TO TRY MEN'S SOULS: A NOVEL of GEORGE WASHINGTON and the FIGHT for AMERICAN FREEDOM (audiobook) by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen

Published in in 2009 by MacMillan Audio
Read by William Dufris, Callista Gingrich and Eric Conger
Duration: 12 hours, 23 minutes
Unabridged

To Try Men's Souls is a powerful piece of historical fiction that focuses on three men in the American army at its lowest point in the Revolutionary War - right before the famed surprise attack on the Hessians at Trenton. The story follows three men - one is a New Jersey private with family on both sides of the war, the other two are George Washington and Thomas Paine.

The book is fairly complicated in its structure with lots of flashbacks and intertwining story lines. Through George Washington the reader learns the long sad story of the shrinking American Army's numerous retreats throughout the summer and fall of 1776 and how Washington gambled it all on a surprise raid to raise American morale.

Thomas Paine's character was a bit more complicated. These are the months just after the success of his tract Common Sense that argued for independence. Now, in the light of all of these defeats, men keep asking him to write another Common Sense - another tract that will galvanize American sentiment. Eventually, he does come up with The Crisis, another tract that perfectly catches the feeling of the remnants of the American army. It inspires and cajoles. It is published just two days before Washington's army begins to move on Trenton. It's famous opening lines are: "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

The third character, the New Jersey private, stands in as a kind of every man. His family is split, but he is sure that he is right. But, despite his being sure, he is comforted by the powerful words of Thomas Paine, delivered at just the right moment.

Washington Crossing the Delaware by
Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868).
Yes, the painting is full of inaccuracies, but it is iconic.

This book could have easily slipped into being hokey but it does not. Instead, I found myself with a renewed respect for the soldiers of the Revolutionary War and for Washington's ability to just not lose. He did not win a lot, but he also managed not to entirely lose either. He somehow managed to elude defeat or capture and keep on fighting.

The reading by William Dufris was quite good. He was joined by Callista Gingrich who read the few parts spoken by a woman. She was fairly weak as a narrator - she did not sound like she was trying to interact with the other characters as she read her isolated parts. They probably just put her in the sound booth and had her read her parts with little regard to what was said before and after her reading in the story - and it showed. Conger read the text of The Crisis found at the end of the book. There is also an interview with Gingrich and Forstchen at the end of the book.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: 
To Try Men's Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom

THE BURNING ROOM (Harry Bosch #17) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

Published by Hachette Audio in November of 2014
Read by Titus Welliver
Duration: 10 hours, 11 minutes
Unabridged

The Burning Room feels like the beginning of the end to the long, productive career of LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, Bosch and his new partner work on two different cold cases. One case is unique in that the murder victim just died but the shot that killed him was fired years before - the injury finally overwhelmed him. 

The second case is personal to Bosch's new partner, Lucia "Lucy" Soto. As a child, she was in a day care that was operated in the basement of an apartment building when someone set fire to the garbage in another part of the basement with a Molotov cocktail sort of device. The resulting fire killed a number of the children and their teacher. Since Soto has such a personal stake in this case she should preclude herself from it - but Bosch works it so that they can re-open the case as part of another case.

Michael Connelly. Photo by
Mark DeLong Photography

While the cases were interesting, the interplay between Bosch and Soto really got my attention. Clearly, Bosch has found a detective that shares his level of commitment and he is happy to coach her - he offers critiques when needed and praise when deserved and she works hard to figure out what he does that makes him such a good detective.

Everything points to Bosch moving on to greener pastures. This is the 17th Harry Bosch book ) and he is approaching the age of forced retirement. He reminisces about old cases (he has a point to them so he is not just telling stories just to tell them), he leaves it to his partner to use the technology stuff, including internet searches. He does the old school stuff, like looking at newspaper clippings and picking locks with paper clips. Together they make a powerful team and Bosch seems to delight in telling people that they pair old detectives with the most talented newest ones so that they can learn. I am a teacher and I recognize the relationship as being the same that I have had with student teachers - mentor and mentee.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly even though Bosch seems to be moving out to make room for Soto, especially with the surprise ending. 

