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'Blue Highways' this is not...

Revisado: 08-27-20

Reynolds' effort to "discover the 'real' America" by making a solo journey along a secondary route, in this case US Hwy 50, across the United States falls completely flat. He neither uncovers much about the country, nor, perhaps more unfortunately, discovers much about himself during his slow-paced journey. Rather, he starts his journey with strong, preconceived opinions and biases, and his encounters, or at least those he chooses to write about, only reinforce his prejudices, which he carries from Maryland all the way to California. What could have been an opportunity to either grow personally or discover the beauty and diversity of America away from the Interstate Highway instead turns into not much more than a pub crawl across America along Hwy 50. It goes something like this...stop in a small town bar, ask a local Bar Fly how they feel about Donald Trump, drink a beer, order fish (even in a BBQ joint) check into the local motel, comment on the toilet paper, then repeat. About 30 times. I'm not kidding, that's pretty much how the book goes, on and on until it's finally over. Reynolds' conceit towards the United States and its citizens is never too far below the surface. Reynolds' effort was doomed from the start by the writer's unwillingness to expand his personal horizons by going outside of his comfort zone, be it in the people he chooses to talk to or even the menu items he orders. Bentick's performance is passable, but without fail his attempt at an American accent sounds like a blend of John Wayne and Mark Twain, regardless of whether he's attempting an Eastern US accent, a Southern US accent, or a California accent. I managed to listen to the entire book, but overall it was not worth my time or the use of a credit.

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A tale of pushing luck too far....

Revisado: 05-17-19

Extensively researched, well written tale of a storm chaser who pushed his luck a little too far and paid the ultimate price. I couldn't stop listening.

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Life in Royal, Nebraska.

Revisado: 04-10-19

Extensively researched and well written account of the ill-fated Zoo Nebraska located in Royal, Nebraska. Vaughn paints the portrait of a small town in Nebraska that is pulling itself apart as it heads towards oblivion.

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Reads like a Facebook post....

Revisado: 03-07-19

Incredible story, but the writing leaves something to be desired, namely it needs some editing. Well...actually...it needs a lot of editing. I managed to make it through the book because of the story, not the writing which goes into way too many mundane everyday details. The author's premise seems to be that farmers are making "super bugs" because of what they feed their chickens and pigs, while at the same time saying that her husband picked up his nasty Gram-negative, multi antibiotic resistant bacterial infection most likely as the result of a poorly sterilized medical probe in a small rural medical clinic in Egypt...a clinic which lacked working electrical outlets or even a bedpan that didn't leak. There may be a connection, but the author did not present it well enough for me to pick it up from my reading of this book. Though not related to the story, I must admit, her sideways smirk at the religious customs and beliefs of the Muslim nurses and doctors in the clinic made me squirm a bit as well.

The author, a Phd, goes on to admit she regularly seeks the advice of a Psychic, and then has her New Age "wholistic" doctor mumble some sort of blessing over the drugs that eventually save her husband's life. Hardly what I would consider top notch science and it decreases the scientific creditability of the author in my opinion. Do you believe in science or mumbo jumbo? That's the question I kept asking myself as I listened to these parts of the book.

Her husband's vivid descriptions of what he saw during his morphine induced delusions, presented as a series of "interludes" add nothing to the story, in my opinion. Sure, I went on some "spirit journeys" myself while I was on morphine after brain surgery. I saw some pretty scary and weird stuff...many people do under these circumstances...but describing what I saw to others is like forcing somebody to sit through a complete stranger's vacation pictures...and that's what I felt like during Tom's "interludes" in this book.

This could have been a heck of a hair raising and fast paced story, but it get's mired in the mud of too many details that are not important to the story. It ends up reading like a Facebook posting from a middle aged lady whose husband is on life support, comes close to death multiple times, and finally triumphs. And that's a shame for a couple reasons. First, it's a waste of a great true life story that could have been written in a much more compelling way. Second, we really do need to be worrying about the rising incidence of multi-antibiotic resistance bacteria and learning about the novel approaches to combating the threat they pose. This book, if it had been better written, could have been a platform for increasing public awareness of this issue, but sadly it falls short.

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Excellent!

Revisado: 04-19-18

Best book I've listened to in a while. Very moving. Could not stop listening to the end.

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