The Subplot
What China Is Reading and Why It Matters
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Subplot
Buy for $9.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nancy Wu
-
By:
-
Megan Walsh
About this listen
What does contemporary China's diverse and exciting fiction tell us about its culture, and the relationship between art and politics?
The Subplot takes us on a lively journey through a literary landscape like you’ve never seen before: a vast migrant-worker poetry movement, homoerotic romances by “rotten girls,” swaggering literary popstars, millionaire e-writers churning out the longest-ever novels, underground comics, the surreal works of Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, and Nobel laureate Mo Yan, and what is widely hailed as a golden age of Chinese science fiction. Chinese online fiction is now the largest publishing platform in the world.
Fueled by her passionate engagement with Chinese literature and culture, Megan Walsh, a brilliant young critic, shows us why it’s important to finally pay attention to Chinese fiction—an exuberant drama that illustrates the complex relationship between art and politics, one that is increasingly shaping the West as well. Turns out, writers write neither what their government nor foreign readers want or expect, and they work on a different wavelength to keep alive ideas and events that are either overlooked or off limits. The Subplot vividly captures the ways in which literature offers an alternative—perhaps truer—understanding of the contradictions that make up China itself.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Kingdom of Characters
- The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
- By: Jing Tsu
- Narrated by: Jing Tsu
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Missed important information
- By Ms. on 04-01-22
By: Jing Tsu
-
Life Is Hard
- How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
- By: Kieran Setiya
- Narrated by: Kieran Setiya
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 84
There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Solid
- By Jason Blum on 10-24-22
By: Kieran Setiya
-
The World According to China
- By: Elizabeth C. Economy
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
An economic and military superpower with twenty percent of the world's population, China has the wherewithal to transform the international system. Xi Jinping's bold calls for China to "lead in the reform of the global governance system" suggest that he has just such an ambition. But how does he plan to realize it? And what does it mean for the rest of the world? In this compelling book, Elizabeth Economy reveals China's ambitious new strategy to reclaim the country's past glory and reshape the geostrategic landscape in dramatic new ways.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent Book on China Expansionism
- By WLC on 08-19-22
-
The New China Playbook
- Beyond Socialism and Capitalism
- By: Keyu Jin
- Narrated by: Jenapher Zheng
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding. Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist and a professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Good content but missing important information
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-23
By: Keyu Jin
-
The Avoidable War
- The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China
- By: Kevin Rudd
- Narrated by: Kevin Rudd, Rafe Beckley
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 268
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 232
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 228
The relationship between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgment will determine if a war will be fought.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Xi and the CCP Approve this Message
- By Andrizomai on 12-04-22
By: Kevin Rudd
-
Beyond Measure
- The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
- By: James Vincent
- Narrated by: James Vincent
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
A vibrant account of how measurement has invisibly shaped our world, from ancient civilizations to the modern day.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Hoped for more information
- By A Z A R on 06-26-23
By: James Vincent
-
Kingdom of Characters
- The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
- By: Jing Tsu
- Narrated by: Jing Tsu
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Missed important information
- By Ms. on 04-01-22
By: Jing Tsu
-
Life Is Hard
- How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
- By: Kieran Setiya
- Narrated by: Kieran Setiya
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 84
There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Solid
- By Jason Blum on 10-24-22
By: Kieran Setiya
-
The World According to China
- By: Elizabeth C. Economy
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
An economic and military superpower with twenty percent of the world's population, China has the wherewithal to transform the international system. Xi Jinping's bold calls for China to "lead in the reform of the global governance system" suggest that he has just such an ambition. But how does he plan to realize it? And what does it mean for the rest of the world? In this compelling book, Elizabeth Economy reveals China's ambitious new strategy to reclaim the country's past glory and reshape the geostrategic landscape in dramatic new ways.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent Book on China Expansionism
- By WLC on 08-19-22
-
The New China Playbook
- Beyond Socialism and Capitalism
- By: Keyu Jin
- Narrated by: Jenapher Zheng
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding. Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist and a professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Good content but missing important information
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-23
By: Keyu Jin
-
The Avoidable War
- The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China
- By: Kevin Rudd
- Narrated by: Kevin Rudd, Rafe Beckley
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 268
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 232
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 228
The relationship between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgment will determine if a war will be fought.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Xi and the CCP Approve this Message
- By Andrizomai on 12-04-22
By: Kevin Rudd
-