The audiobook was read by Titus Welliver who plays Harry Bosch in Amazon's adaptation of the series for streaming video. I have heard Welliver do several Robert B. Parker audiobooks - he was not bad with those but he is much better with this book. That is not surprising though - Connelly's books always do well as audiobooks. They read like they were designed to be read aloud.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: The Burning Room (A Harry Bosch Novel)

DOCTOR WHO: SNAKE BITE (audiobook) by Scott Hancock

Published in 2012 by BBC Audiobooks Ltd.
Read by Frances Barber
Duration: 1 hour, 13 minutes
Unabridged

Two physicists are working in a secret lab in a massive space station that literally encircles a planet in Doctor Who: Snake Bite. Their secret project is kept hidden from everyone - even the power to run it is taken siphoned away from dozens of other locations on the space station. Down below, a unique planet is being studied. In the lab, a a stable wormhole is being perfected. As the wormhole stabilizes, the TARDIS arrives right in the middle of it all. The Doctor (Matt Smith's Doctor) doesn't know where they are at first and he certainly doesn't know why he is there. Once they start to figure things out they discover that things are weirder than they even imagined...

Frances Barber

Frances Barber was picked to read this audiobook. The producers tried to tie a little Doctor Who authenticity to the book by picking a Doctor Who alum to read the book. Barber played Madame Kovarian - the Eye Patch Woman who kidnapped Amy Pond's baby. This is a very memorable character and perhaps it would have been better if this character had been in the story because Barber just does not have the rhythms of any of the regular characters. For example, her Amy Pond sounds hesitant and scared. When Amy Pond gets scared, she gets loud and mad, not hesitant. Her portrayal of the Doctor does not have Matt Smith's rapid-fire delivery. 

The plot reads like a middle-of-the-road Doctor Who story (not too good, not too bad) but the performance of the reading just wore on me and made it seem slow. About an hour into the story I checked to see if this was a 2 CD set and was very pleased to see that I had misremembered the number of CDs and this story was nearly over. 

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: Doctor Who: Snake Bite.

STONE COLD (Joe Pickett #14) by C.J. Box

Originally published in March of 2014.

Installment #13 in the Joe Pickett series left us wondering what Joe would do with himself and how the series could continue. Joe had just quit his job as a Wyoming game warden due to his absolute disgust with a case of government abusing its power and causing an innocent man to be pushed beyond his breaking point.

But, what would Joe Pickett do if he wasn't a game warden? As a practical matter, how would the series even continue? It's not like Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski could open up a private detective service in rural Wyoming.

So, in Stone Cold, Joe is back to what he was doing a few books ago - he has been restored as a game warden again but he is working for the governor as a "troubleshooter." He is the governor's one man personal police force, but the governor hasn't called on him for anything...until now.

The governor wants him to discretely look into a mysterious out-of-state man who has moved into north-eastern Wyoming, bought up huge chunks of land and has made himself the most important man in that part of the state. He owns the most land, pays the most taxes, owns the most businesses, has the most employees and basically lives like a medieval lord in that he is above the law. 

On top of that, there are persistent rumors that this man runs a very high-end hit man operation. The targets are always people who arguably deserved it (like a Bernie Madoff, for example) but murder is still murder. Rumor has it that his professional killers stay at his mansion and Joe recognizes one of these hit men in a blurry photo - Nate Romanowski. 

It took a while for this book to get into its main plot line. However, that does not mean that it was wasted time, it was just more carefully laid out. Once Joe makes it out to the Black Hills of Wyoming the story is absolutely riveting. Joe's unerring ability to find trouble pushes the story along as he starts to dig.

I rate this story 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Stone Cold (A Joe Pickett Novel)

THREE LINKS of a CHAIN: A NOVEL by Dennis Maley

Published on July 7, 2015 by Jubilo

In many ways, the fight over whether Kansas would be a slave state or a free state was the first fighting of the Civil War. 

In a shortsighted move, the Congress of the United States decided to let the Kansas Territory decide for itself if it wanted to be a slave or a free state. It was shortsighted because it put off a festering political problem and let it be decided in a far away territory with little thought to what would happen in that territory. Immediately, this became a real-life struggle, the physical embodiment of the arguments taking place across the country about slavery and its future. Slave states rightly determined that they needed to bring Kansas in as a slave state and they immediately sent financial backing to support pro-slavery settlers and pro-slavery men from neighboring Missouri who would cross the border and illegally vote in the election.

Abolitionists sent settlers, financial aid and weapons to counter. Soon enough, neighbor was fighting neighbor (John Brown of the infamous Harper's Ferry raid got his start here by killing a number of his pro-slavery neighbors with broadswords) and a series of tainted elections were held. Multiple governments claimed to be in charge of the state, multiple federal investigations resulted in nothing but contradictory conclusions, depending on the political affiliations of the investigators. 

