Audiobooks

Bragg, Rick. Ava's Man. Random House Audio, 2001. Rick Bragg, storyteller extraordinaire, tells the story of Charlie Bundrum, his maternal grandfather, in this abridged audio book from Random House Audio Voices. Just the fact that it is Bragg himself doing the reading makes it worth the price of purchase. Ava Bundrum and her man Charlie moved themselves and their seven children 21 times in the decade of the Great Depression, always one step ahead of poverty and starvation. Charlie, in order to provide for his family, worked as a roofer, a carpenter, a bootlegger, and a fisherman. He couldn't read, but he had Ava read him the paper every day so that he would not be ignorant. As his grandson proudly states, "He was a man who took giant steps in rundown boots, a true hero whom history would otherwise have overlooked." This moving reflection about home and family is Rick Bragg at his best.

Condon, Richard. Prizzi's Family. A Book On Tape, 1991. By day, Charley Partanna is a hit man for the Prizzi family. By night he studies for his high school equivalency exam--when he's not juggling two gorgeous women. But these two may be more than even Charley can handle. One, Mardell, is a knockout, one-third fantasy and two-thirds legs. The other, Maerose, is Charley's boss's granddaughter. She's hungry for power, honor...and Charley...usually in that order. And she doesn't want to share. For Charley, it's a problem that he needs to solve--but his hormones keep getting in the way. Cheerful and funny; this book is sprinkled with perversity, religious mania, an obsession with honor, assault and battery and of course greed and lust. Hilarious!

Condon, Richard. Prizzi's Honor. Books On Tape, 1985. Prizzi’s Honor is no ordinary story of boy-meets-girl. Charley Partanna is a faithful lieutenant for the Prizzis, New York's most powerful Mafia family. The object of his affections is Irene Walker, a Los Angeles-based tax consultant. But it's her freelancing that pays--she's a hit woman for the Mob. She has also cheated the Prizzis out of an unforgivably large sum of money. This is very dangerous moonlighting indeed, and eventually it places Charley's oldest loyalties in conflict with his newest one. Which wins? The narrator, Christopher Hurt, does a decent Jack Nicholson accent and gives the film version a run for its money. Highly recommended!

Condon, Richard. Prizzi's Glory. Books On Tape, 1991. Tired, depressed and bored, Charley Fontana marries Maerose "for the change." But he needn't have bothered. Don Corrado has a bigger change in mind...respectability for the Prizzis. Gambling, narcotics, extortion, murder, loan-sharking, prostitution – these lines get franchised to young muscle. But the money still flows to the family. Don Corrado uses it to leverage a new scam: national political power, with Charley (now the respectable Charles Macy Barton) at the helm.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel. Books On Tape, Inc., 1997. Eleven 1.5 hour cassettes. ( Read by Doug Ordunio) Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond examines and dismantles racially biased theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors responsible for shaping the modern world. Find out what he says about why some societies and not others got a head start in food, production, writing, technology and government and why the conquering societies were not conquered. This is an unabridged recording of a book that was perhaps a bit too far reaching in scope. The reader was not very good so I would recommend reading it instead of listening to it. The material is interesting and thought provoking, so if you have an interest in the subject you will like it.

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Simon & Schuster Audioworks, 1991. (Performed by Patrick Stewart) A must for all fans of Charles Dickens or Patrick Stewart. For those who missed seeing Stewart's one-man performance of A Christmas Carol on Broadway (or even for those who *did* see the performance) this audio version is a treat, with Stewart portraying all of the characters in Dickens' famous story. His interpretation of each character is a pleasure for the listener; without the least hint of strain, he brings them all to life: men, women, children, and ghosts, not to mention contributing his own personal sound effects such as church bells and rattling chains. Stewart's sense of timing is a marvel--his pauses at dramatic moments are enough to make a listener forget to breathe--and if you're not crying into your eggnog during the sequence of The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, then you have a heart of stone. If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing this performance, then run "like the dickens" to get this set of tapes!

Erdreich, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. HarperCollins Publishers Audio, 2001. (Read by Anna Fields) Erdreich's latest book has won a lot of critical acclaim, and rightly so. It's a fascinating novel about a priest on an Ojibwe reservation who lives a secret life. This is a little bit tough to follow because of all the Ojibwe names and places, sometimes it seems as though you are listening to a foreign language because the Ojibwe words are substituted for English words - which means you really have to listen! The audiobook is also very long at 10 tapes, but the reader, Anna Fields, is great. She has the perfect voice and accent for the story. I would recommend this to someone looking for a challenge and a more "literary" audiobook.

