JULY 2016
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
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A
new audiobook chronicles the sixteen weeks leading up
to Michael Jackson’s death. Michael Jackson’s
final months were, like the rest of his short and legendary
life, filled with deep lows and soaring highs, a constant
hunt for privacy, and the pressure and fame that made
him socially fragile and almost—ultimately—unable
to live. With the insight and compassion that he brought
to his bestselling telling of Martin Luther King Jr.’s
final year, Tavis Smiley provides a glimpse into the
superstar’s life in this emotional, honest, yet
celebratory book. Listeners will witness Jackson’s
campaign to recharge his career—hiring and firing
managers and advisors, turning to and away from family
members, fighting depression and drug dependency—while
his one goal remained: to mount the most spectacular
series of shows the world had ever seen. The new biography
is a humanizing look at Jackson’s last days by
author Tavis Smiley, who is the host of PBS’ Tavis
Smiley and Public Radio International’s The Tavis
Smiley Show. He is also the bestselling author of other
books on Obamacare and Maya Angelou. BEFORE
YOU JUDGE ME is co-written with David
Ritz, and narrated by Leo Coltrane,
a little known narrator with a strong sense of tone.
With Prince dying of a drug overdose, after many others,
another takeaway is that no one is immune from addiction’s
effects, so experimentation is like riding a dragon.
Where will it fly, and when does it end? |
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HOW NOT TO DIE is an expensive audiobook
only if you compare it to others, but even not then.
Here’s the thing. How much is saving your life
worth? If you follow the advice given on a wide variety
of illnesses (and what to eat and avoid), you may save
yourself dying from heart disease, stroke, cancer, plus
diabetes, asthma, Alzheimer’s, kidney failure,
and all those pharmaceutical pills they put on the network
news toward the end of the broadcast to fight what you
may have gotten from eating junk food, soda, smoking,
and not exercising. (Watching too much TV.) I say “but
even not then” because look at the length. It
is 17 hours of knowledge, a virtual college course in
nutrition. Most audiobooks are 8 hours. And what makes
this particular health book special is the tone the
narrator takes. (That he is also the author makes it
doubly authentic.) Dr. Michael Greger
is a nutritionist, vegetarian, and Humane Society director.
He is not condescending. He is not out to chastise you
for eating meat. He is presenting the science in a personal
way, with case studies from his own practice aiding
people dying of diseases, between the facts regarding
how foods affect health. Some things you will learn
is how certain teas are better than hypertensive drugs,
how coffee reduces liver inflammation, how soy prevents
certain cancers, and what whole foods beat any expensive
supplement you care to name. (High cholesterol? Forgot
statins: eat brazil nuts and exercise instead.) Greger
explains why grilling meat is better than frying in
the kitchen (if you must eat meat, which increases chances
of many cancers), and why boiling hot dogs is better
than grilling or frying them. I doubt that Greger has
eaten a hot dog in a long time, but my point is that
he’s not angry with listeners, he’s being
honest and is not into supplements (but rather slow,
whole foods) so he’s not pushing vitamin brands
on the side like so many health food books do. Also,
listening to this book instead of reading it means you’re
not stuck in a chair with eye strain problems, you’ll
out walking or hiking or biking (as I do), listening
AS you exercise. It’s a win/win. And a no brainer.
Regarding his narration skills, Greger may not being
a pro, and tends to fall into a rhythm of “emphasis
lilting,” but this is probably only noticeable
to someone who listens to books as much as most teenagers
stare at their cells. |
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LAST
CALL AT THE NIGHTSHADE LOUNGE: Bailey Chen
is fresh out of college with all the usual new-adult
demons: no cash, no job offers, and an awkward relationship
with Zane, the old friend she kinda-sorta hooked up
with during high school. But when Zane introduces Bailey
to his monster-fighting bartender friends, her demons
become a lot more literal. It turns out evil creatures
stalk the city streets after hours, and they can only
be hunted with the help of magically mixed cocktails:
vodka grants super strength, whiskey offers the power
of telekinesis, and tequila lets its drinker fire blasts
of elemental energy. But will all of these powers be
enough for Bailey to halt a mysterious rash of gruesome
deaths? And what will she do when the safety of a “real
world” job beckons? This sharp and funny urban
fantasy is perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and grown-up readers of
Harry Potter. Includes fifteen recipes from a book of
ancient cocktail lore. Paul Krueger
is a fantasy writer and avid cocktail connoisseur whose
work has appeared in the Sword & Laser Anthology.
He lives in Los Angeles. Reader Emily Woo Zeller
is a performing artist and yogi currently based in New
York City. Her voice-over career includes work in animated
film and television in Southeast Asia. She has also
worked as an actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer
on stage throughout the United States and Southeast
Asia. . |
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Suspended
license? DUI? Better not be be black and resist arrest.
The last decade witnessed a vast increase in police
aggression, misconduct, and militarization, along with
a corresponding reduction in transparency and accountability.
Nowhere is this more noticeable and painful than in
African American and other ethnic minority communities.
Racism—from raw, individualized versions to insidious
systemic examples—appears to be on the rise in
our police departments. Overall, our police officers
have grown more and more alienated from the people they’ve
been hired to serve. In To Protect and Serve, Norm
Stamper offers new insights into the conditions
that have created this crisis, reminding us that police
in a democratic society belong to the people—and
not the other way around. TO PROTECT AND SERVE
also delivers a revolutionary new model for American
law enforcement: the community-based police department.
It calls for citizen participation in all aspects of
police operations: policymaking, program development,
crime fighting and service delivery, entry-level and
ongoing education and training, oversight of police
conduct, and, especially relevant to today’s challenges,
joint community-police crisis management. Nothing will
ever change until the system itself is radically restructured,
and here Norm Stamper shows how. The great thing about
this informative audiobook is the narrator,
Malcolm Hillgartner. An accomplished actor
and dramatist, he has the kind of voice one can never
tire of hearing. Trying to describe it is like describing
a wine. Earthy, tannic, but with hints of citrus and
jasmine, and a smooth finish. Hillgartner narrates the
new Philip Roth novel Zuckerman Unbound
too. |
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A
few more titles to check out are LIBRE:
A Silver Ships Novel, a new science fiction title
by S. H. Jucka, read by the always spot-on Grover
Gardner, one of the pioneers of the industry with
a deep but mellifluous voice that will go down as
one of the top ten pros of late 20th Century voiceover.
(He’s up to, what, 800 titles now? Wow. Just
looked it up. “Over eight hundred titles.”
Three Audie Awards, 30 Earphones awards, and a “Golden
Voice” winner.) WILLNOT (one
word) by James Salis, who wrote DRIVE
(which became the Ryan Gosling movie, and is also
on audio), a thriller narrated by Kevin Kenerly, one
of my newer favs, who was chosen for TO LIVE
FOREVER, a scifi production that resulted
from my recommendation to the publisher. Kenerly also
did Stephen King’s THE RUNNING MAN,
and the young adult zombie audiobook WARM
BODIES. And, for your kids, there’s
FINDING DORY, the novelization of
the blockbuster hit, from Disney and read by voice
actor Adam Verner. Finally, if you haven’t read
my first novel, POSTMARKED FOR DEATH,
(an award winner on audio and in hardcover,) that
is now an ebook for iPad and Nook. Happy listening! |
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