by Wendy Spero (2006); Read by Wendy Spero
Penguin Audio; 1st heard: Fall, 2007
I love the concept in the title / sub-title and the longer I listened
to Wendy Spero and understood her Manhattan orientation the more enjoyable
I found this work, but it didn't grab me as hilarious at first hearing,
the way David Sedaris did. Still it is along that vein and if you are
so mooded, enjoy.
by Neil Gaiman (words) and Dave McKean (pictures) (2003);
Read by Neil Gaiman;
Harper Collins; 1st heard: Summer, 2007
I finally figured out why I'd had trouble finding "The Day I Swapped my Dad
for Two Goldfish" at our local library and it wasn't because the children's
picture book section tends to be a mess, even though it does. It was because
"TDISMDFTG" was shelved, or rather hanged (too much gallows imagery, make
that:), or rather hung, in a bag with the audio CD of the writer, Neil
Gaimain, reading the book. I just now listened and read along. It's a
good, new children's book (2003), with enough repetition and things
happening that you don't quite know about at first (like Nathan's little
sister saying "Mumf" a few times before we know that she has been tied and
gagged (by Nathan)). And engaging pictures drawn by Dave McKean.
Be sure to read the "Afterword" if you're at all curious about how
authorship happens (maybe you're an aspiring writer yourself), or if you've
ever been to Galveston, Texas (I have). I think you'll find it
interesting.
by Judith Krantz (1995, text 1986); Read by Adrienne Barbeau;
Durkin Hayes Audio; 1st heard: Spring, 2007
I bought this at the store at "Fort Book", that's the main branch of the
Huntsville-Madison County Library system. (If you've seen this edifice you
know why it's called "Fort Book", if not, well, I don't see a picture
on the web with a quick Google, maybe I'll snap one sometime...). I paid
50 cents. If it wasn't read by one of my childhood sex symbols then I would
have over paid -- way over paid. There's barely enough plot here for
a Lifetime Network movie, much less a decent novel. Barbeau's voice does
give good life to Maxi Amberville's brashy, trashy boldness; but 5 minutes'
listen is long enough.
by Patricia Storace (2005); Read by Lenny Henry;
Harper Audio, CD, Unabridged; 1st heard: Summer, 2006
This is a fun story, with excellent archetypal stories within the story
from the trickster spider god of Africa. Not like much else you've
ever heard; except its very familiar and at times chuckle out loud
humorous.
by Patricia Storace (1997); Read by Jill Eikenberry;
Random House; 1st heard: February, 2005
This is image prose, a verbal painting of Greece, it's like
image poetry but without the burden of a
William
Carlos Williams. The oration is a film in words that flows
by like fans entering a soccer stadium. The book tells of the author's
year spent in modern Greece, and of the people she spends time with and
their connections to the past. At one point a Greek friend, a woman,
tells her how they end fairy tales in Greece, "They lived happily;
but we live better."
I didn't know, until
the interview at the end of the book, that the author is primarily
known as a poet. This tailing interview is worth listening
to as well. It adds context and insights, including the author's
actual voice. The main book is read by Jill Eikenberry, of L.A.
Law fame. She has the perfect voice for this rendering and is very
easy to listen to. Hers is similar enough to the authors to make it
genuine, but Eikenberry is more pleasant to listen to, more
professional.
by J. Michael Veron (2001); Read by Buck Schirner; ISBN 1-58788-394-5
Brilliance Audio; 1st heard: Fall 2005
This is a reasonably engaging story that is very well read. The plot has
enough real life golf details to be plausible but not too much trivia. My
favorite section was the description of the course as the protagonist plays
it. This and the early suspense make the book worthwhile, even without a
strong finish up the 18th fairway.
by Andrea Barrett (1998); Read by Peter Riegert;
Random House; 1st heard: Fall 2004
This book was more interesting than I'd expected and much better
written than I thought it would be, particularly given its Bargain
Basement price. The characters are well rounded and developed at a
pleasant pace. The Artic exploration is realistic and informative, even
if I couldn't always get a good mental picture of the ice and how it was
trapping the ship. There's also good detail here reminding us of what
people did with their time before the Internet, or TV or radio or even
cameras. The work on publishing books with illustrations is so time,
labor and artistry intensive that it makes me weary just listening.
