Lovesick Blues, by Paul Hemphill

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 7 hours and 22 minutes long and was narrated by Jonathan Hogan.

This was an amazing story of Hank Williams, a sick, flawed man from nowhere who was probably the greatest country music singer and songwriter of all time. He was born with a form of Spinabifida that made his life miserable all of his days. It was probably a contributing factor to his early alcoholism.

As a teenager, he was the "Singing Kid" on a local radio station in rural Alabama. He had learned the art of being an entertainer from a black street musician named Rufus Payne. His rise to stardom had many fits and starts as he kept sabotaging his career by being so unreliable due to his alcoholism. This dogged him throughout his career, which ended ironically with his failure to get to a performance because he died in the car on the way there.

I knew next to nothing about Hank Williams when I downloaded this audiobook. But I was so fascinated that I am bent on buying some of his music. This is a wonderful and terrible story about a man with genius for creating hit songs and little else. His death is all the more tragic because it came at the age of 29. This is a 4 star car wreck you just can't stopping staring at.

East to the Dawn, by Susan Butler

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio for free through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 18 hours and 43 minutes long, and was narrated by Anna Fields.

This is the story that goes beyond the legend, and beyond the comfort zone of many who may have admired her. She was a brave and daring aviator, an outspoken feminist, and a bit of a head case.

Back in the early days of aviation, there was very little regulation and it was one of the places where women had the most freedom. Amelia Earhart learned to fly from another woman pioneer, Neta Snook. Amelia had learned about mechanics from her days as an ambulance driver during WWI, when you also had to know how to fix your vehicle. And it's a good thing, because early airplanes needed to be fixed often.

Flying was just a hobby for her for several years. She was earning her living as a social worker. Other women were looking to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic after Charles Lindbergh had become an international celebrity for doing so. American socialite named Amy Guest, who was also a pilot, had wanted to do it, but her family made her back off. She still wanted the project to go on, so she offered to back someone else that she would recruit who would have the right image and do women proud.

Amelia Earhart got the call from a promoter who had heard of her, and asked if she wanted to fly across the Atlantic. Amelia jumped at it, and it made her fortune. She used it as a springboard for a speaking and publishing career.

Amelia eventually married her publisher, who had been married when they first began working together. She didn't want to be tied to one man, however, and actually requested that theirs would be an open marriage.

This book chronicles Amelia's life from early childhood to her disappearance over the Pacific in 1937. Very little is left unexplored, and it done in a sympathetic manner. It's hard to put down, and full of interesting information. That's what makes it a four star book for me.

No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com through the Alachua County Library. It was 7 hours and 28 minutes long and was narrated by Tom Stechshulte.

This book takes place in the 80s. Llewelyn Moss is a 36 year-old Viet-Nam War veteran who is out hunting along the Tex-Mex border. He happens upon a bullet-riddled car with a dying man, along with a stash of heroin and a lot of cash. Someone is coming for this soon, and Moss decides to take the cash and run.

Now there is a very bad man hunting for the money and the man who took it. This sets Moss on the run and his wife to hide with relatives. But it's no good. There is a trail that has been left unwittingly. It is either kill or be killed.

Most of this book is fast-moving and riveting. Unfortunately, the wheels come off at the end and the ending is most unsatisfactory. I hear the movie is just like it. It's only 2 stars.

The Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 10 hours and 47 minutes long, and was narrated by Phil Gigante.

This is the 7th novel by Silva to feature Gabriel Allon, an Israeli intelligence agent who wishes the world were a safer place so he can go back to work as an art restorer. But, once Allon is on the job, he is totally there, and it's bad guys beware.

In this novel, Allon is sent on a humdrum assignment to purge the papers of an Israeli intelligence asset after he is murdered by an Islamic nut job. While he is there, he finds that he is being shadowed by a man who turns out to be a former terrorist asset who is disillusioned and wants to make sure his name is not in any of the documents either. Through this chance encounter, Allon begins to unravel a plot to kidnap the daughter of the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James in London. He is almost in time to stop it, but not quite.

Working with the CIA and MI5, Allon is now trying to rescue the woman, and his chance encounter with the former terrorist is indeed fortuitous: one of the kidnappers is his son.

If you are one of those people who is deeply ambivalent about offending radical Muslims or putting the squeeze on suspected terrorists, you will not like this. This is the kind of book Jack Bauer reads on vacation. And that is not the only reason I give it 4 stars. The writing is top notch for the genre and it is very thought provoking.

Boom, by Tom Brokaw

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was narrated by Robertson Dean and was 18 hours and 16 minutes long.

I was quite taken with Tom Brokaw's last best seller, "The Greatest Generation". This book is about the baby boomer generation and it's journey through the 60s. Of course, the 60s is defined not by the numerical dates, but by the events that were a part of the 60s narrative. So, it begins with the assassination of JFK and ends with the resignation of Richard Nixon. It is also about people who were pretty much adults at the time. I was only 9 years old during the 1968 Summer of Love, so my own memories of that tumultuous year are undiluted by hormones or hallucinogens. Memories like mine are not represented here.

