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Bill Bryson’s African Diary
Bill Bryson’s African Diary by Bill Bryson Published: 2002 I felt a bit guilty picking this up at a used book sale, as the full cost of the book is donated to CARE International when you buy it new, but I’ve donated to a few charities this year. My karma is intact. Stop judging me. To help spread awareness for the organization, Bryson was asked to visit their facilities in Kenya and tour Kibera, the second largest urban slum in Africa, and this is his diary of the trip. The organization works with local communities to try and provide relief for these areas. What he sees is the kind of…
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Ghost in the Wires
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin D. Mitnick Published: 2011 Narrated by: Ray Porter If you were a geek in the 90s, you probably remember seeing Free Kevin plastered randomly throughout the web. This was in protest of Kevin Mitnick’s overblown charges when he was finally arrested for his computer crimes after a several year run from the FBI. I didn’t really know the story of how it all went down, so I picked up his recent autobiography. The begins in Kevin’s childhood as he steals a sheet of blank bus transfers and writes his own tickets, allowing him to roam the…
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The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues
The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues by Plato Published: ~399 B.C. Translated by: Benjamin Jowett Socrates died in 399 B.C. after being sentenced to death by a slight majority of 500 jurymen for corrupting the youth and not believing in the (right) Gods. He was given the choice to either drink hemlock or leave Athens, and he chose to drink the poison in the company of his friends. I know this because my brain decides what it will and will not remember, seemingly at random, and it decided a book report I did as a kid was something to remember. If only I could harness this memory for…
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Legion
Legion by Brandon Sanderson Published: 2012 Narrated By: Oliver Wyman I hadn’t read anything by Brandon Sanderson, and I only really heard of him when he took the job to finish The Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordon. I gave up on that series nine books in, so I’ll probably never get to read his contribution, but I was curious about his work after he’d been selected. Legion is just a short novella, so it’s a great introduction to him. It’s also quite a good introduction to audiobooks in general if you haven’t taken that step yet. Audible is offering the story for free, which is how I stumbled…
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The Fry Chronicles
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry Published: 2010 Narrated by: Stephen Fry I read Stephen Fry’s first memoir, Moab is My Washpot, earlier this year, which covers his life up to Cambridge. The Fry Chronicles is in my TBR Pile Challenge list, so it’s been on the shelf for quite a while now. I feel a bit guilty about this, but after listening to his first memoir as an audiobook, I couldn’t pass up doing the same with his second. I love self-narrated autobiographies when they’re well done, and it was obvious his would be, so the dead-tree version is still collecting dust on the shelf. This actually covers less…
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The Polysyllabic Spree
The Polysyllabic Spree: A Hilarious and True Account of One Man’s Struggle With the Monthly Tide of the Books He’s Bought and the Books He’s Been Meaning to Read by Nick Hornby Published: 2004 I’ve been meaning to pick this up for ages. It’s a collection of Nick Hornby’s monthly column, from a magazine called The Believer, where he discusses what he read over the previous month, as well as what he didn’t read. It’s essentially a professional book blog. I don’t want anyone writing in to point out that I spend too much money on books, many of which I will never read. I know that already. I certainly…
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Juliet, Naked
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby Published: 2009 Annie likes the music of obscure 80s rocker Tucker Crowe well enough, but her boyfriend Duncan is absolutely obsessed with him. He runs a fan website, gives lectures on his music, and listens to him constantly, even though Crowe hasn’t been heard from in decades. The novel begins with them away from England on holiday in America to visit important sites in the musician’s lore. They return home from this trip to find he’s finally made contact with the outside world, and this sparks some major changes in all of their lives. The more I read from Hornby, the more of a fan…
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey Published: 1962 Narrated by: John C. Reilly I haven’t seen the film adaptation of this, but I came across the 50th anniversary edition of the book on Audible and decided to give it a try. My knowledge going in: mental ward and Jack Nicholson. Turns out, that is pretty much the gist of it. Loudmouthed Randle McMurphy is brought into the ward and shakes things up for patients and staff alike. Through the eyes of a half Native American psychiatric patient called ‘Chief’ Bromden, we watch as someone new is brought onto the ward – Randle McMurphy. He’s a rebellious gambler…
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Published: 1886 The classic tale of a man struggling with two sides of himself. Dr. Jeckyll has lived a respectable life, but he’s always felt something wicked lurking very close to the surface. He creates a potion to try and restrict this evil part of himself, but it instead brings that evil to the surface and transforms him, in both mind and body, into Mr. Hyde. This is all pieced together over the course of the novella from the view of a London lawyer, and old friend, named Mr. Utterson. After reading American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson’s…
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The Wee Free Men (Discworld #30)
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett This is the first book in a sub-series of young adult Discworld novels that feature Tiffany Aching, a nine year old farmgirl and granddaughter of a rumoured witch. Her granny has now passed away, and she’s beginning to learn a bit about the craft herself, with the help of a talking toad and a troupe of wee blue men in kilts. Tiffany Aching is just great. I can’t think of a character better suited for a young adult series – the smartest, bravest, most thoughtful kid you’re likely to come across. She’s a good fit for Discworld witches as well, since they rely…