I did happen to catch an excerpt from the book elsewhere and apparently this audio version is significantly abridged; for example, in the full version Zeke adopts an Artic Fox that gets quite a bit of ink, here he just has a difficult-to-fathom fondness for some of the sled dogs. Not perfect, but well worth the time.
by Tess gerritsen (1999); Read by Campbell Scott;
Simon & Schuster Audio; 1st heard: Summer 2004
For the most part this is a well written and well told story, yet there is
nothing really novel in this, uh, novel. The plot is basically
an "Aliens" story
without the comic book exaggerations: Isolated explorers encounter a
parasititic lifeform that grows inside humans; oh, and some of the humans
have romantic inclinations. There are even some hackneyed devices such
as abnormally wriggling abdomens and a "bug" that crawls across someone's
face on its way to entering their body through the ear, while the victim
is helpless due to the helmet on their head. It was fresh in "Star Trek:
The Wrath of Khan" but re-hashed here it is just sad, especially since
there is no instinctual justification for the behavior of this creature.
A more interesting sub-plot is the story of the Apogee II rocket which
is eventually used in a rescue attempt to the astronauts now
stranded on the International Space Station. This story line is good
fiction involving one brother who works at NASA and another spear-heading the
on-the-cheap commercial approach to space. This echoes well the current
X-Prize race or earlier fiction
such as the old "Salvage One".
Anyway, the book was written "a la" Michael Crichton, with ease of
adaptation for the big screen clearly in mind and it works within that
genre.
by Ben Bova (1999); Read by Harlan Ellison; 1st heard: Spring 2004
This "book" is a sequel to 1992's
best selling Mars which I have not read,
but while this audio was fine it was less in depth than Kim Stanley
Robinson's Red Mars which I read in actual book form about
four years ago. That is an ambitious, imaginative and well-crafted
piece of science fiction (I have not read the sequels,
Green Mars and Blue Mars partially for fear of spoiling
the quality of the original.) "Return" fell short in both technical
details of the possibilities of first phase terra-forming (and the
moral implications thereof) as well as in overall plot. There is
foreshadowing that the protagonist longs to go native, a la the
dog "Buck" in Jack London's The Call of the Wild but it never
transpires. There is some decent dialog and character development,
even in the abridged audio version. Overall a pleasant listen.
by Lewis Carroll (1995); Read by Lynn Redgrave; 1st heard: 2003
This material did not translate to the audio format as well as I
had hoped, it lost some of the magic and strangeness.
by Rand and Robyn Miller with David Wingrove (1995, Random House);
1st heard 2002
I never played the associated computer game enough to appreciate any
references from this book. There are a couple interesting concepts
here, like that magical authors of books can make the worlds in the
books real, and people can go inside those worlds -- just make sure you
have a "linking book" to get back ! But this is pretty
run of the mill sci-fi/fantasy.
by James W. Blinn (1997);
Read by: Dorian Harewood; 1st Heard: 6/2002
Vibrant to a surprising degree, this vernacular first person narrative is
set against the unlikely backdrop of Desert Storm. Dorian Harewood
reads this with an interpretation worthy of your second grade teacher reading
a first "chapter book" to your class -- with empathetic characterization.
It's a reading, not a truly acted performance, but this is almost better.
