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The Road to Character

Written by: David Brooks
Narrated by: Arthur Morey, David Brooks
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Publisher's Summary

Number-one New York Times best seller

David Brooks challenges us to rebalance the scales between the focus on external success - “résumé virtues” - and our core principles.

Named one of the best books of the year by The Economist

With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous best sellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives.

Looking to some of the world's greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade.

Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.

“Joy,” David Brooks writes, “is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes.”

Praise for The Road to Character

“A hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“This profound and eloquent book is written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance.” (Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon)

“A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.” (The Guardian)

“Original and eye-opening... Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.” (USA Today)

©2015 David Brooks (P)2015 Random House Audio
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What the critics say

"Brooks himself delivers the introduction, clearly and engagingly explaining how a career as a pundit, often rewarded for shallow cleverness, has made him yearn for more depth and significance. But how to achieve it? As read by Arthur Morey with lovely pacing and an interested inflection, he finds that one looks to those who have gone before." (AudioFile)

“[Brooks] emerges as a countercultural leader.... The literary achievement of The Road to Character is inseparable from the virtues of its author. As the reader, you not only want to know about Frances Perkins or Saint Augustine. You also want to know what Brooks makes of Frances Perkins or Saint Augustine. The voice of the book is calm, fair and humane. The highlight of the material is the quality of the author’s moral and spiritual judgments.” (Michael Gerson, The Washington Post)

“If you want to be reassured that you are special, you will hate this book. But if you like thoughtful polemics, it is worth logging off Facebook to read it.” (The Economist)

What listeners say about The Road to Character

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not sure what I was expecting...

First off, I enjoyed the book, and the narrator was quite good and easy to listen to. However, I just felt...meh? at the end. Hard to explain... It's almost like all of his examples of "character" either were so different, in both what was "character" defining about them, and their flaws and how they overcame them, it just didn't seem to translate to any epiphany that felt useful in my own life. Also, it seemed to have a more religious over tone to it than I anticipated, and as an atheist, it was annoying to keep hearing about how overcoming "sin" and needing God's "grace" to flood in were needed.

All that said, he does a great job unfurling the characters before you, warts and all. It is interesting to hear how each improved their standing.

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Needed

This felt needed at this particular moment. In particular his take on sin and how it can be used in contemporary society without religion was interesting. I struggle to accept sinfulness without feeling constant shame, which is a problem for many people, but it's a step in the right direction to me.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Not what I expected

Echoing the review ‘not sure what I was expecting”, the summary nor audible sample or even the first chapter, which all interested and attracted me, are indicative of the overall message or at least the delivery.
I’ve lost interest and ceased listening and will try to come back to it sometime.

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The reading is disappointing.

I didn’t enjoy the reading. I would have much preferred the author had read the book.

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