Audiobook Maven

Guardian of Lies, by Steve Martini

2009-12-18T06:06:00.003-05:00

This audio book was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 14 hours and 13 minutes long and was narrated by George Guidall.

This is 10th in a series of novels about Criminal Defense attorney Paul Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds. The early novels were really good, but they fell off a bit in quality for awhile. So it was an act of hope that I downloaded this one and I am very glad I did.

This begins as a murder case and ends up as international espionage as Paul Madriani's client turns out to have ties to an old Russian nuke that is being recommissioned by Jihadists for a terrorist attack on America. This is only plausible in a world in which we are all connected by networks, but we do live in a world where we are all connected by networks. It's well-told, and the characters are believable and we have been set up for a sequel. I will get it. I give this one 4 stars.

The Defector, by Daniel Silva

2009-12-18T05:53:00.002-05:00

This audio book was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 10 hours and 58 minutes long and was narrated by Phil Gigante.

The most recent of the Gabriel Allon series. Gabriel is an Israeli secret agent and assassin who restores old master paintings as part of his cover. He is in the middle of a piece commissioned by the Vatican when his pleasant life is interrupted by the call to duty because a Russian defector has been kidnapped in America. This defector is believed to be a re-defector, and that he has been acting as a double agent, and is just going back home. Gabriel knows better, because the man is a friend who saved his life in the last book.

Although Daniel Silva's stories are well-written, Gabriel is the weak point. He just isn't a very engaging character. Some of his co-stars are more interesting and human, but Gabriel never becomes more than a really competent covert agent that no one wants to cross. Over all, it was a 3 star book.

The Accidental Billionaires, by Ben Mezrich

2009-12-03T21:04:00.003-05:00

This audio book was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 7 hours and 19 minutes long and was read by Mike Chamberlain.

Think of it as the long-awaited "Facebook Story". Ben Mezrich, the author of the fabulous "Bringing Down the House," has done an exhaustive job of researching Facebook's genesis, and has created a work that is enough of a dramatization to make it almost a novel. To be sure, Mark Zuckerberg, the youthful founder of Facebook, did NOT sign off on this. And I cannot say I am surprised.

The story begins with Zuckerberg, and his friend, Eduardo Saverin, trying to meet girls at Harvard, where they are both undergrads. Mark gets an idea to create a website that archives photos of all the girls at Harvard and pairs random pictures for users of the site to choose which is hotter. While the site is in it's experimental phase, some of his computer science friends pass the site around and it goes viral in a short time and nearly gets him kicked out of school for hacking school databases and stealing the picture files that he used. His notoriety alerts some other students who were working on a social networking site of their own, and they approach him to help with it. He agrees, but then leaves them high and dry to create his own site, which goes on to become Facebook.

This is morality tale about friendship and how money changes everything. You will find yourself taking sides in this book, and perhaps even changing sides by the end of it. The Facebook relationship status "It's Complicated" is a fitting description of what happened between Mark and Eduardo. I think Mark was a lousy friend, and Eduardo was a lousy business partner. It's your call to decide which you think is worse.

The reader sounded so much like my favorite, Scott Brick, that it bumped this fun, interesting story into 4 star territory.

Superfreakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner

2009-12-03T20:39:00.002-05:00

This audiobook was obtained (as usual) from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Library. It was read by one of the authors, Stephen J. Dubner, and was 7 hours and 28 minutes long.

Economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner have struck again with another provocative look at incentives in the human marketplace. People either love or hate these books, or maybe just parts of them. Either way, Superfreakonomics is thought provoking and informative, even if you have problems with some of the information.

Perhaps the most controversial part, and a timely controversy it is, is the last chapter. It is about alternative solutions to Global Warming. The ideas presented are intriguing and liable to cause some heated arguments, but I consider that a good thing.

As a bonus, I would like to make this mp3 download available. Click here. It's an interview with Stephen Dubner, conducted by Michael Medved.

This is a fun read, and will fly by as it is quite entertaining. I give it 4 stars.

Cheap, by Ellen Ruppell Shell

2009-11-30T20:40:00.004-05:00

This audiobook was obtained form Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 11 hours and 33 minutes long, and was narrated by Lorna Raver.

It is very fashionable to beat up on capitalism at this time. This book makes sure that LOW prices also get their day in the stocks. The best part of this book is the history of discounting that is therein. The worst are the central planning solutions alluded to by the author.

As a self-employed person who has had his own business for almost 30 years, I found Ms. Shell's ivory tower cluelessness grating. Her bleeding heart sorrow for the plight of low wage workers could have been mitigated by the revelation that local governments have raised the barrier of entry to small business startups through zoning regulations that would have prevented New York's garment trade from ever getting off the ground. Only the rich can go into many businesses precisely because of top down planning. Save your time. One star for its overbearing politics.

A colossal Failure of Common Sense, by Lawrence G. McDonald

2009-11-26T07:08:00.003-05:00

This audio book was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It is subtitled, "The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers". It was 16 hours and 38 minutes long, and was narrated by Erik Davies.

If you want to be better informed about last year's economic collapse, this is a good place to start. Lawrence MacDonald tells his story of how he became a Wall Street trader, about his successes at Lehman Brothers, and about the people who worked there.

If you just want to know who to blame, there is plenty of it to go around. During the Clinton Administration the seeds of this collapse were sown by ideologues on the left who pushed the mortgage industry to give loans to poor people, and free marketeers on the right, who repealed the Glass-Steagal Act that allowed these bad mortgages to tie up money throughout the economy.

As a story, this is suspenseful and well-told. There are heroes, villains, and bystanders with feet of clay. And I have to admit that I think the author is one of the latter. I know that traders are not supposed to create panics because it is a form of market manipulation. But their inside knowledge of the disaster to come should have been at least leaked to the press, especially the sale of sub-prime loans to people who were encouraged to lie about their incomes.

This was a 4 star page turner.

The Spire, by Richard North Patterson

2009-11-21T05:06:00.003-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library web site. It was 11 hours and 3 minutes long, and was narrated by Holter Graham.

Mark Darrow was a star quarterback at his high school, but going nowhere, when he is offered a scholarship by the Provost at a local college that probably plays at division 3. It's a great opportunity for this orphan who lives with the family of his best friend, Steve Tillman. Mark accepts on the grounds that a place can be found for his Steve, and the Provost, ex-military Lionel Farr.

At the end of Mark's time at Caldwell College, he stumbles across the body of a young black woman, a student he knew fairly well, who was strangled at left at the foot of The Spire, a major landmark at the college. He is quickly cleared, but his friend, Steve, was the last person seen with her. He is arrested, tried and convicted.

Sixteen years later, Mark is a very successful attorney, and very recently widowed. The Provost calls him to come back and be the college President after the past President was investigated for embezzlement. Mark agrees, but he quickly finds himself at odds with a board that has its mind made up about how to pursue the investigation. And he just cannot let go of the unlikely conviction of Steve Tillman for murder.

Although it's hard to get past a 38 year old college President, the character is superbly written. And although figuring out the villain was not overly challenging, it was still a good story apart from that. I give it 3 stars.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

2009-11-15T06:30:00.004-05:00

This unabridged audiobook was obtained from the Alachua County Public Library website, was 63 hours long, and narrated by Scott Brick.

The only book I ever read by Ayn Rand was Anthem. That was in High School, and I disliked it so much, that the last thing I ever wanted to do was read a 1300 page novel by this woman. Thanks to the advent of the downloadable audiobook, and fast Internet connections, I finally decided to take on this behemoth.

As a novel, it's quite engaging. The characters do not leave you without some sort of emotional reaction, even though that reaction ranges from low grade annoyance to a desire to be a part of their firing squad. The story has enough action to keep you moving to the next long-winded diatribe, and even those serve the purpose of helping you distill the whole into your own personal outrage. There is even a romantic element. Dagny Taggart, railroad tycoon and serial femme fatale, finds a love of her life for different stages of it: Francisco D'Anconia when she is young and idealistic, Hank Riordan when she is successful but frustrated with a world that despises achievment, and John Galt when she is ready to do something about it.

As a philosophical vehicle, it is a bit pretentious in that it tries to present itself as a closed system in which all its questions are answered. In the entire story of a dystopian society dying a slow death by central planning, in which its paralyzing worldview of passing no judgment has created an aimless leadership over mindless drones, there is not a single religious character. In a 63 hour storyy, was there not time? Although churches and preachers are eluded to, they are irrelevant to the story; that is, until John Galt's 3 hour speech. This Magnum Opus of Ayn Rand's belief's lays all the world's problems on the doorstep of people of faith.

For an atheist, Ayn Rand seems to have a difficult time coming up with a good religious straw man. If anything, the dim-witted, equivocating, pontificating leadership of her Declining America is suspiciously Liberal in the mold of our current band of politically correct leaders. Even the scientists, foreshadowing our own Global Warming movement, are political toadies pulling the levers of Washington to elevate their esteem in the world.

I found much to disagree with, but much more to like. It is a challenging book that will test your beliefs and work your mind. And it could change a world if enough minds were willing to do the work. It's much easier to believe in God.

I give it four stars.

Guilty, by Ann Coulter

2009-10-25T16:08:00.003-04:00

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library and was 10 hours and 27 minutes long. It was narrated by Barbra Streisand...JUST KIDDING!!! It was narrated by Margy Moore, an actress who obviously doesn't mind being blacklisted by Hollywood forever.

There isn't much middle ground where Ann Coulter is concerned. You either think she is an evil harpy who is a continual fountain of hate speech, or you see her a warrior princess on a mission to execute judgment upon egomaniacs in the media and the Democratic Party.

This book is about the victimology of political liberals and their willing accomplices in the press and popular culture. She builds a pretty solid case that there is a liberal media hegemony that has controlled most of the information we get about political and social issues. And now they are outraged as the Internet and cable TV and talk radio have created outlets for those voices who dare to disagree with them. Using many examples and quotes from those she mercilessly excoriates, Coulter examines the hypocrisy of a political establishment that attacks conservatives relentlessly for doing the very same things they themselves have perfected.

In my case, she is preaching to the choir, which is why I gave it 4 stars.

The Hunted, by Brian Haig

2009-10-25T15:43:00.005-04:00

This audiobook was 18 hours and 13 minutes long, and was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was narrated by Scott Brick.

A better than average story with below average heroes and above average villains, this novel about a young Russian billionaire has enough bright spots to keep you engaged, but could have been a lot shorter.

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, capitalism is beginning to get a foothold, and young Alex Konevitch has made a fortune in arbitrage and banking. He has used his substantial fortune to back Boris Yeltsin, thus helping the fall of communism in a big way. Angry, vindictive KGB officers want to know who has been helping Yeltsin, and when they discover what Alex has done, they begin to use their connections and ruthlessness to ruin him.

After being kidnapped, tortured, and forced to sign over his holdings to a former KGB general, Alex and his wife, Elena, escape and spend months being hunted from Europe to the US, and then persecuted by the FBI, whose politically opportunistic director wants to trade them to Russia for a favorable working relationship.

There is a line between the plausible and the laughable, and this story crossed it just enough times to make it a disappointment. Still, some of it is really good, so that salvages 2 and 1/2 stars for it.

The Anglo Files, by Sarah Lyall

2009-10-24T07:28:00.003-04:00

This audio book was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 9 hours and 53 minutes long, and was narrated by Cassandra Campbell.

Subtitled "A Field Guide to the British", this could have been a lot funnier, but it is instead a very thoughtful, revealing, and even alarming look at Her Majesty's subjects. Ms. Lyall is American-born, but married to one of the natives. She uses her inside knowledge and an overview of recent British history to explain the self-deprecating humor and low expectations of those who are descendants of a world empire. For instance, the devastating effects of WW2 left a lot of wartime rationing in effect for a decade after peace finally came. There was no "Peace Dividend" for the British, who did not really join post-war prosperity until late in the Thatcher government.

She manages to shed some light on the inscrutability of cricket without helping us to understand it, and reveals a nation's rampant alcoholism that is famous all over Europe as Brits go on drinking tours of Eastern Europe. This book has many light moments, but I found it mostly sad. I didn't want to live there, and was less inclined to visit it, although I may watch BBC programming in a new light. I give it 2 and 1/2 stars.

America Alone, by Mark Steyn

2009-10-11T18:49:00.002-04:00

This audiobook was a free download from Overdrive Audio, made available through the Alachua County Public Library web site. It is in MP3 format, is 6 hours and 15 minutes long, and was read by Brian Emerson.

In Mark Steyn's opinion, radical Islam is taking over western nations that are too timid to stop them. He also has some numbers that are difficult to deal with, as that timidity manifests itself in the form of birth rates that are too low to replace these western nations. Meanwhile, the Islamic immigrants to Europe are having babies at double the rate of the native populations, and that is not an opinion.

Meanwhile, America has a birth rate that is barely at the replacement rate, which leaves it as the world's last best hope to keep Islam from overrunning what has been a progressive, liberating, democratic civilization.