The story is of a reluctant anti-submarine anti-hero and his tribulations
and philosophic detours as he ships off to what could have been a real
full-fledged war for all he knew. I'm also unfamiliar with the
author, James W. Blinn but I expect that he is taking Mark Twain's
advice and writing what he knows; ah, in fact the jacket says he
served in the Navy for 9 years. Well done.
by Rosalyn McMillan (1997);
Read by: Lynne Thigpen; 1st Heard: 6/2001
Basically a trashy novel with little to recommend it.
by Geoffrey Moore (April 05, 2005);
Speaker: Geoffrey Moore;
1st Heard: March 13 2006
This is audio available
here and runs
for about an hour. Moore applies his technology lifecycle adoption model
to the Open Source Movement. It is not a perfect fit, but there are some
excellent points. For example his main thesis is that in
companies what is important is the differentiated core, and that for most
companies this ends up being a small fraction of their costs. All the rest
is context. Not only that but what is today's core inevitably becomes context
and is commoditized -- i.e. the profit margin shrinks toward zero. He
gives some good
examples. In pizza, Domino's core is speed; another chain is pizza quality,
and Chuck E. Cheese's core is
animatronics.
Moore suggests traditional businesses out source the commoditized software
to the Open Source folks. This makes sense, but the Open Source people still
see themselves as innovators and this is a bit of a mismatch as one audience
questioner pointed out. I don't think Moore fully answers this point. Yet
there is plenty here to think about, like Maslow's hiearchy of needs
reworked into a 2 x 2 matrix and applied to company cultures (and then
somewhat weakly juxtaposed to Open Source).
by Malcolm Gladwell (2000);
Read by: Malcolm Gladwell
1st Heard: March, 2006
This book was recommended as being relevant by a manager at work,
so I borrowed the audio from the public library. That's a big
a personal story for me as the book, i.e. rediscovering the
library, or rather the library becoming convenient again. This
is mostly a result of being on-line: I can check the availability
of a book of interest and also renew without physically going to
the brick and mortar location. Also being able to drop off at
my local branch things picked up downtown at the main location makes
things handy.
Back to The Tipping Point. The concept is simple, that small
differences can catalyze big changes, but Gladwell lays out three
criteria and backs these up with examples and in some cases sub-categories;
but it's all still simple enough to absorb on the audio book.
The three things? 1) The Law of the Few (Connectors (e.g. Paul
Rever), Mavens and Salesmen); 2) Stickyness (Sesame Street); 3) Context
Matters (No Broken Windows). I still think that recognizing a tipping
point is very difficult and that if you look for them you are likely
to get a lot of false positives, or that you see the storm brewing but
can't identify the dimension, the axis, where things will tip, or possibly
the direction along that axis. But if you can....
by Kent Beck (Nov. 17, 2004);
Speaker: Kent Beck;
1st Heard: Feb. 2005
This is audio available (free) at
ITConversations , recorded at the Developer Testing Forum in
Palo Alto, California. Beck is the father of eXtreme Programming
and furthers one aspect of that methodology here. He talks about
accountability as a "good thing" and how he is more interested in
software health than in software quality, defining quality as an
instantaneous measure and health as a measure taken over time. Well
worth the hour.
by Susan Annunzio (2001, Simon & Schuster);
Read by Susan Annunzio;
1st Heard: Dec. 2003
A book aimed at Baby Boomer managers that want to lead effectively in
the e-Era with Generation X'ers flooding the workplace and Gen Y's
right behind them. These new workers have different expectations
and it is a different corporate landscape than what their parents
lived in. The author identifies these differences and how managers
can shift to deal with them.
One unfortunate sea change for the relevancy of the book is that the
employment picture has changed; right now companies are not quite so
talent starved as they were 3 years ago. Even so, top performers
are hard to keep and very valuable. The author asserts that a
typical workforce can be viewed in a 20-60-20 fashion, that the
bottom 20% will be there and not be worth their paycheck, remove
them as you can. Of course identifying what group a worker belongs
in is not-trivial but the author provides some methods. The 60%
is the "Movable Middle", it is worthwhile to try to change the
culture of these; and the top 20% allow a company to survive and
prosper; they should be cultivated but expected to move on. That is
something I first heard one of my management school professors, Dr.
