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Night

Pete Markovic — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:14:27 -0800

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: Elie Wiesel
Narrator: George Guidall
Category: Bios & Memoirs: Personal Memoirs
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: 2006
Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
Here's another of Oprah's book club choices. While the subject matter is regarding Jews in the holocaust, there are messages for people of all ethnicities and religious backgrounds. The main character of Night is a religious Jewish teenager named Eliezer. Like many other observant boys, he spends most of the day studying the bible. His evenings are spent in the synagogue with the beadle learning about Jewish mysticism. Judaism, he learns, places a high value on the value of asking questions and debating. Moshe, the beadle, says, "Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him".

After Hungary announces that any Jew unable to prove citizenship would be deported, Moshe is taken to Poland in a cattle car. Miraculously, he escapes. Intending to warn the Jews of his homeland, he returns to Sighet and tries to tell them of the atrocities he has witnessed. Much to his horror, nobody believes him. During the next year and a half, Jews lose more and more of their rights.

Three weeks before the Allies invade Normandy; the Jews of Sighet were transferred to one of two small communities called ghettoes. Here in the isolated community of all Jews, they mistakenly thought they would be safe. Unfortunately, they were sadly wrong. In May of 1944, the residents of these ghettoes were forcibly expelled. Only permitted to take a few small items, the Jews began their journey to Auschwitz.

Upon arrival at the concentration camp, Eliezer and his family were separated. He and his father were put in a group moving to the left, his sisters and mother to the right. He had no way to know that this would be the last time he would see his mother. He desperately attempted to stay with his father, even within direct line of sight if possible. Over time, he watched his father decline until their roles of nurturer and nurtured reverse.

During his time in Auschwitz, Eliezer's faith in humanity and God falters. The gas chambers and fire pits consume countless Jews, leaving him with his father in the unspeakable position of reciting the prayers for the dead for themselves. Witnessing the slow, tortured hanging of a child, he finds himself wondering where God is during this atrocity. He perceives this death as the literal death of God and is no longer able to participate in the Jewish rituals that the prisoners celebrate together.

Three months after Eliezer and his family were sent to the camp, he and his father were transferred to Auschwitz III, a work camp at Buna-Monowitz. Starving to death and in danger at every moment, their lives revolved around attempting to survive. In January of 1945, Eliezer and his father were once again ordered to relocate, this time on foot. They marched to Gleiwitz along with 60,000 other prisoners. They were forced to march through the icy winter weather with soldiers taking delight in following out the orders to shoot anyone too weak to keep up.

The march took them to the train where they were put into open top cattle cars. With no protection from the snow, most of the prisoners died. Upon arrival, they are greeted with instructions to go take hot baths, but Eliezer's father collapses in the snow. Eliezer continues ahead, angry with his father for giving up so close to warmth. Shlomo does not, in fact, die that night, but ends up ill with dysentery. After a week of illness, his father is taken away to the gas chambers in the middle of the night.

Sadly, his father died only a short time before the liberation of Buchenwald. In April, the prisoners were told that they would be moved again, they rose up against the soldiers and took over the camp. And so, finally, Eliezer was free.

Do not read Night and expect to feel good afterwards. This book is a story that must be heard and understood, for to forget such horrors is to repeat them. Before long, the last of the survivors will have passed away and we will only be left with these accounts. Between history books brushing over the unpleasant details and the hate mongers attempting to write it off as a hoax, fewer people are aware of the truth. These victims, the innocent people whose only crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, are fading fast from our collective memories.

The Narration:
George Guidall has a very smooth and expressive tone in his voice which remains consistant through out this reading.

Audiobook reviewed by Sarah Gross

Night CD

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Resources:
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Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death

Pete Markovic — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:27:52 -0800

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Narrator: Ethan Hawke
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Harper Audio
Release Date: 2003
Length: 6 hrs
Unabridged

An Overview:
In Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death , Billy Pilgrim is "unstuck in time." He travels randomly through his life. At once he is a prisoner of war, then a successful optometrist, and then a captive on the planet Tralfamadore. It sounds like a sci-fi right? Not so fast. Slaughterhouse Five is a novel that does not fit easily into one category.

