Scott

This is easily my favorite audiobook of the year. Bolano's haunting masterpiece is epic in scope and truly lends itself to audio due to its cinematic nature - a must-listen for any fans of literary fiction.

I really liked this audiobook. I thought the narrator and the material were a great fit and I thought the story was told in an interesting fashion. Prior to listening to this audiobook I had never even heard of Reinhard Heydrich, or if I had I certainly didn’t remember him. After listening, I clearly understood how great of a role he played within the Nazi regime. There are also a number of interesting side-stories that Binet recounts that don’t directly relate to Heydrich’s tale but took place during the time and work well with the story – giving it a richer texture. It’s not a surprise that HHhH won the Prix Goncourt and garnered so much high praise from reviewers. It’s entertaining, informative, and well written/translated.

I listened to this audiobook during a trip to (and from) Massachusetts while I was in a Bret Easton Ellis phase. I figured that since the movie version was pretty terrible I probably wouldn’t like the book, so I saved it for last. I was wrong. This audiobook is terrific. It is similar to Ellis’s other (early) works but I also thought that it was his funniest. Of course some of the humor is pretty harsh, which is to be expected, but I thought that overall, the audiobook was genuinely hilarious.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Junot Diaz’s follow up to “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” which is one of my favorite audiobooks and one of my favorite novels. I also wasn’t too keen on Junot Diaz’s narration at first, mostly because Jonathan Davis’s narration of Oscar Wao was so good but I quickly grew to like it. To me, “This Is How You Lose Her” exists somewhere between Oscar Wao and “Drown.” I felt that the short stories were less minimalistic than in “Drown” but they took place in the same universe as some characters featured in both books make appearances – mostly the character Yunior. I guarded myself before listening to this collection because I thought an audiobook of short stories couldn’t live up to the grandeur of Oscar Wao but fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. The stories here are great.

I thought Mick Wall’s bio of Led Zeppelin was quite good and I burned through the 18 hours very quickly. I have been a Zeppelin fan since junior high and have always been looking for a decent biography of the band but could just never find one. Finally, (many) years later here it is. I’m no Zeppelin aficionado. There are definitely fans out there who know much more about the band than I do but neither am I a casual fan. I was always intrigued by the occult mystique that surrounded the band and Mick Wall goes into great detail trying to shed light on this aspect. I learned a lot of new information about the band and the listen was highly entertaining.

I liked Arnold’s bio a lot. It just wasn’t what I thought it would be – or originally wanted it to be. I’m more interested in his film career and the stories behind how his movies got made, movies he missed out on, behind the scenes anecdotes, etc. There is a bit of that here, particularly Conan the Barbarian, Twins, and Hercules in New York, but almost nothing on Total Recall, Commando, True Lies, the Terminator movies – and maybe that’s for the best. Maybe it just wasn’t that interesting to the general audience the book seems to be aimed at.

What the book does go into great detail with is Arnold childhood, his bodybuilding career, his marriage, and his governorship. The chapter on his childhood was interesting and it really helps that he narrates it. Unfortunately, he only narrates the first and last chapter of the book. I was never that interested in his bodybuilding days or his time spent as the governor of California but I did learn a lot about his policies and the way he conducted himself that I had basically no clue about before and I have much more respect for him as a politician than I did. If you are looking for a well-rounded representation of Arnold’s life – than I think you will find it here. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of movie information – which is really only one aspect of his life – it just happened to be the only aspect I was really interested in.

I would say that it ranks among some of the best audiobooks I've listened to.

It's similar to other Bret Easton Ellis books but it's hard to compare to other books and authors.

The characters are pretty similar for the most part. However, I think Christian Rummel did a great job portraying all of them.

I wouldn't rename it. It's a great title.

There is a deceptive complexity in ‘Less Than Zero.’ It may come off at first glance as shallow and maybe a bit boring to some but there is a lot going on here - themes of isolation, moral decay, materialism, death, loss of innocence, as well as an overall comment on the culture of excess that was prevalent during the early 1980s.

I would but probably to someone who likes baseball and/or literary fiction. It's not for everyone, even though it's not entirely about baseball.

