AJ

Great stories and insights!

Revisado: 06-29-24

This is well written and provides great insights into the world of music engineering and producing, as well as dropping a buttload of highly entertaining stories about rock n roll’s early days in the UK.

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A delicious read for Off Menu fans!

Revisado: 10-30-23

Fun and interesting read from one of my favorite diabetic comedians! Loved the childhood memories and the conversation with Nish Kumar at the end is alone worth the purchase of the audiobook!

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Solid Paranormal Vampire Novel

Revisado: 08-16-21

Readers of paranormal and vampire lit will dig this.

There are Biblical tones, over and under, throughout Markus, an urban fantasy where wizards are dispatched by the Vatican to battle vampires in a modern setting. I was getting Constantine (the Keanu Reeves movie) vibes from this, and it also reminded me a little of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

David Odle's churning prose keeps the action flowing. His crisp characterizations quickly and precisely getting to the crux of the character, immediately conveying what you need to know about that person. Good descriptions of spells being cast, too!

I listened to the audiobook and honestly the narrator did the book no favors. He was too stiff and his emphases was often oddly placed. His delivery reminded me somewhat of an old school, hardboiled detective novel. I suppose that works, since there were essentially agents out on the streets tracking down vampires. Aside from that, there isn't much to complain about.

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Action Historical Fiction

Revisado: 02-22-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

If you like the Napoleonic Wars, historical fiction, duels, and the technicalities of fighting, this is the book for you! Duncan Galloway's narration is pretty darn good. I would have liked a little more excitement from his voice here and there, but overall it's a good performance, which occasionally hits heights when he really gets into playing certain characters.

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Nice insights to a specific slice of history

Revisado: 12-10-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

The Fur Trade Gamble: North West Company on the Pacific Slope, 1800 1820 is about the fur trade gamble that the North West Company took in the Northwest U.S. states circa 1800 1820....Handy title that!

When history books get as specific as the focus of this one is, you really can only recommend it to readers with in inherent interest in said subject. Even if you're a fan of say "all things west coast," you still may find this one too dull in its myopia. However, if you like nothing more than diving into a history book about western expansion, furriers, the Columbia River Valley or interactions with Pacific Northwest Native Americans, just go ahead and throw your money at this. Fans of the movie Jeremiah Johnson would dig the shizz outta this!

I picked up a copy of this through Audio Boom (in exchange for an honest review, I should add) and their purpose in giving up these free downloads is to receive reviews specific to the narration, so here we go...

Narrator Bill Nevitt could use some work. He flat out mispronounced a handful of words and talked himself out of breath on occasion, speaking without breathing for so long that by the end of a sentence he was forced to gasp through the final wah-erd. These negatives are few and mostly apparent at the start of the book. By the end, he seemed to have things under control. On the plus side, the character and quality of Nevitt's voice suits history books to a tee, to a tee I say!

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Hazy nightmare

Revisado: 10-24-20

Helen's Daimones is the third book published, but second chronological book in SE Lindberg's eerie Dyscrasia series.

This one was more accessible to the reader, less esoteric, than the first. The first book laid on an intentional layer of archaic prose to set a dark and ancient tone. Here, Lindberg seemed to be going for ease of readability. There are also more female characters herein: an insectoid queen, little girls and possessed dollies. Parts of this feel like an intensely creepy children's story.

At times I wasn't sure what was going on exactly. A little more setting wouldn't hurt. But mainly,
I think part of that is due to the otherworldliness Lindberg imbues these books with. There is a dreamy nature to the action and narrative. Not a lovely dreaminess, mind you. Perhaps it would be better described as hazy nightmare.

All in all, this is good stuff, which I think would make excellent reading for Halloween!

PS: I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator's subtle vocal tremor makes her little girl voices sound like Bjork. Take that as you will, but I love Bjork so that was a bonus.

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Nice Halloween/Xmas Mash-up beautifully narrated

Revisado: 10-23-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

A couple of psychics head up to Yorkshire to investigate disturbances at a site where a great tragedy happened 100 years ago.

Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story is a sort of mash-up of Halloween and Christmas. It takes place during Christmas, but the feeling of the book leans more toward the spoopy, rather than Christmas cheer. Although, xmas comes into play by the end. So really, you could read this during either holiday. I chose now, because I was given a review copy by the narrator and felt like I shouldn't sit on it for months while she's waiting on a review.. Having said that, you're still getting an absolutely honest review out of me, because that's how I roll.

