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Opposable Thumbs
- How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever
- Narrated by: Matt Singer
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's summary
Once upon a time, if you wanted to know if a movie was worth seeing, you didn’t check out Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.
You asked whether Siskel & Ebert had given it “two thumbs up.”
On a cold Saturday afternoon in 1975, two men (who had known each other for eight years before they’d ever exchanged a word) met for lunch in a Chicago pub. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Roger Ebert had recently won the Pulitzer Prize—the first ever awarded to a film critic—for his work at the Chicago Sun-Times. To say they despised each other was an understatement.
When they reluctantly agreed to collaborate on a new movie review show with PBS, there was at least as much sparring off-camera as on. No decision—from which films to cover to who would read the lead review to how to pronounce foreign titles—was made without conflict, but their often-antagonistic partnership (which later transformed into genuine friendship) made for great television. In the years that followed, their signature “Two thumbs up!” would become the most trusted critical brand in Hollywood.
In Opposable Thumbs, award-winning editor and film critic Matt Singer eavesdrops on their iconic balcony set, detailing their rise from making a few hundred dollars a week on local Chicago PBS to securing multimillion-dollar contracts for a syndicated series (a move that convinced a young local host named Oprah Winfrey to do the same). Their partnership was cut short when Gene Siskel passed away in February of 1999 after a battle with brain cancer that he’d kept secret from everyone outside his immediate family—including Roger Ebert, who never got to say goodbye to his longtime partner. But their influence on in the way we talk about (and think about) movies continues to this day.
Photographer/© ABC/Getty Images.
Critic reviews
One of People’s Must-Read Books for Fall 2023
“Opposable Thumbs is a welcome reminder of an era when film criticism actually mattered...But it was Siskel and Ebert who, in Singer’s words, ‘democratized criticism, turned it into mass entertainment.’” —The New York Times
“The Siskel & Ebert rivalry, and its legacy, comes alive in the new book Opposable Thumbs.” —Chicago Tribune
"Siskel and Ebert bustled into the world at a time when movie critics mattered more, before the culture fragmented into a million voices and “influencers,” and they ruled that world with iron thumbs. In this sense Singer’s book is a time capsule of a bygone era every bit as irreplicable as the partnership at its core." —The Los Angeles Times
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Millions of people–looking to cheat on their partners–signed up for Ashley Madison in the early 2000s, seeking a private space to share their public desires. The promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015, when anonymous hackers stole the company’s cache of user information and published it worldwide. The result? One of the most shocking data breaches of the internet age. Overnight, millions of unfaithful spouses had their real names, addresses and sexual preferences published online in a searchable database that anyone could browse.
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No mind change
- By Joshua on 02-13-24
By: Sophie Elmhirst, and others
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American Dreamer: Who Was Jay Gatsby?
- By: Blanchard House
- Narrated by: Joe Nocera
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Just before the small-time bootlegger Max Gerlach died, he tried to reveal his secret: he was the inspiration for the mysterious Jay Gatsby. It’s a nice story, but was he telling the truth? Veteran reporter Joe Nocera and producer Poppy Damon investigate this century-old literary mystery and uncover untold secrets about the Great American Novel.
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Loved it so much
- By ple on 04-18-24
By: Blanchard House
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Trace of Doubt
- By: Samantha Weinberg
- Narrated by: Samantha Weinberg
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Story
In the summer of 1985, a brilliant young British DNA scientist Helena Greenwood is found murdered in her front garden in a quiet suburb in California. The police believe they know the killer’s identity but there’s no evidence against him, and the only thing linking him to the crime is the fact he’d been charged with sexually assaulting Helena just a few months previously.
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Frustrating
- By Amazon Customer on 01-28-24
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Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking listeners into the mind of Bankman-Fried.
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really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
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Elvis and Me
- By: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
- Narrated by: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The inspiration for the major motion picture Priscilla directed by Sofia Coppola, this New York Times best seller reveals the intimate story of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, told by the woman who lived it.
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What a story!
- By Pen Name on 08-28-22
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The Demon Next Door
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Steve White
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Best-selling author Bryan Burrough recently made a shocking discovery: The small town of Temple, Texas, where he had grown up, had harbored a dark secret. One of his high school classmates, Danny Corwin, was a vicious serial killer. In this chilling tale, Burrough raises important questions of whether serial killers can be recognized before they kill or rehabilitated after they do. It is also a story of Texas politics and power that led the good citizens of the town of Temple to enable a demon who was their worst nightmare.