Despite the main character's alien abduction, this novel cannot be pigeon-holed as science fiction for it is equally about Billy's experiences during World War II where he survived the bombing of Dresden and how his life progressed once he returned home. In this regard it is an anti-war novel highlighting senseless violence and death.

Billy, loosened from the confines of time, knows every event that will occur in his life, the pains and the pleasures yet he makes no effort to change them. His nonchalant attitude about is due to the Tralfamadorians who see all of time as a straight line with no beginning and no end. They teach Billy to understand the implications of an unending continuum, like a movie that can always be rewound or fast forwarded.

For Tralfamadorians death is only a blip in infinity to which they respond, "So it goes." Consequently, Billy takes everything as it comes, even his own eventual assassination. So it goes. Following Billy Pilgrim throughout the book as he involuntarily shuttles from one point in life to another, somehow lacks emotion.

Vonnegut tells us he was embarrassed by this or that, felt sorry for this person or that, yet the peculiar and humdrum events of Billy's life all meld into the life (albeit out of order) of someone who could be everyman and no man, whose life and death are no more extraordinary than yours or mine might be. So it goes.

The Narration:
Ethan Hawke's low voice is almost a whisper, almost the voice of an older man as he reminiscences about the war. Hawke is a great choice and captures the essence of the narrator with the conversational tone of the novel

Audiobook reviewed by Georgie Flinn

Slaughterhouse-Five' CD

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The Namesake

Pete Markovic — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:51:19 -0800

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Awards: A.C.S. 2004 Audie Award Finalist
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Narrator: Sarita Choudhury
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: 2003
Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
Following all the hype (it is a New York Times bestseller after all) I must say I was disappointed by Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake. Although Lahiri definitely knows her subject, an Indian American who grows up between the cultures of his parents and their adopted country, the story is bland and bereft of emotion.

The story centers on Gogol, the first child of a Bengali family who is named after the enigmatic Russian author Nikoli Gogol. There's a reason, but I won't flesh it out here and neither will the book, not sufficiently anyway. And that is my main complaint about the book. Things happen, people age, tragedy strikes, but it never impacts the audience.

You can't name a character Gogol and then never make a big deal about it. It's just not done. It's like naming someone Marie Antoinette and not blinking when she offers to serve cake to peasants. I digress. The Namesake mostly follows Gogol as he goes grows up with a few brief, but interesting forays into the life of his parents.

In fact, they were far more interesting than the protagonist, especially his mother Ashima as she acclimates and refuses to acclimate to America. Other than occasional peaks into Ashima's life we're stuck with this guy who never seems to feel much, to have any particular goals, or to progress. He's just there. He goes to college, has romances with this girl and that one, graduates, and gets a good job, blah blah blah. There is no passion to anything. I consider this to be Lahiri's fundamental mistake.

So caught up is she as an insider into the Indian American experience that she forgets to make us care about Gogol. Tripping along through life, he feels what Lahiri tells us he feels. The problem is that she never makes us believe her and with no evidence to support these assertions about Gogol's character, he ends up a faceless Indian American stereotype.

The Narration:
Actress Sarita Choudhury's, who is half-Bengali, does a good job in her reading of The Namesake. She speaks in an Indian accent for Gogol's parents, which brings attention to their distinct experiences.

Audiobook reviewed by Georgie Flinn

The Namesake CD

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Resources:
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The Firm

Pete Markovic — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:51:24 -0800

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: John Grisham
Narrator: D.W. Moffett
Category: Fiction)
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio
Release Date: 1999
Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
Abridged

An Overview:
The Firm, fresh out of Harvard law school, Mitchell McDere is considering offers of employment from several prestigious law firms. When The Firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke, out of Memphis, almost doubles the other offers, McDere plays it cool—but goes home and starts packing.

Mitch's wife, Abbey, is a bit more cautious about the lucrative offer—especially after being informed about the company's policy on divorce, and how child bearing is "encouraged" by the firm.

Still, they relocate to Memphis and Mitch sets out to become their top tax lawyer within the first year. With a huge work load piled on his desk right from the start, Mitch hardly has time to study for the bar exam—but he steals some, anyway, to look into the peculiar fact that several young lawyers once employed at Bendini, Lambert & Locke are now dead.