This is very much a reporter's collection of interviews, which means his subjects do most of the editorializing. And although Tom Brokaw weighs in with his opinions, you also get the recollections and reconsiderations of Gloria Steinem, Arlo Guthrie, Hillary Clinton, Karl Rove, James Taylor, Pat Buchanan, Carla Hills, Tom Hayden, and a lot of people you may have never heard of, but who played a role in the Viet Nam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, or did a lot of dope.

Whether you miss the 60s or wish they had never happened, there is something here for you. Some of its most famous participants have their criticisms and regrets on both sides of every question. So there really are no definitive answers here, which is appropriate for a book about the generation that made moral relativism and ambivalence our national mood.

It's 4 star entertainment.

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

This audiobook was obtained free of charge from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 3 hours and 58 minutes long. And although the file said it was narrated by Frederick Davidson, it is actually narrated by David Case.

This novella was originally released in 1902. It's the tale of a young sea captain who is assigned to a ship on a river in deepest Africa. He has just replaced another man who took his own life.

The young captain encounters many dangers while seeking an English-born local demigod who has all but cornered the local ivory trade. He rules his realm with absolute authority and, like every white man in the area, relies on the fears and superstitions of the natives to both rule and survive. The boat's shrill whistle does more to repel armed attack than a fusillade of rifles.

When our hero finds the "great man", he is close to death from cancer, and he never stops trying to stay in power up until the end. He dies in terrible fear, and the sea captain has to deliver the man's memoirs to his widow in England. Although he did not like or admire the man, he likewise helps to embellish the story of how great he was and how his last words were his beloved's name, instead of the actual, "The horror!"

This literary classic is seen by many as a depiction of the evil of mankind and how it hides beneath a thin veneer of civilization. No argument here. But it is also an entertaining piece of writing which recalls other stories of civilized English gentlemen being confronted with the alien strangeness of the jungle and less civilized people. I cannot give it less than 4 stars.

The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com, through the Alachua County Library. It was 13 hours and 2 minutes long, and was narrated by Will Patton.

This is my second post-Katrina New Orleans crime novel in the past two weeks. In this story, four young black looters are using a stolen motorboat to get to the abandoned homes of the wealthy, and run into a bit of bad luck. And that's to put it mildly. First, they score a big load of cash, cocaine, and a hand gun from a home that is owned by one of New Orleans' most feared and vindictive crime boss. Second, they decide to steal a gas can from a garage so they can refuel their boat. The garage happens to belong to a man whose daughter was raped by two of the men. A shot rings out in the dark, and one is killed and another paralyzed.

New Iberia Sheriff's Department Detective Dave Robicheaux is mobilized to help in New Orleans, and he is tasked with investigating this crime in a sea of wrongdoing. The crime boss, Sidney Kovick, is also mobilizing his people to find the people who sacked his house and urinated in the spice drawer.

This is one of the better Dave Robicheaux novels in a long time. I had thought it might be time to retire Dave, but I was wrong. I get a little weary of his frequent political asides, but Dave is a flawed man, so one more is not so noticeable if you let yourself get absorbed by the story. And this one is easy to fall into. This one gets 4 stars.

House of Thunder, by Dean Koontz

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library, It was 9 hours and 57 minutes long, and was narrated by Laurel Merlington, and an uncredited male narrator.

Susan Thornton is a 32 year-old physicist who works for the Milestone Corporation. She suffered a head injury during a serious auto accident, and now all she can remember is the murder of her boyfriend during a college fraternity hazing. And this is relevant because the four sadists who killed the boy are either patients or are working at the hospital where she is recovering; even though they all have been dead for years.

The four miscreants are now bent on exacting their revenge. And Susan cannot get anyone to believe that the four young men who are all still the same age as they were 13 years ago are out to get her. Is she losing her mind? Is it a vast conspiracy? Well, this is a Dean Koontz novel, so it has to be the latter. This novel was originally published under a pen name, Leigh Nichols, back in 1981. And that's the only clue I will give you.

A fairly engaging thriller with gripping fear, violence, and a bit of romance; this is not Dean Koontz at his best. But it is a good writer at home in this genre, so I give it 3 stars.

Last Known Victim. by Erica Spindler

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 11 hours and 51 minutes long, and was narrated by Susan Ericksen.

I thought I was discovering a new author, but as I was searching for the cover art, I discovered that she has 12 titles in print, and that there are 8 books that are no longer in print. It goes to show you that you can develop a fan base while much of your market still does not know you exist.

This book is about Patti O'Shay, a police captain in New Orleans, who lost her husband, another police officer, during the upheaval of Hurricane Katrina. There is some evidence linking his death to an at-large serial killer the press has labeled "The Handyman" because he collects his female victims' hands. Suck a collection is discovered when a stinking refrigerator is found, after Katrina, with some decomposing trophies.

The Handyman has survived, however. And he is stalking an exotic dancer who distrusts the police so much that she tells them enough lies to screw up the investigation, and to make herself a possible suspect.

At times, it seemed like this book was just too busy. The love lives of the characters were not interesting enough to rate the distraction it created. However, the characters are well written and complex enough to be believable. It's a 3 star book.