5 Smart Discs: Shifting Expectations

How we got here and what do we do next are the subjects of several of our picks here. Recent audio books include Game Change, about the dramatic 2008 presidential campaign; a look at the high-stakes world of quant analysts and a new edition of the bestseller about changing your life, The 4-Hour Workweek.

See The Quants and 4 other SmartMedia picks.

In music, we have an expanded soundtrack to the critically acclaimed movie Crazy Heart, and the latest release from one of America s best songwriters, Patty Griffin.

Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

By: John Heilemann, Mark Halperin
Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris
Harper Audio; $26.45

The presidential election of 2008 was remarkable not only for its outcome America s first black president but for its campaigns, including the primaries. This book, an instant national bestseller, feeds our craving for dramatic stories about outsized personalities and competing egos, all in the name of the democratic process.

The authors employ the fly-on-the-wall technique used in many nonfiction books since Woodward and Bernstein s 1970s blockbuster All the President s Men. Sample: Barack Obama jerked bolt upright in bed at 3 o clock in the morning; darkness enveloped his low-rent room . Here, though, instead of a scandal that derailed a presidency, we get the scandalous behavior and inside dope on candidates and their staff on the hopeful road to the Oval Office. The authors in their prologue say their aim is to develop more fully the subjects that daily journalism and hourly blogifying obsessed over briefly and passed by or never grappled with in the first place.

Game Change does feature scandal aplenty, though, from the much-reported private behavior versus public face of John and Elizabeth Edwards to John McCain s mercurial temperament. Beyond such juicy tidbits, the book adds up to a fully realized account of truly historic election.

Narrator Dennis Boutsikaris who has read the audio versions of books by Philip Roth and Kurt Vonnegut as well as a host of thrillers -- brings a practiced tone to a work that has the immediacy of news and the narrative flow of a political novel.

How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It

By Scott Patterson
Random House Audio; $32
Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

Warren Buffett famously said regarding the mathematicians who changed the business of Wall Street, Beware of geeks bearing formulas. This book by a Wall Street Journal reporter explores the impact and perhaps dubious legacy of those number-crunchers and whiz kid theorists who moved from the ivory towers of university life to the wood-paneled corporate dining rooms of the financial district. (SmartMoney.com is owned in part by Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal).

Author Scott Patterson introduces us to four of these quants, as the people who work in quantitative analysis are called. These folks helped digitize money using arcane mathematics to enable the shift to the global trading of billions of dollars in seconds.

Of course, the quants were all about scaling the next financial mountain, not the fiscal avalanche their techniques might cause. It s a story of technology, greed and people way too smart for their own good.

Seasoned narrator Mike Chamberlain has read before this kind of business tale for audio, including The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, by Ben Mezrich.

Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

By Timothy Ferriss
Blackstone Audio; $17.47
Narrated by Ray Porter

The bestselling guide to throwing away the shackles of a cubicle-bound life and embracing a new financial freedom has just been re-released in an expanded and updated edition, with additional content.

For those unfamiliar with his book: In his 20s, author Timothy Ferriss designed a new way of living for himself. Back then, his choice would confound people at parties who would ask him what he did for a living. Now, he speaks, blogs, travels, you name it. And he doesn t work for The Man.

What I do with my time and how I make money are different things, he writes. Life doesn t have to be hard. Most people, my past self included, have spent too much time convincing themselves that life has to be hard, in exchange for the safety of steady pay, a sometimes-relaxing brief vacation and the possibility of being laid off.

In our continuing era of downsizing and doing more with less, this book s design for living may strike a fresh chord with salaried employees, investors and budding entrepreneurs. Narrator Ray Porter brings a motivational speaker s enthusiasm to the audio version.

Limited Deluxe Edition Soundtrack

Various Artists

New West Records; $19.98

The well-received movie about a down-on-his luck country singer-songwriter featured new songs by T Bone Burnett working with relative newcomer Ryan Bingham, as well as tracks by veterans such as Waylon Jennings, George Jones and Lucinda Williams.

The movie followed Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), a downward-spiraling boozer who tries to turn his life around after he begins seeing a young music journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal). It has the quiet momentum of a time-tested tale, thanks mainly to transparent humanity of Jeff Bridges as the grizzled entertainer who reluctantly pulls himself together.

The musical performances in the movie are topnotch Bridges has a good, emotive baritone, and Colin Farrell, as a country superstar mentored by Bridges, is also fine. Ryan Bingham played in the movie as part of Bad Blake s backup band and he also sings on the closing credits.

This soundtrack release (also available for download) features 23 tracks, including seven additional songs not featured on the original soundtrack. It s a welcome introduction to this durable and wide-ranging American musical genre, country-western.

Patty Griffin

Credential Records; $17.98

Patty Griffin s smart and catchy songs have been recorded by people as diverse as the Dixie Chicks, Jessica Simpson and Solomon Burke. But she s a terrific singer in her own right, with a strong, expressive voice and a growing following thanks to her constant touring around the country.

Her new album, produced by Buddy Miller, was recorded at the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Downtown Church features a collection of country songs that are country only because of where they were recorded they re actually singer-songwriter tales, filled with hope and sorrow and joy and heartache: Americana at its best.

She is joined here by a host of other singers, including Emmylou Harris and Raoul Malo, as well as producer Buddy Miller, himself a fine singer-songwriter.