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Odd narration choice
- By Amanda Fredericks on 03-08-19
By: Bryan Burrough
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Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
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Golden Horde/Platinum Listen
- By Cynthia on 12-11-13
By: Jack Weatherford
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Hold Fast
- The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website
- By: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Original Recording
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Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.
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An amazing, crazy ride. Highly recommend.
- By Tara N on 04-17-24
By: Trevor Aaronson, and others
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The Debutante
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Sorry for Your Loss
- By: Michael Cruz Kayne
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Original Recording
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Performance
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Story
A sidesplitting, heartrending look at life—and death. This powerfully personal production, recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, cuts through the platitudes, directly reaching out to anyone who has ever experienced loss—or will. So...everyone.
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A Must Listen for the Grieving
- By Chris on 09-25-23
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
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Audible Masterpiece
- By Phoenician on 09-10-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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French & Saunders Titting About (Series 5)
- By: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
- Narrated by: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Original Recording
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Story
Once again, the legendary comedy duo unearth six vitally important subjects... and then tit about about them. From surviving on a desert island to being eaten by a cardboard crocodile, Dawn and Jennifer will entertain, inform and thoroughly tit about for your pleasure. (Batteries not included.)
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Please do more
- By Mr P Ellerington on 04-23-24
By: Dawn French, and others
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The Run of His Life
- The People v. O.J. Simpson
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The Run of His Life is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin's nonfiction masterpiece tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of "the trial of the century".
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Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles
- By Cynthia on 05-24-16
By: Jeffrey Toobin
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Two Women Walk into a Bar
- By: Cheryl Strayed
- Narrated by: Cheryl Strayed
- Length: 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twenty-one years after Cheryl Strayed set off on the Pacific Crest Trail to heal from the death of her beloved mother, Cheryl’s mother-in-law, Joan, is given weeks to live. As she and her husband help see Joan through her final days, Cheryl reckons with their complicated relationship, determined to connect with a woman who both showed her love and (sometimes hilariously) held her at a distance. Cheryl reflects on their two decades together as she comes to a deeper understanding of the secrets and sorrows in Joan’s complicated past.
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Cheryl tells a great story!
- By Amazon Customer on 01-01-24
By: Cheryl Strayed
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George Orwell: The Man and the Mind Behind 1984
- By: Michael Shelden, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Michael Shelden
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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Performance
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Story
In George Orwell: The Man and the Mind Behind 1984, Professor Michael Shelden will show you how 1984 presents a plausible reality of thought control and totalitarian power that feels contemporary even as it reflects its own time.
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Creating Big Brother
- By Gilbert M. Stack on 04-19-24
By: Michael Shelden, and others
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From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999 - arguably the most groundbreaking year in American cinematic history.
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Surely You Can’t Be Serious is the first-ever oral history of the making of Airplane! by the creators, and of the beginnings of the ZAZ trio (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) – charting the rise of their comedy troupe Kentucky Fried Theater in Madison, Wisconsin all the way to premiere night. The directors explain what drew them to filmmaking and in particular, comedy.
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Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions
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This heartfelt and wry career memoir from the director of Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, About Last Night, and Glory, creator of the show thirtysomething, and executive producer of My So-Called Life, gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
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Authentic, Sobering & Full of Grace
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From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Gleaned from nearly three thousand interviews, involving four hundred voices from the industry, Hollywood: The Oral History, lets a listener “listen in” on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera—Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Harold Lloyd—to the biggest behind it—Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele, as well as the lesser known individuals that shaped what was heard and seen on screen.
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Picky, Picky!
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In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
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HBO changed how stories could be told on TV. The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Game of Thrones. The network’s meteoric rise heralded the second golden age of television with serialized shows that examined and reflected American anxieties, fears, and secret passions through complicated characters who were flawed and often unlikable.
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Worth a listen - even if you’ve heard the other one.
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Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, Pandora’s Box asks, “What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?” The answer: It gave us a revolution. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending up with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses—Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.
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The Path to Paradise
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Francis Ford Coppola is one of the great American dreamers, and his most magnificent dream is American Zoetrope, the production company he founded in San Francisco years before his gargantuan success, when he was only thirty. Through Zoetrope’s experimental, communal utopia, Coppola attempted to reimagine the entire pursuit of moviemaking. Now, more than fifty years later, despite myriad setbacks, the visionary filmmaker’s dream persists, most notably in the production of his decades-in-the-making film and the culmination of his utopian ideals, Megalopolis.
