Audio Book - Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

Today I listened to my first audio book (which I borrowed from the library last week on a whim): Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama and read by the author.

Click here to read Paul Watkins's New York Times review of the first edition of this book "A Promise of Redemption" published August 6, 1995 or click here to read the Introduction to the 2004 edition.

Obama's lyrical speech and talent with voices won him a spoken word Grammy in 2006 for the audio book version of Dreams from My Father and another Grammy in 2008 for the audio book edition of The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (beating out Bill Clinton for his audio book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World and Jimmy Carter for his audio book Sunday Mornings in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World).

While I prefer to read my books, listening to Dreams from My Father has made me appreciate audio books. It's quite a different experience to hear an author read his or her book.

I'm hopeful that I'll also enjoy listening to David McCullough's 1776!

More Library Books

I went to the library this morning to return a few books, and I could not resist borrowing a few (even though I already have seven checked out). Today I borrowed:

• Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
• Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath by Michael Paul Mason
• 1776 by David McCullough (audio book)
• Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (audio book)

Now I've never listened to an audio book before, so this is really an experiment. I'm not sure if I'll actually get through 1776 or Dreams from My Father but I'll give it a shot.

I've read Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (which I found hilariously educational) and Head Cases sounds an awful lot like The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge or like Oliver Sacks's books (I’ve read Awakenings and An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales).

I read about Head Cases last month in the New York Times in William Grimes's review titled "Empathy for the Brain, After Insult and Injury" and in Mary Roach's review (yes the same Mary Roach) titled "Damage Control."

And I heard about Bonk last month in the New York Times in Janet Maslin's review titled "A Sex Researcher Walks Into a Lab, and Then Things Start to Get Comical" and in Pamela Paul's review titled "Sexual Advances."

Both are favorably reviewed and I hope they live up to my expectations.

Back to work!