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Posted on 01.21.09 by Widge @ 4:56 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. 
Written by: Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi Douglas Preston, best known as the co-author of what has come to be known as the Pendergast series of novels (which kicked off with Relic), decided to move to Florence with his family. They had a nice villa so that Preston could work on one of his books and everything was peachy...until he ran into Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist, who told Preston that an olive grove by Preston's villa had been host to a double homicide as part of the "Monster of Florence" case. The case, which I had never heard of and neither has Preston, involved a series of double murders committed by the titular serial killer. An uncaught serial killer, what's more. Preston, intrigued, started collaborating with Spezi on a book about The Monster of Florence, only to wind up inadvertently clashing with the local authorities and fleeing the country with his co-author under arrest for being the Monster. Making matters more strange is that this meta-story which sounds like fiction is in fact true. Categorized as: Audiobooks and Reviews
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Posted on 06.13.08 by Widge @ 11:12 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Frank Muller, the "Iron Man" of audiobook narration, had recorded over 200 audiobook performances, according to his official site. It just seems to me that that's a low number. There was a time where it was a surprise, honestly, if somebody else was doing an audiobook. Muller was omnipresent. He was also an actor who didn't just read you the books. He performed them capably, and I spent a lot of time driving around in his company. I just now got the word--from an Audible newsletter--that he passed away on June 4th. He had suffered a terrible motorcycle incident back in 2001 that left him unable to work. I can't find any details, but I'm assuming that he passed due to lingering complications from this accident. Our thoughts go out to his family and I say a huge thanks for everything, Frank. Rest well. P.S. The Wavedancer Foundation was setup by Stephen King after Muller's accident to help disabled artists who can no longer work in their chosen field. I'm assuming they're still active, although I can't seem to locate a website for them. King, Peter Straub, John Grisham and Pat Conroy all got together to do a benefit reading to help Muller's medical bills. The CD of that performance is here and the proceeds go to that Foundation. It's an excellent listen. Categorized as: Audiobooks
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Posted on 05.16.08 by Widge @ 6:30 am
Comments on this: 2 so far. Add your own.  After enjoying the post-apocalyptic and informative Life After People, I was eager to crack open The World Without Us, which I understood to be the same idea just more in depth, being, as it was, a book and not a homogenized TV special. And I hit the audiobook because I don't have time to read actual books these days, sadly. Even more sad, I couldn't make it past Disc 6. That's why this isn't a review--because I couldn't finish it. It was too goddamn depressing. The book was billed as a look at what would happen to the planet if we were to suddenly all vanish in some unspecified cataclysm, leaving all of our stuff behind. Instead, the book should be called The World Would Be Better Off Without Us. It's the literary equivalent of somebody trying to talk someone else into jumping off a cliff. Because yes, there's some information about what would happen after us, but it's surrounded and hemmed in by long, drawn out accounts of all the crap we're doing to the planet. How pretty much everything is killing something somewhere and will be doing so for thousands of years after we're gone. And more importantly, how we're fucked and there's nothing we can do to save life on the planet. Except vanish, apparently. Categorized as: Audiobooks
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Posted on 09.18.07 by Dindrane @ 7:33 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Starlight is the fourth book in the Warriors: The New Prophecy series by Erin Hunter. One of the things that has made Hunter's series so interesting is that, while she obviously loves and understands animals, she does not idealize or romanticize them. Nature is red in tooth and claw in her books, which might cause readers (or listeners) who want happy, cutesy animal stories to shy away. However, if you want your animal protagonists to be truly anthropomorphic-–not wearing pants, mind you, but having selfishness, a desire for power, cruelty, etc.--then Hunter is right up your ally. If you haven't read or listened to any of the stories before this one, you must go back and do so, or this one will leave you frustrated and confused. In this volume, the Clans have arrived finally in their new home, but all is not well. Not only must they very quickly identify a new sacred Moonstone for recording medicinal ideas and communing with the StarClan, but certain cats among them have plans for conquest and power that do not take the health or wellbeing of the others into consideration. There are also many one dangers to understand how to survive. It's political and interpersonal intrigue at its best, but usually not pretty. Categorized as: Audiobooks and Reviews
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Posted on 10.30.05 by Cosette @ 9:50 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  
Written by Neil Gaiman Fat Charlie Nancy has a relatively normal, even somewhat boring life. He works as an accountant for a talent agency, has a lovely fiancé named Rosie, and goes about his daily life rather matter-of-factly. Pressed by Rosie to invite his estranged father to their wedding, he learns that his father has just died. When he travels from his home in London to his childhood home in Florida for the funeral, an old friend of the family, Mrs. Higgler, informs him that his father was actually the trickster god Anansi, as well as the fact that Fat Charlie has a brother he never knew. She tells him rather mysteriously that if he wishes to find his brother, he should just tell a spider. Categorized as: Audiobooks and Reviews
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