Audiobooks by David Shields

Nobody Hates Trump More Than Trump: An Intervention

NOBODY HATES TRUMP MORE THAN TRUMP: AN INTERVENTION is perhaps the only genuinely original thing you have read yet about Donald Trump. It can be read in a variety of ways: as a psychological investigation of Trump, as a philosophical meditation on the relationship between language and power, as a satirical compilation of the "collected wit and wisdom of Donald Trump," and above all as a dagger into the rhetoric of American political discourse-a dissection of the politesse that gave rise to and sustains Trump. The book's central thesis is that we have met the enemy and he is us. Who else but David Shields would make such an argument, let alone pull it off with such intelligence, brio, and wit, not to mention leaked off-air transcripts from Fox News? PRAISE Brian Fawcett, Dooney's Cafe "The best book, so far, on the political and cultural implications of Trump's presidency. Shields has the widest range of curiosity of any American writer I'm aware of, and he almost never wastes your time. He nails what's off-kilter and crazy about Donald Trump and the political psychosis he represents at least a hundred times, and in dozens of insightful ways. Shields is good enough, in this book, to earn the designation of being the writer most likely to be picked up and murdered should either right- or left-wing fundamentalists take power in the United States. This is a designation that hasn't been conferred on an American writer since Philip K. Dick. What I'm saying is that Shields is that good. He is one of a very small group of true 21st century writers worthy of the tag, and I salute him as a master." Jeff Simon, Buffalo News "You're unlikely to encounter another book so recklessly and unpredictably full of insight, even wisdom. Shields is the most exciting writer we have in America at the moment, the most startling and innovative." Tim Denevi LitHub, Favorite Books of 2018 "A fantastic read." Neal Thompson, Seattle Spokesman-Review Favorite Books of 2018 Toby Lichtig, TLS "Often brilliant." Moshe Schulman, The Rumpus "A sobering, nuanced, and-at times-brutally funny-psychological investigation into why Trump resonates with all, even the people who hate him." Cathy Alter, Washington [D.C.] Independent Review "A mesmerizing study of power, how it isolates, how it infantalizes, how it amplifies our collective fears." Kirkus Reviews "A compelling book offering something to offend nearly anyone." Publishers Weekly "Shields weaves together wry observations." Shannon Laster, Open Letters Review "Shields's short book delivers the goods." Neal McNamara, Patch "Nobody Hates Trump More Than Trump has something new to say."

David Shields (Author), Paul Heitsch (Narrator)

Audiobook

That Thing You Do with Your Mouth: The Sexual Autobiography of Samantha Matthews as Told to David Sh

In That Thing You Do With Your Mouth, actress and voiceover artist Samantha Matthews offers-in the form of an extended monologue, prompted and arranged by New York Times-bestselling author (and Matthews's cousin once removed) David Shields-a vivid investigation of her startling sexual history. From her abuse at the hands of a family member to her present-day life in Barcelona, where she briefly moonlighted as a dubber of Italian pornography into English, Matthews reveals herself to be a darkly funny, deeply contemporary woman with a keen awareness of how her body has been routinely hijacked and how she has been “formatted” by her early trauma. Her story is a study of her own uneasy relationships with female desire, her tormentors, and her lovers-with whom she seeks out both the infliction and receipt of harm. This book is an attempt, sometimes self-thwarted, to break down barriers: sexual and emotional for Matthews, and literary for Shields. For Matthews and Shields, the only response to the unspeakable is to speak, to do that thing you do with your mouth, as directly and honestly as possible. Their provocative performance refuses neat resolution or emotional pornography; it will have readers, from literary critics to Jezebel commentators, raving, raging, celebrating, talking.

David Shields, Samantha Matthews (Author), Mia Barron (Narrator)

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I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel

A debate, nearly to the death, about life and art, cocktails included. And a soon-to-be major motion picture from James Franco! Caleb Powell always wanted to become an artist, but he overcommitted to life (he' s a stay-at-home dad to three young girls), whereas his former professor David Shields always wanted to become a human being, but he has overcommitted to art. Shields and Powell spend four days together in a cabin in the Cascade Mountains, playing chess, shooting hoops, hiking to lakes and an abandoned mine; they rewatch My Dinner with AndrE, Sideways, and The Trip, relax in a hot tub, and talk about everything they can think of in the name of exploring and debating their central question: life and/or art. The relationship-- and the balance of power-- between Shields and Powell is in constant flux, as two egos try to undermine each other, two personalities overlap and collapse. This book seeks to demolish the Q&A format; it also seeks to confound, as much as possible, the divisions between "reality" and "fiction," between "life" and "art." There are no teachers or students, no interviewers or interviewees, no masters in the universe, only a chasm of uncertainty.

