HARMLESS: AN UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE STORY (audiobook) by Ernie Lindsey

Published in 2013 by Ernie Lindsey
Read by DJ Holte
Duration: 10 hours, 34 minutes
Unabridged

First things first - Harmless: An Unconventional Love Story is a weird book. It was written to be that way. The author, Ernie Lindsey, set out to write a book in which the main character is totally unlikable but by the end of the book the reader will be rooting for this unlikable fellow.

Did he succeed?

Well, Steve Pendragon is certainly unlikable. It's not like he is an evil man. Rather, he is a clueless, thoughtless man. He keeps on flirting with his neighbor long after he should have gotten the clue that she did not want him to flirt with her any longer (in an office environment it would have careened into sexual harassment territory long before). It's not like he backs her up in the corner and puts his hands on her. He just does creepy things like have her mail delivered to his house so he has to walk it to her door every day. He stares at her from his window as she sunbathes. He gets into her car to roll her windows up when it is starting to rain and also uses the opportunity to dig through her mail.

Plus, he is clueless about all of his relationships. He is Herb from WKRP in Cincinnati. He knows he is awesome but everyone else knows he is at best average and certainly annoying. He talks non-stop about stuff that nobody cares about and he never listens. 

Photo by Niels Noordhoek

One evening Steve's world is turned upside down. His neighbor is shot and thrown from her upstairs window. Steve tries to catch the murderer before he escapes from her house but he is knocked out. He digs through her belongings before he calls the police (why? Because he's an idiot, as noted above) and when the police rule that it is a suicide he knows that he has to solve her murder himself. Once he heads off on this quest, Steve is going to learn as much about himself as he will about his murdered beautiful neighbor...

It was sort of entertaining just listening to narrator DJ Holte introduce the listener to Steve Pendragon. His cluelessness and creepiness should remind everyone of someone that they have known in their life. The first half of the book moves pretty well. But, the second half of the book, when Steve goes "on the lam" (there's a long discussion about that phrase) the book just bogs down with incessant observations, and a long extended scene in an abandoned post office. It just goes nowhere for too long.

The narration by DJ Holte was excellent. He captures Steve's undeserved arrogance and creates unique voices for every character. So unique that you can tell who is talking just by their individual voices if you are caught up in one of Steve's long meandering conversations. 

Despite the excellent voice work, I have to give the story 3 stars out of 5. Through the first half of the book I would have given it 4.5 stars. But, the second half just moved too slowly for me.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: 

Note: I was given a copy of this audiobook for review purposes.

IN PLAIN SIGHT (Joe Pickett #6) by C.J. Box

Published in 2006.

I have been reading C.J. Box's series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett for the last five years now after having someone recommend him to me on Amazon. The problem is, I have made absolutely no effort to read them in order - I just read them as I find them. So, I have read #1 and #9-13 plus several of Box's standalone novels. In Plain Sight is the first one that I felt a little lost in it as I jumped in but I got things figured out after 50 or 60 pages and still enjoyed another adventure with Joe Pickett.

In this book, Joe is dealing with a new boss at the state level who is much more bureaucrat than he is game warden. While they butt heads, the town of Saddlestring is being torn apart by an internal family feud with the Scarlett family. The Scarletts are one of the original white families to move into the area and they have been stunningly successful over the generations. They have the biggest ranch with the best land. They are on all of the boards, in the state legislature and employ lots of people. This family civil war splits the town apart and has gotten to the point where it looks like there will be an old-fashioned range war. And Joe is in the middle of it because his daughter is best friends with a daughter of one of the rivals.

Throw in a mysterious new ranch hand with an explosive temper who has a grudge against Joe Pickett and several brutal animal mutilations designed to taunt the game warden and terrify his family and you have a situation that Joe just can't ignore, even if his boss wants him to for political considerations...

For me, this story took a little while to get going partially because of my initial confusion (see the first paragraph). That being said, I give it an entirely respectable 4 stars out of 5 because once it got going it grabbed my attention.