Donovan, espouse in about 1992. It was sage then and now. This
author though never tags a percentage value to this top 20 percent.
Are they 50% of your productivity? More?
In other areas the book remains dead on. If you want cultural change,
say so in a loud voice -- then follow it up with action or you
will get a "Boy who cried wolf" reaction to your next loud message.
There several other good insights and examples drawn from traditional
businesses trying to become more "agile" to the pros and cons of
the dotcom cultures. Well worth the 2 1/2 hours of car time.
by Christopher Locke (2001, Simon & Schuster);
Read by Christopher Locke;
1st Heard: Sept. 2003
This is pretty much "The Cluetrain Manifesto Continued" (I haven't
gotten all the way through "Cluetrain...", but a big chunk of it).
It's fine, but has only one point to make and hardly needs all
2.5 hours: mass media marketing by big corporations doesn't work
anymore, especially since the Internet; micromarkets are tappable
through the Internet and willing companies can and should do so.
I didn't find the inevitability of this nearly as obvious as the
author did, but there were good tidbits about how vapid corporate
marketing is, and how paranoid their executives are (upon advice
of attorneys, to be sure). Also the indictment of Dualism and the
elevation of artists as reflectors of the world's essence were
high points.
by Michael J. Fox (2010); Read by the author;
Hyperion Books
1st Heard: Summer 2010
This would have been much too long as a college commencement speech, but as
an (audio) book it's almost too short. Fox speaks with a rapid cadence, I
assume an artifact of his Parkinson's Disease, so sometimes I had trouble
catching his nuance -- there's very solid writing here, and wisdom, so
I enjoyed this thoroughly. Good back story of his charmed life,
as in his
Lucky Man, and his humbling by circumstances. This is full of simple
and sage advice, like "Wherever you are, there It is.", and "Sometimes
the sh*t has to hit the fan before you can really tell which way the
wind is blowing." As much optimism and insight for dealing with life's
gut-punches as any sermon I've ever heard.
I recently saw a comment online at the end of a news article about the court contention of the 2008 Minnesota Senate race where the poster asked if we really want someone like Al Fanken in the US Senate. The implication, I took it, was that the US Senate might be above having a comedian in its membership. I ardently disagree. First, you can be a serious person and still be a professional comedian. Check out Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert for current examples. And we already have had plenty of miscreants of other stripes in the august Senate -- crooks, liars and others with sub-societal-par morals. Mr. Franken does his homework; he's insightful and is humanly ethical. He might even be honest; wouldn't that be nice. Anyway, this is a review of his audio book, and even though I spread out listening to the 10 hours over several months, the senate race is still in the court system. His opponent had asked Al to concede before even the automatically triggered recount had completed, but he won't show the courtesy that he asked for now even after initial courts have concluded against him. Hmmphhff. This book is full of well documented incidents like this from a few years back, and much worse. Sure, Franken uses humor to make his points, but he's largely "kidding on the square". Listen to find out exactly what he means by that, and how badly and how often the likes of Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter lie, the lying liars.
by John Feinstein (2003, Time Warner Audio, Abridged);
Read by John Feinstein;
1st Heard: February 2008
This book almost makes you want to watch golf. I enjoy John Feinstein's
take on sports and his style of speaking -- I'm pleased when I catch
his bits on National Public Radio. I'm not a huge golf fan, but this
story of putting on a big tournament on a special course as golf
grew to a huge spectator sport was relevant and entertaining. It was
relevant because I've been a part of an event that had even more
volunteers than the 4300 needed for this USGA Open in 2001, namely
the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. I also run and compete in table tennis
tournaments, so I can appreciate the strategies from both the organizer's
and the participant's points of view. Feinstein does give us a lot
of names, and I mostly couldn't strictly keep track of the characters.