If you are a non-Muslim, and you are the least bit concerned about your children and your children's children living under Sharia Law, This is definitely worth the read. It is a subject that our politicians are not willing to campaign on or to which they might apply their leadership. It's a demographic challenge to Europe that may very well leave America alone as the sole free society in the 21st century.

This is very provocative, and difficult to talk to your friends about. But you might want to buy them this book. It's a four star page turner.

Speech-Less, by Matthew Latimer

2009-10-09T05:20:00.003-04:00

This audiobook was 7 hours and 20 minutes long and was read by Lincoln Hoppe. It was obtained from Overdrive Audio for free through the Alachua County Library.

A young speech writer in the Bush White House details his early years as a Reagan Republican, through his work life as a staffer for congressmen and for Donald Rumsfeld, until his ultimate goal of writing speeches for the President. This book is a kind of tell-all by a disillusioned young man, yet it is not the kind of exposé that a closet liberal would have written.

Matthew Latimer is a young conservative who saw the disaffection of conservatism from the inside. He and the other speech writers were sometimes ordered to write things they thought were ridiculous. They were often the last check before mistakes were made. It was disheartening to read, yet it was good to know that the failures of the last administration were not the failures of conservatism, but of the people who merely used conservatives.

This one gets 4 stars.

High Crimes, by Michael Kodas

2009-10-01T06:38:00.003-04:00

This audiobook was 11 hours and 23 minutes long, and was downloaded from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Library. It was narrated by Mark Deakins.

This book is part True Adventure and part Investigative Reporting. Like other books about recent climbs on Mt. Everest, it is a harrowing tale of well-off adventurers meeting the ultimate equalizer. These people pay up to $60,000 each to be taken on an attempt to summit Mt. Everest, and some never come back. Some return to have severely frostbitten fingers and toes amputated. It is a sobering look at what a dangerous proposition this trip can be.

If the mountain and the awful climate are not bad enough, Michael Kodas uncovers a dirty secret: the other people on the mountain can be just as dangerous. And they can also be a bunch of crooks.

In the past couple of decades, climbing Mount Everest and other 20K peaks has become a thriving business for some, and the rich climbers are the unwitting prey of others. Unscrupulous guides can abandon their meal ticket on the mountain after they have already been paid. Poor Sherpas may steal the supplementary oxygen canisters from rich climbers and resell them to other rich climbers, leaving the first climbers in peril. And angry guides, who don't like what you have siad about them on your blog, may want you to die. It's all enough to make you take up something safer, like lion-taming.

This was a thoroughly engrossing story about specific miscreants on the big mountain, and it was never boring. I give it 4 stars.

Bones, by Jonathan Kellerman

2009-08-19T21:39:00.003-04:00

This audio book was 12 hours long, in Windows Media format, and was read by John Rubenstein.

This is the 23rd novel based on the Psychologist, Alex Delaware. He is joined by his regular sidekick, Detective Milo Sturgis, to solve some murders where the bodies are turning up in a protected marsh land, without one of their hands.

This is a typical Kellerman murder mystery that gives you a lot of shifty people to consider while trying to solve the crime. Newcomers to this series will find it interesting that Sturgis is gay, but working against type. He's an overweight, cigar smoking curmudgeon that hates exercise and bad guys. Alex is kinda straight, living with a hottie who makes musical instruments for rock stars, and is squeamish with firearms.

This one is worth 3 stars.

The Google Story, by David A. Vise

2009-08-19T20:46:00.003-04:00

This audio book was 10 hours and 26 minutes long, produced in Windows Media format, and was narrated by Stephen Hoye.

This is the story of how two Stanford University PhD students created the word's most popular and successful search engine, Google. Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford, and started to purchase all the cheap computers they could in an attempt to download the entire internet in their quest to create better search results.

This story covers their rise from students to startups to billionaires. There are details of their misadventures as a company with the motto: "Don't be evil". They have been criticized for mining personal data to improve their delivery of advertising as well as gathering information that could be abused by over reaching government authorities. Most troubling, in my estimation, was one of the founders' musings about the day when we might have the internet available to our brains on a microchip, making all the world's knowledge accessible at will.

A must read for anyone who wants to be hip to the world's most ubiquitous company. I give it 4 stars.

The State of Jones, by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer

2009-08-02T07:21:00.003-04:00

This link is also to the Amazon Kindle version, but the book is available in other formats, including audio CD.

This is the story of how one man's desertion from the Confederate Army started one Mississippi county's secession from the Confederacy.

Newton Knight was one of many white farmers who was forcibly conscripted to serve in the Confederate Army. His home community, Jones County, had even sent a delegate to the Mississippi convention to vote against secession. This delegate was faced with a lot of pressure to vote for secession, however, and voted to go along with it.

What follows is a long insurgency against the Confederacy, who conscripted the unwilling, took their crops and their livestock, and left a bitter, poor, hungry populace behind. They were further abused by the Confederate enforcers who kept taxing them, which made it easier for Newton Knight and his cohorts to hide out and conduct guerrilla skirmishes against them.

Knight and his band of rebels hid out in the same swamps as runaway slaves, who helped them survive in the same inhospitable wilderness. Knight became more sympathetic with the oppressed blacks than he had already been, and eventually married a former slave woman and had a large family with her.

After the Civil War was officially over, hostilities continued against Knight and his relatives and friends for many years. He long feared assassination, and that was not without reason. Mississippi was just too far away from Washington to get much help, and President Grant was too willing to let the locals work it out. Unfortunately, Knight's race-mixing had cost him a lot of friends, and even family members had begun to change their last name to avoid the association.

It was a long, hard, bitter life for a man who just wanted to be left alone. For all practical purposes he had chosen to become a black man in Mississippi, which was a form of race treason in the Jim Crow South.

This book is a gem and easily gets 4 stars.

Satchel: The Life and TImes of an American Legend

2009-08-02T06:39:00.003-04:00

Warning! The link to this book is in the only format that Amazon has available: the Kindle. The Kindle is an electronic book reading device that can download digital material without a computer. It has a cellular modem inside and can "phone" into Amazon wirelessly and download the books directly to the device. If you are interested in purchasing or are even thinking about it, I will link the device in the sidebar.

This audio book was read by Dominic Hoffman, and was 13 hours and 37 minutes long. I obtained it for free from my public library and their vendor, Overdrive Audio.

Satchel Paige began playing pro baseball in the old Negro Leagues back in the 1920s. He was only 18 and had just spent 6 years in a reform school where he got some coaching from a man who worked for the institution. He was a success almost immediately, and had a long and profitable career playing for many teams, including the ad hoc barnstorming teams that often included white major leaguers in the off season. This is where we get an idea of just how good Satchel Paige really was, and Larry Tye's long overdue report on the career of one of baseball's most enduring legends makes a compelling case that he may have been one of the greatest pitchers of all time.

This story is also of Satchel, the man, who made a lot of money in baseball and was as bad at managing it as anyone who has ever played any game professionally. He loved to play ball, and would have played for the rest of his life if he could. He depended on it, since he spent money like the paydays would go on forever.

It's also a story of the times he lived in, and how he contributed to the slow awakening racial equality in America. Satchel had played the roll of the amiable Negro for so long that it wasn't until he had been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 that he began to sound off about racial unfairness and how he had been mistreated by those who ran the game he loved.

I gave this book 4 stars for its thoroughness and the fascinating topic of the man whose career I was too young to watch.

Your Heart Belongs to Me, by Dean Koontz

2009-07-02T07:20:00.003-04:00

This audio book was read by Malcolm Hillgartner, and was 8 hours and 33 minutes long.

As a long time Dean Koontz fan, I will read anything he produces. But that doesn't mean I will always like it. This one had its problems, but it was still a page turner.

This is the story of a 34 year old dot com millionaire who discovers that he has an incurable heart condition and needs a transplant. He finds a good surgeon, gets on the transplant list, and is encouraged by his perfect girlfriend to just let this happen. She knows he will try to manipulate his place in line for a new heart, and he agrees to trust his current doctor.

This would be a fairly simple story if the girlfriend did not have a disturbing back story that causes our protagonist some discomfort. Her twin sister was taken off life support by her own mother after getting counsel from a right to die advocate who collects mummified remains. The mother is now romantically involved with this ghoul, and this feeds the paranoia of a heart patient with enough money to manage his fears and the people around him.

This is a Koontz morality tale with a twist. I wish the characters had been a little more compelling, and that the villain had more substance. I give it 2 stars

Against All Enemies, by Richard A. Clarke

2009-06-22T20:31:00.003-04:00

This audio book was 11 hours and 54 minutes long, and was narrated by Alan Nebelthau.

I had heard all the detractors, my fellow conservatives, pick this book apart and speak of Richard Clarke as if he were the worst traitor. But I wanted to read this book for myself and draw my own conclusions. Now that I have done that, I will share with you my assessment of this book.

It is pretty fast moving and engrossing reading. Clarke begins with the horror of September 11, 2001, and then retraces his steps as he worked for 3 US Presidents before George W. Bush. He had a ringside seat to many decisions made about US policy on terrorism, and was a major player in some of the counter-terrorism efforts made under Bill Clinton's administration.

If I didn't pay any attention to the news at all since the early 1990s, I would have to believe that George W. Bush and his administration made every conceivable error leading up to 9-11, and that the justification of the Iraq War was a total fabrication by Bush, Cheney, and Condi Rice, who just wanted an excuse to go back and in and finish what George H.W. Bush did not. This book is a pretty tight argument for scorning both Bush Administrations for all time as a collection of bunglers unequaled in American history.

I truly did enjoy this book because I do believe that it will be instructive for generations to come, and because it shows us enough of the workings of counter-terrorism to actually give us hope that there is rhyme and reason to how terrorism is fought. However, there is just enough missing, and just enough that smells wrong to cost Clarke some credibility points. For instance, he makes a great deal of his information that demonstrates there was absolutely no reason for invading Iraq. Yet, it is completely ignored that Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, was in violation of the UN's orders to comply with the dismantling of his nuclear and biological weapons program for 12 years. This was worth mentioning, even if he just wanted to discount it for some reason.

Read with a healthy dose of skepticism, but with the sobering realization that mistakes were made that led to 9-11, and that mistakes were certainly made afterward, this is a four star book.

Saving Graces, by Elizabeth Edwards

2009-06-20T16:20:00.001-04:00

This audio book was 13 hours and 42 minutes long and was narrated by Bernadette Dunne.

This is not the Elizabeth Edwards book in which she tells about her husband's affair. Senator John Edwards is a kind and idealistic husband and politician with a noble and intelligent wife in this book. I am not yet aware of how she portrays her relationship with John the philandering weasel, but he contrasted poorly with the hard luck missus he has in this one.

This is her story, from her upbringing in post-war Japan as the daughter of a Naval officer to the tragic death of her teenage son and her discovery of a cancerous lump just a few weeks out from the 2004 election, when her husband was the Vice-Presidential candidate. She is a smart and thoughtful woman who was devastated by the loss of her son, Wade, in a car accident that had nothing to do with alcohol. She deals with the day to day coping that goes on for years and never leaves her consciousness. This could have been a dreary book, but she is such a good writer that it never bores you. This is a solid 3 star book thtat rises to 4 if youu identify personally with either of her losses.

The Fall of Che Guevara, by Henry Butterfield Ryan

2009-06-13T18:06:00.002-04:00

This audiobook was 7 hours and 19 minutes long, and was narrated by George McGonagle.

Before I got this audiobook, I knew almost nothing about Che Guevara, although I could pick his image out of a lineup thanks to the iconic image that has appeared on a million or so T-shirts. So, this book was a voyage of discovery for me.

The author tells Che's story as a reporter would gie you the background on the subject, but then just get straight to the facts. He uses a lot of documents from the CIA and other government sources, going as far as to get them declassified himself. What emerges is the recounting of a frustrated revolutionary who was pushing the envelope on revolutionary theory to a point that it got him killed.

Che blundered when he thought he could get a revolution started in Bolivia by inserting a little over 50 commandos out in the jungles to stir up the peasants. The peasants were not particularly unhappy with their government, being far removed from it, and did not like the armed iealists who came to stir them up. They ended up ratting him out to the government forces who were looking for him.

To Che's admirers, this is a controversial subject. Some think Castro had him killed. Some think the CIA did him in. The evidence in this book has enough holes to leave your prejudices intact, but it all seems like a bad judgment call to me. I give it four stars for being informative, clear, and not taking unnecessary time.

Charlie Wilson's War, by George Crile

2009-06-04T21:08:00.003-04:00

This audiobook was 20 hours and 27 minutes long, and was narrated by Christopher Lane.

I never saw the movie, so I have no idea how the book and the movie are different. I always trust the book.