In Plain Sight can be found on Amazon here: In Plain Sight (A Joe Pickett Novel)

LETTER from BIRMINGHAM JAIL (audiobook) by Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Brilliant Essay

Published by Mission Audio in April of 2013.
Originally published in 1963 in various newspapers and magazines
Read by Dion Graham
Duration: 51 minutes

This letter was written in response to a group of African American preachers who were calling for an end to the nonviolent resistance to the racist order in Birmingham, Alabama. This included sit-ins, marches and violating a court order to end all such demonstrations. King was arrested for violating this order (yes, he was arrested for speaking his mind and being involved in a peaceful assembly - a double violation of his First Amendment rights) and kept is squalid conditions in the overcrowded Birmingham jail.

Recreation of the Birmingham Jail cell where this letter was
written at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis,
Tennessee. Photo by Adam Jones, Ph.D. 

Letter from Birmingham Jail was written, at first, on scrap bits of paper and smuggled out by way of his lawyers and re-assembled by his supporters on the outside. The last parts were written on a note pad. The fact that it was written in such a herky-jerky fashion and yet is so cohesive and consistent throughout is simply amazing to me considering how much I go back and revise as I write and discard entire paragraphs as I go along. 

The document itself is more than just a civil rights letter. It is one of those basic expressions of what it is to be an American and why it is so important to guard those rights. As I listened, I was struck by the irony that his arguments were so much like those of the Founding Fathers. In fact, they work so well because King was intentionally using their arguments as his arguments. He was intentionally using the language of those that would oppose his demands for equal rights against them. The letter abounds with Biblical references, references to the Ancient Greeks, the Founders and even to his namesake, Martin Luther. It uses the philosophical underpinnings of Western Culture to demand that Western Culture live up to its own ideals. 

And, it is brilliant.

King's mugshot from his arrest.

I am a history teacher and I would feel completely comfortable placing this document right next to Jefferson's Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Payne's Common Sense and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address in a list of required readings for an American history class. 

Although this was written as a letter, it reads remarkably well as a speech. Dion Graham's performance is excellent. Of course, it helps when your source material is so good. But, do not take this at a swipe at Graham's abilities. He did not choose to mimic King. Instead, he read it in his own voice and he nailed all of the points perfectly. I do not think anyone could read it any better.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. 

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Letter from Birmingham Jail.

This book was added to a "book ban" list in Florida in 2022. Ugh.

THE GODS of GUILT (Lincoln Lawyer #5) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

Published in December of 2013 by Hachette Audio.
Unabridged
Read by Peter Giles
Duration: 11 hours, 49 minutes.

For me, Michael Connelly's "Lincoln Lawyer" has always been second best to his mainstay Harry Bosch series. Now, that is no insult because I am a huge fan of Michael Connelly and his second best is better than most author's best effort. This book was quite entertaining throughout and an enjoyable listen.

The Gods of Guilt begins with Los Angeles criminal attorney Mickey Haller wondering how he is going to make payroll for his struggling little law firm. He can't get any leaner than he is - he has no permanent office (he works out of his Lincoln Town Car, thus the term "Lincoln Lawyer"), he trades legal work for office space if he actually has to use a physical office and his driver is working off a legal bill by driving.   When he gets a call to defend a murder suspect who has the cash to mount a proper defense,  Mickey jumps at it. The accused is a cyber-pimp who arranges "dates" for his prostitutes via websites. He is accused of killing one of his prostitutes. 

A Lincoln Town Car. Photo by Bull-Doser.

But, Mickey is disturbed to find out that the victim is a former client that he mistakenly believed has stopped being a prostitute and had moved to Hawaii. And, the more he digs the more he is convinced that his client is truly innocent and that the his former client was involved in more things than he had ever imagined when he represented her all of those years ago and the repercussions of those activities came back to her and not only killed her but threaten anyone associated with her. As Mickey and his team begin to learn what was really going on they also risk becoming targets...

Narrator Peter Giles is a good fit for this audiobook. His smooth delivery matches the smooth delivery of Mickey Haller in court and Giles' narration works best while describing the court room drama aspect of the story.

