Guilty, by Ann Coulter

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.

High Crimes, by Michael Kodas

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.

Rise and Shine, by Anna Quindlen

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.