This is the story of how a Democrat Congressman from Texas took up the cause of the Afghan people after discovering how the army of the Soviet Union was wiping out all resistance to their invasion. As a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, he was able to move millions, and eventually, billions of dollars to aid the Afghan insurgents who were still fighting with WW1 Enfield Rifles against helicopter gunships and tanks.

Charlie Wilson was a liberal who voted for civil rights, abortion rights, and all manner of liberal causes, but who was also a rabid anti-communist who wanted America avenged for the Viet Nam War. The Soviets had helped the Vietnamese insurgents bleed America dry, and he wanted to give it right back to them through proxies in Afghanistan.

This is a very instructive tale about how politics actually works at the Federal level, showing how unholy alliances really work. Relationships really do seem to trump ideologies, as Charlie Wilson becomes friends with Fundamentalist Muslim leaders who look the other way at his womanizing, boozing lifestyle while he bankroles their Jihads. In Congress, those who want to fight communists in Central America with Iranian money are prosecuted while American taxpayer dollars are matched by Saudi contibutions to fight communists on the other side of the world with the blessing of the same Congress. It seems that if a liberal want so run a secret war, it's OK. But if conservatives want to do it, it's unconscienable.

Political skill transcends morality even as American politicians convince themselves that they are doing the right thing to fund a primiative militia that has no limits on the atrocities they are willing to perform on captured Soviet soldiers. Eventually, these same Afghan militias will come back to haunt us in ways the Latin American Contras never did.

This is a must read for anyone who cannot understand the holes in the news. 4 stars!

Indignation, by Phillip Roth

2009-05-31T18:34:00.003-04:00

This audiobook was 5 hours and 31 minutes long, and was narrated by Dick Hill. It's is Roth's 29th book, and was published in 2008.

I've read a few other Roth novels, and I run hot and cold on them. They usually have some witty, funny dialog, and have recurring themes of anti-semitism and youthful debauchery. This one is not much different.

This is the story of Marcus Messner, the son of Kosher butchers in New Jersey. He is a gifted student, and is bent on getting good enough grades to escape being drafted and sent into combat in Korea in 1951. He works in the family business while in high school, and goes to a local college for his freshman year. During this time, Marcus' father becomes increasingly paranoid that his son will get into some kind of trouble. His constant suspicions and smothering behavior gradually drives Marcus away, and he decides to go to school farther away.

At the new school, Marcus finds something to annoy him in each of his room mates, which leads him to change dorms twice in just a short time. He also has a sexual encounter with a girl who had once tried to commit suicide, and has issues with alcohol, with whom he becomes obsessed. He is also indignant that one of the graduation requirements is to attend chapel forty times during your time at the school, and has a major face-off with the dean over Bertrand Russell and atheism. All these things come to a head after his parents are on the brink of divorce, and Marcus seems to start sliding into his own form of madness. Eventually, he is expelled from school and gets sent to Korea.

It is entertaining enough to be worth the time, but it would have been a disaster to make it longer. Marcus goes to war right on time, because by then I was sick of him already. Maybe it's because he became an insufferable jerk too soon for me to get to like him. I give it 2 stars.

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam

2009-05-21T20:22:00.002-04:00

This audiobook was 33 hours and 42 minutes long, and was narrated by Scott Brick.

This was David Halberstam's last completed work before he died in 2007. It is the usual top notch piece of 20th century history for which he was famous.

America and its military leaders thought that the atomic bomb was the end of conventional warfare. President Truman was looking to trim the defense budget to under $10 Billion, the American people just wanted their boys to come home, and the rest of the world was still at the brink of war. The US had gone from victory in Europe and the Pacific to total military unpreparedness in only 5 years. It set the stage for a deadly learning curve in Korea.

Much of this book concerns the mishandling of military intelligence by General Douglas MacArthur and his staff. MacArthur's best days were behind him and he didn't know it. He also had a lot of help from President Truman's domestic adversaries, mostly Republicans who made up the China Lobby. They were as hot for a confrontation with China as MacArthur was, and this desire for turning back the Communists in China nearly brought us into World War 3.

There are lots of stories from the actual conflict as well as the inside dirt on American politics during the McCarthy era. A fascinating book, even if it ran a bit long. I give it 3 stars.

Creating a World Without Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus

2009-05-11T19:46:00.005-04:00

This audio book was narrated by Patrick Lawlor, and was 10 hours and 15 minutes long.

The title alone is enough to put you off. It sounds like the work of some dreamer, a Pollyanna who has obviously never worked with the poor. But I picked this out to listen to it because I was already familiar with the author, and with the Grameen Bank.

Muhammad Yunus, an ivory tower economist, went back to his home country, Bangladesh, to find out for himself why his nation was, as Henry Kissinger once called it, a basket case. He found people willing to work, but who could not get credit at regular banks, and were at the mercy of predatory money lenders. So, he started making loans from his own resources, and proved that the poor can be good customers, and that they could be transformed by opportunity.

That is Yunus before this book, which is largely about the concept of Social Business: businesses that exist to serve the poor, pay no dividends, and are self-perpetuating in a way that charities are not. He takes us step by step through is experiences with helping poor people and even beggars become self-employed, and even his daring joint venture with an international corporation.

This book is inspiring and instructive. It should be read by anyone who says they care about the poor. His remarkable results, which includes a 98% repayment rate, are part of a very wholistic approach to responsibility and accountability. My doubts start to nag me when I think about the poor in America, where the work ethic does not seem to be as strong as it is in Bangladesh. We have something as hard to overcome as floods and famine: apathy and a sense of entitlement and victimhood. In spite of my negative feelings, this book does make you start working them out and searching for solutions.

The last 2 disks of this 11 disk set were pretty counter productive, unfortunately, as Yunus begins to go political. He forgets that his work stands on the shoulders of the donors and investors who are a part fo the selfish capitalist system he has a bone to pick with.

This was well worth the time, and even the money to buy it if you have the chance. It's a 4 star read before the diatribes.

Leni: The life and work of Leni Riefenstahl, by Steven Bach

2009-05-07T20:43:00.003-04:00

This audio book was read by Henrietta Tiefenthaler, and was 14 hours and 26 minutes long.

I was already aware of who Leni Riefenstahl was because I had seen a story about her on television when I was a teenager. She was famous for being the Third Reich's film maker. She was a talented director who made what has been called the best documentary ever by her harshest critic. And until 2003, she was still alive, and still unrepentant about her work for Hitler.

Born in 1902, she was the daughter of a successful plumber and a woman who encouraged her dreams of being a dancer. She began her career in the middle of the silent film era, and she gradually evolved from dancer to romantic adventure to an interest in directing her own films. After reading Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf on a train, she decided she had to meet him. Since she was a minor film starlet that Hitler admired, she got her wish.

Leni Riefenstahl leveraged her relationship with Hitler, her talent and ambition, and the vacuum left by the German film industry's expulsion of the Jews, into an opportunity to be the Reich's official filmographer. Her documentaries of Nazi rallies and the 1936 Olympics in Berlin made her internationally famous, and after the WW2, almost universally despised.

If this book were only about her work for Hitler, it would probably be interesting enough. But hers was the story that refused to die. After avoiding prison, and being labeled as only a "fellow traveler" in the spectrum of guilt, she thought she was off the hook and could continue with her career. But multitudes had been witnesses to her work, so there was always someone to remind the world that she was an unrepentant Nazi who brazenly lied about her past.

This book gets 4 stars, but Leni herself rates one flashbulb.

The Associate, by John Grisham

2009-03-15T15:06:00.003-04:00

An idealistic Yale law student named Kyle McEvoy has a very promising future ahead of him if it weren't for his troubling past. While at Duquense University he was at a frat party where a girl claims she was raped. The case was thrown out, but new evidence has surfaced. Apparently, one of the frat brothers set his cell phone camera on a counter where it could capture the action, and that video is now in the hands of some very dangerous people who need a young lawyer in place at a prestigious law firm that is handling a lawsuit that involves sensitive defense contracts. Kyle had planned on doing good deeds for some non-profits when he got out of school, but now he has to spy for these bad guys or risk ruin and jail.

It's pretty predictable and the ending is not very satisfying, but it is fast moving and interesting. I liked it enough to finish it, but I wasn't all that happy at the end. I give it 2 stars.

The Four Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferris

2009-02-07T19:33:00.003-05:00

I actually listened to this audiobook twice. Although Mr. Ferris has some very revolutionary views on working and Lyfestyle Design, there are a lot of important nuggets scattered throughout for anyone who is even wondering about making money online.

Tim Ferris loves extreme living. He's a kick boxing champion, internationally competitive tango dancer, and runs his business from all over the world during his many mini-retirements. In today's global economy, with our modern mobile technology, and a free-wheeling imagination, there are few limits on what you can do. But first you must dare to do it.

In this book, Tim uses his own experiences, and those of his friends who are also members of The New Rich, to show you how to gradually free yourself from the static workplace so you can use your time more effectively for your own gain.

I give it 4 stars.

Basic Economics, by Thomas Sowell

2008-12-14T07:25:00.003-05:00

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio, the media vendor used by the Alachua County Public Library. This audiobook is 18 hours and 31 minutes long, is in WMA format, and is read by Brian Emerson.

Although this was informative, interesting, and entertaining, it was also very long. I think Mr. Sowell's publishers should have turned this out a four books of a more digestible size. Each oe would have been a good advertisement for the rest of them. Therefore, they would have sold a lot more of them. But, as Mr. Sowell postulates, Economics is not about how to run a business or make money. To quote Lionel Robbins in his 1932 essay, it is, "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." Sowell uses a variation of this statement throughout the book.

In each section of the book, whether he is talking about labor, international banking, farming, or war management, Sowell has historical examples of the misallocation of scarce resources which have alternative uses. One of the early examples in his book is how the Japanese military ran out of qualified pilots during World War 2 because they did not recycle their experienced pilots as instructors. What was learned from fighting in Manchuria in the late 30s and in the Pacific in the early 40s was lost as they were eventually shot down. Meanwhile, American fighters were rotated back to instruct new pilots, and air war changed dramatically.

This was very enlightening, and a must for our politicians in Washington, as well as all of us who elect them. I give it 4 stars.

Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer

2008-10-28T05:51:00.004-04:00

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Library website. It was 7 hours and 6 minutes long.

This book originally came out in 1996, but is now getting fresh attention because it has recently been made into a movie. It's the story of Chris McCandless, a 24 year old Emory University graduate who forsakes modern life to become a modern Henry David Thoreau. Without telling his family, who all believe he will be attending law school, he gives away his college fund, starts using an assumed name, and heads out west to live a life at loose ends. His travels take him to remote places, from Mexico to the Dakotas, and ultimately to the Alaskan wilderness. It is there, at life's extremities, and with no help in sight, that he comes to a miserable end.

Krakauer tells this story as only another person who enjoys extreme living can tell it. He helps you to get to know Chris McCandless by exhaustive research, including Chris' last written accounts and interviews with the people who were touched by him along the way, and through his own insight as a person who has been bewitched by the wilderness experience. You may come away admiring or pitying Chris McCandless, but you will not be able to forget him. I know that I want to see the movie when it comes out. I give this one 4 stars.

Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe and Kirby Heyborne

2008-10-27T05:30:00.003-04:00

This audiobook came from Overdrive Audio via the Alachua County Library's website. It is in Windows Media Audio format, and it was 9 hours and 45 minutes long.

If you are interested in keeping your business alive and growing in the 21st Century, this thought-provoking book will help you come out of the economic Dark Ages.

Before hiring experts, look to the crowd. In today's global community, you can find out what will work and what will not by accessing niche groups who will not only tell you what they like, but help you build it as well. Collaborative effort is not just for your research team, and your team may not even be on your payroll. Enormously important projects with global scope and billions at stake are created by virtual communities of passionate enthusiasts in partnership with professionals. The Linux operating system, Wikipedia, and a host of smaller enterprises are examples of the amazing power of crowds. These crowds can now be assembled into working units on very technical projects by using the Internet, and even small companies do it.

If you already have a can-do attitude, this will take it up to another level and change your paradigm. I give this book 4 stars.

I still have a blog...

2008-07-06T20:03:00.002-04:00

If you have been wondering where I have been for almost 4 months, it's like this: business took off and I hired 3 people. Now business is dragging the bottom (as it usually does in June-July) and I am really hustling to keep my guys doing something. What I am trying to say is that whether I am training people or selling new accounts, I have precious little time alone in the world of audio any more. It's been a big change, and I hope to figure out how I am going to reintegrate audiobooks into my life. I enjoy them too much to quit.

I will post a review soon, but it will take a real effort to do so. It is also the escalation of the political season, and I am a very busy political activist. So please hang in there!

Don Marsh

The Appeal, by John Grisham

2008-03-25T05:54:00.004-04:00

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 12 hours and 33 minutes long, and was narrated by Michael Beck.

Typical John Grisham story of noble, financially challenged attorneys doing battle with a huge company represented by the legal armies from Hell. In spite of being predictable and uncommonly preachy, it is still a good read. Characters and dialog pop off the page as a good writer does his job. If you have time on your hands and nothing else to read, it's worth three stars. If you have other books waiting, downgrade it to two and try a new author.