Hickum, Homer. Rocket Boys. (October Sky : A Memoir) Simon & Schuster, 1998. Inspired by Werner von Braun and his Cape Canaveral team, 14-year-old Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets. They were his tickets out of Coalwood, West Virginia, a mining town that everyone knew was dying--everyone except Sonny's father, the mine superintendent and a company man so dedicated that his family rarely saw him. Hickam's smart, iconoclastic mother wanted her son to become something more than a miner and, along with a female science teacher, encouraged the efforts of his grandly named Big Creek Missile Agency. He grew up to be a NASA engineer and his memoir of the bumpy ride toward a gold medal at the National Science Fair in 1960--an unprecedented honor for a miner's kid--is rich in humor as well as warm sentiment. Hickam is candid about the deep disagreements and tensions in his parents' marriage, even as he movingly depicts their quiet loyalty to each other. The portrait of his ultimately successful campaign to win his aloof father's respect is equally affecting. Beau Bridges's boyish persona makes him the ideal narrator for this abridgement, which was an AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner.

Hickum, Homer. Coalwood Way. Recorded Books, 2001. In this follow-up to his best-selling autobiography Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam chronicles the eventful autumn of 1959 in his hometown, the West Virginia mining town of Coalwood. Sixteen-year-old Homer and his pals in the Big Creek Missile Agency are high school seniors, still building homemade rockets and hoping that science will provide them with a ticket into the wider world of college and white-collar jobs. Such dreams make them suspect in a conservative small town where "getting above yourself" is the ultimate sin and where Homer's father, superintendent of the Coalwood mines, is stingy with praise and dubious about his son's ambitions. Homer's mother remains supportive, but bluntly reminds him, "You can't expect everything to go your way. Sometimes life just has another plan." Indeed, Hickam's unvarnished portrait of Coalwood covers class warfare (union miners battling with his authoritarian father), provincial narrow-mindedness (the local ladies scorn a young woman living outside wedlock with a man who abuses her), and endless gossiping along the picket "fence line." These sharp details make the unabashed sentiment of the book's closing chapters feel earned rather than easy. Hickam can spin a gripping yarn and keep multiple underlying themes and metaphors going at the same time. His tender but gritty memoir will touch readers' hearts and minds.

Hickum, Homer. Sky of Stone. Brilliance Audio, 2001. In the summer of ‘61, Homer "Sonny" Hickam, a year of college behind him, was dreaming of sandy beaches and rocket ships. But before Sonny could reach the seaside fixer-upper where his mother was spending the summer, a telephone call sends him back to the place he thought he had escaped, the gritty coal-mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. There, Sonny’s father, the mine’s superintendent, has been accused of negligence in a man’s death — and the towns- people are in conflict over the future of the town. Sonny’s mother, Elsie, has commanded her son to spend the summer in Coalwood to support his father. But within hours, Sonny realizes two things: His father, always cool and distant with his second son, doesn’t want him there ... and his parents’ marriage has begun to unravel. For Sonny, so begins a summer of discovery — of love, betrayal, and most of all, of a brooding mystery that threatens to destroy his father and his town. Cut off from his college funds by his father, Sonny finds himself doing the unimaginable: taking a job as a "track-laying man," the toughest in the mine. Moving out to live among the miners, Sonny is soon dazzled by a beautiful older woman who wants to be the mine’s first female engineer. And as the days of summer grow shorter, Sonny finds himself changing in surprising ways, taking the first real steps toward adulthood. But it’s a journey he can make only by peering into the mysterious heart of Coalwood itself, and most of all, by unraveling the story of a man’s death and a father’s secret. In Sky of Stone, Homer Hickam looks down the corridors of his past with love, humor, and forgiveness, brilliantly evoking a close-knit community where everyone knows everything about each other’s lives — except the things that matter most. Sky of Stone is a memoir that reads like a novel, mesmerizing us with rich language, narrative drive, and sheer storytelling genius. This completes the trilogy Hickam planned to write about his Coalwood years.

Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native. (read by Alan Rickman) This is a classic that gets better with every cassette. And it doesn't hurt that Alan Rickman has a fantastic voice. The cast of characters he creates is the best part of the experience. He really brings Hardy's characters to life. The audio takes a little bit of effort to get into, but once you get going, you'll find it hard to stop listening. The novel turns into a real cliffhanger, which surprised me, as I was listening mainly to hear Alan Rickman, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story. The audio is a but long (12 tapes), but well worth a listen.

Holden, Scott. The Carrier. Brilliance Audio, 2000. Two cassettes (3 hrs.). (Read by Dick Hill) This abridged medical mystery kept my attention from beginning to end. A brilliant graduate student's research project is stolen by his professor/mentor. The project is a biological/bacterial cure for cancer that the student found to cure his cancer ridden girlfriend. The professor accuses the student of plagiarism, a mix-up occurs and the student becomes a carrier and a fugitive. Read it to find out what he carries as he attempts to avoid capture by the police.

