Betty

Even though abridged, it was true to the book and every character had a marvelous reader. It was like listening to an extraordinary radio performance that my grandparents enjoyed back in the 30's, only much more elaborate with sound effects and crystal clear sound. I wish I had this to share with my grandmother during the last ten years of her life when she lost most of her sight due to glaucoma.

I was tickled with the names of everything from last names, towns, pub and Adam's cows. That Flora didn't flee after her first night after meeting her scary cousin Judith and seeing decades of filth and neglect. Also, her snobbery faded quickly after the first day and she became a likeable character that dealt well with each of these wonderful, complex characters.
I also loved the full cast, the farm noise background and sound effects. The rude barkeep "here's your spoon," and you here a spoon hitting a table. Rueben slurping his first proper cup of tea. When Flora lets the bull out...oh, everyone is shouting in the background about the bull.They spared nothing and gave everything. It's wonderful.

The hullabulu when Flora, Elfine and Seth came back from Dick Hawke-Monitor's party, where he proposed to Elfine. Amos announces he is hitting the road in a Ford to spread his special brand of preaching to save the Godless sinners. Elfine announces she is engaged and that sends Urk into a fit because she was promised his when she was an infant. Adam goes into a fit because his daughter Elfine is engaged. Urk decides he'll take another cousin there for a bride (a dirt crusted one to match his dirt crusted self) and suggests they both go outside and "sink into the mud together." Aunt Ada Doom goes into a granddaddy fit about "there's always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort." And "your leaving me to die alone in the nasty woodshed!" Dishes are clattering and hitting the floor, feet stomping and shuffling the floor. I think some chairs topple over. It's noisy and fun, and hilarious.
I also like the scene when the film producer Mr.Neck comes over and he offers to make Seth a "film star." Cousin Judith has a over the top fit that even impresses Mr.Neck. Aunt Ada is shouting out of her window, repeating "I saw something nasty in the woodshed". Mr.Neck replies, "did it see you?"
"Mybug" telling Flora about his theory behind the Bronte Sisters being secret drunks and not the authors of their books. Especially funny about "Mybug's" theory how Wuthering Heights was written. It's hard to pick one specific favorite scene. They are all terrific.

Under Milk Wood (Dramatised) Dylan Thomas with Richard Burton has a full cast and has excellent sound quality. I highly recommend it.

This audio version is only suitable for children in order to prepare them for a live stage version. The rambling Chatty Cathy interpreting every sentence is most annoying and unnecessary.

Quiet Captivating Story

The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield. The feminine pov and great descriptive writing of fine details that are not boring. Writing of simple, everyday activities come to life and draw you in.

No, but I look forward to listening to her again if it's a book that interests me. She was perfect for this character Griet, 17th century Holland and the story.

I found it to be a relaxing audio book, yet never boring. I listened to it over the course of one day.

The book is a bit different from the film and is a wonderful adaptation. If you enjoyed the film, I'm sure you won't regret investing your time or money on the paperback or this audiobook.

Richard Burton performing Hamlet...LIVE! Yes!

I could be entertained by my old college biology text book if Richard Burton had made a recording of it.

Performing Hamlet...Live! No covering up mistakes and captures the excitement of live theater. I absolutely love it.

Hamlet laying on the guilt trip to his mother about marrying his father's brother and implying she and his uncle murdered him. It is very heart wrenching and dramatic.

"Oh Hamlet, speak no more!" sobbing..."No more!" sobbing...

Paul's constant reader

Annie of course. She was too much!

The book is much more than the film adaption with Kathy and Paul (they are wonderful and unforgettable in the film). Lindsay does a fabulous reading for Annie, but her reading of Paul is weak and a bit whiney at times...she has a very feminine voice for him.

I always love (I guess I'm sick) when Paul throws the ash tray out his window to get the State Trooper's attention and Annie stabs him with Bossie's (cow) wooden cross from her grave. Bossie died from Annie's neglect. King writes it like Annie is killing a vampire. Part of the cross breaks off in the State Trooper and Annie keeps grunting "There!...there!...there!...there!" with every stab. It is very, very, dark humor. The entire scene is grotesque, outrageous, yet Annie is absurdly funny. King wrote her that way. I think he had a good time writing this book. He certainly had "contempt" for Paul's "constant reader." Perhaps it was a psychologically, cathartic purging for some kind of negative transference he had been experiencing from too many "number one fans."