Rise and Shine, by Anna Quindlen

2008-02-19T05:35:00.002-05:00

This audiobook was obtained for free from Netlibrary.com. It was 10 hours and 49 minutes long, and was narrated by Carol Monda.

Meghan and Bridget Fitzmaurice lost their parents at an early age. Meghan grew up to be a world famous host of a morning news show, Rise and Shine, while Bridget grew up to an unmarried social worker who also helps keep Meghan's family grounded. The city of New York is also a major character in this book, providing the classist backdrop that is constantly making itself heard.

Meghan's life takes a turn downward when she inadvertently drops a 4 megaton expletive before her mike is turned off on the way to a commercial. She is temporarily suspended while the show's producers figure out what to do, and Meghan decides to go into hiding while she sorts out her life, including her failing marriage.

It's an easy read and it wasn't boring. But I had a hard time caring enough about the characters to really get into it. I felt like a was treading water, waiting for my next book. For that, it's only worth 2 stars.

The Next Step in the Dance, by Tim Gautreaux

2008-02-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. This book was 11 hours and 42 minutes long, and was narrated by Vernel Bagneris.

Paul and Colette Thibodeaux are a young married couple in an insular Cajun community called Tiger Island. Paul is a talented machinist who is happy with his work and just as happy to play his accordion and dance up a storm at the local pub. Colette is beautiful and bored, and deeply annoyed with her husband's contentment. One day she finds and excuse to leave him, and she makes her way to Los Angeles. She finds work similar to what she did at the bank back home, except there is more opportunity for advancement. She's smart, hard-working, and the boss likes her, so she is doing well when Paul decides to follow her. He is cool enough to give her some space, and he finds a job for his unique talents and he is doing well, too.

But not all that glitters is gold. They are both working for unscrupulous creeps, so they both end up returning to Tiger Island just after the jobs have all dried up. They are still separated, but now Colette is pregnant, care of a weak moment with Paul while they were living in California.

The hits just keep coming before they ever work it all out. It's a good story, but it seems to come from a different time. Paul seems way older than 24, and Colette does not seem like 23. They just seem so middle aged in their attitudes and demeanor. It was a big distraction that pecked away at the story's credulity. It had its good moments, but it was a little more work to read than I like a book to be. 2 stars.

One Mississippi, by Mark Childress

2008-02-04T18:57:00.001-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 13 hours and 17 minutes long and was narrated by Jeff Woodman.

Daniel Musgrove gets to start his life over in Mississippi after his father is transferred to a new territory. Changing high schools is bad enough, but downgrading from Indiana to Mississippi is excruciating. But then he finds a friend, a local outcast named Tim Cousins.

It's 1973, and their high school is about to elect its first black prom queen. It's also the night that Tim and Daniel take a couple of girls to the prom, and Daniel gets his first kiss. After bringing their dates home, they accidentally hit the new queen, who was riding home on her bicycle. They flee in terror, come back to see that their nemesis, a popular jock and bully, is getting busted for it after stopping to see if she is alright. They let him hang, and when she comes to, she has a colorblind brand of amnesia: she thinks she is white.

The lunacy just keeps coming. This was very, very funny book, but it takes some very, very dark turns. Funny, thought-provoking, sad, disturbing: it gets a star for each, which makes 4 altogether.

No More Mr. Nice Guy, by Dr. Robert A. Glover

2008-01-26T09:14:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 6 hours and 38 minutes long and was narrated by Robert O'Keefe.

The long version of this title included this: A proven plan for getting what you want in love, sex, and life. Presumably, this was meant to boost Google hits. However, as a lifelong nice-guy/doormat, I could say, with apologies to Renee Zellweger, "You had me at the title".

Dr. Glover is a clinical psychologist who has been treating a lot of nice guys for years. And he recognized that they were suffering from the same sort of things that he was. They all had partners who they slavishly tried to please, which only gained them more scorn.

No friend to modern feminism, Dr. Glover blames this on an American culture which left raising boys to become men to women. When men started leaving the home to work in factories and offices, the boys had to stay home. They no longer worked with their fathers, learning the trades and learning to be men. Women raised their sons to be more passive aggressive, and when they grew up, they were incapable of providing leadership in their homes. They usually had a finger in the air to figure out what would please their wives.

This description may be a bit off-putting, but it is a legitimate challenge to our current nanny culture of risk avoidance that steals the spine from American males. It's a four star read.

Marker, by Robin Cook

2008-01-26T08:54:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 16 hours and 7 minutes long, and was narrated by George Guidall.

Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are both doctors with the Medical Examiner's office. They determine cause of death by day and are lovers by night. Right about the time that Laurie decides that she has no future with the noncommittal Jack, she takes notice of some unusual deaths at a particular hospital. The deaths have no apparent cause. Everyone else is willing to call them an anomaly. But the decedents are all relatively young people who came in for pretty ordinary surgeries. She begins to suspect foul play.

Laurie comes under a lot of pressure to bury her suspicions. To infer that someone is murdering patients at a prestigious hospital with a low death rate could create problems for the reputation of the medical staff there. Her only ally is the handsome, charming doctor who is the director of personnel at that hospital, who wants to get involved with her.

I know this sounds like a soap opera, and some of it is. It also sounds like the typical Robin Cook novel: young, good-looking doctor with strong ethics runs afoul of rich, powerful, greedy medical community. But Cook has been doing this for a long time, and knows just how much relationship fog to give a book without losing sight of the fact that he is writing a thriller. This is one of his better ones, and I give it 3 stars.

John Paul the Great, by Peggy Noonan

2008-01-13T07:38:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from the Alachua County Public Library through Netlibrary.com. It was read by the author and was 8 hours and 30 minutes long.

This book is almost as much about the author, Peggy Noonan, as it is about Pope John Paul II. This is a very personal recollection of Pope John Paul II by a woman who was greatly affected by him.

Noonan, the former speech writer for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, was only a nominal Catholic when she was covering the election of John Paul II by the College of Cardinals as a reporter for CBS. What she learned about him from this fairly close perspective caused her to examine her own life and what she believed. Subsequent close encounters, including a personal audience near the end of his life, had a deep impact on her, and she is not shy about discussing how she arrives at her own need for God.

There is also a good bit about Mother Theresa, who Pope John Paul began pushing for beatification as a saint soon after she died. And, as fawning as Noonan is about Pope John Paul in general, she is pretty tough on him for not dealing directly with the American sex scandals involving priests molesting minors and the church bureaucracy that covered it up.

This was very skillfully written, very touching, and very challenging to anyone who saw the Pope as a mere figurehead in history. Give it 4 stars.

Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, by Carl Hiaasen

2008-01-13T07:13:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from the Alachua County Public Library through Overdrive Audio. It was 1 hour and 41 minutes long, and was narrated by Richard Gilliland.

Carl Hiaasen has been known for years for his comedic novels in which the villains are complete greedheads with no respect for Florida's ecosystem. And that's why this non-fiction offering comes as no surprise as he analyzes the corporate entity that could be a composite of all his antagonists worst traits. At least, that is Hiaasen's portrayal of Disney as it goes beyond Orlando and even threatens the skin trade in Times Square.

He makes the case that Disney is able to grow with impunity because it takes so many people with it as it prospers. Land values skyrocket and support businesses flourish, so everyone is excited when Disney is involved in a project. And its values are just as usurping as its lust for property. The level of trust that consumers have in Disney gives it a leg up in evry negotiation and the benefit of every doubt.

But Carl Hiaasen doesn't believe it. And even though he is a bit of an extremist on the other side, he does humorously make the case that Disney is a company that should be watched and held to account by the rest of us. And he does so in such an appealing way, that he gets you nodding and smiling and agreeing with him, just as he believes Disney does with its wholesome image.

It was a rather short book, but informative and funny, and left me wanting more. If that doesn't get you 4 stars, I don't know what does.

Younger Next Year, by Harry S. Lodge, MD and Chris Crowley

2008-01-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was a Christmas present and it came on 6 CDs. I highly recommend that you buy it.

I often tell people that I have been fat and thin more times than Oprah. I have frequently gone on diets on which I have lost 40 pounds. At 49, I don't know how often I can get away with this. So, when I listened to this audiobook on a trip right after Christmas, I was ready to listen.

Harry and Chris tag-team this book as Chris, a retired attorney, and Harry, a renowned gerontologist, make the case for daily exercise to fight the tide of aging. They convincingly tell you how you can be "functionally younger" next year. They don't promise you that it can go on forever, but that you can make sure that your last years are lived feeling healthy and vibrant pretty much until the end. Well, sign me up!

Motivation is an important part of the program, which is why a daily regimen is necessary. Anything else is just treading water, so there is relatively little payoff. Harry has the numbers, and Chris has the stories. I wish there was a place to download this for free, but it ain't there yet. However, I can direct you to their website, and I can give this book 4 stars.

Lovesick Blues, by Paul Hemphill

2007-12-28T08:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-28T07:53:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-28T07:35:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-14T05:17:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-13T04:56:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-08T06:23:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-08T05:58:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-06T05:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-01T04:57:00.000-05:00

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.

Feed, by M. T. Anderson

2007-11-28T05:44:00.001-05:00

This audiobook was obtained as a free download from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 5 hours and 1 minute long, and was narrated by David Aaron Baker.

A kind of technopunk novel set in what seems to be the mid to late 21st century. I may have missed a time reference. All the kids have had live feed installed from an early age. Now you can Instant Message each other, get updates, surf the net, and even watch network programming in your head. No one has to be smart anymore, because you can look up everything right now, wherever you are. So now we are all smart! And networked, and exploited by a continual stream of advertising to let you know you can also order anything you want, right now, from inside your head.

The most powerful thing about this book is not the concept, but the way the author makes it all so real. The kids are all high school age, going to privatized schools, and getting "malfunctioned" by going to game sites that quite literally blow their minds. Except for one girl, Violet, whose parents had home-schooled her and acquiesced to having her feed installed later in her childhood. Violet's awareness of a life beyond the feed makes her especially enticing to Titus, a boy who is caught up in the consumer culture of mindlessness. She likes real experiences, instead of the bizarre fads that overwhelm kids on an almost daily basis, now that it can be done so quickly.

If you can get past the fairly regular barrage of F-bombs, this is a very well-written and disturbing book. It all seems so possible in our own lifetimes. The dialog is an especially eerie feature. The adults talk like the kids today ("Dude, that was, like, awesome!") and the kids have a new jargon in which all sentences are punctuated by calling each other, "Unit!" No, it's just the boys that do that. And the girls are all hung up on a show called, "Oh! Wow! Thing!"

This is part tech satire, part sad love story, and it is especially engaging as an audiobook, where you can experience the Feed as it periodically bursts into the narration. This is a solid 3 star book with gusts of 4.

Higher, by Neal Bascomb

2007-11-27T06:26:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com, was 11 hours and 10 minutes long, and was narrated by Richard M. Davidson.

The 1920s were the perfect time for egos, ambition, idealism, and innovation to thrive. And it was at the very apex of the Roaring 20s, just before the collapse of the stock market, that the modern skyscraper began to flower.

This story is about the men who designed, financed, and built the tallest buildings in the world at the dawn of the Great Depression. Walter Chrysler, the newly minted automobile magnate, was an engineering junkie who played an active roll in designing the Chrysler Building. The architect, William Van Alen, was a highly regarded designer who had acrimoniously split with his business partner, H. Craig Severance. Severance was now building a competing project at 40 Wall Street, and both men were determined to build the tallest building in the world.

This is a more interesting book for all the background on the creation of the technology that allowed buildings to go from the load-bearing masonry construction that limited height, to the steel-cage design, high speed elevators, and improved hydraulics that make it possible to both build and inhabit skyscrapers.

But it's the human story with its attendant drama that takes "Higher" to another level. All of the parties who were involved in these projects had come from humble beginnings, and these buildings were also intended to be monuments to ideas and hope; something that we would do well to grasp in our cynical age. This is a 4 star book.

Deepwater, by Matthew F. Jones

2007-11-24T05:01:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com, was narrated by Richard Ferrone, and was 9 hours and 8 minutes long.

A very weird and creepy book. Nat Banyon is a handsome drifter who works well with his hands. He meets an old man on the road named Herman Finch, and Finch hires him to do some painting at his motel. Herman is an ex-prizefighter who is married to a beautiful young woman named Iris who came to him as a traveler in need of some work three years earlier.

You don't need a PhD in literature to know that Nat and Iris are going to have a lurid affair. But this book could stand to have some sort of audio subtitles to warn you of all the dream sequences: "The following is happening in Nat's head..." And the evil possibilities begin to multiply as Nat gets tidbits of odd information about the boyfriend that Iris didn't tell him about, who arrived with her, but then disappeared. A waitress at the motel restaurant thinks he's at the bottom of the lake.