King, Stephen & Peter Straub. The Talisman. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001. On a brisk autumn day, a thirteen-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America--and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin.………and the adventure continues in the sequel Black House. Superbly narrated by the audio superstar, Frank Muller.

Koontz, Dean. From the Corner of His Eye. Bantam Double day Audio, 2000. On the day in the mid-'60s that Bartholomew Lampion is born in Southern California, his father is killed in a car crash while rushing his mother to the hospital. Meanwhile, 50 miles from nowhere in Oregon, Junior Cain shoves his gorgeous young wife through a rotten railing atop a 150-foot forest watchtower; he doesn't know why he did it, but he does know his life will be much more interesting from that point on. During the same 24 hours, a baby girl is born in San Francisco, though her 16-year-old mother dies from a condition brought on by striving to hide the pregnancy, which is the result of rape. These three events aren't just coincidences. For Junior dreams of a nemesis named Bartholomew, and Junior is, of course, also the rapist. Koontz builds his latest thrill-fest on a foundation consisting of the stock character of the serial murderer and the stock situation of a killer stalking innocence. He keeps the resulting big book interesting by switching focus, chapter to chapter, from one of its three story lines to another. He adds compassionate appeal by invoking the supernatural in messages from "the other side" and creates spookiness by supernaturally keeping Junior intent on finding Bartholomew. There are also enough kooky characters, such as Bartholomew's uncles; outer happenstances, such as Bartholomew losing his eyes to cancer as a little boy yet somehow regaining sight years later; and old-fashioned, "yeah-sure" improbabilities, such as gotta-be-dead characters turning up alive, to please Koontz's fans and then some.

LaHaye, Tim and Jerry Jenkins. Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne. Recorded Books, 2001. Fully indwelt by Satan himself, Global Community Potentate Nicolae Carpathia (the Antichrist) shows his true colors. In Desecration, the 9th book in the Left Behind series, Carpathia commits the ultimate act of abomination by proclaiming himself as God and desecrating the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. As he tightens his grip on the world, every human being alive will struggle with the decision to either worship Carpathia and receive the mark (666) of loyalty or choose to serve the one true God, Jesus Christ the Messiah. Choosing to worship Carpathia and receiving the mark of loyalty means eternal damnation in hell. Choosing Christ carries the ultimate fate of death by beheading, but it assures eternal salvation in heaven.

McEwan, Ian. Enduring Love. Recorded Books, 1998. Joe Rose has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside to celebrate his wife's return after six weeks in the States. To complete the picture, there's even a helium balloon drifting dreamily across the sky. But as Joe and Clarissa watch the balloon touch down, their idyll comes to an abrupt end. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down. As the wind whips into action, Joe and four other men rush to secure the basket which they catch, but the wind takes them airborne. Joe manages to drop to the ground, as do most of his companions, but one man is lifted sky-high, only to fall to his death. In itself, the accident would change the survivors' lives, filling them with an uneasy combination of shame, happiness, and endless self-reproach. (In one of the novels many ironies, the balloon eventually lands safely, the boy unscathed.) But fate has far more unpleasant things in store for Joe. Meeting the eye of fellow rescuer Jed Parry, for example, turns out to be a very bad move. In the aftermath, Joe exchanges words with Jed Parry, a deeply disturbed young man among those who came rushing to help. Isolated, independently wealthy, Parry has attempted to suppress his homosexual inclinations by immersing himself in a fervent and very personal version of Christianity. Parry quickly fixates on Joe, and, deciding that he is meant to be the means by which Joe, a nonbeliever, will be brought back to God, Parry begins haunting him. He shadows Joe's movements around London, loiters outside his apartment, and constantly leaves messages and letters. It's not only God's love that Parry believes he's carrying; he's also, in a confused and only partially conscious manner, convinced that Joe loves him and knows everything about him. Joe's increasingly angry attempts to rid himself of Parry seem to the obsessed man only another test of his devotion, while Joe and Clarissa's marriage begins to crumble under the strain, as do their careers. Finally, a desperate Parry decides he must get rid of Clarissa and, possibly, even Joe himself. In lesser hands, the story might be overwrought and unbelievable, but McEwan's terse, lucid prose and sure grasp of character give resonance to this superb anatomy of obsession and exploration of the mind under extreme circumstance. Painful and powerful work by one of England's best novelists, by the novel's end, you will be surprisingly unafraid of hot-air balloons, but you won't be too keen on looking a stranger in the eye.

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Listening Library (unabridged). The Golden Compass, first in the his Dark Materials series, is the story of Lyra Belacqua, an orphan growing up around England's Oxford University. But Lyra's world is not like our own. For one thing, people in Lyra's world have a personal daemon, the manifestation of their souls in animal form. In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a novel that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm its readers. Listening Library's sound recording is wonderfully done, with an ensemble cast of actors reading the novel, narrated by author Philip Pullman.