I do know he was sued by a woman for plagiary and I saw a brief interview of her after King won and she lost. My god, she looked like the character I had in my head, including how she dressed, right out of passages from when I read the book and before the film release. And she had this nervous, weird, angry way of talking (suppressing profanity right under the surface) during the interview. I think she lived in Bangor, or at least in Maine. I think the lawsuit was over the use of the character "Misery" and her story, perhaps other characters that was in Misery's story also. Maybe King could afford better attorneys. Nevertheless, it's one helluva a good read, audio book and film.

It's hard to say. I have listened to over 100 audio books, perhaps more. My first experience with them was when I was a little girl back in the 60's and they were on LP records. So of course nothing can compete with the stories like The Little Match Girl and The Tin Soldier read by a master, male voice I could play on my little record player in the privacy of my bedroom at the age of five, and weep without being teased by my older brothers and sisters. The LP had sound effects too!Sometimes A Great Notion is a wonderful, earthy story of a Oregonian logging family that is dysfunctional. The father is judgmental and runs his family like his business...under a saw, as in cutting words, being blunt. Union strikers try and intimidate the family into stopping their non--union, independently owned logging business for the season and that isn't going to happen. The seasonal help is intimated and refuses to work for the family, so the prodigal, hippie, little brother comes home to help. You would think his father was grateful to have anyone help, nope, he has to get his judgements in like barbed fish hooks, and both men, really father and both sons are hard headed. The women smooth things over.I had always loved the film adaption of this book with Henry Fonda and Paul Newman. There is a scene of the brotherinlaw getting trapped under a log in the water. Paul Newman tries over and over again to start a large chain saw. Both men thinking they have all the time in the world--help will eventually come. The water starts to rise and the log rolls a bit on the brotherinlaw, laying him back into the water, up to his chin, then his nose, then he is under water. Paul keeps giving him mouth to mouth and you know that Paul's character will do this all night. His brotherinlaw is such a loving and joy filled father and husband--always with a joke to try and keep peace between father (Fonda) and his two sons. He starts to laugh under water and Paul is yelling at him to stop, but it makes him laugh more...and he drowns. The tone of the film turned dark from there. I hadn't read the book and this author also wrote One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (I did read and have it in a leather bound copy I love it that much), so when I saw Sometimes A Great Notion was on Audible, I had to hear it. I couldn't wait to read it.

All the descriptions of the coast, forest and river in such rich detail. I was born and raised in Oregon. A stone's throw from Lincoln City. My family made weekend day trips to every inch of the coast and camping along the Santiam River every summer. My father, brothers and husband grew up hunting and fishing too many places I can list here. Kesey knows the areas well.

I highly recommend the film by the same name

If you've read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and loved it, you will likely love this book too.

Nothing ever is "better" than the print version of great literature. Oration is an art form of speech. Who doesn't know a line or two from one of Shakespeare's tragic and comic plays and really tries to splice the air with it, nailing it down? Professional Oration has been around before man could write. The early christian church kept their parishioners ignorant with no bible printed in anything other than latin, so they could manipulate them. Kings, Queens,Pharos, Popes, Emperors and the privileged had professional Orators to read for them. The most famous story teller is a fictional one that had to tell stories to her captor and make them entertaining in order to save her own life. Scheherezade from Tales From The Arabian Nights by Richard Burton.Cherry Jones is a skilled and entertaining Orator and she sounds like she loved reading this book.

The humanity of the characters. I loved how McCullers' could quickly flesh out a character and give them a distinct personality. The stoic John Singer that held confidence of others and dearly loved his friend that didn't have the capacity to fully reciprocate it. But he did one important thing for John that no others in the town could--Spiros would patiently let John sign (talk) for hours, watching his hands, not understanding, but John didn't care if he didn't understand a word--he listened, he was the only that ever did. The youthful and budding Mick Kelly, making the best of her depression era home life at a most important time of a young woman's development. Mick finds solace in classical music.

Mick's party and when John went to see Spiros at the hospital for the last time.

All of the scenes when John and Spiros are together. When John went to the hospital and found Spiros had adapted to the unhealthy surroundings of the hospital and was pleased with them because he didn't know any better. John not being his family was helpless to remove him. John's death of course was especially moving and heartbreaking. Also, I felt a pang for the drunk in the cafe when in his own way, he tried to defend the dignity of the black customer by bringing the the customer's focus onto himself and making a show of losing his own dignity. In losing his dignity that way--he had some integrity. The cafe owner could see this was not an uneducated "bum" because of the way he talked at times depending on how drunk he was, and fed him and gave him drinks on the house. Not for his amusement--he wanted to make sure this man didn't get into trouble with the police. The cafe owner was kind and liberal. His wife was a shrew and I wasn't moved when she died.