Is Herman a killer? Will Nat and Iris be discovered? Will they get away with all of Herman's loot? Will Herman kill Nat first in a boxing match he has scheduled with the younger man? The questions do not stop here, and it all ground to a halt at a fairly unsatisfying ending.

I had a love-hate relationship with this book, pretty much the way Nat was conflicted between seeing Herman as a rival and as a father figure. The characters were really good in the way they got in your head, but the story had too much foggy weirdness and an ending that did not deliver. I have to give it 2 stars.

Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky

2007-11-23T05:07:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained as a free download from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 13 hours and 13 minutes long, and came in two parts, the first read by Daniel Oreskes, and the other by Barbara Rosenblat.

This book is actually two novellas that were part of a planned set of five. They were written contemporaneously during and about the German occupation of France. The author, Irene Nemirovsky, died in Auschwitz after being deported as a stateless person of Jewish origin.

The first novella, "Storm in June", is about the fear and dread of the German invasion. The men of fighting age are all gone. Businesses are relocating on the fly. Carloads of possessions pass desperate refugees as they head for safer ground. Whole towns are stripped of their food as the hordes pass through. For these people, the war is a huge disappointment after defeating Germany in 1918. The veterans of that war feel as if their sacrifice was for nothing. The surrender of France is a relief, just to stop the bombs and the fear of death.

The second, "Dolce", deals with the effects on the citizens of the occupation. Wealthy families host German officers, some with more grace than others. Young women, coming of age when all the young men are Germans, weigh their natural feelings against the possibility that these young men may have killed or imprisoned their fathers and brothers.

As much as it's a tragedy that the rest of this work was never finished, it is also the height of irony that such a beautifully written account was halted by the author's date with the Holocaust. And it's also a revealing look at a part of history that does not get much coverage: the lives of invaders and collaborators, when all the French had was the Passive Resistance.

I wanted it to go on. It is sad that it could not. 4 stars.

The No Asshole Rule, by Robert I. Sutton, PhD

2007-11-20T06:25:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was provided by Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 2 hours and 59 minutes long, and was narrated by the author.

I will probably get emails from people whose Victorian sensibilities are offended that I would even review this book. I probably would not have even thought of getting it except that the author was interviewed on a podcast recently, and I found it intriguing.

A-word aside, this book is written like some real scholarship went into it. And even if you are uncomfortable with using that word, you probably have thought it when certain people come to mind. That is because it is a convenient one-word definition of the people who are rude and abusive, particularly of people who are less powerful. I have known a couple of pastors who fit this description. And they would probably miss the point that their behavior is the real issue, and not just the rude word I imagine when I think of them. That sort of obtuseness is part and parcel of the malady that afflicts not only themselves, but others.

This book is very thought provoking and engaging. It may also be the perfect anonymous Christmas gift. 4 stars.

The Strong, Silent Type, by C. Kelly Robinson

2007-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained free from NetLibrary.com, was 11 hours and 28 minutes long, and was narrated by Ezra Knight and Lizzie Cooper Davis.

Deacon Davis is a former Pittsburgh Steeler and son of a late, great civil right leader. He is politically active as an organizer and speech writer, but he is also a stutterer. After a particularly bad performance on a TV interview, the organization he has been working for gives him the pink slip, and he is persuaded to take part in a speech therapy experiment that will take several weeks of intensive rehabilitation at a college facility.

Davis' life is already pretty complicated. He has a daughter by one woman who is the daughter of a crime syndicate kingpin. He has a son by another woman. That boy is 13 and in trouble at school for groping a female classmate. He also has a black sheep brother who has had cocaine issues. He is still investigating their father's death and is the last person on earth who still thinks it was murder. Add to this the speech therapist that Deacon has a sexual relationship with during his rehab, and this turns into a pretty depressing stereotype festival.

As a voyeuristic soap opera, it's worth 2 stars if you like that kind of thing.

Zugzwang, by Ronan Bennett

2007-11-18T05:39:00.000-05:00

This novel was a free download from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 8 hours and 28 minutes long, and was narrated by Stephen Lang.

A real chess geek would recognize the term, zugzwang, but the general public would have to run to a dictionary. In chess, it is a position in which you are compelled to move, but that doing so leads to your loss. When you have no good moves, and you wish you could pass, that is zugzwang.

And that is the metaphor for this book, set in 1914 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Revolution is afoot, and there is a big chess tournament in town. The greatest players in the world are on hand, and one of them needs professional help. Rozental is a brilliant player, but he is socially challenged and schizophrenic. An admirer named Kopelzon, a great violinist, takes Rozental to his friend, Otto Spethmann, a psychiatrist and our protagonist. All three men are Jews in a time when Jewishness is a handicap.

As if Rozental does not have enough problems, he is also being used as an unwitting pawn in a plot to assassinate Czar Nicolas, who will be honoring the winner. There are enough twists and odd characters in this story to keep your mind busy, and it is a story that is well told, for the most part. What makes this especially interesting to the chess geek is that Rozental is a thinly veiled version of Akiba Rubenstein, a chess master of the era who was a certifiable nut case. The tournament is real, and the plot is foiled; the better to preserve Czar Nicolas' date with destiny in 1918.

Spethmann works to uncover the source of Rozental's mental illness, as well as the plot that involves his patient, his friend, and his daughter, who has been sleeping with Bolsheviks. There is a lot going on here, including Spethmann's affair with the daughter of a powerful political leader, and a little gratuitous sex that seems out of place for the story. Nonetheless, this gets 3 stars, and even a non-chess player could enjoy it.

Fay, by Larry Brown

2007-11-14T05:17:00.001-05:00

This audiobook was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 17 hours and 24 minutes long, and was narrated by Tom Stechschulte.

Fay is pretty while trailer trash living in an abusive home situation. Her story begins with her deciding to go feral with only 2 dollars tucked in her bra. She is 17, vulnerable, and brings out the worst in men. Even the kind and well-intentioned Mississippi State Trooper Sam Harris is sucked into the vortex of sex and violence that is attendant in her life. Although she cannot be blamed for most of what happens, she does change the climate wherever she saunters.

This is a somewhat depressing story of bad choices colliding with bad luck. But it's sense that redemption is just within reach keeps you involved with characters for whom you can want it.

I can't put my finger on what keeps this from being a four star book, but I can only give it 3 and 1/2.

The Know-It_All, by A.J. Jacobs

2007-11-12T06:15:00.001-05:00

This audiobook was a free download from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 15 hours and 24 minutes long, and was narrated by Geoffrey Cantor.

When Arnold Jacobs was a boy, he thought he might be the smartest kid in the world. By the time he was married and a young editor at Entertainment Weekly, he believed that he had gotten dumber. That is when he had a flash of inspiration and decided to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, 2002 Edition.

This quest was also, at least partially, an attempt to impress his father, who had begun the feat himself a long time ago, but gave up early and focused on writing mind-numbingly dense law books.

What follows is a very funny tour of the Britannica, and how reading it turned him into an insufferable bore. Jacobs' life is seriously impacted by this quest for knowledge self-aggrandizement. He and his wife are a working couple that is trying to get pregnant, so this is a bad time to start nerdifying oneself. The Britannica project also causes him to consider the difference between knowledge and wisdom, and even his own relationship to God.

This was a very funny, and even thoughtful, book if you can overlook the casual f-bombs. I give it 3 stars because, as much as I enjoyed it, I was starting to get anxious for it to end.

Easy Prey, by John Sandford

2007-11-12T05:37:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 12 hours and 37 minutes long, and was narrated by Richard Ferrone.

I am not reading these in order, just as I find them. This is the 11th in the Prey series about detective Lucas Davenport. He is investigating the deaths of two women who were at the same party. One is a local hotel hostess who had her neck broken and was stuffed in a closet. But they didn't find her until after they had found a strangled, and world famous, supermodel.

The order of these discoveries is meaningful because it is also the root of the investigation's misdirection. It is focused on the high-profile victim, and who would want to kill her.

This is a typical good story and good characters from an author who consistently delivers. And Richard Ferrone is the perfect narrator for the Davenport stories.

As a dedicated Davenport fan, I take note of the appearance of certain characters. In this one, Lucas is still on a break from his former lover, Weather Karkinnan. In later books, they will be married. This one was good but not outstanding at 3 stars.

Just a Guy, by Bill Engvall, Alan Eisenstock

2007-11-12T05:16:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was a free download from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was narrated by Bill Engvall.

The most likable of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour has created this autobiographical tour of his life and the things he finds interesting. If you are already a Bill Engvall fan, this is for you. If you were hoping that this was a book by the next Dave Barry, you will be sorely disappointed. It has a few funny moments, but it could have been condensed down to an interview.

I actually like Bill Engvall, and I cannot blame him for cashing in on his transient fame, but there is nothing compelling about this book. At best, I call it 2 star mind candy.

The Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy

2007-11-07T05:19:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 22 hours and 10 minutes long, and was narrated by Tom Stechschulte.

This was one of Pat Conroy's first novels, published in 1980. It is loosely based on his experiences as a cadet at The Citadel, where Conroy played Division 1 basketball in the mid 60s. Years later, Conroy wrote a non-fiction book about his senior year at The Citadel called "My Losing Season".

This one is about a young cadet, Will MacLean, who survives his plebe year and all the attendant hazing, and continues his college years as an iconoclast. He is a studious English major, a student athlete, and an uninspiring military specimen. Fortunately, he is part of a band of brothers. He and his 3 roommates would take a bullet for each other, and it is all that makes their time at South Carolina Military Academy possible.

During his senior year he is tasked with keeping watch over the school's first black cadet. This mission is not for the faint-hearted. Not only is this boy going to get the hazing of his life; but there is a secret organization on campus dedicated to keeping the school "pure", and they don't observe any limits.

This is a long book, but it flies by because there is so much going on. There is also much that will touch you, anger you, and even inspire you. This is Pat Conroy's most emotional book, in my opinion, because it strikes so close to his own heart. Even "The Great Santini", a book based on his relationship with his father, does not bring up Conroy's bile like this one. He hates bullies, and he hates the system that creates them; even turning former victims into bullies.

It was easy to give this one 4 stars.

Power Play, by Joseph Finder

2007-11-04T05:23:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audiobooks, through the website of the Alachua County Public Library. It was read by Dennis Boutsikaris, and was 8 hours and 30 minutes long, including an author interview.

Jake Landry is a lower level executive at an aircraft manufacturer. The company has recently gotten a new CEO, a woman, to clean up some sloppy business practices. Jake gets the call to come on one of those off-site team-building retreats where executives get to bond under rugged circumstances. He is the low man there, and he is not particularly ambitious. But he has a past that had to be expunged from his record when he turned 18.

As the opening night meeting is getting underway at the remote wilderness lodge, the entire executive team is captured by paramilitary types who are posing as errant hunters. Their goal is to force them to ransom themselves with a huge bank transfer, and they are willing to kill some of their hostages to make that point.

This story has excellent characters and a fast moving story that gets to the point without rushing things. It's a four star story.

Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey

2007-11-04T03:58:00.000-05:00

This audiobook was gotten from the Alachua County Public Library, was on 10 CDs and was read by Ken Kliban.

Connor Ashby is a young investment banker, lounging in his apartment with his hot girlfriend when he checks his email. It appears to have been sent to him by mistake. It's from someone named "Rusty" who is panicking and telling his boss that their book-cooking plot is about to be uncovered. As he is contemplating the origin of this missive, hot girlfriend asks him to go out and get her something. When he comes back, his apartment has been trashed, the girl is dead, and there is an armed man with bad aim still inside. Connor escapes with only a minor wound, but when he gets back with the police, the apartment is in good order, the girlfriend is gone, and now it's about to get complicated.

This promising start loses its way when it becomes tangled with yet another complicated story that is populated with less interesting characters. This book was needlessly complex and the story too improbable. It's like the mad scientist who is leaving the hero to die as soon as the rats chew through the cheese-encrusted rope that holds back the net full of hungry fiddler crabs that are lusting for human flesh. There has to be a simpler way to get things done.

I give it 2 stars for at least keeping me from moving on to the next book.

Hidden Prey, by John Sanford

2007-11-04T03:28:00.001-05:00

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com for free, was narrated by Rick Ferrone, and was 12 hours and 41 minutes long, including an author interview at the end.

Lucas Davenport, tough as nails detective, is trying to solve two murders that seem totally unconnected. This is number 15 in John Sanford's "Prey" series, and it is one of the better ones. You can always count on good characters and good writing, but this one has that special element of an intriguing idea: a leftover Soviet spy cell that has been in place since before WW2 has never been exposed and has never given up on the Revolution.

Spying has been a sort of family business. But in Minnesota, their specialty has not been cloak and dagger; it's been more like the underground railroad. They helped extract operatives through the Canadian border. But the 92 year-old patriarch has been grooming his grandson for the business by teaching him the darker arts. And the kid is getting good at it.