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Narrator was awful
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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
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Great Dish, Sketchy Analysis
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Camera Man
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In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton’s life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton’s breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs
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Worth a listen, but only as a postscript to Curtis
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Kubrick
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The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life.
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Pictures at a Revolution
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Here is the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Dolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde - and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood and America forever.
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What listeners say about Opposable Thumbs
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- David Duval
- 02-09-24
Fantastic storytelling by Singer!
I loved hearing the history of Siskel & Ebert! I’ve watched Sneak Previews as a young kid. Then I followed their career and was a frequent viewer of At The Movies. Author & narrator Matt Singer does a wonderful job acting out the voices of the main subjects. Singer does overact in a few spots, but he makes up for that in his delivery.
I feel fans of film and media will truly enjoy this story of Siskel & Ebert and their partnership.
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- Jerry Thompson
- 03-14-24
Good book. But unless you are a standup comedian, or an actor, you shouldn’t read a book you wrote
I miss siskel and Ebert. I always loved the show. I really enjoyed the book. But every time I listen to a book read by the author, the author usually sounds like an elementary school teacher, or somebody trying too hard. Actual professional performers know how to tow the line between making something sound, natural and conversational, and still not overdoing it. The author here is really trying to sell the lines and puts in awkward, pregnant pauses for effect. He tries way too hard. It happens a lot, with most authors. It’s better to just hire an actor who knows how to make it flow. Writing and reading out loud are two entirely different skills.
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- PrimeG
- 12-23-23
Fans will like it
The author clearly did his research, and crammed as much information as possible into the book. It might get annoying for some listeners, but possibly not for the true fans that watched the show their whole lives. The voice-over is ok: kind of on the nasal side.
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- Anne Mahoney
- 02-10-24
Like Ebert even more.
Learned a lot. Ebert comes across even better in this one. Voice of reader good.
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- George Hickman
- 10-25-23
Thumbs Way Up for Opposable Thumbs!
Siskel and Ebert were an integral part of my journey as a film lover and at times film critic, and it's great to now have this entertaining and at times touching history of their partnership.
As a writer, Matt Singer does a great job keeping it interesting, even when covering familiar ground. I laughed out loud a few times, which is as much a credit to Siskel and Ebert's own words as well as Singer's ability to find the structure to share them. But the author deserves even more credit for his sensitive and carefully crafted prose which brought me to tears on three separate occasions.
As a reader, he also does very well, to the point it feels unfair comparing him to other writers reading their own nonfiction work. My only criticism is that there's a very broadcast ready, slightly detached quality to the reading which serves most of the book well, but there are times where it would have been served better with a more emotionally nuanced performance.
Overall, I can easily and enthusiastically recommend this audiobook.
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- Sara T.
- 12-28-23
A Must Read for Fans of Siskel and Ebert
I love movies, but I am not into celebrities. When a celebrity dies, I feel momentarily sad, but I move on. But when Roger Ebert died, I felt like I had lost a trusted friend. To this day, I miss reading his work. Needless to say, I thought I'd heard all the behind the scenes stories before of the making of Siskel and Ebert, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was unfamiliar with perhaps 80 percent of the content of this book. If you are a fan of either of these men, or their show, you definitely need to read this book. Also good narration by the author.
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- Robbie Holmes
- 04-15-24
A love letter to Siskel & Ebbert
A great audiobook about the 2 most important film critics from newspapers and television. Two thumbs up to this love letter!
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- Scott Edward Foy
- 11-22-23
very entertaining and informative
A must for any fan of Siskel & Ebert, particularly for the amusing anecdotes about their often prickly relationship and how their movie review show came to be. The one knock against it being the more familiar you are with Ebert & Siskel the more likely you already know a good deal of what's covered.
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- RueRue
- 11-02-23
If you ❤️ Siskel and Ebert, READ or LISTEN to this
As the book clearly illustrates, the impact of film critics Siskel and Ebert is immeasurable. Personally, I credit my appreciation of film to having watched their weekly discussions, sometimes heated but always enlightening and entertaining, from the early 1980’s until the show ended. I ❤️ these two guys ! Thank you to Matt Singer for this informative and celebratory look at their intelligent film analysis and influence.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-31-24
I miss these two
I was a senior in college when Gene died and it was oddly crushing. I didn’t realize how important that show was to me until it was gone. This story does a wonderful job of bringing these two greats back and telling their story. High recommend
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