Caleb Powell, David Shields (Author), Jonathan Todd Ross, Luis Moreno (Narrator)

Audiobook

Salinger

New Salinger book and film coming within next yearBy HILLEL ITALIENEW YORK (AP) - A new J.D. Salinger film and biography are being billed as an unprecedented look into the mysterious life of the author of "The Catcher In the Rye."Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that it had acquired "The Private War of J.D. Salinger," an oral biography compiled by author David Shields and filmmaker-screenwriter Shane Salerno, whose screenplay credits include the Oliver Stone film "Savages." Salinger's own books have been published by Little, Brown and Co.Salerno has been working for several years on his documentary, which PBS will air next January for the 200th of its "American Masters" series. According to Simon & Schuster, the book and film draw upon interviews "with over 150 sources who either worked directly with author J.D. Salinger, had a personal relationship with him, or were influenced by his work." Salinger's longtime literary agent, Phyllis Westberg of Harold Ober Associates Inc., declined to comment Tuesday. Simon & Schuster's announcement does not say whether the ultimate Salinger question is answered: Did he leave behind any unpublished manuscripts? Simon & Schuster publisher Jonathan Karp said he could not provide detail beyond what is in the news release. Virtually nothing new has been learned about the author since he died in New Hampshire in 2010 at age 91. No authorized biography has appeared. "The myth that people have read about and believed for 60 years about J.D. Salinger is one of someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched. We replace the myth of Salinger with an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being," Salerno said in a statement. "Our book offers a complete revaluation and reinterpretation of the work and the life." "Both the film and book are an investigation into the cost of art and the cost of war," Simon & Schuster senior editor Jofie Ferrari-Adler said in a statement. "This is a truly revelatory work, and one that transcends literary biography to investigate the larger story of the legacy of World War II. Through the prism of Salinger's life and his experience at war, the authors are presenting a personal history of the 20th century." Salinger was reportedly deeply scarred by his service during World War II, when he interrogated prisoners of war. ***Please Contact Member Services for Additional Documents***

David Shields, Shane Salerno (Author), Peter Friedman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jeff, One Lonely Guy

In October 2011, Jeff Ragsdale, a down-and-out actor and stand-up comedian, posted a flyer around Lower Manhattan asking people to call him if they wanted to talk. He thought he'd get a dozen calls; instead he got hundreds, and then thousands once pictures of the flyer went viral on the net. The calls came from all over the country and from as far away as Spain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Taiwan, and Australia. Jeff spoke to as many people as he could, answering his phone all day long. Here are the conversations, texts, and voicemails of a particular moment in time - a hilarious, dark, intimate portrait of the way we live now. "OMG I love this!! It's so Russian - very reminiscent of the Chekhov story 'Complaint Book' (entries in a complaint book at the railway station)." - Elif Batuman, Author of The Possessed "With Reality Hunger, David Shields offered us a manifest, yet unlike most manifestoes, Reality Hunger actually changed the world. Here, by teaming up with Ragsdale and Logan, Shields has now embodied his ethos - we have crossed over the threshold and are now strangely, terrifyingly, beautifully - in this transformed world." - Nick Flynn, Author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

David Shields, Jeff Ragsdale, Michael Logan (Author), Jeff Ragsdale (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of David Shields 2008 New York Times Bestseller, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead, read by the actor Peter Marinker. Mesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being. Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers - from Lucretius to Woody Allen - Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality. An insightful, honest and uplifting portrait of what it means to be human, and one day to die.

David Shields (Author), Peter Marinker (Narrator)

Audiobook

Reality Hunger: A Manifesto

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of David Shields highly persuasive Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. Read by the actor Peter Marinker. Reality Hunger is a manifesto for a burgeoning group of interrelated but unconnected artists who, living in an unbearably artificial world, are breaking ever larger chunks of 'reality' into their work. The questions Shields explores - the bending of form and genre, the lure and blur of the real - play out constantly around us, and Reality Hunger is a radical reframing of how we might think about this 'truthiness'. Reality Hunger questions every assumption we ever made about art, the novel, journalism, poetry, film, TV, rap, stand-up, graffiti, sampling, plagiarism, writing, and reading. Drawing on myriad stances, David Shields seeks to tear up the old culture in search of something new and more authentic. 'One of the most provocative books I've ever read' - Charles D'Ambrosio

David Shields (Author), Peter Marinker (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

Mesmerized–at times unnerved–by his ninety-seven-year-old father’s nearly superhuman vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an investigation of the human physical condition. The result is this exhilarating audiobook. both a personal meditation on mortality and an exploration of flesh-and-blood existence from crib to oblivion–an exploration that paradoxically prompts a renewed and profound appreciation of life. - See more at: http://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/search/?q=+The+Thing+About+Life+Is+That+One+Day+You%27ll+Be+Dead#sthash.xDshNuAX.dpuf

David Shields (Author), Don Leslie (Narrator)

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