Notes: The term "Gods of Guilt" refers to the jury in a box, 12 "gods" who sit in judgment. Personally, I think it is a bit melodramatic and clunky and the phrase is used way too many times in the story.

Fans of Harry Bosch will be pleased to note that Harry makes a short but very important appearance in this book.

The audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Gods of Guilt

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

THE GIVER (audiobook) by Lois Lowry

Originally Published in 1993
Audiobook version published in 2001 by Listening Library
Read by Ron Rifkin
Duration: 4 hours, 51 minutes

Lois Lowry has done a very clever thing in her book The Giver. She has written a book at a very simple level that explains some very complicated things in a way that most children will be able to easily grasp. A text does not have to be complicated to express complicated ideas.

In The Giver the reader is presented with a simple, Utopian society in an undetermined future time. Everything is peaceful. Everyone is fed, cared for and everyone has a place. The children are excited because it is time for the children to go through The Ceremony. All children up to age twelve are moved forward to their next year and receive some new responsibility or right, such as the right to ride a bicycle or to volunteer after school hours. Twelve-year-olds are assigned to their future work assignments by the Committee of Elders.

Author Lois Lowry in 2014.
Photo by Kenneth C.Zirkel.

The main character is Jonas, a twelve year old who has been assigned to The Receiver of Memory. Jonas is to be the new Receiver and the old Receiver is now The Giver. Through an undeclared process (remember, this is sci-fi), The Giver can pass on memories to The Receiver who holds them for his community. He is to act is the living repository of memories for his people.

What he finds out is disturbing. The memories are so strong and so full of the joys and pains of life that he discovers that his community has worked all of the good and the bad out of life. It is full of what The Giver calls "sameness". Jonas discovers that without the extremes, life is exceedingly bland and seems pathetic. Also, the people of this community have no sense of their own morals. Everything has already been decided. There will be nothing new. Nothing will be too bad or too good. It will just be and that is horrific if you know what people are really meant to be like.

I was reminded of both Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Ayn Rand's Anthem. Both feature a future world where everything is controlled and it has been determined that people will just be happier if they stop thinking, stop feeling and just do as they are told.

I enjoyed the audiobook reading by Ron Rifkin. He does a great job with Jonas' eye-opening transformation, including his near breakdown. 

This is a controversial book. It is definitely one that deserves a discussion with your child as he or she reads it. Read along with him or her and talk about it. It is full of "teachable moments".

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: The Giver.

Note: This book was on a "banned books" list in Texas. Ugh.

LETHAL MISCONDUCT (CORPS JUSTICE BOOK #6) (audiobook) by C.G. Cooper

Published by Carlos G. Cooper in January of 2015.
Read by DJ Holte
Duration: 4 hours, 57 minutes

Unabridged.

If you like military-type thrillers, C.G. Cooper's "Corps Justice" series may be of interest to you. This is a self-published series - and everyone who has read much by self-published authors is rolling his or her eyes right now. But, if you have read a lot by self-published authors you also know that while some self-published authors are really deluding themselves, some can really deliver the goods. In this case, C.G. Cooper is one of those that can really do the job.

Now, don't get me wrong, Lethal Misconduct a thriller and that means it is fairly formulaic- like westerns and romance novels, military thrillers seem to have just a few standard plot lines. In this case, this book features an all-star team of experts who are working for a gifted leader with a great moral vision who is also independently wealthy. 

Photo by Niels Noodhoek

This book is a great place to start in the series (it's where I started) because the team has just been assembled and it's clear that the series is moving off in a slightly different direction. In this case, this private, elite squadron is working unofficially for the President of the United States to take care of situations that cannot be officially handled on the books.

Now, normally this would be a problem - depending on your politics, imagine either of the last two presidents with access to an off-the-books elite military unit with almost no operational restraints and then shiver. In fact, the bad guy in this book pretty much operates his own version of the good guy's team. But, this is escapist fiction and it is best to not think about things like that and instead just sit back and enjoy the ride.