Beyond Measure
- The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
- By: James Vincent
- Narrated by: James Vincent
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
A vibrant account of how measurement has invisibly shaped our world, from ancient civilizations to the modern day.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Hoped for more information
- By A Z A R on 06-26-23
By: James Vincent
-
Slouching Towards Utopia
- An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
- By: J. Bradford DeLong
- Narrated by: Allan Aquino
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 215
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 181
Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly transforming the economy again and again. Our ancestors would have presumed we would have used such powers to build utopia. But it was not so. When 1870-2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming; economic depression, uncertainty, and inequality; and broad rejection of the status quo.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A clear but sometimes one-sided economic history
- By Anon on 11-22-22
-
Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,296
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,948
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,946
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
-
The Maniac
- By: Benjamin Labatut
- Narrated by: Gergo Danka, Eva Magyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 230
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Benjamin Labatut
-
China's Leaders
- From Mao to Now
- By: David Shambaugh
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China over seventy years ago, five paramount leaders have shaped the fates and fortunes of the nation and the ruling Chinese Communist Party: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. Under their leaderships, China has undergone an extraordinary transformation from an undeveloped and insular country to a comprehensive world power. In this definitive study, renowned Sinologist David Shambaugh offers a refreshing account of China's dramatic post-revolutionary history through the prism of those who ruled it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very informative
- By JohnDoe on 04-03-23
By: David Shambaugh
-
Surveillance State
- Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control
- By: Josh Chin, Liza Lin
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
Surveillance State tells the gripping, startling, and detailed story of how China’s Communist Party is building a new kind of political control: shaping the will of the people through the sophisticated harnessing of data. It is a story born in Silicon Valley and America’s “War on Terror,” and now playing out in alarming ways on China’s remote Central Asian frontier. As a minority separatist movement strains against Party control, China’s leaders have built a dystopian police state that keeps millions under the constant gaze of security forces armed with AI.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By DeeRod on 05-26-23
By: Josh Chin, and others
-
Party of One
- The Rise of Xi Jinping and China's Superpower Future
- By: Chun Han Wong
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
From one of the most admired reporters covering China today comes a vital new account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of the People’s Republic whose hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies. Party of One shatters the many myths that shroud one of the world’s most secretive political organizations and its leader. Many observers misread Xi during his early years in power, projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness, rule of law, and pro-market economics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Worrisome
- By Kelley A. Arasim on 10-30-23
By: Chun Han Wong
-
The Power Law
- Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
- By: Sebastian Mallaby
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 655
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 533
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 531
Innovations rarely come from “experts.” Elon Musk was not an “electric car person” before he started Tesla. When it comes to improbable innovations, a legendary tech VC told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. It is the nature of the venture-capital game that most attempts at discovery fail, but a very few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives the VC business, all of Silicon Valley, the wider tech sector, and, by extension, the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An Excellent Modern History Book
- By BikerDave on 05-06-24
-
The Long Game
- China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order
- By: Rush Doshi
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fresh perspective, grand strategic view
- By ndru1 on 02-05-22
By: Rush Doshi
-
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,270
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,064
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,049
The first new collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens since 2004, Arguably offers an indispensable key to understanding the passionate and skeptical spirit of one of our most dazzling writers, widely admired for the clarity of his style, a result of his disciplined and candid thinking. Topics range from ruminations on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men to the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Grab it
- By Davol2449 on 09-02-11
-
The Source of Self-Regard
- Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 189
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 151
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 145
Arguably the most celebrated and revered writer of our time now gives us a new nonfiction collection - a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Refreshing thoughts
- By Amazon Customer on 04-02-19
By: Toni Morrison
-
The Price of Time
- The Real Story of Interest
- By: Edward Chancellor
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 280
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 234
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 234
In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Big landscape in time and subjects; Austrian view
- By Philo on 08-29-22
-
For Profit
- A History of Corporations
- By: William Magnuson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 70