First off, it's a good story. I'm not into psychic stuff, but I still got caught up in this story. I do like a good mystery or detective story, so I was interested to start with. It's a credit to the writing that I stuck with the book even when it turned out that the mystery aspect wasn't particularly strong. No clues had to be sleuthed, no murder weapon unearthed, and no evil-doer unmasked. Paranormal activity is where it's at with Eve, as I assume is the tendency of the Psychic Surveys series. I've never read one before, but after this pleasant experience, I'd be happy to read more.

Heather Tracy's narration is top-notch. She handles all ages, genders and a variety of accents with ease. I don't think I've listened to her before, but I really enjoyed her lovely voice. Her name's on my "narradar" now.

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A memorable memoir for metalheads

Revisado: 09-24-20

If you're a fan of Metallica, Anthrax, Ministry, Overkill, Manowar (and a buttload of others) or '80s metal in general, this is the book for you! Megaforce label founder Jon Zazula's memoir Heavy Tales is filled with fun and fucking interesting tales of American metal's early days.

The book kicks off with a nice intro from Testament singer Chuck Billy. Then Jon (I'll use "Jon" rather than referring to him by his last name, because his wife Marsha was an equal partner in the business and I don't want to disrespect her work by acting like there was only one Zazula involved) goes into a brief history of his youth. This is mostly to set up the reasons for him striking out on his own at a young age. Details of his pre-music management days is colorful to say the least!

After a stab at the stock market, he went in for music production and management. He and his wife started the Megaforce label on a shoestring budget. Almost immediately they hit a home run, releasing Metallica's very first album. So, obviously that is a big draw here and Jon delivers the goods, giving great insider info about their beginnings and wild ways as kids.

His passion for all kinds of music is apparent. The care he took in managing his bands is clear. He admits it was trial and error to begin with, but even throughout his failures you can see he's putting his whole heart into it, and that's a beautiful thing to witness.

Now, Jon isn't a writer. That's no knock on the man. He's been plenty successful in his chosen field. I mention it for readers to let them know that they're going to find some funky sentence structures and occasionally a mistakenly used word. I listened to the audiobook and can't imagine what this free-ranging prose would look like on the page. description
Having said that, there is charm in the book's casualness. It's like having a beer with your grandpa and listening to him tell his interesting and rambling tales...only gramps is into metal.

The book finishes up with tons of radio show interview questions answered live by Jon. These are fantastic! Much of it is material already covered in the book, but still the answers are insightful and provide a great retrospective look at the man and his career in music. In a way, I wish Jon hadn't narrated his book, but rather simply told his stories off-the-top of his head. In these off-the-cuff interviews, you can really hear the difference between the natural flow of him speaking versus the hesitancy of him reading from a page. I don't know if the print book has these transcribed. If not, get your hands on the audiobook. Totally worth it!

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An important work

Revisado: 09-17-20

I picked up Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille as a Black History Month read. It contains an extensive introduction in which the reader learns a great deal about McKay and this book's long and elusive path to publication, having been written in the early 1930s, but only just now being released for the first time.

It's a turbulent story about redemption, revenge and strange loves gone astray. Touted as a forerunner of pro-disabled and LGBTQ literature, this may not satisfy the modern activist's mindset. While the main character's disability is the focal point of the book, any references to homosexuality are polite-society played down. This is certainly not as strident and explicit as a James Baldwin novel. But of course, this predates Baldwin by a few decades.

Viewed from the literary standpoint, there are minor problems. Some of the characterizations are ham-fisted, slightly too two-dimensional. A bit more nuance would have done a world of good. Perhaps this would have been addressed if the full version of this book had made it to print. What we have here is a shorter version of the entire manuscript. It's all that has survived to print. It's a shame, but I'm thankful for what we do have. Romance in Marseille, the book and its journey to publication, is important to literature.

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Great mystery, great narration!

Revisado: 09-17-20

I've finally started getting into these Ellis Peters books. This one had a great story, solid plot, and the audiobook performance by Patrick Tull was perfect. I love Tull's grandfatherly voice and the way he tells the story like gramps reading a book to the kids by the fire.

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