Audiobooks: What do you believe?
In the 1950s, legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow asked well-known Americans to share their essential beliefs in a short statement for a radio program he called, "This I Believe."
In 2005, National Public Radio revived the series, asking Americans - well known and not well known - to state their core beliefs in 500 words. This is the second collection of those essays to be released on CD, each one read by the author, something that gives them incredible power.
We hear the pain in the voice of the woman who has lived alone and faithfully to a husband who was sent to prison 38 years ago, just after they married. We hear the determination in the voice of a young woman who still blames herself for not getting involved when she and all her neighbors knew a father was abusing his children and one of those children died at the man's hand. Now, she says, she believes in sticking her nose in where others think it does not belong.
But there there is also the self-involved and workaholic attorney who believes his chocolate lab taught him to open his life to others and to love.
Just as compelling and deeply thoughtful as these 75 essays are the opening remarks of producer Jay Allison, who makes an uplifting case for the courage and goodness of the American heart at a time in our country when we might doubt it.
Comments
I've heard many of the essays as they aired on NPR, and it's definitely the voices that make the stories so compelling. In a few of the on-air stories (I don't know if they appear here), there's more than one person involved and it sometimes gets into a brief conversation, or the second person will continue when the first one momentarily can't.
This is one book that I can't imagine reading off a page. It has to be listened to.
Posted by: Claude | November 4, 2008 1:34 PM