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 59
Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism has only grown more intense in recent years. Meanwhile, corporations continue to amass wealth and power at a dizzying rate, recklessly pursuing profit while leaving society to sort out the costs. In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of the corporation didn’t have to come to this. Throughout history, he finds, corporations have been purpose-built to benefit the societies that surrounded them.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Selected stories give great explanations
- By Philo on 11-27-22
By: William Magnuson
Related to this topic
-
The Story Paradox
- How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
- By: Jonathan Gottschall
- Narrated by: Joshua Kane
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A bit of a mixed bag with some amazing discussion
- By Justin on 04-27-22
-
Men Explain Things to Me
- By: Rebecca Solnit
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,106
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,822
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,801
In Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit takes on the conversations between men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't. The ultimate problem, she shows in her comic, scathing essay, is female self-doubt and the silencing of women. Rebecca Solnit is the author of fourteen books about civil society, popular power, uprisings, art, environment, place, pleasure, politics, hope, and memory, most recently The Faraway Nearby, a book on empathy and storytelling.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great read - horrible performance
- By Denise Johnson on 03-26-15
By: Rebecca Solnit
-
The Long March
- How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America
- By: Roger Kimball
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
The architects of America's cultural revolution of the 1960s were Beat authors like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and celebrated figures like Norman Mailer, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, and Susan Sontag. In examining the lives and works of those who spoke for the 1960s, Roger Kimball conceives a series of cautionary tales, an annotated guidebook of wrong turns, dead-ends, and blind alleys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Long March
- By Suzanne on 05-16-06
By: Roger Kimball
-
Incarnations
- India in Fifty Lives
- By: Sunil Khilnani
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
For all of India's myths, its sea of stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans - some famous, some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling, wry humor, and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great listen, the author is biased
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-19
By: Sunil Khilnani
-
Nothing Ever Dies
- Vietnam and the Memory of War
- By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 75
Nothing Ever Dies, Viet Thanh Nguyen writes. All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the best-selling novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both the Americans and the Vietnamese.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good, probably should be read and not listened to via audible for the best experience.
- By Tanya on 10-24-16
-
Dark Star Rising
- Magick and Power in the Age of Trump
- By: Gary Lachman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Step Right This Way!
- By Brad on 06-03-18
By: Gary Lachman
-
The Story Paradox
- How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
- By: Jonathan Gottschall
- Narrated by: Joshua Kane
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A bit of a mixed bag with some amazing discussion
- By Justin on 04-27-22
-
Men Explain Things to Me
- By: Rebecca Solnit
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,106
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,822
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,801
In Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit takes on the conversations between men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't. The ultimate problem, she shows in her comic, scathing essay, is female self-doubt and the silencing of women. Rebecca Solnit is the author of fourteen books about civil society, popular power, uprisings, art, environment, place, pleasure, politics, hope, and memory, most recently The Faraway Nearby, a book on empathy and storytelling.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great read - horrible performance
- By Denise Johnson on 03-26-15
By: Rebecca Solnit
-
The Long March
- How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America
- By: Roger Kimball
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
The architects of America's cultural revolution of the 1960s were Beat authors like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and celebrated figures like Norman Mailer, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, and Susan Sontag. In examining the lives and works of those who spoke for the 1960s, Roger Kimball conceives a series of cautionary tales, an annotated guidebook of wrong turns, dead-ends, and blind alleys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Long March
- By Suzanne on 05-16-06
By: Roger Kimball
-
Incarnations
- India in Fifty Lives
- By: Sunil Khilnani
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
For all of India's myths, its sea of stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans - some famous, some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling, wry humor, and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great listen, the author is biased
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-19
By: Sunil Khilnani
-
Nothing Ever Dies
- Vietnam and the Memory of War
- By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 75
Nothing Ever Dies, Viet Thanh Nguyen writes. All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the best-selling novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both the Americans and the Vietnamese.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good, probably should be read and not listened to via audible for the best experience.
- By Tanya on 10-24-16
-
Dark Star Rising
- Magick and Power in the Age of Trump
- By: Gary Lachman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Step Right This Way!
