Sukey's Favorite

King of the World:
Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero
By David Remnick
Nova, $24.95
6 hours
ISBN 1567408168

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Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Remnick has given "The Greatest" the knockout biography and winning audio he deserves. In King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero, read by Dick Hall, Remnick shows us how a gangly kid from Kentucky became not just a brilliant boxer, but one of the most electrifying personalities of the our time, a man who remains a living symbol of faith, conviction, skill, wit, and racial pride. As Cassius Clay, he entered boxing in an age when a black fighter was expected to behave, to defer to white sensibilities. Clay broke that mold, changed his name and religion, and refused to go to Vietnam. At the pinnacle of his career, he took his fight out of the boxing arena and into the politics of the day, costing him his heavyweight title and millions of dollars. Though this bio goes only to mid-career, Remnick spent time with Ali and includes the Champ today, remembering himself when he could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Listening lessons for the millennium

REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD

With fewer than 365 days left in this century, you may want to take stock of life, consider where you want to go, why you're going, and how to get there. This may be the ideal time to listen to the observations and experiences of others. Some of our January authors offer positive, how-to advice; some look at concepts and history -- there's something to be learned from each.

Lessons from history

Tom Brokaw went to Normandy to cover the 40th and then the 50th anniversary of D-day, and though he was steeped in the history of that heroic, horrific invasion, it was the individuals he met and the stories they had to tell that moved and inspired him. Soon after that, he stated that the World War II generation that came of age in the Great Depression, that answered the call to save the world without whining or whimpering, and came home, mature beyond their years, to rebuild their lives and build America into the power it is, was the greatest. The audio version of his new book, The Greatest Generation, which Brokaw reads in his familiar stentorian style, serves to back up that bold statement and may serve, too, as an inspirational model for listeners. What Brokaw achieves is an audio portrait album that pays tribute to ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times, whose enterprise, determination, and collective contributions created what we have and take for granted today. This generation wasn't perfect, they made mistakes, but they shared many values in common -- duty, honor, pride in country, personal responsibility, service -- values so many of us talk about rather than adhere to.

To get an inside view of the battles that shaped these men, listen to Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose's brilliantly detailed account of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, as its men moved from the nightmare of Normandy in 1944 to the capture of Hitler's Bavarian outpost in 1945.


Lessons from the father of self-help

Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People may be the "mother" of all self-help books, which makes Mr. Carnegie the "father" of the entire industry. He started his famed classes in 1912, and now, at the close of this century, Dale Carnegie Institutes are still going strong and can boast over 4.5 million graduates in over 70 countries around the world.

Even more amazing is the fact that his two seminal self-help works are as relevant today as they were when they were originally published. For the first time, both How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living are available in unabridged, audio-only presentations, read here by Andrew MacMillan. Using Carnegie's ideas in tandem is the way to go; once you make friends, influence people, and climb the ladder of success, you'll need to shed worry and anxiety and start living a full, happy life -- reversing the order may achieve positive results, too. Whichever, you'll be following the time-tested treatises that have improved many, many lives.


Lessons from Larry

For Larry King, everything starts with a question; he has made a living asking tough questions and having conversations about them for over 40 years. King calls himself an agnostic, a "spiritually challenged yahoo," so the questions, "why do people pray?" and "what is a prayer?" were truly perplexing to him. In typical King fashion, he turned to the well-known and the powerful (his usual constituency). Powerful Prayers: Conversations on Faith, Hope, and the Human Spirit with Today's Most Provocative People, written with Rabbi Irwin Katsof, is the distillation of the answers he received in hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of transcripts, notes, and stories -- a revealing look at intimate thoughts, private moments, and powerful prayers. Fast-talking, impatiently good-natured, always provocative, King shares what the Dalai Lama, Barbara Bush, Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson, Muhammad Ali, and Jack Kevorkian, among many, many others told him about their own ways of connecting to God. King, always a skeptic, found it tough going sometimes, but he persevered and ended up a little less puzzled, a little more willing to admit that prayer may "polish the soul." I think his listeners will be grateful that he kept going and produced an unusually compelling audio that never instructs, but always informs.

    Powerful Prayers:
    Conversations on Faith, Hope, and the Human Spirit with Today's Most Provocative People
    By Larry King
    Written with Rabbi Irwin Katsof
    Audio Renaissance, $16.95
    3 hours
    ISBN 1559274808

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Lessons for the good life after 65

If The Virtues of Aging, the title of Jimmy Carter's new book, sounds like an oxymoron to you, just consider the alternative (as he suggests). Jimmy may not go into orbit as did our newest geriatric giant, but he certainly ranks with the super seniors and wants to share his insights into and experiences with growing older, not just gracefully but joyfully. Carter, openly honest as always, talks about the difficulties of returning to ordinary life after the power and prestige of the White House, about finding new ways to be productive, about taking on new recreational activities even while dealing with the inevitable challenges of aging, and about the profoundly different blessings that come to us as we age. Carter's kinder, gentler view of the world comes through as he reads this unabridged audio; hearing his calm, concerned voice is a pleasing, comforting reminder that bombast and acrimony need not always be synonymous with politicians.


Practical lessons from the Dummies that make you smart

Audio versions of the Dummies guides are a rather recent phenomenon and a most welcome one. Now, there's a boxed set bonanza, Time and Money Management for Dummies, that includes three separate cassettes to tell you how to manage your personal finances, investing, and precious time. Time may fly, march on, and run out, but Jeffrey "Clutterbuster" Mayer has the strategies, tips, and techniques that let you save some and, in the process, get organized and more productive. Take that extra time to listen to financial counselor Eric Tyson. He's the man who can set you straight on making the decisions that will let the money you work for work for you. No matter what your income level, you need to become financially literate, make informed decisions, and take control of your fiscal affairs.

Tyson shows you how to stretch your dollars, make the most of what you've got, start or buy your own small business, understand the risks and returns of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate. Follow the no-nonsense advice on these audios and you'll have the money, honey, and the time, too.

Audio Dummies keep coming -- there are more than 20 guides to everything from buying a car to closing a deal, alternative medicine to dating, sex, and parenting.


Lessons from a wise woman

If you ever wondered why Sarah Ban Breathnach has such a large following, just listen to the opening of Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self; her candor, commitment, and compassion will be immediately evident as she urges women to begin, or for many, continue the journey toward authenticity. Breathnach encourages you to become the archeologist of your own soul, digging down, remembering and reexamining the dreams, loves, and fears of your own past. She wants you to excavate thoroughly enough to crack your soul's elusive code, to uncover the authentic needs and wants that will allow you to make the right choices -- the choices that will lead you to your real destiny. "Something more" is knowing that your choices are the only ones that matter; "something more" is saying "Do I deserve to be happy? Damn right I do!"


Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month.

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