He visits his brother, Ray, who is in prison with seven years left on a manslaughter charge and gets the name of Ray's old cellmate, an ex-police officer now doing private investigating. He hires this Eddy Lomax, and finds time for some investigating on his own when he gets to the Cayman Islands with Avery, his assigned partner.

Much of the firm's business is conducted on the Islands where money is tax fee and not much is questioned. Not even the dive boat explosion that just killed two more of the firm's young lawyers.In an ingenious plot that has everyone spying on everyone, the story delves deep into money laundering, tax law, and loyalty.

Keeping just a half-step ahead of the men at the firm, the mobsters they work for, the FBI who want his help, and the risk of being disbarred before the ink is dry on his license, Grisham's young lawyer wracks his brain (and body) to come up with a way to get out of it all—and not only with his life, but with his marriage intact, his convict brother freed, and his new license still hanging on the wall, too.

This clever cat-and-mouse romp keeps you intrigued right up to the end. It is one of Grisham's many "bests."

The Narration:
D.W. Moffett does a great performance. He has an intriguing repertoire of voices to go along with the suspense levels and cast of characters

Audiobook reviewed by Dawn Fagan

The Firm CD

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The Secret Life of Bees

Pete Markovic — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:36:58 -0800

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Awards: Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Adult Fiction, 2003
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Narrator: Jenna Lamia
Category: Fiction
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Release Date: 2003
Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
Smart, haunted, and motherless, Lily Owens is largely left to her own devices. She is visited, nightly, by a small swarm of bees that mysteriously get into her bedroom. Unbeknownst to her at the time, The Secret Life of Bees that she is thus prompted to ponder soon becomes intimately intertwined with her own dark secrets—and the long-overdue nurturing that will shape her future.

Imagine this: A fourteen-year-old white girl lives with the belief that she killed her mother when she was four years old. Lily remembers the scene, but the particulars are blurred. Her father (who makes her kneel, for hours, on raw grits as punishment for anything) enforces the verdict. Lily hides the only remaining traces she has of her mother (an old photograph, a pair of white gloves, and a strange picture that has "Tiburon, S.C." stamped on the back), in a box buried in the yard.

Lily's only friend is Rosaleen, a black woman who comes in to cook and clean for her and her father. Rosaleen is kind and yet fierce, uneducated, without culture, and blatantly honest. The setting is South Carolina, USA, 1964. The Civil Rights bill has just been signed and many white southerners are livid. When the two head into town to get Rosaleen registered to vote, all hell breaks loose (on both fronts), and the girls end up in a cantaloupe truck going in the general direction of Tiburon, where Lily hopes to find evidence that her mother once had a life away from Mr. Owens.

Their ride drops them at the turn-off for Tiburon and they get out to walk the rest of the way. Tired, hungry, and without a clue of what is to become of them, they spend the night by a stream. When they get into town, they stop at a little store for food and Lily almost misses seeing the honey jars sitting there for sale. If she hadn't noticed them, on the way out the door, she and Rosaleen might never have found the fabulous calendar sisters…where the real magic of this remarkable novel unfolds.

Eccentric beekeepers, the three black sisters take in the two waifs—and Lily begins to discover the power of family, the power of women, the subtle wisdom of bees, and how nice it would be if we could all just "be colorless together."

Folks seem to either fall head over heels in love with this book (as I did), and can't get it out of their minds, or they grow bored with it and wonder what all the "hubbub" is about. You can't please everyone.

My recommendation is this: if the first couple of chapters don't have you feeling that you've fallen into a kaleidoscope…where simple words are transformed into spinning, dancing, twinkling things that settle into their sentences lending them a unique twist and making them perk…a kaleidoscope…where the ordinary is wrought into extraordinary, then you might determine yourself to be of the latter group.

For those who do enjoy (even pine over) tales spun like filigree, Sue Monk Kidd delivers.

The Narration:
Jenna Lamia was a superb narrator for this book. Giving every character a unique voice, she consistently captured the melody and pace of the southern drawl. I never tired of her or the story.

