SPIDER-MAN: DROWNED in THUNDER (audiobook) by Christopher L. Bennett

Published by GraphicAudio in August of 2013

Multi-cast performance
Duration: Approximately 5 hours

Marvel Comic's Spider-Man swings into action in Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder. He is up against a robot attack against New York's Diamond District in a scene that was very reminiscent of the classic Superman cartoon "The Mechanical Monsters." But, Spider-Man always has a different take on things than the Man of Steel. Spidey's comments and tendency to not quite have everything under control give this caper a unique twist.

Of course, J. Jonah Jameson continues his media barrage against the webslinger, Peter Parker and M.J. are working through relationship issues and Spider-Man continues to struggle with his work/superhero/home life balance. But, in this story he faces other issues, including robot attacks from an undetermined source, a messed up Spidey Sense and a non-stop rainy weather pattern that make his webs a lot less effective and make it hard to swing through the city.

This is an interesting story. The partnership Spider-Man forms with an old adversary is entertaining as they try to work together and the GraphicAudio treatment of the story is professionally done and top-notch (as always). They add special effects and have a whole troupe of actors tell the story much like an old-fashioned radio play.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.
This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder.

CAR TALK CLASSICS: NO FACTORY RECALLS. SO FAR. by NPR

Published by HighBridge in April of 2015.

Multicast Performance.
Duration: Approximately 3.5 hours

After 35 years on the air, there are no more Car Talk episodes being made.Tom has passed on and Ray Magliozzi is retired. But, they still are broadcast on NPR stations across the country. NPR is also going back and searching for great episodes to sell. This is a four episode collection that probably dates from the late 1990s, based on the cars that they were discussing. 

In these episodes Tom and Ray weigh in on the following:

-The lady in Alaska whose truck only goes up hills in reverse (and how she ended up in Alaska in the first place).

-The woman whose husband bought a car to rebuild and restore that only worked in reverse.

-The woman who had 33 different cars in the last 15 years.

-The astronaut who called from the space shuttle and knew Tom and Ray when he used to go to their shop back when he was in college.

-The freshman student who was suffering from intense philosophical malaise. Features Tom and Ray's discussion on adulthood and the meaning of life in the real world.

-The dog that rode on the roof of the cab of its owner's truck as she crossed the country.

-Goats and cars.

If you like the radio show, you will love this collection. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Car Talk Classics: No Factory Recalls. So Far.

I rate this collection 4 stars out of 5.

RESERVOIR ROAD by John M. Spafford

Published in 2009 CreateSpace.


I picked this novel because I am a sucker for books set in my adopted hometown - Indianapolis. The author is a resident (or, he was when he wrote the book) and you can really tell that he knows his way around the East Side of Indianapolis (I am a West Sider but I get all over town).

Reservoir Road starts with a lovely couple who buy a fixer-upper on Indianapolis' East Side (Irvington) and he starts a career as a teacher. They have a baby and then he loses his wife and son in an unexplained double murder in Covington, Kentucky. The surviving husband doesn't even know why they were in Covington and the murder is never solved.

He cannot deal with this and tries to solve the murder himself. He just cannot. But, he is moved to do something. While on the Crime Stoppers website (If you are not familiar with Crime Stoppers, they offer reward money for tips that lead to arrests and convictions) he realizes that there are so many victims like him - and decides that if he cannot solve his own case he will solve another.

So, he prepares himself and heads off to Little Rock, Arkansas to solve a mystery...

A store front in historic Irvngton

(Note: I keep saying "he" because, for the life of me, I cannot find the protagonist's name in the book. I believe that he is unnamed.)

With the exception of the very clunky treatment of the murder of his wife, this book is well done. I realize that the murder of his wife is supposed to be jarring, but this was just confusing. But, I very much enjoyed the rest of the book, including the little details about how he prepared himself, rented his apartment in Little Rock and generally began his re-entry back into society as he hunted for a murderer in Little Rock.

Quote from the book:

"His summer project had suddenly turned very dangerous. This was not the world that he was used to. He was a stranger in this culture of robbery, torture, threats, and murder. Now he was dealing directly with men who were prepared and experienced with using guns in their everyday pursuits. Men who did not hesitate to use deadly force to get what they wanted.

"Men like the ones who had already destroyed his life."

I rate this novel 4 stars out of 5.