Rather, Dan. Dan Rather's The American Dream: Stories from the Heart of Our Nation. Harper Audio, 6 cds. Dan Rather has done an excellent job of compiling stories of people from many different walks of life in our country. We are a nation of varying social and religious customs and economic conditions. These stories share some of the flavor of our diversity and our dreams. Especially during this difficult time it is good to hear these heartwarming and uplifting accounts.

Reichs, Kathleen J. Fatal Voyage. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001. (abridged) Temperance Brennan hears the news on her car radio… an Air TransSouth plane carrying 88 passengers and crew members, has gone down in the mountains of western North Carolina. As a forensic anthropologist and member of the DMORT team, Tempe rushes to the scene to assist in recovering and identifying bodies. She finds a field of torsos, limbs, smoldering luggage and debris. Many of the passengers were members of a university soccer team and Tempe wonders if her daughter, Katy, was among them. Tempe, frantic with worry, joins colleagues from other government agencies in search in answers. Why did the plane go down? What about the prisoner, a passenger on the plane, being extradited to Canada? Why are people eager to stop the investigation? With help from Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe discovers a shocking web of deceit…

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter books. Random House Audio books. (Read by Jim Dale) Okay, I know most people have already read or heard the Harry Potter stories, but these audios read by Jim Dale are a real treat! Dale has narrated all four books so far, and let's hope he continues to do so. His range is incredible; the cast of characters really seems distinct, with different accents, tones, and timbres to the voices. The audios get longer with each volume, just like the books. But this is a good thing, because you just want to keep listening.

Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. TimeWarner Audio, 2000. (817.54 SedaD) Hilarious autobiographical fiction is perhaps the most apt descriptor for these short pieces written and impeccably performed by National Public Radio contributor David Sedaris in his fourth collection, Me Talk Pretty One Day. Mined largely from his experiences growing up at home and school, one suspects that the truth has been redressed to render it richer and more ridiculous. Readers will laugh out loud as they listen, yet will also thank their lucky stars that they are no relation to the author who spares no one with his stinging depictions. In all fairness Sedaris often chooses himself as his target and his self-deprecating humor is somewhat reminiscent of Woody Allen’s. The author takes us (and his bundle of neuroses) from his childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina to his early adulthood in Manhattan to his recent years in Paris and Normandy where he now lives with his companion. One story focuses on his sun-worshipping sister whom he coins a "tanorexic." In another vignette Sedaris works for a Marxist mover who refuses to move a new client because he perceives him to be too successful. The title story with its unusual syntax presents the follies encountered by the author in his French language class in Paris. All will laugh here except the French. He goes on to lampoon many things French including "French milk, which comes in a box and can sit un-refrigerated for 5 months, at which point it simply turns into cheese and is moved to a different section of the grocery store." Unlike the milk and cheese referred to here, this book will not sit idly on the shelf and its stinging hilarity will never be mistaken for self-conscious sourness. Check it out. Me Talk Pretty One Day is funny every page.

Spada, James. Streisand: Her Life. Books On Tape, Inc., 1996. Fifteen 1.5 hour cassettes. (Read by Kimberly Schraf) This recording is a fairly detailed look at Barbra Streisand's life from her youth until just before her current marriage to James Brolin. Find out when she decided to make show business her goal. Find out why she ended up singing when acting was her real goal. Find out about all her show biz endeavors including interactions with producers, directors and other stars. Learn more about her love life than you may really need to know. This is an unabridged recording with a good reader that kept me interested throughout the entire 15 tapes.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. S&S Audio, 2001. Abridged, 2 cds. (Read by Jack Lemmon) Jack Lemmon reads this classic tale about Huck, Tom and the friends they make during their adventures. My only regret in listening to this is that so many wonderful tales had to be left out, being the abridged version. On the other hand, for someone who doesn't have more time to listen, this is a good read.

Wolfe, Tom. Ambush At Fort Bragg. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, 1997. (Read by Edward Norton) I’ve always been a major lover of Tom Wolfe’s writing, and will take him in any and all formats. This is my first Wolfe audiobook, and it’s a must for his fans, or for anyone that wants an inside view of TV journalism, or in the case of this novella, "journalism." A group of young army recruits beat a fellow gay recruit to death and get away with it. Until, that is, leaks find their way to the nation’s leading TV investigative anchorwoman and her team who plan an (almost) ingenious way to catch the culprits by surprise. What’s interesting here is that the author pokes holes in the self-righteousness of television as well as showing its benefits, making things evenhanded, yet making most of his punches count. He clunks in some ways, but this seldom gets in the way of a very entertaining, solid story. Edward Norton does only an okay job at doing Southern voices, but he’s not a distraction. He can do men and women both well without sounding silly, no small job. One thing: they use background music here many times. Guess I’m a traditionalist, but I don’t think books on tape should be movies.

December 12, 2001