Three Links of a Chain starts in Missouri, very close to the border with Kansas. Blanche is a slave working for the local newspaper owner. The town is in an uproar due to its proximity to Kansas. Men are planning to illegally vote one side or another, arms are being sent across the border and ugly fights and arguments are breaking out everywhere.

A slave auction

Blanche is not happy being a slave but figures that he has got things all figured out and will eventually be free due to his careful manipulation of the slave system. He can read, is free to work on the side for extra cash and is confident that he is superior to any field hand slave.

Blanche's plan is simple - he will work for the cash to pay for his freedom or he will simply outlive his master who has promised him that he placed instructions in his will to free him when he dies. But, when his master dies during a fight Blanche finds out that his master may not have done as he promised. When he breaks into his master's widow's house to look for a copy of the will he discovers that she has burned it and she intends to keep him as a slave forever.

Blanche runs at the first good opportunity and heads straight into chaos of Bleeding Kansas followed by slave catchers and encouraged by members of the Underground Railroad. Maybe he can make it if he can determine who is really a friend, who is really a foe.

This is a solid piece of historical fiction. Blanche and most of the characters are composites based on real people. The author's research shows and he is able to give a real feel for the chaos of the times and the precarious life of a slave. The descriptions of Blanche's flight and of the people he meets in Kansas are well done. The only real problem that I had with the book is that Blanche has so many of these interesting episodes and brushes with danger and the same slave catcher over and over again that this middle-aged reader began to doubt that any one person could have so many close calls and still have any hope of escaping. But, I am considerably older than the intended audience and I doubt kids would think twice about it. I took off a star because of it, though.

I imagine that the author found so many great tales of close calls involving runaway slaves while doing his research that he could not bear to cut any of them so he worked them all into Blanche's escape story. I can certainly understand that sentiment. 

As a history teacher, I would certainly recommend this book as a great supplement in a history class. 

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Three Links of a Chain.

Note: I was sent an advance review copy of this book at no charge so that I could write an honest review.

FORT PILLOW: A NOVEL of the CIVIL WAR (audiobook) by Harry Turtledove

Audiobook Edition Published in 2009 by Tantor Audio
Published in hardback in 2006.
Read by John Allen Nelson
Duration: 11 hours, 13 minutes
Unabridged

The massacre at Fort Pillow truly stands out in a bloody Civil War in which hundreds of thousands of men and women died. Even though the American Civil War had so many casualties, the war itself was remarkable in that the two sides were often quite civil with one another off of the battlefield. There are numerous stories of local truces to trade coffee for tobacco and the like. My favorite is the story of Confederate and Union pickets (perimeter guards) who co-built a cabin in stages during the winter and agreed to share it in shifts as the day went along. Prisoners of War were generally cared for (there were exceptions, but they stick out as exceptions), the enemy wounded were treated by the doctors (the care was bad, but the best that was available), and so on.

Nathan Bedford Forrest
(1821-1877)

The battle at Fort Pillow in April of 1864, though, stands out as something different. It was much more like the Missouri Bushwhacker and Kansas Jayhawker fighting. It was more than just Union vs. Confederate. It had a personal side to it that resulted in a massacre. 

The positive side to Fort Pillow: A Novel of the Civil War is that Turtledove has clearly done an exceptional amount of research. He presents Nathan Bedford Forrest as a complicated man. An uneducated man who outsmarts most West Pointers he fights against and outshines most of his experienced and educated peers. He truly was one of the most talented officers of the war. But, he was also a slave trader and certainly could not approve of Black soldiers fighting against white men.

An advertisement
for Forrest's
slave-trading business.

Fort Pillow was garrisoned with white and black soldiers. The U.S. Colored Troops were roughly half of the soldiers, the balance were white soldiers, mostly  from Tennessee. Even though Tennessee was a Confederate state, these white soldiers had sat out of the war and then volunteered for the Union army when they could or had deserted the Confederate army to join the Union. Tennessee supplied 100,000 men to the Confederate cause, but it also supplied 50,000 Union soldiers. A lot of Forrest's men were from Tennessee and they looked at Tennessee men who became Union soldiers as traitors or worse. Forrest's men also believed that these Union soldiers had attacked pro-Confederate families, including unsanctioned raping and looting. Turtledove hints that even though these attacks were unsanctioned, they may very well have been unofficially approved of by the Union leadership at Fort Pillow. Clearly, the fighting in Tennessee was more than just about secession or slavery - it had a personal dimension as well.

The U.S. Colored Troops had a different set of problems. The Confederate government had pledged to enslave any black soldiers that they captured, on the premise that they were all escaped slaves. 

