Dave

This was a paper book I couldn't put down. But when I started listening to the Audible, I realized that I had forgotten more than I remembered. The voice of Jeff Woodman was perfectly modulated with just a hint of Pi's nationality. And the story is one of the great ones.

Because, as Pi makes clear to the oblivious Japanese - this story is not about being on a lifeboat with a tiger. It is so much more, for it investigates what stories mean in our own lives. Is it about religions - which Pi amalgamates so well? If so, then all three - Hindu, Christianity, and Islam can eat you alive if you're not careful. If religion is metaphorically represented by the floating objects - all are terribly dangerous.

Anyway - don't miss this great telling of a great story.

McPherson takes us to a place few histories go - to the grit and venom that arose between 1840 and 1860. The tensions and bifurcation between North and South are explained in a way that I can see the same mind-set at work in 21st Century politics.

This book explores all the vectors that led to, carried us through, and brought us out of a conflict of minds, politics, and spirit.

This second book in the Joanna Brady series is good and well worth the read. There were some bits of the mystery that didn't hold water, but we got the know the characters better. As a United Methodist pastor, I really appreciate the inclusion of a fictional colleague in the cast. The title of the story is sort of added at the last minute, but that seems to be the style these days.

Travel to Botswana and feel the gracious culture that is on the verge of slipping away. Lisette Licat's style and rhythm is perfect for the story and the place. The characters and their interactions are more important than the mystery - but who cares! A great listen.

I play this book for about 30 minutes as I fall asleep every night - and it is great for that. The plot is easy to follow: just get onboard and ride, meeting incredibly interesting people along the way. This is NOT a Traditional Travellog, but an engagement with the bizzare people and cultures around the globe. The performance is a bit more cynical that I would like, but often fits the scene.

My wife and I just watched Estevez's and Sheen's movie The Way and found this double biography fascinating, deep, and uplifting. Meet these two flawed and resilient human beings, and learn much from their journey.

Dick Francis has always delighted me, and this tale is no exception. The setting is a motion picture location, and the story unfolds in a believable setting. The only caveat is that, unlike a classic mystery, the perpetrator is not introduced in the first third of the story - which moves the tale to the "procedural" genre a bit. Nevertheless, the characters are real and rich and we are taken for quite a ride.

David Liss takes you into 1722, with all the sounds and smells and grimy personalities. The first-person hero (brilliantly played by Michael Page) is a Jewish "thief catcher" (read: private investigator) in a world that has no use for him, moving through all levels of society - from the upper class Tory drawing room to the new money Whigs to the "middling sort" to dock workers to the hopeless gin-swilling poor. Anyone who wants to understand why the English came to the colonies, or why the spiritual awakening of a decade later came to pass will learn much by experiencing the corruption of every level of society.

This is a murder mystery -- which is difficult for an author to pull off in a strange cultural setting, but Liss weaves through all the politics and class struggles with the deftness of a thief catcher, and delivers a surprising conclusion.

The descriptions and language are as rough as a porter's hand and as noisome as a used chamber pot under the bed. And the politics described are not unlike the foolishness of three centuries later.

At the beginning, I was confused with all the bits of information about various people. But as the story unraveled, the relationship and meaning came into focus. A great listen.

If you are an Afro-phile, then Number One Ladies books will bring the beauty and simple morality of ordinary African people to life for you. The narration is exactly right, with the rhythm of the continent throughout.