This a classic Southern Novel and I also recommend Flannery O'Conner's short stories Everything That Rises Must Converge and her novel Wise Blood. Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury and Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre read by Burt Reynolds. Burt brings such life and a sultriness to the scenes in Caldwell's book that Georgia banded. It broke Caldwell's heart, seeing Georgia was his home state. John Cheever's Audio Collections is excellent with celebrity readers like Meryl Streep and many others (my iPod doesn't list the actors). Lastly, I recommend Madame Bovary for the most heart wrenching tragedy that in many parts is surprisingly still somewhat relevant today. Flaubert writes with such an honest heart, the secrets of the heart. I rarely sob out loud over a book. Emma Bovary made me cry.

I would from king, but not another book read by Spacek.

Carrie made an impression from the start. First menstruation in the school shower to her ignorant horror, surrounded by a mob of girls throwing tampons, and pads at her with laughter and taunts. Then, her mother's sick abuse of Carrie later that day, accusing Carrie of lust filled, sinning thoughts that brought on the blood and Carrie knowing it wasn't true, but having to give in to that nasty witch.

Too whispery, soft and dreamy. Takes away the drama of scenes and essence from characters.

Too late for that question.

This book deserved a strong female narrator like Cherry Jones that could have easily distinguished characters and made this thrilling.

Humorous Spiritual Tragedy

All of John's family, and how Irving lovingly fleshed them out and wove them into the story from beginning to end. Owen's first meeting of Johns' cousin's was funny, touching and memorable. Owen brings out an instant reverence from them that John didn't expect from his violent cousins.

I have read this book several years ago and I do think I have a good imagination. Yet, trying to settle on what Owen's voice sounded like with only caps, and a description of a "permanent scream" was taxing for this long book and I soon just gave him a normal voice in my head. This is the PERFECT BOOK for audio...for OWEN'S PERMANENT SCREAMING VOICE. Barret also does a fair job for the female voices without going into a high falsetto. He has to do enough of that with Owen and does it very well.

It made me do both.

This book can get tedious with the protagonist's obsession over the Reagan Administration's involvement with the Iran--Contra hearings back in 1987. I remember that well, but it seems rather tame compared to what the current and George W. Bush administrations have gotten away with in the public's eye. Makes me wonder what "John" would say about the Iran--Contra hearings today.

Yes. I have read the book a few times and I like the first part read in a french accent from french characters. It really brings the characters to life.

The characters in the Hotels and the French Quarter the protagonist lives and works among. Madame F the landlord, Boris's optimism and friendship to the protagonist, Charlie's drunken speeches, Rocolle the cat eating miser, the snobby waiters that enjoy spending their customer's money on their food and drink by proxy, the lazy Siberian waiter that insults his boss in order to get fired half way thru the day at every job because they have to pay him him for the entire day (he has so much cheek), Mario (George's boss) that is more like a machine at work than a man, but fair minded. The height of meal rushes everyone is "swearing oaths" to one another, floors covered with garbage, employees stealing food and liquor--so well described how a hotel restaurant is ran. England: The Spike where the spinster in blue is giving the homeless men tea and a bun and she asks one man when was the last time he talked to his Lord Jesus. The man was over come with shame. A red nosed man jumped up and cried out the Lords name to draw attention away from the embarrassed man. The red nosed man had this act down, likely from prison. The spinster won't let the men leave until hymns are sung. The red nose man passes out the hymn books like from a deck of cards and spouts off the names of lucky hands only the men can hear as they each get a book--bringing something bearable to this contempt every christian charity makes these men go thru to get a few pieces of bread and a cup of tea. Reminds me of the old saying "sing for your supper." The filthy and crowded lodges that make the insect infested hotel rooms in Paris seem like luxury.

He was a bit stuffy as the protagonist. However, he did the correct accents very well.

The unemployed clerk kneeling in a salvation army, praying to God with such desperation for a job. The first Spike making all of the men undress and stand in a line, exposed, in shame, malnourished, sickly, some elderly wearing trusses, while a med student inspected them indifferently for infectious diseases like small pox and nothing being done to care for their ailments.

One can't go wrong with anything written by Orwell. A heavy french accent speaking english and speaking french either adds to this book for some, or takes away for some. I suggest reading the book first, before listening to this audio book to get the most enjoyment.