In that regard this isn't as good a golf tale about a magnificent course as
The Greatest Course that Never Was, but it's better
because it is real. So if you are a golf nut, or a sporting event
stakeholder, this is good fun; and with some planning you can be at
Bethpage
for the 2009 Open.
by Barack Obama (2006, RH Audio, Abridged);
Read by Barack Obama;
1st Heard: January 2008
I borrowed this from the library when I decided to go see Obama speak in
Birmingham on a recent Sunday (1/27/2008). I got about half way through
between the drive down and back. In a book an author has time for
reflection to organize and gather his thoughts and to write them out without
interruption. Obama has taken advantage of that here. He provides sound
reasoning and good ideas for leading our country forward, not alone but with
the help of as many people as are willing. He has insights into
the intentions of the writers of our Constitution, including his thought that
they built in only a framework from which to deal with some things that
could not be resolved at the time (such as slavery) or things that they knew
would develop over time (such as science and religion). At his speech in
Birmingham he certainly had prepared remarks, but he also had to adjust
when the crowd reacted more strongly to some points than to others. I was
surprised that the crowd's biggest agreement came when he said that parents
need to shoulder the lion's share of child rearing responsibility. He can
swim in unpredicted currents. In the book he also reveals his, hmmm, not
humanity, that's never in question, but rather his normalcy -- his upwardly
mobile middle class Americanism. He is a real person, with daughters and
a marriage, and ambition. He also has a good voice -- both literally and
figuratively. And, I believe it's obvious, he's got my vote.
by Jewel (2000, Harper Audio, Unabridged Selections);
Read by Jewel;
1st Heard: December 2006
These are pretty much excerpts from Jewel's personal diaries. They give a
nice insight into her upbringing and her connection with Nature and
Alaska and Perfomance. She helps us remember the solitude and our
ability to be a part of the natural world (without having to "go native"
or to "rough it". She comes across as a very real person and her spoken
voice is as pleasant to listen to as her song-voice -- it is the same
elfen-girl-child sound. She does tend to use a poet / narrator voice,
something that I didn't really notice, and probably wouldn't have at all
until Ze Frank mocked the generic poet-reading-his-own-work voice somewhere
in the middle of my listening to Chasing... on his
The Show. But also I recently
saw Jewel as a guest judge on "American Idol", during their Minneapolis
auditions and she seemed a bit pompous and, well, judgemental, which was a
bit disappointing.
by Sandra Day O'Connor and H. Alan Day(2002, Random House Audio, Abridged);
Read by Sandra Day O'Connor;
1st Heard: Fall 2006
This is an account of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice's upbringing; and it is
just that, an account. The facts are interesting; the plain hard work, the
plain life, the simple pleasures. It's the stuff that builds character
and it's as dull as dirt. Everytime she gets a story started it just ends
as matter-of-factly as it began. No twists, no subtle morals -- simple
cowboy ways. It's a fascinating listen, but don't look for entertainment --
this is how you grow someone who can handle being the first woman on the
supreme bench, with aplomb. I hope we don't miss her too much now that she
has retired.
by Dennis Smith(2002, HighBridge Company);
Read by Eric Conger, et al;
1st Heard: Spring 2005
This book is professionally interesting in my current line of work with
the Public Safety business unit at Intergraph; it's also interesting because
I've spent some time in New York City and my brother-in-law is a NYC
firefighter who was there on September 11, 2001. (My wife's brother, John
Drumm, was in the North Tower when the South Tower came down and got
out just before that tower came down, too;
other
firefighters went back in looking for him. I also lost a second cousin,
a stewardess on one of the planes.) Particularly the first tape
of this audio book is interesting because it relates the different
experiences of various "first responders" to this immense incident. It
shows how professionals handle a lack of established command and control and
try to work at an incident before the cause or extent of the problems is
known. It also points up that even the best members of the best fire
department in the world don't understand the dynamics of skyscraper incidents,
they set up their command stations much too close to the damaged buildings
and lost a lot of people; of course being farther away reduces the
effectiveness of the response. Anyway, after these first accounts of the
initial reactions to the attacks the remaining 3 tapes are a bit melodramatic
with the details of the recovery and the huge personal and departmental
losses. It is a big deal, more firefighters died that day than in the
prior history of the NYFD. But there is not a lot of value in hearing about the
sadness, the loss of fathers, sons, brothers, husbands. The final five
minutes is worth hearing, it's a recap of phrases the author heard
at Ground Zero among the
firefighters on a day several weeks after the attack, their directions to
each other to remove several uncovered bodies of firefighters.