I liked the baseball aspects the best. There aren't many good baseball novels around. There aren't many baseball novels around in general that I know of. I found some of the secondary character's stories to be a bit tedious - Affenlight, Owen, and Pella - and I was waiting for the story to get back to Skrimshander and Schwartz. It's very well written, I just couldn't care less about the other characters. Also, I thought it was interesting to make a story out of the guy who can no longer make routine throws - Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, Rick Ankiel, among others.

As with most good narration the characterization here is very well done. I never thought it was off in any way.

I've heard that an HBO series is in talks.

Overall, I thought this was a generally good novel. I think it's a great baseball novel and very good for a first-time novelist. I think, for my taste, it could have been cut down a bit as I didn't care too much about the secondary characters and how much of the story was devoted to them. It was very well written, I just didn't find the other characters and their part of the story too interesting when compared to the main college baseball storyline.

Yes, I would. Not right away but I could listen to it again in a few years. Bret Easton Ellis is one of my favorite writers - at least for now - so I usually revisit writers that I like.

I thought the vampire, zombie subplot was done very well - it highlights the moral decline aspect of the story very well.

Christian Rummel and Therese Plummer do an excellent job in their narration. It’s not easy material to tackle – it’s mostly conversations and reflection, there’s little to no action – and they do a good job capturing the feel and tone of the story – which can quickly switch from horror to dark humor and back again. They also convey the characters apathy well – an emotion that plays like an additional character in much of Ellis’ work.

A film was already made of this book and although a lot of talented people were involved the end result was terrible. The look and feel of the movie was well done - but they totally missed the point of the book.

'The Informers’ is a bunch of short stories by Bret Easton Ellis culled from an earlier writing period – the mid 80s – so they closely match the tone of ‘Less Than Zero’ and ‘The Rules of Attraction’ – they’re pretty dark and shallow – mostly dealing with the moral decline of the time (Bret Easton Ellis being a moralist).

I don't know. I listen to biographies more often than I read them. I find listening to non-fiction to be easier than listening to fiction. So maybe it's better than the print version. I would say at least equal to it.

There were a bunch but I mostly remember the more negative aspects of his life and his battle with cancer.

I'll go with one - serviceable.

I don't know. I'm terrible at coming up with tag lines.

Steve McQueen does not come off good in this audiobook and that’s a bit of an understatement. He seems like a real bastard at certain points in the story. However, I also found it to be a fascinating tale.

If you like this audiobook check out ‘American Rebel’. Same author and a somewhat similar story – but at one point they diverge dramatically. Whereas Clint Eastwood’s star skyrocketed – though somewhat slowly over time – McQueen’s burned bright but burned out quickly.

I caught a few mistakes in the narration and the editing but only a few that I could remember and it wasn’t anything that detracted from the narrative. I think Marc Eliot did a good job with the telling of McQueen’s tale but I would rather someone else have narrated the book. He does a serviceable job. It’s not bad in anyway but the listening experience could have been better with a more skilled narrator.

Yes, I will. I've read the book and listened to the audiobook twice. I will mostly likely listen again in the future. Each time I have revisited the series I have picked up on clues that I missed the first time around. The series is just too massive and there are too many characters and side-stories to catch everything the first go around.

First, it’s a great sequel. In a series, this doesn’t always happen. Take ‘Dune’ for instance. The second book (Clash of Kings) picks up from where the first one left-off and ups the ante. This audiobook is massive and it is never boring – you can’t really ask for more than that.

I think he does an overall great job. There are so many characters and he doesn't appear to slip up at all in keeping track of each one. His female voice may be off a little bit but that's tough to pull off for a male narrator. Also, with the amount of times that I've listened to all of the books in the series I felt that his performance was growing on me each time. Reading the first book - I thought he was off a bit and now I can't really picture anyone else reading it.

I don't think a film is necessary. The HBO series, where it is pretty much impossible to be as good as the books, it does a good-enough job.

An excellent sequel to one of the best Epic-Fantasy novels written and far superior to the second season of the HBO adaptation (though given the time and budget constraints it’s not terrible). The interweaving of all of the plots and characters alone in this book is an epic feat. I don’t think I’ve ever been so completely mesmerized by any type of series since the Star Wars days of the early 80s. The world George R. R. Martin has created and the characters that inhabit that world are so rich and dynamic that the series fosters multiple reading.