May 2011
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
 Imagine Sergey
Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, not as distributors
of mass information, but only of classified information. Now
imagine, drunk on power and controversy, and after revealing
military intelligence documents, diplomatic cables, operations
handbooks, secret Scientology beliefs, and Sarah Palin's private
emails, one of them has a falling out and writes an embittered
tell-all book on the other while planning a competing site
(called OpenLeaks.) There you have the synopsis of INSIDE
WIKILEAKS by Daniel Domscheit-Berg,
narrated on audio with studious diligence to documentary tone
by Erik Davies. What is absolutely true about the relationships
here we have little way of knowing, except that the founder
of of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is "a cad." But
it is an fascinating read or listen. Some notable "reveals"
by these hackers and whistleblowers is that they welcomed
lawsuits and threats, which tended to validate what they were
posting. And that L. Ron Hubbard believed he was a space cadet
millions of years old, and anyone who didn't fully get with
the program was given latrine duty on his private ghost fleet.
|
Next, it's a familiar theme: you wake up somehow alone or
isolated from the world, and try to figure things out while
trying to survive. In "Lost" it was an island lost
in time. In THE
SILENT LAND by Graham Joyce it's a French ski hotel where
a couple dig out of an avalanche to discover a silent landscape
devoid of people. Walking to the next town doesn't help, either;
it's a closed loop. As with Lost, the story is more about
the characters than the plot. Supernatural elements aside,
this is a unique love story, well told by veteran British
performer John Lee, whose elegant sentence construction lends
a authoritative and other-worldly air to the tale. |
Today, Americans watch more TV than anyone on Earth. Millions
of fat latch key kids addicted to soda are watching it right
now. Millions of bored viewers get their entire philosophy
of life, values, and perverse purchasing habits by watching
porky televangelists with Frankenstein hair. Ironically, some
former stars on both little and big screens (along with former
Enron employees) are now collecting beer cans thrown out the
window by passing Jerry Springer fans. To hear what Barbara
Eden thinks on the subject of stardom and unbridled ambition,
listen to her narrate JEANNIE
OUT OF THE BOTTLE. And no, that's not a liquor bottle,
either. Eden has things to say about Elvis, Paul Newman, O.J.
Simpson, Tom Jones, and Marilyn Monroe, among others. This
is a sober assessment of TV's golden age, not without fond
memories, and certainly not bitter. Just "eyes wide open."
Eden's autobiography, which she also reads, is a candid ear
to the reality of Hollywood celebrity, told by a woman of
once beguiling fantasy, no longer restrained by that illusory
image. |
America also spends more on its military than every other
country in the world combined. We have more bases abroad,
more weapons, more high tech warships and planes, more soldiers
and sailors overseas (over 230,000), and yet. . . we can't
fix our own highways. Is there something wrong with this picture?
We spend billions on new weapons systems for enemies that
no longer exist, yet we wring our hands when terrorists use
low tech weapons like fertilizer bombs and IEDs, or when school
programs are cut due to lack of funds. In WASHINGTON
RULES, former Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich shows why American
foreign policy is overdue for a overhaul, and that this should
be approached with courage instead of a blind refusal to face
the new socio-economic realities of the 21st Century. Sean
Runnette narrates.
|
 Finally,
looking for an offbeat twist on a familiar theme? A fallen
angel--Mary--tempts Christ, but also loves Him, in THIS
IS MY BLOOD, an alternate history with a Judas twist by
David Niall Wilson. Subtle and provocative, this new audio
production of Wilson's novel is narrated by Phillippa Ballantine,
and brings a whole new meaning--well shy of blasphemy---to
the phrase "he who drinks My Blood." Recommended
to anyone who is tired of vampire cliches. |
|