And, really, it's a pretty smart ride. Yes, this is a high-tech thriller with all of the stock characters (Gentle giant with an oddly "non-macho" skill? Check. Hacker guy? Check. Leader guy who does it all pretty well? Check.) and the stock plot points like stake outs and firefights but it also has a very tight and smart story. A lot happened in the 4 hours and 57 minutes of this audiobook. It didn't feel rushed (until it got to the end it was much too quick) and it didn't waste my time.

DJ Holte is the narrator and he has a great voice for action stories. It is deep and resonating and makes everything sound dramatic. Also, he created distinctive voices for each of the characters. His voice for the evil Colonel was perfect. It sounded world-weary but menacing, just like his character. A great reader can make it easy for the listener to imagine the character based just on his voice and Holte does that.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Lethal Misconduct: Corps Justice, Book 6.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

Note: I received a free digital copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. It really is a fun listen.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD: A THOUSAND YEAR JOURNEY from PSALM 23 to the NEW TESTAMENT (audiobook) by Kenneth E. Bailey

Published by Blackstone Audio in December of 2014

Read by Stephen E. Thorne

Duration: 10 hours, 5 minutes.

Unabridged.

Kenneth E. Bailey spent more than forty years teaching theology in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cyprus and along the way he developed a natural curiosity about shepherds. This is natural, considering how often shepherds are mentioned and that many of the main figures of the Old Testament were shepherds at one point or another (Abraham, Moses and David to name a few) and that Jesus refers to himself as both a shepherd and a lamb. 

Combine that natural curiosity with a willingness to research and the ability to see the stories from a different cultural perspective and you have something new, at least new for those of us in the West. 

In The Good Shepherd: A Thousand Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament Bailey has delivered a very readable (or in my case, listenable) overview of the major passages about shepherds in the Old and New Testaments and how they relate to one another and the cultural meanings of these texts and makes them all the richer and more meaningful. He also looks at the way the Orthodox and Coptic churches have approached the concept of Good Shepherd through the centuries.

He starts with Psalm 23 and explains the structure of how it is written and goes into cultural detail. Far from boring, I found it to be fascinating and in some ways, it changed my understanding of the Psalm. It says a lot more than I ever thought it said before.

The other passages were Jeremiah 23:1-8, Ezekiel 34, Zechariah 10:2-12, Luke 15:1-10, Mark 6:7-52, Matthew 18:10-14, John 10:1-18, and I Peter 5:1-4. As Bailey works his way through each passage he goes back to the 23rd Psalm and then compares the passages. As he goes along, he assumes that the reader picks some of it up and does not go back and re-explain things that he mentioned many times. If a new thought is introduced (such as the concept of the sheep being misled by a "bad shepherd") he discusses it fully and refers back to the new concept if it comes up again.

For me, the most powerful moment came when he tied together four stories of Jesus' life in Mark 6:7-52. Even though the story of Jesus sending out the disciples to preach on their own, the subsequent beheading of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist,  the feeding of the 5,000 and the story of Jesus walking on water all sit right next to each other in Mark, I have never heard all four them told as one story (usually, I have heard them as three separate stories). The way Bailey explains it, the disciples came back after John's death and the 5,000 would have come to hear Jesus' reaction to the wanton murder of his cousin by King Herod. What would Jesus do to avenge his cousin? After all, culturally, there would have to be some sort of response by Jesus, John's most well-known relative. Would he denounce the king? Would he go into hiding? Would he ask them to join him in overthrowing this despot? Bailey looks into the deep symbolism of every sentence in that story and I was very impressed.

While I appreciate that I received a free copy of the audiobook for review purposes from the publisher, this is one of the few times that I wished I had a paper copy of the book so that I could flip through it and make notes as I read and then quickly be able to refer back to it.

Reader Stephen E. Thorne did a good job of reading the text. He read its slowly enough that you could easily follow along and think as you went but not so slow that it dragged. 

This book can be found at Amazon here: 
The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.