Lucas Davenport has evolved from the earlier books, that featured deranged serial killers and a regular change in love interests. Lucas is now married to a longtime lover, and he seems fairly domesticated.

This gets 4 stars. It's good to see Sanford back. I will always check his books out.

Straight Into Darkness, by Faye Kellerman

2007-10-29T05:47:00.001-04:00

This audiobook came from the Alachua County Library, was on 12 CDs, and was narrated by Paul Michael.

Axel Berg is a Munich policeman during the mid 1920s. He is investigating a series of brutal murders in the midst of tumultuous time. Hitler is on the rise, Jews are expendable, and they make excellent suspects. The trouble is that Berg is a conscientious policeman who wants to catch the actual killer. He also has a hard time fitting in with the anti-semitic mania. He is not a lover of the Jews, but neither can he be bothered looking for reasons to persecute them. He is a WW1 veteran, of Danish origins, fond of "subversive" art and music, and cheats on his wife. He is not lovable, but in contrast to the lunacy around him, he is heroic.

Excellent characters in a solid story during intriguing times, this one just slips into 4 star territory.

The Cell, by Stephen King

2007-10-29T05:19:00.001-04:00

This audiobook was downloaded free from NetLibrary.com, was 12 hours and 27 minutes long, and was narrated by Campbell Scott.

This one takes off running as a man finds himself in the middle of the Cell Phone Zombie Apocalypse with no warning at all. Whether it is a terrorist plot or demons is never ascertained, but some devilish pulse through the cell phone networks is turning everyone into their most primitive and bloodthirsty selves quicker than you can say, "Can you hear me now?"

Our hero is Clayton Riddell, a struggling illustrator who has just made the big time just in time for it not to matter. He is able to team up with a small band of people who were lucky enough to have been off their phones when the terror struck, and now he just wants to get in touch with his estranged wife and his 11-year-old son. Are they dead, undead, or just fleeing for their lives? You don't dare pick up a phone to call them. Because you could also become one of them.

Both gory and philosophical, this book is not about reaching a conclusion. The phone zombies and the "normies" are all ruined people. One group has lost its minds, while the other has lost it's faith. It's a cliff-hanger that leaves you falling and falling...

It's worth 3 stars if you like this sort of thing!

River of Doubt, by Candice Millard

2007-10-20T06:31:00.001-04:00

This audiobook was found at the Alachua County Public Library, came on 10 CDs, and was narrated by Paul Michael.

When my customers find out what an audiobook junkie I am, they sometimes make suggestions to me from their own reading. This year, someone told me about "River of Doubt" and I was immediately intrigued because I am a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt. I could not find this title for awhile, and even now it is unavailable at Amazon.com. But one day a search on the library website turned it up, and I put it on reserve. It was waiting for me when I got back from vacation.

This is a wonderful mix of history, biography, and suspenseful adventure. Any one of those descriptions is enough to lure me in, but all three, combined with Theodore Roosevelt risking life and limb in the Amazon jungle as a form of post-election therapy makes this unforgettable. Candice Millard takes you there with research that would rate as overkill if it were about anyone else.

It's both gripping and sad, as it also turns into a father and son examination. TR and his third son, Kermit, near-lethal hardships and acquit themselves admirably. Kermit was very much his father's son when it came to physical endurance and toughness in the midst of calamity. But away from the snake and cannibal infested testing ground, they were two totally different men.

I will avoid the spoilers and say that this is a 4 star delight, whether you are a history buff or and adrenaline junkie.

The Good Guy, by Dean Koontz

2007-10-19T06:31:00.000-04:00

This audiobook comes from the Alachua County Public Library, is on 9 CDs, and is narrated by Rick Ferrone.

I am a huge Dean Koontz fan, so I make a point of subscribing to his email newsletter and getting on the waiting list before the latest book even gets to the library. This one was good, but not great.

This is the story of a man who is mistakenly given a packet of money and a photograph by another man who wants someone killed. Our hero is a self-employed mason who is just minding his own business over a beer when he meets the over-anxious courier who has gotten ahead of his rendezvous with a hit man. The courier splits before our unwitting friend can open the envelope and see that he is expected to kill a young woman he has never seen before. Soon, the hit man arrives, approaches him, and now there is a decision to be made. Does this ordinary working guy hand over the money and the instructions and let nature take its course? Or does he attempt to interfere, perhaps saving this woman's life?

An interesting enough premise, but a below average villain for a Dean Koontz novel. Also, the man and woman who spend their time evading the killer are just not interesting enough. If you read a lot of Koontz, you could swear you have met them somewhere else. And you'd be right.

It saddens me to do so, but this is only a 2 and 1/2 star book.

Consider the Elephant, by Aram Schefrin

2007-10-19T06:19:00.000-04:00

This book is available for free from Podiobooks.com, and is available in 37 installments. Find it here. This dramatized, unabridged audiobook is not suitable for younger listeners because of explicit sexual content.

This is a novel about John Wilkes Booth and the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. It is based on extensive research, using actual letters to and from Booth that reveal a great deal of detail about events and his state of mind. It is very well written. The characters are vividly portrayed, and the story is riveting, even if you know how it turns out.

Your American History class would have been a whole lot more interesting if portions of this book had been made available. A film adaptation of this book would be a unique offering that I would love to see.

This gets 4 stars.

Marwan, by Aram Schefrin

2007-08-23T04:43:00.000-04:00

This audiobook came in 32 episodes from Podiobooks.com, was in mp3 format, and is narrated by several unidentified persons.

This is a novel about Marwan al Shehhi, one of the September 11 hijackers. It is a chilling story based on the documented investigation into the terror attacks. I was curious to see how the author, Aram Schefrin, managed to humanize such a monster. Could a complex individual full of misgivings have flown into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center? Or would he have to be a complete sociopath?

This book was hard to put aside, and the time flew by. "Marwan" was both sad and riveting. Schefrin succeeds at keeping your pity for Marwan separated from your horror of what he has done. And you need to do that to see the next terror attack coming. Marwan was not a "bad seed", but he had many of them sown in his brain. Ideas matter, and you cannot fight them with mere law enforcement.

Adams Vs. Jefferson: (The Tumultuous Election of 1800), by John E. Ferling

2007-08-06T06:18:00.000-04:00

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com, was 11 hours and 33 minutes long, and narrated by Jack Garrett.

You don't know how little you have really been taught about American History until you start reading books on the Founding Fathers. I got the same names and dates drilled into my head year after year with precious little light ever entering that would have helped me understand my country and its system of government.

The Election of 1800 was the first contested election in American history. The Election of 2000 has nothing on this. And the opposing forces come right out of the same molds that popped out our current leaders. The Federalists were the party of law and order and a strong military. They fought to enact the "Alien and Sedition Acts". These were the Patriot Act on steroids. The Republicans (not the same party we know today) was anti-military and in love with the French Revolution, although a bit queasy about the acts of terror. It's funny how little really changes; only the names and places.

This was a gripping and vivid story of the men who guided our nation in its formative years, their feet of clay, and a lot of surprises for people who thought they knew their American History. Well written and well ready by the narrator, Jack Garret; this book is a 4 star champ.

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

2007-07-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

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.

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

2007-07-26T05:55:00.000-04:00

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.

The Pleasing Hour, by Lily King

2007-07-16T07:12:00.000-04:00

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.

The Blue Hour, by T. Jefferson Parker

2007-07-11T06:01:00.001-04:00

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

2007-07-11T05:27:00.000-04:00

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.

The Giants of Irish Literature: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce and Beckett, by George O'Brien

2007-06-25T06:11:00.000-04:00

This audio book was 8 hours and 18 minutes long, and was narrated by the lecturer, George O'Brien. It is part of the Great Scholars series that features renowned professors teaching their specialty. It was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com.

For its biographical sketches of the authors and their times, it was interesting. For the analysis of the writing, it was considerably duller. I recently listened to James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and enjoyed it. Listening to it being picked apart was much less enjoyable.

To his credit, Professor O'Brien did make me put Oscar Wilde on my short list of authors to check out. That pushed this offering into 3 star territory only barely.

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

2007-06-19T05:22:00.000-04:00

This audio book came from the Alachua County Public Library on 6 CDs, was 7 hours long, and was narrated by Stephen J. Dubner.

I was on a long waiting list to get this book from the library. I have been hearing about it for a long time.

It's Steven Levitt's research that is the basis of this book. The sub-title refers to him as a rogue economist, but I think that only means he talks about everyday things instead of the consumer price index and gross domestic product. This book seems to be a mesh of psychology and economics: a study of incentives and how they motivate people in the real world. It seeks to answer questions like: How has legalized abortion affected crime rates? And, If there is so much money in dealing drugs, why do so many drug dealers live at home with their moms?

This book's completely rational, utilitarian approach to human behavior in the marketplace delivers a lot of surprises. It is completely amoral, so it will unsettle people who have the strongest moral compass. But it will be fair in that it disturbs people on both sides of a moral issue. After all, if you just go by the numbers, you can come to some pretty dehumanizing conclusions.

It wasn't a long book, so that means it got to the point. It waded into geek speak only long enough to establish its credentials. It was highly entertaining and thought-provoking, and worth 4 stars any day.

Waiting `Til the Midnight Hour, by Peniel E. Joseph

2007-06-15T06:16:00.000-04:00

This audio book was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 13 hours long, and was narrated by Beresford Bennett.

As a white kid growing up in Upstate NY during the 60s, that names of Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, "Rap" Brown, and Angela Davis were not familiar to me. Even Malcolm X would have drawn a blank in a neighborhood with no unrest and few blacks. And those who did live among us were fully integrated into the neighborhood. I even had an African American history class in the 6th grade, but the aforementioned pioneers of the Black Power movement were not yet history. They were the news. At least they were in other parts of America.

This book was fascinating, enlightening, and disheartening. It was fascinating because it fleshed out the players in America's Civil Rights movement. It was enlightening because it was a very human story anyone could identify with. It was disheartening because every problem is viewed through the lens of the black/white struggle. And not every problem in the black community is the fault of white people.

One of the things that sticks out here is that all the leaders were so incredibly young. By the time he was 29, Stokely Carmichael had met Ho Chi Mihn and Fidel Castro. He had been all over the world, including China, and was a world famous icon of revolutionary struggle. What do you really know by the time you are 29? Consequently, some of the players no longer believe what they did when they were getting everyone else on board.

This is a terrific story of people insisting on being heard. It worked, warts and all. There are characters who will surprise you and impress you and annoy you. This was an engrossing story and worth every one of 4 stars.

The Innocent Man, by John Grisham

2007-06-13T06:23:00.001-04:00

This audio book was obtained from the Alachua County Library, and was on 10 CDs.

First, I was surprised that this was not a novel. I hadn't really paid attention when I picked it up, and I was almost done with the first disc when I just had to check. No, this is the true story of how easy it was for several men to get convicted of serious crimes, even getting the death penalty, without being guilty. If you don't believe that anyone really gets convicted who is not guilty, this will disturb your little world. If you are in favor of the death penalty, it might bother you, but only if you cannot disconnect your emotions from your ability to reason.

This is primarily the story of Ron Williamson, a local sports hero who descended into drugs, alcohol, and metal illness after failing to advance his baseball career. This made him an easy target for a maniacally aggressive prosecutor in a small town when a local girl is murdered in her apartment. There was no evidence placing Williamson at the scene, and a much better suspect was completely overlooked, but it seemed that the police and DA went after him for no other reason than their disdain for him.

Williamson was eventually cleared, narrowly missing execution, and won a huge lawsuit for wrongful prosecution. There is not much heroic about Ron Williamson. He is too pathetic to be a hero, but the villainy of the local law enforcement in Ada, Oklahoma is so disturbing that it is little surprise that someone eventually had to speak out about it. Do NOT visit this town or get pulled over for anything there!

4 stars of pure moral outrage.

Night, by Elie Wiesel

2007-06-03T06:16:00.000-04:00

This audio book was 4 hours and 17 minutes long, including a reading of Wiesel's speech to the Nobel Prize committee in 1986. It was free from NetLibrary.com.

This book was originally published the year I was born, 1958. That was 13 years after Elie Wiesel's liberation from the German death camps at the age of 17.

When I was growing up, all adults still had a fresh remembrance of the monstrous regime that had terrorized the world, and the Holocaust was already a part of the vocabulary. I saw all the movies about Nazi atrocities, and took seriously my duty as a part of humanity to remember what was done to the Jews and other minorities. How I missed this book is a wonder.

This story sets itself apart from the rest of my personal witness of the media's rendition of the Holocaust. Most books and movies focus on the cruel inhumanity of how the Jews were treated. Wiesel's book spends the first half documenting the denial of the Jews as they saw it coming. Yes, there are a couple of voices in the wilderness, but they are usually scorned and despised for their prescience.

