Jon on Books

The low down:

• Voice talent: great


• Story: not so great

Although this book (abridged audiobook, paperback, hardcover, movie) gets some really great ratings on Amazon.com (4 out of 5 stars), I didn't enjoy it much - in fact, I'm not sure why I finished listening to it!! Well, you know how it is - you get half way through something and you just have to finish it:). I think my main gripe was with the plausibility of the story. Let me summarize it for you: Mark, an 11 year old, witnesses the suicide of a crooked mob lawyer. Before the suicide, the lawyer tells Mark a dirty little secret about one of his client's murder victims - the location of the buried body. The rest of the story is about Mark's evasion of telling the authorities this secret - he does so because he's afraid that the mob will kill him if it finds out that Mark knows the location of the body. The thing about the story that's not plausible to me is this - why doesn't he just tell someone (even anonymously) where the body is buried? I mean, the authorities don't need him to testify - what they need is to find the body. Once they find it exactly where Mark tells them to look, I think his credibility would be pretty self evident. What would the mob have to gain by killing him then? The body has already been found - he's of no further importance. Ugh...I'm having a hard time describing the situation, but let it suffice to say that this aspect of the story really bothered me:).

On a brighter note, there is a silver lining in the audiobook - the narration by Blair Brown was really great - the story takes place in Tennessee, and Blair does a wonderful job with the "southern twang" of all the characters - especially the large, intimidating, 300+ pound judge Harry Roosevelt. A+ for a wonderful reading!

2 out of 5 stars - rather weak story, only saved marginally by some great voice talent.

A while back I finished listening to Truman (hardcover, paperback, audiobook), written and narrated by David McCullough, and I can't recall a biography of that quality since listening to John Adams (also by David McCullough).

I'm not much of a historian, and to be honest, I'm horrible with dates and such, so I really like listening to David McCullough books because they're both entertaining and educational. This book was no let down - it covers Truman from his humble roots in the midwest, his service in WWI, his slow move to Washington, his remarkable Presidency and WWII, and back to the midwest and his retirement. There aren't too many Americans who've experienced a life like Truman's, and McCullough does a wonderful job of telling his story.

Of special interest is the coverage of the Manhattan Project and his decision to use atomic bombs to help end WWII. Like I said, I'm not much of a history buff, so a lot of the facts revealed on that topic were new to me.

The narration, which can truly make or break an audio book, is pretty good. As I mentioned, Truman is narrated by the author. Personally, I feel narration by a book's author is hit or miss - it's either really good or really, really bad. I tried listening to 1776, another of McCullough's books that was also narrated by him, and I couldn't finish it because of the monotony of the narration. Luckily, this book doesn't suffer the same fate:). As a special bonus to audiobook listeners, there are actually some brief clips of a few Truman speeches that I think are very revealing of the character of Truman (I was amazed at how shrill and cartoon-like his voice was).

Truman trivia: what does the "S" in "Harry S Truman" stand for? Read the book and find out!:)

4 out of 5 stars. A must read.

The Kite Runner (hardcover, paperback, audiobook), by Khaled Hosseini, is one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. The story is fantastic and the narration (which is done the author) is wonderful. The book tells the story of the friendship of two Afghan boys from different socials classes - Amir, and his Shi'a servant, Hassan.

The story is mighty powerful and moving, and I actually had to stop listening several times at one point in the narration because I thought I was going to be sick. But that's not bad in this case - not too many books are well written enough to evoke a physical response in me!

This book is not for the light of heart - there are some very adult situations that can be difficult to stomach. However, if you invest the time into reading or listening to this story, you'll be happy you did.

5 out of 5 stars! A must read.

Welcome to the Jon on Books blog! If you're a fan of books, especially audio books, check back frequently as I'll be posting reviews of the books I listen to (and occasionally read).