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susan

I like to weed and read at the same time.

Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada | Member Since 2011

5
HELPFUL VOTES
  • 12 reviews
  • 23 ratings
  • 173 titles in library
  • 30 purchased in 2013
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  • The Fran Lebowitz Reader

    • UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 2 mins)
    • By Fran Lebowitz
    • Narrated By Fran Lebowitz
    Overall
    (16)
    Performance
    (15)
    Story
    (14)

    The Fran Lebowitz Reader brings together in one volume, with a new preface, two best sellers, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, by an "important humorist in the classic tradition" (The New York Times Book Review) who is "the natural successor to Dorothy Parker" (British Vogue). In "elegant, finely honed prose" (The Washington Post Book World), Lebowitz limns the vicissitudes of contemporary urban life - its fads, trends, crazes, morals, and fashions. By turns ironic, facetious, deadpan, sarcastic, wry, wisecracking, and waggish, she is always wickedly entertaining.

    Diane says: "Outdated, but still worth a listen"
    "Wonderful in her own voice."
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    My daughter read this and gave up less that half way through. I think you have to hear her deliver her own prose. She is a master. I adore her. I get her humor even though I'm not a New Yorker but I am an ex smoker. She makes me laugh out loud. She writes very well-although I understand she had a long period of writer's block. Until I read this I thought she was famous just for being all over the social pages of Vanity Fair. I hope she writes and narrates more for 'our listening pleasure'.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Novel

    • UNABRIDGED (23 hrs and 43 mins)
    • By Elizabeth George
    • Narrated By John Lee
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (342)
    Performance
    (102)
    Story
    (104)

    Thomas Lynley is called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. His former team doesn't trust the leadership of their new department chief, Isabelle Ardery, but Lynley may be the sole person who can see beneath his superior officer's hard-as-nails exterior to a hidden and possibly attractive vulnerability.

    Rebecca says: "Interesting Mix for Elizabeth George Fans"
    "ExBrit infuriated by the narrator"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    For me the narrator completely ruined this reading. His background voice has a nasal Birmingham twang to my ears,which has no place in a London based book and was completely distracting. His female voices are awful and irritating. I am spoiled by the TV series in which Linley and Havers are played to perfection. I would not read another Linley narrated by this reader.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 59 mins)
    • By Alex Thorleifson, Scott Thorson
    • Narrated By Peter Berkrot
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (21)
    Performance
    (19)
    Story
    (20)

    In this unusually frank book Scott Thorson, Liberace's longtime lover, tells all: the good, the bad, and the ugly truths about the legendary entertainer who went to outrageous extremes to prevent public knowledge of his homosexuality. Liberace's unhappy childhood, dominated by a mother determined to force him into a concert career, serves as the prologue for a story that goes on to detail Liberace's early appearances in honky-tonks, his move to New York to seek fame, and, finally, his first booking in Las Vegas, where he was courted by the Mafia.

    Robert Welborn says: "I Believe!"
    "Eight hours of sheer yawn"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I should have known better. I don't think there is anything here that we couldn't have gleaned from a tabloid over the years. This book reads like a full length tabloid article and although I was fascinated by the man after about 10 minutes I was asking myself 'Why am I bothering?' I'll get a refund and watch the movie.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • How Many Camels Are There in Holland?: Dementia, Ma and Me

    • UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 21 mins)
    • By Phyllida Law
    • Narrated By Phyllida Law
    Overall
    (2)
    Performance
    (2)
    Story
    (2)

    Following Phyllida Law’s wonderful and acclaimed Notes to My Mother-in-Law - which comically and tenderly documented the author’s relationship with her husband’s mother who lived with the family for 17 years - we now have a chronicle of Phyllida’s relationship with her own mother who suffered from dementia. Recently widowed, bringing up her own two daughters (actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson), and working as a successful actress herself, Phyllida went up and down to Scotland to spend as much time with her ailing mother as she could manage.

    susan says: "Hackneyed I know but this is a MUST listen"
    "Hackneyed I know but this is a MUST listen"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This book describes Phyllida Law's care of her dementing mother in Scotland while she was trying to sustain an acting career from her home in London. It is a glorious book full of gentle and rip roaring humor in the face of what must have been dreadful to witness. Phyllida had already cared for her mother-in law who was very deaf at the same time she was raising Emma and Sophie Thompson her actress daughters.Husband and father,Eric Thompson ( Magic Roundabout narrator for any Brits reading this) died very young.
    Phyllida has the most expressive, beautiful voice and narrates her exquisite prose to perfection. I listened to this book without a break and have bought another audible because she is narrating it.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Reading My Father: A Memoir

    • UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 26 mins)
    • By Alexandra Styron
    • Narrated By Alexandra Styron
    Overall
    (33)
    Performance
    (16)
    Story
    (15)

    Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.

    John says: "A Gripping Account"
    "A must if you love someone brilliant and depressed"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I have to admit to having been unable to read Sophie's choice and almost couldn't watch the end of the movie. What first drew me to Styron was his small volume on depression, Visible Darkness expanded from an article in the New Yorker. I never lent a copy that came back: I must have 'given' over a dozen away. Styron broke new ground writing from the perspective of someone who suffered from debilitating depression compounded by liberal use of alcohol. Alexandra grew up grounded by her mother Rose with a brilliant,difficult mercurial father. As a contemporary of Plimpton and Mailer he moved in high, rabble rousing literary, society and this aspect is fascinating. This is not a Mommy Dearest rant,rather a literate, thoughtful telling of a daughter's struggle to understand her father. That she loved him there is no doubt. Alexandra's training in the theater makes her an intelligent and clear narrator.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Drama: An Actor's Education

    • UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 17 mins)
    • By John Lithgow
    • Narrated By John Lithgow
    Overall
    (210)
    Performance
    (189)
    Story
    (185)

    In this riveting and surprising personal history, John Lithgow shares a backstage view of his own struggle, crisis, and discovery, revealing the early life and career that took place out of the public eye. Above all Lithgow’s memoir is a tribute to his most important influence: his father, Arthur Lithgow, who, as an actor, director, producer, and great lover of Shakespeare, brought theater to John’s boyhood. From bedtime stories to Arthur’s illustrious productions, performance and storytelling were constant and cherished parts of family life.

