Geff

The experience of hearing Allison DuBois, the psychic vs the author, is defintely a push-pull experience, as this audiobook serves well to demonstrate. While (judging from this audiobook) I cannot describe DuBois as articulately gifted (as a writer OR speaker) her more exalted gifts come across loud and clear: she appears a sincere and sensitive human window to the "other world". I enjoyed listening to her case studies and views of spirituality (and spiritualism)and also came to appreciate a certain lack of pretension in her personal style that many other mainstream psychics (such as Sylvia Brown) have long since either lost or never had in the first place. Imperfect, but also inspiring and occasionally even a goose-bumper, I enjoyed this audio book -- and I'll look forward to her next.

this is a moving, biographically-based journey into the modern study and investigation of violent crime, but more, it is also a psychological and philosphical journey, of an observant, articulate - and deeply spiritual - man, who also happens to be a founding father of FBI behavior profiling. his approach and conclusions reagarding violent offenders are frank, hard-earned, long pondered and not to be ignored. much more than i had bargained for, this is one of my favorite audio books ever.

After wrapping up the excellent "Beautiful Mind" bio of John Nash I was so impressed with the narrator (Anna Fields) that I went looking for another bio from the exact same narrator, and found it with this fairly extensive portrait of Elvis' life. Fields does a good job with providing just the right amount of "twag" when required to keep it all moving, a tough job for book of this length. Punctutated with colorful backroom conversations recounted from various consorts to the King, and equal parts history and personal recollections, author Keogh captures a glimpse of the huge talent and inner clockworks of this amazing one-of-a-kind fellow whose life - and legend - seemed to outgrow even him.

This is one of those books that could be a POSTER CHILD for audio books in general - simply one of the most inspired works I've ever experienced. The marriage of a charming, wry and astute author (think David Sedaris as a forensic journalist) with a narrator who's own talents - not to mention sense of irony - is definitely up to the task. In an engrossing span of chapters ranging from airline crash investigators to funeral directors brushing up their cosmetic skills on anonymous decapitions, Roach never forces a cheap laugh, but unearths many as she explores the history and state of our mortal ends with a scientists eye and a wisecracking mouth. There are certain chapters I enjoyed more than others (and found lesser and more compelling) but overall I have rarely seen such deft journalistic skills more hilariously demonstrated. Defintely a 5-star listen!

I went looking for other books narrated by Anna Fields after I'd wrapped up her excellent reading of "A Beautiful Mind", the John Nash bio by Sylvia Nasar -- so imagine my delight when I stumbled over this classic! Fields does a great job of bringing Baum's playfully warped imagination to life as we are introduced to the Land of Oz, both again and also for the first time. Note: I saved this audiobook to savor over quiet afternoon naps -- it was a pure JOY!

Author Sara Gruen has spun a charming and unaffected tale of love, revenge and renewal that is made even more enjoyable by the equally gifted talents of David LeDoux and John Randolph Jones (dual narrators). This audio book was a giggle and a tear rolled into one. I'm very tempted to read a hard copy of this now just to see how it compares (and holds up) to what is now one of my favorite audio books. Superb!