the 126 hour running length is a typo mistake and its actually "only" 26 hours. Personally, I found the story flew by. Also, I have to highly praise the narrator for a brilliant job. As an English listener I tend to find American readers a bit distracting but Victor Bevine read it beautifully.

I'll start by making clear that I am not someone who usually buys into self help publications. The new age appeal of the Law of Attraction leaves me cold and as for 'The Secret', well I better not say anymore. However I was drawn to this book because the author/ Monk was made known to me and I wanted to hear wisdom that had be truly passed down through the centuries via the Buddhist teachings, which I am completely ignorant of.

Thich Nhat Hahn is not reading from a manuscript here but delivering a talk on his knowledge of Mindfulness and how it applies to our lives. He has a very soft voice and at first I thought this was going to be a problem but after half an hour I was glad this was not presented by a professional reader. In his voice is the wisdom behind the words.

Also, the talk is broken up into six hour long segments which is perfect for those to need to ration their audio listening. This was perfect for me.

This is a book I will listen to several times as there so much that demands revisiting and on many occasions I found myself quite moved by the beauty of the message. This has been one of my best buys for sure.

Martin Jarvis does an excellent job of reading this story. Like the best narrators, it seems like he is telling you the tale from memory rather than reading from the page. If you have a long journey to make over Christmas then this is the perfect length to put you in the holiday mood. I loved it.