RUSH REVERE and the BRAVE PILGRIMS: TIME-TRAVEL ADVENTURES with EXCEPTIONAL AMERICANS (audiobook) by Rush Limbaugh

Published by Simon and Schuster in 2013.
Read by the author, Rush Limbaugh.
Duration: 4 hours, 31 minutes

This is bound to irritate some listeners of Rush who may not read any more than the simple fact that I was not impressed by this book. Let my establish my bona fides right off. I have been a semi-regular listener to Rush since 1991 when I heard his parody song about Ted Kennedy called "I'm a philanderer" to the tune of Dion's "I'm a Wanderer." I have read Rush's books. I remember his TV show, if you look at my reviews you will see that I'm fairly well-read in Conservative literature and I even have a subscription to National Review.

That being said, I cannot say that I was a fan of this book. I am a history teacher and I really have no problem with the history Rush presented. The book is about the Puritans, the Mayflower, their trip across the ocean and their first year in the New World. It was a bit simplistic and did not go into much detail except about Puritan beliefs and how they differed from the official Church of England line. Also, Rush ends the story before he gets to the utter deterioration of Puritan-Indian relations and the awful wars that ensued. But, his real point is to detail the personal bravery of the Pilgrims in the face of long odds and terrific adversity and he does that, even if he leaves other parts of the complete history out.

What he does go into is an excessive amount of detail explaining how Rush Revere and his horse Liberty are

The Mayflower Compact, 1620 
by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 

able to travel back and forth in time to interact with historical figures. The book is sort of a mix between the Magic Tree House series (traveled back in forth in time) and the Magic School Bus series (crazy field trips with the teacher) except the horse is the magical thing. He can talk, travel back and forth in time by creating a time portal, turn invisible and even stop time. But, Limbaugh spends so much time explaining the premise behind this book while setting down the ground rules for what he hopes will be a series of books focusing on American history that it just gets boring.

Even worse, Rush does just a so-so job of reading the book. If you are a frequent listener to Rush you know that he has a rule against listeners reading from prepared remarks when they call in. Reading does not sound as good as just talking with the host or even telling a story. You may have heard someone reading an article from the paper or instructions for a piece of do-it-yourself furniture out loud and they rush it. Well, ironic as it is considering his name, Rush rushes this reading and gets the pacing all wrong. On top of that, he does almost nothing to create voices or anything else to individualize the characters so it just sounds like a non-stop near-monotone of Rush rushing through his story. It is very odd that a man who spends 3 hours a day using his voice just missed the mark here. Don't get me wrong, it's not like he's not understandable, it's just not a high-quality audiobook performance.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: RUSH REVERE and the BRAVE PILGRIMS: TIME-TRAVEL ADVENTURES with EXCEPTIONAL AMERICANS by Rush Limbaugh.

Reviewed on November 25, 2013.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher through Audiobook Jukebox's Solid Gold Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review.