    Diane Havens says: "Superb"
    "Lovely generous book,beautifuly read."
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    A beautiful 'slim volume' ostensibly about his father but also containing some wonderful insights into his own impressive acting career on the stage. I have never seen him on the stage and am unlikely to, living where I do; however, he is going to be in The Magistrate by Pinero live in HD from the National Theater London. Jan 2113-check your local listings.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Grumpy Old Rockstar and Other Wonderous Stories

    • UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 57 mins)
    • By Rick Wakeman
    • Narrated By Rick Wakeman
    Overall
    (26)
    Performance
    (13)
    Story
    (13)

    Around about September of 1948, Mr and Mrs Cyril Wakeman had an early night. And some time later, at Perivale in Middlesex, Mrs Wakeman produced a bonny baby son. They named him Richard, but he quickly became known as Rick.

    Rick was a likable little fellow who had a talent for the piano (and for making trouble), and music became his life. Later, he joined a popular music group called Yes and became a legend.

    susan says: "No comparison with Keith or Eric"
    "No comparison with Keith or Eric"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I was so looking forward to this listen as it came highly recommended;however I think my friend had read it rather than listened to it. Rick does himself a huge disservice by reading it himself. He isn't a natural reader and his delivery is irritating. He also is just not funny when he's reading passages he obviously thinks should have us rolling in the aisles.I gave up after His Russian escapade.Rick should have kept to his day job.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • A Moment Towards the End of the Play: An Autobiography

    • UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 21 mins)
    • By Timothy West
    • Narrated By Timothy West
    Overall
    (17)
    Performance
    (12)
    Story
    (12)

    Timothy West is held in high regard and great affection for his versatility and his reliability. He has played roles as diverse as Edward VII and Thomas Beecham, Falstaff and Uncle Vanya, Stalin and Churchill, and he became a household name in the TV series Brass. He has played in the West End, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, toured the country doing the classics, performed Dickens and Dostoyevsky on television, has had a stint running the Old Vic, and married an actress called Prunella Scales.

    cebepe says: "I WOULD PAY TO HEAR HIM READ THE PHONE BOOK"
    "No comparison with Simon Callow or John Lithgow"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I should have known better. Mr. West is younger than I but writes, reads and uses humor as I remember it in the 1950's- pretentious and pompous and unimaginative. He is maddeningly discrete about fellow thespians ( nudge nudge wink wink). I didn't get any sense of enthusiasm for what he has achieved and had a definite sense that he feels under appreciated.On the one hand he accepts the title 'second tier' actor but on the other he bemoans the lack of television roles. On the whole I think he was a reluctant author and probably wrote for the royalties. I think Prunella Scale's version would have been much more interesting.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • My Life in Pieces: An Alternative Autobiography

    • UNABRIDGED (18 hrs and 34 mins)
    • By Simon Callow
    • Narrated By Simon Callow
    Overall
    (14)
    Performance
    (14)
    Story
    (13)

    Drawing on a lifetime of writing about theatre and film, Callow takes us behind the curtain and behind the camera to introduce us to the performers and performances that have shaped him as an actor and as a public persona. They include giants like Orson Welles, Charles Dickens, Tommy Cooper, Charles Laughton and Laurence Olivier.

    Mim says: "A master of his instrument"
    "Mr. Callow could read the phone book for me"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    Simon Callow gives us a glimpse of his life enriched by readings of previously published erudite,funny,detailed and thoughtful pieces ranging from Newspaper reviews to eulogies for colleagues both living and dead. His voice is quite wonderful, his sense of humor delicious and his compassion endless. He is self deprecating and discrete about his personal life. There are extremely interesting ( to me) essays about acting and directing techniques, Stanislavski, Wells, Hall. Gielguid, Schofield and Richardson to mention just a few. This book has sent me off on a hunt for many of the books he cites and quotes from. To me this is is what a good autobiography should do. I listened to it three times and like all favorite books,can't bear to finish it and so the last half hour remains unheard.

    2 of 2 people found this review helpful
  • The Comic Genius of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Volume 1

    • UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 13 mins)
    • By Peter Cook, Dudley Moore
    • Narrated By Peter Cook, Dudley Moore
    Overall
    (14)
    Performance
    (9)
    Story
    (9)

    Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were two of the brightest stars ever to light up the world of comedy. They set standards that will probably never be surpassed. Cambridge graduates who met in Beyond the Fringe, their chemistry produced some of the funniest, most inventive and downright brilliant comedy ever recorded.They came to wider fame with the tv series Not Only… But Also. The writing and performances were superb....

    susan says: "Nostalgia Nostalgia"
    "Nostalgia Nostalgia"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    If you remember 'Pete and Dud' from their television days and before they both got seduced by the rest of the world you will love this. The sketches are as fresh and achingly funny as they were first time round. Dud and Pete in the Art Gallery had me crying with laughter (again). The phrase 'because I never had the Latin',in the the sketch in which Pete bemoans the fact that he couldn't get to be a Judge has been a family joke whenever we make an excuse for not doing something. You have to imagine the pair in old raincoats and cloth caps to full appreciate what is going on.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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