E.D.

Sadly, this title would not work on my Zen. So I had to deepsix it. It's one of my favorite books from childhood, the triumph of using ones abilities to overcome circumstances of birth to achieve ones highest goals. One of my favorite Heinlein's for Young Adult -- I read it when I was ten!

I have been an avid fan of Nevada Barr since I picked up the first Anna Pigeon book. I enjoyed listening as I sewed or worked around the house, always posting on the wall a map of the area of the book's setting so I could follow along with Anna's travels. However, as the series progressed, there seemed to be an inordinate increase in the amount of gratuitous vulgarity and violence. For me, it culminated with Hard Truth. Sitting on a plane, I finally got so disgusted I tore off my headphones and snarled out loud (startling the ConAgra executive next to me), "Just shoot the [expletive deleted] and get it over with!" and never did finish listening to the book. The narration was, as always, superb, Barr's writing style, as always, faultless with exception of that seemingly needless dragging out of the story toward the end. It was just a shame that the aforementioned flaws of violence and vulgarity have caused me to drop Barr as one of my favorite authors. If these matters are not of concern to the reader, then Hard Truth is as sterling a read(or listen, as the case may be) as the previous Anna Pigeon books.

M.C. is at her best! Poor Agatha has a crackerjack detective team -- and an extreme communication problem! Alternately sad to hear how the UK has gone downhill, and funny when Agatha and her team stumble about doing all the right things in the wrong way! Great listen.