This novel can be found on Amazon here: Reservoir Road

AFTER LINCOLN: HOW the NORTH WON the WAR and LOST the PEACE (audiobook) by A.J. Langguth

Audio edition published by Tantor Audio in September of 2014
Read by Tom Perkins
Duration: 13 hours, 29 minutes
Unabridged

Years ago, when I reviewed Doris Kearns Goodwin's monumental history of the Lincoln Administration, Team of Rivals, I noted that it was way too long and that I wished she had made it even longer by continuing to write about this team as they transitioned into the Andrew Johnson Administration. This book is similar to Team of Rivals in that it looks at individuals in the Lincoln Administration (and thus covers a lot of territory covered more thoroughly by Doris Kearns Goodwin) but it does continue on.

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877)

The book is mostly told through a series of biographies, ranging from Lincoln to Charles Sumner to the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination to O.O. Howard and even to Nathan Bedford Forrest. After Lincoln covers a lot of ground without really coming up with anything new, at least not for this serious student of the Civil War.

Most histories of Reconstruction talk about the Freedman's Bureau and the African-Americans that were sent to Congress and then just kind of drift off to some discussion of carpetbaggers and the Ku Klux Klan and the deal that ended Reconstruction without much discussion or insight into what happened to change the national mood and let Black Americans lose so much of what they had gained.

This book offers no new analysis, either. It does pick a few people, some famous, some infamous and some relatively unknown and follow them throughout the lead-up to the Civil War, through the War and into Reconstruction. Sometimes, their stories are interesting, sometimes not so much.

I listened to this as an audiobook so it is difficult for me to measure exactly how much space was devoted to the three segments of the book that I mentioned before: Before the war, the war itself and after the war. By far the most interesting, and I think the most detailed section was the first one. The end of the book felt rushed and the rich story-telling just was not there like it was in the first part.

Tom Perkins read the audiobook. He did a good job, including actually creating voices for some of the historical personalities.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here:  
After Lincoln: How the North Won the Civil War and Lost the Peace.

BLUE HEAVEN (audiobook) by C. J. Box

Published in January of 2008 by Macmillan Audio

Read by John Bedford LLoyd

Duration: 11 hours, 58 minutes

Unabridged

The first C.J. Box book to make it to publication that did not feature Joe Pickett, Blue Heaven is set in north Idaho. The story can easily be classified as a modern version of a classic western story. 

The story starts with a highly respected local rancher, a lifelong resident of the area, who is in danger of losing his beloved ranch to the bank. Newcomers, including an especially large number of retired police officers from Los Angeles, are moving in and local realtors want to take advantage of his financial troubles and turn his ranch into a series of McMansions with mini ranches so that the new residents can play at being cowboy.       
Meanwhile, two kids get mad at their mom and decide to take her boyfriend's expensive fishing equipment out for a fishing trip that he promised to take him on but "forgot" about. Before they even get to their fishing hole they stumble across a group of older men in a campground who surround a member of their group and shoot him with pistols. The kids run and are pursued but are not caught.

From this point the book becomes a race against time - will the children get caught before enough police and volunteers flood the area and find them? But, if they are found, can their rescuers actually be trusted? 

Of course, the stories of the children and the rancher do intersect and when they do a lot of deeper themes come to play such as old ways versus new ways, city vs. rural and commitment to family and justice. 

This is a good story, but needlessly over-complicated and overly-populated. There are a couple of dozen characters, many of them taking a stint as the lead for at least a chapter or two. It is fairly difficult to juggle that many characters when you are reading the book and it is even more challenging to do so when you are listening to it as an audiobook.

Luckily, the book was read by John Bedford Lloyd, a talented reader who was able to create a number of accents and cadences that were distinct enough that I was able to keep up. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found here on Amazon.com: Blue Heaven

ENEMIES AND ALLIES (audiobook) by Kevin J. Anderson

 

Just About as Perfect as It Could Be

Published by GraphicAudio in 2013
Multicast Performance
Duration: about 6 hours
Adapted from the original book.

As D.C. Comics gears up for their big Batman vs. Superman release next year it is interesting to look at how these two iconic characters ever ended up meeting, working together and then become trusted allies.

I grew up in the era when Superfriends and the Justice League were Saturday morning mainstays. Unfortunately, these were horrible days for the Batman franchise. Batman was reduced to being a sidekick of Superman with his only saving grace being that he was the only sidekick with a sidekick (Robin). The first Michael Keaton Batman movie brought a dark side to the character that had probably never been seen on screen. 

Batman has trust issues. He is secretive and he is often the only force for justice in a city that perverts the law to do the work of evil men. He must work in secrecy and hide in the shadows. This audiobook captures that side of Batman perfectly.

