Jimmy

These stories add almost nothing to the Percy Jackson saga. They seem to be chapters that were cut out of the final draft -- who knows. The individual stories are good -- very much like what you would expect of Percy and his pals. I was so glad that Jesse Bernstein was the reader. If it had been Joshua Swanson, the reader who is murdering the Heroes of Olympus series, I would not have touched it. I have to admit, Bernstein was hard to get used to -- but now, I could not imagine Percy Jackson with any other voice. I bought this audiobook to fill the LONG wait I am experiencing between Riordan's books. I know he is turning out a book a month (or so it seems). It is just that he is leaving these series, like the Heroes of Olympus, unfinished. How long are we supposed to wait? While we are waiting for Percy and Jason to team up against the bad guys, this is a good filler.

Ian Toll makes history interesting. I wish he had been my high school teacher. Since then, I've studied a lot of history and have come to love books like this. Stephen Lang does a good job reading the book. But most of all, this is classical Toll and worth every minute of listening.

I love historical works, and I love to listen to Grover Gardner do the reading. Pacific Crucible is difficult to put on hold. It is worth every minute.

I am really disappointed in the last volume of this series. I barely finished it. Sad, too, because I had enjoyed the previous volumes. The plot just breaks down.

Whether you like Dick Cheney or not, you have got to like this book. This is historical perspective at its purist. I'm not saying that Cheney's interpretation of every event in this book is right. Time and history will determine all of that. However, those who study history realize that contemporaries are often long dead before the final stories can be told. This is as close to the historical events as we are going to get. Cheney was involved in so many positions of responsibility that his stories and candor about those events are worth getting this book. Edward Hermann does a great job of reading. Download the book and listen to it as if you are listening to any person tell his or her life's story -- and you will love it.

I love Rick Riordan's books on mythology. I remember some of the stories of mythology from college studies, but they were so disconnected from today that they were little more than irrelevant. Riordan has a way of making these stories come to life. This book has two readers. Kevin Free is okay - sort of. His reading is a little choppy. I wonder how much he practices the text before he records for production. A reader MUST master the text, or risk making the book sound second-rate. Katherine Kellgren is absolutely one of the best female readers EVER. Her reading is not only smooth, she makes her character come alive. Okay, so here's my complaint about Riordan's books. He is so spread out in what he is doing that we are having to wait a lifetime just to get the next episodes. I'm sure he does not care. He just keeps raking in the money. But for those of us who want to know what happens next, it is maddening.

It is hard to be critical of autobiography. Benjamin Franklin tells his own story in his own words. You do need to understand that this is almost exclusively limited to his life from 1706 to 1757. Franklin basically quit working on his autobiography at that time. To hear the rest of the story, you will want to listen to Mark Skousen's, Completed Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I loved Robin Field's reading in the autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant. Field's reading is very smooth, well inflected, and has enough variety to give you a sense of different characters. Download this audio book. If you are interesting in Benjamin Franklin, you will love it.

The author appears to accomplish his purpose. That is, he tries to let Franklin's biography be told by Benjamin himself. This is an excellent insight into the life of Benjamin Franklin after 1757. Richard Ferrone does a great job of reading. Overall, this is every bit as good as B. Franklin's autobiography. I am not a scholar in this field, but I have the feeling that I was hearing history from Franklin's point-of-view without it going through the strainers of historical bias and interpretation. Download it. You'll probably love it.

This works borders more on the incredulous than even the other books. Since it is fantasy, we can believe in fighting cyclops and centaurs -- but fighting blades of grass? The story is good enough to keep buying -- but please replace the reader with a computerized text reader -- at least then, we would not feel bad about saying things so negative about a fellow human. This reader apparently never practices before he records for production. His articulation is more like a digitized reader. I guess he thinks the next words after commas in English are to sound like the start of new sentences. I have two hours of commutes every day and use it all for audio books. Of the dozens I've listened to, this is the worst reader -- period.

I guess Jean Shepherd and J.K. Rowling have something in common -- the movies are never quite like the book. I love the "Christmas Story" movie and watch it ritually every Christmas season. I have to admit, I like the movie better than the book -- but like with Harry Potter, that is probably not a fair comparison -- directors take too much license with these stories. This is a great story. Shepherd writes in such a descriptive manner -- I almost feel as if I lived in that house and fought the Bumpuses dogs. I probably listened to the audiobook six times last Christmas season, and will probably do so again next season. It is just that good!