Forrest and his men launched a surprise, raid-style attack on Fort Pillow in an effort to pick up more arms and other supplies and in a non-stop effort to harass Yankee soldiers wherever they could be found. 

Fort Pillow was poorly designed and its officers did little to improve its viability. For example, fields of fire were not cleared around the fort, little thought had gone into what would happen if the defenders got in close (the artillery could not hit them due to the limited ability of the cannons to fire downward). 

After some hard fighting it became obvious to Forrest that he would eventually take the fort and he asked for a truce to discuss surrender terms. The original commander of the fort had been killed and his replacement refused to surrender, even though Forrest promised to not enslave the U.S. Colored Troops and that they would not seek reprisal against the white soldiers from Tennessee. He also threatened that if his men were forced to take the fort by force he could not ensure that he could stop them from committing these sorts of atrocities.

And, it turns out, Forrest was right...

Turtledove does so much right in this book. It is well-researched. He makes characters out of people in multiple levels of both armies so that he can give a very thorough view of the battle. He does not get bogged down in the technical details of each weapon, but his description of how to operate a Civil War cannon was detailed and extremely interesting.

What does he do wrong?

- He is repetitive. It is great that he gives multiple perspectives, but he gives long, long multiple perspectives on the same topic.

-He has an annoying habit of having the omniscient narrator tell the reader something and then have the characters note the same thing, think about the thing that they noted, tell another character about that thing and then they discuss whether or not to tell other people about it. Any single one of these devices would have been sufficient. Even worse, sometimes a soldier on the other side of the battle notices the same thing and the entire process is repeated.

-There is a long, rather boring chase of a single Union officer after the battle. He sneaks away from the fort, tries to get to Union lines, gets captured and eventually is executed. Way too long and no real pay off at the end.

In sum, the book is too repetitive. The good parts of the book are simply overwhelmed by the tedium of the slow parts. Easily 25% of the book could have been thrown out or condensed. Probably more.

The reader, John Allen Nelson, did some good work in his reading. He did not have enough unique voices to make each character stand out. But, he was great at adding emotion and drama to the story. He often yelled as he read about the men charging Fort Pillow or becoming wounded. 

But, no matter how well read this book was, the story was damaged by an author that does not seem to believe that his readers can follow along unless they are constantly told the same facts over and over again.

I rate this story 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: Fort Pillow: A Novel of the Civil War.

UNSAVORY DELICACIES (Ridley Fox/Nita Parris Spy Series Book 2) and THE DEMETER CODE (Ridley Fox/Nita Parris Spy Series Book 3) by Russell Brooks

If you like the Mission Impossible movies, you'll like The Demeter Code

Published in 2014.

Normally, I don't review two books at the same time. But, the author of this series sent me both books together, explaining that they are closely tied. From what I have read in other reviews, Unsavory Delicacies (really, it is a 30 page collection of short stories) served as sort of a bridge between books 1 and 3.Personally, I think you should just jump into book three, The Demeter Code. I felt no better informed about what was going on at the beginning of Book 3 than I would have if hadn't read 2.

So, if you just jump into book three be prepared for a little confusion, much like at the beginning of the first Mission Impossible movie. In fact, this book reminded me quite a bit of that series due its fast-pace, dramatic action scenes and the emphasis on working as a team and trusting the team over everything else.

The real action starts out with an American operation in Europe going bad, resulting in the death of a contact and a big-time international arms dealer. Once the team sorts through everything they decide that they have to investigate further, even if their bosses are telling them to pull back. From that point on the book is an almost non-stop thrill ride to all sorts of exotic locales like Russia, Afghanistan, D.C., East Asia and Bloomington, Indiana.

Yes, the whole story comes together in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University where the author went to college. I also attended Indiana University long before this author did and have lived within an a two hour drive of it almost all of my life.  I was pleased to note that not only does the story gel in Indiana, his use of Indiana geography made sense (there are two big story lines that take place there) and he gives a solid description of area around Bloomington. 

The evil plan hatched by our bad guys is a good one. It takes a lot of digging to come up with the answer. This could have been a boring story but it is not. It is a complicated story, but I found that if I was confused it was best just to plow on ahead and, sure enough, the confusion was resolved a few pages later. 

The action sequences are top-notch and there are plenty of them.

Bottom line: If you like Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible movies, you'll like this book.

Note: I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: The Demeter Code (An International Spy Thriller) (Ridley Fox/Nita Parris Spy Series Book 3)

FAMILYHOOD by Paul Reiser

If you are not a parent, you will probably not get much out of this book

Published in 2011.