The spirit of Superman was captured well in the old TV show and in the Christopher Reeve movies. Those movies had plenty of issues but I have not heard of anyone that does not think the Reeve nailed the character of Superman perfectly. But, for some reason, modern movie makers have had a hard time understanding this iconic character. It's not hard. He is the ultimate Boy Scout and he is internally motivated to be that way. He is the guy that does the right thing all of the time. He is powerful because of his genetics. He is good because of his upbringing by his adopted parents. This audiobook understands Superman and captures his personality perfectly. 

But, what happens when the Gee Whiz! Aw, Shucks farm boy meets the man who wears a scary costume and  works out of the shadows? 

If you like your Superhero tales told in the classic form (I do - I am something of a comics Fundamentalist), you will thoroughly enjoy a story in which nothing new is told but it the story is still very entertaining. There are no out-of-left-field plot twists (like Alfred is really Bruce's dad! or Lex Luthor used to date Lois Lane!) - this is the same old story but told really well. Perry White yells all of the time, Lois Lane is too curious for her own good, Alfred the butler is efficient and mysterious, Gordon is the only honest cop in Gotham City and Lex Luthor has a diabolical plan that could shake up the entire world.

And it's just about as perfect as it could be.

My daughter and I listened to this audiobook as we commuted back and forth to school for a couple of weeks. When it was all done and she pulled the last CD from the CD player she said, "That was awesome! That was amazing! That was amazingly awesome!" 

The story is set in the 1950s and Lex Luthor is stealing Wayne Enterprises military technology so that he can dominate the Cold War military buildup and playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne doesn't seem to notice. Clark Kent has been sent to Nevada to look into a secret military base called Area 51. Rumors of alien visitors have made him quite curious. And, both Batman and Superman are getting curious about each other as their stories are starting to spread - Superman, the hero with a smile and a kind word. Batman, the vigilante in the dark.

If you are not familiar with GraphicAudio you should be. Their tag line is "A Movie In Your Mind" for good reason. They make each production like an old-fashioned radio show with sound effects. This production had 26 different voice actors - some with big parts, some with tiny parts. It keeps the story lively and it is much easier to picture Superman ripping open the roof of an airplane hanger when you hear the metal tearing at the same time.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

 This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Enemies and Allies

THE CONSERVATARIAN MANIFESTO: LIBERTARIANS, CONSERVATIVES, and the FIGHT for the RIGHT'S FUTURE by Charles C. W. Cooke

 

Libertarians and Conservatives - Natural Allies, Natural Rivals

Published in 2015 by Crown Forum

Charles C. W. Cooke is a writer for National Review and as such he has been in the center of a storm as the political Right works through a new generation of thought on a variety of issues. In some issues, the political Right is united, such as on the concept of Limited Government and keeping taxes as low as possible. In others, they have a variety of opinions.

Generally speaking, Libertarians bond more readily with the Right than the Left, which is why Ron Paul identified as a Libertarian for years yet caucused with the Republicans in the Congress and ran for president as a Republican. The dislike of the Nanny State on many issues pushes them together as temporary allies on many issues.

But, on other issues such as the War on Drugs and Gay Marriage the Right is split and split deeply. In The Conservatarian Manifesto, Cooke is attempting to nudge the Republicans a little more to the Libertarian point of view on things so that these temporary alliances between the Libertarians and Conservatives can become more permanent.

This can be difficult, though. The Libertarians tend to view traditional Conservative views as hypocritical - too willing to promote some intrusive acts by the government while decrying an intrusive government. Conservatives tend to view the Libertarian position as naïve and too willing to walk away from any sort of compromise because compromise is in and of itself unacceptable. Or, as Cooke puts it on page 32, "...convinced that logic-on-paper can answer all the important questions about the human experience, dismissive of history and cultural norms, possessed of a purifying instinct, and all to ready to pull down institutions that they fail to recognize are vital to the integrity of the society in which they operate."

Ron Paul

So, the two sides clash "...when the question is 'What should we do' rather than 'what should we oppose?' " (p.33)

So, that is the crux of the book. The two sides have deep divisions but large areas of agreement about where government should not act. It is a well-written, quick read. I come at things from the Conservative with Libertarian leanings camp (like Cooke) so I readily see what he is advocating. My Libertarian relatives are not likely to compromise on any issues, even in the name of making real advances on issues that they hold dear. For them, it is an all-or-nothing proposition (which I get - they hold all of their ideals dearly) but that just is not the way that politics works. Play the game and move towards what you really want. Don't play the game and get none of what you really want but stay ideologically pure.

At least this can be a place to start the discussion.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: 
The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right's Future

Note: 9 years later anyone can see that the Ron Paul movement and its hybrid Republican/Libertarian movement has become nothing. It looked like the future,  but it is now nothing but an odd offshoot in the MAGA Republican Party represented by almost no one at all. DWD -July 16, 2024.