by Anthony Swofford (2003, AudioWorx (Simon & Schuster));
Read by Anthony Swofford;
1st Heard: Spring 2005
This audio book is immersive, it benefits from the softspoken first
person of the author reading his own work. You can almost hear the
hint of Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome in his voice, or at least the
heavy impact of indoctrination and war, however "minor" the first
Gulf War may have been.
We hear how the Marine Corps shapes our
young men and lets them achieve at levels they never could elsewhere,
but of course at some cost. The author abandoned Catholicism in the
Marines, but not spirituality. Quoting now: '...the Corps, the Suck,
as they called it, "because it sucks to be in it and it sucks the life
out of you." ... I realized the grunt holds Spiritual High Ground
because he creates it; through constant bitching and inebriation he
creates his own Grunt Island, and the poor sad, angry grunt on the
outside is actually a happy and contented grunt on the inside, because
he has been heard, someone understands his misery: through profanity
and disgrace he has communicated the truth of his being--an awful life
punctuated by short bursts of mostly meaningless action, involving
situations where he might die horribly or watch his friends die
horribly. The very real possibility of dying at any moment-- that
is the grunt's magic, his Spiritual High Ground.'
The subtle repetition in the author's prose really works well as a
spoken word tale, as exampled above by "it sucks", "die horribly" and
"grunt", "grunt", "grunt". It's rhythmic and tough to turn off.
Of course this is the new Marine Corps -- they swear a lot and
discuss all manner of unpleasant things, not casually but frequently
and intently. The "F" word is used rampantly; my father, a career
Marine, says they didn't used to use the king seven dirty words, that
they could tear you apart without them. There is some of that here,
some old school, creative cussing, but much of it is raw and
unimaginative, yet it is intense and it feels very real; like Swofford has
captured the atmosphere of being a jarhead. Being a jarhead
is complex, both hateful
and embracing; demanding and boring. This audio book is a vividly understated
masterpiece. Enjoy.
by Dennis Smith(1972, HighBridge Company);
Read by Lloyd James;
1st Heard: Fall 2004
I took an interest in this book because of my new job at Intergraph
Public Safety, and because my brother-in-law, John, is a firefighter
in New York City. I was in the firehouse one day with John and my family,
getting the tour, when the alarm went off. We essentially froze, hoping to
not get trampled and not get in anyone's way. The truck, with my
brother-in-law on it now in full gear, was gone in under a minute. I
remain impressed.
John was at the World Trade Center on September
11, 2001. He was inside one of the towers as it began to collapse; he escaped
with dust in his lungs and some very vivid memories. This author also wrote "Report from Ground
Zero", which I own but have yet to listen to; I'm looking forward to
it, but I'm not.
In this much earlier book we get a first hand account from the
busiest firehouse in
the country at a time when the Bronx was at its worst. It's a tough,
grimy job but obviously with some satisfaction even on these ungrateful
streets. We hear about the importance of speed: "The biggest factor in
fighting fire is time." And we learn that the quickest way to put out a fire
is to attack it; this is why firemen go inside burning buildings, into the
rooms where the most heat is -- it's the best way to stop the fire from
claiming more property and more people, but it's of course more dangerous
than hosing the walls down from the sidewalk.
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2000, Simon and Schuster Audioworks);
Read by Carl Lumbly;
1st Heard: May 2004
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has always been the biggest basketball star to me.
