So Others May Live

Coast Guard's Rescue Swimmers: Saving Lives, Defying Death

By: Martha Laguardia-Kotite, Tom Ridge

Narrated by: Jim Cooper, Martha Laguardia-Kotite

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

So Others May Live: Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers: Saving Lives, Defying Death is the award-winning untold story of the US Coast Guard's quiet but resolute rescue swimmers. From deep ocean caves on the Oregon coast to the panicked and chaotic streets of post-Katrina New Orleans, here are their stunningly heroic stories. 

In startlingly clear and exceptional writing, Martha LaGuardia-Kotite tells 12 heroic stories of the greatest maritime rescues attempted since the program began in 1985. These feats, told through the eyes of the heroes, reveal an understanding of how and why the rescuer, with flight-crew assistance, risks his or her own life to reach out to save a stranger. 

Covering diverse environments - oceans, hurricanes, oil rigs, caves, sinking vessels, floods, and even Niagara Falls, So Others May Live is truly a can't-stop-listening collection.

©2006 Martha LaGuardia-Kotite (P)2018 Martha LaGuardia-Kotite

Good content, poor delivery in parts

This book is broken up into 2 parts: chapters about rescues and chapters about the evolution of Coast Guard rescue swimmers. The content in both are good but I wouldn't be surprised if most people - like me - enjoyed the rescue stories more than the history of the rescue swimmer program. So far so good. The producers decided to hire a professional to narrate the rescue stories and use one of the authors to narrate the program history sections. This is where things go bad. The professional narrator does a great job. The author does not. Frankly, it is amateurish. There are pauses in the middle of sentences, presumably where line breaks were in the script she was reading from. Unbelievably there were several double-takes of pronouncing a word. Surely this could be edited out and rerecorded. For some reason this wasn't done. The tone, emotion and flow just were up to the standard produced by professional narrators. They really should have used Jim Cooper to narrate the whole book. Even so, it is listenable and as I say above the content is there and the delivery of the rescue stories is well done so if you are interested in search and rescue or Coast Guard rescue swimmers in particular this is worth a listen.

Terrible performance; amazing story

The author brought us a well written and important account of true heroism. However, for the same reason we use actors to retell stories because the real people cannot act (it detracts from the story and it’s impact and distribution), we use voice actors when authors would do the same harm to their own books.
On a $10 microphone in her den, with unlistenable stilted narration, the author reads significant passages where she stumbles over words, takes long, long pauses, and turns the pages she’s reading off of audibly.
This bothers me because of how powerful her writing and her story are. This book became a movie and is widely acclaimed. It deserves a professional presentation for the same reason we expect neat type-written pages in books, not someone’s sloppy handwriting.
The other professional reader is okay but really should not have tried what he seems to think is an English accent. It isn’t.

Great story poor narration

Great stories and information enjoyed the book. but the woman narrator was terrible. very hesitant and unenthused, Poor recording quality sounds like she was recorded in a hallway on a tape recorder . very annoying to listen to she reads ever other chapter. The man narrator does a much better job and was recorded in a studio.

One narrator is a pro, the other not so much

The author isn’t nearly as good as she needs to be for an audio book. She reads so sporadically that it’s difficult to follow. I ended up skipping all her parts in the last 2/3 of the book. But other than that this is a fantastic read. Explains things very well and is easy to follow And picture in your mind.

Would recommend to anyone looking for stories of real people (heroes) in extraordinary situations.

Good story; painful narration

Female narrator doesn't read out loud very smoothly at all. Should've used a professional narrator.

Woman Narrator Is Awful!

This is a wonderful story, but you’re better off reading it than listening to it. Seriously! There are two narrators; I didn’t particularly care for the man’s accent, but it was tolerable. However, the woman reader was awful. Very dry and boring! Why have such a good book, and not pay for good, professional narrators? I could only listen for a short time. I’ll read it on my Kindle, instead!

Professional narrator did great

Great novel! But author-narrator sounded like she was reading this book for the first time.

Amazing!!

I was in the USCG and this book helped me with my thoughts after getting out due to medical issues. I wish i could have stayed in and done more. This book was an amazing reminder that there are so many Men and Woman who guard our water ways and oceans. Guardians true to the end.

Superb Storytelling

By far, the Katrina incident chapter was my favorite. The whole book/audio is well done. Tom did a great job engaging the audience, adding an appropriate level of drama as needed. While I read the book several years ago, I found the audio storytelling a definite plus.
Highly recommend especially for Coast Guard or those that would be!
~john

interesting

this book is ok but after a while a bit boring . give it ago.

Informative documentary

I liked the level of information combined with the stories. Background history of the development of the coastguard was really enjoyable.