Audiobook reviewed by Dawn Fagan

The Secret Life of Bees CD

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Resources:
wikipedia: The Secret Life of Bees

A Light in the Window: The Mitford Years, Book 2

Pete Markovic — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:38:37 -0800

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: Jan Karon
Narrator: Jan Karon
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks
Release Date: 2005
Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
Abridged

An Overview:
A Light in the Window: The Mitford Years, Book 2. Jan Karon's second book in the Mitford series finds Father Tim aged to his early 60's and not a bit less prone to attracting the town's afflicted. A Light in the Window casts new reflections on Mitford's quaint and quackish…and the prayers that seemingly hold the town in God's favor.

Father Tim returns home from a summer in Ireland to find trouble waiting on his kitchen counter in the form of a crab cobbler casserole. The freshly widowed Edith Mallory isn't wasting any time! While having nightmares of being locked in a closet with Edith, Father Tim struggles, by day, with his uncanny reluctance to go ahead and marry the woman he does love, his neighbor and friend, Cynthia. One of the more tender moments of his day is looking over at her house, in the evening, and seeing a light in the window. What is he so afraid of?

While Cynthia is in New York, working on her new book, Father Tim comes to realize that he has been taking her for granted. When he reads a write-up about her in the local paper, he wonders how it is that he never knew she loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches and dancing the rumba. He decides to get the heirloom broach he's been thinking of giving her, ever since she mentioned "going steady," fixed and polished, but he just doesn't seem to be able to find it.

In the meantime, he must juggle Edith's conniving (she's even sending him roses now), his young charge, Dooley, coming of age, the conflicts arising from the construction of the new nursing home (along with the lost soul of the tough site manager, Buck Leaper), and the dilemma of what to do with a peculiar visitor who shows up on his doorstep, suitcases in hand. This unexpected guest doesn't seem to be thinking of leaving, but she rarely comes out of her room, either.

With the help of his part time secretary, Emma, who lets him know, "It's Whang-doo", when the dreaded Edith phones, and his light-hearted housekeeper, Puny, who is getting married soon, Father Tim keeps things together and pretty well-covered with his prayers.

The Narration:
Jan Karon's voice is sweet and pleasant…a good fit for the majority of her characters.

Audiobook reviewed by Dawn Fagan

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Resources:
wikipedia: Jan Karon

Seven Up

Pete Markovic — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:50:33 -0800

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: Janet Evanovich
Narrator: Lorelei King
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: 2005
Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
Seven Up is the seventh in the Stephanie Plum mystery series and has Stephanie finding what should be an easy case of picking up a senior citizen has way more than she bargained for attached.

Seven Up shows that even what should be a routine pick up of a senior citizen who failed to show up in court can be a much wilder ride than first anticipated. Bail bonds agent Stephanie Plum has been asked to pick up Eddie DeCooch. But each time she tries to close in on the old man who has been trafficking cigarettes he gives her the slip.

It seems even though everyone in the world seems to see him cruising around in his Cadillac he still has a million tricks up his sleeves when it comes time to escape Stephanie and Lula, her 250 lb former hooker sidekick, trying to bring him in.

On her search she finds out that DeCooch isn't a cute little old man. He's still living out his long past of being a crook. He's also armed and not afraid to use his gun, as was proven by the woman found riddled with bullets in a shed by his house.

Making matters worse is a pair of Stephanie's old school mates, now known as MoonMan and The Dealer, who are trying to help by becoming crime fighters, complete with colorful body suits. Not only are they in her way as they try to fight crimes, they then become a compounded part of the problem when they too disappear.

Add to this that Grandma Mazur gets kidnapped and Stephanie is in a world of hurt with very few people left to help her out. Who is she to turn to? Ranger? He's available, but has a hefty price for his service – one full night with him. This as Stephanie is not sure whether or not she and Joe Morelli, her cop boyfriend who she is currently living with, are going to get married.

If you are a fan of the Stephanie Plum novels, this is going to be a must-read, although the story is not quite as tight and fun as some of the past books have been.

The Narration:
Narrator Lorelei King does a pretty good job of bringing this story to life. She's a new voice, but if you give her a few chapters she will bring you into the store convincingly.