It's not that I think he is the best all time player but when I first became
aware of basketball leagues, he was at the top of his game. He was the
biggest person who could really play, with a great sky hook and no one
was really sure how tall he was, at least 7'2" and some said as high as
7'5", even without measuring the afro. I got to see him play once as a
Millaukee Buc against the 76'ers in the Spectrum in the early 70's. And
then I enjoyed him on screen in Airplane!. Now here he is,
using his fame, fortune and basketball knowledge to enrich his own
life and that of a bunch of Native American kids trying to find their
place in a modern world that they haven't caught up to, and they aren't
sure they want to. My respect for the tall now-bald man grew some
more. This is what having fame and enough money should be used for, I
envy him. That said he is not the most talented writer, the basketball
drama was a long ways from what we've become accustomed to in The
Mighty Ducks or even Hoosiers. It was sometimes chronologically
confusing and a bit repetetive as well. Nonetheless there is an
insight into the lives of these culturally misfit people and a connection
to their new coach that is worth immersing in.
by Vincent Bugliosi (1998, NewStar Publishing);
Read by Joseph Campanella;
1st Heard: Jan. 2004
A disturbingly rational didaction on the lack of rationality by the U.S.
Supreme Court in its decision to allow the case of Paula Jones v. Bill
Clinton to proceed while Clinton was in office. The reasons and precedents
against are monumental. On the other hand Clinton's strategists pursued
along flawed paths and the irrational exuberance of public opinion seems
to have impinged on what should be an "Island of Sanity" in these
turbulent days.
Joseph Campanella's voice, as ever, is very pleasant to sit through.
by Al and Tipper Gore (2002, Audio Renaissance);
Read by Al and Tipper Gore;
1st Heard: Fall 2003
There are good insights, good statistics and good definitions presented
in this book that both reinforce traditional notions of the American
family and that redefine a family's potential constitution -- a single
mother with 2 kids, that's a family; divorced parents and their kids and
step kids and new spouses, that's a family or two; two gay men and two
adopted kids, that's a family.
The authors swap reading duty back and forth, which is a good thing since
Tipper is a bit whiny and trite sounding and Al's utter lack of
charisma saddled us with George W. and his cronies for 4 years.
Neither one would be
good to have to listen to for 6 hours. Even so the material is quite
repetitious and there's a serious temptation to hit the fast forward button
at times. But if you do you might miss some of the hidden nuggets like
the jab at the conservative "Family Values" crowd who are rightly
criticized for bad mouthing both single mothers who stay home with their kids
and collect welfare and middle class mothers who put their kids in day
care in order to continue to pursue a career.
by Regis Philbin with Bill Zehme (1995, Simon & Schuster);
Read by Regis Philbin;
1st Heard: Sept. 2003
This book is a few years old now so there's a lot of stuff about Kathy
Lee that may not be relevant to current Regis fans. Also it starts out
a bit flat, like he's not real comfortable with a print medium (even
though this is actually an audio version). Some stories
that are meant to be funny are told in
a very matter-of-fact manner that delivers them with an awkward
thud rather than a chuckle. But Mr. Philbin seems to loosen up as
the book goes along and his sub-superstar celebrity
shines through and his down-to-earth personality and good sense
are exposed. He gets a lot out of life and gives back in what
seems to be very genuine ways.
by John Feinstein (1999, Time Warner); Read by John Feinstein;
1st Heard: May 2003
I'd heard John Feinstein's telephone conversations with Bob Edwards
about sports on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition"
for years and always enjoyed his voice even if I
didn't always agree with his commentary. There is less opinion in
this tape and more facts and insights about the 1998 major
golf tournaments. I'm
not a golfer, but I bought my first set of clubs somewhere in the middle
of side 3. The author provides numerous insights into the traditions
and nuances of golf, like how they measure a green's speed: by
"stimping" it. Well worth the listen for any sports fan or golf
widow. The NPR telephone conversation always ends the same way:
"Good-bye, Bob."