Familyhood is Paul Reiser's follow-up to 1994's Couplehood, and 1997's Babyhood. Reiser is best-known for his television show Mad About You.

If you have children you will certainly understand the big gap between the publication of Babyhood and Familyhood - life with children consumes your time. And, Paul is more than just happy about that fact, he is thrilled with it. 

Paul Reiser. Photo by 
Thomas Atilla Lewis

When he wrote this book he his two sons were ten and fifteen years old. I just read it and my two daughters are nine and fifteen years old. So much of this book rang true to me, especially his discussion on page 24 about how hard it is to just sit down and have time to talk with his wife. He writes, "This may seem to be a mighty meager aspiration - to simply talk to the person with whom you have committed to share your life - but I assure you it is not. It is, in fact, almost impossible."

How true that is.

Reiser talks about his own family as a kid and what he tries to do differently (he is very kind to his parents, he just would do some things differently) but most of the book is about how happy he is to have had his life overturned by becoming a dad and how much he loves his kids. Yes, it is kind of sappy, but Reiser celebrates that in this book and I can truly appreciate a man who just loves being a dad. 

If you are not a parent, you will probably not get much out of this book, if you are you will recognize so many of your experiences in this quick, light read.

I look forward to his book about being a grandparent which I am sure he will write about 15 years from now.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found here on Amazon: Familyhood

A VISION of FIRE: A NOVEL (Earthend Saga #1) (audiobook) by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin

Published in 2014 by Simon and Schuster

Read by one of the authors, Gillian Anderson

Duration: 9 hours, 34 minutes

Unabridged

A Vision of Fire is a mix of political thriller with sci-fi and a heavy dose of the occult thrown in as well. The book starts out with top-level negotiations taking place at the United Nations between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir. Both countries are nuclear powers and both countries are sending troops to the border. An Indian ambassador is trusted by both sides and he is trying to broker a peace between them before a nuclear war starts.

But, after dropping off his daughter Maanik at her school mysterious assassins make an unsuccessful attempt on his life. He reassures his daughter that he is fine and proceeds to the negotiating table. But, his daughter starts to have some sort of break down and starts clawing at her arms.  She is rushed home and heavily sedated because she is hurting herself.

The translator for the ambassador has a close friend who is a child psychologist named Caitlin O'Hara who also works at the United Nations. He calls O'Hara in because he knows that she is discrete. She immediately drops the medication and tries to calm the girl with hypnosis. It seems successful at first but the symptoms start coming back with more and more intensity. To make matters worse, other cases that are similar start to pop up in young people around the world...

Meanwhile, a secret group of explorers based in New York City is assembling an exotic collection of treasures from antiquities - and this latest piece is doing some very strange things...

Okay - this sounds like it could be a very good book, doesn't it? 

Sadly, I was very disappointed on multiple levels. 

This book just drags and drags as the child psychologist struggles with Maanik and her symptoms. Even worse, as O'Hara starts to grasp that there is a paranormal side to this case the paranormal stuff is so loosely connected and presented in such a sporadic manner that it was just boring. I grew tired of trying to make a connection as I listened and I felt like it was something to be endured rather than something to be enjoyed. 

When I finally get to the end I realize that most of this book was not needed to prepare the reader for part two of the series. In movie terms, it was like watching Star Wars Episode 1 - only about five minutes of the movie is really needed to prepare you for Episode 2. The rest is just extra stuff and you had to watch Jar Jar Binks for most of the movie!

The book was read by Gillian Anderson. I really like her in the X-Files - she is my favorite character on the show. But, this is the second time I have heard her read an audiobook and I can honestly attest to this - I am not a fan. It took me a while to figure out who she was reminding me of as I listened and then it hit me - she sound like Madeline Kahn singing "I'm Tired" in Blazing Saddles . Anderson is so weary-sounding, her voice is so flat that it sounds like she was going to fall asleep as she was reading her own book!



So, I cannot recommend this book. It is not entirely without merits. The premise is interesting, the interaction between O'Hara and the translator was rewarding. But, I will not be moving on to part two.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: A Vision of Fire

THE PRICE THEY PAID: ENDURING WOUNDS of WAR by Michael Putzel

Published in 2015 by Michael Putzel.

Michael Putzel has written a sort of unit history of C Troop 2/17th Cavalry 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, also known as the Condors. The tales of combat in Vietnam and Laos are exceedingly well-told, riveting and harrowing. They tell of bravery, loyalty and loss and gave me a picture of a part of the war that I really knew very little about before.

