Trey Weller

It's Good to Be Bad

Revisado: 07-06-18

Frank W. Abagnale is the gold standard of con artists, the kind of guy that reminds you that the "con" stands for "confidence." The sheer amount of escapades Abagnale participated in, the amount he got away with, is staggering, and he writes about it with a swagger that makes it clear exactly how he was able to charm his way onto planes and into the lap of luxury. The reader is given the lowdown on how Abagnale came up with and executed his schemes, and as a result, you come out of this feeling smarter-- albeit not in a way you can exactly show off.

Barrett Whitener keys into the tone of Abagnale's writing and conveys that tone effortlessly. This was a wonderful listen-- even if it's pretty hard to wipe the smirk off your face afterward.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One of King's Hidden Gems, Performed Masterfully

Revisado: 07-06-18

Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne is unique among his works, a novel told as an elderly woman's lengthy confession. It's funny, gripping, moving, and utterly spellbinding in its depiction of a working wife and mother. In this book, Stephen King creates one of his most memorable characters, and her voice elevates this book from good to great.

That voice is perfectly captured by Frances Sternhagen. She embodies everything Dolores is over the course of the novel, and gives her a kind of nobility through her struggles. She's incredible from the first minute to the last. I simply could not stop listening. If you're looking for a good use of your credit, look no further.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 15 personas

Dickens and Curry - A Match Made in Heaven

Revisado: 08-27-16

What did you love best about A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry?

This is the perfect narrator for this novella. Tim Curry reading Scrooge is a treat, and it's one I think I may make a Christmas tradition.

What other book might you compare A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry to and why?

I mean, this is Dickens through and through. For something similar, maybe The Chimes? It's Dickens, you're not going to go wrong with him.

What does Tim Curry bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I can't read it this well. He gives the characters life, and if I close my eyes, I can pretend I'm at one of Dickens' many public readings over 150 years ago.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh, yes. Many times. Dickens knows how to make things funny, and Curry's performance is top-notch.

Any additional comments?

I loved it, loved it, loved it. Put it on on a quiet snowy evening and curl up under a blanket. Curry and Dickens were made for each other.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Excellent Follow-Up

Revisado: 08-27-16

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, assuming that friend had read The Lies of Locke Lamora. While this volume has a distinct story with a definitive end, there are enough character through-lines that necessitiate reading the original first.

What other book might you compare Red Seas Under Red Skies to and why?

How many books exist that are about both a long con and piracy? How many of those take time to really develop the relationships between characters. Scott Lynch is writing books that I want to read, and they're not like anyone else's.

Which character – as performed by Michael Page – was your favorite?

Is it too obvious to say Locke? I love his banter, the accents he slips into for parts he's playing, and the emotion he reaches by the book's end.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, even taking into account the prohibitive length. This one's a winner, just as much as the first in the series. However long Lynch takes on each volume, that's fine by me just as long as the books remain this excellent.

Any additional comments?

Read these books. Seriously. You'll be glad you have them in your life.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Spellbinding Debut

Revisado: 08-27-16

Where does The Lies of Locke Lamora rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the top. Scott Lynch is a heck of a writer, and Michael Page is exceptionally well-matched to the material.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Lies of Locke Lamora?

There is a twist around the halfway point that I wouldn't dare spoil, but it's like a gut punch to the reader. In a book like this, talking about the plot for any length of time will lead to spoilers. Long story short, it's about a group of thieves who want to pull off a big con, and things get increasingly complicated and dangerous from there. Interspersed are flashbacks that show how the characters got to be who they are now.

Have you listened to any of Michael Page’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't, but he's great. He knows when to bring out the booming authoritative tones, as well as give a wink to the listener. The characters all have distinct voices, and they're matched well to the characters' personalities.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The climax is particularly tense, but that should go without saying. Scott Lynch knows what he's doing. He's a slow writer, yes, but he uses that time to put out books with an incredibly high quality.

Any additional comments?

Get it. You'll thank me later.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Boehmer's Back

Revisado: 08-27-16

Would you listen to Dragons of Summer Flame again? Why?

Not for a while. It's a bit of a long sit.

If you’ve listened to books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman before, how does this one compare?

This isn't Weis and Hickman's best. The story is more streamlined in the Chronicles trilogy, and the character work is better in Legends, but this does a decent enough job of ending an age, introducing a new one, while also devling deeper into Krynn's mythology and paying homage to the characters from both generations. It's an impossible book to do perfectly, but by focusing primarily on the characters Weis and Hickman are able to achieve some emotional impact by the book's end.

Which character – as performed by Paul Boehmer – was your favorite?

First of all, I'm so glad that we've got Paul Boehmer reading these characters and this world again. He gets it in a way that Ax Norman simply didn't (seriously, Audible, what a travesty of a performance!). Boehmer's grown on me progressively since the first book of Chronicles, and what I love is his ability to read everything as though it is the most important, drama-filled scene he has ever encountered. You get a sense that he's crazy about this world and the people in it. And in keeping with that spirit, Boehmer's best character was undoubtedly Tasslehoff Burrfoot, everyone's favorite kender. Tas is one of those characters who so nearly annoyed me all the time in the first book, but by now I just love the guy. It's a testament to Weis and Hickman's writing as well as Boehmer's performance that Tas becomes so endearing over time. He's a tough character to pull of well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really, since it would take more than a day. That said, I did burn through this one pretty quickly.

Any additional comments?