This simple account, unadorned by the gratuitous violence of most Holocaust movies, made it easy for me to believe that the average German citizen could have been in the same state of unbelief while this was happening. It is also a grim warning to all of us that neutrality only benefits the oppressor, as Wiesel states in his speech to the Nobel committee. We must take sides in the resistance to dictators. And we must do it early. At least, that's what I came away with. And this gets 4 stars.

Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, by Pietra Rivoli

2007-05-31T05:11:00.000-04:00

This audio book came free from NetLibrary.com, was 9 hours and 35 minutes long, and was narrated by Eliza Foss.

An economist is both annoyed and inspired by a protest against globalization by impassioned college students. After hearing one of the open-air speakers demand to know if we know were our t-shirts come from, economist and professor Pietra Rivoli goes to a souvenir shop, buys a t-shirt, and begins tracing its origins...and its destiny.

This is one of the most readable and interesting stories of the economic food chain you are likely to come across. It was a real page-turner with a stunning conclusion, that we all should be able to come to on our own: both the sweat shops and the protesters are important ingredients in the global ecosystem.

If you are a rabid free-trader, you must read this! It will alter your view of those naiive kids and their signs. If you are one of those capitalist-hating anti-globalists, you also should read this. If you have an open mind, it will temper your outrage and help you focus your efforts.

From the heavily protected and subsidized cotton fields of West Texas to the wide open, unregulated global recycling market in Africa, your t-shirt and been places and one things. And then it may come back again as it is broken down and respun into new thread!

Warning: there is lots of history in this book about the folly of working too hard to prevent trade. The English woolens industry kept cotton out of its markets for centuries. But regulations got weaker and weaker in the face of the eager public adoption of cooler cotton clothes. The last regulation to die was the one that required that the dead had to be buried in a wool suit!

Great stuff. Four stars. Oughta be a text book in our schools...

The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle, by Lois Battle

2007-05-26T05:14:00.000-04:00

This book was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 13 hours and 37 minutes long, and was narrated by Christine McMurdo-Wallis.

In Florabama, Alabama a lingerie manufacturer is moving offshore and leaving its hourly workforce behind. These are mostly women, and their best hope is a loophole a Displaced Homemakers program at the local community college.

In another part of Alabama, Bonnie Duke Cullman, a well-bred, comfortable woman and upper crust homemaker, discovers that her emotionally distant husband has made a train wreck of their finances. Their divorce leaves her without a rich husband to sue for alimony. She ends up taking a job with the community college in Florabama as the director of the Displaced Homemakers program. The difference between Bonnie and her educationally disadvantaged charges is that she has a rich father who was able to pull the strings needed to get her the job to begin with.

I expected her differences with the laid off ladies to breed discontent, but their differences among them have prepared them for life's discrepancies. Hilly Pruit and Ruth Elkins are next-door neighbors and close friends, even though Hilly is a bar-hopping red-head out of a country song, and Ruth is a quiet church-goer keeping her wayward daughter's brood of rug-rats.

Bonnie's connections and high-priced worldview come in handy as she matches her boutique connections to the ladies' skills, and convinces them that there is a market for Jane Austen era party dresses for little girls. And she is right. But that does not keep disaster from striking just as a glimmer of hope appears.

Characters trump story and this is a chick flick waiting to happen. Too much of a soap opera and too many missed opportunities to be 4 stars, but it's easily worth 3.

The New Golden Age, by Ravi Batra

2007-05-24T05:27:00.000-04:00

This unabridged audio book came from the Alachua County Public Library on 9 CDs, and was read by Brian Emerson.

If you make enough predictions, you are bound to get some right. Both psychics and economists count on this, and Professor Batra is no different. In fact, Batra was the winner of an Ig Nobel prize in 1993. He was described as a, "shrewd economist and best-selling author of "The Great Depression of 1990" ($17.95) and
"Surviving the Great Depression of 1990" ($18.95), for selling enough copies of his books to single-handedly prevent worldwide economic collapse."

When Batra is not delivering an anti-Bush and Cheney rant, this idealistic Hindu slant on history is actually quite provocative and entertaining. It is mostly an expansion on P.R. Sarkar's theories of social evolution. These theories propose that societies are comprised of 4 social classes: laborers, intellectuals, warriors, and acquisitors (capitalists). The intellectuals, warriors and acquisitors take turns dominating and ruling society as the laborers cast their lots with each group in a predictable progression. The domination of the rich acquisitors always ends in massive corruption, immorality and poverty. The warriors and labor take their country back, establish order, fairness and traditional family. Eventually, they give way to the intellectuals, who are better at governing than conquering. Then they give way to the business people, who are better at expanding opportunity. When not enough people are taking advantage of opportunity, and those who are live like kings, the warriors again ascend to restore justice. At least, that is theme of this book.

It is easy to get caught up in Batra's worldview because he draws on so much history to demonstrate his thesis. And much of that history comes from beyond Western Civilization, which raises the level of fascination. He tells us that there are frequent examples of Golden Ages, which he always assigns to the time after the evil rich are dethroned. Of course, these Golden Ages come on two-edged swords. It is not uncommon for them to have rather puritanical backlashes against pornography, prostitution, and homosexuality. The poor are not just sick of the injustices of the rich. The perversion and vulgarity of the age usually suffers as well. The recent squeeze on talk radio hosts Don Imus and Opie & Anthony were not led by the Religious Right, but by civil libertarians devouring their own kind. Apparently, a lot of people have limits after all.

Like a good economist, who has been burned by his own lack of judgment in the past, Batra demonstrates that there are also escape clauses for the social cycle and all that comes with it. After venting his spleen on Bush and the Iraq War, he actually dares to say that the rest of the world needs to pitch in and help because America has saved the world's bacon before, and that failing to do so could be a big mistake! He even intimates that history may vindicate Bush in the end.

In the last chapter, he also does a little back-pedaling on the meaning of the Golden Age. But I can forgive him because I always grade economists on a curve. In spite of its sometimes puzzling contradictions and omissions, I gave this book 3 stars for having much to offer any discussion on national and international affairs. There is something to offend everyone, and to enlighten as well.

Schmidt Delivered, by Louis Begley

2007-05-18T04:45:00.000-04:00

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com, was 8 hours and 11 minutes long, and was free. It was also narrated by George Guidall.

This is a sequel to "About Schmidt", which was made into a movie that starred Jack Nicholson. The movie was pretty good, which is what lured me to download this book.

I didn't care for it. A novel needs at least one likable character for me to get on board. Schmidt is a retired attorney who is everybody's ATM. His bloodsucking daughter scorns him to his face while shaking him down. The young woman who lives with him is already looking for greener pastures while driving the BMW he gave her. Some bad penny that he tried to help out has failed again and is now back on his doorstep. And he could be dangerous.

Add to that the only really compelling character, a pushy billionaire who is trying to get Schmidt out of retirement to run one of his foundations, and there is really no one to pull for. That leaves Schmidt, who you wish would just blow everyone off, get on a sailboat, and sail away with no forwarding address. But who cares if he does, because he is such a schmuck.

One star is all it's worth, and a distant one at that.

Stationary Bike, by Stephen King

2007-05-15T06:06:00.000-04:00

This short audiobook was downloaded from NetLibrary.com, was only 1 hour and 28 minutes long, and was read by Ron McLarty.

This is not a horror story, but an odd piece of fantasy fiction. An overweight man in his late 30's, Richard Sifkitz vows to lower his cholesterol and his weight. Mr. Sifkitz is also a commercial artist, so to relieve the boredom of riding his new stationary bike, he paints a wall mural to watch as he rides. The mural contains parts of his past, and parts of himself. More or less.

Not great, but 3 stars for imagination...and brevity.

Dark Genius of Wall Street, by Edward Renehan

2007-05-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

This book was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com, was 14 hours and 50 minutes long, and narrated by George Wilson.

This great biography is about one of the players of America's Gilded Age, Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons.

I don't know if you can really get a grasp of American history without getting to know the players. Jay Gould was the most notorious stock manipulator of the 19th century, and one of the richest men in the world during his lifetime. He began as a teen-aged land surveyor who got stiffed by his employer. From there he began publishing the maps he was stuck with, then got into the hide tanning business. By the time he was in his early 30s he owned a railroad and was driving his competitor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, crazy.

Unfortunately, he made a train wreck of his reputation in the stock market. The times were incredibly corrupt, and you had to be a dirtbag to keep from getting skinned. So he became the biggest dirtbag of them all. By the time he died, every paper could only speak ill of him.

Yet, this was a very humanizing look at a man who made a vast fortune bringing other millionaires to the point of nervous exhaustion. He was a devious competitor and a micro-managing CEO of every company he was involved in. He was brilliant, yet he was also a tragic figure who lamented, toward the end of his life, that he could give his children everything except a good name.

4 stars for this amazing trip back to Victorian Era America.

The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard

2007-05-06T05:15:00.000-04:00

This book came from the Alachua County Library, was published in 2004, is 11 hours and 15 minutes long, and was narrated by Virginia Leishman.

Shortly after WW2, a young British Officer has gone to Japan to do research for a book. He is in his early 30's, divorced, and falls in love with his superior's teenage daughter. This is not as racy as it sounds. Think: audio version of "Masterpiece Theatre". Slow, plodding story with lots of engaging scenery. Harmless is canceled out by dull. This is a one-star book.

Thieves' Paradise, by Eric Jerome Dickey

2007-04-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

This book also comes from the Alachua County Public Library, was on 12 CDs, 12 hours and 30 minutes long, and narrated by Bill Andrew Quinn. I plucked this one off the shelf because I recognized the author's name, and I knew I had never read him.

At 25 years old, Dante Brown has no family, no job, and plenty of baggage. He did a long stretch in juvenile hall as a teenager after he pulled a gun on his abusive father, who was also a police officer. Both parents are now dead, and his luck has been more down than up. While waiting for a new employer to call him, Dante falls back on the safety net offered by Scamz, a slick con-man who provides short term employment for the entire black community at one time or another. At least it seems that way in this story.

I found this story rather disturbing because it looks like every black person with a legitimate job only serves as an undercover asset for Scamz: stealing credit card information, acting as a courier for stolen plastic, assisting in real-estate swindles. And every woman is a snake. They are either trying to tag some innocent dupe to be the daddy of someone else's child, stepping out on the dupe, or doing anything for money. If I had written this, I could expect to see my face on Fox News right next to Reverend Al's talking head.

If this is just an "authentic novel about black culture", it's a serious downer. I find it hard to believe that every African-American is on retainer for an ad hoc firm of grifters. I don't know anyone like this. Or maybe I do and I just don't know it.

A very sad story well-written, for which I cannot forgive its infectious negativity. It gets 2 ambivalent stars.

Def Jam, Inc., by Stacey Gueraseva

2007-04-25T20:13:00.000-04:00

This book was obtained from the Alachua Public Library, was on 9 CDs, and was published in 2005. It was narrated by Kevin R. Free.

Yes, this is the story of Hip-Hop, as it was nurtured by a record company started by a 19 year-old white Jewish college student and a black rap impresario. Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons were out promoting the urban beats before radio would have them, so they took the music of young artists in the embryonic hip-hop movement and brought it straight to the streets.

Part music history, part guerrilla marketing primer, this is a fascinating look at a music genre in which I have previously had little interest. It still doesn't speak to me, although it was hard to listen to this story without beginning to care about the players.

Hip-hop, it appears, was a multi-racial movement from it's beginning. And Def Jam promoted black and white artists. It's all-time biggest star, as I learned later, was actually the Beastie Boys, which I always thought was a punk rock group. They were frequently eclipsed by other acts, like LL Cool J, Run DMC, Public Enemy, and other black stars, but for sheer longevity and raw numbers, the Beasties have outsold them all.

The violence associated with black rappers is only a small part of this story, as was the east-west rivalry that sometimes lead to bloodshed. As an outcast industry, hip-hop was originally shunned by black radio stations that were run by Motown era conservatives that wrinkled their noses at the new upstarts. If they got airplay at all, it was usually late at night. This outsider position made it a magnet for outlaw elements.

This was an eye-opener, and I did enjoy it, although I thought it ended a bit abruptly. I give it 3 stars.

Conviction, by Richard North Patterson

2007-04-23T05:29:00.000-04:00

This unabridged audiobook was obtained from the Alachua County Library, was on 14 CDs, originally published in 2005, and narrated by Patricia Kalember.

I've enjoyed most of Richard North Patterson's books, but they have been getting preachier. So, if you are a death penalty opponent and you don't like to have your convictions questioned at any point in your literature, this one is for you.

Rennell Price is on death row, along with his brother, for a sex crime and murder of a 9 year-old girl. Rennell has been on death row for 15 years, and ever since the day he was picked up by the police, he has asserted that he, "didn't do that little girl". Unfortunately, Rennell is borderline retarded, had a totally useless attorney, and with only a month before he is to be executed, he gets a new attorney with a functioning brain.