But, as good as those stories are, the real strength of the story is the story about what comes after the war. The title, The Price They Paid, is more than just story of who was injured and who died in the war. Certainly, they paid the highest price. But, the men who were injured, the men who lost their friends, even the men who went through unscathed - those men who survived to go home also paid a price and that is what I found most compelling.

The book focuses on Jim Newman, a  man who started as a private in the army, worked his way to becoming an officer. In Vietnam he led his men in the Air Cavalry (helicopters, if you are not familiar with it) with daring skill. He was an officer who knew what it was like to be an enlisted man. He loved to fly helicopters and he was good at it. He didn't waste his men's lives but he knew when to take risks and his men admired him. He was on a career path to become a general before he self-destructed after the war. From a distance, he seemed successful, but he was deeply troubled in his personal life with multiple divorces, estranged children and even a charge of bigamy - none of it is explained.

Putzel writes about others who served with Newman. Some have lingering physical ailments. Some have new ailments such as cancer, thought to be from exposure to Agent Orange. Many of them have PTSD to some extent - some have paranoia, some anger at a government that would not live up to its promises and some just never really got their lives on any sort of track after the war. It was all part of The Price They Paid.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Note: I received a review copy of this book from a publicist so that I could write an honest review. 

This book can be found here on Amazon: The Price They Paid: Enduring Wounds Of War.

NPR DRIVEWAY MOMENTS: MORE about ANIMALS: RADIO STORIES that WON'T LET YOU GO

Published in 2015 by HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books.
Multicast performance
Duration: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Unabridged

In a lot of ways the first story in this 30 story collection typifies the entire collection. It is called "Grizzly Encounters" and is an almost 6 minute long recounting of three different encounters with Grizzly Bears. We were on a long family trip and you could almost sense the family settling in for what was sure to be an interesting story. But, after we had listened to each of them sort of peter out to a "that's it?" moment I stopped the CD and asked if I was the only one that was disappointed in that story. Everyone, even the nine year old, thought the story was a disappointment.

So, on to the next story - a story about bats in a mine that I remember most for telling me this was the sound of the bats that they had been hunting (and me thinking that this would sound great in the awesome speakers of the rental SUV) only to have it last for about 5 seconds. 0 for 2 so far.

The next four stories were better, the best being a story about tool-using animals, although the story of dolphins recognizing the calls of other dolphins that they hadn't seen for years was certainly heart-warming.

The rest of the collection is mostly like that. A lot of ho-hum stories with the theme of animals with the occasional good story. The story of a Florida sea turtle who was accidentally carried across the Atlantic by a ship was cute and ended well but hardly memorable. A song written for Lonesome George, a last-of-his-kind tortoise was cute at first but I was so glad when it ended.

Really, we got an F?

I have listened to at least seven of the audiobooks in this series and they all suffer from the up-and-down quality but these just seemed to be almost universally so-so. Perhaps the best story was an interview with one of the creators of the humor blog "Animal Review" in which the authors grade animal species from F- to A+. They give Pandas an F for a variety of reasons that make sense once you read them and the octopus gets an A because it's like a "superhero". Unfortunately, the interviewer doesn't go along with the joke very well and drags it down. I felt like she was just getting in the way of a good joke. Surely, NPR must have someone with a sense of humor, right?

So, for a variety of reasons I just have to give this collection 3 stars out of 5.

This collection can be found on Amazon here: 
NPR Driveway Moments: More about Animals: Radio Stories That Won't Let You Go

BRIMSTONE(Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch #3) (audiobook) by Robert B. Parker

Published by Random House in 2009
Read by Titus Welliver
Duration: 5 hours, 7 minutes
Unabridged

In the third book in this series, Brimstone, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch do a lot, but at the same time I felt like this book went nowhere and made a lot of noise doing it.

In short, Cole and Hitch begin the story looking for Cole's ex-girlfriend Allie French. You have to have read the first two books to even begin to wonder why Cole wants to find this woman again. They find her in the worst brothel in the worst part of town and rescue her and a fight ensues.

They all leave town and eventually find a town that needs two deputies and they take the jobs. In the town there are multiple saloons, including one led by a former army officer who was cashiered from the service because he led his men on an attack on an Indian village and killed old people, women and children but no warriors. 

There is also a church in town with a curious brand of Christianity led by a megalomaniac who believes he is communing with God and arms his deacons and practices a "muscular Christianity". Allie is drawn to the church, the church sets out to close the saloons and there are multiple murders by a rogue Indian on the fringes of town.

Virgil and Everett have their work cut out for them.