Just so everyone's aware, this book is listed as the fourth installment in the Chronicles series, but that's misleading. Luckily I found this out before it was too late and read the books in the right order. If you're curious, here's the correct order:

1. Chronicles (starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight
2. Legends (starting with Time of the Twins)
3. The Second Generation (collection of novellas that introduces you to some of the new players and concepts in this book)
4. Dragons of Summer Flame

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 52 personas

Heartbreaking, Frustrating, and Side-splitting

Revisado: 08-08-16

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Of course! It's a long, winding series of fantastically drawn character studies, elegantly performed by the great George Guidall. What more could you want? Seriously, this is a book where the author spends literally hundreds of pages introducing us to these characters, and then puts them all in a house together for Christmas.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Corrections?

Fairly early on, without going into any details, one of the characters remembers with dawning horror the number of instances a certain object pops up in a script he has written, and Franzen recounts these instances with savage hilarity. I laughed out loud more than once.

Which scene was your favorite?

Oh, don't make me choose. I loved every hilarious, frustrating moment with these characters, and I feel like I know them better than some of my old friends.

If you could take any character from The Corrections out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Chip. That man has stories to tell.

Any additional comments?

Look, I know I'm preaching to the choir here-- this book has won loads of awards and accolades already. Everyone knows about it. But this one's worth experiencing.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Utterly Wonderful

Revisado: 08-08-16

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely. This is not just a wonderful book, but a great marriage of narrator and story. Edoardo Ballerini brings life to Jess Walter's compelling and unforgettable characters. It's hard to believe a book can be so many things at once-- a critique on today's pop culture, a love letter to coastal Italy, a stirring homage to a time and place that are the stuff of modern legend, a story about the way we tell stories-- and accomplish it all in just a little over 300 pages. And yet, it never feels overstuffed.

What other book might you compare Beautiful Ruins to and why?

It's hard to say. I haven't encountered another book quite like this one. If you've read Walter's also excellent The Financial Lives of the Poets, you won't want to miss this one. The characters could be out of an early John Irving novel, the humor straight from Tom Perrotta, and the "inside showbiz" vibe right out of Nick Hornby's Funny Girl (albeit slightly more from the sidelines than in that book). But the truth is, this is a Jess Walter book all the way, a label which makes me more and more excited with every novel he writes.

Which scene was your favorite?

Honestly, every scene contributes to the narrative, tone, and characterization, but the final chapter is such a beautiful, moving summation of everything we've read so far, it stays in the mind long after. It is the closest thing I've encountered to a perfect chapter so far this year.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Don't be surprised if you find yourself unexpectedly tearing up or grinning at some points. Any book with this much life in it provokes a reaction.

Any additional comments?

Buy it. Read it. Love it. Seriously, Jess Walter has now officially graduated from being "one to watch" to "one to love."

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

AVOID the audiobook at all cost!

Revisado: 07-22-16

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The book, yes. The audiobook, absolutely not.

What did you like best about this story?

Weis and Hickman have learned from writing the Chronicles, and it shows. The characters grow in interesting ways, there are more mature concepts tackled (for what this book is, at least), and the story is far more original. Everything is more focused, and there isn't the sense one gets in the Chronicles of having missed important events off-page. For the first time, a Dragonlance book is exactly the length it should be. I highly recommend it.

What didn’t you like about Ax Norman’s performance?

Ax Norman may be one of the worst narrators of audiobooks I've ever heard. So bad, in fact, that I gave up on the audio a quarter of the way through and just bought a physical copy instead. There is no emotion, no differentiation between characters, no inflection-- Norman sounds as if he is reading the book for the first time and he doesn't like it all that much. He can't even be bothered to read the title at the beginning. I've never encountered a narrator more passionless or lazy.

Was Time of the Twins worth the listening time?

No. Read it, but SAVE YOUR MONEY.

Any additional comments?

I won't be buying the audiobooks for the rest of the trilogy. I'll be reading them, but not through Audible. I don't know why Ax was hired. His performance is SHOCKINGLY bad. I'm usually against re-recording books, but this one is begging for it. It would actually be better not to have an audiobook at all. Audible, you can do better. Much, much better.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A Moving Tribute

Revisado: 12-01-15

Would you consider the audio edition of The Opposite of Loneliness to be better than the print version?

Quite possibly. Emily Woo Zeller brings the stories and essays to vibrant life.

What other book might you compare The Opposite of Loneliness to and why?

The last really great short story collection I read was B.J. Novak's One More Thing. That said, the stories in here are different from Novak's, not as humorous but more fleshed out.

Have you listened to any of Emily Woo Zeller’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not, but after this I'll look into other books she has performed with great interest.

If you could rename The Opposite of Loneliness, what would you call it?

Here's My Card. If you read the book to the end, you'll understand why.

Any additional comments?

Throughout The Opposite of Loneliness one can see Marina Keegan's worry that her voice will not be heard and her hope that young people can achieve their dreams without some kind of society-imposed waiting period. It is undeniable that if Keegan had not died at such a tragically young age, this book would have been different. The stories and essays might have been edited a bit further (although they are already excellent), and the selection itself might have been changed. But somehow, against all odds The Opposite of Loneliness feels like a cohesive whole, a moving tribute to an up-and-coming writer full of promise. The stories and essays are beautiful and diverse, and so good that while reading them, one forgets the author's own mortality for a while. The Opposite of Loneliness is full of life, bursting to the brim with it, and in this short a space Marina Keegan has left a lasting impact.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona