Ken M.

Interesting subject, but horrible narration

Revisado: 10-05-21

As a horse lover, I was looking forward to hearing this book, but the narration is so bad that I couldn’t stand listening to her. Her voice is grinding and nasally, she ends each sentence in a low growl, and in the short time I listened to it I heard several mispronunciations and stutters. The publisher should have insisted that the narration be done by a professional but instead let the author do it. What a shame. I will have to learn about Jim Key from other sources.

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Interesting story stretched out too long...

Revisado: 06-23-19

This is an interesting story about a little-known incident during the American Revolution. Unfortunately, the author drags it out way too much. This book would have been much better had it been about one-quarter of its length. The worst part, however, is the narrator. He is so overly dramatic in his narration that it gets increasingly more irritating the more the book goes on. He reads it like he's reading a Shakespearean play, and he places emphasis in places where it simply doesn't belong. This alone made me very tempted to stop listening, but I held on to hear how the story ended.

Note to Audible and other producers of audio books: Please do a better job of finding good narrators. It seems like most of the audiobooks I listen to from Audible have a bad narrator. This turns what is supposed to be a pleasant listening experience into a drudgery.

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Very interesting and informative book

Revisado: 05-04-18

I really enjoyed the insights John Douglas shared about his time in the FBI and the methods used to profile criminals. The only criticism I have is their choice of narrator. His voice is too old and raspy for narration. This made listening not as pleasant as it could have been.

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Good story line, but veers off course too often

Revisado: 01-25-18

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed this book when it stayed on topic, but the author veered off into unrelated stories too often and went too in-depth into them when he did. Just when I was really getting into an aspect of the Groveland Boys case, I'd have to listen to a long diatribe about an unrelated case or aspect of Thurgood Marshall's life. These side stories are interesting in and of themselves, but they belong in a different book.

Any additional comments?

The narrator has a very pleasant voice, but his delivery drove me absolutely crazy! He talks in interrupted phrases with long, silent pauses between each phrase. For example:
"In 1949.....Florida's orange industry.....was booming.....and citrus barons got rich.....on the backs of cheap.....Jim Crow labor." I almost had to stop listening because it was so irritating.

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Interesting subject matter, but way too detailed

Revisado: 03-29-17

What disappointed you about Law 101?

A better title would be "More Than You Need to Know About American Law." I have three college degrees and formerly taught government in high school, and I still found this book hard to follow at times. I was hoping it would be a broad overview of our legal system, but the author provided so much detail that it was easy to get lost in it. This book might be better suited as a primer for someone who is about to enter law school, but I don't find it very practical for the casual learner.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Joe Barrett?

The narrator's voice is barely more than a hoarse whisper. The longer I listened, the more irritating it became.

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I wanted so much to like it but it's too boring

Revisado: 09-05-16

Would you try another book from Fredrik Backman and/or George Newbern?

Probably not.

What was most disappointing about Fredrik Backman’s story?

My wife and I listed to most of the book, but we had to stop with about 2 hours left. It's not that I think the writer is bad at his craft, but the plot of the book was too thin and it bogged down in mundane situations. We knew where the author was going with the story, but the plot just didn't have much in the way of interesting substance. We were both very disappointed in this book.

Which scene was your favorite?

None.

Any additional comments?

I seriously don't know how so many people found this book to be so interesting. The attempts at humor were weak and the story drags on very slowly. This book was simply boring.

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Good overall, but too detailed & subpar narrator

Revisado: 06-23-16

Where does Bitter Blood rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The subject of this book is of great interest to me since I lived just a block away from the Klenners and am quite familiar with many of the places that are talked about. When he talked about the key figures and events, the book is well written. However, there is way too much detail about secondary and less important people. The book would have been better if much of this were eliminated and the focus stayed on the key people.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I was very disappointed in the narrator for three main reasons:

1. He put on a phony southern accent. To those not from the South, I'm sure it sounded fine to you. But to those of us born and raised in the South, it was phony and not done well at all. We find that very irritating.

2. The narrator mispronounced many names. I feel it's incumbent upon a narrator to know how names of towns and people are pronounced before they start recording.

3. He relied on the same few inflections in his reading style, which made the book more difficult to listen to as it progressed.

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