I have listened to the first three books in this series in the last month and perhaps I have listened to too many to fast. This book just did not have the punch of the last two. In fact, this book just seemed like a lot of half-developed themes thrown into a big pot and stirred around. The first book, Appaloosa, was a tight drama that built along two themes - the friendship of Cole and Hitch and Allie's need to be with the biggest dog in the pack. The second book was all about Cole working out how he can be an enforcer of the law even though he has broken the law.

The only consistent theme in this book was the redemption of Allie, and that was not done particularly well. There was an undeveloped anti-religious message (actually two themes - is religion real and are religious leaders to be trusted), there was a look at the raw deal that a lot of Indians got and then there was just your typical western shoot 'em up stuff. Plus, even though there was a lot of shooting, kidnapping, and general mayhem, it seemed like there was an incessant amount of talking in this book. The same conversations that were held in the last three books in this series plus in most of the Spenser books. Maybe if I had spaced out my listening a little bit it wouldn't have been so obvious.

Once again, Hollywood actor Titus Welliver read this book, as he did for the other two. Once again, he did a good, solid job. I think he voices Everett Hitch especially well.

This audiobook can be found here on Amazon: Brimstone.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

FOOD: A LOVE STORY (audiobook) by Jim Gaffigan

Published in October of 2014 by Random House Audio
Read by the author, Jim Gaffigan
Duration: 7 hours, 17 minutes
Unabridged

My wife and two kids and I listened to Food: A Love Story as we drove on our family trip this summer. We are fans of Jim Gaffigan (I really appreciate the fact that our children can listen and he rarely uses an inappropriate word, let alone vulgar commentary or topics.)

The book is obviously about food and Jim rarely deviates from it. He is not a "foodie". He is not driving out of his way to get something new. He is not traveling with the intent to try exotic twists on old flavors. Nope, he is an every man talking about regular every day food - burgers, fries, hot dogs, ice cream, cupcakes, pancakes, etc. He gets his tips on where to go by tweeting to his followers that he is in a certain city and where should he go. He rarely gets a bad recommendation.

He includes an overview of the country with regional specialties, including a long and hilarious explanation of why he hates seafood of all sorts (me too, Jim!). He also talks about his all-time favorites, where to get some of those. My wife and I were delighted to hear him rave about Schoop's in northern Indiana and the Coney Island Weiner Stand in Fort Wayne. 

He also talks about why steak is amazing, vegetables are not and the country's obsession with certain foods as a health craze (right now it is kale). I especially enjoyed his review of famous food chains by genre (burger places, taco places, breakfast places) even if I disagreed with him on a lot of them. It seemed appropriate as we were ticking off the miles and driving past all of the exits with the omni-present McDonald's, Subways and Waffle Houses.

This is not an audiobook that I could just sit and listen to at long stretches. I could only take about 1 CD at a time (about an hour and 10 minutes) and then I just got tired of hearing Jim talk about food. But, at lunchtime stop at the McDonald's we'd talk about what he said about this place and that place as we passed their billboards and my youngest daughter would proudly proclaim that she had found the "bonus fry" in the bottom of the bag. Then, I'd pop him back in again and we would laugh some more at his observations about bacon or Dunkin Donuts or Hot Pockets.

He brings it all together with a fairly profound commentary on food and family and our short time on this world. Here's an excerpt: "My advice to you, dear reader, is to eat well and frequently. Our time here is pretty short. It's filled with disappointments and drama, and food can make it better." He recommends more cheeseburgers and you certainly can't disagree with an expert who has written a book on the topic, can you? 

I definitely recommend this for a family trip.

The book is read by Jim Gaffigan and here's all I can say about it - it couldn't have been read better if it were wrapped in bacon. Well, that make's no sense if you haven't read the book, but if you have you know exactly what I mean.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found here: Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan.

MARVEL'S AVENGERS: THE AGE of ULTRON: THE JUNIOR NOVELIZATION (audiobook) by Chris "Doc" Wyatt

Published by Marvel Press and Blackstone Audio on April 10 of 2015.
Read by Tom Taylorson
Duration: 1 hour, 34 minutes.
Unabridged.

Marvel's Avengers: The Age of Ultron: The Junior Novelization is my third audiobook of a junior novelization of a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They adhere closely to the movies, have all been well-read, easy to listen to and, on the whole, quite enjoyable. 

But, this one is troubling because it only covers half of the movie. Literally, this audiobook is about half of the length of the other audiobooks as well. If you have seen the movie, it only goes to the fight scene in the ship that is being harvested for scrap metal and it alludes to the Iron Man/Hulk fight scene. That's it. 

