Monday, July 30, 2007

Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, From Cocaine to Foie Gras by Jeff Henderson

This audiobook came free from Netlibrary.com, was 8 hours and 3 minutes long, and was read by the author.

This was a pretty entertaining book that chronicles the life of a young black man's career track from petty criminal to crack merchant to prison pot scrubber to high class chef in Las Vegas. It's also a disturbing look at some of the warts of African-American culture. I don't think Jeff Henderson was trying to portray the black church as one with a willful blindness toward its drug kingpins, or if he knows that there is an uneasy truce between vice and virtue that is bought with the money that comes to the offering plates. I suppose I am bringing this up because of my own sensitivity to the incongruities in many white churches. There are a lot of things to be embarrassed about, unless you are willing to do the noble thing and confront them.

What Henderson nails down in this story is that redemption is not just about being given a pass the next time around. It is about doing the work, paying the price, and overcoming the same obstacles everyone faces, black or white or Latino, to be a top chef and commanding top dollar. Management skills are as important as your sauces, and he learned his the hard way. He was not an overnight success.

This gets 4 stars.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Long Ball : The Summer of '75 -- Spaceman, Catfish, Charlie Hustle, and the Greatest World Series Ever Played, by Tom Adelman

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com, was 12 hours and 54 minutes long (including the author interview), and was narrated by Richard M. Davidson.

Even if you lived and followed baseball during this time, and I did, there are a lot of details and back story that you miss. Tom Adelman's research and reporting give you all the dirt on the season of 75, and the grusome details of the collision course between the Big Red Machine and the almost-there Red Sox.

Adelman weaves together all the snippets of conversation he has dug up to re-create the real time drama of the 1975 world series. And his analysis of the league politics and how the team owners finally lost their hold on individual players is clear to the average fan. It's quite understandable to me now how player salaries have spiraled up and up. It is that same old lesson from other unions: Bad owners abuse players; players organize and win their rights; players abuse their rights; ticket prices rise higher and higher, punishing the poorest fans.

This dramatic and insightful book makes you want to see every season picked apart like this one. It was a fan's dream and worth all 4 stars.

Monday, July 16, 2007

The Pleasing Hour, by Lily King

This audio book was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com. It was 8 hours and 54 minutes long, and was narrated by Suzanne Toren.

This was a pretty slow moving story of an American au pair who lands a job with a family that lives on a house boat. The mother, Nicole, is stern and aloof with her American helper, who eventually nurses a crush on the husband, Marc. The feeling is mutual, but nothing comes of it.

This book was a sort of character study for its own sake. I found myself checking to see how much time it had left several times. Well written, but forgettable. I give it 2 stars.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Blue Hour, by T. Jefferson Parker

This book came from the Alachua County Library and took up 9 compact discs.

I have liked most of Parker's other books, which is why I picked up this one. Unfortunately, I really didn't like it.

Maybe I am sick of serial killers. Maybe it's hard to keep this genre fresh. Or maybe the characters just never got any traction with me.

For starters, there is Tim Hess, a cop who has come out of retirement, even though he is taking chemotherapy. He is teamed up with an ambitious, hard case hottie named Meci Rayborn, who is half his age. Can you see it coming?

A series of gruesome murders are taking place, except there are no bodies. The killer drains them, embalms them, and saves them somewhere, leaving their purses behind. One of their suspects is Romanian born Matamoros Colesceau, who has undergone chemical castration. He is due to be released, and his chemicals withdrawn. The whole neighborhood now knows who he is, and he is under siege by cameras and angry neighbors who are counting the days until he is relocated.

Tim is just not engaging enough. Merci is just annoying.
Colesceau is simply pathetic. I was glad to take frequent breaks from this book. That's why it gets 1 star.

The Rookie, by Scott Sigler

This audiobook came from Scott Sigler's Podshow Page, was 26 episodes long, and includes a lot of author's extras.

I have been hesitant about reviewing these audiobooks because they are not just audiobooks. Each episode is a show, with some chatter from Scott, and promos of other podcasts. However, I just got done listening to another dog of a book that was published the conventional way, and realized that some of these books were much better.

"The Rookie" is set hundreds of years in the future, when the known Universe has been conquered by an alien race. In a new twist, human beings are not the only planetary race that has been subjugated. Several other alien races are now part of a greater empire, and that master race has found a pacifying replacement for war: American style football.

Scott Sigler has created a universe in which all the alien races have something to bring to the field. Some make great linemen, some receivers, but the Ionath Krakens have a great rookie quarterback named Quentin Barnes.

Barnes grew up in the quarries, an orphan in a slave labor camp, where they only had really big stones to use as the ball. He is recruited by a scout for the Krakens, a team that is owned by an alien organized crime boss. This is Quentin's ticket off the rock pile. But it's a dangerous game in this new universal order. It is not all that unusual for players to be killed in the game.

Sigler has given us alien creatures with flaws and foibles as well as loyalty and honor. Religion, politics, crime and prejudice have not been bleached out of the story; overwhelming us with technology. I am NOT a fan of science fiction, but this was an episode I waited eagerly for every week.

Books that can do that get 4 stars.