
The World Up Close
15 Personal Stories of Bicycling, Growth & Discovery
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Narrated by:
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Kameel Nasr
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By:
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Kameel B. Nasr
About this listen
With The World Up Close, bicyclist Kameel Nasr has created a fascinating and personal introduction to the world's people, sharing diverse episodes from his 40,000-mile bicycle journey through 70 countries. Nasr offers his readers a vicarious view across the handlebars as he tackles the Appalachians, the Anders, the Himalayas...crosses Sinai in the summer...shares the ever-present fears of Central Americans...explores Morocco's Hashish Trail.
Nasr's book will certainly be taken by fellow cyclists as an inviting challenge to take to the road as he has, but you don't have to be a bicycle buff to proclaim this book your listening adventure of the year. Nasr has made this much more a book of people than of places. In high festival or the despair of abject poverty, here are the world's people - very close up yet presented with breathtaking perspective.
©2015 Kameel Nasr (P)2018 Kameel NasrListeners also enjoyed...
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At age 22, Charlie Walker left home in search of adventure. Fleeing the boredom that comes with comfort, he set off on a secondhand bicycle. The aim was simple: to pedal to the furthest point in each of Europe, Asia, and Africa. He didn’t train or plan. He just started. The journey was an escape from an unremarkable existence, a pursuit of hardship, and a chance to shed the complacency of middle England. From the brutality of winter on the Tibetan plateau, to the claustrophobia of the Southeast Asian jungle, the quest provided Charlie with ample opportunity to test his mettle.
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Overall
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Performance
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Overall
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Performance
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Amazing book, Amazing Man
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Smuggler
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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5 stars
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The Road from Raqqa
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Alkasem brothers, Riyad and Bashar, spend their childhood in Raqqa, the city that would later became the capital of ISIS. As a teenager in the 1980s, Riyad witnesses the devastating aftermath of the Hama massacre—an atrocity by the Assad regime. Wanting to expand his notion of government and justice, Riyad moves to the US to study law, but his plans are derailed and he eventually falls in love with a Southern belle. Bashar, meanwhile, stayed in Syria and embarked on a brilliant legal career under the same corrupt Assad government that Riyad despised.
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Gripping & Meaningful
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On the Plain of Snakes
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A 40-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico.
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A pedantic, poorly narrated, 20 hour lecture
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By: Paul Theroux
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The Masked Rider
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- By: Neil Peart
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The prolific drummer for the rock band Rush travels through African villages, both large and small, and relates his story through journal entries and tales of adventure, while simultaneously addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels. Literary and artistic sidekicks such as Aristotle, Dante, and Van Gogh join Peart and his cycling companions, reminding the listener that this is not just another travel book - it is a story of both external and introspective discovery and adventure.
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Fascinating Trip Across Cameroon
- By Diann Sedam on 11-26-19
By: Neil Peart