by God (1997, Dove Audio); Read by Stephanie Beacham, Roger Rees and
John Rubinstein;
1st Heard: Fall 2002
First I'm not presuming to review The Bible, just the listenability
of this version. It was low. The readers spend way too much time
with the foreign sounding many-syllabled names. This reading is
from the King James version -- it needs to be abridged for the modern
listener. The only one of these stories that I found accessible was
Esther, which is a pretty cool story. I don't get Job and I'm not
sure why anyone much cares about Ezra and Nehemiah other than in a
historical context. (I did so want to put "read by the author", but
these guys don't even sound like Charlton Heston.)
by Ice-T (1994, The Publishing Mills); Read by the author;
1st Heard: December 2002
Hard, raw and unapologetic musings by a man obviously much smarter
than his birthrights. Ice-T was a criminal in some of the worst
environments ever survived in the US of A, "The Hood" of Los Angeles.
He's also mellow, thoughtful and insightful; and worth listening to.
He went from street thug to rapper to movie and TV star without
selling out and without giving in. Good for him, good for us.
by Frank McCourt (1997, Simon & Schuster); Read by the author;
1st Heard: October 2002
This is a wonderfully stark first person account of an impoverished
but enlightened childhood. For those of us with some Irish
ancestry it rattles in our bones. I haven't read the paper
book, but with the author's intonations and his feigning of
his father's singing the old Irish songs this is a powerful
listen, well worth the time, even if you have read it.
by Vanna White (1987); Read by the author;
1st Heard: Summer 2002
This is just as vapid and awful as you might anticipate. Vanna seems
to have as little personality and as few interesting insights as I
had imagined. Her genuine-ness would be an asset if it weren't so
painful. She's a nice, reliable person but on an audio tape that
is B_R_NG.
by Michael J. Fox (2002); Read by the author;
1st Heard: June 2002
Michael J. Fox gives a very genuine accounting of his life and times and
the impact that Parkinson's disease has had on him. It probably saved him
from self-destructing through addiction to celebrity and the privileges
that it brought. Unfortunately P.D. brings about its own kind of slow
destruction. Fox is a natural writer and I enjoy his voice, although
I do think you can hear the effects of his illness seeping through. This
is a very easy listen, and an inspiration without being all melodramatic.
by Dennis Miller (1996, 1998, 2001, Harper Audio); Read by the author;
1st Heard: Fall 2000, Feb. 2002
Dennis Miller's use of the language is eloquent, astounding and insightful
despite a predominant use of the "F" word. It's also cool that he is from
Pittsburgh. Quotes such as "Remember: in it's time and place, what Hitler
said was politically correct," leave you thinking even after you've stopped
laughing. I actually liked "Ranting Again" a bit better than "Rants" but that
may just be because I heard it first.
I also enjoyed "The Rant Zone", this one includes stuff after his stint on
Monday Night Football. It's worth a listen but less rapier sharp than the
first two reviewed.
by David Sedaris (1997); Read by the author and his
sister, Amy; 1st Heard: Fall 2000
A collection of memoirs from this insightful humorist. His stuff is great
so long as you've got a stomach for reality.
by Hank Aaron, Lonnie Wheeler (1990); Read by the author and Courtney Vance;
1st Heard: 5/2001
I was a kid when Hank Aaron broke the Home Run record -- and I grew up thinking
that's what he was about, like an early George Foster. The audio book, with
a Foreword and Afterword read by Henry Aaron himself, really brings the player
and the man to you. He was an all-around player, at least once he found a
defensive position where he had major-league talent.
His offense was outstanding, setting many more records than just Most Home
Runs and reaching many milestones. He also is a man of conscience and
character that pushed through a number of color barriers without the
flamboyance of some of today's leaders.
The narrative, read by Courtney Vance, shifts without warning between 1st and
3rd persons. I found this interesting and it helped hold my attention. If
you enjoy baseball entertainment like the movie "Bull Durham", this is for
you.
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