- By Brad on 06-03-18
By: Gary Lachman
-
The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
-
The Republic of Imagination
- America in Three Books
- By: Azar Nafisi
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 50
Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love
- By Rebecca on 05-29-16
By: Azar Nafisi
-
Talking About Detective Fiction
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Diana Bishop
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
To judge by the worldwide success of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot, it is not only the Anglo-Saxons who have an appetite for mystery and mayhem. Talking about the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal thoughts and observations on one of the most popular and enduring forms of literature, P. D. James examines the challenges, achievements and potential of a genre which has fascinated her as a novelist for nearly 50 years.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating and Informative
- By Nancy J on 03-17-13
By: P. D. James
-
Wonder Woman Unbound
- The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine
- By: Tim Hanley
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 368
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 341
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 337
This close look at Wonder Woman's history portrays a complicated heroine who is more than just a female Superman with a golden lasso and bullet-deflecting bracelets. The original Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, advocating female superiority and the benefits of matriarchy in the 1940s. At the same time, her creator filled the comics with titillating bondage imagery, and Wonder Woman was tied up as often as she saved the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
facts about how Wonder Woman has been portrayed
- By Midwestbonsai on 07-25-16
By: Tim Hanley
-
Suicide of the West
- How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,403
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,267
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,245
Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Put some gratitude in your attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Jonah Goldberg
-
Cultural Amnesia
- Notes in the Margin of My Time
- By: Clive James
- Narrated by: Clive James
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 149
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 103
From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
-
Fracture
- Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
When the Great War ended in 1918, the West was broken. Religious faith, patriotism, and the belief in human progress had all been called into question by the mass carnage experienced by both sides. Shell-shocked and traumatized, the West faced a world it no longer recognized: The old order had collapsed, replaced by an age of machines. The world hurtled forward on gears and crankshafts, and terrifying new ideologies arose from the wreckage of past belief.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lots of good trivia information
- By Jean on 07-23-15
By: Philipp Blom
-
An African American and Latinx History of the United States
- By: Paul Ortiz
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 455
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 400
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 395
Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I had to return
- By Andrew Alvarez on 05-19-20
By: Paul Ortiz
-
The Art of the Novel
- By: Milan Kundera, Linda Asher - translator
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Kundera brilliantly examines the work of such important and diverse figures as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Musil. He is especially penetrating on Hermann Broch, and his exploration of the world of Kafka's novels vividly reveals the comic terror of Kafka's bureaucratized universe. Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the postpsychological novel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Informative and Inspiring
- By Mo on 11-27-21
By: Milan Kundera, and others
-
Looking for Lorraine
- The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: LisaGay Hamilton
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 141
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 142
Lorraine Hansberry, who died at thirty-four, was by all accounts a force of nature. Although best-known for her work A Raisin in the Sun, her short life was full of extraordinary experiences and achievements, and she had an unflinching commitment to social justice, which brought her under FBI surveillance when she was barely in her twenties. While her close friends and contemporaries, like James Baldwin and Nina Simone, have been rightly celebrated, her story has been diminished and relegated to one work—until now.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Radiant
- By Rose Brookins on 03-20-19
By: Imani Perry
-
Looking for the Good War
- American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness
- By: Elizabeth D. Samet
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans - all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States' "exceptional" history and destiny.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Essential reading for military officers and political decision makers.
- By Arlene S. Burke on 02-23-22
-
On Freedom
- Four Songs of Care and Constraint
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 56
So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long star turn coming to a close? Does a continued obsession with the term enliven and emancipate, or reflect a deepening nihilism (or both)? On Freedom examines such questions by tracing the concept's complexities in four distinct realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just great
- By Kristi Strong on 12-14-21
By: Maggie Nelson
What listeners say about The Subplot
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sam B
- 02-21-22
Interesting overview of Chinese fiction today
More like a long New Yorker article than a typical book, but really enjoyed it as a window into an aspect of contemporary Chinese culture I knew nothing about
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Annick Nadeau
- 01-14-23
Excellent perspective on contemporary Chinese society.
In a heavily censored society where the government decides which books live up to Communist state standards, authors and readers long for more. By explaining what Chinese authors & readers want to read, and what the government censors, this book provides insight into Chinese society that you won’t find in the news.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!