Audiobook reviewed by Michelle Murillo

Seven Up CD

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Resources:
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So B. It

Pete Markovic — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:00:02 -0800

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: Sarah Weeks
Narrator: Cherry Jones
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Harper Audio
Release Date: 2005
Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
In So B. It Heidi is a twelve year old girl who lives in an apartment in Reno with her mentally retarded mother. Together, they live next door to their dearest friend, Bernadette, who helps to care for both of them. Bernadette met her mother when Heidi was only a few days old, showing up at her door unable to speak or care for her infant. She never was able to determine who they were, since Heidi's mother was only able to say 23 words, but took them under her wing and made them her family.

Out of the young woman's limited vocabulary, Bernadette chose So Be It as the mother's name, making it the family surname. So also was able to tell Bernadette that her infant's name was Heidi. Her vocabulary, in point of fact, is all comprised of real words, except for one. Her mother uses the word "soof" and neither she nor Bernadette is able to determine what it means.

Heidi's life with her mother and Bernadette was very isolated. Her mother would sit at the kitchen table contentedly and color while she worked on schoolwork, since Bernadette's agoraphobia kept them indoors. When they're short on money, however, Heidi relies on her extraordinary luck to win money from the slot machines to pay for the bills.

Life continues pretty smoothly, all things considered, except for a few questions in Heidi's mind. Heidi desperately would like to* know where she comes from, who her father is and what her mother's mysterious twenty third word means. None of these mysteries were likely to be resolved, but one day, Heidi finds an undeveloped roll of film dating from to before her birth.

Once Heidi develops the film, she is compelled to go back to Liberty, NY, the town shown in the photos. On her own, Heidi depends on her preternatural good fortune, her new friends and sheer instinct to guide her to the answers to her questions.

The story kept my attention but the truly incredible part is how Sarah Weeks painted an image of So as a loving caring mother who was mentally challenged, yet without relying on stereotypes. She also was able to discuss the topic of Heidi's conception in such a manner that it's appropriate for children. Great writing, though a little suspension of disbelief is required occasionally over Heidi's luck.

So B. It is a heartwarming story. Technically it's young adult or even children's literature, but I had it recommended to me by a young woman who thought I would enjoy it. It won the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award in 2007, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it earn many more awards in the future.

The Narration:
Cherry Jones does a masterful job narrating this story.

Audiobook reviewed by Sarah Gross

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Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth)

Pete Markovic — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:38:40 -0800

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Awards:
Author: Terry Goodkind
Narrator: Sam Tsoutsouvas
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Release Date: 2008
Length: 34 hrs and 10 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth) is the first of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. The main character, a young woodsman named Richard Cypher, is going through a rough period. His father has recently passed away and a secret message has been left for him. In the process of investigating the meaning of this message, he is attacked by a vine, leaving a thorn embedded in his hand.

Shortly after this attack, he encounters a woman and joins her as she tries to escape from four men that are stalking her. They travel some distance before her pursuers appear suddenly in front of them. Richard defends her bravely and they escape unharmed. He doesn't understand why they have survived the fight but attempts to not pry into her personal business.

The woman introduces herself as Kahlan and explains that she is searching for a wizard who has crossed the sealed boundary between her magical home of the Midlands and his non magical land, known as Westland. This wizard, known as the First Wizard, escaped from the Midlands prior to the sealing off of Westland. Unable to protect her, he brings her to his closest friend, Zedd. Much to his shock, he discovers that Zedd is the wizard that Kahlan is seeking.

An army is being led against the Midlands by the evil Darken Rahl. Zedd concludes that Richard is also needed in this battle, giving him the Sword of Truth. They travel together to stop him from gaining magical devices which will give him ultimate power of life and death. Eventually, Zedd parts ways from the two other adventurers, leaving Richard and Kahlan to pass across the boundary. Together they go on to the village where the magical box is said to be. There they learn that the only witch Shota can tell them where it is, but that she is in Agaden Reach.

Wizard's First Rule is a familiar, comfortable story of a hero coming from a common background, making friends to help him learn and mature, and simple foes to conquer. If you are looking for deep literature, this is the wrong book for you. But if you're looking for a fun read, a little bit of sexual tension and entertaining characters, you will enjoy the Sword of Truth series.

The Narration:
Sam Tsoutsouvas has a great voice and lends great depth to this story

Audiobook reviewed by Sarah Gross

Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth) (Sword of Truth) CD

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Resources:
wikipedia: Wizard's First Rule