Ultron

Up to that point, it's an enjoyable audiobook. Reader Tom Taylorson does a very good job with the different voices of the Avengers, especially Thor. He also does an especially good job with the voice of Ultron - sometimes he sounds exactly like James Spader who voices him in the movie.

The problem is that this is only half of the movie is in this audiobook.

It probably stems from the fact that this book was published a week before the movie was premiered in Los Angeles and about 3 weeks before it was released across the United States on May 1, 2015. To me, this seems like a promotional gimmick - a way to gin up interest before the movie came out. The problem is, we are stuck with just having half of a story long after the movie has been released.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. What is there is excellent - but it's only half of the story.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron: The Junior Novel.

Note: I was sent a copy of this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

MARVEL'S AVENGERS PHASE ONE: THE INCREDIBLE HULK (Marvel Cinematic Universe) (audiobook) by Marvel Press

Published in 2015 by Blackstone Audio
Read by Jim Meskimen
Duration: 2 hours, 52 minutes
Unabridged

Marvel Press has released a series of junior novelizations of their Avenger and Avenger-related movies. The term "Phase One" in the title means that this is a pre-Avengers book that serves to introduce an Avenger. The publisher recommends them for ages 8-12 but my wife and I listened along with the kids in the car and we enjoyed it as well. My wife was really got into it. I was the only one in the car that had actually seen the The Incredible Hulk  movie.

Marvel's Avengers Phase One: The Incredible Hulk is a faithful re-telling of the movie. Unlike some novelizations, this one does not really expand past what the movie reviewer would have seen in the movie. No new secrets revealed or anything.

The book starts with Bruce Banner already having been exposed to gamma radiation and having already changed into the Incredible Hulk. In fact, the real plot gets going five years after his exposure.

Banner is on the run, the target of a secret military program that is trying to re-create the Super Soldier program that produced Captain America. He is hiding out in Brazil while trying to find a cure and working at a soda pop factory. But, he makes one tiny mistake - just one little mistake and soon special forces units are flying to Brazil to try to round up Banner without making him angry...

As I said before, my family and I listened in the car and I polled them afterwards about how they would rate the audiobook and they all said they would give it an A or A-. I liked it as well (I would give it 4 stars) so I am going with the group average and giving it 5 stars out of 5.

Jim Meskimen did a good job of reading this story. With the exception of the English accent of one of the bad guys, he covered a variety of accents well. More importantly, he covered the angst of Banner perfectly.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: MARVEL'S AVENGERS PHASE ONE: THE INCREDIBLE HULK (Marvel Cinematic Universe) (audiobook) by Marvel Press.

Note: I was sent a copy of this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

MARVEL'S AVENGERS PHASE ONE: CAPTAIN AMERICA, the FIRST AVENGER (Marvel Cinematic Universe) (audiobook) by Marvel Press

Published in 2015 by Blackstone Audio
Read by Tom Taylorson
Duration: 2 hours, 47 minutes
Unabridged

Marvel Press has released a series of junior novelizations of their Avenger and Avenger-related movies. The term "Phase One" in the title means that this is a pre-Avengers book that serves to introduce an Avenger. The publisher recommends them for ages 8-12 but my wife and I listened along with the kids in the car and we enjoyed it as well.

The book follows the movie very closely, detailing how Steve Rogers tried to join the army multiple times during World War II but was always refused because he was too small and too sickly. Finally, he is noticed by a team of scientists and given the opportunity he has always wanted - he can join the army. 

But, there's a catch. 

He will have to be part of a group of men who are competing to see who can qualify to be part of an experiment to create a "Super Soldier" based on research already being done by a secret group in Nazi Germany called Hydra...

This is the place to start this series. In this book, the groundwork for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is laid out. If you are an avid comics reader, then you probably already know that the movies and the TV shows deviate from some of the established comic book story lines. We meet the Stark family, Agent Carter (the namesake of an ABC television series), learn a little about the Infinity Stones and quite a bit about Hydra. 

Tom Taylorson's narration is quite good. He makes the story seem dramatic without being overly dramatic. My family enjoyed it as we drove along on a family vacation which is quite the compliment since I am the only one of the four of us that has actually seen the movie that this audiobook is based on, Captain America: The First Avenger. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 with the understanding that this is a 5 star rating for an audiobook that is kid friendly. 

This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: Marvel's Avengers Phase One: Captain America, the First Avenger (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

Note: I was sent a copy of this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.