Of course there is reasonable doubt, and no evidence actually tying him to the crime. But if it takes a harmonic convergence of ineptitude, prosecutor meanness, and bad law, from the bottom all the way to the Supreme Court, all you have to do is write it to make it happen.

The characters are well-written and engaging, but that is the least I expect from Mr. Patterson. But if my eyes get repetitive motion injuries from rolling throughout the story, something is definitely wrong here. On the count of propagandizing with intent to outrage, I find the defendant guilty. The mitigating factor of good prose makes me go easy on him: 2 stars.

Lords of the North, by Bernard Cornwell

2007-04-14T21:40:00.000-04:00

This audiobook was obtained from the Alachua County Public Library, was 13 hours and 8 minutes long, and was narrated by Tom Sellman.

This is the third in the series about the times of King Alfred the Great, as told through Uhtred, a dethroned Lord who was captured and raised by Vikings as a youth. This latest installment introduces us to Guthred, a slave who becomes king of his own small realm. He want to be a good king, and is always wondering, "What would Alfred do?" Guthred is a good man, but a ruler of questionable judgment. He is single-minded enough to be dedicated to preserving his kingdom, but weak-willed enough to let powerful men into his confidence only to betray him later.

This is still very much Uhtred's story, however. He is a pagan who detests the Christians, is endlessly critical of the duplicitous priests, and amazed at the way they all revere the bones and teeth and hair of saints and near-saints. Uhtred reminds me of King David's warrior, Joab, who was always looking out for the King's interest, but did not seek the Lord. Uhtred is effective as a warrior, intuitive as a politician, and not afraid to frame someone with a throw-down piece if he needs to.

The first two books have been relentless in their attack on the Medieval church, but there are some Christians who actually distinguish themselves heroically in this story. Just like today, there are some blithering idiots in th spotlight, but the poor are still made rich in faith. (James 2:5)

In the author's epilogue, he reveals that he is actually descended from a man named Uhtred who lived in those times. And he further reveals that this saga is not over yet. I am glad and look forward to it. This one got 4 stars.

Lincoln's Melancholy, by Joshua Wolf Shenk

2007-04-12T05:53:00.000-04:00

This book came from the Alachua County Library, was narrated by Richard Davidson, and was on 10 CDs.

This fascinating look at Lincoln and his personal battles with depression will make you think differently about mental illness. Lincoln was fortunate to live in a time when a melancholy spirit was not shunned as an imperfection, but accepted as part of the man's whole personality. However, even as a young adult he seemed to be plagued with such dark moods that his friends made a point to keep an eye on him sometimes because they feared for his life.

In the past, historians have avoided this subject. This was largely because many of them discounted the memories of Lincoln's earliest biographer, William Herndon. Herndon had been an early law partner of Lincoln, a political intimate, and someone who disliked Mary, Lincoln's wife. Later historians believed that Herndon, in an effort to disparage Mary Todd Lincoln, had embellished her husband's emotional state after a supposed love interest with a young woman named Ann Rutlege. But many more writings have come to light in recent years, which have become the basis of this book.

This book was every bit as much about clinical depression as it was about Lincoln, who is a very fit subject for such discussions. This is thought provoking for those of us who know sufferers, and a great encouragement for those who are sufferers. 4 stars.

Kill Me, by Stephen White

2007-04-10T04:51:00.000-04:00

This audiobook is available in the Alachua County Library, came on 10 discs, and was read by Dick Hill. It is part of the series that features a psychologist named Alan Gregory, except that Alan only has a bit part in this novel. The story is about one of his patients.

The main character tells his story, but never his name. He is rich, white, middle-aged male who has made a boatload of money in the medical technology field. He is a charismatic, athletic risk-taker, and his days are numbered. He has an aneurysm in his brain, but that is probably not what is going to kill him.

He has insured himself against suffering, some time before he knew of his condition, by contracting the services of a shadowy organization that promises to kill him before he becomes physically or mentally incapacitated. He refers to them as "The Death Angels", but this odd insurance company has no listing on the NYSE, no business cards, and no legal standing. They are sincere, well-meaning, fastidious in their agreements and how they keep them, and deadly. Our nameless hero got hooked up with them through a friend whose wife lingered long as she waited to die. They have a mutual friend who recently went too long without oxygen on a cave-diving trip, and now he's a vegetable. Our man does not want this to happen to him, so after much consideration he applies for this service.

It was almost delightful to hear the language of this arrangement for "end of life services". It's very legal-sounding, with all the bases covered and the contingencies laid out. There are all kinds of rule that the Death Angels conscientiously follow, including the one that says this service is irrevocable. You have made this decision while you were in your right mind. It was intended to protect you from the indecision you would have when you are impaired.

The rest of this book is about our man's attempts to get out of the deal when he has some unfinished business land on his doorstep. This group of merciful assassins is resourceful, well-equipped, and quite determined to earn their premiums.

For all of its nuttiness as a concept, this is really a very thoughtful story. It is the best this author has created, and the narration is mesmerizing. Entertaining, suspenseful and philosophical, this is a 4 star novel. It includes a forward by the author which tells what true story inspired him.

Shadow Divers, by Robert Kurson

2007-04-05T20:56:00.000-04:00

This book was from the Alachua County Library, was an unabridged audiobook on 13 CDs, and was read by Michael Prichard.

If you are a big fan of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels on audio, you will feel right at home with the familiar voice of Michael Prichard. His is the perfect voice for these stories of the deep. The big difference is that this is a true story without the campy characters to make your eyes roll.

After a fisherman snags his nets on a mysterious wreck, he brings it to the attention of a legendary diver who has gone to seed named Bill Nagel. This man knows he will need the help of the very best divers he can find, so he assembles a team of experienced men who are willing to take a chance.

One of the men who answers the call is John Chatterton, a former army medic who is a commercial diver. He makes the discovery that what they have found is a submarine of unknown origin. It is at a depth of about 230 feet, which is a very dangerous place for any diver to work.

It is 7 years and 3 dead divers before Chatterton and a later addition to the team, Richie Kohler, finally uncover the identity of what they knew was a WW2 German U-boat with its full crew of skeletal dead. They defy death, personal tragedy, and the record of history in their dogged pursuit of truth about the men who died off the coast of New Jersey in the 1940s. And eventually they find closure for themselves and the families of the German sailors who died half a century before.

This was a very moving story about the men who became obsessed with their own personal search for truth. From John Chatterton's search for himself as a medic in Viet Nam to the recreation of the lives of the men who died on the U-boat, as told by the crew member who missed the boat to eternity, this story will get inside your head and your heart all the way to the end.

As a special bonus, there is an interview at the end with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. As a special bonus to you now, there is a great website about the wreck they found, and it's right here! This book was a 4 star masterpiece.

The Pale Horseman, by Bernard Cornwell

2007-03-31T07:06:00.000-04:00

This book was obtained from the Alachua County Public Library, is on CD, and is 14 hours and 35 minutes long. It is ably narrated by Tom Sellwood.

Uhtred returns, and he is nastier than ever. Perhaps it only seems that way because he is no longer the youth we made excuses for. He is also much more focussed on regaining the lands of his noble heritage, and he has the best chance of gaining them back under Alfred, who is trying to get England free of the Danes.

Alfred (one day to be referred to as "the Great") has tried negotiating his way to peace with the savage invaders, and each time he is betrayed. Lives and lands are lost, but Alfred, who is portrayed here as a bit of a religious nincompoop, keeps trying to use peaceful means while trying to save his enemies' souls. Uhtred finds this insufferable. Even though he likes the Danes, he is willing to kill all that he must to regain his own security. As you recall, Uhtred was raised a Dane after being captured as a boy, looks and dresses like a Dane, speaks the language, and is a very capable warrior and spy.

In spite of Alfred's well-meaning incompetence as a military leader, enough things break his way to keep him in the hunt for a unified English nation. So far, the Angles, the Saxons, the Britons, and the Northumberlands have warred on each other from time to time, and it is only now that a common enemy is making them work together. Although Alfred is pretty hard to take by the warriors, it is his vision that eventually saves England and its future.

Uhtred and the other bloodthirsty Saxons are indispensable, lethal tools in the service of Alfred. Neither could have prospered without the other. In this book, Alfred is a much better character than he was in the last. And he seems somewhat vindicated in his steadfast faith that God is for him, even when Alfred keeps screwing things up.

There are historical notes at the end. This one only gets 3 stars because it was not quite as interesting as the first one. I am going to take a break from Uhtred for about a week. Then I will take up the latest installment, Lords of the North.

The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell

2007-03-27T04:53:00.000-04:00

This book came from the library. It is 12 hours and 58 minutes long, was on 11 CDs, and was narrated by Tom Sellwood.

Be warned: I am on a Bernard Cornwell bender. I saw an add for his latest novel and decided to check with the library to see if they had added any of his titles lately. I struck gold. They had all 3 novels in this new series, begun in 2005. When I put them on reserve, I had no idea that all 3 would be available in just a few days. I must take this opportunity!

This is not one of those smutty romance novels disguised as historical fiction. This is more like "Braveheart", only without the romance and idealism.

Cornwell uses some real persons from history, but his protagonist is almost always some nobody who is on the scene and taking an active part. Uhtred is the son of a minor nobleman in the late 9th century. At 10 years old, while his father's army is repelling Danish invaders, Uhtred is captured, enslaved, and eventually adopted by a danish warlord named Ragnar.

Uhtred's brother had been killed while spying on the Danes before the conflict began which killed his father. Now Uhtred is being raised by Ragnar as a Dane, unencumbered by any rules or priests, and he begins to prefer it. Nonetheless, Uhtred grows up wanting his former estate more and more, which frequently leaves him swinging between the 2 sides when it serves his own interests.

Eventually, Uhtred ends up serving Alfred the Great, Lord of the last Kingdom in England. He is all that has stood between the Danes and a complete conquest of England. This is very much a religious war as well as a war for land, which is what motivates the Danish raiders in search of better lands than their own. The church, portrayed as a hobbling factor to devout English monarchs, wants peace at any price and is always pressuring its secular rulers to let God do their fighting for them. This only encourages the pagan Danes, who see the English as weakened by their Christians. After a bad storm takes out half the Danish fleet, the church and Alfred feel vindicated, but Uhtred is still unconvinced. He still wears Thor's Hammer charm around his neck, and believes more in fate than in any personal god.

Uhtred is 20 at the end of this book, and you can tell there will be more. There is an epilogue in which the author tells about his approach to using the history, and embellishing it, in the service of telling a fictional tale. It is good to know these things if you are a stickler for detail. This is a 4 star book, well-read by the narrator.

A Rage for Glory, by James Tertius DeKay

2007-03-22T06:24:00.000-04:00

This audiobook was 8 hours and 56 minutes long, and was narrated by John McDonough.

This is the heroic, yet tragic, story of Stephen Decatur, America's forgotten naval hero.

This story begins with the report of Decatur's mortal wound and painful death from a duel in 1820, when he was only 41 years old and at the zenith of his career. So famous and highly regarded was he that it is entirely possible that he would have been President instead of Andrew Jackson, a less celebrated entity.

The author, having told us the end, goes back to the beginning and tells Decatur's life story. He was born in the middle of the American Revolution, in 1779, while his father served as an American privateer: a sea captain who ran blockades for profit.

Young Stephen goes to sea with his father and learns about sailing as well as the old man's obsession with honor. Of course, they were in good company. The times were such that honor was frequently defended with deadly force. Stephen Decatur grew up in a dueling culture, which was only an extension of a similar worldview that valued fame and glory above mere wealth.

These values both make and break the men of those time. As a young naval officer, Decatur steals into the harbor of Tripoli and boards a heavily guarded ship that had been captured by the Barbary Pirates. He and his small band put all the guards to the sword, so they die quietly, set the ship ablaze, and barely escape to sea under musket and cannon fire. This exhilarating deed deprives America's enemies of their most potent weapon, a retrieves the honor lost by the captain who surrendered the ship. This famous deed earns him the rank of captain at the age of 25, ahead of others on the list for promotion. It is only the beginning of a life of both military and diplomatic success that makes him a household word for the next 16 years.

But the undoing of Stephen Decatur is under way from soon thereafter. An early captain he served under, James Barron, is court marshaled for something unrelated to Decatur, other than the fact that the younger officer had to serve on the board of inquiry, even though he tried to get out of it. Barron was barred from military service for 5 years, and went overseas to captain ships privately, though he made little from it.

This resentment festered for years. Barron frequently wrote Decatur to attempt to provoke him into a duel. Decatur resisted as long as he could, but finally decided to get it over with. He actually confessed to a friend that he knew he might die because, although he was a crack shot, he did not want to shoot Barron. He apparently hoped that they would both do what many duelists did to save face, and their lives: fire into the ground or overhead. But Barron set the deadliest terms possible; that they present, aim, and then fire with a count of three. Decatur only insisted that he be close to his home in case he should need a doctor.

There was also an author interview at the end, which easily made this a 4 star book.